Preparations
For two years Fort Darling saw no more action, in that time the naval Captain Sydney Smith Lee (General E. Lee's brother) took command. Defenses were strengthened along with better accommodations, barracks, chapel, etc . In that time Fort Darling served as a training site for training ground for the Confederate Naval Academy, as well as the Confederate Marine Corps Camp of Instruction .
Then on May 5, 1864 the Union returned, this time landing 30,000 troops at Bermuda Hundred only 15 miles south of Richmond, under the command of Major General Benjamin F. Butler. Within a few days they had reached Fort Darling managing to take over some of the outer defenses, but indecisive generals failed to consolidate their hold. Soon 18,000 Confederate infantry under General P.G.T Beauregard arrived and routed the attackers on May 16. Fort Darling and Richmond had again seen the Union driven off .
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Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait. The preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for London and the spring, when her own taste could have fairer play.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)