ordnance stores would be passed up the valley of the Connecticut from arsenals either east or west of that river. It may become necessary to establish a depot on the Penobscot, at Bangor. But this point is only sixty miles from Augusta; and no estimate of the cost is furnished, as the deposit would probably be temporary. II. The maritime frontier from Passamaquoddy bay to Cape Florida.-The Kennebec arsenal is the place of deposit for the greater part of the sea-coast of Maine; the sum of.. will finish the additions required. The Watertown arsenal, five miles in the rear of Boston, also of the second class, will supply the westerly part of Maine, the sea-coast of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; and will be required for additional buildings and enclosures. Both the Kennebec and Watertown arsenals are of considerable extent, with every facility for being converted into arsenals of the first class; and the construction of gun-carriages, necessary for arming the forts and batteries within the limits above stated, may be effected at both or either. The Watervliet arsenal, before mentioned, is, however, the principal one relied on for supplies required, not only from Cape Cod to the capes of Delaware bay, but for much of the maritime as well as the lake frontier. Additional quarters and storehouses at this post will cost..... A depot in the harbor of New York receives articles from Watervliet, during the season of navigation, which are transhipped, in time of peace, to all parts of the coast and to the Mississippi. During a war, supplies would be furnished from arsenals in the more immediate vicinity of the sea-coast defences, viz: Frankford arsenal, six miles above Philadelphia, is of the second class, and will supply works on Delaware bay and river; Pikesville arsenal, of the third class, four miles from Baltimore; Washington arsenal and Fort Monroe arsenal, both of the first class, will furnish what may be required for the sea-coast defences of Chesapeake bay and Potomac river. The last mentioned was established with special reference to the construction of the gun-carriages required at that post and at Fort Calhoun. It has been found advantageous, however, to construct there carriages for other southern forts; but it cannot be considered as a permanent establishment of the first class, to be kept up after the occasion which called for it shall have passed by. The North Carolina arsenal, at Fayetteville, on Cape Fear river, is under construction, and was originally intended to be made one of the first class. Doubts have been entertained whether it ought to exceed those of the second class; but the plan is such that it can at any time be extended according to the original design. The sum of eighty thousand dollars will be required to finish it as one of the second class.... Charleston depot is at present of diminutive capacity. It is proper to enlarge it, and thirty thousand dollars will make it useful as a place of deposit... Augusta arsenal, at Augusta, Georgia, is of the second class, and with the two last mentioned will furnish supplies required from Chesapeake bay to Cape Florida. The Augusta arsenal has its powder magazine detached and $30,000 25,000 50,000 80,000 30,000 located at an inconvenient distance, beyond the control of the force at the post. For the construction of a new magazine, and other necessary additions to this establishment, sixty thousand dollars will be required... Several of the arsenals have been built upwards of 20 years, and require extensive repairs and additions, which it is supposed may be effected, from time to time, by the aid of annual appropriations, amounting in all to about.. III. "The Gulf frontier, from Cape Florida to Sabine bay."— Appalachicola arsenal, at Chattahoochee, just below the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers; Mount Vernon arsenal, on the Mobile river; and Baton Rouge arsenal, on the Mississippi, are all establishments of the second class, and destined to supply the whole Gulf frontier, and the forts below New Orleans, on the Missippi. About sixty thousand dollars will be required to complete them, and erect some additional buildings at Baton Rouge-IV." The western frontier, from Sabine bay to Lake Superior-Baton Rouge arsenal, already mentioned, will furnish supplies for posts on the Sabine and Red rivers. Little Rock arsenal, just commenced, will be the source of supplies for posts on the Arkansas, and along the western border of that State. It will necessarily become at first an arsenal of the second class, with the depot at Memphis as subsidiary, and will require one hundred thousand dollars to complete it.. St. Louis arsenal is a large establishment of the second class, but, with very little expense can be raised to the first class; with the subsidiary depot at Liberty, on the Missouri, it will supply the posts on that river, the western border of the State, the posts on the Des Moines, and the Upper Mississippi. A depot at Prairie du Chien, mentioned in relation to supplies required in the direction of Lake Superior, and southwesterly, through the Territory of Iowa, would be sustained by the St. Louis arsenal, and completes the chain upon the several frontiers embraced in the resolution. Total amount required for constructions, additions, and repairs to arsenals and depots... $60,000 180,000 60, 000 100,000 705, 000 Armories. The two national armories at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Harper's Ferry, Virginia, are the only public establishments for the manufacture of