The early military engineer has left ample records and monuments of his genius.  The walls of ancient cities, castles that still crown many hills in both hemispheres, the great Chinese wall, the historical bridge of Julius Caesar, which with charming simplicity he tells us was built because it did not comport with his dignity to cross the stream in boats, the bridge of boats across the Hellespont, by Xerxes, are all examples of early military engineering.  The Bible tells us “King Uzziah built towers at the gates of Jerusalem, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them.”  We may note in passing that the buttresses, battlements, and bartizans with which our modern architects ornament or disfigure churches, peaceful dwellings, and public buildings, are copied from the early works of the military engineer.

Coming down to the military engineers of our own country, we find that one of the first acts of the Continental Congress, after appointing Washington as commander-in-chief, was to authorize him to employ a number of engineers.  It was not, however, until 1777 that a number of engineer officers from the French army arrived in this country, and were appointed in the Continental army.  General DuPortail was made Chief Engineer, and Colonel Kosciusko, the great Polish patriot, was among his assistants.  Other officers of the Continental army were employed on engineering duty; and under their supervision such works as the forts and the great chain barrier at West Point were built, and the siege operations around Boston and Yorktown were carried on.

After the close of the war, in 1794, a Corps of “Artillerists and Engineers” was organized.  This corps was stationed at West Point, and became the nucleus of the United States Military Academy.  In 1802, by operation of the law reorganizing the army, this corps was divided, as the names would indicate, into an Artillery Corps and Corps of Engineers.  The Corps of Engineers consisted of one major, two captains, four lieutenants, and ten cadets.  The Artillery Corps was again divided into the Ordnance Corps and several regiments of artillery, now five in number, while the duties of the Corps of Engineers were divided between the Engineer Corps and a Corps of Topographical Engineers, organized at a later date; but on the breaking out of the late rebellion it was deemed best to unite the two corps, and they have so remained until the present time.  The Corps of Engineers now consists of 118 officers of various grades, from second lieutenant to brigadier general, of which last grade there is only one officer, the chief of the corps, and it requires something more than an average official lifetime for the aforesaid lieutenant to attain that rank.  Hardly one in ten of them ever reach it.  Daniel Webster’s remark to the young lawyer, that “there is always room at the top,” will not apply to the Corps of Engineers.  The officers are all graduates of the Military Academy, which institution continued as a part of the Corps of Engineers until 1866.  The vacancies in the corps are filled by the assignment to it of from two to six graduates each year, and there is attached to the corps a battalion of four companies of enlisted men, formerly called Sappers and Miners, but now known as the Battalion of Engineers.