William R. Livermore

While still a West Point cadet, in 1865, William Roscoe Livermore saw some war service, and he had much responsible work to do in the Engineering Corps during the next forty years. But the keenest regret of his life, as he himself stated it, was that he had been just too young to make his service really useful in the Civil War, and much too old for his government to utilize his training and experience when this country entered the Great War in 1917. Nevertheless, Colonel Livermore was one of those very useful officers whose life work, although the public heard little about it, was an essential part of the country’s military history. He was responsible for the direction of fortification work at Key West, Tortugas, Baltimore, Newport, and New Bedford, was for a time Chief Engineer of the Department of Texas and later of the Department of the East, and had in charge the survey of the Lakes, the improvement work on the Missouri River, and the development of the harbors along the New England Coast.

In company with English engineers, he had a part in the laying of the cable from New York to Havana in 1868. To lighthouse work he gave a large measure of attention, and was responsible for many improvements in the Fog Signal Systems. It was he who made the report to the government, recommending an expenditure for the deepening of the channel through the great South Bay, so that gun-boats could be brought from New England to New York Harbor without going to sea. Colonel Livermore typified the clear-headed and capable soldier of the scientific group, the most industrious and faithful of our military workers.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1920 Century Association Yearbook