New London, in Connecticut, is pleasantly situated a short distance from the junction of the Thames with Long Island Sound. Nature has conferred upon it important advantages of position and defence. She scooped a noble basin just within the mouth of the Thames, on the west side of which she spread an uneven rocky projection in the form of a crescent. On this spot the city is built. The hills of Groton, and the low sands of Waterford, extend on either hand like outstretched arms around the harbor. Fisher's Island stands back as an additional embankment on the east. Other small islands of the Sound recede into dark specks upon its bosom, and the narrow line of Long Island, lying like the edge of a slender cloud upon the limits of the horizon, vary the prospect with the elements of beauty and grandeur.
Fort Trumbull occupies an eligible situation for the protection of the harbor and town. The old fortress has been entirely demolished, and a costly structure, planned with ability, and so far as it has yet advanced, executed in a solid and symmetrical style, is now rising upon its ruins. Opposite, on the east side of the river, is Fort Griswold, the site of one of the most barbarous massacres which occurred during the revolutionary war. This also has been repaired, and an additional battery erected for an outpost, but the main fortification remains the same.
A monumental column of granite, erected to commemorate the fatal action of Groton Fort on the sixth