Designed for Defense

Designed for Defense. . , Until 1757 colonial South Carolina's only gunpowder storehouse, or "powder magazine," was in Charleston. That year, fearing a French attack on the city, the legislature authorized construction of another magazine at a secure, inland location. Dorchester was selected as the site, in part because the Ashley River offered easy transportation to and from Charleston., Here at the southern corner of the village, a brick magazine was built. To protect it, thick walls of tabby, concrete made of oyster shells, soon surrounded the small building. Although the French threat evaporated, Redcoats and Patriots eventually used the fort during the Revolutionary War., [Captions:] , By the 1750s, European fortification design was a highly developed field of engineering. This composite illustration from the era includes a plan for a fort similar to Dorchester's., It is not known when or why the large gap developed in the fort's wall. Regardless, this is considered the best-preserved tabby fortification in America., High above a river bend, this fort could be defended against attack by water or land. Projecting from each corner, "half-bastions" allowed soldiers to fire along every wall. This drawing shows one conception of the fort, with central powder magazine and defensive gun platforms, as it might have looked when completed in 1760.