ENGINEER OFFICE, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, SIR: In obedience to your orders, I have visited the site of Fort Johnson, and have carefully examined the effects there produced by the waves and currents. Referring to the reports and drawings of Captain Mansfield, forwarded from the department, I find no material change since they were made, except in the point at which the united currents of Cooper and Ashley rivers impinge against the shore of the island. The point of impact appears at present farther east than that indicated in Captain Mansfield's drawing, and not far from the base of grillage B. If it should be found, after a series of observations and experiments, that this point is changed since his survey, grillage A will not be necessary. I fully concur in the views and plans of Captain Mansfield, and deem the preservation of the site of Fort Johnson so important, not only as a military position of strength, but as one of the principal protections of the harbor against the sea, that I would respectfully recommend early measures for carrying the proposed improvements into execution. The estimate will be subject to a corresponding reduction, should it be found advisable to dispense with one of the proposed grillages. Supposing my observations in this point to be correct, I subjoin an estimate. All of which is respectfully submitted. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. H. BOWMAN, Receiving and placing 4,700 tons of stone, 9,400 days, at $1 9,400 00 4,450 00 Receiving and placing 800 tons of stone Live oak, 16,000 feet, at 40 cts. Carpentry, in construction of catchsand, 1,800 days, at $1 25 3,200 00 A. H. BOWMAN, Col. J. G. TOTTEN, Chief Engineer. Captain of Engineers. ANNUAL REPORT. BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, SIR: In submitting the customary annual report, as an important accession of duties has been made by your orders to those formerly exercised by the corps, at the head of which I have the honor to be, it has occurred to me that some slight notice of past events might not be uninteresting or out of place. The origin of the topographical engineers was in 1813, when such officers were first authorized by law, aud were then by law attached to the army as part of the general staff. In the law of March, 1821, they may be considered as being for the first time formed into a corps, although it was doubtful in the minds of many whether this law changed their original condition of an integral part of the general staff; but the Executive acted upon the supposition that the law did make this change, and, in accordance with that impression, separated the topographical engineers from their former duties in the staff of general officers, placing the one highest in rank in the corps at the head of a bureau, and recognising rights of regular promotion on the occurrence of vacancies. Under this organization, the corps consisted of ten officers, and the highest rank which it possessed was that of major, and its bureau, although separate, was considered subordinate to that corps of engineers in especial charge of the fortifications and defences of the country. The chief of this corps had the rank of colonel, and the corps of topographical engineers was considered a part of his command. It continued in this position until 1831, when, by a regulation of that date, it was declared that "the topographical bureau will hereafter constitute a distinct bureau of the War Department, and the officer in charge thereof will communicate directly with the Secretary of War, from whom he will receive all his orders, and to whom he will make all his reports." At the time of this regulation the highest rank in the corps of topographical engineers was that of lieutenant colonel by brevet, and its duties had so much increased that a body of civil engineers, authorized by the Jaw of April 30, 1824, was attached to it. It had also under its control about thirty officers of the line (artillery and infantry), detached temporarily from the line for topographical duties. This regulation made no specification of the duties of the corps; but I was assured by Mr. Secretary Eaton, who left the department but a few days before the date of the regulation, and by Mr. Acting Secretary Randolph, by whom, under the supervision of the Executive, the regulation was issued, that it was in contemplation at the time also to specify the duties of the corps, assigning to it the entire charge of all civil works, of harbor and river improvements, and of roads, in addition to the other duties upon which it had already been engaged; and that the silence of the regulation in this respect was in delicacy to his position as Acting Secretary, and to him who might be appointed to fill the place. The successor to General Eaton was Governor Cass. He invariably expressed himself in favor of the specification of duties as contemplated by his predecessor; but considered the imperfect organization of the corps, and the smallness of its numbers, as obstacles which had first to be removed. My own views on this question were always decided, and were considered by me as involving, not merely the prosperity of the two corps, but that of the public service. It was therefore frequently brought