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The U.S. Army played a key role in exploring the nation’s
vast new lands acquired through purchase and conquest during the first half of the 19th century.
Military-scientific expeditions crisscrossed the West, mapping the country, gathering scientific
data, identifying potential resources for exploitation, and surveying routes for roads and
railroads.
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Through the 1850s, this western reconnaissance was led by the army’s topographical
engineers, or topogs, as they were often called, most of them graduates of West Point. Unlike the
regular army engineers who worked mainly on construction and fortification, the topogs
specialized in mapping and surveying. Their skills and hard work opened lands formerly known
only to native inhabitants and a relatively small number of fur trappers and traders to economic
exploitation and a growing influx of settlers from the eastern United States and from Europe.
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