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Preface
It was not a mere sneer that described
Napoleon as “only an artillery officer.”
His method of massing great guns was almost unknown in
America when the
Civil War opened; the
Confederates, to their cost, let two years go by before organizing so as to allow of quick artillery concentration; yet what else could have won
Gettysburg for the
Federals?
Proper defense against cannon was even less understood until the
Civil War.
If Louis Xiv's
military engineer Vauban had come to life during any battle or siege that followed his death up to 1861, he could easily have directed the operations of the most advanced army engineers — whose fortifications, indeed, he would have found constructed on conventional lines according to his own text-books.
Thus the gunner in Blue or
Gray, and his comrade the engineer, were forced not only to fight and dig but to evolve new theories and practices.
No single work existed to inform the editors of this History systematically concerning that fighting and digging.
No single work described Federals and Confederates alike, and readably told the story of the great events with the guns and behind the ramparts from 1861 to 1865.
That gap it is hoped this volume will fill.
American resourcefulness here became epochal.
For siege work great guns were devised and perfected which rendered useless, for all time, most of the immense brick and stone and mortar fortifications existing in the world.
The introduction
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of rifled guns worked as great a revolution in warfare on land as that of the ironclad vessel on the sea.
The photographs in this volume follow the artillery in the field, both Federal and Confederate.
They comprehensively illustrate the precaution taken by the
Federal engineers to protect the
Northern capital from capture.
They supplement graphically the technical information in regard to the fabrication of guns and making of ammunition.
A dramatic series of views follows the gradual reduction of the
Confederate forts and batteries on
Morris Island by the
Federal besiegers, and the latter's attempts against
Sumter.
The photographs in the latter part of the volume reflect the ingenuity of the
American soldier in protecting himself on the battlefield; the bridging of broad rivers in the space of an hour by the Engineer Corps; the expert railroading under difficulties of the United States Military Railroad Construction Corps; the
Confederate defenses along the
James which baffled the
Federal army, and preserved
Richmond so long free though beleaguered.
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