EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 279 



Lis attention, and of which he has not left some record. The thickness of sus- 

 taining walls, the thrust of arches, among the more important, and the composi- 

 tion of stuccoes, of paints, lackers, washes for stone or brick work, among the 

 less so, may here be mentioned. 



Perhaps no period of his life is so interesting and so affectionately remem- 

 bered by his professional associates. Indeed, a large proportion of the young 

 officers of the corps of those days passed a portion of their time under his com- 

 mand, and acquired their first professional experience in the performance of 

 duties under his eye and direction. The disposition to cultivate science, phys- 

 ical and natural, led him to original researches, while his influence stimulated 

 and led to improvement the educated young men who from time to time came 

 into his military family. Fond of exercise, bodily and mental, he sought in 

 natural history, as in geology, mineralogy, and conchology, objects for the 

 long walks and drives conducive to health, while the arrangement of the speci- 

 mens, their care and classification, and the study of the habits of the animals 

 which occupied the shells, gave scope to his wonderful powers of observation. 

 Instead of finding his young officers a trouble, he was fond of their companion- 

 ship, suggesting modes and objects of experiment, and encouraging them to do 

 so likewise, thus cultivating originality of thought. His laboratory was at 

 their service, and his companionship and example at their disposal. After a 

 day's labor he retired to this laboratory, glad to have with him such of the young 

 companions of the day as desired to join him. The honored president of this 

 Academy can recollect, year after year, the computations, under Colonel Totten's 

 direction, of the thickness of revetments, the analysis of minerals collected in 

 the field, classifications of shells gathered in days' walks on the seashore, dis- 

 cussions of the curious structure of geological specimens in the neighborhood of 

 Newport, and of the curious mineralogical specimens of the upper potfion of 

 Hhode Island, which he encouraged them to find. So upon the fort itself, the 

 various researches which I have described were marked out for successive ex- 

 perimenting, with a generosity to his assistants which almost persuaded them 

 that they were original with them. The determination of the measures used in 

 laying out the fort, and the practical apparatus employed in the measurements, 

 received his careful study. The practical character of these works impressed 

 themselves upon the minds of the young officers, and furnished the fitting com- 

 plement to the theoretical training received at West Point. 



Not least pleasant among the memories of this period of Colonel Totten's life, 

 to those who had the good fortune to be associated with him, is the recollection 

 of the social enjoyments of his house. Married in 1816 to Catlyna Pearson, of 

 Albany, he was surrounded by a young family, among whom his happiest 

 moments were spent, and to Avhom he was everything that such a relation can 

 imply. None could be happier in his social intercourse. Genial and eminently 

 hospitable, he cultivated as a duty those smaller amenities of society by which 

 the cares of life are lightened and its joys augmented. His house was the 

 home of his friends, and was seldom without some one of them. Though dig- 

 nified and courteously reserved in his intercourse with the external world, few 

 more highly enjoyed real humor, or could with more true bonkommie give them- 

 selves up to the gayety of the moment. In his relations to his young officers he 

 was kind and affable, encouraging freedom of expression, and inviting inquiry 

 in everything that related to professional matters, while there was always that 

 in his manner which inspired the most profound respect and forbade undue lev- 

 ity of conduct in his presence. 



Before quitting the scene of so important a portion of Colonel Totten's official 

 labors, it is proper to remark that, in addition to the duties of his particular 

 charge, he, as a member and for the last six years president of the board of 

 •engineers, was engaged in the planning of the new works for which Congress 



