Radio Script #1212

Little Talks on Common Things
October 14, 1979

As most of my listeners well know, Maine has a number of interesting forts, once built for protection of our people, but for a long time left unused. I thought it might be of interest to devote a broadcast to the history of fortifications in Maine.

In the early pioneer days, when the vast, unsettled areas of Maine land were first being opened to the white man’s settlement, the only danger was from hostile Indians. The Abenaki, naturally a peaceful people,were therefore noteasily stirred to hostility. That they did become relentless foes of the English settlements was due to two reasons. The English were slow to understand Indian ways and customs; too quickly they looked upon the Red Man as one to be exploited for profit. Get his highly prized furs by paying him in British goods of cheap quality, but charge him high prices for them. Value his furs as low as you could get away with. In the so-called Indian deeds of land, which had little legality to begin with, the British cheated the Indians badly. That one reason might have brought hostility, but a second powerful cause was added to it, the influence of the French. The early French were explorers or traders, not settlers. Their influence spread through the appearance among all the tribes of missionaries and those far-wandering fur traders called the “voyageurs de bois”, the travelers of the woods. Later, when the French settlements on the St. Lawrence grew into cities, the Indians were already friendly toward the French.

As the long period of the struggle in Europe between France and England continued through one war after another, interrupted only by brief intervals of peace, what were called in Maine the six Indian wars from 1675 to 1760 were all merely parts of that long contest on the continent. It was inevitable that France and England should oppose each other in America just as they did in Europe. And for reasons we have indicated, the Maine Indians sided with the French.

Sometimes a pioneer Maine settlement was attacked solely by a band of Indians, but even when they were not led by French commanders, as they often were, their raids were stimulated by the French. Even when a small sub-tribe like the Norridgewocks sought revenge for some alleged British wrong, it was often a French officer or a French missionary who stirred them to vengeance.

What Maine called the First Indian War, and what the Provincial Government in Boston called King Philip’s War broke out in 1675, when there were very few English settlements in all of Maine except near the New Hampshire border or on the sea coast as far as Casco Bay. Thus from the very beginning, Maine settlers had to seek protection from Indian raids, whether made on the Red Man’s own initiative or stimulated by the French. In the earliest days there were two common forms of defense: the block house and the garrison house. The block house was a structure usually placed on a hill, and was large enough to house a dozen families for a brief time. It was stocked with provisions to withstand a siege of several days. Such a block house was on what came to be called Fort Hill in Gorham, when my mother’s ancestors came to that community, and it is vividly described by Elijah Kellogg in his book “Good Old Times”. The garrison house was a permanent dwelling. There might be several in the same community, because with the passage of time the farms became so widely separated that not all inhabitants could get the alarm in time to seek refuge in a single block house. So, many a large dwelling was constructed as a garrison house. It was built so that the second story projected about two feet out over the first floor. Their replicas can be seen today, still called garrison houses, in modern housing developments. The purpose of the projection was to enable defenders to fire down on the attacking Indians and prevent them from breaking in the doors or setting fire to the roof. Loopholes for use of muskets were on all four sides of the building on both floors, and because, when not in use, those holes were plugged with blocks of wood, and were just used in those captive hilltop forts, we got the word block house.

One notable garrison house was the home of the minister at York, a very sizeable building nearly square, 56 by 52 feet. The block house and the garrison house provided settlers with effective defense during the Indian wars. Though more than one of them had to surrender to overwhelming Indian strength, the large majority withheld siege after siege. The large stone forts, some of which still stand, came later as a result of the Revolution and subsequent wars. But even before the Revolution there had been built in Maine a number of stout wooden forts, occupying large plots of land, usually on a stream or on the ocean, and always surrounded by a stout stockade. At two or more of the stockade corners were block houses and inside the fenced area were a number of buildings. Such larger forts were Fort William, honoring Sir William Pepperell at Kittery, Fort Pownall on the Penobscot at Stockton Springs, Fort Shirley at Richmond, Fort Western at Augusta and Fort Halifax at Winslow.

