Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[278] into service when a great portion of the time which should have been devoted to drilling was employed in the formation of artistically constructed abattis and in making large entrenched camps in all the positions which it was suspected the enemy intended to attack in the vicinity of Washington, Louisville, Paducah, and St. Louis. These works, at first, were only simple breastworks (épaulements), formed of trunks of trees and earth, on the skirts of clearings which had been made for the purpose of freeing the approaches of the positions to be defended, and were protected by abattis of from ten to forty feet in thickness, where all the branches, skilfully turned outward, sharpened at the points, and hardened by fire, were inextricably intertwined. It was soon rendered necessary to construct improved redoubts for field artillery on the strongest positions along the line; the very nature of the ground rendered it necessary to multiply their number, and in the end they became veritable citadels, intended for guns of the heaviest calibre. There were thus erected at every available point on the large Western rivers, especially along the Mississippi, either level or plunging batteries, intended to intercept navigation. When these works constituted regular systems of defence, it was deemed expedient to connect them by means of causeways constructed with trunks of trees placed close to each other, such as pioneers build in marshy forests, and which, under the name of corduroy roads, marked the passage of the Federal armies throughout the South. Logs of the same length, and placed crosswise alongside of each other over the miry soil of the forest, constituted the original corduroy, the pieces of which, having become disjointed by the passage of the first troops, fatigue the foot-soldiers, bruise the horses, and jar the wagons, but an entire army sometimes succeeded, nevertheless, in passing thus over many leagues of morass. In roads for permanent use the improved corduroy was composed of large trunks placed lengthwise, supporting logs laid crosswise; pieces of timber of smaller diameter filled up the interstices of these cross-logs, and the whole was covered by alternate layers of earth and branches.

The variety and simplicity which characterize the mechanic arts of the Americans were first manifested in the construction of the bridges thrown over the innumerable ravines in the vicinity