RARE CDV Photo Signed Oltman 19th Army Corps Engineers 1862 Civil War Wounded

  

RARE Original Signed CDV Photograph. Engineer - United States Coast Survey - 19th Army Corps. Wounded - served with David Porter, General Emory, etc. SEE Below - LOTS of Documented information.

Photo by Fredericks, New York. For offer, a rare CDV (carte de visite - visiting card) Photograph! Fresh from a prominent estate in Upstate NY. Vintage, Old, Original, Antique, NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed! Please see below for more information.

Oltman was involved in some important work during the Civil War. SIGNED by him in ink. He was a topographical engineer in the 19th Army Corps, and volunteer aide-de-camp, serving under Major General Emory. He was wounded by a rebel musketball to the chest, and nearly died.

If you collect 19th century Americana history, photography, American photos, portrait, military, etc. This is a treasure you will not see again!

Add this to your image or paper / ephemera collection. Important genealogy research importance too. The following taken from REPORT. THE PROGRESS OF THE SURVEY.

Commenced topograpl1y of Washington City. Defences ____ --·---·----- ·---··-····· Services at Key West_. 8erviccs at the l\Jississippi delta.......... Severely wounded in the recom1aissancc of. LANE, FORTS JACKSON AND ST. A fo\\· moments to tell you something of the Rhare the Coast Survey has had iu our doings, and to thank you. Fo1· the valuable assistance renden·d me by the party you Sfnt out here. To the accuracy of positions mm·kcd down, under Mr. They made a minute and complete survey from tl1e "jump" to the forts, most of the time exposed to fire from. Wal'- to occupy was marked by a white flag, and we knew to a yard the exact distance of the hole in the. Mortar from tllP forts, and you will hear in tb. E end how straight the shells went to their mark. Harris remained constantly on hoard to put the vessels in poRition again when they had to haul off for. Pairs, or on account of the severity of the enemy's fire.. I cannot speak too highly of. L assure you th;it I shall never undertake a bombardment unless I have them at my side. Jle in superintending the work, laboring late at night in making charts and. Nnd making all familiar with the main way.. My hurrieci lette1, but I could not omit writing to you to thank your good fellows for what they have done. For me, and to thank you for Fending them........

SIR: I forward to you by the Baltic a plan of Fort Jackeon, (or the remains of it,) faithfully drawn. Under the direction of Mr. Hal'l'is and Oltmanns, Assistants of the Coast Survey. Triking specimen of the effects of mortar practice, showing what can be done when ditanccs are accurately.

Determined, as they were in this cae, by the gentlemen belonging to tlw Cm1Pt Survf'y. The expense it would be worth while to have the plan lithographed and kept as part of the history of tlii.

I regret to eay that :Mr. HaB lwen severely wounded in the left brcat by a. I sent the Sachem, in company with tliree of the mortar steamers, to show them the'ay up.

Pearl river, in hopes of finding some of the enemy's gunboats, which have mysteriously disappeared, now most. Likely burnt, and while trying alone to push up the river the Sachem was attacked by a body of riffornPu. Oltmanns foll while directing the movements of the vessel. The battery of the Sachf'm was soon brougltt. To bear and the rebels driven away, one of them being shot deild on the branch of a tree.

Been done to make :Mr. I intend to send him to the hospital at Southwest l'a.

Where he can be properly attended to. I reg1·et his loss very mnch, as he has made himself vcr:' pl'Omincnt. U11on to do, aK incleecl all the. Members of the Coast Survey party have.

I have not spared tbe Sachem, but haYe treated her like the n! Of the vessels, putting her under fire when it was necesmry. On the 8th of this month, off louile entrance, the steamer Clifton went aRltore on S. Guns of :Fort :l\Iorgan, and neither of the larger steamers could get near enough to help hrr witlwu\ 11'rnger of.

I ordered the Sachem to go in and help her by carrying out anchors and line. Shot from the fort were flying over and around the Clifton they wPnt at it cliecrfolly and intelligently.

Clifton got off just as they got their lines ready aud anchors down to heave hPr off, but Lfout. Felt as much indebted to the party on the Sachem as if th. I look upon the Sachem in the ame light as I would upon a topographical party in the armJ·, ancl if I. Lose her in such employment she'\\·ill have well paid for heri. Gerdes will be employed, for the present, in looking up the numerou lmoys whid1 tl1t'se people ha, ·e.

Stowed away or wantonly destroyed, as they have nearly enrything else. 1Ylwn found he will put them. All down in their proper places.... Very respectfully, your obcuient servant. Superintendent Coast Surl'f':'J·. COAbT bUilYEY, 10 COM1A:SDER! COMMANDISG MORTAR FLOTILLA rn THE GULF OF. 8VRVBVl:G thEAAH:R SACHE:\! DEAR Sm: Having received yom· verbal imtructions to arcompany the gunboats of your flotilla to. Lake Pontchartrnin and Pearl river, I got under way on the 13th instant, at 5 o'clock a.

By the W eatfield, Captain Renshaw ; Clifton, Captain Bald win; and. Jackson, Ca11tain Woou worth, I led.

Them south of Cat island to St Joseph's light-hou8e, they following close iu my wake. \ t· carried, for tlic. Least, nine feet, and no stoppages occurred.

Near Grande island, your senior ofllcer, C:i1. Requested me to overhaul a vessel to the southward, as I drew the least water. Again, and went through the Rigolets, and over the middle ground, with eiglit foet, and thence directly to.

Mandeville and the mouth of the Chcfuncta river, on which Madison is ::oituated. 264 REPOHT OP'l'HE SGPEUITENDENT OF. With the :l'iew London, u11d I bcliPve alo the Uall1«nn. The former intending to go next day into the river.

And visit Madi8011, Captain ftpnhaw concluder1 to return to Pearl river, and sParch in Pearlington and. J ackwn ran agrom1d, but the otlwr ves8els got over without; touching.

The senior officer requested me to. Relieve her if possible, the Sachem not drawing over six and a half feet, bl'! T it was found impossible. Arrangement was made with the steamer \Vhiteman to come alo11gside next day, lighten the, Jnckeon, and. I anchored near the light-house of the Rigolets, close to the IV estfield, ha.

Ten miles further to the eastward and back to communicate with Captnin Baldwin, and to briug him Captain. Sth in:ltant we startetl early. And I took the lead into Peflrl 1in.

