Stephen Harriman Long

Stephen Harriman Long
Representation of the 1819 oil painting of Major Long. Portrait painted by Charles Willson Peale
Born	(1784-12-30)December 30, 1784 Hopkinton, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	September 4, 1864(1864-09-04) (aged 79) Alton, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Dartmouth College
Spouse	Martha Hodgkins
Parent(s)	Moses and Lucy (Harriman) Long
Engineering career
Discipline	Civil Engineer, Topographical engineer, explorer, inventor.
Institutions	US Army Corps of Engineers (1814-38), United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers (1838-63).
Employer(s)	Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Western & Atlantic Railroad.
Projects	Federal expeditions in the trans-Mississippi West (1817–1823); federal internal-improvements surveys (1824–early 1830s); early railroad route studies and engineering.
Significant design	The Long truss

Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer whose career combined military engineering, scientific exploration, and early railroad development. ^{[1] [2]} He is best known for leading federal exploratory expeditions in the trans-Mississippi West between 1817 and 1823, including the 1820 reconnaissance of the Great Plains that, in contemporary publications, was described as the “Great Desert.”^{[1] [3]} From the late 1820s, Long held engineering assignments and undertook private consulting connected with early railroad surveying, locomotive development, and timber-bridge engineering, including work associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.^{[1] [4] [5]}

Stephen Harriman Long was born on December 30, 1784, in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, to Moses Long (1760–1848) and Lucy (Harriman) Long (1764–1837).^[1]: 27 He was the third of thirteen children born to the family, which included five daughters and eight sons.^[1]: 29 Several of his siblings pursued professional careers: his brother Moses Long became a physician; Enoch Long entered the printing trade; and George Washington Long (1800–1880) graduated from the United States Military Academy, served as an artillery officer, and later undertook topographical duties.^[1]: 29 Long’s cousin, Horace Childs, subsequently acted as an agent in connection with Long’s bridge patents.^[1]: 29

In 1819, Long married Martha Hodgkins (1799–1873) in Philadelphia.^[1]: 72 The couple had six children. Martha Hodgkins was the sister of Isabella Hodgkins Norvell (1804–1873), who later became the third wife of U.S. Senator John Norvell.^[1]: 72

Long entered Dartmouth College and received the A.B. degree in 1809.^{[1]: 30–34} He was awarded the A.M. degree in 1812.^{[1]: 30–34} His collegiate education provided the mathematical and scientific foundation that later supported his work in military engineering, exploration, and railroad development.

After graduation, Long worked as a schoolteacher in New Hampshire and later in Germantown, Pennsylvania. ^{[1]: 34–36} During this period, he developed practical mechanical skills and constructed “successful hydraulic machinery,” which brought him to the attention of Joseph Gardner Swift, then Chief Engineer of the United States Army, and superintendent of the United States Military Academy. Swift regarded Long as possessing notable mechanical ingenuity and first employed him as a civilian engineer on a project to improve the defenses of New York Harbor, before inducing him in 1814 to accept a commission as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army.^{[1]: 36–38}

Long remained a commissioned officer of the United States Army from 1814 until his retirement in 1863, serving in the Corps of Engineers and (after 1838) the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Much of his work on internal improvements and early railroads was conducted on detached duty or through federal engineering boards. During the Civil War, Long remained in Federal service and served as colonel of the Corps of Topographical Engineers until its 1863 merger back into the Corps of Engineers.

Long’s first Army assignment was as an assistant professor of mathematics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (1815–1816).^[1]: 38 Following the Army’s postwar reorganization in 1816, he received the brevet rank of brevet major and was assigned to topographical duties.^[1]: 38 His first field posting sent him west to report to Brigadier General Thomas A. Smith at St. Louis in the Army’s Southern Division under Major General Andrew Jackson. There, he organized instruments and personnel for survey work and began preparing reconnaissance maps and reports on routes and sites in the interior.^{[1]: 39–43} He was then ordered to New York, in the Northern Division commanded by Major General Jacob Brown, to complete his work on the harbor defenses with access to the necessary instruments.^[1]: 43 Jackson, unaware that Long had been reassigned out of his division, learned of the order before Long completed the report on March 4 and protested the transfer.^{[1]: 43 [6]}

Between 1817 and 1823, Long’s Army assignments emphasized reconnaissance and scientific exploration in the trans-Mississippi West, combining route mapping, geographic description, and reporting intended to inform federal policy and military planning.^[1]

