General Quincy Adams Gillmore

Side A: Quincy Adams Gillmore, considered one of the greatest military engineers and artillerists of the Civil War, was born to Quartus Gillmore and Elizabeth Reid Gillmore at this location in 1825. He attended Norwalk Academy and taught high school in Elyria before embarking on a military career. Graduating first in his class at West Point in 1849, he entered the Corps of Engineers. In August 1861, he served in the Union’s Port Royal expedition in South Carolina and later in the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which defended the water approach to Savannah, Georgia. The fort, considered impregnable to artillery, fell to Gillmore’s rifled cannon on April 11, 1862, after a two-day bombardment. His success effectively ended the use of large masonry fortifications. (Continued on other side) Side B: (Continued from other side) Gillmore was given command of the Department of the South, including South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in 1863. Gillmore’s task encompassed taking Charleston from the Confederacy. His department came to include the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, an African American unit who led a courageous assault on Fort Wagner. The 54th’s bravery during the battle inspired the recruiting of African-Americans units for the Union Army. Gillmore’s bombardment of Confederate-held Fort Sumter caused its near total destruction. In 1864, Gillmore was involved in the landing at Bermuda Hundred, in Virginia, and subsequent battles. From February to November 1865, Gillmore again commanded the Department of the South. After the war, he was appointed chief engineer for the fortification, harbor, and river improvements along the Atlantic coast. His research on cements and artificial stone is considered authoritative in the field. General Gillmore died in 1888 and is buried at West Point.