286 EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 



mcuririere,) and his sagacity aid not fail to prescribe the best remedy by rules 

 intended to reduce to a minimum the external opening. He directed that the 

 throat should be no larger than necessary to receive the muzzle of the gun and 

 to endure the shock of its discharge ; that it should not be more than two feet 

 from the exterior surface of the wall ; that the cheeks should be parallel to the 

 sides of the sector of fire ; and to render practicable these arrangements he 

 invented the " affut a aiguille,'" (carriage with tongue,) which has served as the 

 type of nearly all subsequent casemate gun-carriages. It is strange that, even 

 while adopting the plans of Montalembert, European engineers should have 

 almost wholly overlooked these maxims, and that it was reserved for our own 

 illustrious engineer to make their application, and, in perfecting the casemate 

 and the embrasure, to become a co-worker with Montalembert, by bringing the 

 casemated water-battery to its highest degree of perfection. 



I now revert to General Totten's labors in this connexion, and in reference 

 thereto I quote from his report to the Secretary of War : 



" The first casemated battery was completed in 1808. It has two tiers of guns 

 iu casemates and one in barbette. The exterior openings of the lower embrasures 

 are 4' 8" by 6 feet, giving an area of 28 square feet ; and of the second tier 3' 

 8" by 5 feet- area 18^ square feet ; the horizontal traverse of the guns being 

 limited to 44 degrees. 



" Within three or four years of the time just mentioned two other casemated 

 batteries were built, each having a single tier of guns in casemates, with exterior 

 openings of 4' 5" by 5 feet, area 22 square feet ; one with horizontal scope of 

 about 42 degrees, and the other of about 45 degrees. 



" In 1815 the author of this report was called on to prepare a project for the 

 defence of an important channel ; and, having been convinced, while employed 

 as an assistant in the construction of two of the batteries just mentioned, that 

 the principles and the details by which the embrasures and the dependent case- 

 mates had thus far been regulated were erroneous and defective, set about a 

 careful study of the conditions to be fulfilled in providing for the heavy guns of 

 that period mounted on a casemate carriage that had already been approved and 

 adopted. The result was an embrasure having an exterior opening of 4 feet 

 wide by 2' 6" high at the outside line of the cheeks, and 3 feet high at the key 

 of the covering arch, the throat being V 10" wide. This provided for all the 

 depression and elevation of the gun that the carriage permitted, and also for a 

 horizontal scope of full 60 degrees. Covered with a lintel instead of an arch, 

 the height of the exterior opening might be a little less than 3 feet. 



" The plan of this embrasure shows that the interior opening is 5' 6" wide, 

 and that the plane of the throat is within 2 feet of the outside of the wall, which, 

 just at the embrasure, is 5 feet thick. 



" A slight modification fitted this embrasure, when applied to flanking or in- 

 terior defence, to receive at first a carronade of large calibre, and of later years 

 a howitzer instead. When these latter were liable to be assailed by musketry, 

 the outer cheeks were made en cremailliere, (notched,) a long-known device. 



" It was with timidity and hesitation that the cheeks of this embrasure were 

 placed so near the track of the ball, when fired from the casemate, with the 

 maximum obliquity, and the results of an early trial with experimental embra- 

 sures at Fortress Monroe gave some sanction to the doubt. The first two under 

 trial were built of lime-mortar, and were soon shaken to pieces by the blast of 

 the gun. Another one, however, constructed of bricks laid in cement-mortar, 

 sustained without injury several hundred discharges. These last results have 

 been confirmed wherever there has been practice from our embrasures, which, 

 with immaterial differences, have, since 1815, been constructed in all our case- 

 mated batteries according to the preceding description." 



It will be seen from the foregoing quotations how thoroughly General Totten, 

 in adopting the casemated battery, was imbued with the spirit of its illustrious 



