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surveying the great lakes 19 Three “energy and tenacity of Purpose” Surveying the Great Lakes with a newly minted engineer’s degree in hand, young Poe was eager to begin some type of engineering duty for the military. in the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States army was divided into three distinct arms: a scientific corps, a general staff, and the line. The scientific corps consisted of three smaller groupings: the engineers, the topographical engineers, and the ordnance. The engineers were considered the cream of the intellectual crop and had been so christened years before by congress, referring to them as “the most elevated branch of military science.” as such, the engineers corps had the admiration of the rest of the service. They were prestigious by nature, as admittance into the elite unit required academic excellence and scholarly skills that far exceeded those in other branches of the army. engineers in general , both civil and military, were starting to position their specialty as a true profession open to any who possessed the requisite talent. Up through the first quarter of the nineteenth century, only three “gentlemanly professions” had existed, those being the divinity, law, and medicine. By 1830, the rise of industrial capital helped solidify the new idea that careers were open to talent and that the middle classes could now gain social status through work. Throughout the remainder of the century, this idea of professionalism would come to be defined as one where there was formal association, institutionalized training, licensing, work autonomy, colleague control, and a code of ethics. Unlike most civilian occupations during the “age of Jackson,” such formal training and licensing allowed the army officers corps in general and engineers in particular to begin to conform to such a definition. when Poe graduated from west Point in 1856, his officer’s training had brought him into the most homogeneous group in america.1 19 20 orlando m. poe The second grouping within the scientific corps was the corps of topographical engineers, or “topogs,” as they were popularly known. Though still held in extremely high regard, their spot in the pecking order was deemed a small notch below that of the corps of engineers. Their primary wartime duties included surveying the positions occupied by the army and its enemy. at the same time, they were also responsible for reconnoitering and sketching the enemy’s routes of march. Preparing maps of the battlefield and overall theater of operations rounded out the topogs’ essential war role. in peacetime, they were to survey and chart the nation’s lakes and rivers with an occasional overlap into the corps of engineers’ domain. By the time Poe joined the topogs in 1856, their numbers stood at thirty-seven.2 Despite their enviable reputation, the unspoken truth was that by the mid to late 1850s the topographical corps was floundering. Petty intrigue seemed to have replaced determination and professional care. The corps had lost a number of its best officers as well as some of its most important functions, especially with the creation in 1852 of the United States lighthouse Board. That apparent slide would continue, and by the end of the civil war, the U.S. lake Survey would be the only civil project still assigned to the topogs.3 engineering work in general, and the topogs in particular, had not been Poe’s first choice upon graduation. his initial application had been to the artillery, as he had been under the impression that ample vacancies existed within that arm of the service, which might then translate into faster promotions . Though not held in the same esteem as the engineers, the artillery was still considered a “scientific” arm of the service, which gave that branch a higher level of prestige than the cavalry or the infantry. career ladders took an extremely long time to climb in the antebellum army, and for junior officers with an eye on advancement the possibility of promotion became a constant fixation. Promotion in the pre–civil war army was based almost exclusively on the seniority system. with no retirement or pension system to count on, senior officers virtually were forced to stay in uniform until the day they died. laws limiting the size of the army coupled with more midlevel officers seeking careers meant that junior officers stood at the back of a line that moved extremely slowly. This prompted new graduates like Poe to closely monitor their position on the promotion list as well...

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