Dan Christie Kingman – Brigadier general, United States Army

Courtesy of the United States Army

Brigadier General Dan Christie Kingman
Chief of Engineers (October 12, 1913-March 6, 1916)

Born March 6, 1852, in Dover, New Hampshire, Dan Kingman graduated second in the Military Academy class of 1875 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers.

He served as an instructor at the Military Academy and as the engineer officer of the Army’s Department of the Platte.

In 1883 he also began the construction of roads and bridges in the new Yellowstone National Park. Kingman directed improvements along the lower Mississippi River in 1886-90 and received the thanks of the Louisiana legislature for “splendid service rendered” during the 1890 flood. He oversaw harbor and fortification work on Lake Ontario in 1891-95 and improvements on the Tennessee River in the last half of that decade.   In the latter assignment he initiated planning for federal cost-sharing with private hydroelectric-power investors for a lock and dam built below Chattanooga.

Kingman oversaw substantial harbor improvements at Cleveland in 1901-05 and headed the Corps’ Savannah District and Southeast Division in 1906-13. The Panama Canal was completed while he was Chief of Engineers.

He retired March 6, 1916, and died November 14, 1916, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. General Kingman was buried with high military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Among the pallbearers were Chief of Staff General Hugh L. Scott and two former Chiefs of Engineers, Generals Mackenzie and Bixby.

Buried with him in Section 3 are his wife, Eugenia Jennings Kingman (1852-1931) and their son, Frederick Eustis Kingman (1888-1915), First Lieutenant, CAC, United States Army.  In an adjacent gravesite is buried his other son, Ralph Willcox Kingman, Colonel, United States Army.

GENERAL D. C. KINGMAN DEAD
Former Chief of Engineers of the United States Army Was 64

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey, November 14, 1916 – Brigadier General Daniel C. Kingman, USA, retired, formerly Chief of Engineers of the Army, died here on Tuesday, in his sixty-fifth year.  He was born in New Hampshire on March 6, 1852 and entered the Military Academy at West Point from that State in 1870.  He was graduated in 1875, being second in a class of forty-three cadets, and was assigned as Second Lieutenant to the Corps of Engineers.

In August 1878 he returned to West Point as Assistant Professor of Engineering, remaining there three years, and then became engineer of the Platte.

General Kingman was in charge of the improvements of the Yellowstone National Park from 1883 to 1887 and had served in all parts of the country on lake, river and harbor improvements. He continued in active service until March 6 of this year when he was retired.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard