culkak.blogg.se

The fort was completed in December, 1834, and was improved with further modifications during 1841-46. Construction began in 1826 and lasted for eight years. It was named after North Carolina’s eminent statesman of the period, Nathaniel Macon. Fort Macon guarded Beaufort Inlet and Beaufort Harbor, North Carolina’s only major deep-water ocean port.įort Macon was designed by Brig. This ambitious undertaking involved the construction of thirty-eight new, permanent coastal forts known as the Third System.

The War of 1812 demonstrated the weakness of existing coastal defenses and prompted the United States government into beginning construction on an improved chain of coastal fortifications for national defense. Shore erosion and a hurricane in 1825 were responsible for sweeping Fort Hampton into Beaufort Inlet by 1825. This fort guarded the inlet during the subsequent War of 1812, but was abandoned after the end of the war. As a part of this defense, a small masonry fort named Fort Hampton, after a North Carolina Revolutionary War hero, was built to guard Beaufort Inlet during 1808-09. Fort Dobbs was never finished, and the inlet remained undefended during the American Revolution.Įarly in the 1800s, continued strained relations with Great Britian caused the United States government to build a national defense chain of forts for protection. In 1756 construction began there on a small fascine fort known as Fort Dobbs. The eastern point of Bogue Banks was determined to be the best location from which a fort might guard the entrance to Beaufort Inlet. North Carolina leaders recognized the need for coastal defenses to prevent future attacks and began efforts to construct forts. Indeed, Beaufort was captured and plundered by the Spanish in 1747, and again by the British in 1782. Blackbeard and other pirates passed through Beaufort Inlet at will, while successive wars with Spain, France and Great Britian during the Colonial Period provided a constant threat of coastal raids by enemy warships. The danger of naval attack along the North Carolina coast seems remote now, but during the 18th and 19th centuries the region around Beaufort was highly vulnerable to attack.