Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/147

 Defence of Spanish Fort. 135

movements and the discipline of his command, to march his forces away before the enemy found they were gone or how they went.

GENERAL GIBSON 's COM :M AND.

General Gibson displayed great courage and capacity during this brilliant operation. Some days before the battle ended he received a sharp wound, but did not go off duty nor let his name go in the report of wounded. The troops under his com- mand represented every State of the Southern Confederacy. They had been more than four years in active service. They fitly closed the career of the Confederacy by an action so bril- liant that had it taken place two years sooner it would have greatly exalted the prowess of the Confederate troops. A care- ful study of its details will be of interest to military men.

SERVICE OF THE MORTARS.

Cohorn mortars were freely used and after the enemy's sharp- shooters had closed in they frequently cleared them out of their pits. The water approaches were guarded by submarine tor- pedoes and the approaches by land by sub-terra shells. I had about forty Cohorn mortars cast in the foundries of Mobile for this defense, and also wooden mortars made of gum stumps, hollowed out to eight and ten-inch calibre. They were hooped with iron and lined with sheet iron. They were only available at short range and with very small charges. We used here for the first time in the war, sand-bag embrasures for the men in the rifle-pits. They were very convenient and gave great security to the sharpshooters.

NOTES OF OPERATIONS.

Our cannon embrasures were efifectuallv closed by muntlets of steel plates. The enemy's sharpshooters plastered them thick with lead, but only one of them was injured — a three-inch shot cut a clean hole through it, but did no further damage.