Evening journal., 1913-10-25
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Engineer Who Put The
Famous swamp Angel
Into Position
By Holland.

General serrell heard few days
ago that you were the engineer who
laid the foundations in one of the
swamp islands Of Charleston upon which
the great gun they called the Swamp
AnleS was placed, with which the
steady bombardment Tor some weeks Of
the city of Charleston, five miles away,
was made in the latter part OF the civil
war"
general Serrel was sitting at his
desk in re- wing chair, and while
! was talking he was occupied in ar
ranging certain technical papers which
lay upon his desk and which had some
relation to the ship canal across the
isthmus OF Panama, but some fifty miles
south Of the Panama Canal, which he
was endeavoring to secure capital to
construct. He wheeled around in his
chair quickly and looked at me over
his spectaces for few moments some
what dreamily. My remark seemed to
have awakened memories which had
been overshadowed in recent years by
his intense interest in his Panama canal
proposition. He was a short, thick set
man with a large head, beautifully pro-
portioned, thick gray hair, shaggy eye
hrows, smooth shaven and OF remarka-
bly, fair complexion for a man of his
years. He was then nearly eighty.
YES" he said, meditatively, that
is true. | did supervise the construo-
tion Of the foundations upon which the
great gun which has passed into his
tory as the Swamp Angel rested.
81 went into the war as commander
of regiment which l organized and
which was, in fact, the first regiment
of volunteer engineers in the Union
army was promoted and became
chief engineer Of the Tenth Army
Corps and chief OF the engineering de-
partment of the South.
'"When the government at Washing
ton decided to make desperate attempts
to capture the city Of Charleston ], Of
course, obeyed orders My own personal
feeling was that there was no good
military reason for trying 10 capture
Charleston. The city was of little inn
portance from a military point Of view.
II had been effectively blockaded from
the beginning of the war and l couldn't
see any but n sentimental reason for
making such elaborate and expensive
preparations for capturing the city.
However, ! said nothing at the time.
II was my duty to obey orders and TO
do the best l could. When it was
found that it was practically impossible,
excepting at great expenditure of life
and a wholly unnecessary expenditure
to capture th , y by assault, ] was
asked to find good position for plac-
ing a great mortar gun in such posi-
tion that IL would command the city.
In the lower harbor of Charleston there
are numerous sand pits and swamp is.
lands. After careful study | made up
nv mind that one of these swamp is
lands was the best location for placing
the great gun. I had TO 90 down TO a
firm foundation, ] had TO put the gun
in comparatively inconspicuous place
and had TO locate it so that il would
be aimed directly at the city OF Charles
ton%
"After I had done that and the gun
was placed in position. my particular
relation to this work was ended. | be-
lievcd then that the occasional shot fired
from this gun into Charleston would be
without material advantage TO MS and
! did not think that the moral effect on
the city of Charleston would amount to
anything.
"After the war was over OCCASION
ally met friends who had been in the
Confederate service and who had some
knowledge of the effect OF the shots from
what they called the Swamp Angel
upon the people of Charleston really
was. Il was exactly as | thought at
the time would be the case, and if our
artillerymen had fired shots from the
Swamp Angel into Charleston till
doomsday it would never have resulted
in bringing alb t the surrender of the
city. But it is true I did establish
the foundations for the Swamp An.
GEL"
Copyright, 1913 by E. j. Edwards All