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Krause House Info-Research Solutions (© 1996)
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Where Noted Otherwise
Report/Rapport © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada
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House
Info-Research Solutions
Researching the
Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada
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PRELIMINARY
REPORT ON DAUPHIN BASTION
BY
BERNARD
POTHIER
September
9, 1964
(Fortress of Louisbourg
Report H B 8)
NOTE:
Presently, the bibliography is not included here.
For these, please consult the original report in the archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg
CHRONOLOGY OF THE DAUPHIN BASTION-CURTAIN
- 1727:
fieldstone was first stockpiled at the area of the Dauphin bastion in
anticipation of the 1728 work season.
- 1728: The bastion and horseshoe battery were
excavated their foundations laid and their walls partially raised. Excavation at the
ditch in front
was also begun.
- 1729: The bastion
and battery were finished, and their embrasures built.
The soldiers' guard and the barracks building were built. The powder magazine
and the Dauphin gate were raised to the roof on the one hand, and to the impost
on the other.
- 1730: The finishing touches were brought to the
bastion. The batardeau and the covert way were begun.
- 1731: The batadeau and the covert way were completed. The arms for the
gate and the guns for the battery arrived and were put into place. The bridges across the ditch were begun, and the profile of the
covert way along the harbour was built.
- 1732: Work continued on the covert way.
- 1733: Work continued
on the covert way. In the bastion the powder magazine come into use, and an officer's guard was built. A guard
detachment was posted at the Dauphin bastion.
- 1734: NIL.
- 1735: The foundations
were laid at the curtain, and the ditch there was excavated. The éperon was built.
- 1736: The curtain was
continued, and the ditch finished. Crampons were used to secure the stone tablets of the embrasures and the
quoins of the angles.
- 1737: The curtain was virtually
finished, and work began on its covert way. Sod was used to cover the parapets. The ramparts and the walls
of the buildings were roughcast.
- 1738: The parapet of the curtain of the curtain was sodded. Work continued on
the covert way of the curtain.
- 1739: The covert way of the curtain was
finished. The place of arms in front
of the re-entrant angle of the bastion was built.
- 1740: NIL.
- 1741: A new (or first) flag mast was raided at the Dauphin
bastion.
- 1742: A
palisade was built across the étang. The platforms of the bastion
and the gun carriages were renewed.
- 1743: The face of the bastion was again roughcast.
- 1744: NIL.
- 1745: The siege and transfer of the fortress to the English. The area of the
Dauphin gate suffered great damage.
- 1746: The breach at the Dauphin gate was patched and other repairs were
continued. A new cavalier battery replaced the French horseshoe.
- 1747: The
guard houses were repaired, especially the wall against the rampart.
- 1748: NIL.
- 1749: The
French returned to Louisbourg and effected further repairs to the guard
houses, and built a coal shed in the Dauphin bastion.
- 1750: Some
repairs were made at the powder magazine, in particular the floor.
- 1751: NIL.
- 1752: NIL.
- 1753: NIL.
- 1754: Some
preparation of the terrain was made for building the tenaille across
the étang.
- 1755: The
right face of the tenaille of the gate was strengthened, and the re-entrant
place of arms rebuilt. A wooden footbridge was built to it from the postern
near the re-entrant angle.
- 1756: The
tenaille across the étang was built and essentially finished. The left face
of the tenaille of the gate was rebuilt and strengthened, the embrasures of
the bastion were re-paired and new ones built, the cavalier was raised
higher, the re-entrant place of arms was enlarged, an advanced covert-way
was built in front of the Dauphin gate, and repairs were made at the
profiles of the covert way and at the counterscarp along our front.
- 1757:
Traverses were built and palisades planted on the covert my. The éperon vas
reconditioned, and in the ditch épaulements to shield the entrance to the
left postern, and a caponnière in front of the Dauphin bastion were built.
- 1758: The
siege. There was a total breach in the left face of the tenaille of the
gate, and two minor ones in the left face of the bastion, and on the
curtain. The gate, the batteries and the powder magazine were all repaired
by the English.
- 1760: The
fortress was demolished.
- Circa 1800:
The first mention of construction in the Dauphin bastion area since the
fortifications were levelled: a house and barn were said to have been built
here around this time.
- 1922: A plan
shows nine structures standing in the area of the Dauphin bastion and
curtain.
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