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Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 1. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 276 (search)
monster gun at Fortress Monroe has a powder made expressly for it on these principles: It is very coarse-grained, or it is made in perforated cakes, to secure the results just mentioned. But although the most perfect explosive article for war, it is wasted on a grand scale. In one day at Sebastopol the Russians fired 13,000 rounds of shot and shell, and the only result was the wounding of three men. At Ciudad Rodrigo, 74,987 pounds of gunpowder were consumed in thirty hours and a half; at Badajoz, 228,830 pounds in 104 hours, and this from the great guns only. I appeal to you, Messrs. Editors, should not the Secretary furnish all possible facilities to the Confederacy for manufacturing gun-cotton! In order to prevent the manufacture of fulminating mercury for percussion powder and caps, mercury is prohibited; but why does the Secretary order an interdiction upon all the compounds of the article? Are we no longer to enjoy the privilege of being salivated? Are our teeth to remai
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), C. (search)
oaders, specimens of which are preserved in the Artillery Museum of Woolwich, England. The charge was inserted in an iron cylinder, which was fixed by wedges in its place in the breech of the gun. Breech-loading cannon were introduced by Daniel Spekle, who died in 1589, and by Uffanus. Cannon of ice were made at St. Petersburg in 1740, and repeatedly fired, — a whim. All the rifled cannon in the British service of less than 6 3-inch caliber are breech-loaders. At the siege of Badajoz, the firing was continued for 104 hours, and the number of rounds fired from each 24-pounder iron gun averaged 1,249; at the siege of St. Sebastian each piece was fired about 350 times in 15 1/2 hours. But few of these pieces were rendered unserviceable; but it is estimated that three times the number of brass guns would have been required to produce the same effect, or maintain such long and rapid firing. An experimental Armstrong 32-pounder, weighing 26 cwt., with a charge of 6 pounds
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), M. (search)
trace of any accusation against the Florentine navigator. Columbus himself, a year before his death, speaks of Vespucci in terms of unqualified esteem; he calls him a very good man, worthy of all confidence, and always inclined to render me service. The same good — will toward Vespucci is displayed by Fernando Colon, who wrote the Life of his father in 1535 in Seville, four years before his death, and who, with Juan Vespucci, a nephew of Amerigo's, was present at the astronomical junta of Badajoz, and at the proceedings respecting the possession of the Moluccas. The confusion of dates in the numerous versions of Amerigo's voyages is not to be attributed to him, as he did not himself publish any of these accounts; such mistakes and confusion of figures are, moreover, of very frequent occurrence in writings published in the sixteenth century. The entire guiltlessness of the Florentine navigator, who never attempted to attach his name to the new continent, but the magniloquence
George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor (ed. George Hillard), Chapter 12: (search)
o relate to me, with Scottish openheartedness, as we sat by his Moorish fountains or walked in the corridor of Charles V. after dinner; and these hours I shall remember as among the pleasantest I have passed in Spain. My week in Seville—which was longer than I intended to remain there, though not so long as the city, its monuments and society, deserved-hastened rapidly away, and on the morning of the 15th of October I set off for Lisbon. The indirect but best route, which passes through Badajoz, is so dangerous from the number of robbers that now infest it, that, after taking the best advice I could get, I resolved to go directly across the mountains, under protection of one of the regular bodies of contrabandists that smuggle dollars from Seville to Lisbon, and in return smuggle back English goods from Lisbon to Seville. For this purpose I sent to Zalamea, one of their little villages in the mountains, and two of them came openly to the city, and with two extra mules took me a
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Louis Agassiz: his life and correspondence, third edition, Chapter 19: 1860-1863: Aet. 53-56. (search)
f another from the river Xenil could be obtained at or near Granada, to compare with the inhabitants of the waters upon the southern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Next would come the Guadalquivir, from which a collection should be made at San Lucar, with the brackish water species; another at Seville or Cordova, one among the head-waters from the Sierra Nevada, and another from the mountains of the Mancha. From the Guadiana a collection from Villa Real, with the brackish species; one from Badajoz, and one from the easternmost headwaters, and about where the river is lost under ground. The Tagus would again require an extensive exploration. In the first place a thorough collection of all the species found in the great estuary ought to be made with the view of ascertaining how far marine Atlantic species penetrate into the river basin; then one from Santarem, and another either from Talavera or Toledo or Aranjuez, and one from the head-waters in Guadalaxara, and another in Molina
