CHAPTER VI

ASSUMPTION OF DUTIES ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

T is essential to recite some of the incidents leading to the detail of Humphreys for his stupendous labor in

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connection with the physical hydraulics of the Mississippi River; a work which will live forever; a work of patient study; a work which brought the investigator near death's door; a work which disclosed the law governing the movement of waters in rivers; a work which in Europe had eluded the painstaking researches of many a gifted engineer; a work which met some opposition and refutation, but in spite of all remains to this day a work for reference; a work which has placed the name of Humphreys very high in the ranks of Engineering.

For years the floods of the Mississippi had inundated the country bordering its banks and for many miles inwards, ruining the plantations of sugar and cotton. Attempts had been made by the several States bordering the river to control this vast volume of water which carried ruin wherever it came, but without avail. There was no general supervision for the good of all; each State tried to protect itself from overflow regardless of the rights of other States, the result being of no value to anyone.

In the spring of the year 1850, the Legislature of the State of Louisiana (the worst sufferer and where were the most interests in sugar and cotton), applied to the Secretary of War (Charles M. Conrad) for the services of officers of the Topographical Engineers, for the purpose of making surveys, examinations, and plans for the protection of the country against the overflow crevasses of the river, and for

the improvement of the river otherwise, this protection pertaining more to the General Government than to the States.

Colonel Abert, head of the Corps, replying to the Secretary of War, recited what had been done in former years, and proposed for additional surveys and examinations a sum of money to carry out the work, which sum was introduced in the proper appropriation bill by Mr. Jefferson Davis from the State of Mississippi.

Humphreys in a private letter says, "It is a work which I should desire, as it is one of much difficulty and of great importance." September 24, 1850, his Chief applied to the Secretary of War for his release from duty with the Coast Survey, stating "the services of Captain Humphreys are wanted in the immediate duties of his Corps," and requested this application be transmitted to the Treasury Department, the Coast Survey being controlled by that Department.

September 30 of the same year, the Secretary of War requested the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Thomas Corwin) to order the release of Humphreys from duty with the Coast Survey, and October 3, Professor A. D. Bache transmitted that release together with a letter to Humphreys. He also wrote letters to the Secretaries which contain such high commendation that to leave them out would do injury to Humphreys' memory.

"The very

A few extracts are taken from these letters. strong sense which I entertain of the loss which the Coast Survey will sustain in the valuable service which you have for more than six years rendered the work, without stint or regard to personal ease cannot be expressed in terms which would seem less extravagant in an official communication, nor would the personal relations which we have

sustained permit me without doing violence to my feelings, to confine myself within such prescriptions.

"The earnest efforts made by me as Superintendent and by the Treasury Department to procure your promotion by brevet for highly meritorious services, was the strongest proof of the appreciation of these services by the Department which you have been serving.

"The zeal, talent, and knowledge which you have brought to the work, well deserve such a mark of consideration by the government. The best wishes of all concerned in the work attend you in the duty upon which you are about to enter, in which your powers may be even farther developed and your success proportionate to the field which you will have for their exercise."

Sir:

Hills Station, October 3, 1850.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of October 1, enclosing a copy of a letter from the Secretary of War dated September 30 detaching Captain A. A. Humphreys from the Coast Survey service. The loss of the services of so valuable an officer as Captain Humphreys will be very much felt by the Coast Survey.

In successive reports I have acknowledged these services in the strongest terms which I could employ, knowing however that my words fall short of his merits.

As Assistant in Charge of the Coast Survey at a most critical period in the history of the Survey engaged in the immediate direction of the plans for its organization necessarily modified by the growth and increase of the work and the consequent accumulation of office work in the various departments of computing, drawing, engraving, instrument making, etc., he has shown resources of a very high order

and a zeal and untiring industry which called these resources constantly into play.

In parting with such an officer, it is but justice to put on record in the Department this further expression of my opinion of his merits and services. That the same record may stand on the files of the War Department I would respectfully request that a copy of this letter may be transmitted to the Hon. Secretary of War.

Very respectfully yours,

Signed, A. D. Bache, Superintendent Coast Survey. To Hon. Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury.

Dear Sir:

Coast Survey Station, November 4, 1850.

You will I trust excuse me for addressing you in relation to a subject which has claimed your attention and in regard to which the selection of an agent for its execution is of the highest importance the survey of the delta of the Mississippi. The officer of the Topographical Engineers to whom the work has been assigned has been connected with the Coast Survey, of which I am Superintendent, for the last six years.

I consider it most fortunate for the success of this important work that it has been assigned to Captain Humphreys. To sound knowledge he joins a practical turn which renders available his theoretical acquirements. He is cautious in obtaining data, energetic in using them when obtained; is not likely on the one hand to run into unnecessary refinement nor on the other to mistake rough guesses for accurate conclusions. Most conscientious in seeking for his material and skilful and persevering in using them. You will be sure to realize from his examinations precisely

the state of each case which he investigates and to be able to judge of the remedies applied.

To Hon. Charles M. Conrad, Secretary of War.

In the

He received his appointment October 6, 1850. summer of 1851, when stricken down by sickness, the charge of the work was given to Colonel Long of the Corps; soon after, all field work was entirely suspended, except that at Carrollton, and continued so until the fall of 1857, when the work was resumed, and the investigations again vigorously pushed.

During the interval while the work was in abeyance, and the state of his health rendered him unfit for that duty, he sought and obtained authority to visit Europe, with instructions to examine its delta rivers, and report what the experience of many centuries had really proved as to the ultimate, as well as the immediate, effects of the different methods of protection against inundation. Such results of that visit as have immediate application to the Mississippi River are embodied in his Report.

Upon his return from Europe in the summer of 1854, he was assigned to special service under the immediate orders of the War Department, in charge of the office organized in connection with the explorations and surveys then in progress for a Pacific Railroad, of the geographical explorations and other operations in the field, more or less connected with those. He was also made a member of the Lighthouse Board.

With these additional duties, he could not without effort give that constant, daily, and undivided attention to the Delta Survey required for its steady progress, and for him to remain long in the field was impossible. During the further progress of the work he was appointed a member of