“Disembarkation proceeding swiftly,” was the reply. “The line Providence to New Bedford appears to be strongly held. Main strength, however, evidently being thrown to face our front. The original army is being steadily augmented by additions from the forces now landing. Believe that hostile line stretching across Rhode Island and threatening us is now fully eighty thousand men, with preponderating artillery.”
The news bulletin that the War Department in Washington gave out as a result of this information was that the American army, though numerically inferior, was holding the invader in check for the time. No immediate movement, said the bulletin, was expected.
To the General in command, however, the Department telegraphed: “It is of the utmost importance to know if you can maintain present position, and if so, how long. We wish to work Springfield arsenal to the last moment. Must have twenty-four hours to dismantle it and ship machinery away.”
_Two Days in Which to Make Ammunition for the American Army!_
Springfield Arsenal, lying behind the protecting army, was a-glare with light at night and a-roar night and day with labor. It was toiling almost literally over a mine; for the foundations were mined, ready for the dynamite that was to blow them up when the need came.
An army of workmen, each provided with his own specific instruction, were ready, when the word came, to tear out what machinery they could and load it on the trains.[74]
Thus, with men standing ready to pull it apart, the great place was being “speeded” to turn out rifles. Under civilian and military experts all the workers who could find room were working in eight-hour shifts. They had increased the output from the normal one hundred rifles an hour to three thousand in the twenty-four hours.
“Forces in our front constantly increasing,” the army leaders informed Washington, after a council of war. “No doubt of offensive intention. We believe, however, that no forward movement will be made until completion of landing operations. The total destruction of all roads in our front will then delay enemy for not more than two days. Think it safe to delay dismantling works till expiration of that time.”
“Thank God!” said one of the men in Washington. He was thanking God for two days of grace--after fifty years of unused time. Two short days had become suddenly precious. In that time there could be added to the stock of arms 6,000 rifles before the Springfield works should have to be abandoned and the country forced to depend on the output of the Rock Island arsenal in Illinois, whose utmost capacity was only two hundred and fifty rifles in each eight-hour day.[75]