Iron County register., 1888-11-22
20 !.
MORTAR BEDS FOR GRANT.


4 Story q the War-Abram . Hewifs.
and the Iron lEeu.
A friend Of Mayor Hewitt told rel
porter story Of his employment By
President Lincoln at another critical
juncture In the progress Of the war, and
the reporter applied to the mayor for the
said:
aLet me think 4 minute. II was Ia
the winter Of 1851 and 1859. inst before I
went to Europe. was at the tea table
one Sunday might've always had some
thing of q company, some twenty or
thirty on such occasions land was at
the head of the table, when messenger
brought me q telegram from Mr.. Lincoln.
1t was a long printed roll. / have the
original still somewhere, and it ran this
way:
understand that you are man that can do
things that other men say can't be done Gen
Grant Is at Cairo ready to move on Fort Doneison
He has thirty mortar bombs and thirty mortars
areQu the way from Pittsburg to Cairo It Is now
discovered that there are mortar beds for the
lack Of which the expedition win fan because the
ordnance bureau says they can't be produced
under nine months They must be at Cairo IN
thirty days Yours truly, A. LINcoLx
81 had never seen mortar bed" said
Mr.. Hewitt, '.but had heard that Gen.
Rodman, who was then in command at
Watertown arsenal, had just completed
the model of one, and that night placed
myself in communication with him,
thing had no difficulty in doing, being
at the time president Of the American
Telegraph company. was able to get
the operators to stand at the machine
while talked to Gen. Rodman. In
reply to my question, Gen. Rodman said
that the first mortar bed had just been
completed. I asked him if he could send
it down to New York by the Monday
night boat at the latest. This was Sunday
night, you understand, and there was no
way to get it down the next day. He
said he could send it If he received orders
to do SO. I told him to consider that he
was under orders for the time being,
assuring him that would see that he re-
ceived them, which afterward did.
''He sent the mortar bed, and it ar
rived Tuesday morning by the Fall River
boat. spent Monday running around
to the Novelty, Allaire and Cornell's iron
works, to secure draughtsmen to be
of the several parts of the mortar bed on
its arrival. I found that it weighed
about ton and half, and was COM
posed of several connected parts. had
it carted to the Novelty iron works and
taken to pieces, and distributed the
pieces around among the three works
have mentioned, each agreeing to make
certain parts and to do all they possibly
could to get them ready in time. The
material to make them was not on hand,
and had to be provided. Being in the
iron business knew who made the diff
ferent kinds of material The principal
maker Of an essential kind of iron re-
fused to change his rolls to make what
was wanted and I telepraphed to Mr.
Lincoln to send an officer to take posses
sion Of his works, which he did. The
work progressed with such success that
as result was able to send the first NOR
tar bed forward In thirteen days from the
time received Mr.. .Lincoln's telegram and
the whole thirty in twenty-six days. Isent
messenger on with each mortar bed, and
the car upon which it was loaded was at
tached to the express trains with
printed order of the secretary Of war
pasted upon it which read as follows:
This car must not be side tracked under penalty
OF death. By order Of the secretary OF war.
''Gen. Grant received the mortar beds
on time, the expedition went forward,
and Donelson and Henry were taken.
paid all the expenses of making and for.
warding the mortar beds, amounting to
over $50, 600. At the time paper money
was substantially at par, or nearly 80.
When got my pay in paper money q
year afterward paper money had depre-
ciated over half, and got it then only
on the order of Mr.. Lincoln, with whom
then had my first interview. When
was presented to him he said: why, you
are not such q tremendous fellow after
all. thought you must be feet high
and weigh 300 pounds. New York |
Times.