by me to the consideration of the department. It will be found referred to in the annual report from this bureau of November, 1835, in the following words: "There is no corps in the country to which the duties of a corps of ponts et chaussées so properly belongs, as to the corps of topographical engineers. It is so intimated in the report of the military committee (of Congress) of the last year, and it seems to me an unequivocal dictate of common sense to say, that the corps which is employed in making the survey, digesting the plan, and forming the estimate of a work, is, from the nature of the case, more fully imbued than any other can be, with the considerations and unity of view which the constructions involve, and therefore better qualified to superintend them." To which one may add, that it is also the corps whose personal and scientific reputation is involved in the success of the works, and has therefore every incentive to the most vigilant and skilful superintendence. It was always a source of no small degree of gratification with me that my notions of a proper division of the duties of the two corps, were in harmony with those of several of the distinguished officers of the corps of engineers, one of whom is now at its head. They always viewed the superintendence of these civil works as an embarrassment to the proper functions of their own corps, and foreign to them; and, with a just and enlightened consistency, always befriended those propositions before Congress, the tendency of which was to remove the obstacles before referred to, in the way of a proper arrangement of duties. Such was the condition of things when you were called upon to preside over the War Department, with the exception, that from the necessities of the case, and in despite of all obstacles, the construction of many works of a civil character, authorized by the United States laws, were under the direction of this bureau. The confusion from this want of system was soon apparent to your judgment. A remedy was absolutely necessary, the wellbeing and the duties of your department called for it. Your opinion of a proper division of the duties of the two corps was soon formed, and as soon verbally communicated to the chiefs of each, and would have been immediately carried into effect, but for the embarrassing obstacles arising from the imperfect organization and the small number of the topographical engineers. Your efforts were immediately given to relieve the matter from these obstacles, and were crowned with success by the law of July, 1838. This law may be considered, therefore, as a new creation of the corps, giving to it the requisite rank and form, and numbers. The obstacles to a proper arrangement of duties being now removed, that arrangement soon followed. In less than a month after the passage of this law, a regulation was issued by the War Department, of which the following is an extract: "All new works of improvement, not of a military character, nor connected with the fortifications, are assigned to the direction of the Topographical Bureau; and also, all such old works of a similar character as can be transferred without prejudice to the public service, and according to an understanding to be had with the Chief Engineer and the officer in charge of the Topographical Bureau." This regulation at once drew the line of distinction between the duties of the two corps, leaving to the one its proper and important functions, the defences of the country, and adding to the former duties of the other the superintendence of all United States improvements of a civil character. In conformity with the spirit and intention of this regulation, all the plans and drawings connected with the fortifications of the country, and heretofore in the charge of this bureau, have been surrendered on his application to the chief of the corps of engineers, who, since the regulation above quoted, has issued the necessary orders in the cases of the transfer of sixty-six distinct works of civil improvement-breakwaters, harbors, rivers, roads. A few yet remain to be transferred. Considerations connected with the public service occasioned a delay in these cases, which, it is presumed, nee not last much longer, and that the system contemplated and authorized by the regulation, will be in full operation by the ensuing season. This sudden accession of so many new works, gave an intense activity to the duties of the corps. It has attended to all, has executed various surveys, and has, at the same time, maintained a large detachment of its officers as field and topographical engineers with the army in Florida. A system of rigid inspection has been established in the persons of the older officers of the corps, the result of which is highly gratifying in the information obtained, and the means thus procured of enabling the bureau to direct intelligibly the operations of its subordinates, and to produce the best results with the means at its disposal. The information received will now be submitted, condensed from various reports and from personal inspection. The War Department is aware that the greater part of the harbor improvements are upon our western waters. The lakes alone embrace a coast within our own territory of more than three thousand