small arms. They furnish about twenty-five thousand stand of arms yearly. This number might be extended; but it has been an object of solicitude with the government for nearly twenty years past to establish an armory west of the Alleghanies. Commissioners were employed in 1823 to examine the western waters, with a view to the location of an armory. Many sites were surveyed, and careful estimates made of the cost of an armory at each, with an exhibit of their several advantages and disadvantages. The result of their investigations may be found at large in Gales & Seaton's reprint of American State Papers, folios 729 to 790 inclusive, volume 2, Military Affairs. It is perhaps fortunate that the place then selected was not adopted by Congress; for, since that period, the immense increase, not only of population and the general resources of the western region, but of the particular articles required for the manufacture of arms, by the discovery of masses of coal, and the exten sive working of iron mines, where nothing of the kind was then found, haz shown that an armory should be located much further west. The data collected by the commissioners in 1823 may be usefully applied in estimating the probable cost of an armory at the present day, making suitable allowances for the increased price of everything connected with such an estab lishment. This cost will be found to vary, according to localities of positions, from $280,000 to $500,000 for an armory capable of furnishing twelve thousand muskets per year. It will therefore be stated at the mean of $390,000, to which twenty per cent. should be added; making the sum of........... Another mode of proceeding proposed consists of forming an establishment complete in itself, of limited extent, and having the great mass of component parts of arms manufactured by the piece in private workshops, and only the inspecting, assembling, and finishing be done at the public works. This course would materially reduce the first cost, or necessary expenditure for buildings and tools. It also admits of extension to a great amount of fabrication, with but little additional cost of permanent fixtures. But, whichever mode is followed, or whatever site may be selected for its location, there can be no question of the necessity for an armory on the western waters; and as regards a proper location, it may be observed, that, to consider the relations of an armory in the same light as that of an arsenal or magazine, would be an error; the means of production being the principal requisite for the one, and those of transportation or distribution for the others. Total required for an armory on the western waters... $468,000 468,000 Founderies. The United States own no cannon foundery. Although possessing some ore beds, from which iron of approved quality for casting cannon has long been made, yet artillery of every description is procured from private founderies. This subject has been so recently before Congress, and so ably treated, that nothing will be said further than to state the probable cost of such an establishment; and, here again, so much depends upon the location, that only an approximation will be attempted. A report from the War Department made to the 24th Congress, 1st session, Doc. No. 106, states the cost of a foundery, to be located at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, at $312,000. If this estimate is correct, (and it is known that great care was bestowed on its preparation,) it may be assumed that about.. will be required for a foundery when favorably located for the use of water power. Should steam power be adopted, the first cost of the establishment would be less, while the annual expenditure would be greater than for water power. As regards a suitable location for a foundery, the great weight and bulk of the raw materials used in the manufacture of cannon, and the weight of heavy guns, which are required for use only on the seaboard, would seem to demand that particular attention should be given to the means of transportation both to and from the foundery. Total amount required for a foundery... $300,000 300,000 Recapitulation. Total amount required for constructions, additions, and repairs to arsenals and depots... Total amount required to establish an armory on the western waters... Total amount required to establish a national foundery. Total.... All which is respectfully submitted. $705, 000 468, 000 300,000 1, 473, 000 By order of the board, JOS. G, TOTTEN, MEMORIAL OF EDMUND P. GAINES. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: The memorial of Edmund Pendleton Gaines, a major general in the army of the United States, commanding the western division, respectfully showeth : That, believing the federal and State constitutions guarantee and consecrate to every free citizen capable of bearing arms the right and duty of participating alike in the civil and military trusts of the republic, solemnly requiring the soldier to exert his every faculty "in peace to prepare for war," so that on the recurrence of war he may be well qualified to fight the battles of his country in the greatest possible triumph, and at the least possible cost of blood and treasure; requiring him, moreover, to study and respect her political and social institutions; and requiring the statesman to discipline his mind for the state and national defence, by adapting his civil acts and occasional military studies to the purposes of the national defence and protection, as well against foreign enemies in war as against the home incendiary and other