National Republican., 1884-06-18
"ruE SWAMP ANGEL"
The story OF How the Great Gun was Put
in Position Before Charleston.
Broot'pn Edge.


tho Swamp Angel was put into position
before Charleston" asked veteran Of tho
engineers of group of veterans in Brooklyn.
"Ivo read NIB out it several times" said ono
Of the group.
"Well, | never read an accountkof 10 yet
that wasn't crooked" returned the engineer.
81 was there myself and know tho whole
inside Of the business, and I'll toll yoI just
how IL was. Gen. Gilmore was in command
of the engineers at the siege Of Charleston.
Ono day in the midsummer Of 63 ho
sent Capt. Michel, now general at West
Point, to see whether there was any
point on the coast where guns could
BIO placed to attack Charleston. Michel
reported that the coast was all
swamp for three or four miles inland
nothing but mud. water, aud slush forty or
fifty feet deep. He had gone half mile or so
in n boat, making very poor progress through
the bulrushes, and the stencil from the car
cases Of animals thrown into the swamp mado
him sick. Gilmore was In bush hut eating
supper with Col. (now GEM Serrell when ho
got Nichols report. He turned TO Scroll and
asked him whether he thought II possible to
get guns posted In the swamp. Scroll said he
thought nothing was impossible; he called
Lieut. Harold and sent him TO rcconnoiter.
Harold was gone half the night and came
back very much bedraggled aud tired. Ho said
IL was impossible to get the guns through, and
impossible TO mount them, evon If they could
be got through. Using his utmost efforts, he
had only been ablo to get between two and
three miles into the swamp. Scroll sal
it had got to be done. Harold asked
how ho was going to do IT, and said it
would require men with legs forty feet long
to get throughtha swamp. Well the project
of posting guns In the swamp got abroad in tho
camp and the soldiers made great fun aboutit.
They said that Drs. Dalrymple and Snow, two
&C Nln np m (aillmnTA'g
staff, were appointed to splice the legs OF our
men to get them to the required length NEXT
morning Col Serrell took Lieut.. Edwards
with him and started to look at the swamp
for himself. They got as long plank as
there was in tho camp and waded into the
swamp, each holding one end OF the plank.
The day was feartully hot, the work was ter
rible getting through the rushes and water
plants, and thick, shiny slush, and the smell
of the swamp was sickening, but they perse-
vered, working slowly out till they came
to creek. Here they were stopped for o
time, as it had a considerable current
and was deep, but after while they
got the plank fitted so that one held II
while the other crawled over, and held "
still in his turn. Then, with infinite labot
they went on o little further toward CharlesI
ton. Finally they got to the wator's edge four
and one.half miles from Charleston. Hero tho
| ground was more solid. Thero were oyster
shells and winklos and spiral aureoles. They
took bearing to tho stoeple of st. MichaePs
church in Charleston and another bearing to
Fort Moultrie, and another 10 Fort Johnson
and SO located their own position in the
swamp. Then they worked down the edge
!. of tho open water to Block island, and 30 re'
turned terribly played out and dirty, but
full of hope. Col. Serrell told Gen. Gillmort
that no thought it possible to get guns into
such position in the swamp that they might
| hntn ho rH nharlngton mud thnt ninht submit
ted q plan for establishing the wished-fol
battery. In this plan he estimated that Il
would require 5000 days work to pu
| just ono gun into position 1--WE reckonet
by the days work of one man, then
5000 days work of one man, or one days
work of. 5000 mem. This gun was to be o
| extraordinary power, and was 30 rest on
platform composed of three thicknesses o
three-inch yellow pine plank, two of th
layers of plank crossing, while the other ira
versed them diagonally. All were to b.
strongly spiked together and underneath
them were loads of brush and sand bags
Piling, consisting of heavy planks with sharl
points, was to be driven twenty feet into tn
mud, so that the tops came flush with tn
platform which was to surrOund 1T thi
again was to be strongly spiked and tina
completed the inner platform. All aroun
this immense quantities of brush were to b
thrown into the swamp, and on top of thi
brush grlllage of logs, strongly fastened to
gether, but totally distinct from the innel
platform. was to surround that platform. ol
the top of this grillage of logs sand bags wer
to be piled till they sunk it considerably, il
spite Of the brush. As it sunk 1t was to fore
up the platform in the center. Well, tn
plan was submitted and approved
and men were detailed right away I
put it into execution. Meanwhil
everybody was laughing at the engineer, ant
| hn 'har mn unt wind Of the nr0ippi
and made great sport of ID. One OF the conf
papers had q very funny cartoon about an oil
negro carrying the Swamp Angels compli
ments to Con. Beauregard in Charleston
Another paper would have il that the Yam
KEGS were going to drain tho swamp which
of course, was impossible. as IL was fed direc
from the Atlantic ocean, another paper agair
insisted that we were going to dixie the swami
across; another that we'd sent north for peo
Pile to bring down bridge structure; anothe
that we had discovered something wonderful
in pneumatics, and still another that we wer
going to use balloon battery. We'll, tn
engineers went ahead in spite Of oil tn
laughing. They built bridge to the poin
of swamp which Col Scroll and Lieut.. Han
rold had surveyed, and soldiers carried on
the planks and logs and 10000 bags of sand
and the battery was built. The work wa
mostly done at night, and the hardest job q
all was to drive the piling. Many men wer
killed at the work, for tho rebs shelle
us, but it was all done at last We had pu
up o sham fort little distance down til
coast, just a simple mass of leafy boughs. ]
bothered the life out of the rebs they couldn
mako out what was going on behind 1T an
shelled it incessantly. Well when we ha
got the swamp fort all ready we built fiat
bottomed scow, put seven-inch rifled Parrot
on her, waited till high water came. floatet
her through, and got the gun into position
We couldn't get elevation enough on 1t a
first, though, and had to cut away tho rea
gun carriage; that fixed things to nicely
oh, wasn't that gun daisy-neyer canno
before or since had such n range. You ca
guess how nicely we had II trained when
tell you that Lieut.. Nathan Edwards an
Col. Serrell laid tho line of fire, calculatin
to put shell into tho rebel headquarter
five and one.half miles of. and they onl
missed their mark by a few feot. Smashe
, right through tho house next door that she
did, and Capt. Macbeth, who was then o
Bcauregard's staff, afterward told mo that
was sitting at his desk when the thing ot
Cured. An old niger came running int
him in great state of excitement, saying
! 'Massa! Massa! dar's Yankee she'll como III
made a hole in do street big nuf ter put dc
omnibus in.' A lieutenant of Col. Pleasanton
regiment fired that shot tell you 1t wok
tho Charleston folks up, and MeerScham an
johnson and the other forts fred whole mini
of metal at u.s. but it was all no good. W
. could fix up in the night all they could Rnoc
down in the day, for their shot would so int
tho sand bags and do no harm, and' Dosiaesi
} had reserve platform ofsand'bags behind u
battery. Tho gun was fired nineteen tim
that first night aud did great execution, bl
"a ~ ...l. ar