"Bienvenue", French for "Welcome" serves this placement of defense well: Sitting at the intersection of the currently named Bayou Villere and Bayou Beinvenue, the battery was built to "welcome" an opposing enemy's slow moving, single-file fleet and "welcome" it with a barrage from it's reported twenty-five cannons.
Constructed in 1828, Parkerson said the position of the fort was due to "the route taken by the invading British Army only fourteen years earlier when they attacked New Orleans." The fort was orignally rectangular in design and housed Model 1821, 24-pounder smooth bore cannon. Parkerson goes on to note that this is the only remaining fortified position built to protect New Orleans that still retains some of its original guns.
Commanding the site today is an impressive outter wall five feet in heigth and reaching 150 yards in length. The marsh has overrun the area and any other remaining assets are completly camaflouged from site. Looking east from the fort's position, an observer would have a view over the low marsh grasses from behind the western shore of Lake Borgne. At only a mile and a half distant, sails would have easily been spotted as ships would make their approach into the city's vicinity. Like many of the nation's post-War of 1812 positions of defense, Battery Bienvenue never saw any action.
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