History of the Fort

Defend the Harbor against hostile warships and sea attack.

Defense against the Spanish (when we were still an English colony); defense against the English (American Revolution and War of 1812); and defense against pirates who operated in North Carolina sounds.

Beaufort was captured and pillaged by the Spanish (1747), and captured by the English (1782)

(see article: Blackbeard’s visit to Beaufort Inlet)

Fort Dobbs was begun in 1756 during French and Indian War, but the war ended and the fort was never completed.

In 1809, the Government built Fort Hampton, a circular brick masonry structure about 300 yards northeast of site of Fort Macon. Its guns protected the harbor through the War of 1812, but it was afterward abandoned. By 1825, storms and the shifting inlet had washed away some 200 yards of beach, including Fort Hampton. Lee noted in 1840 the site of the fort was denoted by a line of breakers offshore.

Fort Macon was part of a massive coastal defense program launched by President James Monroe to protect the coast without having to maintain a large navy.

Other forts on the coast (Sumter, Pulaski, Jackson, Jefferson, Morgan, Monroe, etc.) were part of the same program and could be considered sister forts of Fort Macon.

Fort Macon was named for Nathaniel Macon, very prominent North Carolina statesman of that period. Brig. General Simon Bernard was its architect.

Work started in 1826 and lasted 8 years to 1834. Chief Engineers who were responsible for constructing the fort were Lieutenant William Eliason, Captain John L. Smith and Lieutenant George Dutton, U.S. Army Engineers.
Cost of construction was $463,790. Some 9.2 million bricks were used.

Fort is of pentagon shape. One side guards mouth of inlet, two guard channel and back sounds, one looks over harbor, and one covers beach approaches.

Fort has outer line of defense (covertway) and an inner citadel. Separating the two is the “Ditch,” the bottom of which is near mean low tide level. It was sometimes filled with water which came up from the sound though a canal and passed under the outer wall by means of a culvert. The water was tidal.

The ditch was defended by four “Counterfire” rooms in the covertway which swept all avenues with rifle fire and small cannon firing anti-personnel ammunition. The purpose was to prevent enemy soldiers from overrunning the ditch and moat to penetrate into the main part of the fort.

The wall of the covertway (counterscarp wall) is 12 to 15 feet high. The outer wall of fort (scarp wall) is about 24 feet high. The wall inside fort overlooking parade ground is 17 feet high. The purple-gray stone used for stairways and coping on walls is Connecticut Freestone.

There are 26 casemates in fort (including sally port). The ceilings are arched to give added strength and dissipate concussion from shells exploding on terrepleins or from guns firing in battle. Rooms have fireplaces, two holes in ceiling for ventilation, and outer windows which are in reality rifle loopholes and gun ports.

Gutters in the walls caught rain water filtering through the sand from above and piped it to the four large cisterns located in the corners below the parade ground (they could hold 22,000 gallons). Because there was a seepage problem with salt water, the water was never used for drinking. Wells outside the fort provided drinking water.

Five sewers or drains carried water to a central drain in the center of the parade ground. This in turn was emptied by a pipe into the ditch under the bridge.

The fort had three magazines to store powder and ammunition, one located behind each of the three stairways. The stairways provided added protection against shellfire. Bathroom facilities were outside the fort. The fort “sink” was located at the head of the marsh for the big business. Droppings were carried away by the tide. Hospital, stables, storage buildings and quarters for some of the officers and married personnel were also located in buildings outside the fort.

The fort was first garrisoned in December, 1834, although no guns were given for its defense until a year afterward.

From this time until 1861, it was intermittently occupied by troops, engineer detachments making repairs and improvements, or ordnance sergeants acting as caretakers.

Robert E. Lee, a captain of Army Engineers, visited the fort in December, 1840, making a thorough inspection of it.

The fort was seized April 14, 1861, by a company of local troops acting without state orders. Only one man, ordnance sergeant William Alexander, was in the fort at the time.

The state quickly garrisoned the fort with more companies, making in all about 900 men. There were 40 men living in each room. Finally, the garrison was reduced and the living conditions improved.

The Confederates worked feverishly to prepare the fort for battle over the next few months. A total of 54 guns were mounted for its defense (consisting of 10- and 8-inch Columbiads, also rifled and smoothbore 32- and 24-pounders). These were the most guns the fort ever had.

