|
Harbor Defenses Of Portsmouth
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.Stanton, pp. 455-481Rinaldi, pp. 165-166Berhow, p. 430-434 History Early Portsmouth forts The first fort in the Portsmouth area was Fort William and Mary (called The Castle until circa 1692) in New Castle,Roberts, pp. 498-499 initially garrisoned before 1632 and perhaps the oldest continuously fortified site in the British colonies that later became the United States. In 1680 another small fort was established on the site of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of cannons were highly important to military affairs and generally represented the areas of highest technology and capital cost among materiel. The advent of 20th-century technologies, especially military aviation, naval aviation, jet aircraft, and guided missiles, reduced the primacy of cannons, battleships, and coastal artillery. In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded, these forces have acquired amphibious capabilities. In littoral warfare, mobile coastal artillery armed with surface-to-surface missiles can still be used to deny the use of sea lanes. It was long held as a rule of thumb that one shore-based gun equaled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Constitution, New Castle, NH
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek '' phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seavey's Island
Seavey's Island, site of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, is located in the Piscataqua River in Kittery, Maine, opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It encompasses . History What is today called Seavey's Island was originally five separate islands conjoined to accommodate the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Colonists originally used the rocky islands for collecting wild berries or drying fish on fish flakes. When Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert decided to create the first federal shipyard in 1800, he authorized the purchase for $5,500 of Fernald's Island (also called Dennett's Island). The largest of the five, Seavey's Island, would be annexed in 1866 and give the grouping its familiar name. Approved by Congress in 1900, a granite drydock was built in the former gut between Fernald's and Seavey's islands. Clark's, Jamaica and another island were attached to Seavey's. Atop a hill on the southern end of Seavey's Island stood an earthwork defense called Fort Sullivan, built in 17 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peirce Island
Peirce Island is a historic island owned by the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is connected to adjacent outlying Four Tree Island. It is connected to the mainland by the Peirce Island bridge. The islands are open to the public and have views of salt marsh, tidal pools, rocky cliffs, and meadows as well as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the South End, three bridges over the Piscataqua River, the "back channel", and a small island toward New Castle, New Hampshire. There is also an outdoor pool, walking paths, playgrounds, and boat launch area. There is a sewer treatment plant on the island. Public amenities include parking, a public boat ramp, walking paths, historical markers, rest room on Four Tree Island only, public pool for summer use, and a small playground. The island is located past the historic Point of Graves Burial Ground over the Peirce Island bridge. Fort Washington was located on the island. More recently, the area was known as a meeting place for gay paramours. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sullivan (general)
John Sullivan (February 17, 1740 – January 23, 1795) was an American general in the Revolutionary War winning several key battles most notably the Delaware crossing. He was a delegate in the Continental Congress where he signed the Continental Association, the third governor of New Hampshire, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Sullivan, the third son of American settlers, served as a major general in the Continental Army and as governor (or "president") of New Hampshire. He commanded the Sullivan Expedition in 1779, a scorched earth campaign against the Iroquois towns that had taken up arms against the American revolutionaries. As a member of Congress, Sullivan worked closely with the French ambassador to the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne. Early life and family Born in Somersworth in the Province of New Hampshire, British America, Sullivan was the third son of Irish settlers from the Beara P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caretaker Detachment
A military caretaker or caretaker detachment is a group of one or more personnel assigned to maintain for future use a military base, fortification, or other facility that is ungarrisoned but not abandoned. Naval reserve fleets and military aircraft in long-term storage are also maintained by caretakers. Whether the personnel are military or civilian varies by country, branch of service, and time period. British use From 1688 through 1802 the Corps of Invalids was used for garrison and caretaking duties in the British Isles, freeing more capable troops for overseas service. United States use During the American Revolutionary War (as the Invalid Corps) and the American Civil War, the US Army had organizations of wounded or chronically ill men for rear-area service, including caretaker duties. The Civil War organization was the Veteran Reserve Corps, originally the Invalid Corps. The Confederate States Army had a similar organization, the Southern Invalid Corps.Lande, R. Gregor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Langdon (politician)
John Langdon (June 26, 1741September 18, 1819) was a politician from New Hampshire, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, signed the United States Constitution, and was one of the first two United States senators from New Hampshire. As a member of the Continental Congress, Langdon was an early supporter of the Revolutionary War. He later served in United States Congress for 12 years, including as the first president pro tempore of the Senate, before becoming president and later governor of New Hampshire. He turned down a nomination for U.S. vice presidential candidate in 1812. Early life Langdon's father was a prosperous farmer and local shipbuilder whose family had emigrated to America before 1660 from Sheviock, Caradon, Cornwall. The Langdons were among the first one of New England's major seaports. Langdon attended the local grammar school run by a veteran of the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg against the French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patriot (American Revolution)
Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, were the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution, and declared the United States of America an independent nation in July 1776. Their decision was based on the political philosophy of republicanism—as expressed by such spokesmen as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine. They were opposed by the Loyalists, who supported continued British rule. Patriots represented the spectrum of social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds. They included lawyers such as John Adams, students such as Alexander Hamilton, planters such as Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, merchants such as Alexander McDougall and John Hancock, and farmers such as Daniel Shays and Joseph Plumb Martin. They also included slaves and freemen such as Crispus Attucks, one of the first casualties of the American Revolution; James Armistead Lafayette, who served as a double agent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of the United States, fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts. After British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions between the motherland and he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Pepperrell
Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet (27 June 1696 – 6 July 1759) was a merchant and soldier in colonial Massachusetts. He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French fortress of Louisbourg during King George's War. Early life William Pepperrell was born in Kittery, Maine, then a part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and lived there all his life. He was the son of William Pepperrell, a Massachusetts settler of Welsh descent, and Margery Bray, the daughter of a well-to-do Kittery merchant. Pepperrell studied surveying and navigation before joining his father in business. William Pepperrell senior had begun his career as a fisherman's apprentice but was by that time a shipbuilder and fishing boat owner. He owned a number of enslaved African-Americans and had erected a mansion in 1682 which still stands near Pepperrell Cove near Kittery Point. The death of his elder brother forced William Pepperrell j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Province Of Massachusetts
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The charter took effect on May 14, 1692, and included the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of Maine, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the direct successor. Maine has been a separate state since 1820, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are now Canadian provinces, having been part of the colony only until 1697. The name Massachusetts comes from the Massachusett Indians, an Algonquian tribe. It has been translated as "at the great hill", "at the place of large hills", or "at the range of hills", with reference to the Blue Hills and to Great Blue Hill in particular. Background Colonial settlement of the shores of Mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort McClary
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. History Colonial period Coastal defenses on the site date to the late 17th century when shipbuilder William Pepperell (father of William Pepperrell) acquired the property and erected crude defense works in 1689. Prior to that, the village was protected by Fort William and Mary at New Castle. The Province of Massachusetts Bay voted in 1715 to erect a permanent breastwork of six guns for the defense of the Piscataqua River, during the lead-up to Father Rale's War. Some sources state that it was i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
