Fort William Henry is located in the village of New Harbor in the town of

Bristol, Maine Bristol, known from 1632 to 1765 as Pemaquid (; today a village within the town) is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,834 at the 2020 census. A fishing and resort area, Bristol includes the villages of New Har ...

. 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 (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by 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 Great Britain and Spai ...

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 settlement at Pemaquid (present-day Bristol, Maine), a community on the border with Acadia. The siege was led by Pierre ...

. 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 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 ...

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 d ...

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 Dixie Bull (or Dixey Bull) was an English sea captain, and the first pirate known to prey on shipping off the New England coast, especially Maine. Biography Born in Huntingdon about 1611, he was apprenticed Skinner to his elder brother Seth in ...

. 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 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

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 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

, another fort was established with the

Treaty of Casco (1678) The Treaty of Casco (1678) was a treaty that brought to a close the war between the Indigenous Dawnland nations and the English settlers. There are no surviving copies of the treaty or its proceedings, so historians use a summary by Jeremy Belkn ...

, this third fort was named Fort Charles (1677–1689). Captain

Anthony Brockholst Major Anthony Brockholls (or Brockholst) ( – August 29, 1723) was and English born Commander-in-Chief (1677-8) and then acting Governor (1681-2) of New York. Career In 1677, he received a special commission as Commander-in-Chief and when Sir Ed ...

(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 All ...

. The Penobscot attacked John Gyles 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

Fort William Henry was built in 1692 during

. The English constructed it to defend against the French and

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

Acadia Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and early ...

. The English built Fort William Henry as a fortress to protect the northern boundary of New England. (Present-day

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine.; 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 institution that graduate ...

was an

Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

settlement, which marked the effective southern boundary of

.) 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 born in Maine in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was of humble origin, uneducated, and fatherless from a young age but rapidly advanced from shepherd boy, to shipwright, s ...

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) 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 ...

, 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 Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederick ...

. 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 t ...

, 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 (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, 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 (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 ...

, 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 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

in 1993.

References

External links