Barton Stone Alexander (September 4, 1819 – December 15, 1878) was a Union Army lieutenant colonel, engineer regiment commander and chief engineer for the defenses of Washington during the American Civil War. In recognition of his service, in 1866, he was appointed to the brevet rank of brigadier general in the regular army, to rank from March 13, 1865. He was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in the United States Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers, which at times was both a part of and separate from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. After graduating from West Point as a second lieutenant in the Class of 1842, he served in the Mexican–American War, building fortifications to protect American supply lines in the advance on Mexico City. After the end of the war, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., where he served as architect for the Scott Building and Quarters Buildings at the U.S. Soldiers' Home and took over the completion of the Smithsonian Institution Building after dissatisfaction with the pace of the first architect caused him to be dismissed.
After the completion of the Smithsonian in 1855, he traveled to New England, where he supervised the rebuilding of the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, a project widely considered to be one of the most difficult to be attempted by the U.S. Government up to that time.
During the American Civil War, he served as an advisor to the Engineering Brigade of the Army of the Potomac and became chief engineer of the defenses of Washington, D.C. Following the conclusion of hostilities, he served as chief engineer of the Military Division of the Pacific, making him the head engineer for every military construction project on the West Coast. In later years, he persuaded the U.S. government to acquire Pearl Harbor from the Kingdom of Hawaii and supervised numerous irrigation and land reclamation projects in California's central valley. He died on December 15, 1878, in San Francisco, California.
Pre-Civil War Alexander was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky,Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. "Barton Stone Alexander", Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963. He entered West Point in the fall of 1838. Alexander was a diligent student, and corrected an entering weakness in mathematics to graduate seventh of 56 cadets in the Class of 1842. Between 1843 and 1848, he worked on several fortification projects along the East Coast of the United States, including Forts Pulaski, Jackson, and the defenses of New York City.Introduction to Central Valley Irrigation projects, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. , p. 19. In 1848, he participated in the Mexican–American War as a second lieutenant of engineers, helping build defenses to protect American supply lines as Winfield Scott's army advanced on Mexico City. After the conclusion of the war, now-First Lieutenant Alexander returned to West Point for a four-year assignment as Treasurer and Superintending Engineer for the Cadets' Barracks and Mess Hall.Field, Cynthia R. "Director's Column: The Second Architect of the Smithsonian Building." Smithsonian Preservation Quarterly, Fall 1994 edition. The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. In 1852, Alexander was assigned to Washington, D.C., where he assisted in the design and construction of several government buildings.
The first of these was the Scott Building of the U.S. Soldiers' Home, now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home. The building was named for General Winfield Scott, who donated $100,000 for the establishment of the Soldiers' Home in 1851. It served as the central focus of the complex, and still stands today.History of the Soldiers' Home and adjacent Lincoln Cottage Accessed September 5, 2007 Constructed in the Romanesque Revival style, the Scott Building features a round-arched motif utilizing white Vermont marble.Poppeliers, John C. and Chambers, S. Allen. What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture. John Wiley and Sons, 2003. p. 56
At the same time as his work on the Scott Building, Alexander was asked to take up the challenge of completing the Smithsonian Institution Building, the progress of which had bogged down under architect James Renwick Jr. In August 1853, Alexander accepted, and by 1855, the Smithsonian Building was complete. During construction, Alexander slightly altered Renwick's original design by placing the Smithsonian's main lecture hall on the second floor. The change allowed for superior acoustics and a wider space than could be found on the first floor.Upper Main Hall diagram, The Smithsonian. Accessed September 5, 2007 To support the large lecture hall and the central core of the building, Alexander arranged for the installation of fireproof masonry-encased iron structural columns. These would prove their value on January 24, 1865, when a fire broke out on the roof above the lecture hall. The resulting blaze destroyed the hall and damaged much of the rest of the structure. Thanks to the fireproof columns, however, the Smithsonian building did not collapse.Scott, Pamela. Capital Engineers: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Development of Washington, D.C., 1790–2004. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2007. Chapter 2, pp. 38–39.
