Fort Wool is a decommissioned island fortification located in the mouth of Hampton Roads, adjacent to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT). Now officially known as Rip Raps Island, the fort has an elevation of 7 feet and sits near Old Point Comfort, Old Point Comfort Light, Willoughby Beach and Willoughby Spit, approximately one mile south of Fort Monroe.
Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the United States military located along the southern coast at Kittery Point, Maine at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The property and its surviving structures are now owned and operated by the State of Maine as Fort McClary State Historic Site, including a blockhouse dating from 1844.
The columbiad was a large-caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories. This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges, making it an excellent seacoast defense weapon for its day. Invented by Colonel George Bomford, United States Army, in 1811, columbiads were used in United States seacoast defense from the War of 1812 until the early years of the 20th century. Very few columbiads were used outside of the U.S. and Confederate Armies; nevertheless, the columbiad is considered by some as the inspiration for the later shell-only cannons developed by Frenchman Henri-Joseph Paixhans some 30 years later.
Fort Popham is a Civil War-era coastal defense fortification at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine. It is located in sight of the short-lived Popham Colony and, like the colony, named for George Popham, the colony's leader.
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II. Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy. After the 1940s, it was recognized that fixed fortifications were obsolete and ineffective against aircraft and missiles. However, in prior eras foreign fleets were a realistic threat, and substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors.
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.
Salisbury Beach Military Reservation was a coastal defense site located in Salisbury, Massachusetts.
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 Huger is a historic archaeological site located near Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The site is the location of an abandoned American Civil War fort on the south side of the James River across from Fort Eustis/Mulberry Point. It was named for Major General Benjamin Huger, commander of the Confederate States Army's Department of Norfolk at the time it was built. Fort Huger was an integral part of the Confederate Army's James River defenses in late summer 1861 through spring 1862.
Fort Glover was a fort in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Fortifications on the site existed during the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the Spanish–American War. The fort was located on what is now Riverhead Beach on Bubier Road in Marblehead, sited to guard the beach and the Marblehead Neck causeway. It was demolished in 1917.
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.
Fort Nichols was a fort that existed in 1775 in Amesbury, Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War. It was also known as Fort Merrimac during its existence. Two possible locations for the fort exist. One is a location named Salisbury Point on modern topographic maps, where Interstate 95 crosses the Merrimack River; this is the location of the coordinates given. Another possibility is the mouth of the Merrimack at Salisbury Beach in Salisbury. One source (Heitman) states that the American Civil War Fort at Salisbury Point was built at the same location as Fort Nichols, which is given as "at Salisbury Point, opposite Newburyport". The Civil War fort was sometimes referred to as Fort Nichols by local civilians.
Fort Standish was a fort built in 1863 for the American Civil War on Saquish Head in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was named for Myles Standish, military leader of the Plymouth Colony in the 1620s, and augmented the nearby Fort Andrew on Gurnet Point. It was designed and constructed under the supervision of Major Charles E. Blunt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The fort had five gun emplacements with five 8-inch smoothbore guns, along with a bombproof shelter, two magazines, and a well. Outside the fort were a barracks, officers' quarters, and a mess hall. From January to June 1865 the fort was garrisoned by the 27th Unattached Company of Massachusetts militia.
Fort Miller was a coastal defense fort in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in existence circa 1630–1900. Circa 1861 it was renamed for James Miller, a colonel in the War of 1812, distinguished for his actions in the Battle of Lundy's Lane. He was later Collector of the Port in nearby Salem from 1824 to 1849.
The Harbor Defenses of Portsmouth was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the nearby Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine from 1900 to 1950, both on the Piscataqua River, beginning with the Endicott program. These included both coast artillery forts and underwater minefields. The command originated circa 1900 as the Portsmouth Artillery District, was renamed Coast Defenses of Portsmouth in 1913, and again renamed Harbor Defenses of Portsmouth 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.
