Today in History:

885 Series I Volume XXXIX-III Serial 79 - Allatoona Part III

Page 885 Chapter LI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION.

CAMEL BATTERY had been finished with two guns on naval carriages. Orders were received to dismount the one on the north flank and an 8-inch banded smooth-bore was mounted in its place. The parapet was raised to suit. Sand-bags have been replaced by sods.

McINTOSH. -The east flank for two guns has been completed; a 10- inch banded smooth-bore was placed in chamber Numbers 6; the 10- inch columbia of that chamber was placed in the last chamber of the east flank. Cribbing for the extension of bomb-proof has been made and filled; galleries made for traverse and the extension.

OCTAGONAL BATTERY. -This battery was removed from Choctaw Spit and placed on the northeast flank of Battery Gladden.

GLADDEN. -This battery had been finished; but one gun has been changed; the 8-inch banded gun has been replaced by a 10-inch banded gun.

IRON SQUARE BATTERY is so far finished as to be ready to receive a gun. A 10-inch gun chassis is mounted.

TELEGRAPH MASTS. -One of these masts has been erected on the right bank; the other is complete, but not yet erected.

CRIBBING AT CHOCTAW SPIT. -This cribbing had been ordered to be destroyed; four cribs were torn off, but the dismassal of the negro force stopped the work. Many accidents have occurred in this DIVISION during the month. The C. S. M was run into by the guard- boat Mary, and sank at her wharf. She is being raised; two flats are employed at this work. The Natchez and Magnolia both broke their wheels.

THIRD DIVISION.

BLAKELY. -In obedience to orders from the major -general commanding work has been discontinued on the water battery; lumber and platform transferred to Spanish Fort. A portion of the hands have been engaged in clearing land for a line of new redoubts; balance in loading barges with sod of Huger and Tracy.

TRACY. -Magazine has been sodded.

HUGER. -Parapet heightened and strengthened; excavation for new magazine finished.

SPANISH FORT. -Numbers 1: Work has been strengthened to the rear. All the guns mounted; excavation for commissary magazine completed; main powder magazine completed. Numbers 2: Force has been employed in covering magazine, strengthening parapet, widening and deepeding ditch, and advancing covered way to front. After Spanish Fort had been placed in good condition the work on Numbers 2 was discontinued.

OBSTRUCTIONS of Blakely and Appalachee Rivers have been strengthened by several additional rows of piles.

FOURTH DIVISION.

Seventeenth torpedoes anchored triangularly lengthwise the channel of Burns Bayou, the line commencing about -yards above the mouth, in ten feet and a half water, and extending southward, ending in six feet and a had water, the beginning and end marked by small buoys; sixteen torpedoes in pocket of Burns Bayou, beginning at a point on eastern side of channel in six feet and a half water, opposite and about midway between the Appalachee batteries and Spanish Fort, extending as nearly north-northwest as practicable toward Battery McIntosh; eleven torpedoes, beginning nearly opposite the point of Appalachee Bar, in eight feet water, and extending westward toward the lower


Page 885 Chapter LI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION.