Major General Quincy Adams Gilmore

Quincy Adams Gillmore (February 25, 1825 – April 11, 1888) was an American civil engineer, author, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was noted for his actions in the Union victory at Fort Pulaski, where his modern rifled artillery readily pounded the fort's exterior stone walls, an action that essentially rendered stone fortifications obsolete. He earned an international reputation as an organizer of siege operations and helped revolutionize the use of naval gunnery.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in early 1861, Gilmore was assigned to the staff of Brig. Gen.Thomas W. Sherman and accompanied him to Port Royal, South Carolina. After being appointed as a brigadier general, Gillmore took charge of the siege operations against Fort Pulaski. A staunch advocate of the relatively new naval rifled guns, he was the first officer to effectively use them to knock out an enemy stone fortification. More than 5,000 artillery shells fell on Pulaski from a range of 1,700 yards during the short siege, which resulted in the fort's surrender after its walls were breached.

The result of the efforts to breach a fort of such strength and at such a distance confers high honor on the engineering skill and self-reliant capacity of General Gilmore.

Although he was one of the best artillerists and engineers in the army he was not well respected by his men.

Inventory Number: CDV 096