Oswald Herbert Ernst

Oswald Herbert Ernst (June27, 1842March21, 1926) was an engineer, military educator, and career officer in the United States Army who became superintendent of the United States Military Academy. Over a forty-year career, Ernst served as an engineer during Sherman's Siege of Atlanta during the American Civil War, commanded U.S. troops at Coamo during the Spanish–American War, and sat on the original commission for the Panama Canal after retirement from active service.

Life Oswald Ernst was born June 27, 1842, near Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Sarah Otis and Andrew H. Ernst. His mother was descended from Richard Warren, who traveled to Plymouth Colony from Southampton, England, on the Mayflower. Andrew Ernst was himself the son of a recent immigrant, a burgomaster who had fled Germany during the Napoleonic Wars and afterward settled in the Ohio River valley.

Upon his death on March 21, 1926, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

Military career

When the American Civil War broke out, plebe Ernst stayed at the academy with the Union-born cadets while most southerners left for the Confederacy. Ernst graduated from USMA just before his twenty-second birthday and was immediately billeted to First Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. Within the month, Ernst was employed by the Army of the Tennessee as an assistant engineer before Atlanta, took part in the Battle of Ezra Church, and was engaged in siege activities before Atlanta's surrender. lecturing about what he'd learned of practical siege engineering in the four months since his graduation.

Ernst married Elizabeth Amory Lee in late 1866,

From 1878 until 1889, Ernst was chief engineer on Osage and Mississippi River projects, and was responsible for the deepening of shipping routes in Galveston Bay. In 1889, Ernst became military aide-de-camp to President Benjamin Harrison and chief engineer in charge of Washington's public buildings and monuments. In 1893, the Ernst family returned once again to West Point, this time to occupy the superintendent's billet.

After the explosion of the USS Maine in February, 1898, Ernst was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and put in command of the 1st Division of volunteer troops deployed to the Puerto Rican Campaign.

Selected works by Ernst