The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

A MAN FROM MAINE. 39
The sea-face for one hundred yards from the northeast bastion
was of the same massive character as the land-face. A crescen^
battery intended for four guns joined this. From this bomb-
proof a series of batteries extended for three-quarters of a mile
along the sea, connected with an infantry curtain. On this line
was a bomb-proof electric battery connected with a system of sub-
terra torpedoes. Farther along a mound battery sixty feet high
was erected.with two heavy guns. This battery was one mile from
the northeast bastion. At the extreme point of land was Bat-
tery Buchanan, four guns, its two eleven-inch guns covering the
approach by land. An advanced redoubt with a twenty-four-
pounder was added after the attack by the forces under Butler
and Porter on Christmas, 1864. A wharf for large steamers
was close by. This battery was also intended to cover a retreat
by water in case of capture of the fort. The fort was also pro-
tected by a system of subterra torpedoes extending across the
peninsula, five to six hundred feet from the land face, and inside
this torpedo line, about fifty feet from the berme of the work,
from the river-bank to the sea-shore, was a heavy palisade of
sharpened logs nine feet high pierced for musketry, and so laid
out as to have an enfilading fire on the centre, where there was
a redoubt guarding a sally-port, from which two Napoleon guns
were run out as occasion required. At the river end of the
palisade was a deep and muddy slough, across which was a
bridge, the entrance of the river road into the fort; command-
ing this bridge was a Napoleon gun.
Against this immense work, in many respects the strongest
in America, the Second Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps,
was to be led by Brigadier-General Adelbert Ames, upon whom
now devolved all the responsibility of leadership in the desperate
and bloody encounter that in a short time was to commence
and not to end until after darkness had covered the earth for
many hours.
Scientific and literary education may assist a man to fill the
requirements of time and station, but at the foundation of all
there must exist those qualities of heart, character, and imagin-
ation that alone give power to create, or to turn into success