Board visited numerous sites and developed plans for new fortifications. Its first substantive report,
released in 1821, established an ambitious construction program that remained the basis of the coastal
defense system until the Civil War."
With site surveys conducted by the Army's Topographical Engineers, the Bernard Board designed
fortifications based on the needs of specific locations. These defenses included large masonry
structures such as Fort Adams, Rhode Island; Fort Monroe, Virginia; and Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
Elsewhere, engineers erected smaller forts, for example, the martellos-masonry towers mounting
one or two guns and manned by small forces-on Tybee Island, Georgia, and Lake Borgne,
Louisiana. The board intended that the new
large and small, would provide adequate,
permanent security for the entire country."
Tower,
Island, Georgia, during the Civil War. Spaniards built it in
Massachusetts
Military Order of the
Legion,
History
xiv
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