Constitution Island Fortifications

• Roman's Battery
• Marine Battery
• Gravel Hill/Greaton's Battery
• Hill Cliff Battery
• Redoubt 5
• Redoubt 6
• Redoubt 7

• Fort Arnold/Fort Clinton
• Fort Putnam
• Redoubt 4
• Forts Webb, Willys, Meigs

The Great Chain 

Hudson River

Marsh

 Sources and Author's Note  

West Point Fortifications Staff Ride Note Cards 24
USMA History Department 2d Edition, March 1998
Redoubt 6

(A redoubt is a small fortification designed to protect an important feature such as a hill or a pass.
Redoubts contain infantry and, often, cannon.)
ï Purpose: Located in center of island oriented to protect against attack from the marsh against batteries
protecting chain.
ï Construction:
- Constructed in 1779; first mentioned in Aug
- Reentrant angle oriented along north infantry avenue of approach
- Overlooks most of island and can support both Redoubts 5 and 7
- Probably had palisades on parapet
- Steep sides of knoll eliminated need for a high parapet
- Scarp wall averages 9í height and 8-10í width
- Entrance at reentrant angle like Redoubt #5
- Dry masonry construction still intact after 200 years
- No ditch due to difficulty of digging
- Existence of banquettes suggests that no heavy artillery was present
ï May have mounted a cannon or been supported by an external battery
- Recommended armament was four 6-pdrs
- LíEnfantís sketch shows embrasure on S. wall and blockhouse
- Duportail reported that it had a battery in Sep 1778.
ï Manpower: 120 men (lived in huts outside redoubt)

View from Redoubt 6 looking toward Redoubt 5.  The two positions were mutually supporting, and when combined with Redoubt 7 to the northwest (to the right in this picture), provided interlocking fields of fire covering the river batteries from ground attack from the marsh side of Constitution Island.