280 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 



from time to time made the necessary appropriations.* To this duty he usually 

 devoted the winter months, during which all construction on Fort Adams was 

 suspended. In the execution of his designs he was usually assisted by young 

 officers of the corps, who found therein a practical application of the theoretical 

 knowledge acquired at West Point instructive and useful. 



The works of harbor improvement on the seaboard and on the lakes wer.: 

 likewise under the control and direction of the Engineer Bureau ; and Colonel 

 Ti.tten, though not directly engnged therein, was not infrequently called on to 

 inspect and advise concerning them. Most of these, and especially those of the 

 lake shores, afforded curious and interesting problems in this branch of civil 

 engineering, and his reports and notes on these subjects, yet extant, are addi- 

 tional proofs of the wide range of his professional knoAvledge and of his powers 

 of accurate observation and of skilful deduction from the phenomena of na- 

 ture. 



Colonel Totten wa3 appointed colonel of the corps of engineers and Chief 

 Engineer December 7, 1838. At this time the construction of Fort Adams 

 was so far advanced towards completion as to need no longer his personal super- 

 vision, and the city of Washington became thenceforth his home and the seat cf 

 his official duties. Identified, as we have seen, with the origin and growth of 

 the great system of sea-coast defence of the United States, it was eminently 

 proper that he should become the head of that bureau of the War Department 

 to which its execution was committed, and no one could be more eminently fitted 

 for that important station. 



At the date of his appointment the system of coast defence had been for about 

 twenty years in progress of construction, and during that period most of those 

 ports and harbors of the United States deemed most important to ourselves or 

 most assailable by a naval foe had been, at least, partially fortified. At many 

 such points, indeed, no new work had been as yet constructed, owing to the 

 existence of forts or batteries more or less adequate built before or during the 

 war of 1812. These works, where possible, were absorbed into the new sys- 

 tem with some repairs and alterations. Among such points may be mentioned 

 the harbors of Portland, Portsmouth, New London, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 and Charleston. New and powerful works had, however, been built or far 

 advanced to completion, for the defence of Boston, Newport, New York, Hamp- 

 Lon Roads, the Savannah river, Peusacola, Mobile, and New Orleans. But 

 the strictures on the system, to which we have before made reference, proceed- 

 ing from such an authority as the Secretary of War and sanctioned by the 

 President, had not failed to shake the confidence of Congress and of the people. 

 For several years the annual appropriations had been wholly denied or made 

 so inadequately that the work had languished and at some points had been 

 wholly suspended. But however much opposition may grow up in time of pro- 

 found peace, no sooner is there a probability of seeing a foe at our doors than 

 all eyes are turned to these protecting works, and the most urgent demands are 

 made that our seaport towns shall be speedily put " in a state of defence." 

 Such an impulse was given by the Maine boundary and McLeod questions, 

 soon after the advent of Colonel Totten to the Chief Engineership. In fulfill- 

 ing the urgent duty which thus devolved upon him, he did not content himself 

 with the mere issuing of orders fc-om his office at Washington. He made it his 

 business to inspect personally the works, and in less than two years, besides 



* By the Regulations, the local engineer officer, upon whom the construction of the pro- 

 posed work was to devolve, was ex officio a member of the board. This brought together 

 dining the winter months engineer officers from various parts of the country — from the 

 shoves of the Gulf, from the seaboard of North and South Carolina and Georgia, as welJ as 

 from nearer points, and added not a little to the charm of the professional and social Jif«» of 

 the young engineer officers at Newport. 



