Christopher Columbus Andrews Christopher Columbus Andrews ( October 27 , 1829 – September 21 , 1922 ) was an American soldier , diplomat , newspaperman , author , and forester . Early life and career . Andrews was born in Hillsborough , New Hampshire , the son of a rural farmer . He attended school during the winter months until 1843 , when he travelled to Boston . He attended the Francestown Academy , completed his education , and studied law in Cambridge , Massachusetts , in 1848 . He passed his bar examination two years later and established a law practice in Newton , Massachusetts , where he served as a member of the city school board in 1851 – 1852 . He briefly relocated to Boston in 1853 , but left the following year for the West , settling in Kansas . He went to Washington , D . C . , to help promote Kansas ' s interest to the United States Congress , and spent two years working as a law clerk in the United States Treasury Department . He then moved to St . Cloud , Minnesota , in 1856 , and three years later , was elected to the Minnesota State Senate . During the presidential election of 1860 , he actively supported the Northern Democrat Stephen A . Douglas , and was nominated as a presidential elector . Despite his support for Douglas , in 1861 , he was instrumental in establishing a newspaper , the " Minnesota Union " , supporting the policies of President Abraham Lincoln , and served as editor before enlisting in the Union Army . Civil War . During the Civil War , Andrews rose to the regular rank of brigadier general and at its close was brevetted as a major general . He originally enlisted as a private , but was commissioned captain in the 3rd Minnesota Infantry . Captured by Confederates in Tennessee in July 1862 , he was held as a prisoner of war until October , when he was exchanged . He returned to his regiment as lieutenant colonel and participated in the Vicksburg Campaign . In July 1863 , Andrews was promoted to colonel and commanded a brigade in the operations to capture Little Rock , Arkansas , later in the year . Throughout the balance of the year and into early 1864 , Andrews helped organize and foster the Unionists in Arkansas , and was influential in the reorganization of Arkansas as a free state . He was promoted to brigadier general in acknowledgement of his efforts while commanding troops near Augusta , Arkansas . Andrews was assigned to the command of the Second Division of the XIII Corps , and participated in the siege and storming of Fort Blakely in Alabama . On March 9 , 1865 , he was brevetted Major General and assigned command of the district of Mobile . Postbellum . Andrews was dispatched to Houston , Texas , to supervise the early stages of Reconstruction in the region and to keep the order while a new provisional civil government was put in place under Governor Andrew J . Hamilton . He mustered out of the service on January 15 , 1866 . Andrews was United States Minister to Sweden and Norway from 1869 to 1877 , and United States Consul - General to Brazil from 1882 to 1885 . He helped supervise the 1880 census for Minnesota . Interested in scientific forestry , Andrews after the war worked to stir public sentiment for responsible logging and forest practices , but without much success until the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894 burned several towns in east - central Minnesota , garnering widespread public attention . He maintained that proper forestry would renew the state ' s ravaged timberlands and make them fire resistant . Eventually , leading foresters and companies began to implement Andrews ' ideas and practices . He was Minnesota state Forestry Commissioner when the Baudette Fire of 1910 burned , further strengthening his argument for regulation of forestry . A prolific writer , his publications include a " History of the Campaign of Mobile " ( 1867 ) and " Brazil , Its Conditions and Prospects " ( 1887 ; third edition , 1895 ) .