F. W. Chesson FORTS.HTM
144 Fiske Street
Waterbury, CT 06710 Rev: 9-25-2000
THE FORTS OF MAINE
by
Frederick W. Chesson
"The Forts of Maine, the Forts of Maine,
They're old and crumbling, yet remain
To tell us, with each silent gun,
Of sieges lost and battles won...."
Fifty odd years ago, Maine Coast residents were still tidying up from
the aftermath of being on the Front Line of World War II. Then, convoy-hungry
U-Boat wolfpacks prowled the sea-lanes, often attacking their prey in sight of
ancient shore defences, some of them rearmed with what had been the most
modern Tools of War....
All up and down the rocky coast, from Kittery Point to Machias, these old
forts may still be found, the legacy from a time gone by of Maine-ly iron men
and wooden ships. From threats of frigates belching broadsides to skulking
submarines, Mainers have been protected by forts, ranging from Colonial-Era log
stockades to masonry and concrete emplacements, armed with everything from
muzzle-loading brass cannon to radar-directed 16-inch costal batteries.
Now, these former guardians are at rest, peacefully yielding their ramparts
and bastions to invading camera-armed summer visitors.
The story of costal fortifications in Maine begins with the voyages of
discovery by two great rivals, France and England. No sooner had an exploring
party scrambled ashore on a rare stretch of sandy beach, when trees began to
fall, arising in the form of palisades and blockhouses. Only when their bronze
cannon were mounted did most of these early visitors begin to consider the
surrounding land and its untapped riches of fish, furs and timber.
The Great Powers sparred intermittantly over this bounty, until the Treaty
of Paris gave Britain final control in 1763. But only a dozen years later, a
new threat to London's rule appeared, as her once-loyal American Colonies rose
in rebellion.
Falmouth Neck, later to be renamed Portland, was first to feel the Lion's
wrath. In October, 1775, the Royal Navy, under Captain Mowatt, bombarded the
defenceless town, reducing three-quarters of it to ashes. Six batteries and
other fortifications were hurriedly erected, but by 1780 they were barely manned
and fast deteriorating. The town's real revenge was to come in the form of the
many privateers fitted out in its boatyards and preying upon British coastwise
shipping.
Guardians of "Down East"
Tranquil Castine, the "Gateway to Down-East", is especially rich in forts,
some 16 having been erected since French traders built Fort Pentagoet in 1636.
In June of 1779, 650 British troops under Col. Francis McLean landed on the
Penobscott Peninsula. The Red Coats were not exactly unwelcome, as most of the
two dozen-odd families were Tory refugees, some from as far south as Boston.
Castine was considered an ideal point from which to control the Penobscott
River area, both fir its valuable naval timber resources, and as a base against
Yankee privateers, plus being a haven for scattered Loyalists. Accordingly, the
British constructed a fort, naming it in honor of their sovereign, George III.
When word of Castine's seizure reached Boston, the aroused Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, of which Maine was a dependency, dispatched a fleet of 42 ships
and 1,400 men under Commodore Dudley Saltonstall. Despite initial successes,
Saltonstall failed to capture Fort George, and a British relief force arrived
on August 13th. The Yankees precipitously fled up the Penobscott River, where
all their ships were either captured or ignominiously scuttled by their crews.
As the unfortunate commodore was being court-martialed, the invaders added
extensive fortifications and remained in Castine until a peace treaty had been
solemnized in September of 1783. Some of the resident Tories also departed with
the troops, dismantling their homes and relocating in what is now St. Andrews,
New Brunswick.
Thirty-one years later, the English returned for the War of 1812, ousting
the Americans from nearby Fort Porter and reoccupying Fort George. Before
their evacuation in April, 1815, they had dug a defensive canal across the
peninsula's narrow neck, thereby converting Castine into an island community.
During the Civil War, Fort Porter was rebuilt and renamed Fort Madison, but
no Confederate sea-raiders ever appeared to challenge its guns. In addition
to Forts George and Madison, Batteries Gosselin, Griffith and Bridge are all
open to the public, while Fort Pentagoet is an important archaeological site.
Today, the visitor may stand on George's ramparts and hear again the tramp of
redcoated sentries from Great Britain's last occupation of American soil.
"The Other Fort Knox"
or
"West Point on the Penobscot"
When boundary-line tensions between the new State of Maine and Canada
mounted in 1839, so did fears of another British ascent of the Penobscot, with
timber-rich Bangor being the main target. Accordingly, the United States Army
acquired 125 acres from Prospect on the western slopes of the Bucksport Narrows.
Construction was pushed, and by 1845 one riverside battery was complete. Though
a Border Commission resolved the original source for concern, barges continued
bringing in Mount Waldo granite from quarries five miles upriver in Frankfort.
Building now proceeded slowly, as funds were grudgingly allocated by Congress,
until nearly a million dollars had been expended.
