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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 12
by Charles S. Lindsay Part II: A Gazetteer of Louisbourg GuardhousesBarracks GuardroomsBarracks guardrooms were situated in the central passageways of the barracks buildings in the King's Bastion and the Royal Battery. King's Bastion Barracks Guardrooms The officer's and soldiers' guard rooms occupied the full width of the barracks building on the north side of the central passageway with the officer's room at the west end and the soldiers' quarters occupying the remainder (Fig. 13). When first built in 1724, the wooden south or front wall of the room was separated from the passageway by an arcaded masonry wall supported on five pillars (Fig. 13, a). The walkway thus created between the guardrooms and the passageway was about 5 pieds wide and had a window in each end wall. By 1725 plans had changed, the arcaded wall was demolished and the wooden front wall removed. As replacement, a 2-pied-thick masonry wall was built immediately behind the foundations of the arcaded wall.1 This change created an asymmetrical central passageway 2 pieds wider on the guardhouse side. Excavation revealed that the foundations of both the new wall and the arcaded wall abutted each other, with the paving of the passageway extending over the remains of the arcaded wall foundations (Fig. 12). The arcaded walkway was now contained within the guardrooms, and its west window was blocked as part of the construction of a stairway to the upper floor. A partition with a door to the officer's room was built from the staircase to the dividing wall between the two rooms to seal off the staircase from the officer's quarters. At the same time the wooden dividing wall was replaced by a masonry wall further to the east, creating a ratio between the rooms of 2:1 (Fig. 13, b). By 1731, this wall had been removed and the full width of the building was occupied by the soldiers, while the officer had moved to a room upstairs.2 At this date the partition around the stairway was altered to fully enclose the staircase. The guardrooms had ceased to function as such by 1740 when a new guardhouse was built in the Place d'Armes across the bridge from the barracks. The interior dividing wall was re-established and the guardrooms were then converted into a prison cell and a room intended for cannoneers but actually occupied by soldiers.3 Officer's Guardroom As shown on the earliest plan the dimensions of the officer's quarters were 13 pieds by 7 pieds. However, since this plan shows the wooden dividing wall between the officer's and soldiers' quarters intruding into the officer's fireplace, these dimensions should be regarded with caution. Following the alterations, which included removing and replacing the south and east walls and creating a vestibule for the winding stairway, the resulting room was 10 pieds by 13 pieds. With the modified arrangement, access to the officer's room was gained via the vestibule and a door at the east end of the 7-pied-high plank partition wall. The other walls of the room and the chimney-breast were masonry covered with plaster. Both floor and ceiling were made of 2-pouce-thick pine planks. The door through the partition was made of one-pouce-thick boards and was 6 pieds high by 3 pieds wide. The window in the west wall was protected by wooden shutters one pouce thick and was 4 pieds 2 pouces high by 3 pieds wide.4
In the north wall there was a fireplace. This, and others like it in the barracks, were described as having hearths 6 pieds long, 3 pieds wide, and 6 pouces thick.5 As excavated, all that remained of the original fireplace (in contrast to the 1930s reconstruction) was a mound of mortar, brick and rubble that had served as the support for the hearth (Fig. 12).6 A lit de camp 6 pieds, 6 pouces long by 3 pieds wide was installed along the partition between the room and the vestibule. No record of other furnishings survives but a document estimated that 250 candles and 10 cords of wood would be needed for light and heat for a year.7 Soldiers' Guardroom The original width of this room was 13 pieds, the same as the officer's, but since there is some doubt as to the reliability of the location of the dividing wall on the earliest plan, the length of the room is uncertain. In its initial form the room had a window in the east wall and a door near the east end of the front wall. When the front and dividing walls were removed, the room became 23 pieds long by 16 pieds wide and the door was moved to the centre of the front wall.