And went 11p some thirteen milec, where, tlw river becoming so narrow that the \Vestficld and Clifton could. Not make the abrupt turns, hotl1 of thoe vc, .

Their captains came on board the Saclwm, and we. Aboat three miles from Gainesville we were fired upon with musketry, several balls striking. D, and one severely wounding my executive officer aud assistant, :Mr. Oltmanns, of the Coast Survey. The bullet hit him iu tl1e left breast, jut over tl1e lungs.

He was cmriecl clown at once, and placed iu tlie. 1ierhaps some fifty or sixty musket shots, and finally grape and canister from the 32-poun. The difficulty consited in gettin the Sachem turned, as the river had hardly the. The fir8t cutter of tlH, Sachem wrrs! The wood and the propelier in turni11g, aud my Lrnuch was :filleJ, and llC'arly Inst too.

Lost her flag-staff, but the i:Otar and tripes'vcre hoitited Jircctly on the mrtin gaff. Marks of teu or twehe rifle or rnnBkd ballB. The ll1Utrterrnaster at the whLd narrowly e:5caped, a bullet. Baving passed through liis clothes, and several other persons on board had very narrow escapes from injury. \Vhen we rcturcd Lo the Clifton and \Vestfidcl, ;\fr.

Oltmanns was transfonecl to the former vessel, and. N·erything that the great kindnes of Captain Baldwin could suggest was done for him. L1i8 wound, hut did not fiud tlic ball. At 8even o'clock ·e anchored near Grassy island, in Lake Bo1·gne. Oltmanns from the party is very great, as he had learned to manage the Sachem. :Yen if he recovers, he will Le unfit for duty this season, and will have to take the fir8t.

Late at nigl1t I vitiited the Clifton, and was told by the doctor that the wound. Wa n·ry RVerl'; lmt that 1. Oltmanus, with care, might 1·ec0Tcr. The J;lOt of executive officer on the Sachem.

Of 8eventcen assistante, fourteen sub-a8sistants, and eighteen aidB, serving in the field or aflo:it, fifteen. , eleven sub-assistants, and fifteen aids have deYoted the whole or a part of the year to the regular. Progress of the s1irvPy; and eight assistants, ten su1-assii;tunts, and fourteen aids (thirty-two officers) ha\'e. Rendered service in connection with tbc operations of the army and na\7, generally iu adtlition to their. This last-named service was, of coursB, not witl10ut its s1iecial dangers.

Dorr narrowly ecapf'd wl1en the larnentf'd \Vaguer and a soldier of :Mr. Dorr's plane-table party were.

Mortally wounded in front of Yorktown. Dorr was uRing ·waR shattered to pieces. River, while attad1ed to tlrn steamer Sachem, which was then under command of Assistant F. Serving with the flotilla of Commodore (now Admiral) D.

Topography near tltc military difence8 ef Wasltinglon. At fhe request of General Barnard, U.

Oltmanns was detailed in the latter part of S1>ptember to make elose topographical surveys of the sites and surroundings of Fort Lineoln and other defensive works to the Mrth and. East of the city of W ashngton. Oltmanns commenced work and for a short period prosecuted it, under the immediate direction of General Barnard. He was, howrver, soon compelled to close field duty, not having. Sufficiently recovered from the effects of a rifh·-"hot by which he was wounded in the lung" whi:e cniraged in.

Being still anxionH fm· suel1 fipJ service as he might find practicable in a climate milder tlian. That of this section, he has been dii·ected to report for g. Oltmanns remained in charge of tl1e magnetic instruments. Vest until near the end of March of the present year, when he was detailed for duty near the month.

Of the Mississippi, of which notice will he taken in a succeeding chapter. The regular photograpLic and differential observation8 were continued by Sub-Assi8t, wt F. Samuel'\Valker was left in charge, and Sub-Assi, tant Nes assigned to duty in Section II. Coa·t SurN'Y J''Tati1. Ns betwt'en llf1_, bile bar and I'.

Upon the application of Commodore. (now Rear Admiral) D_ G. Halter was detailed as topographical. Assistant to accompany him in the ffog-Ehip Hartford.

SubsC'qucntly a complete topographical and hydrographical party was organized to accompany the western gulf blockading squa. To be especially attached to the mortar fleet of Commodore (now Rear Admiral) David n. Gerdes was placed in charge of this party, his personal knowledge of the Gulf coast, its. Harbors, inlete, and anchorages being extensive and precise, from a service of many years in this quarter. Bowie were attached to this party, and some time after Sub.

Assistant Halter also joined it. Halter had both 13erved for several years with fr. Gerdes on the Gu1f coast_.

The Section in the same vc? Y West, where lie had been employed on otlier duty, to which I.

Have rcfcn-ed under the head of Section VI. Both had rendered assistance in parning vessels of the squadron. Over the bar of the Southwest P. For the use of the Coast Survey party, when it was organized in cbruary, the honorable Secretary of.

The Navy temporarily transferred to the Treasury Department the steamer Uncas, with a suitable annament. That vcssd left New Ycirk on the 27th of February, in charge of Mr.

Han-is, but f'tormy weather on the. Run to Hampton Roads hawed dearly that she could not mnke the passage to tl1e Delta without extensive. With as little delay as possiLle, the steamer Sachem, of the same class, was there substituted by. The Navy Dt>partmcnt, and, in charge of Mr. HmTis, after n tedious pasage, reached the mouth of the iississippi on the 10th of April, whPrc shP was joi11crl by Assistm1t ierr1Ps and the other mcm bcrs of his pnrty.

By previous arrangement with the tlag-nfficcr tht·ir services were placed at the r1iPposal of Commander D. D1orter, who was then about rnoYing with the lJornh flotilla of thP sr1uadron to attack Fort Jackson.

In the season previous to the Lreakiug out of the rebellion, the triaugulation of the Missi;, ;8iipi delta liad. Been extended up to the vicinity of the lowc1· dPfenccs of the river. The points then determined, and the computed ditanroes between tlwm, gave the means for assignilig exact distances from either of the forts, by the aid. Were in poition, the exact distance of each of tliem from Fort, Jackson, and the precise direction, had been. Made kuown to the officers in charge.

Thi, ; hazardous and difficult service, the river being at that time over. Its bank, was maiuly performed Ly Mr.

