Adna Anderson

When the American Civil War broke out General Anderson offered his services to the United States government, and was made assistant engineer and chief of the Construction Corps of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia.

Surveys for this division had been in progress much of the time since March, 1880, and much had been done even previous to that date, at intervals, in the way of reconnaissance and preliminary work.

General Anderson took great interest in all this work, but did not express any final judgment until the autumn of 1883, after all the information was available, when he reported that the line ought to be built through Stampede Pass, believing it to be the route that could be operated at least expense and that it would best protect the company from the encroachments of rival enterprises, which judgment has been fully confirmed by the events of the past two years.

[citation needed] In October, 1886, General Anderson was elected second vice-president of the Northern Pacific, which position, together with that of chief engineer of this road, he held up to January, 1888.

[citation needed] On the night of May 14, 1889, Anderson shot himself with a revolver in his room at the Lafayette Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[1][2] According to Virgil Gay Bogue, in his 2009 book, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, General Anderson was a quiet and somewhat taciturn man, of great integrity and clear, impartial judgment.