The Loose Association of Wargamers

Exactly how long have the military used sandbags? Does the use of mealie bags at Rorke's Drift count?
Earlier than this? Or are they a Great War phenomenon?

donald

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Sandbag fortifications have been used since at least the late 16th century. For example, the rebellious Mughal governor Mirza Jani Beg used improvised sandbags made out of boat sails to construct a makeshift fort at Unarpur, Sindh, in 1592.[7] Later, British loyalists used sandbag and log fortifications in the 1781 Siege of Ninety-Six during the American Revolutionary War. Nathanael Greene was familiar enough with the fortification technique to equip his troops with hooks to pull down the sandbag and log walls when they stormed the Star Redoubt in Ninety Six, South Carolina.[8]

In ancient times, temporary sandbag forts known as an antestature were made out of sandbags.They were historically hastily established by a retreating force to slow the progress of the enemy. The word comes from the Latin ante ("before"), and statūra ("a standing"). [9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbag

That's the trouble with this forum - you never get a straight answer....

E