the year 1882, very high military authority in
this country advocated with great earnestness the proposition that
our old brick and stone forts, with their smooth-bore guns, could
make a successful defense against a modern iron-clad fleet! At
the same time, and even much later, high naval authority maintained
that the United States navy should be relied upon for the defense
of our many thousands of miles of sea-coast! In view of such
counsel, it does not seem strange that Congress, after all the old
ships had nearly all rotted away, began to give some attention to
a new navy, but thought little or nothing of land defenses. The
old brick and stone parapets and the cast-iron guns were still
there; none of them had become rotten, though the wooden carriages
had gone to decay, and the guns were lying on the ground! Yet,
after a long dream of security, the Great National Council announced
the decision that _something_ ought probably to be done for sea-
coast defense. Provision was made by law for a very high board,
with the Secretary of War presiding, to report to Congress what
was required--a thing which, if Congress had only known it, the
Engineer Bureau of the War Department could have reported just as
well in far less time. But a length a very able report was submitted,
which inspired the confidence of Congress.

BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND FORTIFICATION

In the meantime there had arisen a condition which can best be
expressed as "want of confidence" in the chief of the Ordnance
Department of the army on the part of committees of Congress. From
this it resulted that no appropriations were made for several years
for any new armament, and hence none for fortifications. Thus by
a trifle were the wheels of a great government blocked for a long
time! Yet that government still survives! Finally, in the year
1888 an act was passed creating a Board of Ordnance and Fortifications,
of which the commanding general of the army should be president,
and appropriating quite a large sum of money to be expended, under
the direct supervision of that board, to commence the work of
fortification and armament of the sea-coast. After a very careful
examination and full consideration and discussion, the board adopted
the plans prepared by the Bureaus of Engineering and Ordnance, and
the work was began and carried forward substantially the same as
if the expenditure of the appropriation had been in