Building Fort Cumberland

One of the reasons I decided on 10mm as the scale for my Eighteenth Century games was the chance to build some easily stored terrain.  One of the first requirements was to be a fort for the French Indian War that will be my start point.  Although the Fort is generic I`m basing it on Fort Cumberland. 

Constructed as a crude frontier fort at the confluence of Wills Creek and the Potomac River in  1754 by troops of the Maryland militia, Fort Cumberland was pretty much typical of the wooden wall earth bank fortifications used by both the French and British.

This fort once marked the westernmost outpost of the British Empire in America, and was the jumping-off point for General Braddock's disastrous 1755 expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne. 

The basis for my fort would be a set of 15mm square (Cube) wooden building blocks available at a local shop.  Since I am in Cyprus "local" is a bit of a misnomer!  Added to this some thin cocktail sticks, and once again I raided the coffee shops for stirring sticks!  Like its predecessor my Fort Cumberland was to be a wooden construction...

Wooden blocks

The palisade goes up.

The main gate

One of the Block houses/towers

An internal building for the fort...
or Billy Bob's pungent cabin...

The Fort assembled, with an optional gun platform insert

The completed Fort Cumberland

With the 20th Foot on the walls

An imposing view of the Blockhouse