Brazos River Forts in 1/144 Scale

mjr251

Private
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Location
Near Port Arthur, Texas
These are the plans and guns for my models of CS Forts Bates and Sulakowski at the mouth of the Brazos River in Texas. They'll be for an upcoming exhibit at my pal Wade Dillon's museum in Freeport, Texas.

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Were Fort Bates and Fort Sulakowski originally Fort Velasco and Fort Quintana?

Yes. These were the names recommended by Lieutenant Abram Cross, who oversaw their construction in 1864. Fort Bates was named for the commander of the 13th Texas Infantry, who was apparently a serious pain in the a** to work with (there's quite an interesting bit of drama between him and Caleb Forshey while the initial works were being built), and Fort Sulakowski was named for their designer, Colonel Valery Sulakowski. However, both forts continued to be called Velasco and Quintana until the end of the war.

There have been so many fortifications in that spot over the centuries that using the names Bates and Sulakowski really helps in narrowing down the late-war works. There were Mexican (I think), Texian, Confederate, and later US Army and Texas National Guard emplacements there.

When I forget which town is on which side of the river, I remember that Fort Sulakowski is sorta shaped like a V - Velasco -, and Fort Bates is sorta round - like the Q in Quintana.
Hey, I freely admit I'm a simpleton :bounce:
 
Hey Roy, didn’t forget you. I’ll share some photos after it’s painted, looks like garbage right now. Basically it’s a normal magazine entrance, just notched into the parapet.

Okay, that kind of makes sense. If I understand what you mean, the parapet turns an angle to allow for the steps going down into the magazine?

R
 
Not even that really, it's literally a notch in the parapet itself.

The gun platform butts up on three sides to the parapet, and the ammunition magazine remains set at the same level below the gun platform as the rest. So they had notch the parapet so that it could be accessed and so that the doors (assuming there were) could be opened, and a set of stars could be added to reach it.
 
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