Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 139

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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Firing began at 8:15 A. M., April 10th, 1862, and at 9:30 A. M. all of the batteries were in active operation, and thus con- tinued until dark. Throughout the niglit firing was kept up with a few pieces, in order to prevent the besieged confeder- ates from making any arrangement for their protection, by fortifying with sand-bags that portion of the wall operated or by the Union batteries, or similarly strengthening the wall of the magazine, which would be exposed to direct fire when- ever a breach in the scarp-wall should be inade. The first day's firing of the Federal artillery rendered the barbetted guns of the fort unserviceable. Shortly after sunrise on the morning of April 11th, the bombardment was renewed, all the batteries participating. The breach in the fort was rapidly enlarged, and by 2 P. M. about forty-five feet of the scarp- wall had been battered into the ditch. As thie shots from the Union guns now passed freely through two of the casemates, and endangered the safety of the magazine of the fort, the confederates ran up the white flag, and their surrender was consummated during the afternoon and evening. The wall of the fort was found to be shattered to such an extent that one hundred feet of its length had to be replaced by a new brick wall. Fort Pulaski is situated on a marsh island, and the nearest approach to it on firm ground is about one mile distant. The distance of the Federal guns from its walls ranged from 1,650 to 3,400 yards. The instructions for firing were published in orders the day before the bombardment opened, and they gave the elevation, charge, direction, inter- vals between shots, etc., for each piece, and were adhered to throughout. It may be stated as an interesting fact connected with the siege, that the arrangements for protecting the cannoneers from the enemy's fire were so perfect that only one man on the Union side was killed. The success of this operation placed Captain Gillinore at once among thie leading military engineers and artillerists of the army. For this striking illustration of the unerring and pre-estimated results of applied science, engineers and artillerists hold his minute instructions for the conduct of the bombardment as not among the least remarkable features of the siege. General

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Gillmore gives great ere lit to Lieutenant (now General) Hor- ace Porter, for most efficient and valuable services as Chief of Artillery and Ordnance.

As a matter of interest, it may be stated that before the operations for investing the place were begun, the fort was inspected by several confederate officers of high rank, for- merly belonging to the old regular army, who expressed the opinion that the isolated position of the fort, in the centre of a marsh island, entirely surrounded by deep water, while the nearest firm ground consisted of nothing but a low, narrow and shallow strip of land a mile distant, rendered any suc- cessful siege operations entirely impracticable. Confederate General Robert E. Lee entertained this view, as also did Gen- eral Joseph G. Totten, Chief Engineer, United States army, who, in reply to a letter requesting his views on the subject, wrote that " the work could not be reduced in a month's fir- ing. with any number of guns of manageable calibres." Indeed, General Gillmore appears to have stood alone among military engineers and artillerists in his belief that the work could be reduced and taken by batteries of rifle-guns and mortars established on Tybee Island, and he was, per- haps, placed in command of the siege, in order that if unsuc- cessful, he would be obliged to take to himself all the dis- eredit of failure. Among the incidents connected with the investment of the Fort, and cutting off its communication with Savannah, may be mentioned the difficult and hazardous operation of placing a battery on the shore of the Savannah river at Venus point, on Jones Island, about four miles above the Fort.

Jones Island is nothing but marsh, with its surface at the level of high tide. formed of alluvial mud, from fifteen to eighteen feet deep, overgrown with weeds. As the enemy's gunboats were in possession of and constantly patrolling the river, the guns and all the materials for the battery had to be carried across the island from the rear, a distance of three- quarters of a mile, during the night. Six siege guns mounted and limbered up, were taken over on shifting runways of planks. Sand for parapet gun platforms, and magazine covering, was conveyed by the men in bags. Two nights of incessant labor were required to get the guns over and into battery. During the intervening day they were covered up with marsh-cane, and no men were left on the island. When the battery was ready for service, the spring tides came on and submerged everything except the parapet-guns and maga- zine, but it fully answered the purpose for which it was built. Ou Tybee Island all the guns, mortars and battery material were landed in the surf on the open beach, and conveyed to the sites of the batteries during the night-time, by the labor of nien alone, the use of animals being impracticable so near the fort. Two months of incessant labor, day and night, were re- ynired to get the batteries in readiness for opening fire.

