158 EULOGY OX THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 



The use of the casemate, in some of its foims, for flauking purposes goes back 

 to Albert Durer and Sau Micheli, in the early part of the sixteenth century, and 

 it was resorted to by Vauban in his second and third systems, of which the 

 tower-bastions are casemated throughout. But it was reserved for the Marquis 

 de Montalembort, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to give it an 

 extraordinary development, and to make the casemate the essential element of 

 a s-ystem of fortification. This " most intrepid of authors upon fortification " 

 (as he is styled by Chasseloup) boldly attempted to apply to his art the same 

 principles by which Napoleon won his victories — the concentration of superior 

 forces upon the decisive points. In his projects we find, upon all paits Avhere 

 there must be a decisive contest of artillery, an extraordinary concentration of 

 guns, amounting in some cases to ten times those of the attacking batteries, the 

 construction of which it is intended to prevent, or which shal] be promptly over- 

 powered, if constructed. This concentration he effected, and could only effect, 

 by the use of casemates, upon vfhich, numerous and well constructed, he bases 

 all the strength of his fortifications. 



No author on this art has displayed greater genius or a greater affluence of 

 resources, and no jiuthor has given occasion for so much acrimonious discussion. 

 Rejected by the French, the principles of Montalembert have been made the 

 basis of the modern German, or " Polygonal," system. 



For sea-coast fortification the casemates of Montalembert had a singular 

 applicability, aud he has the merit, at least, of being the first writer who has 

 seen in this branch of the art a subject of particular treatment, aud who had given 

 special designs for forts and batteries ''for the defence of ports." 



In no warlike structure was there so great a concentration of artillery as in a 

 ship-of- war, such as it was fifty or even twenty years ago. And as there is no 

 limit to the number of ships which may be brought to bear upon a shore battery 

 save that of the range of artillery and the area of navigable water, it is easy to 

 see to what overwhelming hostile fire such a work may be subjected. On the 

 other hand, it frequently hajipens that the site othervv'ise most advantageous for 

 a battery is low and contracted, rendering any accumulation of guns impractica- 

 ble, if mounted on an ordinary rampart, and exposing the unprotected gunners 

 to the fire of the sharpshooters with which the enemy's topmasts are filled.* 



It is no small merit of Montalembert to have devised a method of mounting 

 guns which should meet this case. Notwithstanding that the French corps of 

 engineers rejected the system in its intended application, and disclaimed, as an 

 engineer, its author, it nevertheless constructed, in 17S6, for the defence of the 

 roadstead and harbor of Cherbourg, forts which are in reality almost copied from 

 his designs.f Following the example of the French, other European nations 

 have adopted, for the defence of their seaports, vi'orks of the same character, of 

 which the forts of Cronstadt and Sebastopol, once made familiar to us, in their 

 outward appearance, by the pictorials, are reccmt specimens ; and, as we have 

 already seen, Colonel Williams introduced them into our country in 1807, by 

 tlie construction of Castles Williams and Clinton, and Fort Gansevoort, New 

 York harbor. 



An objection urged against casemates, and a grave one, since it is aimed at 

 one of their most important attributes, is that the embrasures of masonry are 

 dangerous to the gunners, from their outward flaring surfaces reflecting into the 

 interior the enemy's missiles. Montalembert was well aware of this objection, 

 calling the embrasure, in its ordinary form, a " murderous funnel," {entonnoir 



* Tlie topmasts of many of the vcssc^ls of Commodore Farragut's fleet in the attack ou Forts 

 Jackson and St. Philip contained hi^&i-houitztrs, destined to tire caui.ster at the gunners of 

 the low batteries of those works. 



tThe celebrated Camot, then an officer of French engineers, but Avho adopted the views 

 of Monlalembert, writes to him: "You have wrung from jour adversaries the admission 

 that well-constructed casemates are a good thing," &c. {Zastrotc, Histoirc de la Fortification^) 



