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DAUPHIN BASTION

Preliminary Report

(1720 - 1745)

BY

MARGARET FORTIER

(Under the supervision of B. C. Bickerton)

January, 1966

(Fortress of Louisbourg Report H B 6)

NOTE:
Presently, the illustrations and graphs are not included here.
For these, please consult the original report in the archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg

CHAPTER 9

FAUSSE BRAYE

On many plans and in a few documents, the French refer to the projected construction of a fausse braye before the battery of the Dauphin Bastion. According to Duane's Military Dictionary, a fausse braye is 

a low rampart encircling the body of the place; its height is about 3 feet above the level of the ground, and its parapet about three or four toises from that of the body of the place. [117] 

What the French had in mind, if this definition and their representations are accurate, was not a fausse braye, but simply a masonry retaining wall.

The early plans leave no doubt that the projected wall was to proceed in a perfectly straight line from the north side of the Gate to an undetermined point along the shore line.[118] It was definitely not to be an "encircling," work, although, if built high enough, it could be a defensive structure. As it was projected, however, the wall was to be raised to
ground. level only. [119] (Plates 1,3)

Of the three profiles which provide a close-up of the wall, only one is capable of being scaled. This is the earliest of the three, having been dated 1727. As it appears on this profile, the fausse brave wall would be located some 29 pieds from the circular battery. The profile is taken before the latter begins its course toward the left reentrant angle. Among the other measurements available are: [120]

A view which accompanies one of the other profiles indicates that the wall was to be of rubble masonry. This view also seems to suggest that even the faussse braye's function as a retaining wall was limited. It appears as if the wall remains at ground level for some distance, but then tapers off until it eventually disappears. The ground comes into view more and more as the wall nears its end. [121] This feature is not substantiated by any other plan. (Plate 2)

The third profile though imperfectly drawn, might have produced several projected dimensions were it not for the direction in which the line was drawn. The fausse braye ard the area between it and the battery are cut at an angle, a fact which eliminates the various widths as reliable figures. As a result, only the height of the wall may be obtained. Accordingly, it appears that the foundation of the wall was 5 pieds high, while the part above the foundation measured 12 pieds. The profile also showed the projected wall to have a masonry core, with a cut stone facing. [122] (Plate 3)

This last fact was substantiated in March, 1730 by a list of the materials required for completion of the Bastion. Among the materials enumerated was cut stone for the revetment of the coast wall, or fausse braye.[123]

Whether any work was done on the fausse braye prior to 1730 is not known, but it would appear that nothing had been accomplished by that time. In 1730 interest began to grow in the construction of an eperon near the Dauphin Gate. This work would occupy a large space previously slated for the fausse braye. Once the eperon began to appear, the term  fausse braye dropped from use, and the seaward wall previously represented by that term came to be included in the projections of a quay wall. [124] The eperon itself was finished in 1735, [125] but in 1741 the low wall which extended eastward from the eperon was still included among the projected works. [126]

The fausse braye, therefore, would seem to have been nothing more than one of the several schemes developed during planning, but never actually constructed. 

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