User:Maarten Krever/Redoubt at Ameide

The Schans at Ameide was a redoubt on the east side of the Dutch village of Ameide. The redoubt was located near the hamlet of Sluis and was built by the States army in 1672 during the Dutch War. Due to the inundation of the polders, the French army was forced to use the high river dikes; the redoubt at Ameide had to stop this advance. The defense work was installed transversely to the Lekdijk and consisted of a double row of palisades, a parapet of woven willow wood, and an earthen wall of approximately 2 meters high.

The redoubt was manned by 300 soldiers and some officers, led by Colonel Joseph Bampfield. Completely unexpected, the redoubt was attacked on the night of November 27, 1672 by a French army of 800 soldiers, 200 horsemen and 150 officers: some of the States' deserters had brought the French soldiers along the flood plains and the dike to close to the defensive work, after which the redoubt and defenders by the French grenadiers were bombarded with grenades. Then the ramp was stormed. The Dutch soldiers managed to escape, but the village of Ameide was then ransacked and destroyed by the French army.

From Gorinchem, auxiliary troops led by Field Marshal Paulus Wirtz (also Paul Würtz) were sent to Ameide, but when they arrived in the morning the French army had already left. However, on their way back through the redoubt, the French were fired at with cannons by two Dutch ships, outriggers anchored on the Lek. Several people were killed on the French side. In the end only two people had died on the State side; the redoubt had hardly been damaged.

Anno 2020 is the entrenchment no longer present in the landscape.