Survey piloted the fleet into Port Royal; another led the Iron Clads in the attack on Sumter; a third stationed the fleet in the bombardment of Jackson and St. Philip; and a fourth rendered signal services in the assault on Fort Fisher. They were on the Peninsula, guides in the wilderness on the retreat to Malvern Hill; at Chickamauga, Knoxville, Missionary Ridge; the march to the Sea and pursuit through the Carolinas; on the Red river; before Petersburgh; in the Sounds of North Carolina; the Sea Islands of Georgia and Florida and the swamps of Louisiana; and, wherever they went, few in numbers though they were, they gained honor for their cause and credit for their Chief.
The Survey of the Coast has excited the admiration of the whole civilized world for its thoroughness and accuracy, and has not been excelled by the most advanced nations. It has justly been claimed to be a scientific work, as well as a practical one, for science has guided those who have conducted it and led them through the fields of their labors on the only sure basis to produce knowledge. And the great knowledge that has been acquired by its scientific prosecution, is beyond comparison with the little that would have resulted had it been conducted on the less thorough methods of Nautical Surveying that have been so earnestly advocated. We cannot compute the value of what has been learned in dollars and cents; that it has saved to the Nation many times over, all that it has cost, does not admit of a doubt. Its educational influence has been widespread, extending beyond the seas, and coming back to us with cheering words of encouragement and praise. Practical men utilizing the results of the great work in the business affairs of life, use no stinted phrases in the encomiums they bestow upon it; Military men compelled to rely upon it in the perils of warfare, have not found it wanting, and have given only praise for the great help it was to them; Scientific men, ever watchful of that which is true, have approved it the world over, and cite it as an example of the great profit that may come to a people, free to utilize Science in the conduct of practical work. Our institutions of learning have adopted its publications in text-books. Our merchants venture millions of dollars daily on the veracity of its statements, and our mariners risk their lives on the truthfulness of the Surveys. It has added to the prosperity of the nation in peace—to her glory in war; and when history shall record its awards to our people, there will be no page of the galaxy with more honor than that which bears