In August, 1862, Captain Gillinore was assigned to the coin- inand of a division of troops in Kentneky, and by the follow- ing Jannary was placed in command of the central district of that state. At the battle of Somerset, March 21st, 1863, he defeated General Pegram, and for this success was brevetted Colonel in the regular army. In June, 1863, he was called to the command of the Department of the South, embracing the territory hell by the Union forces on the coast of South Car- olina, Georgia and Florida; and in July following, was placed in command of the Tenth Army Corps, which comprise all the troops serving in that department.

The small force in the Department of the South had caused a suspension of active hostilities in that quarter. The Navy department, chagrined at the repulse of the iron-clads by Fort Sumter in April, 1863, contemplated another attack upon that work and Charleston, and it was represented that the

operations of the iron-clads would be greatly aided by a land force prepared to assist the attack, and to occupy any work reduced by the ships of war. The success of the attack de- pended on the military occupation of Morris Island, and the planting of land batteries there for the reduction of Fort Suinter. It was admitted that superior engineering skill was requisite to the successful execution of this plan, and General Gillmore, who had been present at several consulta- tions between the War and Navy departments, was selected as the proper officer to place in charge. Admiral Foote, was to have control of the naval forces, but he died before taking command.

The following plan, comprising four distinct operations, of which the ariny was to execute the first three, was agreed upon:

First .- To make a descent upon and obtain possession of the south end of Morris Island, known to be fortified and strongly oceupied by the enemy.

Second .- To besiege and reduce Fort Wagner, a strong work near the north end of Morris Island. With Fort Wag- ner the works at the north end (Cummings Point) would also fall.

Third .- From the position thus secured, to demolish Fort Sumter, and afterwards eo-operate by a heavy artillery fire with the fleet when moving in.

Fourth .- The monitors and iron-clads to enter, remove the channel obstructions if any be found, run by the James and Sullivan Island batteries, and reach the city.

History so fully records General Gillmore's services in con- nection with these important military operations, that it is deemed unnecessary to give what must be an imperfect ac- count of them in this sketch; Morris Island was captured by assault from small boats, and Fort Wagner was reduced by siege. Fort Sumter was demolished, and its artillery entirely destroyed from a distance of 3,500 yards. Some of the heaviest guns used were Parrott rifles, placed two miles dis- tant. Great gaps were rent in the walls of the fortress; the guns were all dismantled or removed, save one small smootli- bore on the rear wall, used for firing the signal at sun-down; and the fort was battered into almost shapeless ruins. General Gillmore, at this juncture, called on General Beaure- gard to surrender, and added that the complete destruction of Fort Sumter was a matter of certainty within a few hours, and stated that if a reply was not made at once, he would open fire on Charleston. General Beauregard considered this an idle boast, not knowing of the terrible "Swamp Angel " battery erected on a reed marsh of alluvial mud 19 feet deep, hitherto thought to be impracticable for the pur- pose. True to his promise, a little after midnight, General Gillmore opened on Charleston from a 200-pounder Parrot gun, the shells from which burst in the central parts of the city. Only thirty-six shots, however, were fired from this battery when the gun broke in two, and the bombardment of Charleston was not resumed until after the fall of Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg. General Halleck, General-in- Chief of the army, in speaking of the siege, said: "General Gillmore's operations have been characterized by great pro- fessional skill and bollness. He has overcome difficulties almost unknown in modern sieges. Indeed, his operations on Morris Island constitute a new era in the science of en- gineering and gunnery."

