First Use of a Periscope In Action?-- Part 2

APRIL 12TH, 1864: //// Of course, the use of the periscope in warfare really came into use during the age of submarine warfare in World War I and II. //// The high banks of the Red River posed a great difficulty for the Union gunners in aiming their cannons from water level. Doughtry's ingenius invention helped solve that problem. //// Selfridge wrote that: "On first sounding to general quarters....[I] went inside the turret to direct (he was the Osage's commander) its fire, but the restricted vision from the peep holes rendered it impossible to see what was going on in the threatened quarter, whenever teh turret was trained on the loading position. //// In this extremity I thought of the periscope, and hastily took up station there, well-protected by the turret, yet able to survvey the whole scene and to direct an accurate fire." //// Thus was the periscope, a familiar sight on gun turrets and on submarines brought into the Civil War use on the Western waters. //// New Technology. --Old B-Runner