Fort Carillion Abattis/Breastwork Defense... (1 Viewer)

[Napoleon1er]

Mike I think yours is fabulous and probably more true to life given the time period. Even log homes built today aren't that perfect.

Can't agree more! Also, on a similar note, I have been doing a lot of experimenting with "logs" from my backyard. I might try using strait hollow reeds, and plug the ends with a drop of clay. They are VERY strait, easy to cut, very realistic, and probably very easy to notch. Also, I think that in the pictures, dowels were used, so I wouldn't beat yourself up because the straitest twig in your backyard is still not as strait as a factory turned dowel. But again, personally, I really love the one you already have, and can tell you, as a reenactor at Fort Ti, that we too had gaps in our defensive works that we made. Also, who made the blockhouse? Is it a company? If so, where can it be purchased?
Thanks,
Sandor

 

[Fraxinus]

The breastwork was not single log thick wall, but a double wall of logs. Between the inner and outer walls, there was a sandwich of earth. The earth was derived from a ditch excavated immediately in front of the wall. From the aspect of the British climbing over it, the ditch added needed height to the wall and was an important aspect to the overall defensive nature of the breastwork.

The inner and outer log walls may have not have been strictly vertical - the cross-section being somewhat triangular with the outer wall leaning in allowing the inner wall to support it. The inner wall may have been near vertical or it may have been leaning forward to support the outer wall. Where needed to add stability, vertical logs would have been anchored into the earth.

With a double wall of logs packed with a earth middle, you really do not have to have a tight joint or straight logs. Construction does not need to be precise or neat. Gaps in the outer log wall are not a problem. The core would be filled with dirt, pebbles, wood, rock and stone. There may or may not be a interior wood framework that would connect the inner and outer walls with cross members (embedded in the earth core).

Although you need twice as much wood with a double wall, you do not have to be neat, tidy or incredibly precise.

If Matt added a second inner wall to his set-up and kept the same construction technique, I think the resulting wall would be ideal and any earth placed between the log lifts would be explained and correct. No way would I trash it.

I think you can you-tube the Battle of Ticonderoga and get the clip from the PBS series The War that Made America ----- I believe it shows the wall and Montcalm parading behind it.

 

[Spitfrnd]

....

I made one the other day and don't have a good technique for notching out my branches...so I had to put mud (dirt) in the notch gaps...my logs were not as straight as they needed to be...so I also had to put mud (dirt) between the gaps...

I'm throwing mine away and starting over...

I need to find much straighter branches to avoid getting a gap when they are stacked ...

I also need to find a better way to notch the ends of my logs to avoid the gaps there too...

teach me Carlo...

Carlo's are nicely done but honestly Mike, I like the natural look of yours even more. I certainly think you should keep them but if you must toss them, I will gladly take them off your hands.

 

[Napoleon1er]

The version used at Fort Ti today is kind of like a pile of dirt in the shape of a triangle, with logs lining each side. I think this is the totally accurate way. They use it in all of their displays. Here is a picture of the one for reenactments, and a sketch I just did:

Hope that was helpful!

 

[mikemiller1955]

I personally think Carlo's diorama is one of the nicest I have ever seen...

the whole set up is just fantastic...

I love his abattis and ground work...it is exactly what I think it actually looked like and would like to copy and create the same for my figures...that thick heavy blanket of logs and branches that they had to trudge through is made is precisely like I imagine it would look like...

the trees on the outskirts and the backdrop are fantastic and makes this a beautiful diorama show piece...Carlo did a wonderful job...

I'm especially impressed with his wood work...I wish I could copy the way he notched his logs and joined them together...I have asked him his technique in a personal email and hope he responds...

this is one of the nicest set ups I have seen...I'm sure he worked on it a while and I hope I can make one as good when I'm finished...

excellent work Carlos...very, very, very cool...

 

[mikemiller1955]

The version used at Fort Ti today is kind of like a pile of dirt in the shape of a triangle, with logs lining each side. I think this is the totally accurate way. They use it in all of their displays. Here is a picture of the one for reenactments, and a sketch I just did:

Hope that was helpful!

Nap...can you please enlarge those photos and send me the link...

just send me the link if you would...that would be enough...

please...please...please...

 

[thebritfarmer]

Michael it occurred to me that it may be easier for you to cut the branches from a tree first, then notch them as they would not be so brittle. Worth a try

 

[mikemiller1955]

here is the video Fraxinus is talking about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF6Lwvo1UBQ

The French lines consisted of eight to nine foot wall "made of tree trunks lying one on top of the other" with loop holes cut between the chinks of the logs. The French infantry behind the wall could fire out from a position of almost total protection. "The line followed the top of the ridge, along which it zig-zagged in such a manner that the whole front could be swept by flank-fires of musketry and grape." [37]

To this formidable defense was added an additional filip; a vast abatis made from the tops of the trees that formed the wall whose cut and sharpened branches gave the effect of "chebaux-de-frise." "The army worked with such ardor that the line was in a defendable state the same evening." The French continued to improve the position through the night [38].

