Even If A General Be Wrong In Such A Matter, His
Character As A Man Is Not Disgraced By Such Error.
But the manner
of building them was the affair with which Mr. Van Wyck's Committee
had to deal.
It seems that five of the forts, the five largest,
were made under the orders of a certain Major Kappner, at a cost of
12,000l., and that the other five could have been built at least for
the same sum. Major Kappner seems to have been a good and honest
public servant, and therefore quite unfit for the superintendence of
such work at St. Louis. The other five smaller forts were also in
progress, the works on them having been continued from 1st of
September to 25th of September, 1861; but on the 25th of September
General Fremont himself gave special orders that a contract should
be made with a man named Beard, a Californian, who had followed him
from California to St. Louis. This contract is dated the 25th of
September. But nevertheless the work specified in that contract was
done previous to that date, and most of the money paid was paid
previous to that date. The contract did not specify any lump sum,
but agreed that the work should be paid for by the yard and by the
square foot. No less a sum was paid to Beard for this work - the
cormorant Beard, as the report calls him - than 24,200l., the last
payment only, amounting to 4000l., having been made subsequent to
the date of the contract.
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