Defending America's Coasts, 1775-1950
Meanwhile, weapons technology was rendering these fortifications obsolete. During the Civil War,
heavy rifled guns with newly developed ammunition partially reduced Fort Sumter, South Carolina,
and Fort Pulaski, Georgia, to rubble. At Fort Sumter, the Confederate defenders piled earth and sand
before and behind the masonry walls, making the fort impervious to enemy shelling. As a result, both
Union and Confederate engineers began erecting earthen coastal forts and batteries, generally
forsaking the old masonry
In addition, the Civil War saw the use of the
underwater mine as a supplementary coast defense
measure. The Confederacy, without a large navy to
protect its harbors and rivers, used submarine
mines-often called torpedoes-to protect its
waters from attacks by Union ships. Matthew
Fontaine Maury, first chief of the Confederate
Torpedo Bureau, used mostly contact mines, which
exploded upon impact with a vessel, but
experimented with other types. This defensive
measure inspired David G.
statement, "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead,"
uttered during his attack at Mobile
Although the Corps of Engineers maintained many
of the masonry forts after the Civil War, it
constructed a number of earthen batteries as
primary structures in the
Actually, in light of
Civil War experience, the Engineers were in a
quandary over the kind of defenses needed. They
were sure, however, of the need for a practical
submarine
In 1866, Congress abrogated the Corps of
Engineers' supervision of the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. The Corps established its
new home at Fort
in New York Harbor,
buoyant torpedo (submarine mine) and connections.
where it created an Engineer School of Application.
Archives,
Some of the school's staff, especially Major Henry
Larcom Abbot, began experimenting with
submarine mines. Disregarding contact mines, they attempted to develop a reliable electrically
detonated device. As an outgrowth of this work, the War Department established the School of
Previous Page