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/bwatch/bw6a.htm

 

[samwise II]

Mike -

You might try using a Dremal tool w/ a round sander bit. It makes a nice groove in the wood pieces so they fit together & it is fairly quick work. I, too, collected some twigs outside and attempted to make a quick redoubt one day. First attempt like yours so I decided to return when more time was available. No pictures available tho. But I liked the color & appearance of the natural wood. Yes the twigs are not exactly straight but that gives it character. I bet the French didn't have all straight trees to work w/ & they built it in a short period of time. Filling the holes is one way of closing the line but I bet the French also fired through the redoubt as well as over it.

Your first attempt looked good. Fine tune your first attempt.

Glenn

 

[mikemiller1955]

Mike -

You might try using a Dremal tool w/ a round sander bit. It makes a nice groove in the wood pieces so they fit together & it is fairly quick work. I, too, collected some twigs outside and attempted to make a quick redoubt one day. First attempt like yours so I decided to return when more time was available. No pictures available tho. But I liked the color & appearance of the natural wood. Yes the twigs are not exactly straight but that gives it character. I bet the French didn't have all straight trees to work w/ & they built it in a short period of time. Filling the holes is one way of closing the line but I bet the French also fired through the redoubt as well as over it.

Your first attempt looked good. Fine tune your first attempt.

Glenn

Glenn...that may be a good way to notch the logs...I do have a Dremel with about 1,000 attachments...

but...the more I read...the more I'm not sure the breast work logs were notched and overlapped...

I'm starting to believe they were just double stacked over a pyramid mound of dirt...once an 8 foot long section was built...another was added in a criss cross pattern...I'm hoping to get some pictures from Nap...

 

[mikemiller1955]

A half mile behind the fort, the Ticonderoga peninsula narrows to a ridge only a quarter of a mile wide. The land falls away to Lake Champlain on one side and Lake George on the other. On the morning of the seventh, while Abercromby was frittering away his advantage down at the landing, Montcalm put his entire little army to work across that narrow neck of ground. Sweating officers, stripped to their shirt-sleeves, swung axes side by side with their men. All morning they made inroads on the virgin forest in front of them. Trees, some of them more than three feet in diameter, came down and were piled horizontally one on top of the other. A massive log wall with loopholes for muskets began to rise up from the hard ground. Three thousand men pushed the forest a hundred yards back from the wall. In the clearing they built an abatis of tree tops to serve as a sort of primitive barbed-wire entanglement. The ends of the branches were whittled into points and turned to face the direction from which the British would come. A Massachusetts officer who survived the campaign said that the abatis looked like a forest knocked flat by a hurricane. Directly in front of the log wall the heaviest branches were interlaced and sharpened so that the entire barricade bristled with lethal wooden daggers.

http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1972/4/1972_4_80.shtml

here's a pretty good read...

http://www.fort-ticonderoga.org/history/docs/Abatis-Essay.pdf

 

[Sans Culotte]

The skills of many of the Forum contributors are very much appreciated, especially by the likes of myself, who was always all thumbs when it came to putting even model kits together! Fort Ti has always exerted a certain fascination for me & now it seems to be coming more & more into its own among model makers & collectors alike. Just curious to know how many Forum members have actually visited Fort Ti. Also, whatever your impressions of the place, at least it's not a parking garage/office building with a sign out front, saying something like, "on this site once stood...."

 

[mikemiller1955]

I honestly think Sandor is right...I think this is what it really looked like...

I sent an email to the Director of Fort ticonderoga...

if I'm going to rebuild...I want to get it as accurately as I can...if he can offer no assisstance...

I will use a lot of artistic license...

 

[Fraxinus]

I think there is some flexibility in the design here. The walls can be triangular, near vertical or mix of triangular and vertical elements.

However, the resulting breastwork should be a easy climb. I would limit the amout of lean on the front wall. I would not be opposed to have a top tier that would be 2 logs thick.

 

[Fraxinus]

However, the resulting breastwork should NOT be an easy climb.

My careless typing strikes again.

 

[mikemiller1955]

an easy climb on the incline for defense...I sharp straight hard climb for the attackers...

 

[Fraxinus]

If you look at photos or videos of abatis reconstruction at Fort Ticonderoga, you can see cross-members connecting the front and rear log walls. A notch is cut in the both the front and rear logs. A smaller third log with tongues (whose dimensions mirror the notches) is "nailed/doweled" into both notches. This connects the front to the rear walls and stabilzes the whole mass.

 

[mikemiller1955]

This is from Chris Fox...

the Director of Curator at fort Ticonderoga...

"The Youtube video shows a good representation of the lines. From what we know from the documents, it was constructed of logs stacked upon each other in an inverted “V” fashion with a thick abattis in front. The height of the breastwork varied between about 6 and 8 feet."

so I'm guessing this is the most accurate model...

I don't like it...hahaha...so I may use some huge artistic license when building me a new one...

I may try and copy Carlo's or John's...