From Captain James Chester, "Inside Sumter in '61" (1887).

The garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was hoisting a big gun into position with the use of a windlass:

"After carefully inspecting every knot and lashing, the officer in charge gave the word, 'Heave away,' and the men bent to their work steadily and earnestly.... Every eye watched the ropes as they began to take the strain, and when the gun had fairly left the skids, and there was no accident, the song which anxiety had suspended was resumed, all hands joining in the chorus, 'On the plains of Mexico,' with a sonorous heartiness that might well have been heard at Fort Moultrie. The gun made the vertical passage of fifty feet successfully, and was safely landed...."