Fort Halifax gives us an example of what those larger wooden forts were like. It was typically situated on water, the junction of the Sebasticook and Kennebec Rivers. It had a high palisade of stakes. Inside were officers quarters, enlisted men’s barracks, and a storehouse, a powder magazine, and a well. At three corners were blockhouses. Loopholes in the big barricade provided defense at the fourth corner. On the top of the hill east of the fort, the elevation that Winslow people long called Fort Hill, were two more blockhouses. They were not like the big blockhouses of earlier days, meant to hold inhabitants during sieges but more like look-out stations that would be manned by uniformed soldiers, not resident farmers. The great difference between those larger forts that became so common just before the Revolution and the earlier forts was that they were meant to have stationed with them a body of militia providing permanent protection.
The first substantial, nearly impregnable Maine fort was built at Machias in 1775, just as the Revolution was beginning. During that conflict, as many as 1000 men were stationed at what was called Fort O’Brien in honor of the sea captain that had captured a British ship there in the early days of the conflict. The name was later changed to Fort Machias. Because the Maine coast east of the Saco River was well inhabited by the British, there were many attempts to capture Fort O’Brien, but none were successful. During the War of 1812 a British fleet of five men-of-war and transports loaded with infantry, appeared at the mouth of the Machias River. Their attack was repulsed by the American defenders, and the fleet returned to Halifax, N.S.

I have previously referred to Fort Pownall. That was a wooden fort at Stockton Springs. It had been put up about the same time as Forts Western and Halifax, some twenty years before the Revolution. An unhappy experience was the Penobscot Expedition in 1779, exactly 200 years ago, when a whole American fleet fled up the Penobscot and was destroyed by pursuing British. That convinced the new U.S. Government of the need for stronger protection on the river. The disputes over the boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick and part of Quebec, brought the issue to a head and in 1848 a stone fort was started at Prospect, across the Penobscot River from Bucksport. Signing of the Webster-Ashburton treaty, ending the boundary dispute delayed the forts completion and it was never fully finished.

By the opening of the Civil War more than $100,000 had been spent on building that Prospect structure called Fort Knox, in honor of George Washington’s artillery commander and first Secretary of War, and later the wealthy developer of the area that is now Knox County. From 1861 to 1864 Congress appropriated an additional $270,000 for further work and expansion in the fort. Soldiers were stationed there, and it had living quarters, two stone houses, a hospital, a guard house and a blacksmith shop. Fort Knox was used again during the Spanish-American War in 1898 when a regiment was stationed there.

The St. George’s River below Thomaston saw a succession of smaller forts from 1719 until 1809, when the federal government built a strong fort, with a rampart in the form of a crescent toward the river, and protected by 18 pound guns. Attached were barracks, a blockhouse, and a brick magazine, all surrounded by a high fence. In 1814 a British ship captured that fort and spiked its guns. We need not consider that so great a disgrace since in the same war the British
burned the American capital city of Washington.

Phippsburg at the mouth of the Kennebec saw a long succession of forts beginning as early as 1607. It finally had two large, stone fortifications. The one better known was Fort Popham, built in 1861, at the opening of the Civil War. That fort, now controlled by the State of Maine, sees several thousand visitors every year. An even later fort is Phippsburg’s Fort Baldwin built as late as 1912, on Satine Hill. The decision to build it was made because of threat of war in Europe, which soon did result in World War I. During that war some 200 men were stationed at Forts Popham and Baldwin. Fort Edgecomb, between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Rivers, not far from the Lincoln county seat of Wiscasset, was built in 1809 on the site of an earlier fort of the 18th century. All that is left today is a two-story blockhouse surrounded by a tower. Once it had a large, red painted palisade with huge oak gates, and inside was a huge parade ground.

At the mouth of the Kennebec, on two islands, the federal government planned the erection of two minor fortifications which were to be known as the North Sugar Loaf Fort and the South Sugar Loaf Fort. Although the government acquired title to the islands,no fort was ever built on either. The State of Maine later got the property back. An important, constantly visited fort is Fort MClary at Kittery. It was the successor to Fort William and was constructed in 1808. Besides the fortification itself, it had quarters for officers and men, a kitchen and mess hall, a chapel, blockhouse, magazine, guard house and hospital.

In 1923, spurred by Governor Percival Baxter, the State of Maine purchased from the federal government the properties at Fort St. George, Fort Knox, Fort Machias, Fort Edgecomb, Fort Popham, Fort Baldwin and Fort McClary. They are no longer federal structures but belong to the State of Maine.

Year: 1979