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42 Army Hist. 1 (1997)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0042 and id is 1 raw text is: ARMY HISTORY THE PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF ARMY HISTORY PB-20.97-3 (No. 42) Washington. D.C. Summer 1997 U.S. Army Contributions to American Natural Science 18641890 Keir B. Sterling This article de rivesfrom a paper Dr SerWig pre- seuined at the 1906 US. Army Training and Doctrn e Commjnan hitrmy wOrkshop at FOM rtVinnr'rrg t ma While on active duty at posts across ihe nauon and in Latin Amenca, the Pacific, and the Near East, a number of late nineteenth-century U.S. Army and Navy officers and enlisted personnel engaged in significant sciejiti fework. Some of them made majore c ributions to the natural sciences Even in the pre-Civ il War era the acti ities of Army personnel helped persuade the federal government to clvat natural history collections and to display them to the public. Tis study examines the range of these activites anthe natural sciences, locusing on the careers of three men. George Wheeler. Elliott Coucs, and Edward Nelson, who served in different branches of the Army during and afterthe aCIt War (I Scning the stage for acenmury ofexplorazon, Army Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, at the request of Presid ut Thomas Jeff-erson, ld the federal go 'mmen'sfirst(18_-06 4ien ticexp iii ntothe Wesy They returned with carewfIly crafted m anuscript maps of their toute, together with large quantities of geegraphical astronomical, ethnological, and biolug-h cal data, arnd they did it all with just $2,1X of the taxpayers' money. Tis scienufic advinture sea a his toic precedent Over the next seventy-tive years, other Army icers would be placed in charge of their own exed ,tions, though never again with such an astoish- ingly small outlay of fedcnrl funds. Since the federal government had not a single scienltlst or museum in 180. Jef ferson was obliged to s.nd m<,t of the am!ac ' °,d aimal specimens brought back by ewis and Clark to a private museum in Phila- delphia. Founded and operat ed by Charles Willson Peale. a former Revoluiuonary War officer and saddlemaker, the museum bene f ited from his abilities as a seif-taughtanisttaxidermistandentrepreneur Pale's museum accepted as a donation lhe artifacts and speci- mensfromthe Westertrip,a modest-size collection.(2) Over the next sixt y-ive years. the federal gover- mentunderwrote anumber of otherexploratoryexpedi- lions. vinualy all of them headed by relatively junior Army arnd Navy oflices. These young men, propelled by curiosity and the challenge of the unknown, led civilian volunleet and assigned military peSonnel to various destinations in the Far West, the Pacific Ocean, the interior of Latin America.,and the Middle East Their effors re thed in much hard-win but valuable astto- nomical meteorological biological, and ethnographic data. (3 Jefferson Davis, secretary of war under President f rank'n Pierc (185 1857). initiated the Pacific rail- way suvey s, w hich sought the most promising routes for railway construction to the West Coast, anticipating the strong population expansion an that re ion By thi. time, the nation had a central scientif agency the Smithsonian institution.established in 1846 Four years later. Congress created the Unit d States National Mu- seum.wlhirh wast houdl orm mny years n the redstone castle bilding on the Mal n mWashington. D C. The National Mu eum was headed by the first professional natural scientist hired by the federal gov- emnent. Spencer Fullerton Batr a a 'iv n from Carlsle Pennsylva- i Named sisa creT'r ofthe Smithsonian in 181) at the aie of twenty- svn, hE succeeded to the office of secretary in 1878 and died while stll in that IXition at the age of sixty four Baird's owt research interests fcused on birds and mammals, but he encouraged the collection of all man- nerof org anisms, primarily ver'ebrates. For reasons of health. Baird hi I did o en go into the field, but

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