This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This is the classic mid-19th century work on fortifications by the most distinguished professor of military engineering at West Point Academy, Dennis Hart Mahan. It is key to understanding the system of forts that developed in the early 19th century and provided the backdrop to much of the Civil War. Much of the material in this book was taken from materials taught by Mahan to cadets who later became officers in both the Union and Confederate armies. Revised in 1887 "with a view to rejecting only that which has become obsolete through the introduction of improved weapons and methods and to explaining and illustrating the new features developed from the sane causes."

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.