criminal offenders in peace; thus rendering the statesman and soldier equally familiarized with their common kindred duties of self government and self-defence: by a knowledge of which our independence was achieved, and without which this inestimable blessing cannot be preserved;—your memorialist, a native Virginian, a citizen of Tennessee, schooled in her cabins and her camps to the profession of arms, has, within the last seventeen years, matured a system of national defence, to which he now respectfully solicits your attention and support: a system of national defence which the late giant strides of invention and improvement in the arts have rendered indispensable to the preservation of the Union; a system of national defence which recommends itself peculiarly to the central, southern, and Atlantic States, as well as to those of the north and west; as it assures to our isolated central States of Tennessee and Kentucky, and to all the western States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, in peace, commercial advantages equal to those enjoyed by the most favored eastern, Atlantic, or Southern States; and in war, giving to the disposable fighting men of these central and western States the inestimable privilege of flying with unprecedented certainty, celerity, and comfort to any of our vulnerable seaports, to aid our brethren of the border States to repel the invading foe; and to accomplish this essential duty in one-tenth part of the time, and one-tenth part of the expense that would attend such an operation over our present bad roads. But, above all, to accomplish these great and good objects, by means that will more than double the value of our State and national domain, and without expending a dollar that may not be insured to be replaced in the public coffers in from seven to ten years after the completion of the work here recommended. Your memorialist is admonished by the universal employment of steam power, and its applicability to every description of armament hitherto moved upon the sea by wind and canvas, or upon the land by animal power, that an epoch is at hand in which the art of war, in whatever regards the attack and defence of seaports, has undergone an unparalleled revolution. Hitherto the transition from peace to war between neighboring nations, though sometimes sudden and unexpected, was usually preceded by some sig nificant note of preparation not easily mistaken; and after the actual commencement of hostilities there were frequent opportunities and ample time for the belligerents, and more particularly for the nation acting upon the unerring principle of self-defence, to complete the work of preparation for war before the work of destruction upon her principal seaport towns had been begun by the invading foc. Hitherto the enemy's fleets were to be seen for weeks, often, indeed, for months in succession, "standing off and on," waiting for suitable winds and weather to enable them to enter and attack the destined port, and then, in case of accident, to carry them safely out again-winds such as could never be calculated on with anything like certainty. Hence the great and unavoidable delay in the attack by fleets propelled by wind and sails has often enabled the people of the threatened seaports to throw up works of defence; and after slowly marching their interior volunteers and other forces at the rate of twenty miles a day, they would in time be so well prepared for action that the menacing invaders have but seldom ventured to attack places of much importance, but have usually condescended to vent their prowess in a petty border war against villages and private habitations, as upon the Chesapeake bay and the Georgia sea-coast in the war of 1812, 1813, and 1814. If the obvious effect of steam power, in the rapid movement of everything to which it has been applied around us, has not been sufficient to convince us of the expediency and transcendent advantages in war and in peace of the proposed immediate work of preparation, by steam power, to guard against the incalculable disasters that must otherwise attend the sudden outbreak of war with any of the great nations of Europe able to send against us even a small fleet propelled by steam power, it would seem obvious that the late naval and military operations in the harbor of Vera Cruz were sufficient to prove clearly, that to bring a hostile fleet inside the breakers of a seaport of the country invaded, and within the desired range of the best of cannon and mortars for red-hot shot and shells of one of the strongest castles in America, was the work of but two hours; and that the utter destruction of that castle by three small ships-of-war required but four hours more. To provide for the defence of our seaports, and thus effectually to obviate the possibility of a sudden calamity like that which has befallen the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and to enable us to repel by the agency of steam power every invasion suddenly forced upon us by fleets propelled by steam power, I now submit for the consideration of the national legislature the project and explanatory views which follow: ART. I. Floating batteries for the defence of the seaports and harbors of the United States. 1. Your memorialist proposes the immediate construction of from two to four large floating batteries for the defence of each navigable pass into the Mississippi river, and from two to five others for the defence of every other navigable inlet leading into any of the principal seaports of the United States. Each floating |