ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the most systematic attempt at formulating American national security policy before the Civil War, the work of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications during the decade between 1816 and 1826. It discusses the reactions from other army officers, in order to assess the form, substance, and application of military expertise, the influence of organizational self-interest on its articulation and implementation in policy, and the sometimes contradictory workings of professionalism in a democratic society. The discourse on coastal defence also explains a great deal, both positive and negative, about military knowledge and professional activity in pre-Civil War America. The chapter provides significant clues to the ways in which nineteenth-century army officers examined defence issues and conceived policy, created knowledge and attempted to use it to gain appropriations. Congressmen sought military preparedness, but they also recognized more astutely than the officer corps that American defence needs were limited.
