Revetment, Plank

This was easily the most common method for revetting interior slopes of parapets used during the Civil War. A plank revetment was constructed by planting 4 inch square posts about 75 inches long on the banquette tread along the foot of the interior crest at 4 foot intervals and nailing planks onto the parapet side of the posts. The posts would, of course, be planted at an angle to establish the slope of the interior slope. Constructing a plank revetment was a simple and very straight forward affair. Which explains the reasons for this method's widespread use and its many adaptations usings a variety of different materials that could be substituted for posts and planks. This method also produced one of the most durable, effective, and hastily completed revetments suitable for a temporary fortification. Its effectiveness did not necessarily depend on the quality and finish of the materials employed; a hastily thrown up rough raw timber post and plank revetment worked as well as a finely finished revetment made from well seasoned milled scantling and planks.

This revetment method was sufficiently common that a great deal of photographic evidence is available that both illustrates and helps explain the diverse variations in revetments constructed using a combination of posts as the load bearing members and planks or timbers to retain soil of the parapet. That being the case, the best way to detail this method and its variation is through an examination of the evidence itself. To adequately display the form and finish that could be given a plank revetment under different situational conditions the following images have been divided into two sections covering 1) True Post and Plank Revetments, that is, plank revetments that were constructed in a somewhat leasurely fashion using uniformly sized and milled material and 2) Hasty Constructions which represent revetments constructed quickly from whatever materials were immediately available and those constructed under immediate threat of enemy action.

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

January, 2004