Defense System

Fort Warren’s defense system incorporated principal elements based on seventeenth-century military theories developed by Louis XIV’s chief engineer, Sebastien de Vauban, modified to meet nineteenth-century requirements. In theory, an attacking ship would be pounded by heavy fire from the ramparts, while the fort’s earthen coverface and escarpments would absorb enemy fire from the channel. Any landing party would be raked by fire from outworks such as the coverface, and if the enemy reached the moat they would be caught in a crossfire between cannon mounted in the flank walls of the bastions and rifle fire from the curtain wall.

Boston, Massachusetts · United States