How Fort Barton Came to Be
The average fort in the Revolution was a field fort, resembling a little more than a mound of dirt. But what they lacked in glamour, they made up in simplicity, versatility, and ease of construction.
The erection of such field fortifications became elevated to a fine science late in the Seventeenth Century by the French, who became the greatest military engineers of the period.
There had been little actual fortification in the colonies at the outbreak of the war, when defensive works suddenly became necessary. To meet this requirement, soldiers exchanged their muskets for picks, shovels, axes and brush knives. The early engineers knew how to make serviceable forts of earth using these simple tools.
Once a site had been selected for fortification, and a general design decided upon, an outline of the work was marked out on the ground. Along this line, two or three rows of open-ended baskets, gabions, would be set, one row filling the gaps in another. These gabions were made by pounding a circle of stakes into the ground and weaving branches between them until a sort of wicker tube had been formed.
When the gabions were in place, it was time for the soldier’s friend, the shovel. As a trench was dug before the gabions, the dirt was dumped into the open ends of the baskets. When they were filled, large bundles of sticks, fascines, were laid along the tops of the gabions and used to bank the face and rear of the fortification. The fascines were held in place with stakes and packed earth, gradually producing a mound of earth along the outline of the proposed fort, fronted by a defensive ditch. The mound was usually covered with sod to prevent the erosion of the wall and often a line of sharp stakes would be erected in the ditch or placed jutting from the face of the wall. If time did not allow covering the works with sod, the mound could be dampened and tramped solid.
In Rhode Island, rip rap or stones were used to lay over the top, since those were more abundant. The rip rap was covered with packed earth, and then covered with sod to prevent erosion.
Where cannon were to be mounted, slits were left in the wall as firing spaces. Inside the walls, mounds were built up to allow the guns to be run inside for loading. These gun platforms were decked over with timber for a solid surface.
As the works were improved, firing steps of earth or timber might be added to the wall. Another step might be cut into the outer bank of the ditch so that riflemen could occupy the ditch while protected by others from the wall. This improvement was called a covered way because of the protected passage it afforded.
Often employed as an outer defense was the abbatis. This was formed by felling trees and laying them side by side, their branches towards the enemy. The result was a delaying obstacle similar to modern barbed wire.
Such defenses were simple and constructed of local materials but remarkably sound. Because their surface was not rigid, they tended to absorb cannon shot and could be easily repaired.
Simple trenches to protect riflemen were raised by laying out a line of fascines, behind which a ditch was dug. The earth was piled over the fascines and provided solid cover for men in the trenches.
When an enemy fortification was to be taken, the attackers began with their own defensive fortifications outside the range of enemy guns. From this strongpoint, they approached in zig-zag trenches. The trenches were similar to those for riflemen and were advanced either at night, under cover of darkness, or by day, pushing a bundle of fascines forward and entrenching from behind them. In this manner, the trench was advanced upon the enemy, widening into forts or batteries where the ground was favorable. If the enemy could not be battered into surrendering, the attackers tried to storm the enemy works when the trenches had reduced the unprotected area before them.
Variations of these basic techniques appeared throughout the war, with formal sieges being conducted at Rhode Island and Yorktown, among others. It was this system, also, which would produce Fort Barton, Fort Butts and the many local forts, redoubts and batteries of the British occupation days.
From “Castlebuilders, or how Fort Barton came to be” by William Drohan