CYRUS BALLOU COMSTOCK. 799 



CYRUS BALLOU COMSTOCK (1831-1910) 



Fellow in Class I, Section 4, 1S92. 



General Cyrus Ballon Comstock was born in West ^^'rontham, 

 Massachusetts, February 3, 1831, and represented the ninth generation 

 of an old Xew England family, which came from Devonshire, England. 

 His ancestors lived in Xew London, and the earliest of them in this 

 country fought in the Pequot war, taking part in the expedition which 

 captured the fort at Mystic in 1637. Later generations of the family 

 lived in Rhode Island and in Massachusetts. The General's great- 

 grandfather was a Quaker, and took no active part in the Revolution, 

 but was a member of the Massachusetts convention which ratified the 

 Constitution of the United States, February 7, 1788, and was also a 

 member of the General Court of ^Massachusetts in 1789. 



General Comstock was educated in the local public schools and at a 

 private academy. His interest in engineering arose from his happen- 

 ing to see the operations and instruments of a party making a railroad 

 survey, and also of a coast survey party. The General began his 

 professional work as a rodman and leveler on the Providence & \Yorces- 

 ter Railroad, but in 1851 was nominated as a candidate to ^Yest Point, 

 and was graduated with first honors in 1855. He served through all 

 grades in the Corps of Engineers to that of Colonel, and was retired 

 from active service by operation of law in 1895. He was promoted to 

 the grade of Brigadier General on the retired list in 1904. 



General Comstock, after serving on the construction of fortifications 

 before the Civil \Yar, and as Professor of Natural Philosophy at ^Yest 

 Point from 1859 to 1861, was, during the Civil ^Yar, engaged in the 

 construction of the defences of Washington, and in service on the 

 engineering staff of the Army of the Potomac, of which he was Chief 

 Engineer. He was present, under General Grant, at the siege of 

 Yicksburg, and in 1864 was appointed Aide-de-camp to General Grant, 

 being engaged in a number of the most sanguinary battles of the war. 

 During the war he received rapid promotion, and attained the rank of 

 Major in the Corps of Engineers, and Brevet Brigadier General. 



General Comstock's principal work after the war was in the conduct 

 of the geodetic survey of the Great Lakes, which had been inaugurated 

 in 1841. This work was conducted with all the precision necessary to 



