“Where they are compelled by nature ... to resort to it”
During the Civil War, armies of both sides built earthwork fortifications of varying sizes and shapes. The star fort was one of the most difficult types to construct. Although the design afforded the defenders the potential to fire into an attacking enemy's flanks, Dennis Hart Mahan, Professor of Military and Civil Engineering at West Point and the author of A Treatise on Field Fortification first published in 1836, deemed it to be generally not a viable option. Mahan believed that in addition to "dead spaces"—areas below the parapet that could not be covered by the fort's artillery—the amount of "time and labor required to throw up such a work" made the design impractical. He thought that the design should be used only "in cases where they are compelled by the nature of the site to resort to it."HM Number | HM1WL6 |
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Series | This marker is part of the Virginia Civil War Trails series |
Tags | |
Placed By | Virginia Civil War Trails |
Marker Condition | No reports yet |
Date Added | Sunday, January 22nd, 2017 at 9:02am PST -08:00 |
UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 17S E 744927 N 4343497 |
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Decimal Degrees | 39.20623333, -78.16345000 |
Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 39° 12.374', W 78° 9.807' |
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 39° 12' 22.44" N, 78° 9' 48.42" W |
Driving Directions | Google Maps |
Area Code(s) | 540, 703 |
Which side of the road? | Marker is on the right when traveling North |
Closest Postal Address | At or near 204 Sentinel Dr, Winchester VA 22603, US |
Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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