The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-02
Soloiers' &noget.
An Army Officers Story.

city at the time of the draft, in the sum-
mer of 1863, all of the regular troops at
the several forts in the harbor were
ordered to the city, with the exception
of Colonel Burke, the ordnance SER
geant and barge crew of five men at
Fort Lafayette. A company of state
militia was sent down to the fort to
guard the prisoners, some twenty or
thirty of them, during the temporary
absence of the regulars. The day the
troops left the colonel received several
letters informing him that an organ
lied partyof rebel sympathizers, or cop
perheads, as they were generally termed,
would make descent on the fort and
release all the prisoners during the alb
sence of the regular garrison. He was
naturally very anxious as to the safety
of the prisoners, lacking confidence in
the militia company, and toward even
ing he called the ordnance sergeant
and the barge crew of regulars into his
office to give them some special instruc-
tons as to what should be done in case
of an emergency, when he was startled
by hearing the cry: Corporal of the
guard! Post No. 2l' In a very few
minutes the militia corporal came
running in, breathless, excaiming:
Colonel, there's steamer at the
dock and you are wantedW For mo-
ment he was speeches.. The arrival
of steamer at that hour, after the
warnings he had received, seemed to
confirm his belief that his worst fears
were to be realized. But he was equal
to the emergency, and, jumping to his
feet, shouted; " Shut the gates! Ring
the bell! Turn out the whole COM
mand! Shoot the first man who shows
his headr' For short time the ex-
element was intense and a stampede
seemed imminent The militia. fearing
that the prisoners had broken out, had
become demoralized. Some hours
later, under the cover of the
night, soldier stole out of the
fort. He found the steamer still there
and an officer vanly trying to make
known his errand, which was to get
supply of ammunition for the troops in
the city. Despite the ludcrous ter
mination of the affair, not one of the
militia officers dared joke with Colonel
Burke about this terrible scare, and
three of the militia soldiers left the fort,
declaring that they would not stand
another such shock for the whole state
of New York. The next day the
colonel, still fearing the possibility of
an attempt to release the prisoners,
caused a siX-pounder gun to be mounted
in the sally port, loaded at shutdown
with canister, and a reserve supply
kept close at hand. The barge crew
slept under the gun, and the ordnance
sergeant sat up all night to be in readi-
ness for the expected attack. For more
than week this programme was faith
fully carried out every night, the
colonel making frequent visits to see
that his trusty sergeant was on the
alert Fortunately no attack was made
and the regular garrison shortly returned
to the fort. On the last day of March,
1866, the troops were withdrawn, the
last prisoner released, the mission of
Fort Lafayette was ended and its days
were numbered. The ordnance SER
geant was left in sole charge of the
fertilization, guns and ammunition.
The desolate silence of the place was
unbroken until the LIST of December,
1868, when the engineer workmen COM
menced some necessary repairs. A
strong southeasterly gale had been
blowing for some days and the wind
had increased to the force of hurri-
cane About the middle of the day
some of the wOrkmen started fire in
one of the places which had not
been used for years. With a terrific
roar the burning shavings and kindling
wood were drawn up the chimney and
in twinkling were scattered by the
wind, setting fire to the roof in several
places. The wind was at its height
and the fierce flames shot up from
every direction. a panic ensued, for
it was known that in the magazine
was stored four hundred barrels of gun
powder. The men ran TO the barge
and made their way hastily to the
shore. Not thing was saved. They
were thankful to escape with their
lives. On the high banks opposite an
ever-increasing crowd of people was
gathered, with eyes steadfastly fixed on
the burning fort. 1t looked like fiery
furnace as the flames burst forth from
the embrasures and shot up in the air
with terrible force. The one thought
in the minds of the excited spectators
was of the magazine, with its twenty
tons of powder. When would it eX-
plode? The fire burned fiercely all the
afternoon. AT last it reached the room
where the shells were placed and as the
first shell burst, with a mighty roar, the
anxious crowd shouted: "There goes
the magazine" A stampede ensued,
but, as the shells continued to explode
at intervals, the spectators pushed and
crushed back to their former positions.
The ordnance sergeant, in answer to
thousand questions as to the strength
of the magazine, firmly expressed his
belief that the fire could not and would
not reach it, for he knew its powers of
resistance. Shortly after midnight the
flames seemed to burn less tiercely and
the sergeant called for volunteers to
row him over to the fort, where he
found that, Notwithstanding the terrible
heat, only the outer door of the maya
zine had been destroyed and its con-
tents were perfectly safe. When he
returned and assured the people of this
fact great sigh of relief went up
and the spectators gradually withdrew.
This ended the memorable history of