Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/108

96 yourself. Our whole coast involves the most complicated difficulties in defense, and all the highest range of science in war is required to make that defense successful. Feeling the greatest confidence in your abilities, and well knowing that this position is well suited to your peculiar talents and scientific knowledge, it affords me the greatest pleasure to co-operate with you in anything that you may suggest, and to offer you all the resources of the State that I may be able to command.

After an inspection of the harbor defenses, and the lines and work on James island, General Beauregard reported the result of his examination in the following letter, of date October 3, 1862, addressed to Adjutant-General Cooper at Richmond:

Accompanied by Major-General Pemberton, Brigadier-General Jordan, my chief of staff, Colonel Gonzales, chief of artillery, and Lieut.-Col. George Lay, on a tour of inspection, under orders of the war department, on September 16th I proceeded to inspect the harbor defenses, beginning with four new sand batteries, in barbette, near the west end of Sullivan s island, bearing on and commanding the floating boom under construction across the channel thence to Fort Sumter. Those batteries are not finished, but two guns, lo-inch columbiads, were in position, one only being ready for service and the magazines not yet built. The boom is composed of railroad iron, strongly linked together with heavy iron links and bands, protected and buoyed by spars of timber of the same length with the bars of iron, and banded closely together with iron. The bars are suspended four feet under water, and the whole structure is anchored every sixth section with an anchor. About one-fourth of this boom is laid. I am informed that it has been tested by running against it a heavily-loaded vessel towed by a steamboat. This test it resisted, parting the towline, a lo-inch hawser. It was also proposed to lay another line about 100 yards in rear of that now under construction, if sufficient time is allowed and enough chains and anchors can be procured. In addition, a rope obstruction has been prepared to place in advance of the wooden and iron boom for the purpose of entangling the enemy s propellers while under fire of our heavy guns in the adjacent forts and batteries.