List of General Survey Act of 1824 surveys and projects

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The General Survey Act was a United States law, signed on April 30, 1824, authorizing the president to employ military and civil engineers to survey, plan, and estimate routes for roads and canals of national importance. The War Department executed the statute through the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements (formed May 31, 1824). The Act authorized surveys, plans, and estimates, not federal construction, and departmental instructions sometimes directed comparative studies that included railway alternatives when evaluating “roads.”[1]

By the late 1820s, critics objected to loaning Army officers to private corporations, to extra-compensation practices, and to perceived diversion from purely public duties. Amid fiscal retrenchment and shifting Jacksonian politics, Congress repealed the General Survey Act in 1838, ending direct engineering aid to non-federal projects.[1] This is a list of notable surveys and projects undertaken by the War Department’s Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements under the General Survey Act (1824). Items are grouped by mode; entries point to documented surveys, plans, or comparative examinations performed within the Act’s authority.

Canals

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Roads

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Railroads

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  • Baltimore and Ohio Railroad assistance (1827–1830) – On military grounds, War Secretary James Barbour detailed Army Engineer and Topographical officers to assist the company’s reconnaissance and surveys in 1827; by order of May 12, 1828, the Board assigned Col. Stephen Harriman Long and Capt. William Gibbs McNeill to make definitive locations; the engineers’ Baltimore–Potomac alignment report is dated June 23, 1828; continued reporting followed in 1829.[11][1][12][13]
  • Hudson–Berkshire County route (Boston and Hudson River surveys) (1828–1829) – The Engineer Department detailed Lt. Col. P. H. Perrault (Corps of Topographical Engineers) and assistants; the House printed Perrault’s materials as H. Doc. 20-89 (read January 21, 1829), and engineer William Clark Young’s report bears the date February 4, 1829; these informed later work toward the Western Railroad.[14][15]
  • Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad (1830–1831) – Survey and report executed “under direction of the Engineer Department of the United States;” Capt. John Pickell’s official report and plates were printed in 1831. [16]
  • Catskill & Ithaca Railroad (1830) – Topographical Engineers examined the route and reported to state authorities; the work is noted in contemporary assembly documents and in the engineering literature.[11]
  • Ithaca & Owego Railroad (1828–1830) – Engineer Department–aided surveys and design recommendations for the portage between Cayuga Lake and the Susquehanna; a printed “Report of the Survey of the Ithaca and Owego Rail Road” appeared in 1828. [17][18]
  • Roanoke–James–Kanawha corridor comparison (1826) – Under departmental instructions to the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements, officers examined whether canal or rail would better connect the waters along this corridor; a comparative study undertaken within the Act’s survey program, with reporting noted in engineering histories.[1][19]

See also

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Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements

Corps of Topographical Engineers

General Survey Act

Notes

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The ‘‘General Survey’’ authority covered surveys, plans, and estimates; construction normally proceeded under state/private auspices or different federal statutes. For holdings and correspondence of the Board, see Record Group 77 at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[20]

Railroad entries reflect departmental assignments or comparative examinations under the Act; many early railroad surveys employed Army officers in non-departmental roles and are therefore not included.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Hill, Forest G. (1951). "Government Engineering Aid to Railroads before the Civil War". The Journal of Economic History. 11 (3): 236–238. doi:10.1017/S0022050700084758.
  2. ^ "Message from the President…with that of the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, on roads and canals". USACE Digital Library. 1826. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  3. ^ "H. Doc. 19-77 – Buzzard's and Barnstable Bay Canal. Letter from the Secretary of War…" (PDF). GovInfo. February 7, 1826. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  4. ^ "Canal—Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi. Letter from the Secretary of War…". Library of Congress. March 3, 1827. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  5. ^ "Survey of the waters of Virginia & North Carolina. Letter from the Secretary of War…". Library of Congress. March 1, 1826. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  6. ^ "H.R. 190 (19th Congress): A Bill to aid the State of Illinois in opening a canal…". Congress.gov. March 29, 1826. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c "United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 4, 18th Cong., 2nd Sess., Ch. 120 (Detroit–Chicago road)". Wikisource. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  8. ^ "United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 4 (Road from opposite Memphis to Little Rock)". Wikisource. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  9. ^ "Road from Zanesville, Ohio, to St. Louis, Missouri…". Library of Congress. February 7, 1829. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  10. ^ "Post road from Baltimore to Philadelphia (USACE "Roads and canals" holdings)". USACE Digital Library. 1827. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Angevine, Robert G. (2001). "Individuals, Organizations, and Engineering: U.S. Army Officers and the American Railroads, 1827–1838". Technology and Culture. 42 (2): 292–320. doi:10.1353/tech.2001.0050.
  12. ^ "First annual report of the Board of Engineers to the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company" (PDF). Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co. (via USACE/Commons). 1828. pp. 2–4. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  13. ^ "Third annual report … to the stockholders of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company" (PDF). B&O (via USACE/Commons). 1829. pp. 2–9. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  14. ^ "Hudson and Berkshire Rail Road. Report of Col. P. H. Perrault, Topographical Engineers (H. Doc. 20-89)" (PDF). GovInfo (U.S. Congressional Serial Set). 1829. pp. 1–25. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  15. ^ Young, William Clark (February 4, 1829). "Report of the Boston and Hudson River railroad surveys". State Library of Massachusetts (Digital Commonwealth). Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  16. ^ "Report on the surveys of a route for the proposed Canajoharie and Catskill Rail-road… (official USACE scan mirrored on Commons)" (PDF). Wikimedia Commons. 1831. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  17. ^ "A History of Railroads in Tompkins County (bibliography lists 1828 "Report of the Survey of the Ithaca and Owego Railroad")" (PDF). Cornell eCommons. 2008. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  18. ^ "PRR Chronology: 1828" (PDF). Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  19. ^ "Improving Transportation". U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  20. ^ "Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers (Record Group 77)". National Archives. Retrieved August 20, 2025.

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