Pioneer Brigade, Michigan Pioneers (links) and First Michigan Engineers

Pioneer Brigade: Rosecrans' Hand-Picked Engineers
Geoffrey L. Blankenmeyer's page
http://www.thecivilwargroup.com/pioneer.html


The Liberty Rifles: Pioneer Brigade 
Cody J. Harding's page
http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/pioneerbrigade.html

Links to nice article about Rosecrans' famous Pioneer Brigade (hand-picked engineers).

The Pioneers were to travel with the advance of the army, while the 1st Michigan Engineers, a similarly hand-picked unit of engineers, would focus on communications, supply lines, etc. One mention of the First Michigan Engineers is in the vignette of "an unidentified orderly seargeant, 21st Michigan," in Echoes of Battle: The Struggle for Chattanooga (Baumgartner and Strayer, 1996), which contains a bare mention of Private Adrian Musty of Co. D, 1st Mich. Engineers, assisting in the crossing of the Tennessee River at Brown's Ferry in October 1863:

[Quote from Echoes of Battle, 192]:

"One pontoon in midstream was struck by Confederate Artillery fire, the shell penetrating the boat's bottom and letting in a gush of water. Private Adrian Musty of Company D, 1st Michigan Engineers, quickly pulled off his blouse and cap, stuffed them into the hole and prevented the boat from sinking until it could be repaired."(192).

Baumgartner, Richard A. and Larry M. Strayer, Echoes of Battle: The Struggle for Chattanooga, (Huntington: Blue Acorn Press, 1996), 192 (in vignette/caption of An unidentified orderly sergeant, 21st Michigan).
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Louis A. Simmons, in The History of the 84th Reg't Ill. Vols., mentions the Pioneer Brigade, and says that the pontoon bridge at Bridgeport, Alabama, was actually two bridges, because the Tennessee River is there divided by an island (pg. 77).
Pontoon Bridge at Bridgeport, Alabama
http://bit.ly/84th-Ill-Vols-p77-pontoons-at-Bridgeport-AL