Battery Park

“ I knew there must 30
be thousands in Battery Park to greet the Leviathan and
[136] her heroes.
After straining my eyes I decided that the tiny specks at
certain spots in the park where there were no trees must of
a surety be human beings. But they were specks.
At this juncture all of us received a shock. The plane
headed against the stiff west wind again, bumped into it 5
head first, and then keeled halfway over. Try tipping up
on one runner of a rocking chair, try balancing yourself
as you go whizzing through space. ”

“ All this made a load enough for a man to carry. We passed through Battery Park and staggered along West Street in the direction of the Jersey City Ferry, making occasional halts for a rest, when crowds would collect about us and ask us many questions. ”

“ The Battery, or White Point Gardens as it is more formally known, has been a public park since the 1830s and is one of Charleston’s most picturesque and historic settings. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate engineers erected huge earthen fortifications here which withstood the shelling of the Union guns mounted on Morris Island. The fortifications were abandoned and the heaviest guns destroyed when Charleston was evacuated in February 1865. The Battery today contains some of the most elegant structures in the city. ”

“ The multi-tiered work of 1861 was reduced largely to rubble during the Civil War, and Battery Huger, built across the parade ground at the time of the Spanish-American War, dominates the site.
The following labels identify the main features of the present fort. Each is keyed by number to the photograph. ”

“ At first Junior Officers are allowed practice shoots on targets well behind the enemy lines, and as they gain confidence and experience, are entrusted with “close shoots,” i.e., firing on hostile emplacements, etc., in the front line, a job which requires extreme caution and accuracy, as “No Man’s Land” averages not more than 200 yards in width in most places. Batteries can always communicate with Battalion Headquarters in the line, a wire, usually buried, leading from there to our Brigade Headquarters, and each Battery has its own private wire to the latter place. ”

“ In the next place, batteries were planned for both sides of the river at its entrance into the harbor, where the city was chiefly exposed. On the New York side, a battery was located at the foot of Catherine Street at the intersection of Cherry, and where the river was narrowest. This was called Waterbury's Battery. To cover its fire a stronger work was ordered to be built on Rutgers' "first hill," just above, which was named Badlam's Redoubt, after Captain Badlam, then acting as Lee's chief artillery officer. ”

“ The latter work, commanding the island at its narrowest point, was made into a formidable “sand fort” mounting about 15 guns.
Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore, commander of the Federal land forces besieging Charleston, 1863-64. In the year that he spent at Charleston, Gillmore and Du Pont’s replacement, Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren, conducted a cooperative and sustained operation that resulted in the capture of Morris Island and Battery Wagner and the virtual demolition of Fort Sumter.
Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren
Fort Sumter, 1,390 yards distant from Battery Gregg, prepared for siege, too. ”

“ There echoed for me as I looked out from the Battery the recent speech of a friend which had had at the time 413a depressing weight; the Battery of the long, curved sea-front, of the waterside public garden furnished with sad old historic guns, with live-oaks draped in trailing moss, with palmettos that, as if still mindful of their State symbolism, seem to try everywhere, though with a melancholy sceptical droop, to repeat the old escutcheon; with its large, thrilling view in particular—thrilling to a Northerner who stands there for the first time. ”

“ It has, like New York, its Battery, occupying the extreme point of the peninsula, its outlook commanding the entire harbor, bristling with fortifications, so harmless in time of peace, so terrible in war. The Battery contains plots of thin clover, neatly fenced and shelled promenades, a long, solid stone quay, which forms the finest sea-walk in the United States, and has a background of the finest residences in the city, three storied, and faced with verandahs. ”

“ HAWAII, Honolulu County, Honolulu, Battery Hawkins (Artillery District of Honolulu TR) , 440 Nelson Ave. (06/05/84)
HAWAII, Honolulu County, Honolulu, Battery Hawkins Annex (Artillery District of Honolulu TR) , Ft. Kamehameha (06/05/84)
HAWAII, Honolulu County, Honolulu, Battery Jackson (Artillery District of Honolulu TR) , Ft. Kamehameha (06/05/84)
HAWAII, Honolulu County, Honolulu, Battery Randolph (Artillery District of Honolulu TR) , 32 Kalia Rd. (06/05/84)
HAWAII, Honolulu County, Honolulu, Battery Selfridge (Artillery District of Honolulu TR) , Ft. ”

