Fort D, Cape Girardeau, Mo.-- Part 2: Never Saw Action

The earthwork walls, as originally constructed in 1861 and restored in 1936 as part of a Works Progress Administration project.  A palisade wall made of sharpened upright wooden timbers, formed the rear of the fortification and had a gate.  The gap in the south wall may have been a "sally" port, where troops could access rifle pits below  the parapet.

The fort was armed with three 32-pounder cannons and two 24-pounder cannons.  A 32-pounder cannon  was a smoothbore one that could fire a 32-pound solid shot over a mile.

Fort D was garrisoned by soldiers from Missouri, Illinois and other Midwesterm states during the course of the war.  The fort never saw action, but the Battle of Cape of Cape Girardeau on April 26, 1863, took place west of the city.

--Old Secesh

Trees At Other Civil War Battlefields-- Part 1

From the September 3, 2007, Chicago Tribune "It's war again around Gettysburg" by Stevenson Swanson.

The last three entries have been about what is going on at Gettysburg as far as returning the battlefield to its war appearance. 

BATTLE OF MANASSAS/ BULL RUN (Confederate/Union name for the battle). 

The National Park Service plans to cut down 140 acres of timber at this Virginia Civil War site where the First and Second Battles of Bull Run took place.  However, environmentalist object because it will diminish an already scarce hickory-oak forest ecosystem at the more than 5,000 acre site.


BATTLE OF ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG

Replacing missing trees is a key component of restoration on this 3,250-acre site in Maryland where 23,100 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing following the Sept. 17, 1862 battle, the bloodiest single day in American history.

More to Come.

Return It to Battle Environment.  --Old Secesh