Civil War Period Dress Epaulettes of Captain James William Abert, Regular Army Topographical Engineers – This pair of dress epaulettes are the best and most unique we have had; the epaulettes are housed in their original, japanned tin case, on which is scratched:

“Capt. J. W. Abert”

James William Abert was the son of John James Abert (17 September 1788 – 27 January 1863) a graduate of West Point and a career soldier. The elder Abert headed the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers for 32 years, during which time he organized a significant portion of the mapping of the American West. The younger Abert, owner of these dress epaulettes, was born on November 18, 1820, at Mount Holly, New Jersey. In 1842, Abert graduated from West Point with classmate Ulysses S. Grant and was assigned to the Fifth United States Infantry. Abert, an avid ornithologist and artist, spent a considerable amount of time in the U.S. West, completing maps, scientific investigations, paintings and various additional surveys. In May 1843, Abert returned to West Point as a drawing instructor, remaining there until 1850; he returned to active Army duty after 1850 and was .  promoted to the rank of Captain in 1856. During the Civil War Abert served in the Shenandoah Valley from June 1861 to September 1862. In March of 1863 the Corps of Topographical Engineers and the Corps of Engineers, separated since 1831, were reunited and Abert was promoted to the rank of major.

This pair of epaulettes date to the time shortly after Abert’s promotion to the rank of Captain of the Topographical Engineers, perhaps around 1856 to 1860. The epaulettes, made and marketed by John Smith Fraser who maintained a clothing warehouse at 122 and 124 Broadway, at the corner with Cedar Street in New York City, prior to the Civil War; Fraser’s name is stamped on the brass shoulder bars on the underside of each epaulette. The epaulettes are ornately adorned with silver, manuscript letters “T E” on each of the pair; additional decorative elements appear on each epaulette: silver bullion captain’s bars; a small, silver bullion star; rare Topographical Engineer cuff buttons; a large padded, bullion Topographical shield, each with 13 stars; gilded brass crescents each with gold bullion tassels hanging from the end of each epaulette. The underside of each of the epaulettes has a yellow cotton shoulder cup, lined with red cotton that has large tufts of cotton padding, now exposed from wear; the long “arms” of each epaulette are lined with red Moroccan leather, beneath each of the brass attachment bars.

Both the tin, carrying case and the epaulettes remain in overall excellent condition. We encounter Civil War period, dress epaulettes reasonably often, but this pair is the only Topographical Engineer pair we have seen, additionally enhanced by having been worn by a significant antebellum and war period officer.

James William Abert

Residence was not listed; years old.
Enlisted as a Captain(date unknown).

On 7/1/1856, he was commissioned into US Regular Army 1st Eng Battn.
He resigned on 6/25/1864

Promotions:

• Major 3/3/1863
• Lt Colonel 6/25/1864 by Brevet

Died 8/10/1897

(Graduate USMA 1842)

Colonel James William Abert

Birth Date: 1820-11-18

Death Date: 1897-08-10

Topics:

Kearny’s March

Gender: Male

Nationality: U.S.

James William Abert was born on November 18, 1820 at Mount Holly, New Jersey, the son of Colonel John James Abert, head of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers. In 1842 Abert graduated from West Point with classmate Ulysses S. Grant and was assigned to the Fifth United States Infantry.

In May of 1843 Abert transferred to the Corps of Topographical Engineers, assigned to post at Detroit, Michigan and led an extensive survey of the Great Lakes region. In 1845, Lt. Abert was attached to the third expedition of Major John Charles Frémont with orders to survey the Comanche and Kiowa regions along the Canadian River in southwestern Colorado. Major Frémont divided the expedition and led the majority of the party west to California, leaving Abert and others to comply with the original instructions. In the summer of 1846 Abert accompanied Gen. Stephen W. Kearny’s Army of the West to New Mexico. Abert developed a fever in July and remained behind at Bent’s Fort to convalesce before returning to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Territory the following year. An avid ornithologist, Abert described a new species of bird, related to the sparrow, named the Abert’s Towee in his honor.

