In a related development, the United States officially abandoned its reliance on the militia for its defense. Moreover, the US Army Corps of Engineers, which then controlled West Point, began building fortifications around New Orleans as a response to the British attack on the city during the war. That effort then grew into numerous civil river works, especially in the 1830s and the 1850s under General Pierre Beauregard. The Corps remains the authority over works on the Mississippi River and other rivers.