Engineer's Report - Chase Farm, Lincoln, RI (April 2011)

Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant

Commander 

All Union Armies

Brig. Gen. M. Burbank

Commander

New England Brigade

Esteemed Sirs:

It is my pleasure to make my report about the Topographical Engineer' involvement in the subject event at the Chase Farm in Lincoln R.I. over the weekend of 28 - 29 April, 1862.

Attendees:

Brig. Gen. Ian McKay, 

Major James Duarte, 

Brevet Major Raymond Germain, 

Purser Margaret Mathews, 

Senior Sketch Artist Maryanne Germain

On Saturday the training plan was to carry out practical training in Road Map Data Collection.  A presentation on this subject ha been made at the T.E. Annual Meeting and Symposium.  Copies of the presention and sample data sheets were issued to all except the Purser who was away from the COI on Unit Business.  Then the unit set up a schedule to train each of the unit members by driving up Great Road from the bottom of Breackneck Hill to Rute 116 (george Washington Highway) a distance of 3 miles.  Each member then made the trip along Great Road marking data  on the data sheets for use in later making a detailed map of the rod way.

Following the the four training trips, in the afternoon we sat down in the Engineering Office and discussed each of the Data sheets produced by each of the enginers taking part in the training.  The result was very satsfactory each of the engineers developed his / her own style of data collection along the road, and very little of importance was missed in the three mile section of road that was utilized as  a training element.

On Sunday the COI was scheduled to close at noon, so the folowing tasks assigned were completed:

--Brig. General McKay -- Design of a single artillery piece gun emplacement at the top of the road near the pond.  The purpose of this gun emplacement would be to command the approaches to the upland area of the Chase Farm;

--Major Duarte -- Review and Clarification of a T.E.  list for the use in future mapping exercises;

--Brevet Major Germain -- Produced a detailed Field Report of the ground surrounding the area occupied b the Brigade's COI;

--Senior Artist Maryanne Germain, produced a very nice sketch of the pond area in the upland area of Chase Farm.

These works will be put together a reproduced for the Engineer's Portfolio's with a courtesy Copy to the New England Brgade Commander.

Additional Note:  I want to thank Brig. Gen. Burbank and any others who were involved in arranging the room in the farmhouse for the Engineers.  It worked out perfectly that the room was the right size for two working tables with plenty of room for a nice display.  The civilian spectators who visited the Engineering Office were very pleased with the maps and instrumentation and asked many good questions.  My personal as well as the uniit's thanks for your efforts in this area.

Respectfully Submitted;

Ian McKay, Brevet Brig. Gen. of Engineers;

Chief of Staff (acting)

Chief Engineer

Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant's Pers. and Mil. Staffs