Corps of Topographical Engineers The U . S . Army Corps of Topographical Engineers , authorized on 4 July 1838 , consisted only of officers and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal civil works such as lighthouses and other coastal fortifications and navigational routes . It included such officers as George Meade , John C . Frémont and Stephen Long . It was merged with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863 , at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes . In the mid - 19th century , Corps of Engineers ' officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U . S . Naval officers . In 1841 , Congress created the Lake Survey . The Survey , based in Detroit , Mich . , was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids . The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852 . Significance to US history . William Goetzmann has written : Major expeditions . In all , there were six major expeditions into the Louisiana Purchase , the first of course being the best known Corps of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark in 1804 - 1806 . A second expedition in 1804 included astronomer and naturalist John Dunbar and prominent Philadelphia chemist William Hunter . This expedition attempted to follow the Red River to its source in Texas , then controlled by Spain , but turned back after three months . In April 1806 a second Red River Expedition was led by Captain Richard Sparks and included astronomer and surveyor Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis , a University of Pennsylvania medical student who served as the expedition ’ s botanist . The group of 24 traveled 615 miles up the Red River before being turned back by Spanish authorities . President Thomas Jefferson hoped that this expedition would be nearly as important as the one led by Lewis and Clark , but the interruption by Spanish authorities prevented this hope from being realized . In 1805 – 1806 , Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was ordered by General James Wilkinson , Governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory , to find the source of the Mississippi River . In 1806 – 1807 , President Jefferson ordered Lieutenant Pike , on another expedition , to find the headwaters of the Arkansas River and Red River . This is better known as the Pike Expedition . Spanish forces arrested Pike and confiscated his papers , but assigned a translator and cartographer to translate Pike ' s documents . In 1817 Major Stephen H . Long explored the upper Mississippi River , selecting sites for Fort Smith on the Arkansas River and Fort St . Anthony at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi . In 1819 , President James Monroe and Secretary of War John C . Calhoun ordered General Henry Atkinson to lead what became known as the Yellowstone Expedition . One objective was to eliminate British influence among the Native American tribes in the region . Nearly 1 , 000 soldiers were transported by five steamboats up the Missouri River to the Mandan villages at the mouth of the Yellowstone , where they built a fort . This was the first known use of steam propulsion in the west . See also . Army Geospatial Center