In 1817, Long headed a military excursion up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony near the confluence with the Minnesota River.^{[1]: 46–47} In recommendations following the trip, he urged the establishment of a permanent post in the region; the Army subsequently established Fort Snelling to secure the Upper Mississippi and protect settlers in the Upper Mississippi Valley.^{[1]: 46–47} Long later published an account of the expedition as Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of Saint Anthony in 1817 (1860).^[7] During the journey, Long encountered two grandsons of the explorer Jonathan Carver, including Johnathan P. King who were traveling to substantiate Carver’s disputed claim to a large land grant in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota (“Carver’s grant”); Long recorded that their efforts did not verify the claim.^{[7]: 10, 43, 65 [8]: 50}

In 1818–1819, Long organized and led the scientific component of the Yellowstone Expedition on the Missouri River and designed and directed construction of the expedition steamboat Western Engineer, described by Wood as “one of the first shallow draft water craft designed for Western waters.”^[1]: 63 Long further credited the vessel with an early application of a cam-cutoff valve to improve operating economy, attributing the innovation to his own work rather than to Henry Miller Shreve.^[1]: 63 The expedition established winter quarters near present-day Council Bluffs, later known as Engineer Cantonment.^{[1]: 59–84}

In 1820, Long commanded a major reconnaissance across the Great Plains toward the Rocky Mountains and southward toward the Red River basin. Published accounts associated with the expedition helped popularize the description of portions of the central Plains as a “Great Desert.”^{[1]: 105–131 [3]}

In 1823, Long led additional reconnaissance in the Upper Mississippi and northern borderlands, including work near Pembina connected with boundary determination at the 49th parallel. In the same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.^{[1]: 133–141 [9]}

Following the conclusion of his western expeditions, Long’s assignments shifted toward federally sponsored transportation surveys authorized under the General Survey Act of 1824.^{[1]: 143–146} The act empowered the President to employ officers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to examine routes for roads and canals of national importance, and it led to the creation of the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements in the War Department to supervise such investigations.

Under this program, Long examined potential routes intended to link the Atlantic seaboard with the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, as well as proposed canal and river improvements intended to facilitate western trade.^{[1]: 145–150} His reports characteristically combined topographic description with engineering discussion of alignments, gradients, and (where relevant) water supply, accompanied by detailed cost estimates. Among these duties were examinations connected with portions of the National Road, surveys in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and investigations related to major canal proposals on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard, including work associated with the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.^[1]

Long also participated in investigations concerning the improvement of western rivers for steamboat navigation, including work associated with the Ohio River and the Tennessee River.^{[1]: 150–152} These assignments reflected the Army’s expanding technical role in transportation planning during the first federal era of internal improvements.

By 1830–1831, Long’s internal-improvements work also extended into early railroad route evaluation in support of state canal-and-rail systems. As an engineer appointed by the Pennsylvania Canal authorities, Long conducted surveys for a rail crossing of the Allegheny Mountain, a component that became the Allegheny Portage Railroad. In the 1831 transmitted reports, Long and Moncure Robinson both favored a railroad over a macadamized road for the portage, while differing on design details and route treatment, including the use of tunnels and the preferred arrangement and geometry of inclined planes.^[10]

In the late 1820s, Long assisted in survey and advisory work associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of the earliest chartered railroads in the United States.^[4] During this period, he also pursued mechanical experimentation in steam locomotive design, receiving his first patent in 1826. Additional patents followed, including innovations in locomotive construction and, later, in pre-stressing systems for timber bridge trusses.^[1]

In 1832, Long joined William Norris and other partners in forming the American Steam Carriage Company. The firm sought to place Long’s locomotive designs into production, but technical and financial difficulties led to its dissolution in 1834.

From June to November 1836, Long conducted surveys for a proposed railroad from Belfast, Maine to Quebec. Although he recommended a feasible route, constitutional restrictions on public loans in Maine and the financial crisis of 1837 prevented the project from proceeding.

In 1837, Long obtained leave from the Army to serve as chief engineer of the newly incorporated Western & Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. His survey work, completed between 1837 and 1840, established the alignment later adopted for construction and contributed to the selection of the railroad’s southern terminus, which became the city of Atlanta.^[11]

In 1837, Congress authorized the building of seven Marine Hospitals.^[12] Long was commissioned to build the first hospital for the Treasury Department at Louisville, Kentucky. Long had been commissioned to build the hospital alongside his other duties, but construction would be delayed until the Mexican War ended. It wasn't until the end of 1845 that work finally began. During the construction of the Louisville Marine Hospital, Long would also begin work on similar Marine Hospitals in Paducah, Kentucky; Natchez, Louisiana; and Napoleon, Arkansas. These Marine Hospitals were based upon plans provided by Robert Mills, the architect of the Washington Monument.

