Fort McClary

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Fort McClary log cabin

The Fort McClary is a former coastal fortification in York County in the US state of Maine . The fort is located southeast of Kittery at Kittery Point at the mouth of the Piscataqua River . The fort is located opposite of Fort Constitution and was one of seven forts to protect the harbor and the naval dockyard of Portsmouth were built. The other forts besides Fort Constitution were Fort Sullivan and Fort Foster in Maine and Fort Washington , Fort Stark and Fort Dearborn in New Hampshire . Fort McClary is a vivid example of the rapid development of artillery and fortification in the 19th century. Although it served as a fortress in five wars including the War of Independence , the British-American War of 1812, the Civil War , the Spanish-American War, and World War I , like most other forts in Maine, it was not involved in direct combat operations.

history

Colonial times

The first fortification at Kittery Point was built in 1689 by the merchant William Pepperrell as an earth rampart adjacent to his house, which was initially called Battery Pasture and later Fort Pepperrell or Pepperrell's Garrison . In 1715, the Massachusetts Colony decided to build a permanent cannon fort to defend the mouth of the Piscataqua River, but it was not completed until 1720. The fortification served not only for coastal defense, but also as a customs post for the port of Portsmouth. The fort was named again after William Pepperrell Fort William . The site remained in the possession of the Pepperrell family until the American Revolutionary War . Since the Pepperrells as loyalists were to the British Crown, their property was seized by the rebels and the progression of the militia of New Hampshire occupied before it was abandoned 1779th

First half of the 19th century

In 1808, the State of Massachusetts ceded the approximately 0.75 hectare site of the old fort to the federal government, which built a new fort there according to the Second System . The fort was named after Andrew McClary , a major in the New Hampshire Militia who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War. The old parapet of Fort William was expanded to a large, semicircular wall of granite stones around Central Hill , which was reinforced with nine guns and was called the lower battery . On the top of the hill the upper battery as well as barracks, magazines and other buildings of the fortress were built. These buildings were demolished when a hexagonal log cabin was built on top of the hill in 1844. The ground floor of the log house, which served as a powder magazine, was built from field stones, the first floor from granite and the second floor, which served as an officer's quarters, from logs. This log cabin was the last fort of its type to be built in Maine and was criticized for being out of date at the time it was built. To the left and right of the block house, two rifle houses made of bricks were built, which should serve as flanks of the block house in the event of a defense. In 1846 the government acquired 10 hectares of the adjacent land, but the fort was subsequently deactivated and only reoccupied with the outbreak of the Civil War.

US Civil War

During the Civil War, four Parrott guns from the Portsmouth naval yard were installed in the fort to protect against attacks by Confederate ships , and the facility was occupied by a militia company that was soon replaced by regular units. US Vice President Hannibal Hamlin served in the Maine Coast Guard during the Civil War and spent three months as a cook at the fort in 1864.

In 1863 the fort began to be expanded into a fortress using the Third System, similar to Fort Popham . The plan was to expand to a facility with two-storey casemates made of granite ashlars, with a caponier in the south and a bastion to protect a spring in the north. However, only one storey of the casemates was completed, and after the end of the civil war, construction of the fortress was stopped in 1868, as the course of the war had shown that stone fortifications could no longer withstand artillery fire. Granite blocks lying around on the site of the fortress and intended for the construction of the casemates are evidence of the sudden termination of the work. None of the armaments planned for the casemates were placed in the fortress.

Fort McClary, 1904

From the end of the Civil War to the end of the First World War

Since the fortress was unfinished, the old, round wall of granite ashlars of the lower battery was converted into an earth wall with three wooden gun platforms to protect the complex. In 1890 nine 38.1 cm rodman cannons with seven metal mounts were stored in the fortress for the wall, which were supposed to replace the outdated Parrott guns. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, three of the Rodman guns were deployed. The remaining guns and mounts as well as two of the remaining Parrott cannons remained in the magazine until 1905. In 1910, all of the fort's guns were scrapped. The fort remained unoccupied and slowly fell into disrepair, with the exception of a brief period during the Spanish-American War of 1898 when a garrison from Fort Constitution was seconded.

During the First World War, Fort McClary was subordinate to Fort Foster , built on Gerrish Island in 1899 . The blockhouse served as an observation post that was supposed to support the port defenses that consisted of Fort Foster and Fort Constitution. In 1918 the fort was deactivated.

Post-military use

In 1924, the federal government transferred most of the land to the State of Maine except for the 0.75 acres that occupied the fort's old buildings. At that time, most of the buildings were in ruins. One of the rifle houses flanking the log cabin was demolished in 1928 for safety reasons. The city of Kittery administered the property for several years until the state of Maine took over administration of the facility in 1937. During the Second World War , from 1942 to 1945, the blockhouse was again used as an observation post for a lookout for civil defense.

In 1961, the last 0.75 acres of the property was transferred to the State of Maine. On October 1, 1969, the fort was entered as a monument on the National Register of Historic Places . In 1987 the log house was renovated. Today the fort can be visited as a State Historic Site, the visit is chargeable. In the log house there is a small museum about the history and the layout of the fortress.

literature

  • Sheila McDonald, Hery E. Dunnack: A history of Fort McClary state historic Site, Kittery. Augusta: Bureau of Parks and Recreation, 1993.
  • Nelson H. Lawry and Leo K. Polaski: Portsmouth harbor's military and naval heritage. Charleston (SC): Arcadia, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7385-3647-7 .

Web links

Commons : Fort McClary  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nelson H. Lawry and Leo K. Polaski: Portsmouth harbor's military and naval heritage, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed June 13, 2016

Coordinates: 43 ° 4 ′ 59.3 "  N , 70 ° 42 ′ 32.2"  W.