two hundred miles, excluding the coast of connecting straits and rivers, and are exposed to a coast in the possession of a foreign power of about two thousand miles. Among the physical features which characterize these lakes, are their great extent, their uninterrupted connexion with each other, except at Niagara, their great depth, the extreme fertility of their shores, and their singular destitution of natural harbors. Taking Lake Champlain into the number, parts of the shores of no less than seven populous flourishing and powerful States, and one extensive Territory, are washed by their waters; and already the route across them is found to be the most convenient, the most economical, the most expeditious, and the most certain, between the cities on the Atlantic and the Upper Mississippi. In fact, it may be said that the vast trade of the great valley between the Alleganies and the Rocky mountains, and its intercourse with the cities of the Atlantic, are more or less facilitated and protected by the path which these lakes afford, and by the harbors which are found upon them. Possessing such advantages, and with a people so enterprising, the commerce of the lakes has increased beyond all anticipation, and has really left it doubtful if any notions of prosperity may, in this country, be called visionary. The harbors of the lakes are seaports, crowded with vessels of all sizes and of all kinds, and their beautiful waters are whitened with many a sail, and teeming with prolific steam. One universal aspect of enterprise, of wealth, and of activity, presents itself; and one single reflection possesses the mind, that to the prosperity of such a people there can be no stay. The chief embarrassment to this extensive and increasing prosperity, is in the deficiency of harbors and of ports of refuge. Much has already been done by Government to remedy this defect, but more still remains to be done, as well in commencing new works, as in completing those which have been begun. The questions involved are, in my judgment, no longer those of choice, but those of necessity. They are, whether the vast amount of property, and the number of lives connected with the commerce of these lakes, are to be abandoned to the mercy of every storm; and whether the large sums already expended in efforts to form harbors and ports of refuge, are to be completely lost for want of the additional means required to finish and to preserve thein. The simple relation of this commerce with these harbors, is but a small portion of its advantages. It should be viewed in connexion with the manufactures, to which it gives birth, and which it facilitates; the agriculture which it generates and supports; the increased value which it gives to both public and private lands, and the consequent rapid and extensive sale of the former; and with the population which it is continually collecting and concentrating on a long and exposed line of frontier. With a commerce producing all these happy effects, and so intimately allied to the agricultural and mineral wealth of the great west, and which will, probably in a few years, rival that of the Atlantic coast, the shores of these lakes, unlike those of the Atlantic, are destitute of harbors. Nature has denied to the one, that which it has so bountifully supplied to the other. The remedy must be furnished by art, or this prolific source of national and individual wealth be for ever crippled and embarrassed by its risks and losses. And when, in addition to these reflections, we take into consideration the fact that the lake shores are also frontier shores, the remedy which art is called upon to supply becomes then of vital interest, as an important part of national defence from its effects in concentrating population. But I will endeavor to illustrate these remarks by more detailed references. The whole eastern and southern shore of Lake Ontario, from Cape Vincent to Niagara, embracing within these limits about two hundred and thirty miles, has but one natural harbor, that of Sackett's Harbor, towards its eastern extremity. There is the harbor of Niagara at the western end, but this is so directly within the command of the opposite shore, which is held by a foreign government, that it cannot be considered as a secure American harbor, nor does it afford any shelter for the winter. In times of peace, however, it is a good summer harbor, and therefore, in times of peace, the commerce of this lake may be considered as having two harbors or ports of refuge, one at each extremity of the lake, and about two hundred miles from each other. These are all that nature has supplied of adequate size in this extent of coast. Now, as this as well as all the other lakes is liable to frequent and very violent storms, it is easy to deduce how dreadful and how frequent must be their results in an active commerce, if art does not interpose a remedy. But although nature has made no good harbors between these points, she has yet furnished the means of which art can avail itself, and which are now the basis of several artificial harbors, partially completed, namely, at Salmon river, Oswego, Sodus bay, Genesee, and Oak-Orchard creek. At all these, improvements have been made, which will be more particularly noticed |