296 ♦ Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Leaving this country in Nov., 1828, directly after being joined by 

 Whistler, they returned in May, 1829. In the course of the following 

 twelvemonth, the organization of the road (a part of which had al- 

 ready been constructed under the immediate personal superintendence 

 of W.) assumed a more permanent form; this allowed of the trans- 

 fer of the Military Engineers to other undertakings in a more inchoate 

 state, where similarly beneficial services could be rendered with those 

 that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had already enjoyed. 



Accordingly in June, 1830, Capt. McNeill and Lt. Whistler (he had, 

 in 1829, been promoted) were detailed to the Baltimore and Susque- 

 hanna Railroad; for which they made the preliminary surveys and de- 

 finitive location. It is perhaps, at least in a financial aspect, to be re- 

 gretted that their advice was not followed in the general direction to 

 be given to the line. Instead of its penetrating northward to drain the 

 freights of the Upper Susquehanna, it would have been carried more 

 eastwardly to intercept those freights at or near the mouth of that riv- 

 er, and to attract besides the passenger travel from Philadelphia, the 

 distance between which and Baltimore it would so materially have 

 shortened. In point of fact, it would have anticipated the realization, 

 consummated not till nine years afterwards, of the present Baltimore 

 and Fort Deposit railroad ; and would have stimulated, at the most 

 favorable period, the normal development of these constructions as 

 thoroughfares of travel more than channels of trade. 



However, these topics need not be discussed here. They are only 

 referred to at all as an early manifestation of that prompt sagacity to 

 which it may be presumed Whistler contributed his proper share; for 

 since their connection in 1828, these two subsequently so distinguished 

 engineers appear identified by an intimacy, if possible, more than fra- 

 ternal. 



In the latter part of 1831, Whistler went to reside in New Jersey 

 in furtherance of the Paterson and Hudson railroad; a work then 

 recently commenced : and from his various residences in that state, at 

 Paterson, at Aquachnonk and at Belleville, he attended to the construc- 

 tion of this and the Boston and Lowell railroad — both in progress at 

 the same time. 



In 1833, he resigned his commission in the Army of the United 

 States; not so much from choice as from a sense of duty. And at 

 this epoch and possibly from this event, there seems to have been a 

 turning-point In his character. Hitherto, his pursuits as an Engineer 

 appear to have been more in the aspect of an employment than of a 

 vocation ; he prosecuted his undertakings diligently, to be sure, as it 

 was his nature to do, but without much anxiety or enthusiasm ; and he 

 was satisfied in meeting the difficulties as they supervened with a suffi- 

 cient solution. Henceforward, he handled his profession more con 

 amore ; he labored that his resources against difficulties of matter and 

 space should be over-abundant; and if he was before content with the 

 sure-footed tact of observation, he now added the luminous aid of study. 

 How luminous and how sure these combined became, his subsequent 

 works tell best. 



In the fall of 1834, he left New Jersey and went to New London to 

 superintend more conveniently the inception of the Providence and 



