Fort Clarence (formerly the Eastern Battery) was a British coastal fort built in 1754 at the beginning of 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 ...

in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. The battery was built on the grant of Capt.

John Rous John Rous (21 May 1702 – 3 April 1760) was a privateer and then an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during King George's War and the French and Indian War. Rous was also the senior naval officer on the Nova Scotia station during Father ...

. Initially it had 8 guns mounted. In spring 1759, a Mi'kmaq attack on the Eastern Battery killed five soldiers. On 17 November 1778, the

King's Orange Rangers The King's Orange Rangers, also known as the Corps of King's Orange Rangers, were a British Loyalist battalion, raised in 1776 to defend British interests in Orange County, Province of New York and generally in and around the New York colony, al ...

arrived by sea at Halifax.Leefe (1996), p.4. The reason for the transfer was probably to stem desertions by relocating the men to a place much farther away from their homes. The KOR was assigned to protect the Eastern Battery on the shore of Halifax harbour at the south end of Woodside, where the neighborhood of Imperoyal now exists. Eastern Battery was renamed Fort Clarence by Prince Edward on 20 October 1798 in honor of his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews, later King

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. In the late 1790s, a

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

replaced the blockhouse. The fort was rebuilt with stone in the 1860s. In 1929, Imperial Oil purchased the site which became part of its Dartmouth Refinery and the remaining parts of the fort were buried in the 1940s. The refinery was converted to an oil storage depot in 2013 and archeologists are calling for the fort to be excavated.

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Fort Clarence

Images of Fort Clarence during American Civil War
{{coord, 44.6399, -63.5401, type:landmark_region:CA-NS, display=title Military history of Nova Scotia History of Halifax, Nova Scotia Military forts in Nova Scotia

See also

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