Fort William Henry is located in the village of New Harbor in the town of Bristol, Maine. The fort was, in its time, the largest in New England. The fort was originally built in 1692 but destroyed four years later by

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

in the

Siege of Pemaquid (1696) The siege of Pemaquid occurred during King William's War when French and Native forces from New France attacked the English overseas possessions, English settlement at Pemaquid (present-day Bristol, Maine), a community on the border with Acadia. ...

. A reconstruction was built in 1908. The fort was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on December 1, 1969. Fort William Henry is now operated as a museum about the fort's history. Fort William Henry is part of the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site, which also includes the archaeological excavations of 17th and 18th century village buildings and a museum with excavated artifacts found on the site, including

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

balls, coins, pottery and early hardware.

History

The first fort on this site was Abraham Shurte's Fort (1630–1633), a palisaded trading post that was burned down by pirates under Dixie Bull. The next fort on the site was Fort Pemaquid (1633–1676), which was destroyed in the Northwest Coast Campaign (1676) during

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...

Fort Charles

After the Northeast Coast Campaign (1677) during

King Philips War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands ...

, another fort was established with the Treaty of Casco (1678), this third fort was named Fort Charles (1677–1689). Captain Anthony Brockholst (Brockholes) was left in command of Pemaquid in March 1689. Fort Charles was captured early in

King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Allian ...

. The Penobscot attacked

John Gyles John Gyles (1680 at Pemaquid, Maine1755 at Roxbury, Boston) was an interpreter and soldier, most known for captivity narrative, his account of his experiences with the Maliseet tribes at their headquarters at Meductic Indian Village / Fort Medu ...

and his family near the fort and took him captive before burning the fort in August 1689. Gyles published his experience years later and described the destruction of the fort: :The Fort was surrendered, and Capt Weems went off and soon after the Indians set on fire the fort & houses which made a terrible blast, and was a melancholy sight to us poor captives who were sad spectators. The English regained their authority over the region by building Fort William Henry.

Fort William Henry

The English built Fort William Henry in 1692 during

to defend New England's northern boundary against the French and

Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner"; also: Wabanakia, "Dawnland") is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal Eastern Algonquian nations ...

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

. (Present-day

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine, United States.; John Faragher. ''Great and Nobel Scheme''. 2005. p. 68. The population was 1,320 at the 2020 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institut ...

was an

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

settlement, which marked the effective southern boundary of

.) The Massachusetts government used one third of its budget to build the fort. Construction of the fort was ordered by Massachusetts Governor Sir

William Phips Sir William Phips (or Phipps; February 2, 1651 – February 18, 1695) was the first royally appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and the first native-born person from New England to be knighted. Phips was famous in his lifeti ...

and cost £20,000 to build. The English colonial militia leader Benjamin Church assisted in the construction. The fort was built with walls that were 10 to 22 feet in height and a stone bastion which was 29 feet in height. The fort was armed with 20 cannon and a garrison of 60 soldiers. The fort was attacked by a combined force of French and Native Americans in the

. The English were forced to surrender the fort and abandon the Pemaquid area. Benjamin Church avenged the destruction of the fort with the

Raid on Chignecto (1696) The Raid on Chignecto occurred during King William's War when New England forces from Boston attacked the Isthmus of Chignecto, Acadia in present-day Nova Scotia. The raid was in retaliation for the French and Indian Siege of Pemaquid (1696) at ...

against Acadia.

Fort Frederick

After

Father Rale's War Dummer's War (1722–1725) (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) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Waban ...

, Colonel David Dunbar, Surveyor-General of the King's Woods, rebuilt the fort in 1729–1730, renaming it Fort

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

. During

King George's War King George's War (1744–1748) is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in ...

, Fort Frederick was attacked during the Northeast Coast Campaign (1745) by bands of Penobscot and Norridgewock.Williamson, p. 236 They took captive a woman, which alarmed the garrison but she escaped. The fort withstood two attacks in 1747. During the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

, the fort was decommissioned in 1759 after a new Fort Frederick was built on the Saint John River the previous year. In 1775, the town dismantled the fort to prevent it from becoming a British stronghold during the Revolutionary War. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, the waters off Pemaquid Point saw the capture of HMS ''Boxer'' by the USS ''Enterprise'' on September 5, 1813. The fort was occupied by the British twice during the war. The state acquired the site in 1902, and in 1908 rebuilt the tower of Fort William Henry under guidance of historian John Henry Cartland, using many original stones. In 1969, the fort was listed on the

. The entire state historic site (including the fort and other surrounding colonial archaeological remains) was designated the "Pemaquid Archeological Site"

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

in 1993.

References

External links