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse
Following his work on the Smithsonian, but before the Scott Building finished construction, Alexander traveled to New England, where he was assigned to a project at the entrance of Boston harbor. That project, the rebuilding of Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, was widely considered to be one of the most difficult to be attempted by the U.S. Government up to that time.Kelley, Robert. Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley. University of California Press, 1998. p. 126. Designed by Brigadier General Joseph Totten, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lighthouse was intended to replace a structure that had been destroyed in an 1851 storm. With multiple ships wrecking on the ledge annually, the need for a lighthouse was crucial.Boston Marine Society, Committee Report, November, 1838. Appointed superintendent of the lighthouse construction in April 1855, newly promoted Captain Alexander modified Totten's design in accordance with conditions at the site. Because the site of the lighthouse was continually awash, except at low tide and calm seas, the work of preparing the interlocking granite blocks and iron framework of the lighthouse was done at nearby Government Island, adjacent to Cohasset, Massachusetts.History of Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, Cohasset Chamber of Commerce. Accessed September 5, 2007
The work progressed slowly, hampered by the partially submerged nature of the site, violent storms that wracked the area, and the fact that preparatory work had to be done away from the building site. During construction, a particularly violent storm hit the construction site, sweeping away much of the iron framework intended to support the stone shell of the lighthouse. Captain Alexander was discouraged, reportedly saying, "If wrought iron won't stand it, I have my fears about a stone tower." Accessed September 5, 2007. Those fears were allayed when news reached Alexander that the damage had been due to a ship striking the lighthouse, rather than from just the storm alone. Work recommenced on building the lighthouse, and the final stone was laid on June 29, 1860, five years after Alexander and his workmen first landed at the ledge. The final cost of about $300,000 made it one of the most expensive lighthouses in United States history.
Civil War Following the completion of the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse project in 1860, the secession of South Carolina and the beginning of the American Civil War allowed Alexander to put his skills to military use for the first time since the Mexican-American War. On May 24, 1861, he was among several hundred engineers who marched into Virginia to begin building fortifications to protect Washington, D.C., which was located on the border between the Union state of Maryland and the Confederate state of Virginia.U.S., War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, (Washington, D.C.: The Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), Series I, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 38. In July 1861, the force that had marched into northern Virginia on May 24 found itself opposed by a large Confederate States Army force that had marched up from the south. In the haste to meet the Confederates in battle, Alexander found himself serving as an infantry officer and was assigned to the 1st Division of the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under the command of Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler.Official Records, Series I, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 333. It was a situation common to the young Union Army, which found itself short of experienced officers. Many engineer officers building defenses south of Washington were assigned to a regiment or division during the First Battle of Bull Run. Alexander received a brevet to major in the regular army for his service during the battle.Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, , p. 100.
Engineering Brigade Following the defeat at Bull Run, the Union Army retreated back to the defenses of Washington. Throughout the remainder of 1861, the newly named Army of the Potomac, under the direction of its new commander, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, expanded and improved the improvised defenses that had been built in the seven weeks between the occupation of Northern Virginia and the Battle of Bull Run. New regiments arrived in Washington daily, and were placed in camps in and around the city. Two of these new arrivals—the 15th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the 50th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment—were designated "engineer regiments" and placed under the superintendence of Lt. Col. Alexander.History of the Topographical Engineers, Engineers in the Civil War section. Accessed September 5, 2007. Following a brief training period under Alexander, the two regiments were declared to be an "Engineering Brigade" and placed under the command of Brig. Gen. Daniel P. Woodbury. Woodbury's brigade was itself under the command of Brig. Gen. John G. Barnard, chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac. Alexander remained attached to the Engineering Brigade as an assistant.Official Records, Series I, Volume 5, Chapter 14, p. 24.
Alexander continued in this role during the Engineering Brigade's deployment with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign, several times performing ably under hostile fire. He was appointed a brevet lieutenant colonel for his service at the Siege of Yorktown, as of May 4, 1862. Following the abandonment of the campaign and the return of the Army of the Potomac to northern Virginia, General Barnard, now chief engineer of defenses of Washington, D.C., requested Alexander serve as his aide-de-camp. Alexander accepted and served in that capacity throughout 1862.Official Records, Series I, Volume 19, Chapter 31 Part 2 (serial 28), p. 420 When the Topographical Engineers and the Army Corps of Engineers were merged on March 3, 1863, Alexander (whose permanent U.S. Army rank was captain until this time) was promoted to major, while retaining his brevet (honorary) rank of lieutenant colonel.U.S. War Department, General Order No. 79, March 31, 1863. September 5, 2007.