" Not less emphatic." says Whitelaw Reid, in Ohio in the War, " was the admiring testimony of Professor Mahan, the General's old instructor in engineering at West Point, and a critic of siege operations not surpassed by any living military authority. The Professor says: 'The siege of Fort Wagner forms a memorable epoch in the engineer's art, and presents a lesson fruitful of results. . In spite of these ob-

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stacles; in spite of the shifting sand under him, over which the tide swept more than once during his advances; in spite of the succor and relief of the garrison from Charleston, with which their communications were free, General Gillmore ad- dressed himself to his task with that preparedness for every eventuality, and that tenacity which are striking traits of his character. This remarkable exhibition of skill and industry; the true and always successful tools with which the en- gineer works, is a triumph of American science of which the nation may well be proud.'"

The success of those portions of the plan of operations as- signed to the army was thorough and complete, and this was acknowledged not only by the General-in-Chief, and the Secretary of War, but by the President and the Secretary of the Navy.

General Gillmore's commission as Major-General of Volun- teers was given for service before Charleston, in the follow- ing language: "For the distinguished skill, ability and gal- lantry displayed in the operations under his charge in Charleston Harbor; the descent upon Morris Island; the re- duction of Fort Sumter, and the taking of Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg."

That the achievements before Charleston lacked the crown of final success was due, as appears from official records, to the circumstance that the naval commander declined to en- counter the channel torpedoes and obstructions, assuming them to be of formidable character. He also claimed that Fort Sumter was still armed with heavy guns, after the army commander had reported it a harmless ruin. This raises the point whether the land forces, in aiding this naval attack on Charleston, had fulfilled its pledge to reduce Fort Sumter so as to render it entirely powerless against a passing fleet. The following extracts from Reid's Ohio in the War, seems to settle this matter beyond question.

" It is his (Gillmore's) good fortune, however, since the close of the war, to be able to give a definite settlement to the question, by the testimony of the only competent witnesses.

" When at last the city against which so many efforts had failed, fell without a blow, General Gillmore was once more in command of the Department of the South. He moved directly up the channel-himself a passenger in the second vessel that adventured upon the path which the naval officers thought so studded with horrors. Without encountering any accident or obstructions of note, the vessel was laid alongside the wharves."

It may be here mentioned that quite a number of vessels comprising army transports and sutlers' and traders' craft went up to the city wharves the same day without encoun- tering any obstructions or torpedoes.

" What then had stood in the way of the navy from the 23d of August, 1863, when the destruction of the offensive ) power of Sumter was complete. Admiral Dahlgren said not specially Forts Sumter and Johnson, against which, at least, in the earlier stages of the campaign, he expressed entire readiness to conduct his iron-clads. The channel obstructions le pronounced the real danger. But the chaunel obstruc- tions seemed mythical, when Gillmore, sailing directly over their alleged locations, anchored before the city. When had they been removed ?"

" An interesting correspondeuce sprang up between General Gillmore and General Ripley, whom Beauregard had in com- mand of Charleston. General Gillmore asked the question: ' Was there anything except the shore batteries to prevent the passage of our fleet up to the city and above it (at tlie time of the demolition of Sumter) by the channel left open for and used by the blockade runners at night?' Gencral Ripley answered ' No.' General Gillmore then asked, ' What were the relative condition and efficiency of such obstruc- tions and torpedoes as were used in Charleston harbor in the autunın of 1863, as compared with their coudition in Febru- ary. 1865, when the city came into our possession ?' General Ripley answered, 'The efficiency of the obstructions and tor- pedoes in the harbor was as great in January, 1865, as in the autumn of 1863. The torpedoes were more efficient just previous to the evacuation,' and he went on to say that the

ideas prevailing in the fleet as to the dangerous nature of these obstructions were due to exaggerated reports pur- posely circulated by the defenders of the city. The corres- pondence from which we have quoted is of some length, but it all goes to show that, in the estimation of the enemy them- selves, the channel was practically free from any obstructions or torpedoes that ought to have delayed the passage of the fleet.

" To this emphatic testimony should be added the state- . ment of General Elliott, who was in command of Fort Sumter from the 4th of September. He said to General Gillmore, after the close of the war, that there were no mounted guns in the fort from the 23d of August until the ensuing October. This would seem to rebut Admiral Dahlgren's complaints about the fire from Sumter, as emphatically as General Rip- ley's statement does his complaint about the channel obstruc- tions. Yet on these obstructions Admiral Dahlgren seems to rest the greater part of his delay; finally resulting in the abandonment of offensive operations."

