During the Civil War, many officers on both sides, including some who later gained fame as infantry or cavalry commanders, were first trained as engineers at the United States Military Academy at West Point or the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Using long-established principles, they were skilled at designing and overseeing the construction of complicated works that protected the men who occupied them and provided fields of fire against attacking forces. Lt. William H. Clarke, who supervised construction at Fort Nonsense, used several fortification types there, including the redan, the redoubt, and the lunette. A redan, derived from the French word for projection and salient, consists of two faces joined to form a salient angle projecting toward the enemy and the expected path of attack, and the projecting V fortification at Fort Nonsense was designed for infantry use. A redoubt, from a French word meaning place of retreat, is usually an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger defensive system, or an independent position, and Fort Nonsense was technically a redoubt. A lunette, derived from the French word for little moon, is an outer fieldwork that forms a salient facing the enemy but is open on the side away from the enemy.

Photo: Bernard Fisher

Photo: Bernard Fisher

Mathews, Virginia · USA