Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-13


old Columbiads OF the pattern of 1850
are mounted, the others lying disman-
| tied within the walls.
I The fort rises directly from the water,
all the available land being in the inte-
rior, and is surrounded by moat, with
the exception of one acre of made land
for wharves and coal yards. Within the
fort are fine brick offices and mems
quarters, tall buildings adapted to the
climate, which is intensely hot At the
present time a small corporals guard
of few men constitutes the entire gar
uison, the officer in charge being the
surgeon of the quarantine station.
Tortugas is literally the key of the
gulf, and valuable as a coaling station
and seat Of supplies during war. 1t
could be brought up to state of COM
parative defence by filing in the moat
with coral rock, taken from the reef,
and bags OF sand from the adjacent ISL
ands, thus forming around the walls a
graded bank of sand and stone, many
T, feet thick, similar to the bank which
constitutes the defence at Fort Wads-
worth. Thus equipped, with an impen-
etrable sand or concrete bulwark, and
supplied with disappearing guns, theiold
| fort could again take it's place among
the great fortresses of the world \
The writer visited Fort Jefferson first
in 1859, when it was about half COM
pleted. 1t had no garrison, but an army
OF maSonS, carpenters and laborers, and
the government, while apparently OPP
posed to the slave system, was lavishly
pouring money into the Golfers of the
Key West slave owners. Then came the
war, and the writer we'll remembers the
arrival of the first troops for he, with
the late Gen. Meigs, stood on the para
pet and watched them disembark and
march in.
1t was expected that the fort would be
| seized at once when Sumter was fired
on, and it is singular that the confede-
rates did not visit the spot, as they
could have taken the fort with a dozen
men, as there was not a gun mounted,
and property valued at millions of dol
lars was at their mercy. During this
anxious time, before the troops which
mad been sent for arrived, a steamer
hove in sight one day, coming directly
for the channel. A barge was sent out
with the health officer, with the under
standing that if it was a confederate
cruiser he was to make a certain signal.
An exciting moment it was, all believ-
ing that the vessel was a confederate
particularly as 1t did not stop. but
moved directly on, passing the health
officer and steaming into the harbor,
while those within the fort proposed to
close the drawbridge and fight it out
with shotguns. As the steamer came I'M
to the wharf, and the uniforms of the
United States artillery were seen, a
shout went up; Fort Jefferson was
saved.
Guns came, presently; then vessels
loaded with shot and shell, and gradu-
ally the fine fortress, which had been al=
most quarter of century in building.
assumed a warlike appearance Soon
after the arrival of the first troops, it
was garrisoned with a regiment of
volunteers, and during the war several
regiments were stationed there, among
them the One Hundred and Tenth New
York, Forty seventh Pennsylvania,
Seventh New Hampshire, and detach-
ments Of the First, Second, Third,
Fourth, and Fifth United States artil-
lery, and Billy Wilson's zouaves." At
one time there was also a negro regi-
ment
AS soon as the war was well under
way great prison for bounty jumpers,
deserters, etc, became a necessity. Fort
Jefferson was selected, and became the
famous Dry Tortugas, about which so
much was written. At one times there
were eight or ten hundred prisoners
within its walls, and guard of over a
thousand soldiers, making a population
of, perhaps, 2500 on sandbank of thir-
teen acres.
Some remarkable characters were con-
! fined in Fort Jefferson, and the prison
life was, all reports to the contrary, not
severe. There were so many prisoners
| that all could not be kept at work
though an attempt was made when they
arrived to Segregate them into trades
and make them work, so that they had
almost Precisely the same life that the
| paid engineer workmen had. AS in all
prisons, there were some instances of
cruelty. The writer saw men walking in
the tropical sun with knapsack load
ed with bricks; one man was once lashed
up by the thumbs behind his back until
the surgeon interfered, and ordered him
| down. on the ground of humanity. But
in these cases the prisoners had at
| tackled or threatened officers and had
utterly refused to obey orders. Dry
| Tortugas was invested with many hor-
rors in the northern mind by prisoners;
| but it was not the disagreeable place it
| has been pictured.
The sand on which the fort stands is
so shallow that by digging a foot or
| two anywhere salt water can be
reached, and during heavy storms it rose
so that the writer sailed about within
the fort on raft. Despite this, the
| parade ground in the centre was covered
with grass, and little lawns of Bermuda
grass were seen in various yards. The
| quarters led up by tall cocoa palms and
through grove of mangroves, while
at various portions of the key cocoanuts
grew and flourished their roots deep in
the salt water The cottages of some of
the officers were covered with vines,
presenting an attractive appearance and
fully justifying the name, Garden
Key"
AS there is no fresh water on any OF
the islands, each casemate on Fort JEFF
ferson was over a eistern. During the
| war, when 1000 men had to have water,
the supply gave out and a condenser
was kept running day and night to sup
ply the demand Long lines Of men
stood at the cistern waiting for water,
and when the colored troops met the
white troops, there was usually a dis
pute, and at this place the writer saw
the first fatality which occurred at the
Dry Tortugas. The blacks had reached
the pump first, but a white soldier, COM
ing Immediately after, pushed one of
them aside The blacks retaliated, and
the corporal OF the guard came running
to put down the disturbance. The
leader of it was gigantic negro who
now snatched at the gun of guard,
upon which the corporal gave the order
to charge The writer stood not ten
feet away and saw the hayonet slip into
the mans side. He seized it and backed
until he rested against the wall Of
building, and there, still fighting, he
was shot.
Many of the prisoners spent their time
in watching for an opportunity to escape.
One morning the writer found a dead man
in the water near his boat. He had low
cred himself down from a portfolio hoping
to swim the moat and reach a vessel that
was lying in the harbor, but had failed.
Sadly enough his pardon came a day or
two later. Other prisoners set sail in sail
boats, and were never heard from. and
must have been lost at sea. One man
swan to Loggerhead key on a ladder, a
n lfcto Of thraN mill ~,