1776 Bayard's Hill Fort (Fort Bunker Hill)
Also known as: Fort Bunker Hill ┬╖ Independent Battery ┬╖ Bayard Redoubt
Site type: Revolutionary War earthwork / hilltop redoubt
Date target: August 29, 1776
Location: Bayard's Hill / Bayard's Mount ΓÇö approx. 40.7194, -73.9968 (modern Grand St & Mott St, Little Italy / Chinatown)
Historic elevation: ~100ΓÇô110 ft, generally described as the highest natural point in lower Manhattan before later leveling.
Reconstruction note: This is a defensible reconstruction guide, not a claim of architectural certainty. The fort and hill were later erased by grading and street development, and surviving descriptions are limited. Treat this as a historically grounded production target for TimeWalk rather than a measured archaeological plan.
Bayard's Hill Fort was a Continental Army defensive work on the high ground of Bayard's Hill during the 1776 defense of New York. The site overlooked the approaches north of the city, the Collect Pond basin, the Bowery Road corridor, and the broader lower Manhattan defensive line.
The best working reconstruction is a small hilltop earthen star redoubt: packed-earth ramparts, timber revetments, gun embrasures, an exterior ditch, abatis, and a rough interior parade with cannon platforms, supplies, and tents. It should read as a temporary Revolutionary War field fortification built quickly from available materials ΓÇö not a stone castle, brick coastal fort, or permanent masonry fortress.
August 29, 1776 sits immediately after the American defeat on Long Island, during the tense period before the retreat from Brooklyn. For storytelling, the fort can be staged as alert, occupied, and uneasy.
These are AI-generated visual reconstruction concepts for production reference. They guide form, mood, terrain relationships, and asset composition ΓÇö they are not measured documentary plans.
| Element | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Plan shape | Rough seven-pointed star / heptagonal redoubt, irregular rather than perfectly geometric |
| Main material | Packed earth, sod, rough timber, fascines, planking |
| Rampart | Low but substantial earthen parapet, ~6ΓÇô10 ft high visually |
| Ditch | Dry exterior ditch, shallow-to-moderate depth |
| Revetment | Timber planks, logs, fascines, wicker bundles holding earth in place |
| Embrasures | Cut openings through the parapet for cannon barrels |
| Interior | Bare-earth parade, artillery platforms, tents, supply boxes, powder stores |
| Exterior obstacle | Abatis: felled trees / sharpened branches beyond the ditch |
| Terrain | Fort crowns a rounded hill with open grassy slopes and long views |
Avoid: masonry walls, brick bastions, large coastal-fort architecture, medieval towers, perfectly clean Vauban geometry, giant naval guns, an overbuilt palisade-only stockade look.
| Feature | Suggested size |
|---|---|
| Overall fort diameter | 120ΓÇô180 ft across |
| Interior usable area | 80ΓÇô120 ft across |
| Parapet height above interior | 6ΓÇô8 ft |
| Parapet thickness | 10ΓÇô18 ft |
| Exterior ditch width | 8ΓÇô15 ft |
| Exterior ditch depth | 4ΓÇô8 ft |
| Abatis belt | 10ΓÇô30 ft beyond ditch |
| Hill elevation target | 100ΓÇô110 ft above nearby low ground |
Treat the hill as the primary object ΓÇö the fort only works visually if it dominates the surrounding approaches.
The exact armament is not securely known. The safest reconstruction is a mixed Revolutionary War battery dominated by light-to-medium field artillery, with a few heavier or indirect-fire pieces.
| Count | Type | Placement |
|---|---|---|
| 6ΓÇô8 | 6-pounder field guns | Main embrasures around the star points |
| 2ΓÇô4 | 3-pounder field guns | Secondary angles / interior reserve |
| 1ΓÇô2 | 9- or 12-pounder guns | Stronger outward-facing bastions toward major approaches |
| 1ΓÇô2 | 5.5-inch howitzers / small mortars | Inside the fort, firing upward |
Simplest defensible setup: 8 × 6-pounders + 2 × small mortars/howitzers. Mostly wooden spoked-wheel field carriages, weathered wood, blackened iron hardware.
By 1776 this was militarized semi-rural ground near the edge of settlement ΓÇö not yet the urban grid. Recommended surrounding features: grassy hill slopes, dirt paths and wagon tracks, split-rail fences, open fields / orchard lots, scrub and trees, abatis around the perimeter, the Bowery Road corridor, and the Collect Pond visible in lower ground.
The placement communicates three reasons it mattered:
- Height ΓÇö commands the local skyline of lower Manhattan.
- Approaches ΓÇö observes and fires toward roads and open ground into the city.
- Network ΓÇö part of the broader 1776 defensive belt, not an isolated fort.
| Claim | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Bayard's Hill was a key high point in lower Manhattan | High |
| Also called Fort Bunker Hill / Independent Battery | High |
| Resembled a seven-pointed star | Medium-high |
| Used cannons and mortars | Medium-high |
| Exact dimensions | Low (use production approximation) |
| Exact artillery inventory | Low (plausible mixed battery) |
| Exact Aug 29, 1776 appearance | Low (reconstruct by context) |
- New York State Military Museum ΓÇö "Bunker Hill, Fort" (seven-pointed star with cannons and mortars)
- Revolutionary War Journal ΓÇö American Revolution Forts & Defenses of New York City
- Army Historical Foundation ΓÇö 6-Pounder Gun Tube (64-in tube, 3.85-in bore, ~800 lb)
- NPS History ΓÇö Artillery Through the Ages
Full production spec (asset checklist, UE naming, metadata fields) lives in the repo at Docs/HistoricalSites/Bayards_Hill_Fort_1776.md.
Related: 1776 --- The Battle of Long Island ┬╖ 1776 --- British-occupied New York ┬╖ 1776 --- The Commons