Palisade vegetation alongside as this allows criminals to make an unseen breach. Palisade A palisade—sometimes called a stakewall or a paling—is typically a fence or wall made from wooden stakes or tree trunks and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisade derives from "pale", from the Latin word "", meaning stake, specifically a stake used to support a fence. A palisade gangs these side by side to create a fence entirely made of pales. Typical construction consisted of small or mid-sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no free space in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top,
Siege of Fort Erie contained a total of six guns. The dry ditch surrounding the fort had a high wooden wall in the centre. This wall was angled outwards and was sharpened to prevent any enemy from leaping into the ditch, which also had sharpened sticks placed up and down the walls to help impale or wound enemy soldiers. The ditch was used as a garbage dump and a sewer by the defenders, creating a slippery and smelly swamp at the base that would slow enemy attacks and would encourage disease in any wounds. The Americans had made significant improvements to the defenses of