Fort Edgecomb, built in 1808–1809, is a two-story octagonal wooden blockhouse with restored fortifications located on Davis Island in the town of Edgecomb, Lincoln County,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, United States. It is the centerpiece of the Fort Edgecomb State Historic Site. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1969, with its boundaries increased to create a historic district in 1991.

Description

Fort Edgecomb is located on Davis Island, actually a peninsula jutting into the

Sheepscot River The Sheepscot River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Its lower portion is a complex island estuary with connections to ...

across from the village center of Wiscasset. Davis Island is separated from the mainland by a short neck, and Fort Edgecomb is located at the island's southern end. Its most prominent feature is an eight-sided blockhouse, whose second floor is larger than its first, measuring compared to . The ground floor walls have loopholes through which muskets could be fired, while the upper level had portholes for firing

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s. Although the blockhouse is the most visible feature, the fort's main armament was a water battery to defend the river. This battery originally had five cannons, including a 50-pounder

columbiad 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 seacoas ...

and four 18-pounder smoothbore cannons. Each cannon was in its own bastion, with the bastions arranged in three tiers. The blockhouse also had two carronades, which were a relatively short cannon of large bore.

History

The fort was built as part of the second system of US fortifications, guarding the then-important port of Wiscasset, then one of the largest shipbuilding centers in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

. A war scare with the British over US trade with France during the Napoleonic Wars sparked the building of these forts, along with

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

Embargo Act of 1807 The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general trade embargo on all foreign nations that was enacted by the United States Congress. As a successor or replacement law for the 1806 Non-importation Act and passed as the Napoleonic Wars continued, it repr ...

, which closed US ports and vessels to foreign trade. The fort's construction was supervised by US Army engineer Moses Porter, later commander of the Regiment of Light Artillery. Although the fort was built for defense, its first use (as with most of Maine's second system forts) was to enforce the embargo. This embargo was not popular with Maine's merchants, and it is said that one of two times Fort Edgecomb's cannon were fired was in salute at

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

's inauguration on 4 March 1809 (or, less tactfully, to celebrate his lifting of Jefferson's embargo). Eventually the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

broke out. The cannons were also fired on 14 February 1815, when word was received of peace with the British. During the

, this post saw considerable activity, holding British prisoners of war, many of them brought to Wiscasset harbor by American

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

s. In 1814, Fort Edgecomb became an important base in defending against a possible British attack on mid-coast Maine. It remained manned until 1818, and was reactivated during the Civil War. The Friends of Fort Edgecomb celebrated its

bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

on 13 June 2009, on the grounds of the fort.

References

External links

Fort Edgecomb State Historic Site
Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Edgecomb Historical Society / Friends of Fort Edgecomb official site

Fort Edgecomb at FortWiki.com

Description

History

See also

References

External links

Further reading