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PRELIMINARY REPORT ON DAUPHIN BASTION

BY

BERNARD POTHIER

September 9, 1964

(Fortress of Louisbourg Report H B 8)

NOTE:
Presently, the bibliography is not included here.
For these, please consult the original report in the archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg

CHRONOLOGY OF THE DAUPHIN BASTION-CURTAIN

• 1727: fieldstone was first stockpiled at the area of the Dauphin bastion in anticipation of the 1728 work season.
    
• 1728: The bastion and horseshoe battery were excavated their foundations laid and their walls partially raised. Excavation at the ditch in front was also begun.
    
• 1729: The bastion and battery were finished, and their embrasures built. The soldiers' guard and the barracks building were built. The powder magazine and the Dauphin gate were raised to the roof on the one hand, and to the impost on the other.
    
• 1730: The finishing touches were brought to the bastion. The batardeau and the covert way were begun.
    
• 1731: The batadeau and the covert way were completed. The arms for the gate and the guns for the battery arrived and were put into place. The bridges across the ditch were begun, and the profile of the covert way along the harbour was built. 
    
• 1732: Work continued on the covert way. 
    
• 1733: Work continued on the covert way. In the bastion the powder magazine come into use, and an officer's guard was built. A guard detachment was posted at the Dauphin bastion.
    
• 1734: NIL.
    
• 1735: The foundations were laid at the curtain, and the ditch there was excavated. The éperon was built.
    
• 1736: The curtain was continued, and the ditch finished. Crampons were used to secure the stone tablets of the embrasures and the quoins of the angles.
    
• 1737: The curtain was virtually finished, and work began on its covert way. Sod was used to cover the parapets. The ramparts and the walls of the buildings were roughcast. 
    
• 1738: The parapet of the curtain of the curtain was sodded. Work continued on the covert way of the curtain.
• 1739: The covert way of the curtain was finished. The place of arms in front of the re-entrant angle of the bastion was built.
    
• 1740: NIL.
    
• 1741: A new (or first) flag mast was raided at the Dauphin bastion. 
    
• 1742: A palisade was built across the étang. The platforms of the bastion and the gun carriages were renewed.
    
• 1743: The face of the bastion was again roughcast.
• 1744: NIL.
    
• 1745: The siege and transfer of the fortress to the English. The area of the Dauphin gate suffered great damage.
    
• 1746: The breach at the Dauphin gate was patched and other repairs were continued. A new cavalier battery replaced the French horseshoe.
    
• 1747: The guard houses were repaired, especially the wall against the rampart.
    
• 1748: NIL.
    
• 1749: The French returned to Louisbourg and effected further repairs to the guard houses, and built a coal shed in the Dauphin bastion.
    
• 1750: Some repairs were made at the powder magazine, in particular the floor.
    
• 1751: NIL.
    
• 1752: NIL.
    
• 1753: NIL.
    
• 1754: Some preparation of  the terrain was made for building the tenaille across the étang.
    
• 1755: The right face of the tenaille of the gate was strengthened, and the re-entrant place of arms rebuilt. A wooden footbridge was built to it from the postern near the re-entrant angle.
    
• 1756: The tenaille across the étang was built and essentially finished. The left face of the tenaille of the gate was rebuilt and strengthened, the embrasures of the bastion were re-paired and new ones built, the cavalier was raised higher, the re-entrant place of arms was enlarged, an advanced covert-way was built in front of the Dauphin gate, and repairs were made at the profiles of the covert way and at the counterscarp along our front.
    
• 1757: Traverses were built and palisades planted on the covert my. The éperon vas reconditioned, and in the ditch épaulements to shield the entrance to the left postern, and a caponnière in front of the Dauphin bastion were built.
    
• 1758: The siege. There was a total breach in the left face of the tenaille of the gate, and two minor ones in the left face of the bastion, and on the curtain. The gate, the batteries and the powder magazine were all repaired by the English.
    
• 1760: The fortress was demolished.
    
• Circa 1800: The first mention of construction in the Dauphin bastion area since the fortifications were levelled: a house and barn were said to have been built here around this time.
    
• 1922: A plan shows nine structures standing in the area of the Dauphin bastion and curtain.

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