Fire and Stone: The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860

Christopher Duffy's brilliant history of fortifications and siegecraft is the best general work available on the subject. It covers the classic age of military engineering, which was heralded by the work of Vauban, chief engineer to the French King Louis XIV. There was astonishingly little change in the way fortresses were perceived and used for the next 200 years, until the advent of rifled artillery brought dramatic new ideas into play. Duffy examines the purpose of fortresses across Europe, and the debates of the time concerning their offensive and defensive uses. He analyses the strategic and structural considerations that dictated their locations, and describes how they were planned, designed and built, and by whom. He then explains how a siege progressed from start to finish: plans and preparations; the investment of the fortress; the ways in which a fortress could be reduced short of a formal siege; and the siege itself at every stage, from the choice of the frontal attack to the storm of the breaches and capitulation. The differences in siting, design and techniques of attack and defence for coastal fortifications are also covered. Using excerpts from the accounts of people who took part in actual sieges or were themselves besieged, Duffy brings out the human side of siege warfare as well as its purely technical aspects. In order to give the overall picture he traces four great sieges in their entirety: Namur in 1692 and again in 1695, with Vauban and his Dutch counterpart Coehoorn pitting their wits against one another; the French attack on Antwerp in 1832, which showed how little siegecraft had changed since Namur; and the Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Duffy's clear perspective, and his skilful handling of details, make Fire and Stone and enthralling book to read as well as an invaluable source of information. 65 b/w illustrations, 25 b/w photos

About the Author :
Christopher Duffy was the ‘acclaimed and highly-regarded doyen of eighteenth-century military history’ (The Herald). His works are grounded on unpublished sources and physical realities, and are characterized by the attention that is given to the visual presentation – and not least the maps, which he drew himself. Dr Duffy was born in 1936. He was a contemporary and friend of John Keegan at Balliol College, Oxford – gaining a first-class degree in Modern History in 1958 and his doctorate in 1961. In that year he joined the Department of Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and retired from there in 1996 as Senior Lecturer in War Studies. After a research professorship at De Monfort University (1996–2001), he became involved in a variety of voluntary work – taking in historical advice and fundraising for the National Trust for Scotland’s center at Culloden. As such, he was heavily engaged in the effort to save this and other ‘Jacobite’ battlefields from the threat of development, which has now become acute. He was a founder member of the British Commission for Military History and the Scottish Battlefields Trust, and was Vice-President of the Military History Society of Ireland and Chairman of the 1745 Association. Sadly, Christopher passed away in 2022.

Review :
“Some books are so good, they deserve multiple reprintings. This is one of them.”