Excavation revealed what seemed to be the foundations of the dividing wall in the middle of the width of the barracks, creating an officer's and soldiers' room of equal size (Fig. 12). However, documents and historical plans both show that in fact, above ground, this wall consisted merely of two short pillars, one against the north wall and one against the south, supporting an arch carrying the dividing wall of the rooms on the upper storey. The actual dividing wall of the guardrooms after the major alterations was approximately 4 pieds to the west, was 8 pouces thick and was called a petit mur de refand. The toisé for this wall mentions a foundation only one pied deep.8 Such slight foundations can probably be attributed to the fact that this wall was a modification made after the guardhouse was built, and moreover it was not a load-bearing wall. No trace of this wall was found during excavation.9 The new doorway had a cut-stone surround and the door itself was 6 pieds 3 pouces high by 3 pieds wide, made of 2-pouce-thick planks.10 The extension of the guardroom incorporated the old east window of the walkway and there were now two windows to light the room. Both the windows had birch sills, and fir frames 4 pieds high and 3 pieds wide.11 Views of the barracks drawn during the French occupation show that the window surrounds were of brick.12 The ceiling of the room was made of 2-pouce-thick pine planks. The floor consisted of cobblestone paving, a flooring material commonly used in guardhouses in France.13 In the southeast corner of the room a double-leaf trapdoor led to steps going down to the bascule room, from which the drawbridge was operated. Along the full length of the north wall there was a lit de camp 6 pieds 6 pouces wide made of pine planks 2 pouces thick.14 One of the plans shows what appears to be a stove centrally placed beneath the arch for the upper storey. Repair lists note that the first stove was made of iron, and that its flue and door were repaired in 1728.15 The next year, the stove having been "entièrement ruiné," it was replaced by a brick stove. The estimates for this repair included bricks, an iron grille, the frame for the door and other fittings. This stove was taken down each spring and rebuilt in the fall. Annual records from 1732 to 1735 mention repeated building of the brick stove and repairing of its flue.16 When the dividing wall between the guardrooms was removed and the officer moved upstairs sometime between 1729 and 1731, a number of changes were made. The officer's lit de camp was removed, and the partition around the staircase was extended to join the south wall east of the doorway, thus creating a private entrance to the officer's room upstairs. The paving in the soldiers' room was extended to cover the former officer's floor.17 Royal Battery Barracks Guardrooms The Royal Battery guardrooms were situated on either side of the central passageway of the barracks, the officer's on the east side and soldiers on the west (Fig. 14). Little is known of the history of these rooms beyond the fact that they were built, along with the rest of the barracks, between 1725 and 1727, and appear to have remained substantially unaltered throughout their occupation, which ended in 1760 when the English razed the Royal Battery and its buildings. Neither room has been excavated and nothing is visible on the surface to indicate the exact position of the passageway or rooms. The historical evidence is confined to a few plans, a list of estimates for the proposed barracks buildings and occasional accounts of repairs carried out. Because of the flattened-V shape of the barracks building with the apex at the passageway, both guardrooms were trapezoidal. Both had doors and windows opening on the terreplein of the battery at the opposite end of the passageway from the bridge. There was, therefore, no direct access from either guardroom onto the passageway. Officer's Guardroom The officer's room shared the east side of the passageway with the prison. The room was 11 pieds long and widened from 8 pieds at the partition to 12 pieds at the terreplen wall. There was a doorway in the south wall with a small window to the left of it upon entering. According to preconstruction specifications. doorways in the barracks were to be 6 pieds high by 2 pieds 9 pouces wide with a 2-pouce check in the jambs and arch. The doors were to be made of 1-pouce vertical pine boards 5 pouces to 6 pouces wide morticed into horizontal rails at top and bottom.18 A repair estimate for 1736 mentioned replacing glass in the transom above the door.19 The shutters for windows in the barracks were to be of an unusual type. Their basic construction was common, like the doors, but the lower horizontal rail was a 2-pouce-thick pine plank with a loop-hole in the middle, 2 pouces in diameter. The hole was closed by a sliding shutter.20 Floors in the barracks were to consist of 2-pouce-thick planed planks supported on 4 pouce by 4 pouce joists spaced one pied 8 pouces apart. A fill of charcoal, cinder or gravel was to be inserted between the joists to counteract dampness.21 However, some elevations drawn after the construction of the battery show cobbled floors in the barracks. The ceilings of the rooms were also to be made of 2-pouce pine planks "bien clouées sur des soliveaux a vive equaire Espacée egallemen les uns des autres, les poutrelles seront portées par les mur de refans sur leur forts."22 The meaning of soliveaux as used in this statement is uncertain. It seems to refer to the joists yet its more normal use is for small joists attached to the framing around a fireplace. Similarly poutrelles normally means large joists. Possibly, since they are elsewhere described as being spaced one pied 8 pouces apart, the poutrelles formed a first layer of joists with soliveaux laid across them to form a second layer. This would account for the planks being nailed to the soliveaux and not the poutrelles. Inside the room there was a small fireplace set across the northeast corner. A lit de camp extended along two-thirds of the length of the west wall.
Soldiers' Guardroom The soldiers' room occupied the full width of the barracks on the west side of the passageway. It was 21 pieds long and widened from 12 pieds on the ditch side to 18 pieds on the side facing the terreplein. Some plans show three symmetrically splayed loopholes in the north wall: others show only one. There was a window in the south wall and a doorway to its left upon entering. The window appears to be the same type as those in other barracks rooms, which were described as sash-windows set in frames 2 pieds 9 pouces wide by 3 pieds high, with panes 8 pouces by 6 pouces held in position by glaziers' points.23 In the middle of the south wall there was a fireplace that was part of a back-to-back unit shared with the adjoining barracks room. These fireplaces were to have tiled hearths resting on bases one pied 6 pouces deep and 4 pieds wide.24 The fireplace itself was 3 pieds high. A lit de camp ran the whole length of the north wall. In 1736 it was noted that two new hinges and a pull-ring were needed for the trap door to the bascule room: a staircase or ladder was to be installed leading to the attic, and glass was to be replaced in the transom windows above the door.25
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