Andrew Talcott
Encyclopedia
Andrew Talcott was an American
civil engineer
and close friend of Civil War
General Robert E. Lee
. While serving as a Confederate States of America
Colonel and the State Engineer of Virginia
, he was arrested and made prisoner of war during that conflict.
. He attended West Point
, 1818, graduating second in class. In the Engineers, he was garrisoned at Fort Atkinson
and explored the passage to Fort Snelling
in 1820.
His brother was General George Talcott, Chief of the Ordnance Corps,. His grand-daughter Lucia Beverly Talcott (born 1865) married the famous statistician and inventor Herman Hollerith
in 1890. He is a descendant Joseph Talcott, Colony of Connecticut
Governor from 1724-1741, and John Talcott, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut
.
, at Rhode Island
.
In 1833 he extended a previously invented method of finding latitudinal
direction. He rediscovered the method to determine a place's latitude
from the stars, a method originally invented by the Danish astronomer Peder Horrebow
. On further developing Horrebow's method, it subsequently came to be known as the Horrebow-Talcott Method. The so-called Horrebow-Talcott method fixed latitude "by observing differences of zenith
distances of stars culminating within a short time of each other, and at nearly the same altitude
, on opposite sides of the zenith."
He was hired as superintending engineer for construction on the Hampton Roads
at Fort Calhoun
and Fort Monroe
becoming a superior and friend to the future general, Robert E. Lee
and married Harriet Randolph Hackley at Norfolk, Virginia
, in 1832. (His wife was also to become a close platonic companion to General Lee.) Talcott surveyed the Ohio
-Michigan
border with Lee in the spring of 1835. With the rank of Captain, he resigned his commission in 1836 and by 1839 he was a civil engineer
and surveyor of the Mississippi river delta
together with a young A. B. (Andrew) Gray
.
Talcott was considered for the post of Superintendent of the Coast Survey which was subsequently filled by Alexander Bache
in 1843, but he went on to supervise construction of the Richmond and Danville Railroad
in 1849, where he was later appointed general manager. Talcott became chief engineer and superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad and later appeared as a consultant at the Coroner's jury for the disaster at Desjardins Canal Bridge, Hamilton, Ontario
, 1857.
with Mexico City
by rail via Cordova and Orizaba, supervising W. W. Finney of the Pony Express
. When Escandon purchased the fourth concession from Mosso brothers in 1856, two routes were considered and Talcott was assigned the far more difficult southern passage probably due financial stakes held near Orizaba by the project's investors. The Northern passage was explored by Pascual Almazán). It was supposed to be the steepest railway undertaken up to that time, rising 211 ft/mi in a distance of 23 miles (37 km) and to span the Metlac River was an English-made iron bridge 380 feet (115.8 m) high.
, Talcott accepted the positions of Colonel and State Engineer of Virginia
in 1861. Talcott was charged with the coastal defense of Richmond
and James river
. After rearming the star-shaped Fort Boykin, the fort was later crippled by the ironclad corvette USS Galena
's escort. Talcott was arrested in New York
, March 1863, only to be held at Fort Warren
in Massachusetts as a Mexican citizen. He returned to a French
-reorganized Mexican project in the late 1860s under a new concession where he remained until Juárez
defeated Maximilian
's conservative regime in 1867.
land deeded to his father-in-law R. S. Hackley by the Duke of Alagon in 1819. In his later years, along with his son, Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott, Talcott invested in development in Bon Air, VA
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and close friend of Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
. While serving as a Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
Colonel and the State Engineer of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, he was arrested and made prisoner of war during that conflict.
Early life
Talcott was born on April 20, 1797 in Glastonbury, ConnecticutGlastonbury, Connecticut
Glastonbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, founded in 1693. The population was 31,876 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is located on the banks of the Connecticut River, 7 miles southeast of Hartford. The town...
. He attended West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
, 1818, graduating second in class. In the Engineers, he was garrisoned at Fort Atkinson
Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)
Fort Atkinson was the first United States Army post to be established west of the Missouri River in the unorganized region of the Louisiana Purchase of the United States. Located just east of present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the fort was erected in 1819 and abandoned in 1827...
and explored the passage to Fort Snelling
Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Fort Snelling, originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, was a military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River in Hennepin County, Minnesota...
in 1820.
His brother was General George Talcott, Chief of the Ordnance Corps,. His grand-daughter Lucia Beverly Talcott (born 1865) married the famous statistician and inventor Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith was an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data. He was the founder of one of the companies that later merged and became IBM.-Personal life:Hollerith was born in Buffalo, New...
in 1890. He is a descendant Joseph Talcott, Colony of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
Governor from 1724-1741, and John Talcott, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
.
