Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General BenjFButler : Butler's book : a review of his legal, political, and military career . and push on at least far enoughto reconnoitre the next obstruction. III. Captain Farragut having passed the forts, General Butlerwould at once take the troops round to the rear of Fort St. Philip,land them in the swamps there, and attempt to carry the fort byassault. The enemy had made no preparations to resist an attackfrom that quarter, supposing the swamps impassable. But Lieuten-ant Weitzel, while constructing the fort, had been for two years inthe
Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General BenjFButler : Butler's book : a review of his legal, political, and military career . and push on at least far enoughto reconnoitre the next obstruction. III. Captain Farragut having passed the forts, General Butlerwould at once take the troops round to the rear of Fort St. Philip,land them in the swamps there, and attempt to carry the fort byassault. The enemy had made no preparations to resist an attackfrom that quarter, supposing the swamps impassable. But Lieuten-ant Weitzel, while constructing the fort, had been for two years inthe habit of duck shooting all over those swamps, and knew everybay and bayou of them. He assured General Butler that the landingof troops there would be difificult, but not impossible; and hence thispart of the scheme. Both in the formation of the plan and in its execution, the localknowledge and pre-eminent skill of Lieutenant Weitzel were of theutmost value. Few men contributed more to the reduction of tliecity than he. There were few more valuable officers in the servicethan General Weitzel, as the country well knows. 360 BUTLERS IV. The forts being reduced,the land and naval force wouldadvance toward the city in themanner that should then seembest. The first days bombardmentset fire to the wooden barracksand officers quarters, whichburned all night. Porter ceasedfiring while the burning wasgoing on, supposing that thefort would be destroyed. Butthat fire had the same effect asA^^hen the enemy fired on FortSumter and set fire to thesame class of buildings. Theysupposed that Sumter mustsurrender on account of thatfire. But that fire, and thisone, too, only cleared the fortof obstructions and the fact that the fort hadneither been disabled nor sur-rendered Porter received in-formation the next morning bya prompt and vigorous responseto the fire of the mortars, andat a rifle ball from thefort pierced one of his schoonersand sunk it in twenty min-utes. Th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgenerals, bookyear189
