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SweetFreedom Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Ordered the guns at Forts Barrancas and McRae to be spiked?

1) Does "ordered the guns at Forts Barrancas and McRae to be spiked" mean "ordered the guns at Forts Barrancas and McRae to be piled (to form a pike)"?
2) Does "laid out trains to the powder magazines" mean "deployed the carriages of trains to the powder magazines/powder depots"?

Background info:

We've been down this road so many times is pathetic. I'm not going to waste a lot of time on this. So-called state troops of Florida and Alabama seized Federal installations in Florida in the first week of January, 1861, even before Florida has passed a secession ordinance. On January 8, 1861, so-called state troops attempted to take Forts Barrancas and McRae. Lt. Slemmer, commanding an artillery company, ordered his men to fire over the heads of the mob from Pensacola, who promptly took to their heels. Slemmer then ordered the guns at Forts Barrancas and McRae to be spiked, and laid out trains to the powder magazines in both forts, which were lit, destroying the magazines. Slemmer then withdrew with his men to Fort Pickens, in the harbor, which Federal troops held throughout the war.

There's a lot more that can be brought in evidence to show that the South wanted a war, and that the political leaders wrote checks their military ass couldn't cash. Of course, Lincoln was not the president at the time that Star of West attempted to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter. That was on January 9, 1861. Lincoln was not inaugurated until March 4, 1861. When President Buchanan sent troops to Fort Sumter, he was acting well within his authority. No American President would have dared to let a mob of armed hotheads tell him that he couldn't send his troops where he wanted to send them.
  

Top answer

org/wiki/Touch_hole . ) 2) I don't believe that "trains" has anything to do with the kind of trains that have carriages. I think it means trails of gunpowder.

  • org/wiki/Touch_hole .
  • ) 2) I don't believe that "trains" has anything to do with the kind of trains that have carriages.
  • I think it means trails of gunpowder.
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2 Answers
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1) There is an explanation of this meaning of "spike" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_hole. (I think in your question you mixed up "spike" and "pike"?)

2) I don't believe that "trains" has anything to do with the kind of trains that have carriages. I think it means trails of gunpowder.
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SweetFreedomSlemmer then ordered the guns at Forts Barrancas and McRae to be spiked, and laid out trains to the powder magazines in both forts, which were lit, destroying the magazines.
Simplifying:

Slemmer ordered the guns to be made unusable and set down a little path of explosive powder that led to where the supplies of gunpowder were kept, and the

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