Joseph Christmas Ives (25 December 1829 – 12 November 1868) was an American soldier,

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, and an explorer of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

in 1858.

Biography

Ives was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

, 1829. He graduated from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in 1848 and received his M.A. in 1851. At Bowdoin, he was a member of the Athenaean Society. He was a graduate of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

in 1852. As a

Second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

from 1853 to 1854 he was appointed by the U.S. Army to the

Topographical Engineers The U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers was a branch of the United States Army authorized on 4 July 1838. It consisted only of officers who were handpicked from West Point and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal ...

as assistant to Lt.

Amiel Weeks Whipple Amiel Weeks Whipple (October 21, 1817 – May 7, 1863)Anderson, TSHA was an American military officer and topographical engineer. He served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War, where he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chance ...

in the

Pacific Railroad survey The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) were of a series of explorations of the American West designed to find and document possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and ...

along the 35th parallel. From 1857 to 1858 Ives commanded an expedition to explore up the Colorado River from its mouth. He designed, built and tested his own stern-wheel

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

, then shipped it to the

Colorado River Delta The Colorado River Delta is the region where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) in eastern Mexicali Municipality in the north of the state of Baja California in northwesternmost Mexico. The ...

. At

Robinson's Landing Robinson's Landing was a location in Baja California, Mexico. It lay on the west bank of the Colorado River northwest of the north tip of Montague Island in the Colorado River Delta, 10 miles above the mouth of the river on the Gulf of California. ...

he reassembled then used the 54-foot steamboat ''Explorer'' to map and survey the river. His party included Smithsonian associate

John Strong Newberry John Strong Newberry (December 22, 1822 – December 7, 1892) was an American physician, geologist and paleontologist. He participated as a naturalist and surgeon on three expeditions to explore and survey the western United States. During the C ...

as geologist and German artist Balduin Möllhausen. He led his party up the Colorado to a point just above the head of

Black Canyon of the Colorado The Black Canyon of the Colorado is the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built. The canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The western wall of the gorge is in the El Dorado Mountai ...

and beyond to the vicinity of Fortification Rock. Next day, they went two miles farther to

Las Vegas Wash Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long channel (an Arroyo (creek), "arroyo" or "wash") which feeds most of the Las Vegas Valley's excess water into Lake Mead. The wash is sometimes called an ''urban river'', and it exists in its present capacity because ...

, which Ives thought might be the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

, but had doubts because it seemed too small.Joseph C. Ives, REPORT UPON THE COLORADO RIVER OF THE WEST, EXPLORED IN 1857 AND 1858 BY LIEUTENANT JOSEPH C. IVES, CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OP THE OFFICE OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS, A. A. HUMPHREYS, CAPTAIN TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, IN CHARGE. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1861; PART I. GENERAL REPORT.
/ref> The difficulties of the rapids above Fortification Rock convinced Ives that the river at Fortification Rock was the practical head of navigation 550 miles above the mouth of the river:

I now determined not to try to ascend the Colorado any further. The water above the Black canon had been shoal, and the current swift. Rapids had occurred in such quick succession as to make navigation almost impossible, and there would be no object in proceeding beyond the Great Bend. The difficulties encountered in the canon were of a character to prevent a steamboat from attempting to traverse it at low water, and we had seen drift-wood lodged in clefts fifty feet above the river, betokening a condition of things during the summer freshet that would render navigation more hazardous at that season than now. It appeared, therefore, that the foot of the Black canon should be considered the practical head of navigation, and I concluded to have a reconnaissance made to connect that point with the
Mormon road Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of S ...
, and to let this finish the exploration of the navigable portion of the Colorado.

Returning to the Mohave Villages, he then struck out across northern Arizona to Fort Defiance. Ives reported his findings in his 1861 ''Report upon the Colorado river of the West'' The Ives expedition produced one of the important early maps of the Grand Canyon drawn by

Frederick W. von Egloffstein Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein (18 May 1824 – 18 February 1885) was a German-born military man, explorer, mapmaker, landscape artist and engraver. He was the first person to employ ruled glass screens, together with photography, to produce ...

, topographer to the expedition. Ives next served as engineer and architect for the Washington National Monument from 1859 to 1860. At the beginning of

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

he declined a promotion to captain and, despite his Northern birth, he joined the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

in late 1861. He served in several engineering capacities, and was finally appointed aide-de-camp (with rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

) to President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

from 1863 to 1865. After the war he settled in New York City where he died November 12, 1868. In 1855 he married Cora Semmes Ives. New York State Senator and Arizona Territorial Council President

Eugene S. Ives Eugene Semmes Ives (November 11, 1859 Washington, D.C. – August 25, 1917 Mist, Madera County, California) was an American lawyer and politician from New York and Arizona. Life He was the son of Joseph Christmas Ives (1829–1868) and Cora Ma ...

(1859–1917) was their son.

References

External links

U.S. Army Service Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Joseph Christmas

Joseph Christmas Ives Joseph Christmas Ives (25 December 1829 – 12 November 1868) was an American soldier, botanist, and an explorer of the Colorado River in 1858. Biography Ives was born in New York City on Christmas Day, 1829. He graduated from Bowdoin Colleg ...

1828 births American explorers 1868 deaths American botanists American non-fiction writers Confederate States Army officers United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers United States Army officers United States Military Academy alumni Writers from New York City Military personnel from New York City Explorers of North America Explorers of the United States Scientists from New York (state)