The Massachusetts National Guard is the National Guard component for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia on December 13, 1636, it contains the oldest units in the United States Army. What is today's Massachusetts National Guard evolved through many different forms. Originally founded as a defensive militia for Puritan colonists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the militia evolved into a highly organized and armed fighting force. The Massachusetts militia served as a central organ of the New England revolutionary fighting force during the early American Revolution and a major component in the Continental Army under George Washington.
Fort Massachusetts is a fort on West Ship Island along the Mississippi Gulf Coast of the United States. It was built following the War of 1812, with brick walls during 1859–1866, and remained in use until 1903. Currently, it is a historical tourist attraction within the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The fort is located about halfway along the north shore of West Ship Island, near a boat pier.
Fort Taber District or the Fort at Clark's Point is a historic American Civil War-era military fort on Wharf Road within the former Fort Rodman Military Reservation in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The fort is now part of Fort Taber Park, a 47-acre town park located at Clark's Point. Fort Taber was an earthwork built nearby with city resources and garrisoned 1861-1863 until Fort Rodman was ready for service.
Fort Lee is a historic American Revolutionary War fort in Salem, Massachusetts. The site, located at a high point next to Fort Avenue on Salem Neck, is a relatively rare fortification from that period whose remains are relatively unaltered. It is an irregular 5-pointed star fort. Although there is some documentary evidence that the Neck was fortified as early as the 17th century, the earthworks built in 1776 are the first clear evidence of the site's military use. Reportedly, the fort had a garrison of 3 officers and 100 artillerymen with 16 guns. The site, of which only overgrown earthworks and a stone magazine survive, was repaired in the 1790s, and rebuilt for the American Civil War. A state cultural resource document states that the fort has not been much modified since the Revolution, and has not been built over. It was garrisoned by the Massachusetts militia in the War of 1812, abandoned afterwards, and rebuilt with four 8-inch columbiads in the Civil War. An Army engineer drawing dated 1872 depicts the fort's five-pointed trace and the four Civil War gun positions. It was also garrisoned during the Spanish–American War.
Fort Pickering is a 17th-century historic fort site on Winter Island in Salem, Massachusetts. Fort Pickering operated as a strategic coastal defense and military barracks for Salem Harbor during a variety of periods, serving as a fortification from the Anglo-Dutch Wars through World War II. Construction of the original fort began in 1643 and it saw use as a military installation into the 20th century. Fort Miller in Marblehead also defended Salem's harbor from the 1630s through the American Civil War. Fort Pickering is a First System fortification named for Colonel Timothy Pickering, born in Salem, adjutant general of the Continental Army and secretary of war in 1795. Today, the remains of the fort are open to the public as part of the Winter Island Maritime Park, operated by the City of Salem.
Fort Sewall is a historic coastal fortification in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is located at Gale's Head, the northeastern point of the main Marblehead peninsula, on a promontory that overlooks the entrance to Marblehead Harbor. Until 1814 it was called Gale's Head Fort.
Fort Andrew is a former fort built as Gurnet Fort in 1776 for the American Revolutionary War on Gurnet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It became a federal fort and was rebuilt in 1808, and again in 1863 during the Civil War when it received its current name. It is named for John A. Andrew, governor of Massachusetts 1861–1866. In 1863 Fort Standish was built nearby on Saquish Head. After the war, the federal government declared Fort Andrew an inactive military reservation in 1869. The reservation was sold in 1926 and mostly became private property, except for the US Coast Guard light station. A World War II fire control tower was built on the parapet of the old fort. Plymouth lighthouse is also on Gurnet Point, and was moved inside the fort's earthworks to protect it from beach erosion in 1997–1998.
Brewster Islands Military Reservation was a coastal defense site located on Great Brewster Island and Outer Brewster Island in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts as part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston.
Calf Island Military Reservation was a World War II coastal defense site located on Calf Island in Hull, Massachusetts.
Fort Heath was a US seacoast military installation for defense of the Boston and Winthrop Harbors with an early 20th-century Coast Artillery fort, a 1930s USCG radio station, prewar naval research facilities, World War II batteries, and a Cold War radar station. The fort was part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston and was garrisoned by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. The fort's military structures have been replaced by a residential complex, including the luxurious Forth Heath Apartments, and recreation facilities of Small Park, which has both a commemorative wall and an historical marker for Fort Heath.
Fort Duvall was a Coast Artillery fort, part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston, in Massachusetts. What was then called Hog Island in Hull, Massachusetts was acquired by the U.S. government in 1917, and the fort was constructed in the early 1920s. It had only one gun battery, Battery Long, but it mounted the largest caliber weapons in the entire harbor defense system: a pair of 16-inch guns. These were the 16-inch gun M1919, of which only seven were deployed; 16-inch weapons deployed later were supplied by the Navy.
Long Point is a peninsula located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, as it curls back in on itself to create Provincetown Harbor. The Long Point Light was built on this point in 1827. The lighthouse once shared this peninsula with a settlement of fishermen that came to be known as Long Point, Massachusetts. This Provincetown village grew and thrived from 1818 until the late 1850s. When the settlers decided to leave Long Point, they took most of their houses with them – about 30 structures in all – by floating them across the harbor.
Fort Defiance was a fort that existed from 1794 to after 1865 on Fort Point in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The location protecting the inner harbor was also called Watch House Point.
Eastern Point Fort was a fort that was garrisoned or maintained from 1863 to 1867 on Eastern Point in Gloucester, Massachusetts, built for the American Civil War. References indicate the name has also been used to refer to the much-older Stage Fort across the harbor.
The Fort at Salisbury Point was a fort that existed between 1863 and 1865 in Salisbury, Massachusetts. It was a nine-gun earthwork probably located at the mouth of the Merrimack River at what is now the Salisbury Beach State Reservation, where eventual erosion washed it away. A 1903 reference states it was on the site of the Revolutionary War Fort Nichols, but that site is in doubt, and may have been at the location called Salisbury Point in Amesbury. The Fort at Salisbury Point was designed and built under the supervision of Major Charles E. Blunt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. From November 1864 to June 1865 it was garrisoned by the 20th Unattached Company of Massachusetts militia.
Fort Standish was a coastal fort completed in 1907 and located on Lovell's Island in Massachusetts. Named after Myles Standish, the fort would serve to host up to 7 batteries until it was disarmed and deactivated in 1947. It was also named Lovell's Island Military Reservation during the early part of its existence. It was part of the Coast Defenses of Boston.
Fort Miller was a coastal defense fort in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in existence circa 1630–1900.
The Harbor Defenses of Boston was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Boston, Massachusetts from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program. These included both coast artillery forts and underwater minefields. The command originated circa 1895 as the Boston Artillery District, was renamed Coast Defenses of Boston in 1913, and again renamed Harbor Defenses of Boston in 1925.
Stage Fort was a fort that existed from 1635 to 1898 on Stage Head in what is now Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