Oltm;tnns, nirltod by NCr. Asuriug with the theodolite, :Mr.

Oltmanns was, in one instance, fired on by riflemen from the bushes on. The river Lank, but, though at short range, only the oars of his boat were struck. In nearing the forts, on.

The last day em11loycd in making observations, the party of l\lr. Harri came under the fire of the enemy's.

Gunboats, but no casualty occmTed, though the distance was inconeiderable. The bombardment of Fort Jackson opened immediately after the completion of the measurement of. Distances to tl1e several po!! Itions occupied by the mortar vessel.

Fol' the next three days Messrs. And Oltrnann remained with the flotilla, and when, from various causes, any of the vessel8 11ad to shift their. Lertl1, the di8tancc to otl1er positions were computed for them anew. The rest of the pa1·ty 1Vcre meanwhile. Engaged in furnihing manuscript charts of the Mississippi in tlrn neighborhood of the defences, for the use. Of the :f:leet, the reg11lar hyilrograpby of the river not having extenclecl, previously, above the passes. At the r'rp1est of Uommodore Porter, the Sachem droppecl down tlrn river on the 22d, to await the. Return of a detachment which he had sent to reconnoitre in the rear of Fort Jackson.

Charge of the vessel, then completecl an examination which had been commenced the day before by Mr. Halte1-, a11d l1imo1clf, of the channels which start neai· Fort Jackson and connect the Missisippi. Next day the Sachem took the wounded men of Commodore :Farragut's fleet to the hospital. StantR on bonrd of tlH. Sachem bcjng wr>ll acqnainted with all tl1e waters in the vicinity of New.

Odeans, that vessel was taken to pilot the st ca men; \Vestfield, Clifton, and J ack8ou on au expedition intended. For J, akPR Borgne and J'ontchartrain on the 13th; hut finding at :Madi80nY!

Read, with the gnuboat New London, lrnd been looking nftcr the vessels of the enemy in tliat quarter, Lieutenant Commander Renshaw, senior naval officer of the expedition, decided to return and make an examination of the same kind in Pearl river. Mouth, the riYcr being then' so nanow and crooked that the largf'r vesscle could not pas the b.

Commantlcl's Rrnsbaw and Baldwin came on hoarrl thi\ SachPm, and that vessel proceeded aloue towards. Gainesville, where it was &npposed that a small armed vessel of the enemy was lying.

The breadth thue and at i. Suh-Assistant Oltmanns, C'Xecutive officer of the Sachem, being at that moment in an. Exposed poBition, was severdy wounded by a bullet Which pierced his rigl1t breast. The officers on board, aud the crew, were uniujured, though 11cnrly twenty sl1ot8 had struck the vessel.

Disperse the enemy the Sachem fired round shot an. \Vhere this occurred the river was not over :fifty yard wide, and the huhe were so thick on Loth banks that. The c>nPmy conlrl not hf' seen. Lieutenant Commander Renfha\ deeming it m1arl, ·i. Up, the steamer was swung aroind with difficulty and passed down the stream. OltmmmH was ;;nt to New York. Ile recovered in Htrr from his hurt, and has since been engaged in field duty in Section III, hut is Ftill Rnffering from tlw efi. Plane-table survey commenced of the site. And approaches of Fort Lincoln, and. Other defensive works, near Washington city.

Differential obsen--ations for the thr>e. Magnetic elements continued l>y photography, and absolute determin>Ltions. Special service and determination of pooitions by triangulation near Forts Jackson and St.

Southwest PaElS of the Mississippi. Sounded out and buoys set to molrk its. L service with the Weste. Closeup of a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey marker embedded in a large rock in front of the Noroton Volunteer Fire Department in Darien, Connecticut. Since its foundation in its present form in 1970, it has been part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), of the United States Department of Commerce.

The National Geodetic Survey's history and heritage are intertwined with those of other NOAA offices. Upon the creation of the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) in 1965, the commissioned corps was separated from the Survey to become the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps (or "ESSA Corps"). Thus, the National Geodetic Survey's ancestor organizations are also the ancestors of today's NOAA Corps and Office of Coast Survey and are among the ancestors of today's NOAA fleet.

In addition, today's National Institute of Standards and Technology, although long since separated from the Survey, got its start as the Survey's Office of Weights and Measures. The National Geodetic Survey is an office of NOAA's National Ocean Service. Its core function is to maintain the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), a consistent coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout the United States. [1] NGS is responsible for defining the NSRS and its relationship with the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).

The NSRS enables precise and accessible knowledge of where things are in the United States and its territories. The NSRS may be divided into its geometric and physical components. The official geodetic datum of the United States, NAD83 defines the geometric relationship between points within the United States in three-dimensional space. The datum may be accessed via NGS's network of survey marks or through the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network of GPS reference antennas.

NGS is responsible for computing the relationship between NAD83 and the ITRF. The physical components of the NSRS are reflected in its height system, defined by the vertical datum NAVD88. This datum is a network of orthometric heights obtained through spirit leveling.

Because of the close relationship between height and Earth's gravity field, NGS also collects and curates terrestrial gravity measurements and develops regional models of the geoid (the level surface that best approximates sea level) and its slope, the deflection of the vertical. NGS is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the NSRS over time, even as the North American plate rotates and deforms over time due to crustal strain, post-glacial rebound, subsidence, elastic deformation of the crust, and other geophysical phenomena. NGS will release new datums in 2022. [2] The North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022 (NATRF2022) will supersede NAD83 in defining the geometric relationship between the North American plate and the ITRF. [3] United States territories on the Pacific, Caribbean, and Mariana plates will have their own respective geodetic datums. The North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) will separately define the height system of the United States and its territories, replacing NAVD88. [3] It will use a geoid model accurate to 1 centimeter (0.4) to relate orthometric height to ellipsoidal height measured by GPS, eliminating the need for future leveling projects. This geoid model will be based on airborne and terrestrial gravity measurements collected by NGS's GRAV-D program as well as satellite-based gravity models derived from observations collected by GRACE, GOCE, and satellite altimetry missions.

NGS provides a number of other public services. [5] It maps changing shorelines in the United States and provides aerial imagery of regions affected by natural disasters, enabling rapid damage assessment by emergency managers and members of the public. The Online Positioning and User Service (OPUS) processes user-input GPS data and outputs position solutions within the NSRS.

