A Railroad to the Pacific - 1

From Exhibition: A More Perfect Union: Congress and the Civil War I October 2011 - March 2012
Category:
Exploration

Settlement of the western territories in the 1850s increased the need for efficient rail transport to the Pacific Coast, but members of Congress could not agree on what route it should follow. Northern members wanted a northern route; southern members sought one advantageous to their region's interests. To inform this debate, in 1853 Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to survey four potential rail routes. Intense sectionalism blocked further legislation until southern states seceded. In 1862, a northern-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act.

Map, Exploration of a Railroad Route, 1854-1857, compiled by G.K. Warren et al., 1858

Map, Exploration of a Railroad Route, 1854-1857, compiled by G.K. Warren et al., 1858

With appropriations from Congress, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis commissioned the Army Corps of Engineers to explore four routes from the Mississippi River to the PacificCoast. This map, issued with their published report, combines information from many previous expeditions and indicates the locations of American Indian nations and military posts.

 

Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress

Lithograph, “Nez Perces (Meeting in Woods),” U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

Lithograph, “Nez Perces (Meeting in Woods),” U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

Army engineers gathered information for Congress on the peoples, flora, fauna, and geology of the regions they surveyed, often relying on the knowledge of American Indians. This lithograph of Nez Perce inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest illustrated a report of the survey of the 47th and 49th parallels, the northernmost route.

Art by John Mix Stanley, lithography by Sarony, Major & Knapp

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Chromolithograph, "Fort Union and Distribution of Goods to the Assinniboines [Assiniboines]," U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

Chromolithograph, "Fort Union and Distribution of Goods to the Assinniboines [Assiniboines]," U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

The Pacific Railroad Expedition surveys provided Congress and the public a wealth of information about the West, including images and descriptions of many American Indian nations, such as the Assiniboines. American Indians were helpful to the surveyors, but the completion of the transcontinental railroad proved devastating to Native Americans’ former ways of life.

Art by John Mix Stanley, lithography by Sarony, Major & Knapp

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Color lithograph, “A Conical Hill 500 Feet High,” U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

Color lithograph, “A Conical Hill 500 Feet High,” U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

The Army Corps of Engineers’ surveys included scientific studies of phenomena such as this unusual geological formation near Laguna, Colorado, on the 35th parallel. The expeditions reported their findings through data and written descriptions, and also with numerous detailed engravings, woodcuts, and lithographs.

Art by Heinrich B. Mollhausen, lithography by Thomas S. Sinclair

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
U.S. War Department, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

U.S. War Department, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855

Congress authorized publication of the U.S. Pacific Railroad Expedition’s 13-volume report between 1855 and 1861. The volumes included thousands of illustrations of landscapes and natural specimens.

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress