File:Marco Paul's travels and adventures in the pursuit of knowledge. City of New York (1845) (14803550993).jpg

Identifier: marcopaulstravel45abbo (find matches)
Title: Marco Paul's travels and adventures in the pursuit of knowledge. City of New York
Year: 1845 (1840s)
Authors: Abbott, Jacob, 1803-1879
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, Benjamin B. Mussey
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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t at all surprising that Marco recom-mended going to the Battery, for it is a very pleas-ant place to take a walk, in an evening in summer.A battery is a kind of fortification. It is generallya sort of platform, on which heavy cannon areplaced, to fire balls, shells, and red-hot shot at theenemy. The Battery in New York was formerly usedfor this purpose. It is at the lower extremity ofthe island on which the city is built, at the pointwhere the North and East rivers flow together andform New York harbor. The reason why theyformed the battery there, was, that from that placethe guns could point towards the harbor, and sobe aimed at any enemys ship which might becoming to do any damage to the town. But inprocess of time the people concluded that theywould have the fortifications farther down, nearthe mouth of the harbor, on some islands, so thatthey could keep the enemy from coming eveninto the harbor ; and thus the original battery, atthe lower end of the city itself, became of no use.
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MARCO PAUL IN NEW YORK. 61 The piece of ground which had been reservedfor a battery, was pretty large ; for it was neces-sary to have room, first, for a wide platform, ex-tending alongghe shore for a considerable distance,so as to contain a great many guns. In front ofthis platform, too, there was to be a very thickwall, either of stone, or of earth, with grassedsides, to protect the soldiers who were on the bat-tery to work the guns. There are openings madein the wall, in such cases, to fire through. It wasnecessary to have the platform very wide, for theguns- were long, and mounted on heavy carriages,and they had to be drawn back in order to beloaded. Thus the platform and the wall requiredconsiderable space. Then it was necessary tohave, besides this, room for buildings called bar-racks, for the soldiers to live in, and a green fieldfor them to exercise in ; so that, altoo-ether, thebatterjr, and what belonged to it, necessarily re-quired a large piece of ground. Now when the batte

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