“ James A. Hall is in command of our Light Artillery Camp of Instruction.
January 1st, 1864. The battery repeated to-day nearly the same order of exercises which occurred here just one year ago. We moved into new and more commodious barracks than those we had formerly occupied. In the evening a 31turkey supper was provided, and we invited the soldiers of the Third New Jersey and Second Maine batteries to be our guests. After supper, in the absence of the fair sex the comrades arranged what is known among old soldiers as a “stag dance.” This is a dance with the ladies left out. ”

“ It was on a tick of straw, thrown on the floor of the old dilapidated, vacated house, that one hundred of the battery spent their nights of sleep in Montmorillon while the other half occupied similar beds on the upper-lofts of the barn.
There were no formations the morning after arrival. The battery men spent most of the time about town. It was strange to observe the peasantry hobbling along in their wooden shoes, the flopping of the loose footwear at the heels beating a rhythmic clap, clap on the cobblestone pave.
Each day brought new scenes of peasant life. ”

“ Gun drill for the cannoneers and grooming for the drivers occupied the mornings. The afternoons the men had to themselves, for games of horseshoes, writing letters to make up for lost time at the front, baths in the cold brook, and washing clothes in the village fountain. Eggs and potatoes and milk were abundant in the town—until the battery’s consumption depleted the supply—and the men ate as often in some French kitchen as in their battery mess line. ”

“ Defences.
11 CHAPTER II. Camp Barry—Artillery Drill—March to Fairfax Station—First Death in the Battery—Union Mills.
During the fall and winter of 1862–3 the battery was chiefly occupied in perfecting itself in drill. With other batteries, it frequently went to East Capitol Hill and engaged in battalion drill, and became quite proficient in light artillery movements. While at Camp Barry the battery suffered severely by the desertion of the men who had joined it in New York city. ”

“ Our guns and caissons were got ashore at once, the men and horses remaining on board until next morning, when we disembarked, and took up our line of march for the camping ground, passing through several of the principal streets. We proceeded out on the Charlotteville road some three miles from the city, and pitched our tents on a beautiful spot, near a small creek. Bartlett’s and Kinney’s batteries were camped near by. We had dress parade at 4 P. M. [Pg 40] each day. The weather was very changeable, sometimes being cold, with rain and snow, at other times quite warm and pleasant. ”

“ Those who patter at the Battery, and in the vicinity of South Ferry, where a constant stream of people is passing back and forth far into the night, stick by their stands as long as there is any one upon the street. At midnight, when the thunder of the streets is hushed, and the moon is rolling beneath a dark cloud, the heads of old men and women can be seen nid, nid, nodding, from Bowling Green to the Battery wall. Where they go to when they close up their stalls and crawl away in the darkness, it is impossible to say. ”

“ Details continued to play a big part in the life of Battery D. On March 11th the first detail of fifty men was sent to repair the highway near Portland. These details had a strenuous time of it; the hardest work most of the detail accomplished was dodging lieutenants.
Transfers had made big inroads in the battery's strength. Guard duty fell to the lot of the battery once a week. When the guard detail was (p. 037) furnished there were scarcely enough men left to do the kitchen police work and other detail work. ”

“ As the season advanced, all classes of people had recourse to their favourite walk on the Battery, either for pleasure, or as an alleviation from the toils and cares of business. This healthy promenade drew together a number of the citizens in the morning, but many more resorted there in the evening, and a numerous throng here regaled themselves, and rested from the busy, bustling occupations of the day;—and at the same time were spectators of the most splendid scene imaginable. ”

