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was the Chief Engineer with those of all under charge of 
the Engineer Bureau. Besides attending to the routine 
duties of his office at Washington, he found time to design 
plans for new works, as well as for alterations or enlarge- 
ment of old ones. An admirable draughtsman, executing 
-his work with a delicacy and finish that defied competition 
on the part of his subordinates, he would be usually found, 
if visited at his office, engaged at his drawing-table. In- 
deed, if he had a fault as Chief Engineer, it was the habit 
of doing everything himself. It was contemplated by the 
Regulations that all plans of fortifications should be made by 
4 Board of Engineers, and General Totten, in one of his 
reports, alludes to the fact that this has not always been the 
case in these words: “In rare cases it has happened that 
plans have been made under the particular direction of the 
‘Chief Engineer, owing to the difficulty, at moments, of draw- 
ing the widely dispersed members of the board from their 
individual trusts.” It may be said too, in justice to him, 
that when he assumed the control of the bureau, it was almost 
indispensable to take much upon himself, in the direction 
ut the repairs and prosecution of many of the works, owing 
to the great pressure thrown upon the corps by the circum- 
stances of the period, and the want of a sufficient number of 
experienced officers. . 
The excitement produced by the anticipation of war with 
England was followed by an actual war with a weak neigh- 
bor, — a war inaugurated by the same influences which, in 
& more potent form, produced the Rebellion, or rather of 
which the Rebellion was but the legitimate and natural se- 
quel. Called on by General Scott, who reposed in his pro- 
fessional ckill the most unbounded confidence, Colonel Totten 
assumed, in 1847, the immediate control of the engineering 
Operations of the army destined to invade the Mexican capi- 
