Forgotten Forts Series - Battery Bienvenue (LA)

Forts Pike and Macomb are interesting for their small casemate entrances, later Third System casemates have much larger openings and some are practically open air. These large openings were sometimes a problem during the war and had to be covered with timbers lest overshots and breaching shots enter the caemates from the rear, such as at Fort Pulaski.

I took some excellent photos of pre Katrina Fort Pike some years ago but the laptop they were on was stolen.
While I consider Bernard a genius of fortification design - you might call me a Bernard-o-phile - he made a couple of serious mistakes at Fort Pike, his first design in the USA. First, he designed what have come to be known as "tunnel casemates" that had a long gallery leading to the casemate itself. As you said, this was to prevent overshots from the rear, but also severely limited ventilation. He compounded that by not putting smoke vents in the casemates! The ones present today had to be cut in after construction of the fort. He repeated that mistake at Fort Wood (Macomb), but then used open-backed casemates from then on. As you said, a blindage was built at some forts, such as Pulaski, to prevent overshots.
I also have a number of pre-Katrina pictures of Fort Pike. I'm happy to share them if you would like them.
 
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