James H. Simpson
Encyclopedia
James Hervey Simpson was an officer in the U.S. Army and a member of the United States Topographical Engineers.
, New Jersey
on March 9, 1813, the son of John Simpson and Mary Brunson. He graduated from the United States Military Academy
in 1832 and was initially assigned to the Third Artillery. He served in the Second Seminole War and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1837.
was created (not to be confused with the Corps of Engineers
with whom they were merged during the Civil War). Lieutenant Simpson was one of the officers transferred to the newly created bureau and assigned as an assistant to Captain W. G. Williams who was in charge of harbor construction on Lake Erie
. The following year, he worked on road construction in Florida and then lake surveys in Wisconsin and Ohio. From 1845 to 1847, he was in charge of the harbor of Erie.
and the Navajo
tribal lands. He had recruited wilderness artists Edward and Richard Kern to record the expedition in watercolors, oils, drawings and maps. He survey a road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Sante Fe, New Mexico and then served for a year as the Chief Topographical Engineer for the Department of New Mexico.
. He and his team resurveyed the trails from Fort Leavenworth to Utah and his photographer, Samuel C. Mills
, produced the earliest surviving photographs of features along the trail. Upon his arrival at Camp Floyd
, he was directed to open a new road between that post and Fort Bridger
. Simpson and his team also surveyed the military reservation at Fort Bridger, at Camp Floyd and in the Rush Valley.
In May 1859, he headed an expedition to survey a new route from Camp Floyd
(south of Salt Lake City
) across the Great Salt Lake Desert
of Utah
and through the Great Basin
to Genoa, Nevada
near California. The Army contracted Frederick Lander to immediately to develop the more direct route to California
for use by wagons, and Simpson's survey was later published in 1876.
Simpson's Central Route played a vital role in the transportation of mail, freight, and passengers between the established eastern states and California, especially when hostilities of the Civil War
closed the Butterfield Overland Mail
stagecoach route that ran along the southern border states. George Chorpenning
immediately switched to Simpson's route to run his existing mail and stage line, and the Pony Express
used it as well. In 1861 the Transcontinental Telegraph
was laid along the route, making the Pony Express obsolete. Afterwards, Wells Fargo & Co.
hauled mail, freight, and passengers along Simpson's route until 1869, when transportation and telegraphy were switched to the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad
.
, the completion of which made his Central Nevada Route obsolete. In 1880 he retired to St. Paul, Minnesota
, and died there on March 2, 1883.
The Simpson Park Mountains
in central Nevada, a small range in west-central Utah (Simpson Mountains), and Simpson Springs
Pony Express Station are all named after him.
Early years
He was born in New BrunswickNew Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
on March 9, 1813, the son of John Simpson and Mary Brunson. He graduated from the United States Military Academy
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...
in 1832 and was initially assigned to the Third Artillery. He served in the Second Seminole War and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1837.
Topographical Engineers
In 1838, a separate department known as the U.S. Army's Topographical EngineersCorps of Topographical Engineers
The U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, was separately authorized on 4 July 1838, consisted only of officers, and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal civil works such as lighthouses and other coastal fortifications and navigational routes. It included such...
was created (not to be confused with the Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
with whom they were merged during the Civil War). Lieutenant Simpson was one of the officers transferred to the newly created bureau and assigned as an assistant to Captain W. G. Williams who was in charge of harbor construction on Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
. The following year, he worked on road construction in Florida and then lake surveys in Wisconsin and Ohio. From 1845 to 1847, he was in charge of the harbor of Erie.
New Mexico Expedition, 1849
In 1849, Lieutenant Simpson surveyed areas in the American Southwest, between Santa FeSanta Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
and the Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
tribal lands. He had recruited wilderness artists Edward and Richard Kern to record the expedition in watercolors, oils, drawings and maps. He survey a road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Sante Fe, New Mexico and then served for a year as the Chief Topographical Engineer for the Department of New Mexico.
Other Duties
After six months sick leave, Simpson returned to duty and was transferred to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1851 where he spent the next five years overseeing the roads of the territory. During this period, he was promoted to Captain. From June 1856 to February 1858, Simpson was engaged in coastal survey of Florida.Utah Expedition, 1858-59
In early 1858, Captain Simpson was ordered to join the Army's reinforcements for the Utah WarUtah War
The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between LDS settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 until July 1858...
