Military
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A redoubt was a small temporary fortification of entrenched earth and wood designed to provide cover for defending infantry and artillery and to slow an attacking force. During the American Revolution, both British and Continental forces used John Muller’s 1746 Elements of Fortification, a hybrid of current theories of entrenchments advanced by Marshal de Vauban of France and Baron Menno Van Coehorn of the Dutch Army. These systems emphasized a catalog of shapes and fortification features that a commander could adapt to the circumstances of the battlespace. An 18th century redoubt included design elements such as an embrasure, an opening in the parapet for artillery fire; a ship’s carriage with an 18 pdr cannon, with small cast iron wheels rather than wooden ones; a gun platform of joists and planks for artillery and mortars; fascines, bundles of saplings bound with vines to support the parapet; a 24 pdr mortar and bed, a short artillery piece mounted to a large wooden block for firing projectiles at extreme elevations over the fortification; and a mortar pit, a gun platform specifically used for mortars.
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