Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the United States military located along the southern coast at

Kittery Point, Maine Kittery Point is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Kittery, York County, Maine, United States. First settled in 1623, Kittery Point traces its history to the first seafarers who colonized the shore of what became Massachusetts Bay C ...

at the mouth of the

Piscataqua River The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...

. It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

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 A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

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 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 fortr ...

) acquired the property and erected crude defense works in 1689. Prior to that, the village was protected by

Fort William and Mary Fort William and Mary was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, defended by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle," was situ ...

at New Castle. The

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...

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 Dummer's War (1722–1725) is also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War. It was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the ...

. Some sources state that it was intended to protect Maine (then part of Massachusetts) from "unreasonable duties" (taxes) that the governor of New Hampshire was attempting to impose on nearby citizens of other colonies.Roberts, p. 367 The fort was also used to collect duties from Massachusetts citizens for its own upkeep.Fort McClary at American Forts Network
/ref> This fortification was transferred to the United States government in 1803, known as Fort William, but none of its features are known to survive. The Pepperrells remained loyal to the British in 1775, so their property was confiscated by local

Patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

forces, including the fort. In 1776, ammunition was provided for the fort's 9-pounder and 12-pounder cannon, and the New Hampshire militia manned the fort until 1779.

Second system period

Fort McClary was officially established in 1808 as part of the second system of US fortifications. It was named for New Hampshire native Major

Andrew McClary Andrew McClary (1730 – June 17, 1775) was an Irish soldier and major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. McClary was born in Ulster, Ireland and came to colonial America with his parents at age sixteen where they lived o ...

, an American officer killed in the 1775

Battle of Bunker Hill The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in ...

.Fort McClary at FortWiki.com
/ref> It consisted of a semi-elliptical lower battery of 9 or 10 guns and a

shot furnace Heated shot or hot shot is round shot that is heated before firing from muzzle-loading cannons, for the purpose of setting fire to enemy warships, buildings, or equipment. The use of heated shot dates back centuries; it was a powerful weapon agains ...

, and an upper battery near the present blockhouse whose armament does not appear in references. The fort was used throughout the 19th century, most notably during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, but it saw no action.

Third system and Civil War

The fort was further expanded in the 1840s, probably a consequence of tensions with Great Britain over the disputed border between Maine and New Brunswick which culminated in the bloodless

Aroostook War The Aroostook War (sometimes called the Pork and Beans WarLe Duc, Thomas (1947). The Maine Frontier and the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 53, No. 1 (Oct., 1947), pp. 30–41), or the Madawaska War, wa ...

and the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty. The blockhouse was built in 1844 near the former upper battery; this was the last blockhouse built at a fort in Maine, and probably one of the last in a US coastal fort. The fort saw active use during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, at which time it achieved much of its present structure due to a rebuilding under the third system that was never completed. The fort was manned near the start of the war by the

Maine Coast Guard The state of Maine organized seven companies of militia infantry for coast guard duties in the Union Army during the American Civil War. They primarily served to garrison coastal fortifications in Maine, with two companies sent to the Defenses o ...

and the Kittery Artillery company, and in 1864 was also manned by the

Maine State Guard The Maine State Guard was the state defense force of the state of Maine during World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. As a state defense force, the State Guard served as a stateside replacement for the Maine National Guard when the Nation ...

. Its Civil War garrison notably included Vice President

Hannibal Hamlin Hannibal Hamlin (August 27, 1809 – July 4, 1891) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 15th vice president of the United States from 1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln's first term. He was the first Republican ...

, who enlisted in Company A of the Maine State Guard as a private and served as a cook in the fort. Some subsequent citations erroneously confuse his unit with the Maine Coast Guard — including a plaque at the fort. The fort saw little action during the Civil War. A major rebuilding and expansion began in 1863 as part of the third system of fortifications, and the intent was to create a large five-sided fort with one or two tiers of cannon all around. However, only the seawalls were completed on the two seaward fronts, along with one of the landward cannon bastions with a granite magazine. The seawall was defended by a small

caponier A caponier is a type of defensive structure in a fortification. Fire from this point could cover the ditch beyond the curtain wall to deter any attempt to storm the wall. The word originates from the French ', meaning "chicken coop" (a ''capon'' ...

with rifle ports.Weaver, pp. 99–101 Based on war experience, masonry forts were assessed as vulnerable to rifled cannon, and funding was withdrawn from all masonry fort projects in 1867, leaving Fort McClary with few cannon positions. A large number of granite blocks remain at the fort to this day.

Post Civil War to present

In the 1870s, the lower battery was rebuilt with three temporary gun positions for 10-inch

Parrott rifles The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War. Parrott rifle The gun was invented by Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point graduate. He was an American soldier and invento ...

, but funding was again cut off with few other improvements. In the 1890s, nine 15-inch Rodman smoothbore guns and seven carriages were stored at the fort, to be mounted in case of war. Three of the Rodmans were mounted as an emergency measure in the Spanish–American War of 1898. The fort was superseded by the construction of

Fort Foster (Kittery, Maine) Fort Foster, now part of Fort Foster Park, is a historic fort active 1901-1946 on the southwest tip of Gerrish Island in the Kittery Point area of Kittery, Maine. The park includes beaches and trails. Battery Bohlen and Battery Chapin were the ...

and new batteries at

Fort Constitution Fort William and Mary was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, defended by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle," was situ ...

under the Endicott Program by 1901. By the 1910s, most of the fort had fallen into disrepair and it was officially decommissioned in 1918. The State of Maine acquired most of the property from the federal government in 1924, after which it was managed as a park. Several of the dilapidated structures were demolished in the following decades. Parts of the fort were used by civilian defense forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1969, it was placed on 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 v ...

. The blockhouse and other structures were renovated in 1987, and the blockhouse serves as a museum.

References

* * *

External links

Fort McClary
from American Forts Network
Maine Bureau of Parks and Land: Fort McClary State Historic SiteFriends of Fort McClary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Mcclary

McClary McClary is an Irish surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Andrew McClary (1730–1775), Continental Army major in the American Revolutionary War *Charles McClary (1833–1904), Canadian politician *Susan McClary (born 1946), American ...

Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Maine in the American Civil War Buildings and structures in Kittery, Maine Pre-statehood history of Maine Protected areas of York County, Maine Museums in York County, Maine Military and war museums in Maine Maine state historic sites National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine Blockhouses