. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . s eye and the cannon-sights. But for night firing or whenthe enemy is enveloped in smoke,—as he is sure to be in any artillery duel,—the eye cannot be dei^ended on. Visual aiming in a bomliardmeut is a delusionand a snare. To overcome this difficulty, on clear days, when all the conditionswere favorable to accuracy, and we could work at om- leisure, every gunin the armament was carefully aimed at all the prominent olijects within itsfield of fire, and its position marked on the tr
. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . s eye and the cannon-sights. But for night firing or whenthe enemy is enveloped in smoke,—as he is sure to be in any artillery duel,—the eye cannot be dei^ended on. Visual aiming in a bomliardmeut is a delusionand a snare. To overcome this difficulty, on clear days, when all the conditionswere favorable to accuracy, and we could work at om- leisure, every gunin the armament was carefully aimed at all the prominent olijects within itsfield of fire, and its position marked on the traverse circle, the index being apointer securely fastened to the traverse fork. After this had been done,alignment became as easy as setting a watch, and could be done by night orday, by the least intelligent soldier in the garrison. The elevation was more difficult to deal with. The ordinary method by theuse of a breech-sight could not be depended on, even if there had been a ■^ The troops ou the -Star of the West consisted of 200 men, under Lieut. Charles R. Woods.— Editors. INSIDE SUMTER. IN 6i. 63. EFFECT l>F THE ON THE BARBETTE GUNS OFTHE SEA FRONT OF SU-MTER. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. suflfieient supply of such instruments, because darkness or smoke would renderit inapplicable or inaccurate; and the two quachants in the outfit could not bedistributed all over the fort. Before the correct elevation to carry a shot to a given object can be deter-mined, it is necessary to know the exact distance of the object. This wasobtained from the coast-sm-veychart of the harbor. The neces-sary elevation was then calcu-lated, or taken from the tables,and the gun elevated accord-ingly by means of the quad-rant. The question can the gamner bring thegun to this elevation in the heatof action, and without the useof a quadrant? There was anabundance of brass rods, per-haps a quarter-inch in diame-ter, in the fort. Pieces of suchrods, eighteen inches long, were
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