“ From Fort Pin a series of strong works extended nearly on a line with the present Grand and Broome Streets, to Broadway, and thence, diverging to the northwest, terminated in a redoubt on the brow of a hill, on the borders of a marsh near the intersection of Thompson and Spring Streets, Within this line, upon an eminence called Bayard's Mount, was the largest of all the works, except Fort George and the Grand Battery. This was called Independent Battery, and the Americans named the eminence Bunker Hill. ”

“ Here, much to our satisfaction, we were ordered to encamp. No time was lost in obeying the command, and what few tents had arrived were soon pitched. A hasty supper was cooked, and as speedily demolished. Soon, all had turned in for a night’s rest, being the first we had been able to obtain for two days.
Thus ended one of the most disastrous forced marches during the war. Many a poor fellow owes his death to this cause.
The day following, the rest of the battery arrived, and we remained here until Tuesday noon, the 19th of November, when we were ordered to march, our destination being Lebanon. ”

“ For the bright day, with enemy aeroplanes overhead constantly, exposed the batteries to discovery, particularly when they galloped up an open hillside into position. A blanket covering two still figures just beside our path, several others farther away without such cover, and white bandages gleaming on the bodies of some of the battalion of engineers who, with pontoon bridges, were waiting in readiness in the woods below, were evidence that the shells which whirred over and burst a ways beyond us were not always so far from their mark. The battery went up the hill one carriage at a time. ”

“ Dowly, Foreman of the Gardeners. On an average about forty gardeners are employed in the park. The park is under the Commissioners of Works, No. 12, Whitehall. [1]
[1] On Battersea Park Embankment, near where the Albert Bridge now spans the river, lies like some ancient ruin the beautiful Portico of Burlington House. ”

“ When it is time to water the teams the only street of the village is thronged with horses either led or ridden bare-back. Six batteries are encamped round Moirey, and there is only one pond into which a thin stream of clear water, not more than two fingers thick, trickles from a fountain. Every twenty paces one has to stop and manœuvre in order to avoid kicks, and the men, annoyed by the delay, swear at each other without reason. ”

“ Campbell was on the job. He made many a soldier sweat in the attempt to drag along the hob-nailed field shoes on a run. Hikes later were confined to Wednesday afternoon.
Battery D always put up a good showing in the numerous athletic contests. On Saturday, November 10th, the Battery won the second banner in the Inter-Battalion Meet; in celebration of which a parade and demonstration was held on the afternoon of the victory day. ”

“ As often as every other day the battery was called out for parade, and was taken through the different portions of the city. On Sunday we were marched down to the levee, where we went through an inspection, and afterwards were drilled for an hour or two, just to remind the evil-disposed citizens that there was a six-gun battery still in their city, that would make short work with any mob who attempted any violence. ”

“ Before 12 o'clock, the battery, the adjoining wharves and every place commanding a view of the passage from Staten Island, were crowded to excess. It was supposed there were nearly 50,000 persons upon the battery, including the troops. This elegant promenade, since its enlargement, is said to be capable of holding nearly the whole population of the city, (130,000) but a large portion of the front was occupied by the brigade of artillery and other troops. The castle garden, almost contiguous to the battery, and its gallery, were also crowded by the citizens. ”

“ Subsequently muskets were used, and with old style field pieces it took part in the expedition to Acote’s Hill in 1842. In the year 1847 it was equipped as a light battery with four guns and caissons, battery wagon and forge. The first parade was made at a training on Smith’s Hill, in Providence, Oct. 17, 1847, and it was known as “flying artillery,” being the first light battery ever organized in the United States outside the regular army.
2In 1852 it made an excursion to Boston, with four guns, battery wagon and forge, and encamped on the Common. ”

“ So far as has been ascertained, there are three new batteries on the west side of the entrance. These appear to be formed entirely of earthworks.
“The embrasures for the guns can easily be discerned with the glasses. Cayo Smith, a small island which lies directly beyond the entrance, is fortified, and back of Morro, which sits on the rocky eminences at the right of the entrance, are Estrella battery and St. Carolina fort. Further up the bay, guarding the last approach to the city of Santiago, is Blanco battery. ”