Today in History:

665 Series I Volume XLII-I Serial 87 - Richmond-Fort Fisher Part I

Page 665 Chapter LIV. THE RICHMOND CAMPAIGN.

gineers and 600 infantry daily. The length of the line is over 3,540 yards and extends from Four-Mile Creek to Aiken's farm. The redoubt on Signal Hill has been under his charge also. (A tracing of the line is sent with this report.) Battery Numbers 1, on the right, a redoubt fifty yards to a side, has three faces completed and gorge commenced; embrasures are ready for eight guns. Battery Numbers 2, a lunette for four guns, is completed. Battery Numbers 3, and advanced work, commanding the low ground in front of Four-Mile Creek to the base of New Market Hills and the New Market road, is completed for six guns. Its gorge is open and commanded by Battery Numbers 4, a redan for five guns, also completed. Battery Numbers 5, a redan for three guns, is completed. Battery Numbers 6, a square redoubt (forty yards to a face), commanding Kingsland road before and after turning to the northward, is completed for eight guns. Battery Numbers 7, a redoubt with front of forty yards, was commenced on the 14th of October and will be finished in a few days. These works are all revetted with small pine timber, generally three inches in diameter, and the embrasures with hurdles. The infantry parapets connecting these works are as follows: Between Nos. 1 and 2 and Nos. 2 and 3 are completed. From Numbers 3 to the left of the line they are over two-thirds complete, needing only a little more labor to finish them. It was deemed best to have the batteries and redoubts finished first and the whole line in partial completion, so as to be ready for troops at any time. Abatis is being laid in front of the whole line as fast as it possibly can be done by a detail of sixty men. Woods to the right of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 have been slashed for a distance of 250 yards from them and will be continued to beyond the rifle-range. Sixty men is the daily detail for the slashing party. The redoubt on Signal Hill is completed. It has ten embrasures and a magazine eight by twelve by six feet, and the whole work is surrounded by heavy abatis. This work commands the hill completely and crosses its fire with the redoubt on the right of the Tenth Army Corps front, thus affording a safe protection to the right flank of this army.

Captain Suess, First New York Volunteer Engineers, has had charge of the details of work at Dutch Gap and Cox's Hill and reports as follows, viz:

Fort Brady.-The parapet reverting and banquette were finished and scarp of the ditch trimmed. The magazine was framed and put up. A platform for 100-pounder Parrott gun was laid and a hoop-iron gabion embrasure made. Platforms and barbettes for four siege guns constructed and gabion embrasures made for each of them. An emplacement for a siege gun was made in the ditch for the purpose for firing at the enemy's mortar batteries across the river opposite Dutch Gap. The gorge of the work was closed with stockade and timber prepared for a palisade gate for the gorge. Abatis was laid on all sides of the work. The rebel rifle-pits and old works were leveled and the ground cleared in the vicinity.

At Dutch Gap a bomb-proof for the steam pump was made and put up, covered with a layer of sand-bags and earth. A bomb-proof was made for the engine and boiler of the steam dredge and put up. Two hundred and fifty railroad ties were cut, prepared, and sent to the Gap. The details for all this work averaged 40 engineers and 250 infantry a day.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

PETER S. MICHIE,

First Lieutenant, U. S. Engineers,

Acting Chief Engineer, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina.

Bvt. Major General J. G. BARNARD,

Chief Engineer, Combined Armies, City Point, Va.


Page 665 Chapter LIV. THE RICHMOND CAMPAIGN.