"The forts whose names I have mentioned are superb works. Gen. Whiting's great skill as an Engineer is shown at Every step. I have seen no forts anywhere in the Confederacy that would at all compare with them. They are as neat & trimly sodded as our old show forts around Norfolk and of two times the solidity.
They are not only built solid enough to withstand an indefinite hammering from any ordnance now known, but some allowance has been made for 'growing.'
Smithville, the site of one of these forts is one of the oldest towns in the State, and is the most foreign looking place I ever saw. The houses are old-fashioned, some of them quite handsome, and the streets are merely grass-grown lawns, dotted with many curious & beautiful trees, but every thing looks dead or asleep; the houses are tumbling to pieces, the Enclosures torn away, and the very garrison of the fort have a sort of mechanical and moss-grown appearance like old machines rusted by the saltwater and inaction."
--Old B-R'er
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