The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbot, Henry Larcom

ABBOT, Henry Larcom, American military engineer: b. Beverly, Mass., 13 Aug. 1831; graduated at West Point 1854, and entered the engineer corps. Took part in the survey for a Pacific railroad and of the Mississippi River delta, served through the Civil War as engineer and artillerist, was wounded at Bull Run, and commanded the siege artillery before Richmond, an account of which be published in 1867. He was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. Army and major-general U. S. Volunteers. He long commanded the engineers' garrison at Willett's Point, N. Y., established an engineers' school, worked out the submarine defenses of the United States sea coast, and accomplished much in the improvement of mortar batteries and engineering equipment, etc.; was a member of the Gun Foundry Board and the Board of Fortifications and Defense, of that for the protection of the Mississippi basin, of that on the proposed canal from Pittsburg to Lake Erie, and of the technical Committee of the new Panama Canal Company. He drew the plans for the interior harbor at Manitowoc, Wis. He was retired in 1895. He has written besides &lsquo;Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi&rsquo; (1861); &lsquo;Problems of the Panama Canal in 1905 and 1907.&rsquo; He is a member of the Committee of the National Academy of Sciences to report on the slides obstructing the Panama Canal, appointed at the request of President Wilson in 1915.