Excerpt from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: Being for the Most Part Contributions by Union and Confederate Officers; Based Upon the Century War Series The fort is situated on Cockspur Island, a marshy formation, surrounded by broad channels of deep water. The nearest approach to it on tolerably firm ground is from one to two miles distant, to the south-east, along a narrow strip of shifting sands formed on Tybee Island by the action of wind and waves. In the light of subsequent events it is of interest to recall the fact that before operations for investing the place were begun the fort was visited by several Confederate Officers of rank, formerly of the regular army, who freely expressed the opinion that the isolated position of the work, and the nature of its environs, rendered any successful siege Operations against it absolutely impracticable. The Confederate commander, Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, appears quite naturally to have been governed by the opinions of his superior officers and the measures adopted for adding strength and safety to the work were of the most meager character. Moreover, General Joseph Cr. Totten, Chief Engineer United States Army, wrote, in reply to a letter requesting his views on the subject, that the work could not be reduced in a month's firing with any number of guns of manageable calibers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.