Career
Talcott's career was as a military and civil engineer building forts, roads and railroads both in the States and Mexico. He started the 1824 construction of Fort AdamsFort Adams
Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification. Its first commander was Captain John Henry who was later instrumental in starting the War of 1812.-History:...
, at Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
.
In 1833 he extended a previously invented method of finding latitudinal
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
direction. He rediscovered the method to determine a place's latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
from the stars, a method originally invented by the Danish astronomer Peder Horrebow
Peder Horrebow
Peder [Nielsen] Horrebow was a Danish astronomer. Born in Løgstør, Jutland to a poor family of fishermen, Horrebow entered the University of Copenhagen in 1703. He worked his way through grammar school and university by virtue of his technical knowledge: he repaired mechanical and musical...
. On further developing Horrebow's method, it subsequently came to be known as the Horrebow-Talcott Method. The so-called Horrebow-Talcott method fixed latitude "by observing differences of zenith
Zenith
The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e...
distances of stars culminating within a short time of each other, and at nearly the same altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
, on opposite sides of the zenith."
He was hired as superintending engineer for construction on the Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
at Fort Calhoun
Fort Wool
Fort Wool was the companion to Fort Monroe in protecting Hampton Roads from seafaring threats. This site was once the dumping place for ships’ ballast....
and Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe was a military installation in Hampton, Virginia—at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula...
becoming a superior and friend to the future general, Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
and married Harriet Randolph Hackley at Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, in 1832. (His wife was also to become a close platonic companion to General Lee.) Talcott surveyed the Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
-Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
border with Lee in the spring of 1835. With the rank of Captain, he resigned his commission in 1836 and by 1839 he was a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and surveyor of the Mississippi river delta
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
together with a young A. B. (Andrew) Gray
Andrew Gray (surveyor)
Andrew Belcher Gray was an American surveyor.He studied engineering and surveying under Andrew Talcott, and surveyed the Mississippi Delta with him in 1839, before joining the Texas Navy as a midshipman...
.
Talcott was considered for the post of Superintendent of the Coast Survey which was subsequently filled by Alexander Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache was an American physicist, scientist and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey mapping of the United States coastline.-Biography:...
in 1843, but he went on to supervise construction of the Richmond and Danville Railroad
Richmond and Danville Railroad
The Richmond and Danville Railroad was chartered in Virginia in the United States in 1847. The portion between Richmond and Danville, Virginia was completed in 1856...
in 1849, where he was later appointed general manager. Talcott became chief engineer and superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad and later appeared as a consultant at the Coroner's jury for the disaster at Desjardins Canal Bridge, Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, 1857.
Mexican railroad
He was engaged as an engineer late in 1857 by A. Escandon who, with English financing, planned to connect VeracruzVeracruz, Veracruz
Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...
with Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
by rail via Cordova and Orizaba, supervising W. W. Finney of the Pony Express
Pony Express
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...
. When Escandon purchased the fourth concession from Mosso brothers in 1856, two routes were considered and Talcott was assigned the far more difficult southern passage probably due financial stakes held near Orizaba by the project's investors. The Northern passage was explored by Pascual Almazán). It was supposed to be the steepest railway undertaken up to that time, rising 211 ft/mi in a distance of 23 miles (37 km) and to span the Metlac River was an English-made iron bridge 380 feet (115.8 m) high.
Civil wars
At the request of LeeRobert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, Talcott accepted the positions of Colonel and State Engineer of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in 1861. Talcott was charged with the coastal defense of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
and James river
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
. After rearming the star-shaped Fort Boykin, the fort was later crippled by the ironclad corvette USS Galena
USS Galena (1862)
USS Galena — an ironclad screw steamer — was one of the first three ironclads, each of a different design, built by the Union Navy during the American Civil War....
's escort. Talcott was arrested in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, March 1863, only to be held at Fort Warren
Fort Warren (Massachusetts)
Fort Warren is a historic fort on the Georges Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. The fort is pentagonal, made with stone and granite, and was constructed from 1833–1861, completed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War...
in Massachusetts as a Mexican citizen. He returned to a French
French intervention in Mexico
The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...
-reorganized Mexican project in the late 1860s under a new concession where he remained until Juárez
Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
defeated Maximilian
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
's conservative regime in 1867.
Personal life
As a co-claimant he filed an unsuccessful suit before the Supreme Court in 1853, regarding FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
land deeded to his father-in-law R. S. Hackley by the Duke of Alagon in 1819. In his later years, along with his son, Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott, Talcott invested in development in Bon Air, VA
Bon Air, Virginia
Bon Air is a census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 16,366 at the 2010 census. The community is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region, and shares a post office with Richmond...
.