Fire and Stone: The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860

By Christopher Duffy

Book Overview

Explore the fascinating history on the purpose, design, and progress of fortifications and siegecraft across Europe, from the height of military engineering to the introduction of rifled artillery.

Christopher Duffy's brilliant history of fortifications and siegecraft is the best general work available on the subject. It covers the classic age of military engineering, which was heralded by the work of Vauban, chief engineer to the French King Louis XIV. There was astonishingly little change in the way fortresses were perceived and used for the next 200 years until the advent of rifled artillery brought dramatic new ideas into play. Duffy examines the purpose of fortresses across Europe and the debates of the time concerning their offensive and defensive uses. He analyses the strategic and structural considerations that dictated their locations and describes how they were planned, designed and built and by whom. He then explains how a siege progressed from start to finish: plans and preparations, the investment of the fortress, the ways in which a fortress could be reduced short of a formal siege, and the siege itself at every stage, from the choice of the frontal attack to the storm of the breaches and capitulation. The differences in siting, design and techniques of attack and defense for coastal fortifications are also covered. Using excerpts from the accounts of people who took part in actual sieges or were themselves besieged, Duffy brings out the human side of siege warfare as well as its purely technical aspects. In order to give the overall picture, he traces four great sieges in their entirety: Namur in 1692 and again in 1695, with Vauban and his Dutch counterpart Coehoorn pitting their wits against one another; the French attack on Antwerp in 1832, which showed how little siegecraft had changed since Namur; and the Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Duffy's clear perspective and skillful handling of details make Fire and Stone an enthralling book to read and an invaluable source of information.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1804512613
• ISBN13: 9781804512616
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: Helion & Company
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.8" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

All you need to know about siege warfare

I felt comelled to write a review after seeing the one-star review. I just finished reading this book. I'm habituated to highlighting things of interest as I read, and in the course of reading this I went through two or three markers. Every paragraph is revealing, and the book is festooned with contemporary illustrations, many by the great Vauban himself. If you are a lazy reader you won't like this book - it requires a certain amount of thought as you read since it presents a vast amount of technical detail - how the classic artillery fortress was built, the rationale behind its form, and, in great detail, how it was attacked and subdued. If you love to learn and are willing to invest a little thought you will treasure this book. I can't imagine a better presentation of the subject.

Great Book Back In Print

I have the original edition of Fire and Stone on my shelf, and am happy to see it in print again so those I recommend it to can actually get it! If you are interested in fortifications of this era, this is an excellent place to start. The overall view of European fortification theory and practice provides a good background for understanding the forts we see in North America, as well as other locations around the world from the age of European colonization. It has a good general focus on the era, not too wide or too narrow. If you are just interested in medieval castles or the Maginot Line, you will want something else, but you might enjoy this book anyway! I find any Christopher Duffy book enjoyable to read, with a good mix of general information, period quotation, anecdotes, and illustration.

A well-written, informative introduction to the subject

The title is a bit misleading, in that the concentration of the work is more on 17th and 18th (Duffy's specialty) centuries of European siege warfare, with relatively little on the 19th century, while Duffy reaches back to the end of 16th century for some examples. This is a very minor quibble, though. The book demands attentive reading, strictly as a matter of the technical vocabulary and the difficulty of describing architectural and geometric concepts in text, not due to the author's style, which is pleasant, verging on breezy. Additionally, there is a very good glossary and a profusion of illustrations by which the terms and concepts are illustrated. Highly recommended, especially at the current price of $9.99.

Excellent Technical History

I have long been a military history buff. A few years ago the Army sent me and my family to Germany for three years - which was a dream come true. While there I toured several of the old forts built during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It's embarressing, but I the military history enthusiast knew very little about these forts; the engineering, the purposes behind their construction, how the sieges were conducted, nothing. I realized that my knowledge of European warfare effectively ended in the middle of the fifteen hundreds and didn't resume until the mid - eighteen hundreds. The old fortresses fascinated me, thanks in a large part to the fact that I couldn't dechipher the layout of the walls. Centuries of vegetation, vandalism, urban growth, and decay had rendered many of the forts almost non-exsistent. Fire and Stone has helped to correct much of this. It is definitely a technical work and one written more for specialists then the general reader. But it never ascends to a level where the amatuer is simply left in the dirt. It has a wealth of drawings and diagrams, photographs, and schematics. The captions are well written and extremely helpful. There is also a very complete glossary at the back of the book which is not only a necessity but a god send. All to often it seems that authors forget such little details. Without the glossary this book would be impossible to follow. Numerous French, Latin, German, and Spanish terms for the various fortifications and their appendages are used, sometimes different names for the same structure are used! The glossary is an absolute must. The second half of the book is concerns the conduct of a siege for both the besieger and the besieged. Like the first half this part also shows the same attention to detail but never forgets the reader. All in all I have to give this book very high marks. Though it appeals only to a small sector of history buffs I recommend it. And if you have ever visited some of the old forts in Canada, such as Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, and marveled at the old fortress and its layout this book just might be for you as well.