Gazette and sentinel., 1861-07-13
a Floating Battery Across Miss.
iSSippi.

fkh
Our Algerine Contemporary The N,r,.
00y keeps a sharp eye Oh New Orleans
Inc Its ~dafences, and often makes use.
iul suggestions in connection with the
war. We find in a late number of the
Ne~ssoy an article on the possibilities
OF all Invasion of New Orleans by a
steam Hotilla descending the river from
Cincinnati. The writer observes:
IT the work in plating steamboats,
with iron was really going on at Gin
c%innatl, under the United States officer
named, 1T would be well done. and if
these boats came down the river past
any Notifications or batteries at the rate
OF eighteen or twenty miles an hour,
current and steam power united, they
would escape the effects of any batteries
which could fire upon them. Omit
other hand, if the descending boats could
be stopped half an hour, or ever less
time, long enough for the batteries to
play upon them, they could be sunk.
This brings US to speak of a float
ing boom or battery projected by Gene
raj Beauregard and recommended by him
to the Military Board before his leaving
to take command at Charleston. The
Military Board soon after dissolved and
being succeeded by civilians, and Gene
raj Il. being absent, his plan remained
unnOticed.
1t is hardly advisable here to give the
details of construction, but the draw
ings made under his inspection are to
be seen at the Customhouse, in the
hands of the architect, with whom they
have been deposited. 1t may be men
toned that it is divided into two parts,
so that each will be at an angle of thirty
degrees with the bank; one side to be
securely anchored on land at one end,
and in the other, the river end of the
other n being locked to the first one
SO that it may be drawn open by a wire
rope in the adjoining fort in order to let
friendly vessels pass. On it at suitable
intervals are to he pontoons or floats,
upon which small howitzers could be
placed with guards and sentrics, which
floats will also prevent the boom from
being ridden down. The manner in
which it would be placed at Forts Jack
son and St. Philip would expose any
ship attempting to saw through it or
ride over it to q raking fire from one
fort and a full broadside from the other.
Captains Duncan and Brand are said
to have acquired such skill in gunnery
that they can hit a beef barrel at two
and a half miles, with an cight-inch
C~olumbiad, twice out of five shots, and
would certainly do great execution on
ascending ships in daylight; but in a
dark stormy night they might not be so
successful. If ten ships should attempt
to go up at once, five might be sunk and
five get by, and these five he enough to
destroy our city. like boom would he
of equal value above Memphis at Fort
Wright, or some similar ratification
Otherwise we may expect to sec the
enemy successfully descend the river
Admitting that he will be vanquished
on our soil, this will not pay us for the
damage he will do our towns and planta-
tons, nor for the lives of our brave men
lost in driving him back.
General Beauregard stands now be.
fore the people Of the Confederate States
as a General of the first rank. As an
Engineer he is thought to be without his
superior. At Charleston and in Virginia
hiss advice is at once unhesitatingly
obeyed. Shall Louisiana, by disregard
ing his advice, prove anew that a pro-
phet is not without honor save in his
own country? If she does so she may
in sackcloth and in the ashes of
her own chief city.
The above matter we think worthy OF scri.
Gus attention. Ifthe Lincolnites are prepar-
ing to descend the river with we'll armed boats, |
with plated and raised bulwarks, it is to be
supposed they will do their work well, and
with an eye to oil the disadvantages and dan
ger OF defeat, that present themselves They
know that we have formidable breastworks
along the banks Of the Mississippi at two or
three places; but a formidable steam steel.
plated fotilla, each boat going at the rate of
miles an hour, might we'll risk, at
night, the damage any fort might do it by a
discharge. What is wanted is the OBJ.
structions invented by Gen. Beauregard, al
Iuded to above, and thrown across the river at
some favorable point near Memphis. The
hing is, to prevent them from either descen-
ling or ascending the river in boats of any
description, however formidable or shot-proof