Casemate 77

A TREATISE containing the Elementary Part of FORTIFICATION, regular and irregular:

by John Muller. HB, 232pp. 34 fine plates (33 fold-out), one of mathematical figures and the rest fortress plans. ISBN 1.905265.72.7. £55+£7 p&p (UK). 2006 (1746).

Any student of the bastioned system will be aware of this classic work; almost every later book on fortification uses its plates to illustrate the various 'systems' of Vauban and Van Coehoorn (see for example Ian Hogg's Fortress, Quentin Hughes's Military Architecture and Fortress 42, The Vauban Fortifications of France which used those from my 4th edition of 1782). From 1741-1766, John Muller (1699-1784), a German mathematician, was appointed Head Master of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich on an annual salary of £200, and was later appointed Professor of Fortification and Artillery, a post he held until retirement. Hill, in his edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson calls Muller 'the scholastic father of all the great engineers this country employed for forty years'. His Treatise enjoyed great popularity and was still being used for instruction in 1807 when the sixth and last edition was published. This volume is a reprint of the 1746 first edition.

Muller is very clear in his Preface what he is setting out to do; he is rude about the theoretical designers who make fanciful plans with no regard for the armaments and troops necessary to defend them; he notes the concentration by writers on the Regular fortifications when in fact many are irregular, and he is at particular pains to emphasise the need to identify the weaker and stronger points and design to bring the one up to the standard of the other. He approves of Vauban and is critical of Van Coehoorn, maintaining his designs were drawn up before he had the necessary experience, giving as evidence his lack of knowledge of ricochet fire and the fact that in his greatest work, at Bergen-op-Zoom, he did not use his earlier designs at all.

Hunningen, by Vauban; Plate XXV.

A section on Practical Geometry describes the graphic construction of figures, the measurements used, and the formalized colours used for the different parts.
The section on Regular Fortification touches on the Rise and Progress of fortifications, followed by the Construction of M. Vauban's First Method and the means of geometrically constructing numerous different works; there follow descriptions of how to construct Vauban's second and third systems, and Coehoorn's 3 systems.
Section III contains General maxims of fortification and discusses the six systems so far covered, plus three of M. Belidor's and those of Blondel and Count Pagan.
Section IV covers Irregular Fortification; the construction of an irregular place in different types of terrain, illustrated with examples from river, rock, lakes and sea locations with examples from Hunningen and Toulon, which he much approves of. The book is completed by a discourse on Citadels, Forts and Redouts.

This reprint is very nicely presented in red buckram covers, with gold titles and banding, A4 size (the original is less than A5); the enlarged print may be appreciated by some of our members. The reproduction is clean and tidy and the plates in particular have lost none of their sharpness; printing on light cream paper is a very nice touch indeed and adds to the period feel. There was a facsimile edition published in 1968, 700 copies, but an original, even rebound, will cost over £400.

Muller also wrote A Treatise containing The Practical Part of Fortification, In Four Parts; The Attack and Defence of fortified Places, In three Parts and of course his famous Treatise of Artillery, also reprinted and available from DP&G.

An Essay on a Proposed New System of FORTIFICATION: with hints for its application to our National Defences:

by James Fergusson. HB, x+165pp. 10 A3 plates. ISBN 1.905265.75.1. £25+£4.50 p&p (UK). 2006 (1849).

James Fergusson was a civilian, firmly unapologetic for writing such a book, and following in the traditions of the C18th when mathematics and fortification were reckoned to be a proper realm of study for gentlemen amateurs. This frequently lead to exactly the sort of grandiose and thoroughly implausible propositions decried by John Muller some 100 years earlier; most of the proposals in this book clearly fall into just such a category. Fergusson suggests that 'the present system of fortification owes its existence to the inventions of a painter of Nuremberg and an architect of Verona' (San Micheli, died 1549), both were civilians; nothing has really changed since as all the military have done is improve and complete these works and have learned how to knock them down without 'adding either a form or principle', a failing which he proposes to rectify. We should bear in mind the time of writing.

He dismisses the bastion system - 'to flank is to be flanked'; he notes the efforts of Choumara and Merkes, Montalembert and Carnot, Wittich, Bordwine and Herrera to get away from bastions and while finding fault with all of them, finds merit in their direct and vertical fire and a circular layout. He believes passionately in the importance to a nation of a freedom secured by forts. So how does he propose to remedy the failure of the bastion system and restore to the defence its advantage over attack? It takes some digging out amongst heavy verbiage, but essentially it is to build monster earthen (to save money over masonry), wide and deeply moated (to prevent mining and keep the enemy at bay), circular (no flanks to flank), forts of 1000 or so guns (to totally overwhelm whatever any besieger could bring against them). Where water is not available he proposes elaborate masonry escarp casemated galleries. He has read all the recognized authorities and action reports and finds fault with them all. There is a lot in this vein, long winded but highly entertaining and great fun to read.

Charles Blackwood.