| The Battery | |
 | |
| Continent | North America |
| Location | Charles Town, Carolina |
| Population | Charles Town Militia |
| Affiliation | British Empire |
The Battery is the defensive wall that stretches along the lower shores of the Charles Town peninsula and stretching around the landwards sides of the city. It is named for its many artillery batteries.
Layout[]
The Battery is built of brick and defends the city of Charles Town from attacks by both land and sea. On the eastern side, which faces the sea there are two bastions and three redans, V-shaped protrusions, as well as a lunette, a semicircular protrusion. The wallwalks are wooden and the battlements are crenellated with embrasures for the cannons. Sandbags are stacked on the interior side of the battlements. The Battery is manned and guarded by the formidable Charles Town Militia.
History[]
Background[]
The defensive walls around Charles Town were first built in the 1680s. By 1704, 62 acres of the town were enclosed within a network of walls and bastions and surrounded by a moat.
Season Two[]
Flint sails the Spanish Man O' War into Charles Town’s harbor. Charles Town's Fleet deploys to prepare to defend the town from the pirates. Mr. Scott asks Flint if he thinks the patrol ships have clearance to fire on them. Flint says that as long as they are out of range of the walls, they won’t be seen as a threat.[1]
During Flint’s trial, Charles Vane leads roughly 20 of his men in scaling the walls using ladders and grappling hooks, killing the militia guarding sections it. Vane surrenders himself in order to draw attention to the trial. Meanwhile, several of the Battery’s guns are turned towards the town. At Vane’s signal, the gun crews open fire on the square, causing chaos and allowing Flint and Vane to break free. Vane’s men barricade the stairs to the ramparts with flaming debris to prevent the militia from easily retaking the walls. They also begin firing on the patrol ships in the harbor. The militia are able to break through the barricades, but the pirates escape over the walls. Colonel Rhett catches up to Flint and Vane as they escape in a rowboat at the jetty. Rhett and his men try to aim a cannon at them, but the wooden blockhouse they are in is destroyed by cannon fire from the Man O’ War. Once Flint is back aboard his ship, he has his gun crews target whatever is left standing in Charles Town.[2]
Quotes[]
"About five years ago, I served on a merchant vessel running slaves in and out of Charles Town. I remember the first time I saw those walls, those patrol ships, and those fucking guns. The first mate leans in as he sees that look on my face. He says, 'that, son, is a town resolved never to be fucked with.'"
- John Silver's Accounts of Goings-On in XVI.
"Do you think those patrol ships have clearance to fire?"
"Not while we're out of range of that fort."
Trivia[]
- As in the show, Charles Town was a fortified city in real life at the time. In 1704, the city built wood and earth fortifications on the three landward sides, while a high brick wall was built on the waterfront. These walls were demolished in the 1780s following the American Revolution. However, a seawall was built and part of the waterfront was refortified for the War of 1812. The area around the seawall gradually became known as "the Battery," especially after further fortification during the Civil War.
Gallery[]
