Saturday, August 08, 2009

Demilune

[click image to enlarge]

This is one of Fort Warren's unique features: a demilune. What is a demilune you ask? It is a semi-circular or semi-lunar shaped masonry defense which was attached to the main fort to defend against an amphibious assault on George's Island in Boston Harbor. The well-built fort served the military for 100 years as a patrol point and training ground. It gained a favorable reputation for the humane treatment of Confederate prisoners during the Civil War and was never fired upon.

The dark grey stone with the chisel-edge border, known as quarry-face finish, came from Quincy. Stone for the fort's construction also came from Cape Anne and quarries in Vermont.

2 comments:

brattcat said...

Yeah, Vermont. Glad we could contribute.

John said...

I love old castles and fortresses, as you can imagine, we have quite a few in the UK. Just back from a trip to France to see some WW1 battlefields, some like Namur feature fantastic fortresses, often either built or extended by the 'master' Vauban.

Summer Attraction

This tiger swallowtail butterfly was a delight to see pollinating the phlox bed along my driveway.