8 - Dupont's Round Fight
Herman Melville
Tim Marr
Tianyu Ji
Dupont's Round FightAs part of the Union blockade of southern ports, Samuel Francis Du Pont seized Port Royal Sound, protected by forts on opposing sides of an inlet. His gunboats followed an elliptical course within the inlet, repeatedly battering one fort going in and the other coming out.
A drawing from the Rebellion Record illustrates the strategy. (See also Cohen 217, Shurr 15).
(November, 1861.)
In time and measure perfect moves
All Art whose aim is sure;
Evolving rhyme and stars divine
Have rules, and they endure.
Nor less the Fleet that warred for Right,
And, warring so, prevailed,
In geometric beauty curved,
And in an orbit sailed.
The rebel at Port RoyalHere, "The rebel" might also refer to 17th-century logician and mathematician Blaise Pascal, who was associated with the Jansenist movement centered at Port-Royal, France (Shurr, 15). felt
The Unity overawe,
And rued the spell. A type was here,
And victory of Law.