United States Army Corps of Engineers

“ At Cerro Gordo, when I could furnish ten men [for details] , fifty, at least, were necessary. In the operations in this valley, the same necessity has been felt for a larger number of soldiers of this character. There ought to be more companies of engineer soldiers in this army. Certainly, measures should be taken to complete the number of men allowed in the only company now authorized. I know of none so likely to succeed as sending an officer and non-commissioned officers [to the United States] on this duty". ”

“ Not only are the duties of the military engineer similar in many respects to those of the civil engineer, but there are many instances in which the duties of one branch of the profession have been performed by members of the other branch, quite as efficiently as though they had been performed by engineers specially educated for the purpose. During the late civil war there were many illustrations of this, all showing that an ingenious engineer can readily adapt himself to circumstances entirely different from those to which he has been accustomed. ”

“ The coming of the formally trained technologist or scientist of industry lagged somewhat behind the development of the industrial revolution. This was particularly true in America. Originally all attention was centered on the training of so-called civil engineers, i.e., canal, bridge, road, dam and building designers and constructors. The rapid rise of the mechanical arts after the Civil War focused attention on the training of engineers expert in manufacturing. To-day the mechanical and electrical engineers are more numerous than any other group and have far outstripped the civil engineers. ”

“ Thurston,” Hazelton broke in. “We want work, and when we get it we’ll do it.”
“I hope your work will be as good as your assurance,” replied the chief engineer, with a slight twinkle in his eyes. “What can you do?”
“We know how to do ordinary surveying, sir,” Tom replied quickly. “We can run our courses and supervise the chaining. We know how to bring in field notes that are of some use. We can do our work well within the limits of error allowed by the United States Government. We also consider ourselves competent at leveling. ”

“ The operations are being carried on by the Reclamation Service, a corps of engineers selected through competitive civil-service examinations. This corps includes experienced consulting and constructing engineers as well as various experts in mechanical and legal matters, and is composed largely of men who have spent most of their lives in practical affairs connected with irrigation. The larger problems have been solved and it now remains to execute with care, economy, and thoroughness the work which has been laid out. ”

“ The original function of the engineer, especially in the first days of his systematic training, was to deal scientifically with purely mechanical problems. Thus the oft quoted definition of the British Institution of Civil Engineers that “Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man” reveals quite clearly the legitimate field within which the engineer was supposed to operate. He was to harness the untamed energies of nature. ”

“ The corps of engineers known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced, and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing throughout the arid States and Territories, plans for reclaiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the Secretary of the Interior. ”

“ Under such regulations as the Chief of Engineers may prescribe a proportion of the students, as named by the school faculty, pursuing an engineering course in one of the approved technical engineering schools listed in the War Department, may enlist in the Enlisted Reserve Corps of the Engineer Department, and thereafter, upon presentation by the registrant to his local board of a certificate of enlistment, such certificate shall be filed with the questionnaire and the registrant shall be
placed in class V on the ground that he is in the military service of the United States. ”

“ The assignments of the few military engineers, who joined the Southern army at the commencement of the war, to duty with troops, has been a serious drawback to the engineer service, which has therefore been performed in a great measure by civil engineers, who have been appointed from time to time in the corps. ”

“ The work of throwing up batteries, digging trenches, and making covered communications with them, was commenced on the night of the 18th by large working parties detailed from the line. After that time, the officers of the engineer company, including myself, were placed on general engineer service—supervising the construction of the siege works. All the engineer officers then with the army, except the Chief, were in regular turn detailed for that duty; each having some of the men of the engineer company to assist him. ”

“ By the last advices that I have received I learn that only six engineer recruits have been made in the United States since September, 1846. During that time the effective strength of the company in the field has been reduced from seventy-one to thirty-six. Something must be done. I have endeavored to reenlist good men whose terms of enlistment in other corps had expired; I have tried to get transfers of good men, and succeeded in obtaining but one. ”

“ We have discussed among ourselves the ethics of the use of the bomb. Some consider it in the same category as poison gas and were against its use on a civil population. Others were of the view that in total war, as carried on in Japan, there was no difference between civilians and soldiers, and that the bomb itself was an effective force tending to end the bloodshed, warning Japan to surrender and thus to avoid total destruction. It seems logical to me that he who supports total war in principle cannot complain of war against civilians. ”

“ I earnestly recommend that four officers of engineers be assigned to duty with this company. The commander should be an officer of rank; his position permanent. In case the Chief Engineer should order an officer into the field to take command of Company A, engineers, I respectfully request that I may be ordered to the United States as soon as relieved from this duty". ”

“ During the nearly thirty years that he was director of the royal engineer establishment at Chatham there was hardly any subject in connection with his profession as a military man and an engineer that did not benefit by his attention. He formed the school for the royal engineers and for the army, and the corps of royal engineers owes its high state of efficiency in no small degree to his energy and exertions. ”

