The Counterfire Galleries, to me, were Fort Macon's coolest components. They were designed to provide defensive fire if attackers managed to get into the moat area. Initially they were just loopholed to sweep the moat with rifle fire, but in the 1840's three of the four galleries were altered to mount carronades (short, smoothbore cast-iron cannons, first manufactured by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Scotland in the 1770's). My initial thought was, how on earth could anyone man those galleries back when the dry moat was a wet moat, but that moat was only wet for a very brief period, early in the life of Fort Macon...I'm pretty sure there were no Counterfire Batteries in operation when there was water in the moat.