Blockhouse

a sort of fortification much used by the American settlers as a defense against the Indians. In its simplest form, it is a log house pierced with port holes for the use of riflemen. The typical colonial blockhouse was large enough to accommodate a force of from twenty-five to one hundred men. A basement was excavated in which women and children might remain secure from chance bullets. The walls were built of logs hewed and closely joined, sometimes of two thicknesses, so as to intercept bullets. A second story very frequently extended a few feet beyond the lower story, so that an enemy approaching the walls might be dislodged by an attack from above. Several blockhouses were frequently connected by a curtain or wall, in such a way as to inclose an area into which stock could be driven for protection. These walls were constructed of logs set upright in a trench so closely together that they formed a barrier against the arrows and bullets of the foe. A fort of this sort is more properly, however, called a stockade.