His
researches were chiefly along the upper river at Illinois. It is said
that while there he was struck with the enormous potential energy of
the current, and reported that if a dam were constructed at a certain
place, a great storehouse of power would be possible. This was long
before the day of the dynamo, by which such power could be harnessed.
Many years later, however, his dream came true, at the place he had
indicated,--the great power dam nearly a mile long blocking the "Father
of Waters" for the first time in his tumultuous career, at Keokuk, Iowa.
Farther down stream, above St. Louis, he began a system of river
improvements which aroused no little opposition among property owners.
The dispute that arose was one of the first things which brought the
name of Robert E. Lee to public attention. But despite the
short-sighted protests of some citizens of St. Louis, Lee went quietly
ahead and carried the work through to the permanent betterment of the
city. "I was sent here to do certain work, and I shall do it," was his
terse comment.
When he had completed his work on the Mississippi, he was sent to New
York to complete the harbor defenses at Fort Hamilton--down at the
gateway of the city. He had been made captain of engineers by this
time, and was looked upon as one of the ablest men in his line of work,
in the army.
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