Cheval de frise at the Confederate defenses at the Siege of Petersburg

The cheval de frise (plural: chevaux de frise) was a Mediaeval defensive obstacle consisting of a portable frame (sometimes just a simple log) covered with many long iron or wooden spikes or even actual spears. The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865 Medieval fortification is the military aspect of Medieval technology that covers the development of Fortification construction and use in Europe Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation. They were principally intended as an anti-cavalry obstacle but could also be moved quickly to help block a breach in another barrier. The Cavalry (from French cavalerie) is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as Soldiers or Warriors who fought mounted on They remained in occasional use until they were replaced by wire obstacles just after the American Civil War, during which it was most often used by the Confederates. In the Military science of Fortification, wire obstacles are defensive obstacles made from Barbed wire, Barbed tape or Concertina wire Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South ^[1]

Etymology

Cheval de frise according to the later use of the term, broken glass studding the top of a wall in a nineteenth century fort

French: Cheval de frise means "Frisian horse". French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Frisia ( West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. The Frisians, having little cavalry of their own, relied heavily on such anti-cavalry obstacles. The term also came to be used for any spiked obstacle, such as broken glass embedded in mortar on the top of a wall. Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many Mortar is a workable paste formed by mixture of Cement, Water and fine aggregate Masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area

Use

Hessian map showing the placement of cheveaux de frise in the Delaware River in 1777. The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

A variation of the chevaux de frise are Czech hedgehog anti-tank obstacles, typically composed of three rails, crossed in such a way that they form a six-spiked figure, possibly sealed in concrete or partly buried in sand or earth (very much like a metal abatis). The Czech hedgehog (rozsocháč was a static Tank obstacle defence made of angled Iron (that is lengths with an L- or H- shaped cross section deployed during Abatis, abattis, or abbattis (a French word meaning a heap of material thrown is a term in field Fortification for an obstacle formed of the They can also be mined. The Atlantic Wall used millions of such obstacles to slow down landing of armored and mechanized troops, which would make them easy targets for machine guns and coastal artillery. The Atlantikwall ( English: Atlantic wall) was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by the German Third Reich

An anti-ship version was designed by Robert Erskine as a means of keeping British warships out of the Hudson River during the American Revolutionary War. Colonel Robert Erskine (1735 &ndash 1780 was a Scottish inventor and later an American officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" The device was never deployed in the Hudson, but similar devices planned by Ben Franklin were used in the Delaware River near Philadelphia, in between Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer. Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery, and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud or Deep Water Island on the Delaware National Park is a Borough in Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. ^[2] A cheval-de-frise was retrieved from the Delaware River in Philadelphia on Nov 13, 2007 in excellent condition, after more than two centuries in the river. ^[3]

The "knife rest" or "Spanish rider" is a modern wire obstacle functionally similar to the cheval-de-frise, and sometimes called that. In the Military science of Fortification, wire obstacles are defensive obstacles made from Barbed wire, Barbed tape or Concertina wire

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