A West Point Man To The End

Union General George Washington Cullum died February 28th 1892.


George Washington Cullum was born February 25th 1809 in New York City. He grew up in Meadville Pennsylvania, before entering West Point. Cullum graduated third in his class of forty-three in 1833. He became a member of the Corps of Engineers, where he supervised construction projects on the East Coast, including Fort Trumbull in New London Connecticut. Cullum taught engineering at West Point from 1848 to 1855.

At the beginning of the Civil War Cullum served as the aide-de-camp for General Winfield Scott. In November 1861 he was promoted to Brigadier General and transferred to the Department of Missouri as Chief Engineer. He was the chief engineer during the Siege of Corinth. Cullum was brevetted Major General and sent back to West Point were he served as the superintendent of the military academy until 1866.

Following the war Cullum stayed in the military, working on an assortment of engineering projects designed to strengthen the United State’s coastal defenses. He retired in January 1874 and moved back to New York City. Cullum died there from pneumonia February 28th 1892. He left money to West Point for the building of a Memorial Hall and the continuations of his “Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy.