Fort Casco

Last updated
Fort Casco
Falmouth, Maine
Fort New Casco.jpg
Rendering of Fort Casco in 1705
TypeFort
Site information
Controlled by Great Britain
Site history
Built1698 by Wolfgang William Romer
In use1698-1716
Materialslog palisade
Battles/wars Northeast Coast Campaign (1703)
Garrison information
Past
commanders
John March, Samuel Moody

Fort Casco was an English fort built in present-day Falmouth, Maine in 1698. It was the easternmost English fortification in New England and served as the boundary between English settlement and Wabanaki territory.

English colonists fled Casco Bay following the Battle of Fort Loyal in 1690. In order to reestablish a presence in region, Massachusetts built a palisaded fort in New Casco on Casco Bay in 1698 at the conclusion of King William's War. Fort Casco was built at the behest of Wabanakis who desired a convenient place to trade and repair tools, while the British sought to foster better relations with Indians and pull them away from the French sphere of influence by providing them cheaper goods. Following the Fort Casco was the easternmost fort on New England's frontier during these years. A 1701 meeting between Wabanakis and Massachusetts officials cemented an alliance between the two. A pair of stone cairns were then erected to symbolize the new partnership. The nearby Two Brothers Islands later received their name from this monument. [1]

Unfortunately peace would last less than three years, with the inauguration of Queen Anne's War in 1702. Governor Joseph Dudley held a conference at New Casco with representatives of the Abenaki tribes on June 20, 1703 trying to convince them not to ally with the French.

Map ca. 1720 by Cyprian Southack Fort Casco, Brunswick, Maine by Cyprian Southack, 1720 map inset.png
Map ca. 1720 by Cyprian Southack

His efforts were unsuccessful, as the fort was besieged only two months later by Abenaki chiefs Moxus, Wanungonet, Nescambious, and their French Allies in the Northeast Coast Campaign (1703). Vastly outnumbered English were relieved by the armed vessel "Province Galley", which dispersed the Wabanakis and the some 500 French with its guns. The natives killed 25 English and took many others prisoner. [2]

Peace returned in 1713 with the Treaty of Portsmouth. When the resettlement of present-day Portland began in 1716, the Province of Massachusetts ordered that the fort at New Casco be demolished rather than maintain it. Part of the reasoning was the construction of Fort George (Brunswick, Maine) pushed Maine's frontier to the east beyond Falmouth. Fort Casco's site today lies opposite Pine Grove Cemetery on Route 88. [3]

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Treaty of Portsmouth (1713) 1713 treaty

The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on July 13, 1713, ended hostilities between Eastern Abenakis, a Native American tribe and First Nation and Algonquian-speaking people, with the British provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire. The agreement renewed a treaty of 1693 the natives had made with Governor Sir William Phips, two in a series of attempts to establish peace between the Wabanaki Confederacy and colonists after Queen Anne's War.

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The Northeast Coast campaign was the first major campaign by the French of Queen Anne's War in New England. Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin led 500 troops made up of French colonial forces and the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Wells and Casco Bay, burning more than 15 leagues of New England country and killing or capturing more than 150 people. The English colonists protected some of their settlements, but a number of others were destroyed and abandoned. Historian Samuel Drake reported that, "Maine had nearly received her death-blow" as a result of the campaign.

Northeast Coast campaign (1745)

The Northeast Coast campaign (1745) occurred during King George's War from 19 July until 5 September 1745. Three weeks after the British Siege of Louisbourg (1745), the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia retaliated by attacking New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 11 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.

The Northeast Coast campaign (1723) occurred during Father Rale's War from April 19, 1723 – January 28, 1724. In response to the previous year, in which New England attacked the Wabanaki Confederacy at Norridgewock and Penobscot, the Wabanaki Confederacy retaliated by attacking the coast of present-day Maine that was below the Kennebec River, the border of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and Mount Desert Island. Casco was the principal settlement. The 1723 campaign was so successful along the Maine frontier that Dummer ordered its evacuation to the blockhouses in the spring of 1724.

Fort Loyal

Fort Loyal was a British settler refuge and colonial outpost built in 1678 at Falmouth in Casco Bay. It was destroyed in 1690 by Abenaki and French forces at the Battle of Fort Loyal. The fort was rebuilt in 1742 and renamed Falmouth Fort before King George's War and rearmed again in 1755 for the French and Indian War. The fort was rebuilt a final time in 1775 for the American Revolution.

The Battle of Falmouth was fought at Falmouth, Maine when the Canadiens and Wabanaki Confederacy attacked the English New Casco Fort. The battle was part of the Northeast Coast Campaign (1703) during Queen Anne's War.

Northeast Coast campaign (1746)

The Northeast Coast campaign of 1746 was conducted by the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia against the New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. during King George's War from July until September 1746. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 9 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.

Northeast Coast campaign (1747)

The Northeast Coast campaign of 1747 was conducted by the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia against the New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. during King George's War from July until September 1747. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 11 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.

The Northeast Coast campaign of 1750 occurred during Father Le Loutre's War from 11 September to December 1750. The Norridgewock as well as the Abenaki from St. Francois and Trois-Rivières, Quebec raided British settlements along the Acadia/ New England border in present-day Maine.

The First Abenaki War was fought along the New England/Acadia border primarily in present-day Maine. Richard Waldron and Charles Frost led the forces in the northern region, while Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin worked with the tribes that would make up the Wabanaki Confederacy. The natives engaged in annual campaigns against the English settlements in 1675, 1676 and 1677. Waldron sent forces so far north that he attacked the Mi'kmaq in Acadia.

Shadrach Walton was a British colonial administrator and soldier in the Province of New Hampshire.

References

  1. "Earthfast Architecture in Early Maine". w3.salemstate.edu.
  2. Willis, William (19 April 1865). The History of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: With a Notice of Previous Settlements, Colonial Grants, and Changes of Government in Maine. Bailey & Noyes via Internet Archive. fort.
  3. George J. Varney, Gazetteer of the State of Maine (Boston: 1881), 226-8.