“ But a single member of that committee on the part of the House was from the West. All the other persons reside on the waters that flow into the Atlantic Ocean, or near to it.
Now, sir, I am not dwelling here upon the difference as to the ability of the engineers in civil life or in the military department of the Government; but it is not saying much to say that the civilians have exhibited an amount of engineering skill, to say the least, equal to the Army; and indeed they have exhibited more ability in the accomplishment of great works of improvement in every portion of this country. ”

“ In the United States navy, a corps made up of the engineers, which was amalgamated with the line by act of March 3, 1899. It consisted of assistant and passed assistant engineers, ranking with ensigns and lieutenants, chief engineers, ranking from lieutenant to captain, and engineer in chief, ranking with commodore and having charge of the Bureau of Steam Engineering.
En"gine-type` gen"er*a`tor. (Elec.) A generator having its revolving part carried on the shaft of the driving engine. ”

“ Hardly one in ten of them ever reach it. Daniel Webster's remark to the young lawyer, that "there is always room at the top," will not apply to the Corps of Engineers. The officers are all graduates of the Military Academy, which institution continued as a part of the Corps of Engineers until 1866. ”

“ Their officers advised them not to care for this epithet but, "take it easy, continue to endeavor to become model infantry, and engraft on that a fair knowledge of the duties of the engineer soldier". They were assured that "for heavy work", details would have to be made from the line of the army; and these details would, for the time, constitute the real "pick and shovel brigade" under the control of engineer officers, assisted by trained engineer soldiers. When the time came for close fighting the engineer company would be at the front. ”

“ In each country where cooperative work has been conducted, a Bureau engineer has been placed in charge as resident engineer. All other positions have been filled with local engineers, most of whom have been trained in the United States. It has been the policy to aid each country in developing its own highway engineers capable of carrying on future highway programs according to the most modern standards. ”

“ About 80,000 of these are women, largely telephone operators; 50,000 are linemen, installers, cable splicers, and the like, engaged in the building and maintaining of the continental plant. There are thousands of other employees in the accounting, legal, commercial and other departments. There are 2,100 engineers located in different parts of the country. The majority of these engineers have received technical training in American technical schools, colleges, and universities. ”

“ In the meantime he had, however, succeeded in persuading the Government at Washington to send—by permission of the Government of France—a selected Captain of the U. S. Engineer Corps to the French School of engineer officers at Metz; for the purpose of having in the U. S. Army, an officer qualified to instruct and command a company of engineer soldiers in case Congress could be induced to authorize the enlistment of such a company. ”

“ Then coal has to be brought from the bunkers to the furnaces, tons of it per day, and if the ship rolls too much for the barrows to be used, the fuel must be carried in baskets.
There is an engineer in charge of each stoke hole, and two on the platform in each engine room; as a rule, the staff are on duty in turns—four hours out of every twelve. But if the weather be bad they may have harder times.
No matter how hot the machinery becomes, the engineers must not reduce speed, except it be to prevent disaster. ”

“ The Chief Engineer is assisted by the Assistant Chief Engineer, who considers and reports upon all engineering questions submitted for final action. The Assistant Chief Engineers have charge of the designs of the locks, dams, and spillways, and the supervision of these particular parts of the work. There is also attached to the Chief Engineer an assistant who looks after mechanical forces on the Isthmus, and has supervision over the22 machine shops, the cost-keeping branch of the work, the apportionment of appropriations, and the preparation of the estimates. ”

“ The profession is crowded with men who have worked up from equally humble beginnings. Indeed, one of the foremost efficiency engineers in the country to-day began as an apprentice in a foundry, while another, fully as well known in efficiency work, began life in the United States navy as a machinist's mate. Automobile engineers, whose names, many of them, are household words, in particular have gone big in the profession and from very obscure beginnings. ”

“ The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good that might result? ”

“ The Chief Engineer will detail such Assistant Engineers and men as may be needed to take charge of steam-pumps, to lead out hose, and to use such other means of extinguishing the fire as may be ordered or deemed advisable. ”

“ Native corps of sappers or pioneers were formed later, and officered principally by engineers. The officers of engineers were employed in peacetime on the public works of the country, their services when required being placed at the disposal of the military authorities. The Indian Engineers have not only distinguished themselves in the operations of war, but have left monuments of engineering skill in the irrigation works, railways, surveys, roads, bridges, public buildings and defences of the country. ”

“ The theology student goes in front to warn us of the numerous wires, beams and fragments of ruins which block the way and which are impossible to see in the dark. Despite all precautions, our progress is stumbling and our feet get tangled in the wire. Father Kruer falls and carries the litter with him. Father Schiffer becomes half unconscious from the fall and vomits. We pass an injured man who sits all alone among the hot ruins and whom I had seen previously on the way down.
On the Misasa Bridge, we meet Father Tappe and Father Luhmer, who have come to meet us from Nagatsuke. ”

“ Apart from the emphasis on efficiency and expertness in all departments of the government which gives the whole message a certain scientific coloring, there are several recommendations that are directly concerned with science and its applications. Three great engineering works are urged—the Isthmian Canal, the Pacific Cable and Irrigation. These enterprises are directly dependent on applied science, and their accomplishment, under the direction of American engineers, will give new opportunities for scientific progress. ”