Johnston's River Line Defense-- Part 5: Shoup's Formidable Design

At the rear, or base of the fort, and behind the line would be a entrance (sally port) where troops could enter or leave the fort safely.

From above, the defensive line would look like a saw blade with the trenches connecting the forts receding  at a backward angle to each redan and then at forward angle  to the next fort creating what Francis A. Shoup  called a re-entrant (salient).

Along the front of the trenches would be walls or palisades made of stockades.

Each fort could hold up to eighty men.  Soldiers within the forts could load rifles and hand them up to riflemen on the earthen platforms who would then provide interlocking fields of fire channeling attacking forces  towards the re-entrant formed by the receding tranches where artillery fire from the redans would sweep the ground.

If all the forts  were manned at once, the River Line would prove to be quite formidable.

And, I'd Never Heard of This Francis A. Shoup Before.  --Old Secesh