Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-11-10
A PACIFIC BATTERY.


New YOrk's Theoretically Offensive but
Practically Mild hammered Institution.
When Hendrix Hudson came sailing into
the mouth of the iyer that thenceforwarl
was to he known by hi1 name, on that
September day in the year Ia, almost the
whole of what now is called the 1.-THE Bat
terry" was under water at high tide. And
it is a fact, uDt withstanding the thunder
ing of guns which has gone on whereabouts
and the clustering name that the locality
has worn for more than two centuries, that
not single one of New ~ = enemies
ever would have been IL whit tne worse had
Che tides continued until this very mo-
ment to cover the Battery twice day. Ac-
tually the entire record of this theoretical
ly offensive institution, whereof the essen
tial and menacing purpose of course was
that somebody or something should be bat
tered by it, has been an aggregation of gen
tie civilities which would have done credit
to rather exceptionally mild hammered
lamb.
This primitive battery was but n small
affair, loosely constructed and lightly
armed. AS to it's armament, the report of
the survey ordered in the year 1858 contains
the item, "Out the fort, under the flag
mount near the waterside, five demicul-
verins" And its Inherent structural weak
ness is shown by the fact that only five
years after its erection-that is to say, in
1859, when Lesler's righteous revolt made
the need for strong defenses urgent-its
condition was so ruinous as to be beyond
repair, wherefore it was replaced by IA
half moon mounting seven great guns"
As the event proved, this half moon full of
guns would have satisfied for almost an
other century all that might have been
but was not-required of artillery in this
neighborhood. But the times were trou-
blous across seas, and the Leisler matter had
proved that questions of European abstract
faith and concrete loyalty might exercise a
very tumultuous and dismal influence upon
American lives. And SO the prudent New
Workers about the year 1893 decided to
bring their waterside defenses to Il condi-
ton of high efficiency by building "a great
battery of 80 guns on the outmost point of
rocks under the fort so situated as to com
mand both rivers'' and incidentally to defy
the world.
In the mere planning of this nobly defiant
undertaking there seems to have been
gained so comforting "a sense of security
that it's realization was not arrived at for
nearly half a century, as appears from Gov
ernor Clarke's statement Obs: There is e
battery which commands the mouth of the
narDOr, WnereOn may De mounted oO can
non. This is new, having been built but
three years. but it wants finishing" In the
course of the ensuing 30 years-possibly
sooner-the finishing touches seem to have
been supplied; at least the Battery is shown
as completed on Ratzens map of 1867, and
it is certain that these defenses were in ef
fective condition while New York was hello
by the English during the Revolutionary
war.
Indeed during the Revolutionary perioc
the Battery really was n battery of somt
Importance, "A line of works extending from
the foot of Greenwich street along all the
water front to Whitehall slip. But what
made the Battery harmless at that poten
italy most belligerent period of its history
was precisely what has made it harmless
throughout the whole of its kindly caree
the absolute absence of an enemy a
whom to discharge its guns.-Harper
Weekly.