The agency offers other tools for conversion between datums. Logo celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States Survey of the Coast. The original predecessor agency of the National Geodetic Survey was the United States Survey of the Coast, created within the United States Department of the Treasury by an Act of Congress on February 10, 1807, to conduct a Survey of the Coast. [6][7] The Survey of the Coast, the United States government's first scientific agency, [7] represented the interest of the administration of President Thomas Jefferson in science and the stimulation of international trade by using scientific surveying methods to chart the waters of the United States and make them safe for navigation. A Swiss immigrant with expertise in both surveying and the standardization of weights and measures, Ferdinand R. Hassler, was selected to lead the Survey. Hassler submitted a plan for the survey work involving the use of triangulation to ensure scientific accuracy of surveys, but international relations prevented the new Survey of the Coast from beginning its work; the Embargo Act of 1807 brought American overseas trade virtually to a halt only a month after Hassler's appointment and remained in effect until Jefferson left office in March 1809. Hassler departed on August 29, 1811, but eight months later, while he was in England, the War of 1812 broke out, forcing him to remain in Europe until its conclusion in 1815. Hassler did not return to the United States until August 16, 1815. The Survey finally began surveying operations in 1816, when Hassler started work in the vicinity of New York City. The first baseline was measured and verified in 1817. However, Hassler was taken by surprise when the United States Congress - frustrated by the slow and limited progress the Survey had made in its first decade, unwilling to endure the time and expense involved in scientifically precise surveying, unconvinced of the propriety of expending U.

Government funds on scientific endeavors, and uncomfortable with Hassler leading the effort because of his foreign birth - enacted legislation in 1818 removing him from the leadership of the Survey and suspending its operations. Congress believed that United States Army and United States Navy officers could achieve surveying results adequate for safe navigation during their routine navigation and charting activities and could do so more quickly and cheaply than Hassler, and it gave the U. Navy responsibility for coastal surveys. Under this law, which prohibited the U.

Government from hiring civilians to conduct coastal surveys, the Survey of the Coast existed without a superintendent and without conducting any surveys during the 14 years from 1818 to 1832. On July 10, 1832, Congress passed a new law renewing the original law of 1807, placing the responsibility for coastal surveying back in the Survey of the Coast and permitting the hiring of civilians to carry it out. Hassler was reappointed as the Survey's superintendent that year. The administration of President Andrew Jackson expanded and extended the Survey of the Coast's scope and organization. [9]:468 The Survey of the Coast resumed field work in April 1833.

In July 1833, Edmund E. Blunt, the son of hydrographer Edmund B. Blunt, accepted a position with the Survey. The elder Blunt had begun publication of the American Coast Pilot - the first book of sailing directions, charts, and other information for mariners in North American waters to be published in North America - in 1796.

Eventually, the relationship between the Survey and the Blunts would lead to the establishment of the Survey's United States Coast Pilot publications in the latter part of the 19th century. Association with United States Navy. The United States Department of the Navy was given the control of the Survey of the Coast from 1834 to 1836, but on March 26, 1836, the Department of the Treasury resumed the administration of the Survey, which was renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836. Navy officers and men when the Navy could provide such support.

In addition, the United States Department of War provided U. Army officers for service with the Survey during its early years. Hassler believed that expertise in coastal surveys would be of importance in future wars and welcomed the participation of Army and Navy personnel, and his vision in this regard laid the foundation for the commissioned corps of officers that would be created in the Survey in 1917 as the ancestor of today's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps. During the nineteenth century, the remit of the Survey was rather loosely drawn and it had no competitors in federally funded scientific research. Various superintendents developed its work in fields as diverse as astronomy, cartography, meteorology, geodesy, geology, geophysics, hydrography, navigation, oceanography, exploration, pilotage, tides, and topography. The Survey published important articles by Charles Sanders Peirce on the design of experiments and on a criterion for the statistical treatment of outliers. [13][14] Ferdinand Hassler became the first Superintendent of Weights and Measures beginning in November 1830, and the Office of Weights and Measures, the ancestor of today's National Institute of Standards and Technology, was placed under the control of the Coast Survey in 1836; until 1901, the Survey thus was responsible for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States. Department of the Navy worked around the law by allowing Lieutenant Thomas R. Under Gedney's command, Jersey began the Survey's first depth sounding operations in October 1834, and made its first commercially and militarily significant discovery in 1835 by discovering what became known as the Gedney Channel at the entrance to New York Harbor, which significantly reduced sailing times to and from New York City. Bache, while attached to the Survey, suggested standardizing the markings of buoys and navigational markers ashore by painting those on the right when entering a harbor red and those on the left black; instituted by Lieutenant Commander John R. Goldsborough in 1847, the "red right return" system of markings has been in use in the United States ever since. In the early 1840s, the Survey began work in Delaware Bay to chart the approaches to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Professor Alexander Dallas Bache became superintendent of the U. Coast Survey after Hassler's death in 1843. [7] During his years as superintendent, he reorganized the Coast Survey and expanded its work southward along the United States East Coast into the Florida Keys. By 1847, Bache had expanded the Survey's operations from nine states to seventeen, and by 1849 it also operated along the United States West Coast, giving it a presence along all coasts of the United States. [15] In 1845, he instituted the world's first systematic oceanographic project for studying a specific phenomenon when he directed the Coast Survey to begin systematic studies of the Gulf Stream and its environs, including physical oceanography, geological oceanography, biological oceanography, and chemical oceanography.

Bache's initial orders for the Gulf Stream study served as a model for all subsequent integrated oceanographic cruises. [7] Bache also instituted regular and systematic observations of the tides and investigated magnetic forces and directions, making the Survey the center of U. Government expertise in geophysics for the following century. In the late 1840s, the Survey pioneered the use of the telegraph to provide highly accurate determinations of longitude; known as the "American method, " it soon was emulated worldwide.

Army officers from the Coast Survey and the Coast Survey brig Washington was taken over for U. Navy service in the war, but overall the war effort had little impact on the Coast Survey's operations. Territory as a result of the war led to the Coast Survey expanding its operations to include the newly acquired coasts of Texas and California. Ever since it began operations, the Coast Survey had faced hostility from politicians who believed that it should complete its work and be abolished as a means of reducing U.

