It came my turn for the first time to go on fatigue. Our men
are throwing up a line of breastworks and building some very strong forts. I
worked all day at one of the big forts built for the siege guns. The fort is
fifteen feet high, with a ditch in front fifteen feet wide and ten feet deep.
At the top within each fort the guns will be mounted on a dirt platform about
ten feet high so as to afford a good view in front. When the works are
completed on this grand scale it will require one million men to defend them.1
__________
1 These works were never completed, the
commanding general having called off the work. It was a good thing that it was
discontinued, for the heavy work during the hot weather would have greatly
injured the men. — A. G. D.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 54
