1900 Annual Report of the War Department – Chief of Engineers – Part 4

A portion of the comprehensive documentation created by the U.S. War Department at the beginning of the 20th century

This impressive assortment of maps, charts, diagrams, tables of statistics, and correspondence was published by the Government Printing Office in 1900. It contains a variety of miscellaneous reports submitted by the Chief of Engineers of the U.S. War Department for review by various members of the House of Representatives. As a result, the contents are representative of the Army Corps of Engineers’ primary goals of military/civil construction efforts to facilitate navigation, disaster mitigation, and environmental infrastructure. Examples of reports with accompanying plans and diagrams, with their respective authors, are outlined as follows:

Improvement of Certain Rivers and Harbors in Texas (C.S. Riche); Improvement of Certain Rivers and waterways in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi, Tributary to Mississippi River; Water Gauges on Mississippi River and its Principal Tributaries (Thomas L. Casey); Improvement of Arkansas River and of Certain rivers in Arkansas and Missouri (Robert McGregor); Removing Snags and Wrecks from Mississippi River; Improvements of Mississippi River between the Ohio and Missouri Rivers; Of Harbor at St. Louis, Missouri and to Prevent the Mississippi from Breaking Through into Cache River at Beechridge, Above Cairo, Illinois (Edward Burr); Construction of Reservoirs at Headwaters of Mississippi River; Improvement of Mississippi River from St. Paul to Minneapolis, Minnesota, of Rivers in Wisconsin and Minnesota Tributary to Mississippi River (Frederick Abbot); Improvement of Missouri River at and Above Sioux City, Iowa (H.M. Chittenden);