Chevaux de frise! These spiny obstables are laid out wherever there's a break in Fort Ligonier's constructed defenses. Cheveaux de frise translates as "Horses of Friesland." This spiny entity was developed as an anti-cavalry defense in medieval times by the Frisians, a people who lived in what is today coastal areas of the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisians had little cavalry, but had to defend themselves from lots of dudes on horses. Their solution was to surround themselves with these pointy monstrosities.
Aquatic variants of the Cheveaux de Frise were employed in both the Hudson and Delaware Rivers in the defense of America's leading cities, New York and Philadelphia, during the American Revolutionary War. Click here to see a display of such a cheval at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia!
Cheveaux de Frise were used up through the US Civil War as mobile, local defensive points, but were replaced thereafter by the easy portability and versatility of barbed wire.
Aquatic variants of the Cheveaux de Frise were employed in both the Hudson and Delaware Rivers in the defense of America's leading cities, New York and Philadelphia, during the American Revolutionary War. Click here to see a display of such a cheval at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia!
Cheveaux de Frise were used up through the US Civil War as mobile, local defensive points, but were replaced thereafter by the easy portability and versatility of barbed wire.
 |
 |
 |