A history of the corps of engineers in the US civil war, 1861-1865

The Office of History, HQ, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing a series of survey histories on selected topics on the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the American Revolution to the present. The contractor will research and write a volume in that series focusing on the history of the Corps of Engineers in the US Civil War, 1861-1865.

This approximately 40,000-word volume will trace the history of both the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Topographical Engineers from approximately 1860-1866. The two corps were merged in 1863. This study will document the activities of the Army engineers and topographers, the recruitment and training of enlisted support, overall contributions to the war effort, and successes and failures. It should address engineer officer training (mainly West Point) and its proved effectiveness in the war including the transfer of engineering expertise from engineers to troop units, Freedmen, contractors and others. It should address the merger of the two engineer corps and its causes and effects. The history should address map-making, photography, railroad construction and planning, balloon surveillance, bridge-building, entrenchment, and fortification and the evolution of new technologies. Though the emphasis should remain on the Corps of Engineers, the study should address the role of the 1st Engineer Battalion and the two volunteer engineer units raised during the war. The history should also address USACE leadership during the war (John J. Abert, Stephen Long, Joseph Totten, and Richard Delafield) and the activities of the Army Engineers (and topogs) Headquarters offices in Washington, D.C. It should also provide some coverage of those engineers who assumed field command during the war to include George McClellan, George Meade, Gouverneur K. Warren, Andrew Humphreys, William H. Emory, Henry Larcom Abbot, John C. Fremont, Orlando Poe, Quincy A. Gillmore, James H. Wilson, William B. Franklin, Horatio G. Wright, as well as Herman Haupt. At one point near the war’s end, five of the six corps commanders of the Army of the Potomac were Army Engineers. How is that explained? This is to be a summary history and should cover all relevant aspects of the Corps of Engineers in the war and the period immediately following.

Please see the attached Combined Synopsis Solicitation and Performance Work Statement for additional information.