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Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Harley Bascom Ferguson Papers, #2970, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

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• China Relief Expedition (1900-1901)
• Davis, Dwight Filley, 1879-1945.
• Ferguson, Harley Bascom, b. 1875.
• Flood control--Mississippi River Valley.
• Industrial mobilization--United States--History--20th century.
• Maine (Battleship)
• Mississippi River.
• Newport News (Va.)--History--20th century.
• River engineering--Mississippi River.
• United States. Army. Corps of Engineers--Civil functions--History--20th century.
• United States. Army. Corps of Engineers--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• World War, 1914-1918--France.

Harley Bascom Ferguson (1875-1968), of Waynesville, N.C., graduated from West Point in 1897 and served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. During his military service he was stationed in Cuba, 1898; the Phillippines, 1899; and as chief engineer of the China Relief Expedition, 1900, of the Boxer War. He was also district engineer in Montgomery, Ala., 1907-1909; the executive officer in charge of the U.S.S. "Maine" in Havana harbor, 1910-1911; and district engineer in Milwaukee, Wis., 1913-1916. During World War I, he served in France as brigadier general and chief engineer of the 2nd Army, and on his return commanded the Newport News (Va.) port of embarkation. He was district engineer in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1920. He was in charge of organization of industrial mobilization, working with the assitant secretary of war, Dwight F. Davis, and served as director of the Army Industrial College, 1921-1927. He also served as division engineer of Gulf Division, New Orleans, La., 1928; of the Ohio River Division, 1928-1930; and of the South Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., 1930-1932. From 1932 until his retirement as major general in 1939, he was division engineer of the Lower Mississippi River Division and president of the Mississippi River Commission, with headquarters in Vicksburg, Miss. He was a member of special engineering boards concerned with rivers and harbors, 1930-1932; the St. Lawrence Waterway, 1930-1931; Muscle Shoals; the Delaware River; the Lexington Dam; the mouth of the Columbia River; and the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The collection includes papers pertaining to Ferguson's military assignments in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, particularly to service in the China Relief Expediton, 1901; the raising of the U.S.S. "Maine" in Havana harbor, 1910- 1911; and flood control on the Mississippi River, 1932-1939. There also is information on his World War I service as a general of engineers in France and commander of the Newport News (Va.) port of embarkation, and his work with industrial mobilization in the office of Assistant Secretary of War Dwight Filley Davis, 1921-1927.

Oversize volume (SV-2970/12).