Just before the Federal attack (March, 1862), the garrison was reduced to five artillery companies, all of which were from North Carolina, and two of which were from Carteret County. The fort commandant was Col. Moses J. White, of Mississippi. He was 27 years old, ranked number two in the West Point Class of 1858, and suffered from severe epilepsy.

Major General Ambrose Burnside led Federal forces through the northeastern sound region of the state in February, 1862, and finally entered the Neuse River to capture New Bern on March 14. A portion of one of his brigades, commanded by Brig. General John G. Parke, was then sent down from New Bern to capture Fort Macon. Burnside wanted to have Beaufort Harbor in his possession for the use of his own supply ships, as well as the ships of the Federal Navy.

Parke easily captured Morehead City and Beaufort on March 23 and 26, respectively, and then transferred his troops, supplies, and artillery over to Bogue Banks. Three demands to surrender were refused by the fort.

After several skirmishes with Confederate soldiers, Parke’s men succeeded in entrenching as close as 1400 yards from the fort, while three batteries of siege guns (two batteries of mortars and one of 30-pounder Parrott Rifle guns) were established 1280 to 1680 yards from the fort.

On April 25, 1862, the Federal batteries opened fire on the fort. The Confederates responded with at least 21 of their 54 guns which could bear on the Federal positions. Four vessels of the Federal blockading fleet joined in from the ocean, but the fort’s guns quickly drove them off. Two ships suffered damage.

Federal fire was missing the fort for most of the morning due to obscuring battle smoke. The turning point of the battle came when a Federal signal officer in Beaufort noticed this fact and signalled range correction to the batteries. After noon, every shot fired at the fort struck it or exploded over it. The fort had no mortars of its own and was unable to do much damage to the Federals in return.

By 4:30 p.m., two of the fort’s powder magazines were in danger of being hit and exploded by Federal shells. Rather than be blown up by their own gunpowder, the garrison had little choice but to surrender. Federal forces took possession of the fort on the following day.

The fort had been hit 560 times by artillery fire. Seventeen guns were knocked out or damaged. Seven Confederates were killed, eighteen wounded. One Federal killed, three wounded. Burnside allowed the garrison members to return home on parole until exchanged.

Federal forces continued to occupy Fort Macon through the remainder of the war. Battle damage was repaired and the Federals made certain they installed mortars for defense, so they would not repeat the mistake of the Confederates.

For the 12 years after the war, Federal soldiers continued to occupy the fort. It was used in this period as a Federal prison since there were no such prison facilities in either North or South Carolina during the Reconstruction.

The prisoners were mostly Government prisoners with an occasional civil prisoner (such as a murderer or rapist) thrown in. The most prisoners confined here at one time was 120, and the west wing was used mainly for their quarters.

In 1876 the prisoners were transferred elsewhere and by April of 1877 all the garrison troops at the fort were withdrawn. Reconstruction was ending and Government troops were being removed from the South.

The fort was virtually abandoned except for caretakers until 1898 when, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, it was occupied by a portion of the Third North Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black regiment commanded by Colonel James Young, also an African American. (North Carolina was one of three states requiring this arrangement.)

After 1903 the fort was abandoned for years. Finally, in 1924, the state acquired it from the Federal Government with the intentions of making it into a state park.

The lack of funds and the usual bureaucracy kept any work from being done until about 1934. At that time the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the government work programs spawned by the Great Depression, began to work on the fort to counteract the years of neglect and make it presentable to the public.

By the 1940s the park was serving the public, thanks to their massive efforts.

When war began in December 1941, the fort was once again occupied by troops.  The first battalion of the 244th Coast Artillery arrived on the 21st of December and was later replaced by battalions from the 54th, 2nd  and 246th Coast Artillery Regiments. Troops were quartered in the fort and in barracks outside. Radio and communications rooms, map-plotting rooms, and so forth were housed in the fort. On the beach were four M1917A1 155 mm G.P.F. seacoast guns, later replaced by two 6-inch navy guns, mounted on concrete platforms.

Although the troops here saw no action, the submarine war known as the “Battle of the Atlantic” was ever present. A number of allied ships and one German submarine were sunk just off the coast from the fort.

Two American soldiers were injured in Casemate 2 when a cannon shot they had placed in the fireplace as an andiron exploded from the heat of the fire. These men were both Northerners, so the local newspapers thought it humorous that two more “Yankees” had been gotten by a Confederate cannon ball some 80 years after the battle.

After World War II, the fort again became a state park. Since that time, the fort has been restored by the State.

Fort Macon State Park is the most visited park in the state, with over one million visitors passing through here each year.