Foundation -1776 or 1777
Mount Independence State Historic Site
This is one of the best-preserved stone foundations on Mount Independence. It was built during the Revolution, but historic maps and documents do not refer to it. Who built it? Did the Americans have time to build it during the two weeks in June 1777 when constructing the three gun batteries of the southern defenses? Was it built by the British and Germans encamped in this area from July to November 1777?
What was it used for? The foundation is about 19 feet wide and 31 feet long, with stone walls three to four feet thick. Surveyors mapping archaeological features on Mount Independence in 1966 speculated that because of the thick walls it may have been a powder magazine for the gun battery below, but is the base of this hill too damp to store powder? It is usually cool in this hollow. Could it have been a storehouse for provisions? Did soldiers sleep here? By late July 1777 off duty guards from the German Prinz Friedrich Regiment slept in guardrooms adjacent to these batteries.
Military treatises from the 1600s and 1700s provided engineers with plans for building fortifications and their components. Powder magazines, to be built with the least exposure to the enemy, were designed to safely store gunpowder and loaded shells and sometimes were used for provisions and housing. Those that supplied cannon batteries were to be located at least 20 to 30 feet behind the battery and about three feet underground. This sheltered location is invisible from potential enemy fire below and also is next to the path leading from the southern defenses to the main powder magazine in the star fort about 3,000 feet to the north.
Walls and roofs were to be secured by boards to prevent the earth from falling in. Roofs were layers of fascines (bundles of sticks bound together) or strong planks covered with seven to eight feet of earth. Some treatises advised building walls of several rows of gabions (similar to bottomless baskets) filled with earth and board floors with shallow cellars on rope so any water would drain out.
Was this building ever finished? Historians examining the foundation in 1966 found little debris inside – only a few lumps of charcoal, perhaps from the fire set by the British before leaving in November 1777.
Historians continue to look for answers, but
What do you think?
Respect our history. Take only photographs.
Marker can be reached from Mount Independence Road, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
