The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 138

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

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In 1858 he established the firm of Thomas S. Dakin & Co., a commission house, where he continued until 1861; then he became senior partner in the oil firm of Dakin & Gulick, in Maiden Lane. The same characteristics that brought success before, continued it still, and in 1870, Gen. Dakin was able to retire with a competency. He bore a high reputation among business men, enjoying the respect and esteem of all his associates.

In military affairs he always took the greatest interest, even in the old days of "general trainings." In 1858 he joined the ranks of Company G, Thirteenth Regiment. In

1862, he organized Company H, of the same Regiment, and was elected its Captain. Afterwards he was appointed on the staff of General Philip S. Crooke, of the Fifth Brigade. Captain Dakin accompanied his Regiment to the front, and was in active service in Virginia in 1862. He was elected Major in 1866; the next year Lieutenant-Colonel; and in 1869, was chosen Colonel in the place of General Jourdan who had resigned. In the autumn of the same year he was elected Brigadier-General of the Fifth Brigade; while in 1875, Gov- ernor Tildeu appointed him Major-General of the Second Division of the National Guard, comprising all the military organizations of Brooklyn, which commission he held at the time of his death.

In 1872, Gen. Dakin began experimenting in long-range rifle shooting, with a view of increasing the efficiency of his men. He soon became exceptionally proficient, and followed the pursuit with enthusiasm. Influential in procuring the establishment of the rifle range at Creedmoor, he enjoyed its facilities with zest. He was victorious in all matches, while his scores in the International contests at Creedmoor in 1874 and 1876, at Dollymount, Ireland, in 1875, proved him to be one of the finest marksmen in the world. He had long de- sired to have a rifle-range established in the immediate vicin- ity of Brooklyn, which he would undoubtedly have effected, but for his untimely death.

Although General Dakin was always interested in politics, as a good citizen should be, he was a candidate for office but once, which was in 1876, when, after repeated and urgent solicitation, he consented to become a candidate for Congress, on the Democratic ticket, in the Third District, against S. B. Chittenden. His unanimous nomination occurred October 30th, followed by a short but brilliant canvass. In his letter of acceptance he said: "My views are quite in accord with the principles of the party, contained in the platform adopted at St. Louis; and I am in favor of nothing that will tend to jeopardize our commercial and financial interests, or to paralyze in the least degree the efforts of the Democratic party to secure good government reform in the administration of public affairs, an economical and judicious expenditure of the public money, competent, faithful and conscientious public officials, and a sacred regard for the protection, wel- fare and prosperity of the people of our whole country.". In the few days remaining before the election he developed im- mense strength on every side, but the briefness of the can- vass and the professional politicians pitted against him, suc- ceeded in overcoming him by the small majority of 185. In the few months preceding his death, his name was coupled with the nomination for Sheriff, to which office he would no doubt have been elected had he lived.

General Dakin was a remarkably handsome man, of fine proportions, military bearing and commanding presence. He was a thorough gentleman, with manners courtly but genial,

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while his frank, hearty ways made him a universal favorite. Widely esteemed for his excellent moral qualities, none could boast a wider circle of friends. He was connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, the National Rifle Association, and other similar organizations.

The General first married a Miss Scholes of Brooklyn, in 1857, but his wife lived only a few months.

In 1866, he married a daughter of Mr. Daniel Robbins of this city, to whom he was devotedly attached, and with whom he lived most happily until his sudden death at his home in Pearl street, May 13th, 1878.

General Dakin was universally mourned; while his memory is still warmly cherished in the hearts of his family, com- rades and friends.

GEN. QUINCY ADAMS GILLMORE.

GENERAL QUINCY ADAMS GILLMORE, Colonel in the Corps of Engineers and Brevet Major-General, United States Army, distinguished as an artillerist and engineer during our Civil War, was born at Black River, Lorain county, Ohio, in 1825. His parentage was of mingled Scotch, Irish and German ex- traction. His father, Quartus Gillmore, was born in Hamp- shire county, Mass., in 1790, and about the time he reached manhood, removed, with his father's family, to Lorain county, Ohio, thus becoming one of the pioneers on the once famous " Western Reserve," and, at the age of thirty-four, marrying there Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, a native of New Jersey, daughter of John S. Reid, who had also settled in Black River.

The first child of this union was the subject of this sketch, who grew up in the healthy atmosphere of farm life, and when old enough, began to assist in the daily labor of the place. Like most country boys, he obtained his rudimentary education chiefly during the winter months. At the age of twelve, his father sent him for a short time to Norwalk Academy, twenty-five miles away, where he made great progress with his studies.

For three winters preceding his twentieth birthday he taught a district school, and he attended the high school at Elyria, eight miles distant, for two terms during this period, where he took a high stand. A poem of his entitled " Erie," which was read at an exhibition given by the school, at- tractsd the favorable attention of the Member of Congress, who had the nomination of a Cadet to West Point within his gift, and the position was offered to young Gillmore. After some hours consideration, the offer was accepted, and the young man entered the Military Academy in 1845, and graduated at the head of his class in 1849.

He was twenty-four years old at this time, and during this year he married Miss Mary O'Maher, only daughter of the Academy treasurer of cadets. Upon his graduation, he was appointed Brevet Second Lieutenant of Engineers, and was ordered to duty as an assistant on the fortifications at Hamp- ton Roads. Three years later, he was ordered back to West Point and appointed instructor in the department of practical military engineering. Subsequently he was appointed Treasurer and Quartermaster of the Academy. July 1st, 1856, he was promoted to First Lieutenant in the corps of en- gineers and ordered to New York to take charge of the engineer agency there established. The outbreak of the Re- bellion found him thus engaged.

In August, 1861, Lieutenant Gillmore was promoted to a captaincy in his own corps and appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Port Royal Expedition, under Brigadier-General T. W. Sherman.

The reduction of Fort Pulaski, situated on Cockspur Island, at the mouth of the Savannah river and defending the water approach to Savannah, was of primary importance to the success of this expedition, and Captain Gillmore was directed

to reconnoitre the place and report upon the practicability of its capture. He reported that he deemed " the reduction of that work practicable by batteries of mortars and rifled guns established on Tybee Island," a mile distant, and was subse- quently placed in command of the besieging force. Fort Pulaski was pentagonal in form, with brick casemates on all sides and a brick scarp-wall, seven to eight feet thick. It mounted one tier of guns in embrasure and one en barbette. To effect its reduction, Captain Gillmore judiciously disposed thirty-six pieces of artillery in eleven batteries along the shore of Tybee Island. The work of investment required two months of incessant labor, night and day, and this being fully completed and the Savannah river blockaded, Captain Gillmore, now acting Brigadier-General, issued orders very minute in character, for conducting the bombardment.

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 night 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 made. The first day's hiring 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 the 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 Gillmore at once among the 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 credit 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- credit 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. On 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 men alone, the use of animals being impracticable so near the fort. Two months of incessant labor, day and night, were re- quired to get the batteries in readiness for opening fire.

In August, 1862, Captain Gillmore was assigned to the com- mand of a division of troops in Kentucky, and by the follow- ing January 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 held 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 Sumter. 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 army 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 occupied 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 co-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 smooth- 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 18 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 boldness. 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 front 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 he pronounced the real danger. But the channel obstruc- tions seemed mythical, when Gillmore, sailing directly over their alleged locations, anchored before the city. When had they been removed ?"

" An interesting correspondence 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 the 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 autumn of 1863, as compared with their condition 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 which 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 world. 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."

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 138

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345