Photographs of Fort Wellington - Page Four |
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Right: Dining table in the barracks. In 1990, Parks
Canada archaeologists excavated the midden beneath the
latrine at Fort Wellington. They uncovered the remains
of dishes, plates and other eating utensils and were able to
determine what sorts of utensils and dishes were used by
the members of the garrison. Hence the significance of
this otherwise prosaic photograph.
Right: Ordnance stores inside the blockhouse. The
wooden poles are levers used to elevate the barrel of the
garrison's cannons. The metal oven is for heating cannon
balls red hot, thus making them incendiary to ships and
buildings. Tools for carrying red hot ordnance hang on
the wall.
Right: More tools used to avoid burns while handling red
hot cannon balls. On the floor are rammers, worms and
sponges used in loading cannons.
Right: Blockhouse, officer's quarters, and main parade
square. The field gun is an iron three pounder gun
intended for use in the field. Its large wheels made it
relatively easy to move and manouevre.
In addition to its role as a garrison, Fort Wellington was a
depot for militia stores for the area, and would have
contained a large supply of muskets, accoutrements and
uniforms. In colonial Upper Canada, all fit males
between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to perform
militia service. In wartime, the more active and
enthusiastic militiamen were often incorporated into
semi-permanent units. However, at the Battle of the
Windmill in 1838 the county militia regiments of Leeds,
Grenville and Dundas Counties turned out in force to
contain and repel the invading terrorist army of the Patriot
Hunters.
Canada archaeologists excavated the midden beneath the
latrine at Fort Wellington. They uncovered the remains
of dishes, plates and other eating utensils and were able to
determine what sorts of utensils and dishes were used by
the members of the garrison. Hence the significance of
this otherwise prosaic photograph.
Right: Ordnance stores inside the blockhouse. The
wooden poles are levers used to elevate the barrel of the
garrison's cannons. The metal oven is for heating cannon
balls red hot, thus making them incendiary to ships and
buildings. Tools for carrying red hot ordnance hang on
the wall.
Right: More tools used to avoid burns while handling red
hot cannon balls. On the floor are rammers, worms and
sponges used in loading cannons.
Right: Blockhouse, officer's quarters, and main parade
square. The field gun is an iron three pounder gun
intended for use in the field. Its large wheels made it
relatively easy to move and manouevre.
In addition to its role as a garrison, Fort Wellington was a
depot for militia stores for the area, and would have
contained a large supply of muskets, accoutrements and
uniforms. In colonial Upper Canada, all fit males
between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to perform
militia service. In wartime, the more active and
enthusiastic militiamen were often incorporated into
semi-permanent units. However, at the Battle of the
Windmill in 1838 the county militia regiments of Leeds,
Grenville and Dundas Counties turned out in force to
contain and repel the invading terrorist army of the Patriot
Hunters.
Right: The northwest corner of Fort Wellington. At the
northern side of Fort Wellington, the wooden palisade
fence diverges from the earthwork wall to create an
enclosed area. Here, the palisade is more substantial as it
incorporates a firing step and an attached, inside, lower log
wall which provides more cover to a defending rifleman.
In addition, a berm (in the left foreground) extends on a
perpendicular angle from the earthwork to allow defending
infantry to fire into the west dry ditch in enfilade. An
exactly congruent berm also exists on the east side of the
Fort. In July, 2007, it is disgracefully overgrown with
vegetation and scarcely visible from the earthworks.
The author always considered these berms a rather poor
element of the Fort's defences, since they themselves offer
no protection from enfilade fire from outside the Fort.
This could have been rectified had the berm extended all
the way around the inside perimeter of the area enclosed
by the palisade, but there is no evidence that anyone ever
considered this option. As is so often the case, perhaps
reasons of economy compelled the designers to abandon
plans for a more coherent defensive scheme.