Stockade

This article is about the architectural element. For other uses, see Stockade (disambiguation).

A roman fort rebuilt in Sardinia

A stockade is a wooden fortification enclosed of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Such wooden fortresses usually contain a small garrison and they are important in that they can be built and expanded quickly. Stockades were often used to protect areas of strategic value, such as military routes, riverside or a settlement, to quickly build a base for troops during sieges, or to defend borders.

A Motte and bailey castle surrounded by palisades which can be considered a stockade

Stockades were not specific to any particular nation, almost all agricultural societies on earth built defensive fortifications out of wood. The Romans built stockades both as military encampments and as defensive points, a series of palisades were built around the Motte and Bailey castles in the Middle Ages to form a stockade. In the late Middle Ages, daimyos preferred the stockades because of their low cost to maintain and ensure their independence against increasing centralization, the Ottomans took advantage of the palankas to defend their borders from the Adriatic to the Black Sea against the rival states in Europe, especially the Kingdom of Hungary and the Archduchy of Austria, the Native Americans and the European states that later colonized North America used stockades, Russians continued to build wooden fortresses in eastern Siberia until the 1840s.

This historical reconstruction, of an 1832 civilian fort, from the Blackhawk War, in Illinois, featured a stockade with a blockhouse.

Construction

The troops or settlers would build a stockade by clearing a space of woodland and using the trees whole or chopped in half, with one end sharpened on each. They would dig a narrow trench around the area, and stand the sharpened logs side-by-side inside it, encircling the perimeter. Sometimes they would add additional defence by placing sharpened sticks in a shallow secondary trench outside the stockade. In colder climates sometimes the stockade received a coating of clay or mud that would make the crude wall wind-proof.

Builders could also place stones or thick mud layers at the foot of the stockade, improving the resistance of the wall. From that the defenders could, if they had the materials, raise a stone or brick wall inside the stockade, creating a more permanent defence while working protected.

Ottoman Empire

Havale type stockades where cannons are placed can be seen surrounding the city, Siege of Szigetvár.

Palanka was a type of wooden fort, built on military routes and riverbanks and its history was rooted on fortifications, called havale which were built beyond the forts that were intended to be conquered during the sieges of foundation era. The first havales were built during the siege of Bursa, and other havales are found in miniatures depicting the Siege of Szigetvár. Again, such structures defending the frontiers are called parkan.

Although they were not indestructible on their own, the palankas were structures connected by road and river routes, and if an army too strong to resist attacks, the forces of the other palankas would come to their aid. The weak point of the palankas was the ease with which the outer palisades were set on fire, nevertheless, the stakes used in their construction were damp and could not be easily ignited. Although the artillery fire could shatter the palanka, its main purpose was to slow down the enemy advance. In addition, a construction method called Horasani Palanka used by the Ottomans and their adversaries increased the resistance to cannon fire.

As a military prison

Andersonville Prison, surrounded by three rows of stockades.

The word stockade also refers to a military prison in an army camp. In some cases, the term was applied to a crude prison camp or a slave camp. In these cases, the stockade keeps people inside, rather than out.

As decoration

Nowadays, stockade walls are often used as garden fencing, made of finished planks more useful for privacy fencing and more decoration than security.

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  Felin Geri Mill Wooden Fort
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  Spanish Palisade Fort
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  Line art drawing of a stockade
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  A stockade surrounded by earthworks and palisades

See also

• Security fence
• Tower and stockade

Bibliography

• Nicolle, David (2010). Ottoman Fortifications 1300-1710. Osprey Publishing.
• Murphey, Rhoads (1999). Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700.