Richard Snowden Andrews was born in Washington, D.C. and later moved to Baltimore. Before the war he was an architect and designed the Weston State Hospital in West Virginia, one of the largest hand-cut stone buildings in America, the Maryland Governor’s residence in Annapolis and the south wing of the U.S. Treasury Building. He would oversee the organization of the 1st Maryland Light Artillery from recruitment of men to the casting of artillery pieces at Tredegar Iron Works.

The building in the picture above in Sperryville, Virginia housed the medical office of Dr. William Amiss, whose brother Dr. Thomas Amiss practiced in Slate Mills and later in Page County. Together, the two men accomplished a medical achievement virtually unheard of during the Civil War.

Major Andrews commanded General Charles Winder’s artillery during the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862. An exploding Federal shell slashed through Andrew’s right side, almost disemboweling him. It is thought that his wounding occurred near the area of the replica cannons shown below. When Andrews was hit in the abdomen by the shrapnel, he had the presence of mind to grab his intestines in one hand and carefully slide down from his horse, while holding its neck, so that he rolled to the ground on his back.

He would lay there for approximately 3 hours. General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s surgeon, Dr. Hunter McGuire, declared Andrew’s condition hopeless. General A. P. Hill came upon the desperately wounded Major and ordered to have an ambulance take him to a field hospital. Dr. McGuire detailed two doctors to look after him. Andrews insisted on being carried to the Garnett house where he had spent the previous night with General Jackson. 

Drs. Thomas and William Amiss (31st and 50th Georgia Infantry, respectively) examined Andrews and concurred that the wound was mortal. Andrews retorted “But if you damned doctors would do something for me I’d get well. I once had a hound dog that ran a mile with its guts out and caught a fox, and I know I am as good as any damned dog!” Thomas Amiss joked that Andrews was – literally and figuratively – “full of all kinds of grit.” Major Andrews was placed on the dining room table and the doctors started to work on the wound around midnight. The doctors washed the wound, reinserted Andrew’s bowels into his abdominal cavity, and sewed up the enormous gash with boss cotton and a calico needle. They discovered that not only had the piece of shrapnel caused an abdominal wound, but the shell fragment had continued on its path and caused a thigh wound as well.

His wife, in Baltimore, had received a telegram of her husbands mortal wound and raced to Virginia to be present at his supposed deathbed. She brought with her their infant child born in January who Snowden had not yet seen. Louis Marshall of Pope’s staff had an ambulance ready for her with medical supplies. Amazingly infection never set in, Mrs. Andrews continued, “It was in the course of four to five weeks that the great chasm in his side was sufficiently healed for him to sit up, and in six weeks he was dressed and on the porch, and able to move about slowly on crutches. At this time, he was bent over on one side and was unable to stand erect for a year or more.”

He returned to duty but was again wounded during the Second Battle of Winchester on June 15, 1863. After he recovered, he was reassigned as an advisor to the German army. After the war, he resumed his career as an architect in Baltimore. He died on January 6, 1903 at age 72 and is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore (39.3082891, -76.6082255).

Shown below is the Civil War Trails marker outside Dr. Thomas Amiss’ house in Sperryville, Virginia.

Below are pictures of markers of the First Maryland Light Artillery and their role in the Second Battle of Winchester (Stephenson Depot).

Civil War Trails marker at Stephenson Depot

Findagrave links for future visits Richard Snowden Andrews Link Link

Findagrave Dr. Thomas B. Amiss- Link 38.66470, -78.45530 Luray

Findagrave Dr. William H. Amiss- Link 38.6050278, -78.1753889 Woodville

Next- Clara Barton at Cedar Mountain- the first time she aids soldiers on a battlefield

Sources

Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain by Robert K. Krick

Richard Snowden Andrews, lieutenant-colonel commanding the First Maryland Artillery (Andrews’ battalion) Confederate States army; a memoir. Edited by Tunstall Smith Link