Samuel C. Armstrong

Samuel Chapman Armstrong
Samuel C. Armstrong, c. 1865
First President of Hampton Institute
In office
1868–1893
Preceded byIncumbent
Succeeded byHollis B. Frisell
Personal details
Born(1839-01-30)January 30, 1839
Wailuku, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
DiedMay 11, 1893(1893-05-11) (aged 54)
Hampton, Virginia, U.S.
Resting placeHampton Institute school cemetery, Hampton, Virginia
Signature
Military service
AllegianceUnited States (Union)
Branch/serviceUnion Army
Years of service1862–1865
Rank Colonel
Bvt. Brigadier General
Unit125th New York Infantry Regiment
9th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Commands8th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars

Samuel Chapman Armstrong (January 30, 1839 – May 11, 1893) was an American soldier and general during the American Civil War who later became an educator, particularly of non-whites. The son of missionaries in Hawaii, he rose through the Union Army during the American Civil War to become a general, leading units of Black American soldiers.[1] He became best known as an educator, founding and becoming the first principal of the normal school for Black American and later Native American pupils in Virginia which later became Hampton University.[2] He also founded the university's museum, the Hampton University Museum, which is the oldest Black American museum in the country, and the oldest museum in Virginia.

  1. ^ Robert Francis Engs, Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893) available at https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Armstrong_Samuel_Chapman_1839-1893
  2. ^ Bowden, Henry Warner (1993). Dictionary of American Religious Biography (2nd. rev. and enl. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-313-27825-3.