Government expenditures, and Hassler and Bache had fought back periodic attempts to cut its funding. By 1850, the Coast Survey had surveyed enough of the U. Coastline for a long enough time to learn that - with a few exceptions, such as the rocky coast of New England - coastlines were dynamic and required return visits by Coast Surveyors to keep charts up to date. [18] In 1858, Bache for the first time publicly stated that the Coast Survey was not a temporary organization charged with charting the coasts once, but rather a permanent one that would continually survey coastal areas as they changed over time. Another significant moment in the Survey's history that occurred in 1858 was the first publication of what would later become the United States Coast Pilot, when Survey employee George Davidson adapted an article from a San Francisco, California, newspaper into an addendum to that year's Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey.

Although the Survey had previously published its work indirectly via the Blunts' American Coast Pilot, it was the first time that the Survey had published its sailing directions directly in any way other than through local newspapers. On June 21, 1860, the greatest loss of life in a single incident in the history of NOAA and its ancestor agencies occurred when a commercial schooner collided with the Coast Survey paddle steamer Robert J. Walker in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey.

Walker sank with the loss of 20 men. Bibb became the first Coast Survey vessel to operate in subarctic waters. A survey of the Mississippi River in Louisiana below Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip made by the U. Coast Survey to prepare for the bombardment of the forts by David Dixon Porter's mortar fleet in April 1862 during the American Civil War.

The outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861 caused a dramatic shift in direction for the Coast Survey. Army officers were withdrawn from the Survey, as were all but two U. Since most men of the Survey had Union sympathies, all but seven of them stayed on with the Survey rather than resigning to serve the Confederate States of America, and their work shifted in emphasis to support of the U. Civilian Coast Surveyors were called upon to serve in the field and provide mapping, hydrographic, and engineering expertise for Union forces.

One of the individuals who excelled at this work was Joseph Smith Harris, who supported Rear Admiral David G. Farragut and his Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip in 1862; this survey work was particularly valuable to Commander David Dixon Porter and his mortar bombardment fleet.

Coast Surveyors supporting the Union Army were given assimilated military rank while attached to a specific command, but those supporting the U. Navy operated as civilians and ran the risk of being executed as spies if captured by the Confederates while working in support of Union forces. The seal of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey headquarters on New Jersey Avenue in Washington, D.

From Harper's Weekly, October 1888. [10] In 1888, the publications for the United States East and Gulf coasts took the name United States Coast Pilot for the first time, and the publications for the United States West Coast took this name 30 years later. NOAA produces the United States Coast Pilots to this day. In 1871, Congress officially expanded the Coast Survey's responsibilities to include geodetic surveys in the interior of the country, [6][25][7] and one of its first major projects in the interior was to survey the 39th Parallel across the entire country. Between 1874 and 1877, the Coast Survey employed the naturalist and author John Muir as a guide and artist during the survey of the 39th Parallel in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.

[7] To reflect its acquisition of the mission of surveying the U. Interior and the growing role of geodesy in its operations, the U. Coast Survey was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) in 1878. The American Coast Pilot had long been lacking in current information when the Coast Survey took control of it in 1867, and the Survey had recognized that deficit but had been hindered by a lack of funding and the risks associated with mooring vessels in deep waters or along dangerous coasts in order to collect the information necessary for updates.

Navy Acting Master and Coast Survey Assistant Robert Platt to the Gulf of Maine to anchor in depths of up to 140 fathoms (840 feet/256 meters) to measure currents. [26] The Survey's requirement to update sailing directions led to the development of early current measurement technology, particularly the Pillsbury current meter invented by John E. Pillsbury, USN, while on duty with the Survey.

Blake became such a pioneer in oceanography that she is one of only two U. By the mid-1880s, the Coast and Geodetic Survey had been caught up in the increased scrutiny of U. Government agencies by politicians seeking to reform governmental affairs by curbing the spoils system and patronage common among office holders of the time.

One outgrowth of this movement was the Allison Commission - a joint commission of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives - which convened in 1884 to investigate the scientific agencies of the U. Government, namely the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the United States Geological Survey, the United States Army Signal Corps (responsible for studying and predicting weather at the time), and the United States Navy's United States Hydrographic Office. The commission looked into three main issues: the role of geodesy in the U. Government's scientific efforts and whether responsibility for inland geodetics should reside in the U. Coast and Geodetic Survey or the U.

Geological Survey; whether the Coast and Geodetic Survey should be removed from the Department of the Treasury and placed under the control of the Department of the Navy, as it had been previously from 1834 to 1836; and whether weather services should reside in a military organization or in the civilian part of the government, raising the broader issue of whether U. Government scientific agencies of all kinds should be under military or civilian control. At the Coast and Geodetic Survey, at least some scientists were not prone to following bureaucratic requirements related to the funding of their projects, and their lax financial practices led to charges of mismanagement of funds and corruption. When Grover Cleveland became president in 1885, James Q. Chenoweth became First Auditor of the Department of the Treasury, and he began to investigate improprieties at the U.

Coast and Geodetic Survey, U. Geological Survey, and United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, more commonly referred to as the U. He had little impact on the Geological Survey or the Fish Commission, but at the Coast and Geodetic Survey he found many improprieties. Chenoweth saw these practices as embezzlement. Moreover, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Julius Hilgard, was exposed as a drunkard and forced to resign in disgrace along with four of his senior staff members at Survey headquarters.

To address issues at the Coast and Geodetic Survey raised by the Allison Commission and the Chenoweth investigation, Cleveland made the Chief Clerk of the Internal Revenue Bureau, Frank Manly Thorn, Acting Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey on July 23, 1885, and appointed him as the permanent superintendent on September 1. [30][31] Thorn, a lawyer and journalist who was the first non-scientist to serve as superintendent, quickly concluded that the charges against Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel largely were overblown, and he set his mind to the issues of rebuilding the Survey's integrity and reputation and ensuring that it demonstrated its value to its critics.

Ignorant of the Survey's operations and the scientific methods that lay behind them, he left such matters to his assistant, Benjamin J. Colonna, and focused instead on reforming the Survey's financial and budgetary procedures and improving its operations so as to demonstrate the value of its scientific program in performing accurate mapping while setting and meeting production deadlines for maps and charts.

