Cutting, Andover’s highest ranking Revolutionary War alumnus, had been Apothecary General of the Army from 1777 to 1780. In the 1790s, Cutting served as a special agent in London for Thomas Jefferson, successfully gaining release of American sailors impressed by the British. Impressment was one cause of the War of 1812. William King, Class of 1781, was a militia officer during the War of 1812 and later became the first governor of Maine. His heroic portrait stands in the United States Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Levi Konkapot of the Class of 1799, the first Native American to attend Phillips Academy, enlisted with the Stockbridge Indian Company during the War of 1812. As was true during the Revolution, many American servicemen died as captives during this second war with Britain. One, Abraham Burnham, Class of 1810, a Navy surgeon, died aboard a British prison ship at Liverpool.
William King, Class of 1781
All these alumni were citizen-soldiers. The first Andover alumnus to make a career in the military was William Gates, Class of 1800. He graduated from West Point in 1806 with just fourteen classmates. An artillery officer during the War of 1812, Gates fought in Canada, participating in the capture of Toronto. During the 1830s, he was engaged in Florida’s Seminole Wars. In the 1840s, Colonel Gates led troops in the Mexican-American War, then ruled as military governor of Tampico. Officially retired in 1863, after 57 years in uniform, it was wartime again and Gates continued to command troops until 1867, when he was 79. James Thompson Gerry, Class of 1806, captained Navy vessels. He was lost with all hands in 1854 when the sloopof-war Albany sank in a Caribbean hurricane. Thomas Stanhope English, Class of 1807, the first alumnus in the Marine Corps, also made the military his career. His duties included diplomatic missions as well as combat. Dashing George Horatio Derby, Class of 1838, an Army topographical engineer who conducted surveys of newly acquired territory along the West Coast during the 1850s, made a name for himself as a humorist, cartoonist and prankster. His published satirical works include The Squibob Papers.
T
he Civil War was the nation’s bloodiest; more Americans died in that conflict than in World War II. At least 65 Andover alumni were killed in battle, died of wounds, died of disease, or as
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William Gates, Class of 1800