The Civil War added new urgency, and over one hundred Maine volunteers
manned some seventy cannon, waiting, in vain, for a Confederate incursion to
test the still-rising ramparts. But by 1869, work came to a permanent halt,
with many internal details and outlying works still unfinished. The Spanish-
American War of 1898 caused a brief flurry of activity, but the short conflict
was over before anything more substantial than a mining-equipment store house
could be added. Still, Fort Knox was the first of improved stone fortifications
in Maine and served as a model for Forts Popham, Gorges, Preble and Scammell,
the latter three in Portland Harbor.
A visit to the fort, which is open daily from May through October, is an
exciting step back into the history of both military and civil engineering.
The brick and masonry gun galleries are evoke images of legendary fortresses,
while the exquisitely crafted spiral staircases of Mount Waldo granite seem
lifted intact from some Arthurian Camelot.
Visitors should be sure to carry both flash equipment for indoor photog-
raphy of the fort and flashlights for navigating its more darker recesses.
This is especially true of the long and dankish "two-step alley", from which
riflemen could mow down any attackers able to penetrate the formidable outer
defenses.
Because of its splendid architecture and preservation, Fort Knox still
occasionally echoes to the tread of marching feet and musketry. Both Colonial
and Civil War re-enactment groups have displayed their martial skills in its
authentic setting. The Twentieth Maine, a re-enactment group taking its name
from the "Heroes of Roundtop" at the Battle of Gettysburg, has used the fort as
its "home base."
The Watch on the Pemaquid
Going south into Lincoln County we come to beautiful Cape Pemaquid, whose
classic lighthouse beams over Muscongus and Johns Bays. Guarding Pemaquid
Harbor and Bristol is another classic, the round tower of Fort William Henry.
A pawn in the rival 1605 claims of Weymouth and Champlain, the fort was
destroyed and rebuilt by successive British and French forces, one of whose
commanders was Baron de Castine, whose name is now familiar.
Today, four flags fly over the restored bastion, which is as much of a
"must see" attraction as the picturesque point to the south east.
Fort Edgecomb was also the product of conflict with Great Britain, but
was initially built in 1808, when war between Napoleon and England brought
well-grounded fears of aggression from one or both participants. The expected
target was Wiscasset, which had risen to become one of New England's busiest
shipping centers, complete with its own Custom House. The port was now closed
and its shops shuttered by the divisive Embargo Act of 1807.
In March of 1809, Major Moses Porter had mounted his cannon and test-fired
them in a salute to newly inaugurated President Madison. Three other forts
were built to command the nearby Kennebec, Damariscotta and St. George Rivers,
and were thusly named.
War with England was declared on June 18, 1812 and was greatly unpopular
in New England where comerce suffered ruinous losses. At one point, a Special
Convention met at Hartford, in December, 1814, and passed resolutions advocating
outright Secession. That summer, a British flotilla, headed by the 74-gun
"Bulwark" raided the coast, raising invasion alarms and causing a general
militia mobilization.
But except for an amphibious assault on nearby Fort MacDonough, Edgecomb's
defences were never tested. Its last cannonading was on February 14th, 1815,
to celebrate the war's official end.
In the summer of 1864, presence of the Confederate raider "Tallahassee"
occasioned the re-equipping of the fort, but the scare passed and Fort Edgecomb
returned to moldering slumber. Today, visitors can enter the unique, octagonal
two-storied blockhouse and peer down at the former six-gun bastions guarding
the now-placid Sheepscot River.
Defending the Kennebec
Fort Popham was commenced in 1861, with the aim of repelling audacious
Confederate raiders heading up the Kennebec for the shipping center of Bath.
But the war was over before any of its intended complement of three-dozen ten
and twelve-inch guns could be mounted. Troops were garrisoned there during
the brief unpleasantness with Spain, but by the turn of the century, much
improved ordnance had made it and other classic masonry forts quaint things
of the past.
Today, as a State Park, visitors may examine the gun galleries with
massive iron shutters still in place, and watch the turbulent tidal flows
from the upper ramparts.
Nearby Fort Baldwin is unseen and unsuspected by most visitors to Fort
Popham. And with good reason, as it was the next stage of costal defence
development, which advocated both the new disappearing gun and well-concealed
emplacements.
Built in 1905-1912 on 38 acres of Sabino Hill, the fort was designed to
repel enemy ships comparatively far out at sea. Few if any ground defenses
were provided, unlike Popham's bristling casements and rifle-ports. In fact,
the garrison normally lived down the hill by Atkins Bay, where a long pier and
railroad track were constructed to offload food and munitions from supply ships.
The fort itself was named for Jeduthan Baldwin, Revolutionary War hero.
Battery Cogan, with two 3" guns, and Battery Hardman, with a 6" disappearing
gun, also honored Revolutionary War personalities. Battery Hawley, and its two
6" pedestal guns, recognized Joseph R. Hawley, Civil War general and Governor
of Connecticut in 1866-67.
During World War One, the 6" disappearing gun "disappeared" to France,
while the 200-man garrison at the two forts stood alert for raiders. Fort
Popham was reactivated and upgraded with an electrically-controlled mine field,
to bar German raiders from the Kennebec. No such incursions were ever made,
and by 1924, the demilitarized forts were sold to the state, Popham being
acquired for a mere $6,600.
