The Politics of Military Professionalism: The Engineer Company and the Political Activities of the Antebellum U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

This article examines how the political activities of antebellum U.S. engineering officers on behalf of the Engineer Company demonstrate the range of mid-nineteenth-century military professionalism. These efforts indicate their sense of a professional responsibility to provide the nation with the military capability to defend itself, but this lobbying was circumscribed by the engineers’ awareness that as officers they had to remain subordinate to the civil government and its policies. This tension can be seen in the methods officers selected for their lobbying and in the internal politicking within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the company’s proper role.