President Lincoln's Springfield Illinois Home

764

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[NOVEMBER 26, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT.--[PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.]

W. W. WOOD, CHIEF ENGINEER UNITED STATES NAVY.—[PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.]

MAJOR-GENERAL MOTT.

MAJOR-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT is a native of New Jersey, from which State he brought a full brigade to the Army of the Potomac. This brigade belonged to the First Division of the old Third Corps. Almost from the first organization of the Army of the Potomac he has been identified with its history. He has participated in all the great battles of Virginia. He was wounded in the second battle of Bull Run, and was afterward promoted from the rank of Senior Colonel commanding the, New Jersey Brigade to that of Brigadier-General At Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville he took a prominent part in the operations of SICKLES'S Division, and at the latter he was wounded for the second time. At Gettysburg he was mentioned, as on former occasions, for his gallant services in that bat-

tle. In the late campaign from the Rappahannock to the James he has commanded a division of the Second Corps--the same which was formerly commanded by Generals HOOKER and STICKLES in the Third Corps. This division now includes all that is left of the old Third Corps, HOOKER'S "Old Guard." This is a veteran division which has served during the war, being now reduced to a small number. It was this division which was attacked and partially flanked in the late advance to the left.

CHIEF-ENGINEER W. W. WOOD.

CHIEF-ENGINEER W. W. WOOD, United States Navy, whose portrait we publish on this page, is at present attached to the staff of Rear-Admiral GREGORY, as general superintendent of iron-clad

steamers and other vessels being constructed for the Navy Department. He was born in Wake County. North Carolina, in the year 1818. Upon the death of his parents, which occurred when he

was very young, he was sent to the north to be educated. After passing through college his great taste and natural inclination for mechanics and engineering induced hint to connect himself with the Messrs. KEMBLE, of the West Point Foundry, in this city, at the time the largest and most eminent works of the kind in the country. At this establishment he remained for several years, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of engineering; and after an extensive experience, on the reorganization of the Naval Engineer Corps, under the administration of the Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT, in March, 1845, he entered the naval service, in which he has been actively engaged during a period of

nearly twenty years. In regard to his past history, the Navy Register for 1864 records him as having been at sea for nearly eight years, and on shore duty in naval dock yards and on other special service eight and a half years. He is at present the senior Chief Engineer in the navy, and was selected by Secretary WELLES to fill the responsible position of General Inspector of Steam Machinery, etc. ; in which duty is included the construction of our iron-clad fleet, and the machinery for the new class of vessels which are at present being constructed. The new and destructive shell and its arrangement, recently used with such tremendous effect by the gallant Lieutenant CUSHING in the destruction of the rebel ram Albemarle, in the Roanoke River, was designed by him, as also the iron-clad torpedo vessel Stromboli, nearly completed, a powerful engine of destruction in naval warfare.

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