Pork-barrel spending is apparently nothing new. Cite this unique close-up view of Union Ft. Conahey, on the western extension of the Petersburg siege lines. This view is from the LOC and taken from the Union signal tower near Ft. Fisher.
It is aptly described by the acerbic Federal artillerist Col. Charles S. Wainwright: “The works around our present lines are now all finished. All of them save Conahey are simple redoubts, while Fort Conahey is complicated enough to make up for all the rest and to afford illustration for a whole course of lectures on engineering. It has no recognized geometric form that I ever saw. It is located on the side of a ravine. One half, being on the level at top, is an ordinary open work; the other in the ravine has bomb-proofed casements and embrasures commanding the ravine both ways, with a musketry parapet above. A loophole stockade divides the two parts of the work. This fort has cost more labor than any other, has afforded an admirable lesson in engineering, and is one of the sights to show to strangers. Further than this I doubt the value of its elaborateness.”
It is aptly described by the acerbic Federal artillerist Col. Charles S. Wainwright: “The works around our present lines are now all finished. All of them save Conahey are simple redoubts, while Fort Conahey is complicated enough to make up for all the rest and to afford illustration for a whole course of lectures on engineering. It has no recognized geometric form that I ever saw. It is located on the side of a ravine. One half, being on the level at top, is an ordinary open work; the other in the ravine has bomb-proofed casements and embrasures commanding the ravine both ways, with a musketry parapet above. A loophole stockade divides the two parts of the work. This fort has cost more labor than any other, has afforded an admirable lesson in engineering, and is one of the sights to show to strangers. Further than this I doubt the value of its elaborateness.”
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