Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-02-21
BOSTON FORTIFIcATIONs.
The Now Defenses of tho Harbor Are Co.
ing Forward.

The first of the new series of for.
tifications for the defense of Boston
harbor is now practically completed.
This IS the mortar battery on Win
throp Highlands. All that remains
to be done on the construction of
the battery itself is a little grading
along the front.
This Is essentially a mortar bat
terry. 1t has no sighted guDB in it's
equipment, which consists of sixteen
twelve-inch rifled mOrtars 1t is sit
uated just back of the highest part
of Winthrop Highlands. and is in ap-
pearance large oblong mound forty
feet high and about 200 by $50 feet
in area. In 1t are four large pits,
which look a good deal like the cra-
ters of extinct volcanoes. Thew
slope down at a sharp angle until
within about ten feet of the bottom,
when a vertical wall of masonry
takes the place of the earthen en-
bankment The disposition of these
pits is like that of the spots on a
four OF cards, and it IS in them that
the mortars are placed, four in each
pit.
The entrance to the battery is on
the north side through a low arch
way. This, like al others in the
fortification. has an arch of concrete
over it nine feet in thickness, with
twenty three feet of earth over that
1t would be impossible for any vessel
which could reach the location with
her fire to break through this de-
tense. Passing through this arch
way we reach the first, or north
easterly, of the mortar pits, and
another archway of similar kind
connects it with the corresponding
pit on the southeast corner. These
are the two pits nearest the water
and the front of the fortification. but
they are not very near it, as seventy
feet OF earth and masonry separates
them from the outside world. Half
way through the connecting passage
is another passage, running at right
angles to it, which connects with the
two westerly mortar pits.
Halfway between the two sets of
pits, and directly in the center OF
the fortifcation, are the magazines.
which run off at right angles from
the connecting passage, one to the
north and the other to the south.
These are carefully arranged so that
there shall be no confusion in getting
out ammunition in times of haste,
and open into tho connecting passage
at two different points, the north
magazine supplying thu eastern pits
and the south magazine the western
ones. In connection with the maga-
zines are several good-sized rooms
for the handling of the ammunition,
and these may also be used as quar-
ters for the men. The two westerly
pits are similar to the other two,
except that they are open on the
land side. No earthwork is neces-
sary here, as no fire could come
from this side.
This battery is a most important
one as, from its position, it com
mands the entrances to Boston har-
bor The guns have range of six
miles, and no vessel, however
heavily armored, would dare to come
within this range. The mortars are
designed to throw shells upward SC
as to fall on the deck of vessel
where she can be lightly armored,
and are arranged so that the whole
sixteen can, if necessary, be con-
centrated on one point, and fired al
once by means of electricity, drop.
ping sixteen twelve-inch shells on
the deck of We ssel.
1t was originally proposed to have
another battery of the same size and
equipment close behind this one, but
1t is probable that this plan will be
changed and the battery be placed
somewhere else-just where is not
now known. 1t is certain, however,
that there will be a number of these
mortar batteries around Boston, as
there are 12S of the mortars to be
disposed Of