Abert returned to West Point in 1848 where he served on the faculty as a drawing instructor until 1850. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1853 and to captain in 1856. During the Civil War Abert served in the Shenandoah Valley from June 1861 to September 1862. In March of 1863 the Corps of Topographical Engineers and the Corps of Engineers, separated since 1831, were reunited and Abert was promoted to major. Abert resigned from the army in 1864 and began a mercantile business in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1869 he moved to Washington and served as a patents examiner until 1871. He then taught English literature at the University of Missouri. In 1879 he became president of the Examining Board of Teachers of Public Schools in Kentucky. He died on August 10, 1897 in Newport, Kentucky.

James William Abert

James William Abert (November 18, 1820 – August 10, 1897) was an American soldier, explorer, bird collector and topographical artist.

Early life

Abert, the son of John James Abert, was born in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, and graduated from West Point in 1842.

Military career

Abert joined the Corps of Topographical Engineers, which was headed by his father,^[1] in 1843. He joined several expeditions into the west, including John Frémont‘s third expedition, and illustrated these expeditions reports with his sketches. He was also put in charge of a detachment to map the Canadian River.

In 1846 he was sent west to join the army of General Kearney in the war against Mexico, returning to Fort Leavenworth in the following year. It was during this time that he acquired a new species of bird, which was named the Abert’s towhee in his honor.

During the American Civil War, he served on the staffs of Robert Patterson, Nathaniel P. Banks and Quincy A. Gillmore. He was wounded during the Maryland Campaign, and retired from the Army in June 1864.

Later life

After the Civil War, he became a professor of English literature, mathematics and drawing at the University of Missouri. He was also a professor of civil engineering, applied mathematics, and engineering drawing at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (1872–1877).

Scientist of the Day

James W. Abert

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/james-w-abert/

Scientist of the Day – James W. Abert

November 18, 2019

James W. Abert, an American soldier, explorer, topographer, and artist, was born Nov. 18, 1820.  James’ father, John James Abert, was the head of the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, a new organization formed in 1838 to supervise the mapping of the American West, and J.J. was in charge from the start. The Corps was a unique branch of the Army, because it had no enlisted men, only officers, 36 of them, and every one, I do believe, was a West Point graduate. The younger Abert, James William, joined the Corps in 1843, fresh out of the Academy, and in 1845 he headed out from St. Louis with John Frémont, also a topographic engineer, and already quite a famous western explorer, known as “the Pathfinder.”  They were headed for New Mexico, and after that, San Diego and southern California. Abert, however, did not make the California trip – instead he was ordered to explore the headwaters of the Canadian River in Oklahoma.

The next year, 1846, he joined the Army of the West, which left Fort Leavenworth in Kansas under General Kearny, off to fight in the Mexican-American War, which had just broken out.  Abert’s job, however, was not to fight, but to reconnoiter and map. He was left behind at Bent’s Fort in southeastern Colorado for a considerable time with a life-threatening fever, but he recovered, and once back on his feet, he and another young engineer spent a year travelling through New Mexico. He visited most of the pueblos, including Acoma, Santo Dominigo, and Sante Fe, and being a talented artist, he made sketches along the way, of the countryside, the settlements, and the native Americans. He also paid attention to the flora and fauna, and the geology. Although too young to be an experienced naturalist, he nevertheless managed to discover a few new birds and animals, such as a new species of towhee, and a rodent. We now call them, respectively, Abert’s towhee and Albert’s squirrel.

Abert finally made it back to Fort Leavenworth (just barely – he chose to travel across Colorado in the dead of winter), and then to Washington, D.C. to write up his Report of his Examination of New Mexico in the years 1846-’47, which appeared in 1848, wedged in the back of another report, by William Emory, Notes of a Military Reconnaissance, the title page of which doesn’t even mention that Abert’s report follows within. Abert’s is a wonderful narrative, like most of the reports of the adventurous topographical engineers, and his is enriched by what must be twenty lithographs after sketches that he himself drew. We have the Emory/Abert report in our History of Science Collection, and we selected six of Abert’s drawings to showcase here.  It is hard not to show all three views of Acoma Pueblo – from the bottom of the mesa, on the way up, and at the top (second, third, and fourth images).

