David Porter's Heap

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David Porter's Heap in the 1890s

David Porter Heap (born May 24, 1843 in San Stefano , Ottoman Empire , † October 25, 1910 in Pasadena , California , United States ) was an American engineer and officer in the United States Army , in which he was last in the rank of Brigade Generals was. He belonged to the Army of the Potomac and the United States Army Corps of Engineers and took part in the American Civil War. In addition, he also appeared as a (co-) author of various reports, books and other publications.

life and career

David Porter Heap was born on May 24, 1843, the son of Gwynn Harris Heap, the then US Consul General in Constantinople , and his wife Evelina Cora (Porter) Heap, in the city of San Stefano near present-day Istanbul . At an advanced age he attended first the Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania , then the Georgetown College in Washington, DC and from July 1, 1860 the United States Military Academy in West Point , New York , which the cadet graduated on June 13, 1864 when he graduated and advanced to the United States Army . Here he served as first lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and was involved in the so-called Rebellion of the Seceding States . As early as June 24, 1864, eleven days after graduating from the US Military Academy, he took part in the siege of Petersburg with the Engineer Battalion of the Army of the Potomac and was involved in it until September 13, 1864. As a member of the corps, he was involved in the demolition of a mine in the crater battle of July 30, 1864. On September 13, 1864 he was released from duty due to illness and did not return to the battalion of engineers until October 13, 1864. With this he was then until February 24, 1865, before he was released from service and only returned to his troops one day after the end of the siege, on March 26, 1865. During the period between October and February he was busy with construction and repair work at the front, among other things, but also in the campaign of revenge after the destruction of the Weldon Railroad (August 14th to 25th, 1864) at the Meherrin River from December 7th to 10th Participated in 1864. After his return to the troops at the end of March 1865, he took part in the persecution of the rebel army under the leadership of Robert E. Lee until April 9, 1865. During this time he was also promoted to honorary captain (April 2) for his fearless and meritorious service during the siege of Petersburg. Furthermore, in April 1865 he was involved in the construction of bridges, in exploration and in the restoration of roads and made maps and plans of the rebel activities around the battle of High Bridge .

When the American Civil War ended a month later, the Brevet Captain had been with the Engineer Battalion for more than a week on the way to Willets Point in what is now Queens , where he finally arrived with his troops on June 20, 1865. From then on he was stationed in the garrison at Willets Point, which at that time still belonged to New Jersey , until November 13 of the following year . During this period he was quartermaster of his battalion from October 22 to November 13, 1866. As an engineering assistant, he was subsequently involved from November 16, 1866 to April 1867 in the rebuilding of the now listed Fort Ontario in the US state of New York. This period also dropped his promotion to captain on March 7, 1867. He then served for a period of almost three years from April 1867 to 19 February 1870 as an engineering assistant at improvement and renovation works of ports on Lake Michigan before he deployed, to chief engineer of the Department of Dakota, one of the various departments of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and worked as such from February 19, 1870 to October 21, 1872. During this time, the period from December 15, 1870 to April 20, 1871, during which he stayed in Europe or was on the way there and back, also fell. Under the orders of Major Quincy Adams Gillmore , an 1849 graduate of the United States Military Academy, Heap was stationed in Charleston , South Carolina from November 15, 1872 to February 5, 1874 , and fell December 27, 1873 during that time until February 25, 1874 due to illness. Under the command of Major Henry Larcom Abbot , another graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1854, Heap was from February 24 to July 8, 1874 as an engineering assistant in the construction of the Harbor Defenses of New York , the coastal fortifications at the east entrance of the New Yorker Port involved.

