Next came the rebellious upstart Yankees who wanted to rule themselves. Had it not been for the overwhelming defensive character of the fort's design, Nova Scotia very well may have been among the first American States. After the ashes settled, the money ran out and the rust settled in. Then it was 1812 and England and the U.S. ran out of words and took up arms. Again, the Citadel reverberated with the sound of new construction and new guns. Bigger and better guns with rifled barrels, capable of accurate shot for several miles. Still there were no assaulters willing to take on the continuingly advancing design of one of the most fortified structures of its size. Now, fortifications up to and until their demise around the end of WWII were based on simple tried and true principles which up until then had never failed. From the Alamo to the Citadel, these principals remained the same. The high impenatrabile wall. The counter to this was of course the penetrating cannon shot. The action was called a "breach". Cannonballs were fired at the same place on a wall until a hole was knocked through the wall allowing assault troops to run through it and engage the defenders, and finally nutrilize the fort. The only other way was a far more courageous method. To scale the walls and overrun the defense. Failing either of these methods, the last remaining is siege, the slow monotonous ineffective shelling of unoccupied areas for a period sufficient to deprive the defenders of food or water until they give up or die. Eliminating all but the last of these approaches was accomplished in the earthen design, which became the standard for fortifications from that point on until eliminated. The very top of the fortification was built flush with the top of the hill, thus the walls were not in the line of fire for any cannons firing from below. A solid wall of from 10 to 16 feet was built in the hollowed out center of the hill, preventing access to the insides. The line of fire from the Fort was directly down the long hill leading to the bottom and was covered with short grass, affording no place to hide for advancing troops. The dividing pit was connected to the inside by a narrow corridor which was easily defended. The walls built up from the bottom of the pit were actually rooms which housed the soldiers who lived inside. Many of these rooms have been re-created to reflect their use in the 1800s. One was the enlisted men's barracks Each barrack room was equipped according to regulations with standardized government issued furniture and outfitting. Each occupied bed had a small tin label holder. The soldier's name and rank was inserted into the holder. When flipped over the label read "DUTY" which indicated the soldier was away for a period of time. Until 1825 the soldier's bed had been a wooden bunk. It was replaced by a folding iron bed at that time. Each bed was allotted two gray barrack blankets. The bolster is a pillow. Prior to 1861, the stuffing was straw but after that date horsehair was used. A form is a bench. The standard military pattern was made of pine and was six feet long to seat four men. Some of the rooms were used as a museum for items that played a part in the development of the British military and later Canadian defense. One example was an original model of the first truly automatic or machine gun. The revolving barreled guns of Dr. Richard Gatling's patents saw world wide service from the battlefield of the American Civil War to the Bolshevik Revolution. Gatling's hand cranked design was made obsolete by the advent of smokeless power and the resulting gas-operated machine guns of Sir Hiram Maxim and John Browning. There were many other things that I could have commented on but it would make the article go on for quite a while. This is an important point in Halifax and definitely worth while to explore. Guided tours are available and are an added attraction.

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