To the Survey's critics, Thorn and Colonna championed the importance of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's inland geodetic work and how it supported, rather than duplicated, the work of the Geological Survey and was in any event an important component of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's hydrographic work along the coasts. Thorn also advocated civilian control of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, pointing out to Cleveland and others that earlier experiments with placing it under U. Navy control had fared poorly.

[33] Thorn described the Coast and Geodetic Survey's essential mission as, in its simplest form, to produce "a perfect map, ". [34] and to this end he and Colonna championed the need for the Survey to focus on the broad range of geodetic disciplines Colonna identified as necessary for accurate chart- and mapmaking: triangulation, astronomical observations, levelling, tidal observations, physical geodesy, topography, hydrography, and magnetic observations. [35] To those who advocated transfer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's work to the Navy Hydrographic Office, Thorn and Colonna replied that although the Navy could perform hydrography, it could not provide the full range of geodetic disciplines necessary for scientifically accurate surveying and mapping work. In 1886, the Allison Commission wrapped up its investigation and published its final report. Although it determined that all topographic responsibility outside of coastal areas would henceforth reside in the U. Geological Survey, it approved of the Coast and Geodetic Survey continuing its entire program of scientific research, and recommended that the Coast and Geodetic Survey remain under civilian control rather than be subordinated to the U. It was a victory for Thorn and Colonna. [33] Another victory followed in 1887, when Thorn headed off a congressional attempt to subordinate the Survey to the Navy despite the Allison Commission's findings, providing Cleveland with information on the previous lack of success of such an arrangement. [33] When Thorn left the superintendency in 1889, the Coast and Geodetic Survey's position in the U. Before Thorn left the superintendency, the United States Congress passed a bill requiring that henceforth the president would select the superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey with the consent of the U. This practice has continued for senior positions in the Coast and Geodetic Survey and its successor organizations ever since.

Later 19th century and early 20th century. Sigsbee Sounding Machine - invented by Charles Dwight Sigsbee and modified from Thomson Sounding Machine. Basic design of ocean sounding instruments stayed the same for the next 50 years.

Here the sounding machine is used to set a Pillsbury current meter at a known depth. In: The Gulf Stream, by John Elliott Pillsbury, 1891. Note caption on photo: "Sounding Machine And Current Meter In Place, Steamer Blake". In the 1890s, while attached to the Coast and Geodetic Survey as commanding officer of George S. Blake, Lieutenant Commander Charles Dwight Sigsbee, USN, Assistant in the Coast Survey, [Note 1] developed the Sigsbee sounding machine while conducting the first true bathymetric surveys in the Gulf of Mexico.

With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898, the U. Navy again withdrew its officers from Coast and Geodetic Survey duty. [37] Thereafter, the Coast and Geodetic Survey operated as an entirely civilian organization until May 1917.

In 1901, the Office of Weights and Measures was split off from the Coast and Geodetic Survey to become the separate National Bureau of Standards. It became the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1988. This method revolutionized hydrographic surveying, as it allowed a quicker, less laborious, and far more complete survey of an area than did the use of lead lines and sounding poles that had preceded it, and it remained in use until the late 1980s.

Navy, the Survey operated as a completely civilian organization from 1900 until after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. To avoid the dangerous situation Coast Survey personnel had faced during the American Civil War, when they could have been executed as spies if captured by the enemy, a new Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps was created on 22 May 1917, giving the Survey's officers a commissioned status that protected them from treatment as spies if captured, as well as providing the United States armed forces with a ready source of officers skilled in surveying that could be rapidly assimilated for wartime support of the armed forces. Over half of all Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps officers served in the U.

Marine Corps during World War I, and Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel were active as artillery orienteering officers, as minelaying officers in the North Sea (where they supported the laying of the North Sea Mine Barrage), as troop transport navigators, as intelligence officers, and as officers on the staff of General John "Black Jack" Pershing. A 1932 marker at Fort McAllister Historic Park in Bryan County, Georgia. [25] In 1923 and 1924, it began the use of acoustic sounding systems and developed radio acoustic ranging, which was the first marine navigation system in history that did not rely on a visual means of position determination. These developments led to the Survey's 1924 discovery of the sound fixing and ranging (SOFAR) channel or deep sound channel (DSC) - a horizontal layer of water in the ocean at which depth the speed of sound is at its minimum - and to the development of telemetering radio sonobuoys and marine seismic exploration techniques. [38] The Air Commerce Act, which went into effect on May 20, 1926, among other things directed that the airways of the United States be charted for the first time and assigned this mission to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. From 1934 to 1937, it organized surveying parties and field offices to employ over 10,000 people, including many unemployed engineers, during the height of the Great Depression. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, all of this work was suspended as the Survey dedicated its activities entirely to support of the war effort. Over half of the Coast and Geodetic Corps commissioned officers were transferred to either the U. Marine Corps, or United States Army Air Forces, while those who remained in the Coast and Geodetic Survey also operated in support of military and naval requirements. About half of the Survey's civilian work force, slightly over 1,000 people, joined the armed services. Officers and civilians of the Survey saw service in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific and in the defense of North America and its waters, serving as artillery surveyors, hydrographers, amphibious engineers, beachmasters i. Directors of disembarkation, instructors at service schools, and in a wide range of technical positions. Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel also worked as reconnaissance surveyors for a worldwide aeronautical charting effort, and a Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps officer was the first commanding officer of the Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Plant at St. Coast and Geodetic Survey civilians who remained in the United States during the war produced over 100 million maps and charts for the Allied forces. Three Coast and Geodetic Survey officers and eleven members of the agency who had joined other services were killed during the war. 150th anniversary commemorative stamp, issued by the United States Post Office Department in 1957. Following World War II, the Coast and Geodetic Survey resumed its peacetime scientific and surveying efforts. In 1945 it adapted the British Royal Air Force's Gee radio navigation system to hydrographic surveying, ushering in a new era of marine electronic navigation. [38] The onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s led the Survey also to make a significant effort in support of defense requirements, such as conducting surveys for the Distant Early Warning Line and for rocket ranges, performing oceanographic work for the U. Navy, and monitoring nuclear tests. The first such survey in history, it discovered magnetic striping on the seafloor, a key finding in the development of the theory of plate tectonics. The Coast and Geodetic Survey participated in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. During the IGY, 67 countries cooperated in a worldwide effort to collect, share, and study data on eleven Earth sciences - aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations for precision mapping, meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.

