Battery Bienvenue is a ruined coastal

gun battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to faci ...

located in

St. Bernard Parish St. Bernard Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Bernard; es, Parroquia de San Bernardo) is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat and largest community is Chalmette. The parish was formed in 1807. St. Bernard Parish is part of ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. It was built as part of the harbor defense of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, and located at a strategic fork where

Bayou Bienvenue Bayou Bienvenue is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou and "ghost swamp" in southeastern Louisiana. It runs along the political border between Orleans P ...

and Bayou Villeré join. Bayou Bienvenue, from

Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...

, was the route used by the British late in 1814 to approach the city. The battery was first constructed in 1815 and improved over the years. The initial armament was planned for one 24-pounder and two 18-pounder cannons. In 1826, the plan expanded to twenty-four 32-pounders and two 13-inch

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...

with a garrison of one

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

company. Eventually four buildings occupied the

parade ground A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

: barracks, officers quarters, a guardhouse, and an

artillery magazine Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition or other explosive material is stored. It is taken originally from the Arabic word "makhāzin" (مخازن), meaning 'storehouses', via Italian and Middle French. The term is als ...

. The battery was about 600 feet wide, with the guns pointed toward the mouth of Bayou Bienvenue (toward Lake Borgne) and was surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

that connected to the bayou. The battery was abandoned a few years after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, in 1872.

Sources

*Roberts, Robert B., ''Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: the Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States'', Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, , page 330-331 *

External links

Military sites in Mississippi River delta {{Coord, 29, 59, 7, N, 89, 52, 52, W, display=title Forts in Louisiana Buildings and structures in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana Bienvenue 1815 establishments in Louisiana