A good starting place for this type of research is Fred B. Kniffen and Henry Gla
ssie, "Building in Wood in the Eastern United States:  A Time-Place Perspective.
"  I believe the most recent reprinting of this classic appears in Dell Upton an
d John Vlach, eds., _Common Places:  Readings in
American Vernacular Architecture_ (Athens, GA:  University of Georgia Press, 198
6) 159-181.  Glassie and Kniffen outline the history of this method of construct
ion in the U.S. and also trace it's prehistory and origins in Eurasia.  Interest
ingly enough, vertical log construction is not nearly
as old as horizontal log construction.
 
Building with vertical logs was also somewhat common during the Civil War (do yo
ur structures predate?).  David Orr excavated a CW vertical log building, see:
David Gerald Orr, "The City Point Headquarters of Ulysses S. Grant," _ Perspecti
ves in Vernacular Architecture_, Camille Wells, ed.
(Annapolis, MD:  Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1982) 195-199.  As someone menti
oned, I suspect there's probably a not-so-well known (or documented) military tr
adition of such building, possibly as an extension of the technique of building
defensive palisade walls.
 
Dugouts were also common during the Civil War, but I don't recall seeing, or rea
ding of any that also employed vertical logs.  This would seem to be an awkward
combination--does the trench for the logs appear in the bottom of the dugout or
along the periphery?  If the latter, how much of a
margin was left between the trench and the dugout pit?
 
If there's any interest, I can pull up some citations from my bibliography datab
ase on vertical log construction, both tradtional and revival, lmk,
 
Marty Perdue
[log in to unmask]