FLUSSER, CHARLES W. 



FORTIFICATIONS. 



379 



persons in Jacksonville, on the ground " that 

 Florida was still a State of the Union, and had 

 a right to a voice in the great councils of the 

 people," to appoint delegates to the Presiden- 

 tial Convention at Baltimore, on June Vth. 

 The convention assembled on the 24th, and 

 appointed as delegates : Buckingham Smith, 

 of St. Augustine ; John "W. Price, of Jackson- 

 ville ; C. L. Robinson, of Fernandina ; John S. 

 Sammis, of Jacksonville ; Philip Frazer, of St. 

 Augustine; Paran Moody, of Jacksonville. 



The affairs of the State, as a member of the 

 Confederacy, presented nothing of unusual im- 

 portance during the year. 



FLUSSER, CHARLES W., a lieutenant-com- 

 mander in the L'nited States navy, born in 

 Maryland about 1832, killed near Plymouth, 

 Xorth Carolina, in a naval engagement. April 

 18th, 1864. Commander Flusser belonged to 

 one of the oldest and best families in Maryland, 

 but during his childhood his parents removed 

 to Kentucky, from which State he was appoint- 

 ed a midshipman in the navy, July 19, 1847. 

 His first cruise was made in the Cumberland. 

 In 1849 he was sent to the Raritan, 40 guns, 

 where he remained until the latter part of 

 1850. In 1851 he was ordered to the Sara- 

 toga, sloop-of-war, and in her made a cruise 

 which lasted two years. In 1853 he was at 

 the Xaval Academy at Annapolis, preparatory 

 to passing as passed midshipman. His warrant 

 to that grade bore date of June 10, 1853. 



At the close of the examination, after a brief 

 recreation, he was ordered to the frigate Sa- 

 vannah, where he remained during the entire 

 cruise, which ended on the 26th of November, 

 1856. During the cruise he was promoted to 

 a lieutenancy, his commission bearing date 

 September 16, 1855. In 1857 he was granted 

 a leave of absence. Toward the close of the 

 year, however, he was ordered to the Naval 

 Academy as an assistant professor. He re- 

 mained in that position until ordered to the 

 brig Dolphin, in 1859. He made a cruise in 

 her, returning late in 1860. He then was 

 granted a leave of absence, in which position 

 he was when the war broke out. He applied 

 for active duty at once, when it was seen that 

 war must ensue, and the Navy Department 

 assigned him to the command of the purchased 

 gunboat Commodore Perry, and with this ves- 

 sel he took part in the naval attack by Com- 

 modore Goldsborough which preceded the cap- 

 ture of Roanoke Island on the 7th of February, 

 1862, by General Burnside. 



On the 3d of October, 1862, he took part in 

 the shelling of Franklin, Virginia. More re- 

 cently he has been in command of the gunboat 

 Commodore Perry, in the North Atlantic 

 Blockading Squadron, being stationed in North 

 Carolina waters. At the time of his death he 

 was in command of the Miami, in Albemarle 

 Sound. 



He was a skilful and intelligent sailor, a 

 thorough and gallant officer, and a genial, ac- 

 complished, and high-toned gentleman. In 



habits he furnished an example of temperance 

 and moderation. 



He had been urgently besought by his Mary- 

 land friends, many of whom were secessionists, 

 as well as by Commander Hollins, and other 

 Southern officers, to join the South, and was 

 offered a high command ; but he refused firmly 

 and indignantly, and threw his whole soul into 

 the cause of the Union. 



FORTIFICATIONS. The principles involved 

 in the construction of masonry forts, and the im- 

 mense expenditure required for their erection and 

 arming, are very fully and satisfactorily treated in 

 the NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA, vol. vii.. p. 612, 

 article FORTIFICATION. That article, which was 

 exhaustive on the subject so far as military ex- 

 perience then extended, the readers of the Ax- 

 xrAL CYCLOPEDIA may consult with advantage. 

 But the war now existing has to a great degree 

 revolutionized the whole science of offensive 

 and defensive warfare, and in no department 

 more completely than in the matter of fortifica- 

 tions. The newly-developed powers of modern 

 artillery, both as respects the greatly enlarged 

 calibres of siege and naval guns, and the appli- 

 cation of the principle of rifling to guns of the 

 largest calibres have proved destructive to ma- 

 sonry forts, even when so constructed as to be 

 regarded as impregnable. Fort Sumter, one of 

 the strongest forts of its class ever erected on 

 this continent, and Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, 

 also a work of great strength, were both com- 

 pletely reduced by artillery fire, the one from 

 land batteries at a distance of from two to three 

 miles, and the other by the concentrated fire of 

 the naval squadron of Admiral Farragut. In 

 the case of Fort Sumter this result was the 

 more remarkable as after its capture in 1861 it 

 was strengthened by all the resources known to 

 engineering art, and its gorge wall, which pre- 

 viously was more than ten feet in thickness, 

 was protected by an inner brick wall of twelve 

 feet, and for a considerable portion of its height 

 by a covering of sandbags on its outside. All 

 its casemates were also strengthened, the trav- 

 erses on its terre-plain enlarged, and every 

 precaution possible made use of to make it im- 

 pregnable. Yet seven days' bombardment at 

 the long distances named, were sufficient to re- 

 duce it to a ruin incapable of bearing any im- 

 portant part in the defence of the city or har- 

 bor. On the other hand, the sandwork Fort 

 McAllister effectually resisted the assault of the 

 three iron-clads in March. 1863, and the sand- 

 work Fort "Wagner, though badly located, and 

 not judiciously defended, yet resisted two vigor- 

 ous and well-conducted assaults, a severe and 

 almost continuous bombardment from Admiral 

 Dahlgren's squadron and a constant cannonade 

 from heavy batteries on Morris Island, and was 

 only abandonded when approached and mined by 

 a regular siege, and was found to be but litt!s in- 

 jured. Fort Fisher, a more recent example of an 

 earthwork of great strength, though situated 

 too near the channel so as to be exposed to the 

 fire of the monster guns of the Monitors at short 



