Many of the features of successful medieval castles were maintained in the New World during the 1700's and 1800's, when the French, British, and Americans constructed forts to defend their possessions. Because of the widespead use of gunpowder and cannons, the walls of these forts had to be very thick. Let's look at two of the most famous forts in Canada, Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, and Fortess Louisburg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Fort Henry Fort Henry was built by England near the Lake Ontario entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the years 1832 to 1837, to protect the naval dockyard at Point Frederick, the entrance of the Rideau Canal, and the town of Kingston, which was a major shipping centre on the supply route between Montreal and the west. The British Army manned Fort Henry until 1870, when Queen Victoria's troops were pulled out of Canada. Forts in the New World were often designed and constructed in the same manner as a castle, except that they had to have considerably thicker walls to withstand the much more powerful cannon fire of the time. On the left is a diagram of Fort Henry. You can clearly see the familiar castle layout, especially the double wall at the main entrance. There are some major differences, however. Much thicker walls protected against cannon fire. Towers are absent, probably because the fort was situated on a high cliff, protecting against invasion from the water below it. The interior buildings are all situated close against the walls, which were thick enough to protect them , and where they wouldn't be affected by falling artillery shells. Archery slits on the outer walls have been replaced by batteries of artillery pieces on the tops of the walls. These cannons were very effective when firing downwards at ships in the harbour below. Should the enemy manage to get by the cannons on the outer wall, they would be confronted by the dry ditch, 12 metres wide and 9 metres deep. Enemy soldiers in the dry ditch would find themselves confronted by rifle fire from the fort's 300 rifle loopholes!   Fort Henry is now a museum and historic site. Once inside the wooden gates, visitors experience the day-to-day activities of 19th century military life, including precision military demonstrations by the Fort Henry Guard, which is made up of university students who spend their summers acting as British soldiers from 1867. Fortress Louisburg The Fortress of Louisburg is located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and was built by France in the early 18th century to help protect the Atlantic fisheries, and to defend the strategic approach to New France via the St. Lawrence River. The fort was huge, and had walls of solid masonry thirty feet high. Supposedly impregnable, the fort was never manned with enough soldiers to defend it properly, and it fell to English and American forces several times. Fortress Louisburg's archaeological collections, which include several million artifacts, as well as the fort itself, are an invaluable research tool available for study by visiting scholars. These photos show the thickness of the walls; Fort Louisburg was one of the largest North American forts. Back | Castles