304 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



was graduated in 1805, receiving the commission of Second Lieutenant 

 of Engineers on the first of July of that year. 



He soon resigned from the Corps of Engineei's to take the position 

 of Assistant to his uncle, Professor Jared Mansfield, who was then 

 Surveyor-General, and had in charge the first systematic survey of the 

 Northwestern Territory, which at that period included the present State 

 of Ohio. The impress of young Totten's military education, however, 

 remained. He returned to the Corps in February, 1808, and during 

 the ensuing war with Great Britain went through a distinguished 

 career. He was Chief Engineer under Major-General Macomb, in the 

 campaign of 1814, on the northern frontier of New York ; and he won 

 the brevet of Major, September 11, 1814, "for gallant conduct at 

 the battle of Plattsburg," In September, 1824, he was brevetted 

 Colonel ; in 1838, he was commissioned. As Chief Engineer he accom- 

 panied Major-General Scott to Mexico, and was brevetted Brigadiei*- 

 General, on the 29th of March, 1847, " for gallant and meritorious 

 conduct" at the siege of Vera Cruz. Just before his death, the Presi- 

 dent of the United States nominated him to the Senate as a Major- 

 General, and that body immediately confirmed the nomination. 



Thus General Totten's whole life, from his sixteenth year to the sev- 

 enty-sixth, was chiefly devoted to the Engineer service of the United 

 States. " In that period, and especially in the last few years of his 

 life, he made many experiments in the leading elements of his profes- 

 sion ; amongst others, on the penetrability of walls by the force of can- 

 non-shot, bi'inging engineers back to consider the use of a well-known 

 fact, namely, that earthen profiles were more sure and more lasting 

 resisters of heavy projectiles than masonry." 



Among his excursions from the domain of military engineering were 

 the examinations of the growth of the sandy coast-line of the Southern 

 States of the Union on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico ; the use of 

 jettees to control the growth of the coast ; the complex changes of 

 harbors and shores ; the preservation of islands, of river shores, of 

 wharves, etc., from encroachment, as at Portland, Boston, New York, 

 Cape Fear Entrance, Charleston, Fernandina, Pensacola, and Mobile. 

 For these labors, executed without remuneration, he received the 

 thanks of the Legislature of New York, of the City Councils of Port- 

 land and Boston, and of the Board of Trade of New York. 



Next to his own profession and to the studies incident to it, his 

 attention was most attracted to natural history, and especially to 



