James St. Clair Morton (September 24, 1829 – June 17, 1864) was an American military officer who served as chief engineer of the Army of the Ohio, the Army of the Cumberland and the XI Corps in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He led construction of key embattlements protecting Nashville, Tennessee including Fort Negley and Fortress Rosencrans. He served as major in the regular army and was promoted to brigadier general of the Pioneer Brigade in the volunteer army. Morton requested a reduction in rank from brigadier general of volunteers (but kept his rank of major in the regular army) after being reprimanded by General William Rosecrans in front of colleagues due to drunkenness in the ranks and errors in troop placement. He was killed in action during the Second Battle of Petersburg and brevetted brigadier general posthumously.
Early life and engineering career Morton was born on September 24, 1829, in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of eight children of Samuel George Morton and Rebecca Pearsall. At the age of 14, he entered the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1851, second in his class, from the United States Military Academy. He was assigned to the Corps of Engineers and served as the assistant engineer of construction of forts around Charleston, SC, including Fort Sumter, from 1851 to 1852. He served as the assistant engineer of construction at Fort Delaware until 1855, then returned to the United States Military Academy to teach as an assistant professor of mathematics and military engineering for two years. On April 1, 1854, Morton was promoted to second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. From June 1857 to March 1858, he served as assistant engineer of construction of fortifications at Sandy Hook to protect New York City. He was appointed as engineer and superintendent of the New York lighthouse district by the Treasury Department. He rejected the contemporary military strategy of the time and was a strong advocate of Dennis Hart Mahan. Morton wrote essays to Secretary of War John B. Floyd regarding Mahan's principals, and on request from Floyd, evaluated Colonel Joseph Totten's plans to defend New York City. The findings were presented to Floyd in his Memoir on the Dangers and Defenses of New York City, which showed that improvement was needed. He was appointed by the Department of the Interior as chief engineer of the Potomac water works in the District of Columbia and led work on the Washington Aqueduct and the Washington Monument. During this time, Morton would also be promoted to first lieutenant. In 1860, Morton was selected by the Navy Department to examine the Chiriquí Province in Central America for the possibility of a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama. He concluded from his findings that it was possible, but contracted malaria while in the area. While recovering in Washington, Morton was sent in March 1861 to Dry Tortugas, Florida to act as the supervising engineer for Fort Jefferson. With the orders to put the fort into fighting condition, he attempted to help conceive a 420-gun fort and was promoted to captain on August 6, 1861. When malaria affected Morton again in early 1862, he returned to Washington to recover. Once he was well, he helped with the repairs at Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
Civil War
Army of the Ohio service In May 1862, Morton was assigned to the Army of the Ohio as chief engineer under General Don Carlos Buell. He led construction of fortifications around Nashville, Tennessee and was ordered to stay and complete construction while the Army of the Ohio marched to Kentucky. The construction of these defenses, named Fort Negley, was the second most fortified stronghold only outdone by Washington, D.C. It was built using over 2,700 conscripted slaves and free blacks from a nearby camp.
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