En gineers, CORPS OF

Body of officers, honor graduates of U. S. Military Academy. Their duties comprise reconnoitering and surveying for military purposes; the selection of sites and formation of plans and estimates for military defenses; the construction and repair of fortifications and their acce ories of every description; the planning and superintending of defensive or offensive works of troops in the field; the examination of water of communications for supplies and for military movements, and the construction of military roads and bridges; also for the execution of river and harbor improvements a igned to it, and such other duties as the President may order. It collects, arranges and preserves all correspondence, reports, memoirs, estimates, plans, drawings, deeds, titles, and models which relate to these duties. The Corps of Engineers consists of 1 brigade-general, 6 colonels, 12 lieutenant-colonels, 24 majors, 30 captains, 26 first lieutenants and 10 second lieutenants. There is also a battalion of engineer troops officered by the Corps, having headquarters at Willet's Point in N. Y. Harbor, the school of application for engineers.