Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1882 — FORTIFICATIONS. [ARTICLE]

FORTIFICATIONS.

Annual Report of Gen. Wright. Gen. H. G. Wright, C/ief of Engineers United States army, in his annual report, gives a detailed account of the condition and needs of all fortifications. On sea-coast defenses the report says: The defense of the United States against maritime attack for many years must depend upon the finishing of the barbet battteries designed long ago, but with such modifications as will adapt them to the reception of the twelve-inch rifled gun recently proposed, with its enlarged carriage, and at the same time give greater security to the magazines; also that it will be necessary to make ready without delay to apply one system of torpedoes to all harbors, preparing bomb-proof electrical operating-rooms and deep masonry galleries, extending therefrom to the low water-line needed for the purpose. Our unpreparedness for war is shown, and it is stated that, however powerful in numbers and valor our army may be, without the aid of fortifications and their accessories they cannot prevent the destruction of our seaboard cities by the ships of the maritime foe; and that, while reliance can be had in no other mode of defense, a defense by fortifications and torpedoes is most efficient and least expensive. An amateur company in Allentown Pa., is rehearsing “Pinafore” in Pennsylvania Dutch, and will produce the opera in that dialect during the latter part of November.