General Gillmore was transferred to the James River in 1864, in command of the Tenth Army Corps, and. May 13th of that year was engaged in the landing at Bermuda Hun- dred, and the action at Swift's Creek. He commanded the column whichi turned and captured the line in front of Drury's Bluff, and his command took an active part in the battle which ensued two days later, covering the retreat of General Butler's army into entrenchments at Bermuda Hun- dred. He retired from the command soon after, in conse- quence of a misunderstanding between himself and Gen. Butler.

General Gillmore was summoned to Washington when that city was menaced by Early in July, 1864, and commanded two divisions of the Nineteenth Army Corps in its defense, and while in pursuit of the confederate forces, was severely injured by a fall of his horse. From February until Novem- ber, 1865, he was again in command of the Department of the South. In December, 1865, he resigned his volunteer com- mission of Major-General and served one year in the En- gineer Bureau at Washington. He was subsequently assigned to duty as engineer-in-charge of all the fortifications on the Atlantic coast, between New York and St. Augustine, Florida, and was entrusted with the improvement of rivers and harbors on the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. In the Corps of Engineers he was promoted to be Major in June, 1863, to be Lieutenant-Colonel in January, 1874, and to be Colonel in January, 1883.

General Gillmore's record is an unusually brilliant one and has made his name famous throughout the civilized workl. At the conclusion of the Rebellion, he bore back to his grade in the corps which he had so signally honored, the four highest brevets in the regular army in reward of his achievements during the war. These were Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, United States Army, "for gallant and meritorious conduct at the capture of Fort Pulaski, April 11th, 1862 ;" Brevet Colonel, United States Army, " for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Somerset, Kentucky, March 31st. 1863;" Brevet Brigadier-General, United States Army, "for gallant and meritorious services at the assault on Morris Island, July 10, 1863;" and Brevet Major-General, United States Army, " for gallant and meritorious conduct at the capture of Forts Wagner and Gregg and the demolition of Fort Sumter."

In his work, Ohio in the War, Whitelaw Reid gives the following estimate of General Gillmore's character as an officer :

" General Gillmore's military standing is clearly defined by his career during the war. He never displayed remark- able merits as a leader of troops in the open field. He was a good, but not brilliant, Corps General. If he committed no grave faults, on the other hand, he never shone conspicnons above those that surrounded him. He was prudent, judi- cious, circumspect, not dashing, scarcely enterprising. It is

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only fair to add that he was never tried on a large scale or under favorable anspices. But in his proper province as an engineer and artillerist, he was as bold as in the field he was cautious. He ignored the limitations of the books. He ac- cepted theories that revolutionized the sciences, and staked his professional standing on great operations based upon them. He made himself the first artillerist of the war. not the foremost engineer, he was second to none; and in the bollness and originality of his operations against Wagner, he surpassed any similar achievements, not only in this war, but in any war; so that now, notwithstanding the more varied professional operations around Richmond, and Atlanta and Vicksburgh, when men speak of great living engineers, they think as naturally of Gillmore in the New World as of Todleben in the Old. General Gillmore is among the hand- somest officers of the army. He is above the medium height, heavily and compactly built. with a broad chest and general air of physical solidity. His features (shaded, not concealed, by his full beard) are regular and expressive. The face would be called a good-humored one; the head is shapely, and the forehead broad and high. He speaks with nervous quickness, the more noticeable, because of a slight peculiarity in the enunciation that gives a suggestion of his having sometimes lisped or stammered. He is an excellent talker, and is familiar with a wide range of subjects outside of his profession. In social life he appears as an elegant and ac- complished gentleman. He was often remarked during the war for his apparent indifference to physical danger. His head-quarters on Morris Island were pitched under fire and his soldiers used to tell of him that during the slow siege ap- proaches he often whiled away the tedinm by reading novels or magazines while the enemy's shells were bursting in in- convenient proximity."

