Block-house

An edifice or structure of heavy timber or logs for military defense, having its sides loop-holed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or placed upon it diagonally, with projecting corners, to facilitate a firing downward, and in all directions; the sides and ends are sometimes much like a stockade, and the top covered with earth; there may also be a ditch around it. Formerly much used in Germany and America, and used extensively in the United States as a defense against Indians, and during the civil war, 1861-65, for the protection of important places on railroads, such as bridges, etc. If exposed to the fire of artillery, block-houses should be formed of double rows of logs 3 feet apart, with well-rammed earth between them.