Long was commissioned to build the Marine Hospital at Napoleon, Arkansas, in 1849. Napoleon, Arkansas, was situated at the southern mouth of the Arkansas River. After completing a survey, Long raised objections to building in Napoleon because of the risk of flooding and the likelihood that the town would be destroyed in the future due to the unwieldy Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. He had petitioned for Helena, Arkansas, to be a suitable alternative. In early 185,0 Long's objections to the location were rebuffed. Senator Solon Borland, ignoring Long's objections to the location of Napoleon, reported to the Corps of Topographical Engineers that the situation at Napoleon had been discussed before the bill that would create the Marine Hospital at Napoleon was passed. The erection of the hospital at Napoleon without delay was then ordered. In the Spring of 1850, Long requested $10,250 to begin construction at Napoleon, but it wasn't until August that construction finally began, owing to flooding that hampered work on the foundation and cellar. Delays continued to dog the construction, and by the Spring of 1851, the supervisor wrote to Long, suggesting the suspension of work because contracts were expiring due to delays, and sickness had been rampant, owing to Spring floods. Work resumed in October 1851, and the slow pace continued over the next three years. By August 1854, the hospital was completed, but it did not admit its first patients until 1855. The city of Napoleon was burned by General Sherman in 1862, but the hospital survived. Federal Forces did not use the hospital for its intended purpose; patients were sent elsewhere. While the hospital did survive the war, it wouldn't last long.

Long's observations and objections had been accurate. By March 11, 1868, the river had eroded the land to 52 feet from the hospital's doors.^[13] Less than a month later, and nearly four years after Long's death, a corner of the hospital fell into the Mississippi River. The entire town of Napoleon was engulfed twenty-eight years after Long first objected to the hospital's construction in Napoleon. ^[14]

Of the Marine Hospitals that Long oversaw, the hospital at Louisville, Kentucky,^[15] remains today.

Long retired from the Corps of Engineers in 1863 at the age of 78.^[1]: 267 He died on 4 September 1864, in Alton, Illinois, at the age of 79, and was interred at the Alton cemetery in Alton, Illinois.

Long’s name is commemorated in both geographic features and public historical markers.

• The most prominent feature is Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, first identified during his 1820 expedition and later officially standardized by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1911.^[16][17]
• The city of Longmont, Colorado, founded in 1871, derives its name from Longs Peak; the origin of the place name is documented in a U.S. Geological Survey bulletin on American place names.^[18][19]
• Long’s engineering work is also recognized in state historical marker programs. In Georgia, markers associated with the Western and Atlantic Railroad credit him as chief engineer for the original survey (1837–1840), including the “Zero Mile Post” marker in Atlanta.^[20]
• In New Hampshire, state highway historical markers for Smith Bridge and Blair Bridge reference Long’s patented pre-stressed wooden truss design, the Long truss.^[21][22]
• A Kentucky Historical Marker at the former U.S. Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky recognizes Long’s supervisory role in the hospital’s construction between 1845 and 1852. Designed by architect Robert Mills, the Louisville facility served boatmen on the western waterways during the height of steamboat commerce and became the prototype for seven additional federally funded marine hospitals. Long supervised construction. The building is the only surviving example of an inland U.S. Marine hospital and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.^{[23][1]: 220–225}

• New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 179: Smith Bridge
• New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 196: Blair Bridge

• Goetzmann, William H. Army Exploration in the American West 1803-1863 (Yale University Press, 1959; University of Nebraska Press, 1979)
• Johnston, James Houstoun, Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia, Atlanta, 1931
• Kane, Lucile M., Holmquist, June D., and Gilman, Caroly, eds., The Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long: The Journals of 1817 and 1823 and Related Documents (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1978).
• Nichols, Roger L. (2000). "Long, Stephen Harriman". American National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2000604.
• Sterling, Keir B., ed. (1997). "Long, Stephen Harriman". Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists. Greenwood Press.
• White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.
• Nebraska Studies website
• Archived 2009-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
• U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers - Online Biography of Stephen H. Long

• The Journal of Captain John R. Bell: official journalist for the Stephen H. Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1 folder) is housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries

• Works by Stephen Harriman Long at Project Gutenberg
• PATRICIA JOHANSON - Timeline Biography - 1940-1967 details a 1600 feet (490 m) length minimalist art sculpture 'Stephen Long', installed by Patricia Johanson in 1968 along an abandoned railroad track in Buskirk, upper New York.