578 



OBITUAKIES, AMERICAN. (TROTTER TROWBRIDGE.) 



in 1848, was a delegate to the General Conference of 

 liis Church several times, served in the State Senate 

 two years, and after his resignation was financial 

 agent and professor emeritus of Maine Wesleyan 

 Seminary. 



Trotter, Frederick E., military officer, born in Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y., April 25, 1838: died in Tacoma, Wash., 

 June 27, 1892. He was graduated at Trinity College, 

 Hartford; enlisted as a private soldier in the 7th 

 Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., April 26, 1861 ; entered the 

 national army as captain in the 102d New York In- 

 fantry, Dec. 18 following ; was promoted major, July 

 16, 1862; mustered out of volunteer service, March 18, 

 1863; commissioned captain in the United States Vet- 

 eran Reserve Corps, June 18, 1863 ; promoted major, 

 Oct. 15 following, and lieutenant-colonel, March 30, 

 1864 ;brevetted brigadier-general of Volunteers, March 

 13, 1865; and was mustered out of the service, Oct. 

 11, 1866. In the regular army he was commissioned 

 captain 45th United States Infantry, July 28, 1866 ; 

 transferred to 14th Infantry, July 22, 1869: and bre- 

 vetted major and lieutenant-colonel, March 2, 1867, 

 for faithful and meritorious services during the war. 

 He was engaged in the defense of Washington, and 

 was in the actions at Bolivar, Maryland Heights, 

 Cedar mountain, where he was wounded, and in those 

 of Gen. Banks's Shcnandoah valley campaign; was 

 connected with the Frecdmen's Bureau, with head- 

 quarters at Chattanooga, Tenn., where he had charge of 

 the work in 32 counties ; and at the time of his death 

 was stationed at Vancouver Barracks, Wash., but was 

 attending the encampment of the State militia at Ta- 

 coma. 



Trowbridge, William Petit, engineer, born near Bir- 

 mingham, Oakland County, Mich., May 25, 1828; 

 died in New Haven, Conn., Aug. 12, 1892. He was 

 graduated at the United States Military Academy in 

 1848, standing first in his class, and entered the army 



as 2d lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. During 

 the last >ear of his course at the academy he served 

 as assistant Professor of Chemistry, as the war with 

 Mexico had compelled the field services of the avail- 

 able graduates, and on entering the army he was 

 ordered back to West Point as assistant in the Astro- 

 nomical Observatory under Prof. William II. C. Bart- 

 lett, remaining there for two years. In 1851 he en- 

 tered the service of the United States Coast Survey, 

 and was assigned to duty o/er the primary triangula- 

 tion of the coast of Maine under Alexander D. Bache, 

 succeeding in 1852 to the immediate charge of this 

 work. Later he executed surveys of Appomattox 

 river, hi Virginia, below Petersburg, with a view to 

 the improvement of its navigation, and also similar 

 surveys of James river near Richmond. At this time 



he surveyed the Dutch Gap and recommended the 

 "cut off" or canal, which was subsequently con- 

 structed, shortening the distance for vessels by seven 

 miles. In 1853 he was sent to the Pacific coast, 

 where during the subsequent three years he conducted 

 a series of tidal and magnetic observations from San 

 Diego to Puget Sound, a distance of over 1,300 miles. 

 He oecame 1st lieutenant on Dec. 18, 1854, and re- 

 signed from the army on Dec. 1, 1856, to accept the 

 professorship of Mathematics in the University of 

 Michigan in Ann Arbor. A year later, at the solicita- 

 tion of Superintendent Bache, he accepted the per- 

 manent appointment of assistant on the United States 

 Coast Survey, and was assigned to the preparation for 

 publication of the results of the Gulf Stream explora- 

 tion. In 1860 he was sent to Key West to superin- 

 tend the erection of a permanent self-registering 

 magnetic observatory, the first in the United States. 

 At the breaking out of the civil war he was called to 

 the service of the engineers, and during 1861 was as- 

 signed the duty of preparing minute descriptions 

 of the harbors, inlets, and rivers of the Southern coast 

 from Delaware Bay to Galveston. In 1862 he was 

 ordered to make a nydrographic survey of Narragan- 

 sett Bay, R. I., in order to determine its availability 

 for a navy yard. The results showed that it was un- 

 suited to that purpose. Thereafter he was placed in 

 charge of the branch office of the War Department in 

 New York city, where his duties included the supply 

 of material for use in the field, involving a respon- 

 sibility to contractors aggregating several million 

 dollars. He also had charge of the construction of 

 local fortifications, including the fort at WillettV 

 Point, that on Governor's Island, and the repairs of 

 Fort Schuyler. Of the difficulties of the undertaking 

 at Willett's Point, Gen. Henry L. Abbot has written: 

 " By special devices showing much skill and ingenu- 

 ity, Prof. Trowbridge overcame these difficulties, and 

 not only made astonishing progress with the work, 

 but left it one of the finest specimens of granite 

 masonry to be seen in any of our fortifications." In 

 1865 he became Vice-President of the Novelty Iron 

 Works in New York city with direction of their shops, 

 where he remained for four years. He was then 

 called to the professorship of Dynamical Engineering 

 in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, 

 which chair he held until May, 1877. During these 

 six years he was active in the development of this new 

 department, and also in the planning and construction 

 of the new Sheffield Hall, in which the engineering 

 instruction was given. Prof. Trowbridge was then 

 called to the charge of the engineering department in 

 the Columbia College School of Mines. This depart- 

 ment was at that time in a somewhat chaotic condi- 

 tion and he at once began its reorganization. Courses 

 in thermo-dynamics, dynamics of machinery, and 

 water-supply engineering were successively added, 

 while the existing courses in hydraulics, braced struc- 

 tures, motors and machines, were developed, sub- 

 divided, and extended. Later, courses in sanitary en- 

 gineering and electrical engineering were added to 

 the department. Other plans tending to increase the 

 efficiency of the instruction in engineering were sub- 

 mitted to the trustees, but were held in abeyance un- 

 til greater facilities could be afforded. While in New 

 Haven, Prof. Trowbridge held various State offices. 



ing the Capitol at Hartford, while during 1870-'76 he 

 was a commissioner for building a bridge across the 

 Quinnipiac river, and during 1872-'78 commissioner 

 for establishing harbor lines in New Haven Bay. Sub- 

 sequently he was commissioned to examine the State 

 Capitol in Albany, N. Y. Special recognition is ^his 

 due for his design of the first cantilever bridge. This 

 system he recommended for the spanning of the East 

 river, and in 1869 a company was organized, but the 

 novelty of the plan and the financial crisis of 1873 de- 

 prived him of the honor of constructing the first canti- 

 lever bridge. In 1880 Prof. Trowbridge was called 



