Forget the Pony, Mom, I'll Take This for Christmas.

A Civil War-era fort is up for auction on E-Bay.

According to this article, Fort Montgomery, built in 1844 on an island in Lake Champlain in upstate New York, was indeed manned during the Civil War.

No doubt the Union felt compelled to post soldiers there in order to put the kybosh on any secret Hudson Valley Campaign plans the South may have been harboring.

Yips! to GroovyVic.

UPDATE: Civil War geekery, you say? We Llamas are the No. 1 Google hit for "Pinkerton inaccurate estimates Civil War". Ha, ha - in your face, Bill!

YIPS from Steve: I'm guessing it was primarily to interdict smuggling out of Canada, particularly involving Copperhead Democrats who, while not questionning their patriotism, were actively trying to subvert the Union war effort. Lamdan Milligan, if memory serves correctly, spent a good part of the War in southern Canada around those parts.