Under Major Governor Kemble Warren , Captain David Porter Heap was stationed from July 10, 1874 to March 31, 1875 in Newport , Rhode Island , before he was then from March 31, 1875 to May 14, 1877 for the Engineer Department in the course of the Centennial International Exhibition was active. He then returned to Governor Kemble Warren in Newport, where he was finally stationed again from May 15, 1877 to March 3, 1880. Subsequently, he was from March 10, 1880 to June 30, 1881 as an engineer in the Tenth Lighthouse District , which mainly included Lake Ontario and Lake Erie , but also the lighthouses on the Saint Lawrence River , before he, among other things, in the period Took part in the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris , France , from August 1 to November 15, 1881, representing the United States . After he remained in Europe until April 1882, he was then responsible for surveys, activities on the rivers and improvement work at the ports in Western Michigan from May 16, 1882 to March 31, 1883 . During this time he was appointed major in the US Army Corps of Engineers on June 23, 1882. He then belonged to the United States Lighthouse Board as Engineer Secretary for a period of about four years from March 8, 1883 to July 14, 1887 on. Immediately afterwards he worked again as an engineer in the Third Lighthouse District from July 6, 1887 and in the same position from July 7, 1887 to March 19, 1888 in the Fourth Lighthouse District . As early as 1882 he belonged to a group of people who campaigned for the improvement of the situation on the Saginaw River . Throughout his life he was in numerous such groups, which campaigned for improvements to rivers and ports. After that, Heap's further career progressed somewhat over the next few years; in November 1894, however, he appears as an engineer of the Third Lighthouse District in Tompkinsville on Staten Island , where it can be assumed that he was a permanent member of this until then.

On May 10, 1895 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel . He was then responsible for the fortifications, rivers and ports in Portland , Maine , until October 1895 , and then in the same position until March 19, 1897 in Wilmington , North Carolina , before he was again employed as an engineer for the Third Lighthouse District in Tompkinsville . At the beginning of the 20th century , Heap was transferred to the west coast of the United States , where he worked as a division engineer for a period of over three years from September 23, 1901 to October 16, 1904 for the South Pacific Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers was. During this period he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Corps of Engineers from September 23, 1901 to June 27, 1903, which was responsible for the review and promotion of certain officers to the Corps of Engineers. In a similar activity he was a member from September 23, 1901 to March 21, 1902, a committee that was responsible for the review and promotion of lieutenants in the Army for transfer to the Corps of Engineers. He was also from September 23, 1901 to October 16, 1904 a member of a committee of technical officers who was responsible for the Port of San Francisco and adjacent waters, as well as surveys and studies of and for the improvement of the Sacramento River and the Feather River carried out .

He was also from August 28, 1901 to September 10, 1903 for a period of just three years a member of the California Debris Commission , which was mainly responsible for regulating the California rivers that sedimented and damaged by gold mining and gold prospecting upriver in the Sierra Nevada was responsible. Heap was responsible for regulating hydraulic mining in the US state of California. As a technical officer was from November 10, 1901 to October 16, 1904 on the staff of Samuel Baldwin Marks Young , who was in command of the military within the state of California from February 1901 to March 1902. After his appointment as Colonel of the Corps of Engineers on April 13, 1903, he was appointed Brigadier General of the United States on February 16, 1905 and retired on the same day at his own request after more than 40 years in the service of his home country 61 years out of the military. He then remained in California, where he died on October 25, 1910 at the age of 67 in Pasadena and was subsequently buried at Arlington National Cemetery. During his active time he published various books and reports and appeared, among other things, as an inventor and in 1895 applied for a patent for a light signal that both ships and lighthouses could use. In 1896 he applied for a patent for an instrument for locating sounds; In 1897 a patent for a so-called topophone .

family

His first wife was Elizabeth "Bessie" Brown Beale, after the marriage: Elizabeth Beale Heap, with whom he had the son David Porter Heap junior (1877-1895) and who herself died in 1889 at the age of 37. In his second marriage, Heap was with Josephine Bigelow Wright, after marriage: Josephine Bigelow Wright Heap (1863-1949), married. She was buried at the side of her husband, who had died 39 years earlier, at Arlington National Cemetery.

Works (selection)

  • 1876: Engineer Department US Army at the International Exhibition
  • 1881: The Paris Electrical Exhibition
  • 1883: History of the Application of the Electric to Lighting the Coasts of France
  • 1884: Electrical Appliances of the Present Day
  • 1887: Ancient and Modern Lighthouses
  • 1895: Patent 543730 for Light Signal
  • 1896: Patent 564926 for Sound Locating Instrument
  • 1897: Patent US590062 for Topophon

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Porter Heap in Prabook, accessed August 26, 2017
  2. ^ Tenth District Lighthouse Map , accessed August 26, 2017
  3. ↑ Patent US 543730 A Light Signal (English), accessed on August 26, 2017
  4. ↑ Patent US 564926 A Sound Locating Instrument , accessed August 26, 2017
  5. ↑ Patent US US590062 A Topophone , accessed August 26, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Heap, David Porter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American engineer and officer
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH San Stefano , Ottoman Empire
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1910
Place of death Pasadena , California , United States