Note number 5, enemy torpedoes, page 1

TitleNote number 5, enemy torpedoes, page 1
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CollectionsThomas Benton Brooks Papers

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TranscriptionNote No. [Number] 5; Torpedoes. (enemies); More than sixty torpedoes were found planted in the ground in front of Fort Wagner, arranged with an aparatus [apparatus] intended to be exploded by the tread of the men forming an assaulting column. They must have been placed subsequent to the 18th of July. This obstacle extended along the whole south front of the work, from the marsh to the beach. The torpedoes were most numerous in the narrow front next the beach, over which the mass of an assaulting column would have to pass. The first ones discovered (August 26) were 200 yards from the salient of the Fort. Three forms were found. The first, of which there were only about twenty, consisted of a loaded 24 pounder shell. In its fuse hole was firmly fixed a wooden plug having a small hole through it. Extending into the powder of the shell through this hole was a fuse enlarged at its upper end with a ball containing the explosive composition, which rested on the plug. Over all enveloping the shell, was a cylindrical box of thin tin painted black. The bottom of this box rested on the cap. This arrangement thus completed was buried fuse hole up, the explosive composition being even with the surface of the ground. A slight pressure, as a foot-fall, on the bottom of the box would explode the shell.

LocationsFort Wagner (historical), Charleston County, South Carolina, United States(32.7375,-79.87204)

TopicsUnited States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Armed Forces
Artillery operations

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RightsU.S. Government Work Learn More