Donate to the Lead Adventure Forum to keep it alive!
Fort RutlandAbout the commencement of the Revolutionary War a fort was built on North Main Street, near the corner of Terrill at the head of West Street on what was known as the burnt district, covering about half an acre of land. This was known in the early days as the Picket fort. It was built of palisades of maple, sunk in the ground some five feet and about fifteen feet high: the adjoining sides were hewn and joined together: the outside and inside were unhewn: at each corner was a flanker about eight feet square - in the nature of a bastion - so that each outside of the fort could be raked with shot from two flankers. All around the fort, five or six feet from the ground, were portholes six feet apart, only large enough at the center to admit a musket, but radiating inside and outside so that the marksman within could sweep a wide field in front. Within the fort was a small storehouse for provisions and ammunition. The only means of entrance was a bullet-proof gate at the front or west side, a little south of the center. In the southwest corner was a well. The fort is said to have been built by voluntary labor as a place of defence from Indians, British or Tories at the beginning of the war. As forst were soon after erected east and west of this, it became of little use and was gradually torn down and the pickets used for fuel. The site is now marked by an imposing granite block on the west face of which is this inscription:"Memorial - 11775 - Erected on Site of Fort Rutland by Ann Story Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution - June 14, 1901."- "Historical Rutland: An Illustrated History of Rutland, Vermont, from the Granting of the Charter in 1761 to 1911," P.H. Brehmer, Rutland, VT, 1911.
For personal safety, &c. Capt. Baker and I thought proper to erect a block fort near the falls of Onion river, twenty by thirty two feet, every stick of timber was at least eight inches thick. In the second story, were 32 port holes for small arms. The roof was so constructed, in case of fire, we could throw it off - the second story jutted four inches over the other, so that we could fire down, or throw water to put out fire; and the fort was built over a boiling spring for certainty of water. We made double doors, blocks, for the windows, and every part proof against small arms. We never walked out without at least a case of pistols. In this situation, we were a terror to the New York claimants &c.- "Ira Allen, Founder of Vermont, 1751 - 1814," James Benjamin Wilbur, Volume 1; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1928.