.
After years of working from online sources, I'm going back to books to study the French and Indian War--and back to taking notes on paper too.
It took a couple days before I could calm down enough to read one book for hours.
It's really nice to dig deeply into one topic again.
I'm uncovering tons of amazing stuff I never knew.
For instance, the 5-sided fort is a classic of military design called the Vauban Plan, after the French military engineer who popularized it in the 1600s.
Its advantage is that its sides allow for concentrated fire in any one direction,
while its intersecting angles allow for crossfire.
George Washington, at 22, either didn't know this or didn't have time to build one,
but at the start of the French & Indian War, he constructed his first fort--the ill-fated Fort Necessity-- in a circle.
(Seems likely his troops would have lost to the much more numerous French & their allies anyway.)
History is always bumping up against our lives:
As I was reading this, it struck me that if I were a military type like George Washington,
which I most definitely am not,
the 9/11 attack on the U.S. Pentagon--a fort--
would carry at least as much symbolic weight as the attack on the World Trade Center--a trading post--
(which naturally gets more attention from civilians like me).
----
The title A Few Acres of Snow comes from Voltaire's description of New France's territory along and around the St. Lawrence.
Pentagon from here.
After years of working from online sources, I'm going back to books to study the French and Indian War--and back to taking notes on paper too.It took a couple days before I could calm down enough to read one book for hours.
It's really nice to dig deeply into one topic again.
I'm uncovering tons of amazing stuff I never knew.
For instance, the 5-sided fort is a classic of military design called the Vauban Plan, after the French military engineer who popularized it in the 1600s.Its advantage is that its sides allow for concentrated fire in any one direction,
while its intersecting angles allow for crossfire.
George Washington, at 22, either didn't know this or didn't have time to build one,
but at the start of the French & Indian War, he constructed his first fort--the ill-fated Fort Necessity-- in a circle.
(Seems likely his troops would have lost to the much more numerous French & their allies anyway.)
History is always bumping up against our lives:
As I was reading this, it struck me that if I were a military type like George Washington,
which I most definitely am not,
the 9/11 attack on the U.S. Pentagon--a fort--
would carry at least as much symbolic weight as the attack on the World Trade Center--a trading post--
(which naturally gets more attention from civilians like me).
----
The title A Few Acres of Snow comes from Voltaire's description of New France's territory along and around the St. Lawrence.
Pentagon from here.
