Army Engineers in New England 1775-1975: The Military and Civil Work of the Corps of Engineers in New England, Revolutionary War, George Washington, Dredging, Flood Protection, Boston Harbor

New England is the birthplace of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Here the Corps' military mission began at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. Here, too, civil works projects were among the first to be undertaken by Army Engineers when Congress and the President entrusted the Corps with its civil mission in 1824. This is the story of the Corps' service and accomplishments in New England from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the present. Relating the activities of the Corps to broader regional and national developments, the book should appeal to a general audience as well as to specialists.

The boundaries of the regional divisions and districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coincide generally with watersheds. The New England Division includes fifteen river basins and nine coastal areas that lie wholly or largely within the six New England states. It covers all of New England except western Vermont and small portions of western Massachusetts and Connecticut, which lie in drainage basins of the St. Lawrence and Hudson rivers. It also embraces small areas of southeastern New York that drain through the state of Connecticut, and Fishers Island, New York, located close off the Connecticut shore. This is the region, expanded on a few occasions to include military work performed in Long Island Sound and western Vermont, treated in this volume. The story of the Corps' work in New England, however, cannot be told as the history of an engineer division. It begins with the birth of the nation, and the New England Division was not created until 1942. Nor can it be recounted as the history of engineer districts. Districts were established in New England after the Civil War, but Army Engineers were active in the region long before then. And in 1946 New England districts were phased out and their functions assumed by the New England Division. This, then, is a history of "Army Engineers in New England."

Army Engineers in New England 1775-1975 * CHAPTER I - NARROW REDOUBTS AND GRANITE CASEMATES * CHAPTER II - CIVIL WORKS BEGIN * CHAPTER III - THE DISTRICTS AND THE DIVISION * CHAPTER IV - NAVIGABLE RIVERS AND SAFE HARBORS * CHAPTER V - THE CAPE COD CANAL * CHAPTER VI - NEW HARBOR DEFENSES * CHAPTER VII - A LARGER MILITARY MISSION * CHAPTER VIII - FLOOD CONTROL * CHAPTER IX - DESIGNS FOR HYDROELECTRIC POWER * CHAPTER X - NEW CHALLENGES AND TASKS APPENDIX

Topics and subjects covered include: Colonel Richard Gridley, Revolutionary War, George Washington, Dredges, Dredging, Boston Harbor, Windsor Locks Canal, Cape Cod Canal, Buzzards Bay, Sagamore Bridge, fire control towers, flood protection, Charles River dam, Veterans Hospitals, Pease AFB, Fort Devens, September 1938 Flood, Hurricane Diane 1955, Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project "Quoddy"