The fort was surrounded by a palisade, a vertical wall of sharpened logs, linking four diamond-shaped corner projections called bastions. Around each bastion, the palisade ran in the bottom of a ditch that provided additional defence against attacking soldiers. The diamond shape of the bastions allowed cannons to fire on soldiers approaching adjacent areas of the palisade. A 24-pounder cannon represents the guns mounted in each of the bastions during the War of 1812.