Visitors will find Fort Baldwin's grim concrete ruins a stark contrast
to the elegant masonry of Knox and Popham. Yet, traces of tiled fireplaces
deep inside the gloomy bastions still hint at a more home-like aspect of our
military past.
Nazi sea raiders were considered a distinct menace in World War Two,
especially after Pearl Harbor, with Britain still facing invasion and the
American fleet dangerously divided between two oceans. Fort Baldwin went back
on limited active duty with 155 mm field guns being temporarily emplaced. A
concrete watch tower was erected and manned with observers in touch with
similar observation posts as far south as Cape Porpoise. Their triangulations
on a distant target enabled batteries protecting vital Portland to accurately
range in on any sea-borne enemy targets.
Defenders of Portland
Portland's permanent defenses date from the War of 1812 era, with the
construction of Fort Preble on Spring Point in South Portland. Fort Scammel
on House Island, in Portland Harbor, was commenced as early as 1807.
1858 saw the start of Fort Gorges (named after area's discoverer) on tiny
Hog Island, and the port girded up as the Civil War descended. No Confederate
armada ever tested the bristling guns, but the mighty forts were humiliated
when a band of daring Rebels made off with the revenue cutter "Caleb Cushing"
under their very noses. When finally overtaken by an improvised taskforce,
the raiders' leader, Lieutenant Charles "Savez" Read, ordered his prize to be
scuttled before surrendering.
Additional fortifications were added in the following fifty years, ending
with Fort Williams at Portland Head. By the eve of World War II, heavy fire-
power, indeed, guarded vital Portland. Multiple 6" batteries were distributed
on numerous outlying island posts, connected by a network of observation posts
and telephone-linked plotting centers. By 1944, Peaks Island's Battery Steele
boasted a pair of battleship-class 16" guns, each in its own turret at opposite
ends of an 800 foot-long reinforced-concrete monolith. And these were but two
of eight such monsters which eventually guarded the New England coast...all
from what were now non-existant surface raiders.
Submarines were still dangerous threats, so that Army-Navy mine-fields and
a host of smaller costal defence and anti-aircraft guns were manned to make
Portland a rival to Boston Harbor for armed might. Even the former Lightship
"Nantucket," removed from its station for security reasons and painted wartime
grey, was given a deck cannon and promoted to the status of Harbor-Entrance
Control Vessel.
Fort Williams expanded to virtually engulf Portland Head Light, and even
today massive concrete structures and enigmatic stairways, parapets and portals
remain to hint at its vanished importance. A plaque displays the outlines of
dozens of long-vanished structures ranging from bandstands to ammo bunkers.
One can almost hear, amid the wind and surf, the voices and marching feet of
phantom garrisons on parade or scrambling to their posts in a wartime alert.
Fifty Plus Years Later....
At the far northern edge of the park is the shell of a once-imposing
structure, easily be mistaken for an earlier castle-like fortification, or
at least the Commandant's very private quarters. Actually, it is the remains
of the old Hobart Mansion, formerly one of Portland's most elegant Victorian
residences.
Peaks Island may be reached by ferry from Portland and Battery Steele's
empty but still formidable structure may be entered and studied from within,
as may nearby Battery Craven.
Still of menacing aspect is Fort Scammel, built in 1807 on tiny House
Island and easily photographed from harbor tour boats and the Peaks Island
Ferry.
Other fortifications have been lost to the elements, or even recycled into
private residences. Fort Allen fits harmoniously into the Eastern Promenade,
while across the harbor, Fort Preble reposes on the grounds of the Vocational
Institute, relaxing after duty in at least four wars. Over on Great Diamond
Island, the solidly-built barracks and officers' residences at Fort McKinley
have been converted into fine condominiums, a most appropriate way of trans-
forming swords into plowshares. In this case, it is turning a fort into men's
homes that are indeed their own castles!
A Partial Roll Call of Maine Forts
Present Name Location Built (started)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fort Allen North Point, Portland ...
Fort Baldwin Popham 1905
Fort Edgecomb Edgecomb 1808
Fort Gorges Hog Island, Portland 1857
Fort Hallifax Winslow 1754
Fort Kent Fort Kent 1839
Fort Knox Prospect 1844
Fort Levett Cushing Island, Portland 1898
Fort McClary Kittery Point 1846
Fort McKinley Great Diamond Is., Portland 1900
Fort O'Brien Machias 1775
Fort Popham Popham 1861
Fort Pownall Fort Point 1759
Fort Preble Spring Point, Portland 1807
Fort Scammel House Island, Portland pre-CW
Fort Steele Peaks Island, Portland WW II
Fort William Henry Bristol 1692
Fort Williams Portland Head WW I
References:
Portland City Guide. Federal Writers Project. 1940
Portland at War. Dr. Joel Eastman. Portland Monthly, July-August, 1987
* * *
RETURN TO INDEX