fortified cannon bastions connected to them. The barracks were connected by a thick stone curtain with the main gate located in the centre. The rear of the fort (facing away from Lake Erie) consisted of an open terreplein, raised above the base of the dry ditch which surrounded the fort, with two redoubts located on the corner. The redoubts were incomplete and offered little protection. The front of the fort was protected by a large earth wall with a forward gun emplacement. The fort was also divided in half by an earth wall and ditch, but this too was incomplete. At least a third of the rear defenses were makeshift wooden walls or earthworks, some of which were only high. A gun emplacement was located in the centre redan (raised platform). The fort contained a total of six guns. The dry ditch surrounding the fort had a high wooden wall in the centre. This wall was angled outwards and was sharpened to prevent any enemy from leaping into the ditch, which also had sharpened sticks placed up and down the walls to help impale or wound enemy soldiers. The ditch was used as a garbage dump and a sewer by the defenders, creating a slippery and smelly swamp at the base that would slow enemy attacks and likely cause disease in any wounds. Since capturing the fort, the Americans had made significant improvements to its defenses under Brown's direction and now redoubled their efforts to entrench themselves. Since the fort was too small to hold the entire American force, they extended the earth wall to the south for an additional to a rise made of sand, known as Snake Hill, where they constructed a gun battery. To protect the north end of the position, the Americans threw up an earth wall connecting the northeast bastion of the fort to the lake. On the shore was another fortified gun emplacement, known as the Douglass Battery from its commander, Lieutenant David Douglass of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Abatis (obstacles made of felled trees) were placed in front of the earth walls. By the close of the siege, the Americans had also built three log blockhouses in the rear of the fort and had strengthened the defences and redoubts. Preliminaries Raid on Black Rock and Buffalo When the British force reached Fort Erie, Drummond's first sent a force on 3 August across