Quincy Adams Gillmore
Quincy Adams Gillmore directed a bombardment in which more than 5,000 artillery shells fell on Fort Pulaski from a range of 1,700 yards. The fort's stone walls were breached, and its garrison surrendered. Gillmore lived from 1825 to 1888. He was an American civil engineer and author, and during the American Civil War he rose to general in the Union Army. Engineers do not usually end up commanding armies, and that tension runs through his story. How did a West Point engineer come to lead troops in the field? What happened when his men charged one of the Confederacy's most stubborn sand forts? And what did he build, write, and leave behind once the guns fell silent?
Black River, Ohio, is now the city of Lorain, and it was there in Lorain County that Gillmore was born and raised. He was named after John Quincy Adams, who was president-elect at the time of his birth.
In 1845 Gillmore entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated in 1849, first in a class of 43 members. The Army appointed him to the engineers.
Hampton Roads, in coastal Virginia, held his first assignment. From 1849 until 1852 he helped construct the fortifications there. Four years of teaching followed at West Point, where he served as instructor of Practical Military Engineering and designed a new riding school.
Oberlin College conferred an honorary A.M. degree on him in 1856. That same year he became a first lieutenant and began work as a purchasing agent for the Army in New York City. The Civil War broke out in early 1861, and on the 6th of August 1861 he was promoted to captain.
Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman took Gillmore onto his staff when the Civil War began, and the two traveled to Port Royal, South Carolina. After Gillmore was appointed a brigadier general himself, he took charge of the siege operations against Fort Pulaski.
Naval rifled guns were still a relatively new weapon, and Gillmore was a staunch advocate of them. At Pulaski he became the first officer to use them effectively against an enemy stone fortification. The short siege ended when the walls were breached and the fort surrendered.
The New York Tribune weighed the stakes plainly. It argued that failure, against the opinion of the army's ablest engineers, would have destroyed him. It credited the success wholly to his "talent, energy, and independence."
Foreign observers took notice too. Gillmore earned an international reputation as an organizer of siege operations, and he helped revolutionize the use of naval gunnery. His success essentially made stone fortifications obsolete.
His own soldiers saw him differently. Although he ranked among the best artillerists and engineers in the army, he was not well respected by his men.
On the 12th of June 1863, Gillmore took over from Major General David Hunter at the head of the X Corps. He also commanded the Department of the South, which covered North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Its headquarters stood at Hilton Head, and he held the post until the 1st of May 1864.
Fort Mitchel and Fort Holbrook were two earthen forts built by the army under his direction. They stood in the Spanish Wells area near Hilton Head Island, in coastal South Carolina.
Charleston, South Carolina, became his next objective. On the 10th of July his troops succeeded in an attack on the southern end of Morris Island. That success gave him enough confidence to go after Fort Wagner on the island's northern end.
The first attack on Fort Wagner came the following day, and it was defeated. Gillmore assembled a larger force and planned a second assault with the help of John A. Dahlgren's naval fleet. On the 18th of July 1863, the Second Battle of Fort Wagner ended with his troops repulsed and heavy losses. Truman Seymour, the divisional commander, was wounded. Two brigade commanders, George Crockett Strong and Haldimand S. Putnam, were killed.
A 25-barreled Requa gun was one of the innovations Gillmore brought to the siege that followed. A calcium floodlight helped blind the opposing troops while his men dug trenches.
The Swamp Angel was a massive Parrott rifle that Gillmore had implanted in the marshy ground. It fired 200-pound shots into the city of Charleston itself. Union troops worked their way toward Fort Wagner despite the swampy ground, while his artillery pounded Fort Sumter into rubble. On the 7th of September 1863, his forces captured Fort Wagner.
The Gillmore Medal, also called the Fort Sumter Medal, was first issued on the 28th of October 1863. Gillmore had it struck himself, and he issued it to every Union soldier who had served under him in the fighting around Charleston that year.
The 54th Massachusetts was a regiment of African Americans, led by white commissioned officers as regulations required. It was among the troops that assaulted Fort Wagner.
Gillmore had ordered his forces integrated. He insisted that African American soldiers not be handed only menial tasks, such as kitchen police or latrine duty. Under his order they were to carry arms into battle.
The 1989 Civil War movie Glory takes the 54th Massachusetts and its assault on Fort Wagner as its subject.
Lexington, Kentucky, was where Gillmore went after an assignment in New York City. There he supervised the construction of Fort Clay on a hilltop commanding the town. He commanded a division in the Army of Kentucky, and then the District of Central Kentucky.
Gillmore's first independent command came at the head of a cavalry expedition, even though he was long associated with engineering and artillery. The target was Confederate General John Pegram. Gillmore defeated the Confederates at the battle of Somerset and received a brevet promotion to colonel in the U.S. Army.
February 1864 brought a setback in Florida. Gillmore sent troops there under General Truman Seymour and ordered him not to advance into the interior. Seymour pushed toward Tallahassee anyway and fought the Battle of Olustee, the largest battle in Florida. It ended in a Union defeat.
Early in May 1864, Gillmore and the X Corps were transferred to the Army of the James and shipped to Virginia. They took part in the Bermuda Hundred operations and played a principal role in the disastrous action at Drewry's Bluff. Gillmore openly feuded with his superior, Benjamin F. Butler, over who deserved the blame. He asked for reassignment and left for Washington, D.C.
