To Build a Redoubt

Constructing these earthworks required complex engineering. A deep ditch was excavated in front to slow an attacking enemy, and the dirt was heaped into gabions, baskets of interwoven branches. Bundles of branches called fascines were piled outside and inside the wall to protect the defenders, and the entire work was usually covered with sod to absorb cannon fire. At Redoubt 3, the inside walls were faced with stakes, and because sod was scarce in the mud-churned encampment, the work differed in that respect. Redoubt 3 stood on a vulnerable gap in the valley between the Outer and Inner Line defenses, where the Americans were exposed to attacks from the south. Built to secure this weak point, it could have joined the Outer Line across the valley, supported by Brigadier General Anthony Wayne’s Pennsylvania Brigades, in raking the gap with cross-fire during an attack.

Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania · United States