. He and his team resurveyed the trails from Fort Leavenworth to Utah and his photographer, Samuel C. Mills
Samuel C. Mills
A photographer from Washington, D.C., Samuel C. Mills produced the earliest surviving photographic record of the Oregon Trail and California Trail, from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, to Camp Floyd, Utah Territory.-Early years:...
, produced the earliest surviving photographs of features along the trail. Upon his arrival at Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd was a short-lived U.S. Army post near Fairfield, Utah, United States. The site is now a Utah state park known as Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum.-Camp Floyd:...
, he was directed to open a new road between that post and Fort Bridger
Fort Bridger
Fort Bridger was originally a 19th century fur trading outpost established in 1842 on Blacks Fork of the Green River and later a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon Trail. The Army established a military post here in 1858 during the Utah War until...
. Simpson and his team also surveyed the military reservation at Fort Bridger, at Camp Floyd and in the Rush Valley.
In May 1859, he headed an expedition to survey a new route from Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd was a short-lived U.S. Army post near Fairfield, Utah, United States. The site is now a Utah state park known as Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum.-Camp Floyd:...
(south of Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
) across the Great Salt Lake Desert
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large dry lake in northern Utah between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border which is noted for white sand from evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits...
of Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and through the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
to Genoa, Nevada
Genoa, Nevada
Genoa is an unincorporated town in Douglas County, Nevada, United States. Founded in 1850, it was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory. It is situated within Carson River Valley and is about south of Reno....
near California. The Army contracted Frederick Lander to immediately to develop the more direct route to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for use by wagons, and Simpson's survey was later published in 1876.
Simpson's Central Route played a vital role in the transportation of mail, freight, and passengers between the established eastern states and California, especially when hostilities of the 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...
closed the Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail
The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the U.S. mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, meeting Fort Smith, Arkansas, and continuing through Indian Territory, New Mexico,...
stagecoach route that ran along the southern border states. George Chorpenning
George Chorpenning
George W. Chorpenning Jr. was a pioneer in the transportation of mail, freight, and passengers through the arid and undeveloped western regions of the United States...
immediately switched to Simpson's route to run his existing mail and stage line, and 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...
used it as well. In 1861 the Transcontinental Telegraph
First Transcontinental Telegraph
The First Transcontinental Telegraph was a milestone in electrical engineering and in the formation of the United States of America. It served as the only method of near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts during the 1860s....
was laid along the route, making the Pony Express obsolete. Afterwards, Wells Fargo & Co.
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
hauled mail, freight, and passengers along Simpson's route until 1869, when transportation and telegraphy were switched to the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
.
Civil War
He served (and was captured and released) in the Civil War, and was eventually promoted to a brigadier general.Later career
Simpson was named chief engineer of the Interior Department. He oversaw the construction of the Transcontinental RailroadFirst Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
, the completion of which made his Central Nevada Route obsolete. In 1880 he retired to St. Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, and died there on March 2, 1883.
The Simpson Park Mountains
Simpson Park Mountains
The Simpson Park Mountains, also known as the Simpson Park Range, are located in Lander and Eureka Counties, in central Nevada in the western United States. The steep range runs in a southwest-northeasterly direction between the Toiyabe Range and the Roberts Mountains...
in central Nevada, a small range in west-central Utah (Simpson Mountains), and Simpson Springs
Simpson Springs
Simpson Springs was a water source on the trail west from Salt Lake City across the desert regions. It was first called Egan Spring for explorer Howard Egan, but renamed Simpson Springs for Captain James H...
Pony Express Station are all named after him.
Further reading
- "Navajo Expedition: Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the Navajo Country, Made in 1849" by James H. Simpson, Durwood Ball, and Frank McNitt. ISBN 0-8061-3570-0
- "Report of Explorations across the Great Basin in 1859" by James H. Simpson. ISBN 0-87417-078-8
- "Essay on Coronado's March in Search of the Seven Cities of Cibola", by J. H. Simpson (1869).
External links
- HQ.USACE.Army.mil
- http://books.google.com/books?id=YhQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=James+H.+Simpson+%22Journal+of+a+Military%22&source=bl&ots=1BCKgf6vTM&sig=ltfypLhopBTWPKuDuLdtWVz6jaU&hl=en&ei=R9gNTOqCMJK6NsjrvNcM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Navajo Country by James H. Simpson