In 1959, the Coast and Geodetic Survey's charter was extended to give it the responsibility for U. [25] In 1963, it became the first U.

On 13 July 1965, the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA), was established and became the new parent organization of both the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the United States Weather Bureau. [6][38] At the same time, the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps was removed from the Survey's direct control, subordinated directly to ESSA, and renamed the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps, or ESSA Corps.

On 3 October 1970, ESSA was expanded and reorganized to form the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2009, former NOAA Corps officer Juliana P. Blackwell was named as Director of the National Geodetic Survey and become the first woman to head the oldest U. The National Geodetic Survey, Office of Coast Survey, and NOAA fleet all fell under control of NOAA's new National Ocean Service. Coast and Geodetic Survey leadership. Frank Manly Thorn served as sixth Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Rear Admiral Henry Arnold Karo served as the fourth Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Superintendents of Weights and Measures. Main article: NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.

The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey flag, in use from 1899 to 1970. The Coast and Geodetic Survey was authorized its own flag on 16 January 1899. The flag, which remained in use until the Survey merged with other agencies to form NOAA on 3 October 1970, was blue, with a central white circle and a red triangle centered within the circle. It was intended to symbolize the triangulation method used in surveying. The ESSA flag, in use from 1965 to 1970, was adapted from the Coast and Geodetic Survey flag by adding a blue circle to the center of the Survey flag, with a stylized, diamond-shaped map of the world within the blue circle.

The blue circle containing the map lay entirely within the red triangle. The NOAA flag, in use today, also was adapted from the Coast and Geodetic Survey flag by adding the NOAA emblem - a circle divided into two parts by the white silhouette of a flying seagull, with the roughly triangular portion above the bird being dark blue and the portion below it a lighter blue - to the center of the old Survey flag.

The NOAA symbol lies entirely within the red triangle. Relative rank of officers 1918. Junior Hydrographic and Geodetic Engineers. Petty Officers were Chiefs, First Class, Second Class, and Third Class. By purchasing commercial vessels, through transfers from the U.

Navy service was the brig USRC Washington during the Mexican War. Navy and United States Coast Guard, while others supported the war effort as a part of the Survey's fleet. In the 20th century, the Coast and Geodetic Survey also instituted a hull classification symbol system similar to the one that the U. Navy began using in 1920. USC&GS Explorer (OSS 28) in the Aleutian Islands in 1944.

USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS 01) was flagship of the Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet from her commissioning in 1966 until the creation of NOAA in 1970. Bache (1871) in service ca. USC&GS Eagre in service ca. USS Vixen (1861) (in service 1860s). Awards and decorations of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.

XIX Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent most of its service in Louisiana and the Gulf, though several units fought in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. XIX Corps was created on December 14, 1862, and assigned to Maj. Banks, the commander of the Department of the Gulf.

The corps comprised all Union troops then occupying Louisiana and east Texas. It originally consisted of four divisions, numbering 36,000 men. In April 1863, the corps was involved in the actions at Fort Bisland and Irish Bend.

XIX Corps also gained measure of distinction for being the first Federal unit to use a large number of colored troops in action, particularly against Port Hudson, with Banks giving them due credit for their valiant contributions to the siege. Chief of Staff: BG George L. 2nd Louisiana: Col Charles J.

21st Maine: Col Elijah D. 48th Massachusetts: Col Eben F. 49th Massachusetts: Ltc Burton D. 116th New York: Cpt John Higgins.

12th Connecticut: Ltc Frank H. 75th New York: Col Robert B. 114th New York: Col Elisha B. 160th New York: Ltc John B.

176th New York: Cols Charles C. Nott, Ambrose Stevens, Charles Lewis. 8th Vermont: Col Stephen Thomas. 30th Massachusetts: Ltc William W. 50th Massachusetts: Col Carlos P.

161st New York: Col Gabriel T. 174th New York: Maj George Keating. 1st Battery, Indiana Heavy Artillery: Col John A. 1st Battery, Maine Light Artillery: Lt John E.

6th Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery: Lt John F. Section, 12th Massachusetts Light Artillery: Lt Edwin M. 18th Battery, New York Light Artillery: Cpt Albert G. Light Artillery: Cpt Edmund C.

26th Connecticut: Ltc Joseph Selden. 6th Michigan: Col Thomas S. 15th New Hampshire: Col John W.

128th New York: Col David S. 162nd New York: Col Lewis Benedict. 9th Connecticut: Ltc Richard Fitz Gibbons.

26th Massachusetts: Ltc Josiah A. 42d Massachusetts: Ltc Joseph Stedman. 47th Massachusetts: Col Lucius B. 14th Maine: Col Thomas W. 24th Maine: Col George Marston Atwood.

28th Maine: Col Ephriam W. 165th New York: Ltc Abel Smith Jr. 175th New York: Col Michael K.

177th New York: Col Ira W. 21st Battery, New York Light Artillery: Cpt James Barnes. 1st Battery, Vermont Light Artillery: Cpt George T. 28th Connecticut: Col Samuel P. 4th Massachusetts: Col Henry Walker. 16th New Hampshire: Col James Pike. 110th New York: Col Clinton H. 8th New Hampshire: Ltc Oliver W. 133rd New York: Col Leonard D. 173rd New York: Maj A. 4th Wisconsin: Col Sidney A. 31st Massachusetts: Ltc William S.

38th Massachusetts: Ltc William L. 53rd Massachusetts: Col John W. 156th New York: Col Jacob Sharpe.

4th Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery: Lt Frederick W. Light Artillery: Cpt Richard C. 2nd Battery, Vermont Light Artillery: Cpt Pythagoras E. 22nd Maine: Col Simon G. 90th New York: Col Joseph S.

91st New York Infantry Regiment: Col Jacob Van Zandt. 131st New York: Col Nicholas W. 24th Connecticut: Col Samuel M.

12th Maine: Ltc Edward Ilsley. 41st Massachusetts: Col Thomas E. 52nd Massachusetts: Col Halbert S.

13th Connecticut: Cpt Apollos Comstock. 25th Connecticut: Ltc Mason C. 26th Maine: Col Nathan H. 159th New York: Ltc Charles A.

2nd Battery Massachusetts Light Artillery: Cpt Ormand F. Light Artillery: Cpt Henry W.

Light Artillery: Lt Theodore Bradley. 6th United States Colored Troops: Maj George Bishop. 7th United States Colored Troops: Maj Cornelius Mowers. 8th United States Colored Troops: Ltc William S.

