Tag Archives: Fort Sedgwick

Confederates spring a cannonball trick at Fort Hell

Perhaps jealous that their Union foes inside Fort Sedgwick were getting more company than they were, Confederate gunners at Fort Mahone across the Jerusalem Plank Road came calling one Sunday morning in winter ’65. Senior 1st Lt. William B. Lapham, 7th Maine Battery, commanded the Union artillery and gunners assigned to Sedgwick, also called “Fort […]

Fort Hell and the 7th Maine Battery, part 3

Arriving at Fort Sedgwick about Dec. 1, 1864, the 7th Maine Battery’s gunners noticed no protection against indirect mortar fire. Aided by “a detail of infantry,” the Maine and New Jersey gunners used “gabions, sand-bags, timber and earth” to construct “bomb-proofs … along the parapet” to shelter the artillerymen and a large bomb-proof in the […]

Fort Hell and the 7th Maine Battery, part 2

Orders later came in November 1864 for the 7th Maine Battery to occupy Fort Alexander Hays on the Petersburg siege lines. Upon his arrival at the new port, Senior 1st Lt. William Berry Lapham realized the fort was “a soft place to spend the winter months.” His men started chopping trees and building housing and […]