General Quincy Gillmore (Union) With his bushy black beard and his sword at his left hand, Gillmore

General Quincy Gillmore(Union)

With his bushy black beard and his sword at his left hand, Gillmore looks every bit the classic Civil War-era general. In reality, he wasn’t a classic soldier-general at all, but one of the innovative military engineers who helped the Union win the war.

Gillmore’s most notable achievement came at Fort Pulaski near Savannah in 1862. He used the new generation of rifled naval artillery to lay waste to the fort’s stone walls, essentially rendering old-style brick fortifications obsolete overnight. His record in more conventional warfare was less notable, and he was in charge for the ill-advised assaults on Fort Wagner off Charleston in July 1863, battles memorable for both the involvement of African-American soldiers and the high number of Union casualties. After the war, Gillmore had a long career as a civil engineer, including rebuilding and updating some of the Atlantic defences he had himself helped to destroy.