Blockhouse and Breastworks

On Wednesday, October 22, 1865, fifteen men armed two stockades at Fort Wadsworth, also called Fort Sisseton. The fort stood on a hill and was surrounded on three sides by water, which formed its natural defenses. Its structural defenses included blockhouses at the northwest and southeast corners and a moat and earthen berms around the fort's perimeter. Each blockhouse contained a twelve-pound mountain howitzer and nearly indestructible walls seven by eight inches thick. Original plans also called for a wood stockade, but timber was scarce, so the project was never completed.

South Dakota · United States