Fort Phoenix

NATION Fort Phoenix is located in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, at the mouth of New RE Bedford Harbor. Situated on a promontory at the northwestern end of Sconticut Neck, sixty feet above eventide, the Fort and the beaches along the cove of the Neck make up Fort Phoenix Park which is a recreational area for local residents. The Fort is at the northern end of the park and ensconced among the smooth shore boulders which characterize the promontory. Seventy yards south of Fort Phoenix is a small parking lot for visitors; east and north of the Fort is a causeway and jetty which extends across the harbor and west of the Fort is the harbor. The original construction of Fort Phoenix began in 1775 after the Battle of Concord and Lexington.

Major General Grey, in his account to Sir Henry Clinton of his raid on the harbor area described the Fort as enclosed with eleven pieces of cannon, a barracks and magazine. The local militia immediately rebuilt the Fort after Grey's attack and, since "it rose from ashes," it was named Fort Phoenix. Unfortunately, no description of the rebuilt Fort can be found. After 1794 when the Federal Government took over the task of sea coast defense, Fort Phoenix received no attention. However, local interest and Town ownership since 1922 has main- tained the structure so that today it is in an excellent state of preservation. The Fort is horse-shoe shaped; its east wall missing. The shape and dimensions of the Fort are irregular following the contours of the promontory on which it is built.

This is particularly true of the exterior dimensions. The design of the Fort is simple, consisting of an outer and an inner wall, between which sod and earth fill forms a parapet.

General Gage, bottled up in Boston Harbor after the Battle of Concord and Lexington in 1775, sent the H. M. S. Falcon southward to Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands in search of food supplies. The appearance of this emblem of royal tyranny in the waters of Buzzards Bay incited the people of the villages of New Bedford and Fairhaven to action. Captain Nathaniel Pope and twenty-five local militiamen outfitted a sloop, the Success, and sailed out into the Bay seeking a prize. Two native sloops, previously taken by the Falcon were found at anchor and captured at the cost of one Redcoat dead. The prisoners were escorted to Taunton jail and the men of Fairhaven had taken part in one of the first naval engagements of the War.

The local militia next took precautions to protect their harbor and possessions from future enemy incursions. A fort was begun on the northwestern end of Sconticut Neck and completed two years later, in 1777. During the early years of the War, the rebel colonies (without a formal navy) engaged heavily in privateering. Sir Henry Clinton described the area around Fairhaven and Bedford as a "noted rendezvous for privateers." In a retaliatory action on 5 September 1778, over 4, 000 British troops under the command of General Grey landed on the western shore of the harbor at Clarke's Point, marched inland destroying warehouses, stores and rebel property. Over seventy ships (including several recent prizes of Count D'Estaing) lay in the harbor and all were destroyed.

The British then crossed the Acushnet River and marched down the Fairhaven side to Sconticut Neck. The Fort was deserted and the British destroyed it, burning the carriages, knocking the trunions off the cannon, burning the barracks and blowing up the magazine.