Jubal A. Early arrived at the outer defenses of the capital in July 1864 with 10,000 Confederates. Gillmore helped organize new recruits and invalids into a 20,000-man force. Reinforcements from the Gulf coast were being sent east at the time. Gillmore took command of a detachment of the XIX Corps that had been diverted to the defense of the capital at the battle of Fort Stevens.
After the threat to Washington passed, the XIX Corps went to the Army of the Shenandoah. Gillmore was reassigned to the Western Theater as inspector of military fortifications. As the war drew to a close, he took command of the Department of the South one final time. He was in command when Charleston and Fort Sumter were finally turned over to Union forces. Brevet promotions to Brigadier General and Major General in the U.S. Army, dated the 13th of March 1865, rewarded his campaign against Battery Wagner, Morris Island and Fort Sumter.
On the 5th of December 1865, he resigned from the volunteer army. He went back to being a major in the Corps of Engineers.
New York City drew Gillmore back after the war, and there he became a prominent civil engineer. He wrote several books and articles on structural materials, including cement.
The Siege and Reduction of Fort Pulaski appeared in 1863. Engineer and artillery operations against the defences of Charleston harbor in 1863 followed in 1865. The Strength of the Building Stones of the United States came out in 1874, and A Practical Treatise on Roads, Streets, and Pavements in 1876. Limes, Hydraulic Cements, and Mortars rounds out the list.
The city's Rapid Transit Commission counted him as a member. It planned elevated trains and mass public transportation. He also led efforts to improve the harbor and coastal defenses, and he was a prominent member of the University Club of New York.
The Atlantic coast saw more of his work. He took part in reconstructing fortifications there, including some he had helped destroy during the war. He became a lieutenant colonel on the 13th of June 1874 and a colonel on the 20th of February 1883. Rutgers College conferred an honorary Ph.D. on him in 1878.
The Mississippi River Commission was newly created when Gillmore joined it on the 30th of June 1879. He served as its president from 1879 to 1882, and again from 1884 until his death.
Brooklyn, New York, was where Gillmore died, at the age of 63. His son and his grandson were both also named Quincy Gillmore. Both graduated from West Point, served as officers in the U.S. Army, and became generals in the New Jersey National Guard. All three men were buried in Section XXI of the West Point Cemetery.
In the 19th century, some African Americans took the surname Gillmore or Gilmore as a tribute to the general.
Quincy J. Jordan Gilmore served as traveling secretary of the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs from 1920 to 1925. The first name Quincy may have originated in the same way.
The General Q.A. Gillmore was a coal schooner named in his honor. It sank in 1881 in Lake Erie, about 45 miles west of Lorain and near Kelleys Island. The shipwreck remains in the shallow waters of the lake.
A second ship carried his name as well. The Q.A. Gillmore was a steam-powered tugboat, Hull #24, built for the Great Lakes Towing Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It was launched around 1912-13 and operated on the Great Lakes. It took part in rescues of ships during the notable Great Lakes storm of 1913.
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Common questions
Who was Quincy Adams Gillmore?
Quincy Adams Gillmore (1825-1888) was an American civil engineer, author, and Union Army general in the American Civil War. He earned an international reputation as an organizer of siege operations.
What did Quincy Adams Gillmore do at Fort Pulaski?
Quincy Adams Gillmore took charge of the siege of Fort Pulaski and used naval rifled guns to breach its stone walls. More than 5,000 shells fell on the fort from 1,700 yards before it surrendered.
What was the Swamp Angel in Quincy Adams Gillmore's siege of Charleston?
The Swamp Angel was a massive Parrott rifle that Quincy Adams Gillmore implanted in swampy ground. It fired 200-pound shots into the city of Charleston.
Did Quincy Adams Gillmore integrate his troops at Fort Wagner?
Quincy Adams Gillmore ordered his forces integrated, so African American soldiers carried arms into battle instead of doing only menial tasks. The 54th Massachusetts took part in the assault on Fort Wagner and is the subject of the 1989 movie Glory.
What did Quincy Adams Gillmore do after the Civil War?
Quincy Adams Gillmore became a prominent civil engineer in New York City and wrote books on building stones, cements, roads and pavements. He served on the Rapid Transit Commission and, from 1879, on the Mississippi River Commission.
Where did Quincy Adams Gillmore die and where is he buried?
Quincy Adams Gillmore died at Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 63. He is buried in Section XXI of the West Point Cemetery alongside his son and grandson, both named Quincy Gillmore.
All sources
12 references cited across the entry
- 1BookProceedings of the Ninth Annual MeetingGaetano Lanza — American Society for Testing Materials — 1906
- 2BookHistory of the 104th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry from 1862 to 1865Pinney, Nelson A. — Akron, Ohio: Werner & Lohman — 1886
- 5Battle of OlusteeOlustee Battlefield Historic State Park Citizens Support Organization
- 6Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867William A. Dobak — 2011
- 8Quincy A. GilmoreUniversity of Chicago
- 9Gillmore, Quincy Adams (1825–1888)U.S. Army
- 10Gillmore, Quincy O'Maher (1850–1923)U.S. Army
- 11Gillmore, Quincy Adams (1881–1956)U.S. Army
- 12Quincy Adams GillmoreHarper & Brothers — 1905