Laguna de la Madre and Aransas Bay. He fell ill with dysentery and was replaced by George Meade. From 1847 to 1855, he worked as an assistant to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey of the Coast and had responsibility for the New England region. From 1855 to 1858 he was the chief topographical engineer for the Department of the Pacific. He led survey teams on expeditions through the Oregon and Washington Territories and worked to determine the feasibility of a water route to the Pacific through Central America. In 1861, Cram was promoted to major in August and then lieutenant colonel in September. He served as aide to General John E. Wool from 1861 to 1863 and was engaged in the campaign to capture Norfolk, Virginia, in May 1862. Lt. Col. Cram was transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers when the Topographical Engineers were disbanded in 1863, and was promoted to full colonel at the end of the war in 1865. He was later brevetted to Major General to recognize his war service, and served until his retirement in 1869. Cram died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Bibliography Basin of the Mississippi, and its Natural Business Site, Briefly Considered., New York: Narine & Co., 1851 Address of Captain T.J. Cram, U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, Delivered at the Board of Trade Rooms, June 28 and Repeated Before the Corn Exchange Association, of Philadelphia, July 11, 1860, Upon Ocean Steam Ships Proposed to Run Between Philadelphia and Europe, and California, In the Lines of a Corporation Titled the "California, Philadelphia, and European Steamship Company.", Philadelphia: Jackson Printer, 1860 Memoir Upon the Northern Inter-Oceanic Route of Commercial Transit, Between Tide Water of the Puget Sound of the Pacific, and, Tide Water of the St. Lawrence Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean., Detroit: Board of Trade, 1868 Citations Sources Beers, Henry P., "A History of the U.S. Topographical Engineers, 1813-1863." 2 parts, The Military Engineer 34 (Jun 1942): pp. 287–91 & (Jul 1942): pp. 348–52. Available as of April 16, 2006 from https://web.archive.org/web/20140926122419/http://topogs.org/History.htm and https://web.archive.org/web/20110728120914/http://www.topogs.org/History2.htm External links Manitowish Waters Historical Society - Thomas Jefferson Cram Maps 1838-1841 Report of the Secretary of War, communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant, a copy of the report of Captain Thomas J. Cram, Corps of Topographical Engineers of November, 1856, on the oceanic routes to