| This study explores how the nineteenth century engineering mind sought a way to control the Mississippi River. Engineers were at the forefront in the epic struggle between humanity and nature over mastership of the river's alluvial soil. From 1846 to 1881, ideologies of nature, battles of egos, and quests for power molded the engineering debate.;From 1851 to 1859, Andrew A. Humphreys and the Corps of Topographical Engineers conducted the Mississippi Delta Survey. Unfortunately, his report did not receive major distribution until after the Civil War.;By then, the debate had entered a new-phase. A power struggle to influence federal policy developed between Humphreys and the dominionists. At issue was the dominionist theory that levees would force the Mississippi to scour out a deeper channel for itself. Humphreys saw no evidence of this. James Buchanan Eads' success with the Jetties convinced the dominionists that they were correct. When Congress established the Mississippi River Commission in 1879 with Eads as a member, Humphreys retired. But Eads was not able to impose dominionist theories on the commission. It called for further study. Frustrated, Eads resigned. Future surveys revealed that both Eads and Humphreys had made incorrect assumptions about river hydraulics. Their dogmatic stance prevented them from allowing an open discussion. Nevertheless, the commission remained convinced that levees alone could control the river. This theory became the cornerstone of the Army Corps' efforts to improve western rivers.;The devastating flood of 1927 proved the commission wrong. Eighty years after they had been first proposed, accommodationist plans for a diversified system of flood control were implemented. Slowly, engineers had accepted a less antagonistic relationship toward the Mississippi.;Before the Civil War, a lack of data about the river forced the discussion to remain theoretical. Engineers split into two camps. The accommodationists believed that prosperity could only be achieved if humanity could learn to live with the Mississippi. They advocated a system of levees, outlets, and reservoirs that mimicked nature. Their opponents, the dominionists, called for using levees as a means to subjugate the river. |