George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition., Colonial History (search)
s skill in navigation. On the death of Henry the Seventh he was called out of England by the command of Ferdinand, the Catholic king of Castile, and was appointed one of the Council for the New Indies, ever cherishing the hope to discover that hidden secret of nature, the direct passage to Asia. In 1518 he was named Pilot Major of Spain, and no 1518 one could guide a ship to the Indies whom he had not first examined and approved. He attended the congress which in April 1524 assembled at Badajoz 1524. to decide on the respective pretensions of Portugal and Spain to the islands of the Moluccas. He subsequently sailed to South America, under the auspices of Charles V., though not with entire success. On his return to his native land, he advanced its commerce by opposing a mercantile monopoly, and was pensioned and rewarded for his merits as the Great Seaman. It 1549. was he who framed the instructions for the expedition which discovered the passage to Archangel. He 1558. lived
The Daily Dispatch: October 7, 1861., [Electronic resource], Teems of the Dispatch. (search)
l slowly back — collected the of the country as he retired — carried them within his --drilled them — and made them efficient soldiers. As Massena retired — after a loss of half his army — he followed him with terrible perseverance — gained a victory at Fuentez d'onoro, and drove him entirely out of Portugal. Had the Portuguese forces been all well disciplined, thus making Wellington greatly superior to Massena, does anybody suppose he would have acted on the defensive when the latter entered into Portugal? The man who thinks thus, must surely overlook the brilliant offensive campaigns of 1812-'13--must have for gotten Badajoz, and Salamanca and Vittoria — must have ceased to remember the advance into France, the battle of Toulouse, and the close of the war. The fact is, Wellingtonacted as any great General would have done. He acted on the defensive when he was too weak to act in any other way. He acted on the offensive as soon as he became strong enough to take the
The Daily Dispatch: September 26, 1862., [Electronic resource], Interesting incidents. (search)
surrendered at Ulm, but the less on the part of the victors was, in the various actions that preceded the surrender, at least 2,000.--Mantua surrendered with 12,000--about the came number having died within the walls. But it cost twelve pitched battles and sixty combat, besides a siege of six months, to reduce it. Dantzie surrendered after a siege of several months, during which the garrison was reduced from 16,000 to 9,000 men; but it cost the besiegers the lives of several thousand men. Badajoz was taken by storm; but the victors lost 5,000 men. Saragossa was taken after a succession of murderous combat, running through sixty days, and scarcely ever ceasing for a moment; but the French lost half their army in the enterprise, while the inhabitants lost 54,000 persons of all ages. Sebastopol was carried by storm, after a siege of eleven months, during which it is said that several hundred thousand human beings lost their lives. But the capture of Harper's Ferry was effected with t
The Daily Dispatch: October 8, 1864., [Electronic resource], article 1 (search)
it would be so much clear gain. The lies of the Yankee telegraph and press have been larger even than is usual with them since Grant came to the north side. The populace must be fed with tales of great battles and wonderful victories, and Grant feeds them. For instance, we all know that Fort Harrison was garrisoned by a few hundred men, who abandoned it almost without a struggle. The Yankee newspapers report a desperate conflict, such as the world has not witnessed since the storming of Badajoz. The Confederates performed prodigies of valor, but, of course, the invincible Yankees carried the day. They stormed the dearly-won works at the point of the bayonet and planted the buzzard and gridiron over the dead bodies of any number of our men and three thousand of their own!! Oh! Yankee! Yankee! Our troops showed yesterday, as they always have shown, and as they always will show, their native superiority to the Yankees. Grant has evidently lost the flower of his troops. They do
The Daily Dispatch: January 11, 1865., [Electronic resource], article 1 (search)
then settled in France, and took service in the French army. Major Fraser's father emigrated to Portugal in 1790, and took a Portuguese wife. The issue of this marriage made its way in the world. Two daughters, yet living, are the wives of rich noblemen; the one is a Marquis de Bombolles, and the other the Marquis de Gargello, of Naples; one son was a secretary of embassy in Austria; the other, Henry Erskine Fraser, was the Major Fraser who has just gone to his grave. He was born at Badajoz, Portugal, where he lived up to the age of eleven years. He had then lost both father and mother, and was committed to the care of M. de Labselern, the tutor of Prince Felipe de Schwartenberg. The two pupils were sent together to Russia, where they entered the military service as cadets. Their friendship, dating thus early, was continued in Paris. The Major used to be fond of recounting how he took part in the battle of Leipsic, and road into Paris with his regiment of Russian Hussars.