MAIIAN, DENNIS H. 



MAINE. 



479 



of his class, and early in the second year of 

 his course he received the unusual honor of 

 being appointed Acting-Assistant Professor 

 of Mathematics, which imposed upon him 

 double study, but laid the foundation of his 

 future eminence. He graduated, July 1, 1824, 

 at the head of his class, and was immediately 

 appointed second-lieutenant of the Corps of 

 Engineers. He was assigned to duty in August 

 following as Assistant-Professor of Mathemat- 

 ics, and in August, 1825, promoted to be Prin- 

 cipal-Assistant Professor of Engineering, and 

 a year later sent by the War Department to 

 Europe to study military engineering in the 

 best military and engineering schools of the 

 Continent. He remained in Europe four years, 

 and during fourteen or fifteen months of the 

 time was a pupil of the celebrated Poncelet, 

 at the Military School of Engineers and Artil- 

 lerists at Metz, France, then regarded as the 

 best engineering school in the world. On his 

 return he resumed his position in the Military 

 Academy as Acting-Professor of Engineering, 

 and on the 1st of January, 1832, was appointed 

 Professor of Military Engineering, a position 

 which he held till his death. Few men have 

 been more earnestly devoted to the advance- 

 ment of their profession than was Prof. Ma- 

 han. An indefatigable student, he kept fully 

 up to the times in all the improvements which 

 were making in his department; he was an 

 admirable teacher, and, though at times a sin- 

 gularly sensitive and nervous temperament 

 made him momentarily irritable, there was no 

 malice in his heart, and even those who had 

 oftenest experienced his censures, left the 

 Academy with a feeling of love and attachment 

 for the sharp-tongued professor whose faults 

 sprung from his intense love for, and pride in, 

 the Academy which he had done so much to 

 elevate in the public esteem. Wielding a vig- 

 orous pen, he was always the first man to 

 come to the defence of the Academy when its 

 good name was assailed either in Congress or 

 elsewhere, and woe to the assailant when 

 Mahan came to the rescue! He was well 

 known as an author of several valuable works, 

 but they all concerned directly or indirectly his 

 department of the profession. As early as 1836 

 lie published his " Treatise on Field Fortifica- 

 tions," which was for thirty years the text-book 

 not only of the Academy, but of all military 

 schools in the United States, and in 1865, be- 

 ing partly rewritten and greatly improved 

 with additions on military mining and siege 

 operations, was made Part I. of an "Element- 

 ary Course of Military Engineering." His 

 "Elements of Permanent Fortifications," pub- 

 lished in 1867, is now Part II. of the element- 

 ary course above named. His "Elementary 

 Course of Civil Engineering," first published 

 in 1837, had been repeatedly improved, and in 

 1868 was almost wholly rewritten. It has 

 sold very largely, and is the standard text- 

 book of all civil engineers in this country. 

 His "Elementary Treatise on Advanced Guard, 



Outpost, and Detachment Service of Troops," 

 first published in 1847. was so much improved 

 in 1862 that it might with propriety have been 

 called an "Elementary Treatise on the Art of 

 War." Both this and the treatise on Field 

 Fortifications were reprinted at the South dur- 

 ing the late war (not by Prof. Mahan's consent, 

 nor for his pecuniary profit, as may well be 

 imagined), so indispensable were they to the 

 officers of the Southern armies. In 1853 he 

 published "Industrial Drawing," an admirable 

 little treatise, which is highly prized by all 

 teachers of drawing. In 1856 he revised and 

 edited, with a valuable appendix, Moseley's 

 great work on the " Mechanical Principles of 

 Engineering and Architecture." In 1865 he 

 published a "Treatise on Fortification Draw- 

 ing and Stereotomy," the last of his text-books, 

 though he had subsequently very carefully re- 

 vised some of the others. While in Europe, 

 in 1828, he was elected a member of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of France; and he was a 

 member of most of the scientific societies of the 

 United States, as well as of several foreign ones. 

 He was one of the corporate members of the 

 National Academy of Sciences ; had received 

 the honorary degree of A. M. from Brown 

 University and Princeton College in 1837, 

 and that of LL. D. from William and Mary, 

 from Brown, and from Dartmouth. The in- 

 sanity which led to his unhappy death was the 

 result of chagrin and mental distress on learn- 

 ing that the Board of Visitors had recom- 

 mended that he should be placed on the re- 

 tired list, with the full rank of brigadier- 

 general. 



MAINE. The fifteenth annual session of 

 the Legislature of the State began on the 4th 

 of January, and continued until the 27th of 

 February. In that time two hundred and 

 sixty-five acts and eighty -nine joint resolutions 

 were passed, but nearly all of them were of 

 local importance. Several railroad companies 

 were incorporated, and some of the old ones 

 authorized to extend their lines, but a general 

 railroad law which had been prepared with 

 considerable care was defeated by a tie-vote 

 in the Senate. Among acts relating to rail- 

 roads which were passed, was one requiring 

 the roads to be fenced ; one authorizing the 

 companies to build branch-tracks to mills or 

 manufacturing establishments in any of the 

 towns through which they passed ; one pro 

 hibiting railroad companies from restricting 

 the buyer of a ticket to any given train, and 

 declaring that he should have the right to 

 travel on any train on the road, and to stop 

 over at any station, the ticket being good for 

 six years from the time of its purchase; and 

 one providing means for compelling railroad 

 companies to erect freight and passenger de- 

 pots in towns along their lines where such ac 

 commodations were needed. An act was also 

 passed, fixing the liablity of stockholders in 

 all corporations, and making them responsi- 

 ble for their just proportion of all debts of the 