There is a view of a sparse Santa Fe surrounded by army troops that most current residents will find unrecognizable (fifth image).  We also find a lovely drawing of the Bosque del Apache that includes several sandhill cranes, which Abert was the first to describe and picture, and which we chose for our lead image.   Bosque del Apache is now a National Wildlife Refuge.

Unlike many of his fellow engineers, Abert survived the Civil War, and then lived a long life working at various jobs, including a stint as a professor of English literature at the University of Missouri. He died in Kentucky in 1897.

John James Abert

John James Abert (17 September 1788 – 27 January 1863) was an American soldier. He headed the Corps of Topographical Engineers for 32 years, during which time he organized the mapping of the American West.

Abert was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia; also disputed to be Frederick, Maryland) to John Abert and Margarita Meng, his father being said to have emigrated to the States as a soldier with Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau in 1780. He graduated from West Point in 1811, but declined a commission to practice law. After leaving West Point, he married Ellen Matlack Stretch in January 1812. He enlisted in the D.C. Militia during the War of 1812, and rejoined the army as a topographical engineer with the rank of brevet Major in October 1814. Abert volunteered as a private in the District of Columbia Militia for the defense of Washington in 1814, and was brevetted Major, Staff Topographical Engineer, for gallantry at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, August 24, 1814.

His son, James William Abert, who also became a member of the corps, was born in 1820.^[2] In March 1829, John Abert was appointed to the leadership of the corps, and promoted to colonel in July 1838. Officers working under him were responsible for the exploration and mapping of the lands west of the Mississippi River. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1832 and an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1845.

In 1818, the US War Department created the Topographic Bureau as part of the Corps of Engineers, under the command of Major Isaac Roberdeau. The Topographic Bureau was assigned six men and was to collect and store maps and topographical reports. When Roberdeau died in 1829, Abert became the head of the Bureau. He wanted to be free from the oversight of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and establish a separate Topographic Corps. in 1831 Abert was able to persuade Congress to remove the topographic engineers from the Corps of Engineers, and place them directly under the United States Secretary of War. In 1838, Abert was appointed the command of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, which position he would hold for 23 years. The Corps of Topographical Engineers had grown by then to thirty-six officers, including six majors, four captains by brevet, six civil engineers and twenty subalterns of the line. Abert recruited the best soldier-scientists he could find. These included John C. Frémont, William H. Emory and Andrew A. Humphreys.

Abert was a member of a number of legal, geographical and scientific societies. He was also a member of the Geographical Society of Paris, the Société de Géographie. He retired from the Army in September 1861. Abert died in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.

When he died, the US War Department wrote about Abert’s accomplishments with the Corps of Topographical Engineers: “The Army and the country will not need to be reminded of the vast interest and value attached to the operations of this Corps since its organization. The geographical and other information concerning this continent which its officers have collected and published has challenged the admiration of the scientific world, while the practical benefit of their labors has been felt in nearly every State and every Territory; the whole forming a proud monument to him who was its founder. As a citizen and a man, Colonel Abert was remarkable for the steadfastness of his friendships, for his candor and unostentatious hospitality. Equally unostentatious, but no less sincere, was the simple piety which supported his declining years, and left behind an example which the proudest soldier would not be ashamed to follow.”

Abert is the namesake of Lake Albert in South Dakota.^[6] Captain John C. Fremont named Lake Abert and Abert Rim in his honor when his 1843 expedition passed through southern Oregon. The Abert’s squirrel was also named after him.

Children

Abert’s children include:

• James William Abert(1820–1897) soldier, explorer, ornithologist and topographical artist
• Silvanus Thayer Abert(1828–1903), civil engineer^[7]
• William Stretch Abert(1836–1867), soldier^[7]