CHAPTER 1
NOTES
1. For background see K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (New York: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 1-36, and John S.D. Eisenhower, So Far From God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 (New York: Random House, 1989), pp. 1-26.
2. Bauer, The Mexican War, p. 18.
4. Robert W. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985), p. 12.
5. For an overview of the history of the Corps of Engineers including the Topographical Engineers see The History of the US Army Corps of Engineers (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1986).
6. For an overview of corps activities in the West, see Frank N. Schubert, Vanguard of Expansion: Army Engineers in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1819-1879 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1980).
7. War Department, "General Regulations for the Army, 1841," Art. LXXV, par. 878, p. 159, quoted from Garry D. Ryan, War Department Topographical Bureau, 1831-1863: An Administrative History (Doctoral dissertation, American University, 1968), p. 149.
8. Archie P. McDonald, "West Point and the Engineers," Military Engineer 57 (May June 1965): 187-89; James A. Morrison, Jr., "The Best School in the World": West Point, the Pre-Civil War Years, 1833-1866 (Kent, Ohio: Kent State Univ. Press, 1986) , pp. 23-24, 91-101. Other historical studies on West Point include Stephen E. Ambrose's Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1966), R. Ernest Dupuy's Men of West Point: The First 150 Years of the United States Military Academy (New York: William Sloan Associates, 1951), and Thomas J. Fleming's West Point: The Men and Times of the United States Military Academy (New York: William Morrow and Co., 1969).
9. William H. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1959), pp. 12-16, 69-74; Dictionary ofAmerican Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964), V111, p. 514; and XIII, pp. 385-86. Nicollet was a brilliant French scientist who undertook topographical surveys sponsored by the Topographical Bureau. Fremont accompanied Nicollet on two surveys in 1838 and 1839 that produced a map of the upper Mississippi valley. These surveys resulted in a publication by the government after Nicollet's death in 1843 entitled Report Intended To Illustrate a Map of the Hydrographical Basis of the Upper Mississippi River. Hassler served as superintendent of the Coast Survey.
10. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 16-17.
11. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 287; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 6-7; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 3-12; Edward Burr, "Historical Sketch of the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army," Occasional Papers of the Engineer School, No. 71 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939), pp. 33-34; Frank N. Schubert, ed., The Nation Builders: A Sesquicentennial History of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, 1838-1863 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1988), p. 3.
12. Since there were no medals to speak of, brevet ranks, temporary promotions without an increase in pay, became the common form of recognition for heroism or service.
13. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 7; Burr, "Historical Sketch," p. 35; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 13-19.
14. Quoted from Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 287.
15. Burr, "Historical Sketch," p. 38. The entire report by Majors 1. Roberdeau and John Anderson is reproduced on pages 36-38; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 4-5.
16. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 8-9; Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," pp. 287-88; Burr, "Historical Sketch," pp. 38-39; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 22-23, 35-36; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 5-6. For more on the Board of Engineers on Fortifications see Jamie W. Moore, The Fortifications Board, 1816-1828, and the Definition of National Security, The Citadel, Monograph Series, no. XVI (Charleston: The Citadel, Jan 1981).
17. Burr, "Historical Sketch," p. 39; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 28-32, 41; Schubert, The Nation Builders, p. 6.
18. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 288; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 6-7.
19. Statement made in 1824 and quoted from Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 8-9; James L. Morrison, Jr., "The Best School in the World," West Point, the Pre-Civil War Years, 1833-1866 (Kent, Ohio: Kent State Univ. Press, 1986), pp. 8, 142.
20. Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 9-13; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, p. 36.
21. Quoted from Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 8-9, 13-15; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 36-38.
22. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 288; Burr, "Historical Sketch," p. 49; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, p. 62; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 8; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 15-17. For a detailed account of the corps contributions in transportation, see Forest G. Hill, Roads, Rails and Waterways: The Army Engineers and Early Transportation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957).
23. Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 40, 72-75, 78-83; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 17-19.
24. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 289; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 9-10; Burr, "Historical Sketch," pp. 39-40; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 76-83; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 19-20.
25. Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 20-21; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 83-84, 88, 91-93, 96, 102.
26. Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 88, 94-96, 102-10, 115-16; Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 290; Schubert, The Nation Builders, p. 23.
27. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," pp. 289-90; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 27-28.
28. Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 111-42; Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 348; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 23-26.
29. Quoted from Burr, "Historical Sketch," p. 40; Schubert, The Nation Builders, p. 24. Yearly rosters may be found in the Official Army Register. For a roster of the officers of the corps from its original complement upon formation in 1838 and changes prior to the Civil War, see Beers, "A History of the Topographical Engineers," p. 291; or Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 435-37.
30. Beers, "History of the Topographical Engineers," pp. 348-49, 351; Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, pp. 143, 146, 148-49; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 11-12; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 55-56; see also W. Turrentine Jackson, Wagon Road West: A Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1846-1869 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1965).
31. Schubert, The Nation Builders, p. 57.
32. Unless otherwise indicated the following paragraphs are based on Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 109-11.
33. For a discussion of this phrase see Ray A. Billington, The Far Western Frontier, 1830-1860 (New York: Harper and Row, 1950), pp. 148-50.
34. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 4-6, 17-21, and 429; Schubert, The Nation Builders, pp. 54; 56-57.
35. Stephen W. Kearny, "Report of a Summer Campaign to the Rocky Mountains . . . in 1845," Sen. Exec. Doc. 1. 29th Cong., 1st sess., 1846, p. 210; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 111-12. This report contains a map and abstract of the journal of the accompanying Topographical Engineer, Lieutenant William B. Franklin. Franklin's journal has also been reprinted. See Frank N. Schubert (ed.), March to South Pass: Lieutenant William B. Franklin's, journal of the Kearny Expedition of 1845, 1, Engineer Historical Studies (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1979).
36. National Archives, Record Group 77, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers. Letters Received by the Topographical Bureau (hereafter cited as RG 77, Records of the OCE, LR, TE 77), Franklin to Abert, 5 Nov. 1845, LR 150, TE 77. This letter contained Franklin's full report, which was abstracted for inclusion in Kearny's report.
37. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 113-15.
38. Ibid., pp. 115-16; Franklin to Abert, 5 Nov. 1845, LR 150, TE 77; Carl 1. Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, 1540-1861, II (San Francisco: The Institute of Historical Cartography, 1958) , pp. 191-92. A reproduction of this map is opposite page 192.
39. Ryan, Topographical Bureau Administrative History, p. 147.
40. Ibid., pp. 150-51. Several of the reports cited in this publication have copies filed in the Topographical Bureau and are housed in the National Archives.
41. George L. Rives, The United States and Mexico, 1921-48, II (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), p.195.
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