Two Batteries in one
Battery Harker and Battery Arnold share the continuous 750 foot long parapet wall. Battery Harker (right) contains three 10-inch gun emplacements and Battery Arnold (left) has three 12-inch gun emplacements.
A protective earthwork, the parados, was built behind the gun emplacements to protect the fortification from enemy fire from the rear. Material for the parados was excavated from a moat that was created behind it. From the bank, wheeled scrapers were used to take the material to the top of the pardos. The embankment is twenty feet wide across the top and runs the entire length of the parapet wall (750 feet). Two latrines, or “earth closets”, with concrete walls were built into the parados for use for use by the soldiers manning the battery area.
In addition to the protection the parados offered, the moat would slow down a rear enemy assault on foot.
Marker can be reached from Fort Mott Road, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
