French Castles Fortresses and Walled Towns

[John Wagenseil]

The welcome page and informative stuff:
Réseau des sites majeurs Vauban

The Models are here:
Kits découpage - Réseau des sites majeurs Vauban

[Vermin_King]

I just ran across that last night while I was looking for German castles. I wish there were more educational sites like that.

[Don Boose]

It is a superb site! I have passed this information on to others in the Carlisle military history community.

The instructional manual and supporting materials are useful (the entire site is in Frnech, but there are a lot of illustrations, and non-French speakers can get the gist of the material with a translation program).

I have only looked a few of the models, but they look good. They are made with tabs indicated by dotted lines, so the buidler can leave them off if desired.

Many thanks for bringing this valuable site to our attention.

Don

[John Wagenseil]

This link leads to the manual, (English translation: "Vauban Fortification, Lectures about the Past, Looking to the Future"), maps, diagrams and more pictures, that Don found. The booklet is in PDF and can be cut and pasted into a translation program.

Manuel pédagogique - Réseau des sites majeurs Vauban

For those of you who would like to see the ruins of a French fort without leaving the US, there is Fort St Frederick in up state New York. It is located next to a later British fort.
Fort Ticonderoga, also in NY State, is also a Vauban style fortress, built by the French to protect their North American interests.
Maybe we could persuade Don to give us a brief on line course about siege warfare in North America.

[Don Boose]

Some starting points to learn more about Vauban, 18th and early 19th century fortifications, and the development of Vauban-style coastal fortifications in the United States:

Richard W. Stewart, general editor, American Military History, Vol. 1, The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775–1917, Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2009. See pages 25-27 for a brief account of the Vauban fortress system and its application in the United States:
Chapter 2: American Military History, Volume I
(You can download the entire book as a pdf here: http://www.history.army.mil/html/boo..._Pub_30-21.pdf)

U.S. Army Military History Institute Bibliography on Fortress Warfare: U.S. Army Military History Institute Bibliography on Fortress Warfare: Go to the USAHEC Website: http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ahec/
Click on "Research" and then, on the drop-down menu, "On-Line Research Catalog." Click on "Reference Bibliographies/Finding Aids/Reference Bibliographies." Click on "Subject Bibliographies," then click on "Fortress Warfare" and finally on "Forts and Permanent Fortifications."
(There ought to be a way to go directly to the bibliography. I have asked my USAHEC/MHI colleagues and will post the link if it exists.)


Images of American forts painted by retired General Seth Eastman in the 1870s (some of the paintings are of Vauban-style fortresses built in the early years of the American Republic): http://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/eastman.html

The American Coast Defense Study Group:
http://www.cdsg.org/home.htm
http://www.cdsg.org/cdsghis1.htm
http://www.cdsg.org/cdsghis2.htm

Images and historical information about American forts:
List of Historic Forts of the American West

Wiki sites on Vauban and Vauban fortresses (with links to other resources):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Vauban

Don

[John Wagenseil]

Many thanks, Don, for all of the great references.
Some of the older works listed in your bibliographies can be downloaded for a first hand look at 18th and 19th century state of the art military science.

for example:
The attac and defence of fortified places: In three parts. Containing, I ... - John Muller - Google Books

[Don Boose]

Thanks for the additional resource, John.

My friends at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center have confirmed that the only way to get to the reference bibliographies is by following the instructions in my posting, above.

Another friend, and fellow USAWC faculty instructor, has added: "My first exposure to Vauban fortresses was as a new cadet at West Point where there are some traces left of the original fortifications and one fort still extant (Ft Putnam). See attached."

Don