but he is best known for his work in techniques of laying asphalt pavement. Averell had become interested in asphalt as early as 1870, when some experimental pavement, based on the procedures patented by Edward J. DeSmeldt, a Belgian engineer and chemist, was laid in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Although Averell observed problems with these installations, he was convinced of the potential of asphalt paving. As president of the Grahamite Asphalt Pavement Company, he began studying the existing product and procedures and experimenting with ways to improve them. Eventually, he developed improved techniques for laying pavement, which he patented in 1878 as "Improvement in Asphaltic Pavement." Averell was among career officers who wrote memoirs and histories of military units: he wrote Ten Years in the Saddle (1978) and co-authored History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, 60th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers (1905). Both books were published posthumously. The manuscript for his memoir was not discovered until the later 20th century, and it was published in an annotated edition. Death, legacy and honors General Averell died in Bath, New York, and is buried there. In 1976, Averell was one of the first class of ten inductees for the Steuben County (NY) Hall of Fame. Averell Street in Winchester, Virginia, to mark the area where his former troops went into winter quarters in 1864. See also List of American Civil War generals (Union) Notes References Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. . Longacre, Edward G. Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000. . Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. . External links 1832 births 1900 deaths Union Army generals 19th-century American diplomats 19th-century American inventors United States Military Academy alumni People of New York (state) in the American Civil War People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War People from Steuben County, New York Inventors from New York (state)