Among the standard works on professional subjects, of which General Gillmore is the author, are: Limes, Hy-

draulie Cements and Mortars; Engineer and Artillery Operations against Charleston in 1863; Siege and Reduc- tion of Fort Pulaski; Beton Coignet and other Artificial Stone; Roads, Streets and Pavements; and The Strength of the Building Stones of the United States. When the "Mississippi River Commission " was created by Congress in 1879, he was made its President. He is President of a Board of Engineers for the improvement of Cape Fear River, N. C., and the Potomac River and Flats, near Washington; and is member of several Boards for the improvement of im- portant harbors on the Atlantic and Gulf coast. He is the author of the projects now in process of execution for im- proving the harbors of Charleston, Savannah, Fernan- dina and the mouth of St. John's River and several less important harbors and rivers; and has charge of all the river and harbor improvements on the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and the eastern coast of Florida, and of the fortifica- tions from New York to Florida.

He was one of the judges at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, 1876, and made special and voluminous reports on articles embraced in Group II., viz .: " Portland, Roman aud other cements and artifical stone," and " Brick- making machinery, brick kilns, perforated and enameled bricks and pavements."

He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Oberlin College, Ohio, while a Lieutenant, before the Civil War, and, a few years since, the degree of Doctor of Phil- osophy from Rutgers College, New Jersey.

THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

IN KINGS COUNTY.

The Grand Army of the Republic * originated in Indianapolis, Ind., in 1866. It was thought best that the soldiers who had fought to maintain the Union should unite for the purposes of self-defense and mutual help. It was looked upon as a proper thing for the soldiers to band together in their own interests. It was considered their slogan that, other things being equal, they should vote for a fellow soldier, no matter for what office nominated, or by what party. Gen. S. A. HURLBURT was largely instrumental in forming the organization, and was elected its first Commander-in- Chief ; he afterwards died while U. S. Minister to Pern. The order spread like wildfire, from its incep- tion in 1866 ; membership came to be regarded as a passport to employment in the public service. The time is well remembered, when, at the close of the meetings of the order, men would come before the Commander and ask : " When shall I be put on in the yard?" The result was that the organization soon fell to the ground, and became well-nigh extinct. But there was, of course, a better element in the organiza- tion, which felt that the veterans, for the best interests of the order, should band together in the spirit of

fraternity, charity, and loyalty; of fraternity, for the purposes of communion, the "touch of elbows," and the feeling of that old martial spirit which was born upon the battle-field, and can never die ; of charity, to redeem the promise made, when a soldier pledged a dying comrade that his wife and children should never want for anything, and also to fulfill the moral obliga- tion resting upon this nation to assist its defenders in their want and suffering.

Through all these years, no genuine call for charity has been refused by the order. It is a proper thing to say that in the ritual of the G. A. R. are incorporated these questions: " Is any comrade sick or in distress ? Has any died since the last meeting ? Has any comrade any knowledge of any soldier or sailor within our limits who needs our assistance ?" That is obligatory npon the commandery, at every meeting of the Post. That is where charity finds ample and positive ex emplification. The spirit of loyalty in the order, which some have construed into an idea of politics, is simply loyalty to each other now, as formerly in the field. If a soldier is worthy of esteem, let his com- rades stand by him, though the world assail him, an } show to men that they were worthy in their loyalty to country, by being loyal to each other. Among

· Contributed by Col. EDWIN A. PERRY.

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other sentiments common to the order are these: to encourage honor and purity in publie affairs, and to protect the flag of our country. That is what is meant by the sentiment of loyalty.

At the present time, after twenty years of weeding the order has so melted away all differenees of politieal and religious opinion, that no man knows or think, whether the comrade at his side is a Democrat or Rc- publiean, a Catholic or Protestant, a Jew or Gentile, and there is no place in all their ceremonies where it is possible for those questions to be thought of. It would be a matter of pride to the order to show its ritual to the whole world, and when the last eomrade dies and leaves to it the written formula of its organi- zation, it is only then that they will appreciate how beautiful in sentiment and how perfect in practice is their ritual.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 139

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360