9th United States Colored Troops: Ltc Isaac S. 10th United States Colored Troops: Ltc Ladislas L. 1st Louisiana Engineers: Col Justin Hodge. 1st Louisiana Native Guards: Ltc Chauncey J.

3rd Louisiana Native Guards: Col John A. 4th Louisiana Native Guards: Col Charles W. 6th Illinois Cavalry: Col Reuben Loomis. 7th Illinois Cavalry: Col Edward Prince. 1st Louisiana Cavalry: Maj Harai Robinson.

2nd Rhode Island Cavalry: Ltc Augustus W. 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry: Maj James Magee. 14th New York Cavalry: Cpt George Branning. 4th Wisconsin Mounted: Maj Webster Moore. In spring of 1864, the corps took part in Banks' disastrous Red River Campaign, under the command of William B. Franklin, who was wounded at Mansfield. After its conspicuous role in the failure, two divisions under William H.

Emory were sent to Virginia to join Phillip Sheridan's operations in the Shenandoah Valley against Jubal Early (see Valley Campaigns of 1864). These troops took part in all of the major engagements of Sheridan's campaign, most notably at Opequon, where they lost some 2,000 men killed or wounded (mostly in Cuvier Grover's division).

After this, the corps was sent Savannah, Georgia, where it remained until the end of the war. The XIX Corps was officially disbanded on March 26, 1865, but the corps took part in the Grand Review in Washington, and some of its units remained in Savannah and Louisiana until 1866. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)[5] is a U. Federal agency under the Department of Defense and a major Army command made up of some 37,000 civilian and military personnel, [1] making it one of the world's largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works throughout the world. The Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U. The corps' mission is to Deliver vital public and military engineering services; partnering in peace and war to strengthen our Nation's security, energize the economy and reduce risks from disasters. Their most visible missions include. Planning, designing, building, and operating locks and dams. Other civil engineering projects include flood control, beach nourishment, and dredging for waterway navigation. Design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates. Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and other Defense and Federal agencies. Environmental regulation and ecosystem restoration. Plan of the military academy at West Point, New York. The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, when the Continental Congress organized an army with a chief engineer and two assistants.

[7] Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer. One of his first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill. The Continental Congress recognized the need for engineers trained in military fortifications and asked the government of King Louis XVI of France for assistance. Many of the early engineers in the Continental Army were former French officers.

Louis Lebègue Duportail, a lieutenant colonel in the French Royal Corps of Engineers, was secretly sent to America in March 1777 to serve in Washington's Continental Army. In July 1777 he was appointed colonel and commander of all engineers in the Continental Army, and in November 17, 1777, he was promoted to brigadier general. When the Continental Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers in May 1779 Duportail was designated as its commander.

In late 1781 he directed the construction of the allied U. French siege works at the Battle of Yorktown.

From 1794 to 1802 the engineers were combined with the artillery as the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers. The Corps of Engineers, as it is known today, came into existence on 16 March 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act whose aim was to organize and establish a Corps of Engineers...

Shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York and shall constitute a military academy. Until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an officer of engineer.

The General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use of Army engineers to survey road and canal routes. [9] That same year, Congress passed an "Act to Improve the Navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers" and to remove sand bars on the Ohio and "planters, sawyers, or snags" (trees fixed in the riverbed) on the Mississippi, for which the Corps of Engineers was the responsible agency. See also: Corps of Topographical Engineers. Separately authorized on 4 July 1838, the U. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers consisted only of officers and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal civil works and other coastal fortifications and navigational routes.

It was merged with the Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes. In 1841, Congress created the Lake Survey. The survey, based in Detroit, Mich. Was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids. The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852.

In the mid-19th century, Corps of Engineers' officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U. Pontoon bridge across the James River, Virginia, 1864.

The Army Corps of Engineers played a significant role in the American Civil War. Many of the men who would serve in the top leadership in this institution were West Point graduates who rose to military fame and power during the Civil War. Some of these men were Union Generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, and P. [7] The versatility of officers in the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to the success of numerous missions throughout the Civil War.

They were responsible for building pontoon and railroad bridges, forts and batteries, the destruction of enemy supply lines, and the construction of roads. [7] The Union forces were not the only ones to employ the use of engineers throughout the war, and on 6 March 1861, once the South had seceded from the Union, among the different acts passed at the time, a provision was included that called for the creation of a Confederate Corps of Engineers. The progression of the war demonstrated the South's disadvantage in engineering expertise; of the initial 65 cadets who resigned from West Point to accept positions with the Confederate Army, only seven were placed in the Corps of Engineers. [13] To overcome this obstacle, the Confederate Congress passed legislation that gave a company of engineers to every division in the field; by 1865, they actually had more engineer officers serving in the field of action than the Union Army. [13] The Army Corps of Engineers served as a main function in making the war effort logistically feasible. One of the main projects for the Army Corps of Engineers was constructing railroads and bridges, which Union forces took advantage of because railroads and bridges provided access to resources and industry.

One area where the Confederate engineers were able to outperform the Union Army was in the ability to build fortifications that were used both offensively and defensively along with trenches that made them harder to penetrate. This method of building trenches was known as the zigzag pattern. The American Civil War (also known by other names) was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865.

[c] The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U. [16] Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

States in February 1861, secessionist partisans in seven Southern slave states declared state secessions from the country and unveiled their defiant formation of a Confederate States of America in rebellion against the U. The Confederacy grew to control over half the territory in eleven states, and it claimed the additional states of Kentucky and Missouri by assertions from exiled native secessionists without territory or population. These were then given full representation in the Confederate Congress throughout the Civil War. The two remaining slave holding states of Delaware and Maryland were invited to join the Confederacy, but nothing substantial developed. The Confederate States was never diplomatically recognized by the government of the United States or by that of any foreign country.

[d] The states that remained loyal to the U. Were known as the Union. [e] The Union and Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over the course of four years. Intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, more than the number of U.

Military deaths in all other wars combined. The war ended when General Robert E.

Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the southern states followed suit. Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems.

The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million black slaves were freed. During the Reconstruction Era that followed the war, national unity was slowly restored, the national government expanded its power, and civil rights were guaranteed to freed black slaves through amendments to the Constitution and federal legislation.

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