Revetment, Dry Stone

Dry Stone revetments were not described by an any period engineering manuals, some of which went to the trouble to point out that masonry revetments were wholly unsuitable for temporary field works. But, engineers had to work with what they had, and they had plenty of rocks at Nashville, Tennessee and didn't have to dig more than two or three down to find more if they ran short. Some of the forts in the city's defenses had to have their ditches blasted out of bedrock, which produced a surfeit of raw material for stone walls. This raw material was put to good use to construct revetments for just about any slope that needed the treatment.

Fort Negley, the largest of the forts in Nashville's defenses and one of the most peculiar semi-permanent fortifications designed and actually constructed during the war, enjoyed a superabundance of dry stone revetments. Dry stone gets its name from the fact that stones used to construct such a wall were worked to fit in place  in the wall and were laid on without benefit of intervening fixative substances. That is, dry stone walls were constructed without any mortar to fill gaps and hold the stones in place. Their stability depends on mass and balance; balance on depends on a good load distribution and a tight fit between stones. Getting a good fit means selecting and working each stone individually and preferably getting the work done by experienced stone masons who understand how such a wall should be pieced together. In other words, creating a sound dry stone revetment required an abundance of material, a specialized labor force, and a great deal more time than could possibly be allowed for the construction of a temporary field work. This helps explain the fact that the defenses of Nashville, which were somewhat less than extensive, were a project perpetually in progress.

[This page originally appeared as a Detailed Notes Page on the old Civil War Field Fortifications Website.]

January, 2004