 Out of its half dozen large guns, only the two eight-inch Columbiads were suitable for seacoast defense.One of the Federal frigates could have cleaned it out with a few broad-sides.” 

Although not trained as an engineer, he was interested in military fortifications and studied their role in the Crimean War, especially, the Russian fortress of Malakoff at Sevastopol.Lamb spent two-and-a-half years working relentlessly to construct the Confederacy's largest bastion at a length of seven hundred yards that became known as the "South’s Gibraltar".