Field Fortifications

Common in field fortifications were fraises, inclined or horizontal sharpened stakes (also called storm poles) and palisades, an obstruction of vertical stakes. Both can be seen in these photos, one of a redoubt at the Yorktown NPS park (top) and the other of fortifications at Atlanta in 1864.

A dense abatis can be seen on the left of the Atlanta photo.
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The defenses the Confederates built at Yorktown in 1862 were erected on top of the earthworks the British had constructed and occupied there in 1781 that had been left intact. But in the 1930s the National Park Service began reconstructing the French and American siege lines. But the photo on the top I'm guessing is a fortification defense that was constructed in 1862 at Yorktown
 
Stockades were also placed behind the parapets of the covered ways of permanent fortifications but these are seldom seen on old forts now because of rot. Even in the old days such palisades were often only erected in wartime. The last time I visited Fort Ticonderoga and the reconstruction of Fort Stanwix (below), both in New York state, they had palisaded covered ways.

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The tips of the palisade can be seen in this photo of Fort Stanwix. Note how the glacis covers the lower part of the wall from cannon fire.

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Fort Jay on Governors I
Stockades were also placed behind the parapets of the covered ways of permanent fortifications but these are seldom seen on old forts now because of rot. Even in the old days such palisades were often only erected in wartime. The last time I visited Fort Ticonderoga and the reconstruction of Fort Stanwix (below), both in New York state, they had palisaded covered ways.

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The tips of the palisade can be seen in this photo of Fort Stanwix. Note how the glacis covers the lower part of the wall from cannon fire.

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Fort Jay on Governors Island has a similar type of defense moat like Fort Stanwix. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia also was constructed that way
 
Fort Jay on Governors I

Fort Jay on Governors Island has a similar type of defense moat like Fort Stanwix. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia also was constructed that way
At Fort Stanwix, the palisade is at the breast-height wall of the coverface, not in the ditch. A subtle difference, but a different philosophy.
 
Fort Jay on Governors I

Fort Jay on Governors Island has a similar type of defense moat like Fort Stanwix. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia also was constructed that way
I didn't see any evidence of a wooden palisade at Fort Jay, just the typical masonry coverface and a dry ditch.
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Fort Jay on Governors I

Fort Jay on Governors Island has a similar type of defense moat like Fort Stanwix. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia also was constructed that way
Both Bernard and Totten believed in a clear ditch with no obstructions to forward fire and flanking fire. Fort that reason, none of the Third System forts had any kind of wooden palisade or fraize in their defensive scheme.
 
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