Early Portland forts A Revolutionary War battery existed on the site of
Fort Allen Park, and some sources state that it was named Fort Allen at that time. In 1794
Fort Sumner was built on
Munjoy Hill in
Portland, with a
blockhouse at the current
Standpipe Park and a water battery or "detached battery", possibly on the site of Fort Allen. Fort Sumner was part of the
first system of US fortifications. Additional fortifications were built under the second system of US fortifications, with
Fort Preble and
Fort Scammell completed in 1809. Fort Preble was in what was then the northern part of
Cape Elizabeth, which is now
South Portland. Fort Scammell (a.k.a. Fort Scammel) was on
House Island, across from Fort Preble. These forts were built due to a war scare with the British, and their construction coincided with the deeply unpopular
Embargo Act of 1807, which emerged from the same war scare and prohibited the lucrative trade with Britain and France. The first use the forts were put to was enforcement of the embargo, so the forts' existence was locally suspect. During the
War of 1812 (which broke out due to the same tensions with Britain) the city of Portland refurbished and rearmed
Fort Allen with city resources, due to fears of a British attack. Fort Preble was expanded with new batteries in 1845, and Fort Scammell's walls were extended around this time. In 1858-62 construction began on additional fortifications in Portland harbor, part of the
third system of US fortifications. The construction of
Fort Gorges on a small ledge island to the north of House Island began in 1858. After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, a complete rebuilding of Fort Scammell and a modernization of Fort Preble began in 1862. By the end of the war Fort Gorges was largely complete, while the design of Fort Scammell was cut back to allow completion; Fort Preble's third system batteries were never completed or armed. All three of these forts were modified in the 1870s to provide earthwork-protected batteries for
Rodman guns; in the case of Fort Gorges these were on the roof. However, funding was cut off in 1876 with the program partially complete, and it was over 20 years before the modern gun batteries of the Endicott program were completed. The only enemy action in Portland harbor since the Revolutionary War occurred on 27 June 1863 and was called the
Battle of Portland Harbor or the
Caleb Cushing affair. Confederate raiders on
CSS Tacony, pursued by the Union Navy, captured a fishing vessel named
Archer and set fire to
Tacony to evade pursuit. They were successful, and infiltrated the port of Portland on
Archer. They then seized the
Revenue Service cutter Caleb Cushing and attempted to flee the harbor in it along with
Archer. A group of about 30 soldiers from Fort Preble and 100 civilians (issued muskets at the fort) commandeered a pair of steamships with a light artillery piece on each one. It appears the Confederates avoided the forts, but soon the wind shifted against them and the Union's steamships closed in. With their capture imminent, the Confederates set fire to
Cushings magazines and abandoned the ship before it blew up. All the Confederates were captured and imprisoned.
Endicott period As recommended by the
Endicott Board of 1885, construction began in 1893 on five forts to defend Portland harbor. After the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, several gun batteries were hastily emplaced, as most of the Endicott batteries were still years from completion. It was feared that the
Spanish fleet would bombard the US east coast. The locations of most of these batteries, except one
6-inch Armstrong gun at Fort Williams, are unclear, but Fort Preble and Fort McKinley are the most likely sites. A total of six
8-inch M1888 breech-loading guns on converted Rodman carriages, along with a pair of muzzle-loading
8-inch converted Rodman rifles, were emplaced. Two
underwater minefields also guarded the harbor entrances. Fort Williams had two
12-inch (305 mm) and five
10-inch (254 mm) guns, Fort Levett had three 12-inch and two 10-inch guns, Fort Preble had sixteen
12-inch mortars, and Fort McKinley had eight 12-inch mortars, two 12-inch guns, and eight
8-inch (203 mm) guns. Each fort also had two or four
6-inch (152 mm) guns and between two and four
3-inch (76 mm) guns. Fort Lyon was the smallest with three 6-inch guns and three 3-inch guns.
World War I The
American entry into World War I brought many changes to the Coast Artillery and CD Portland. As the only component of the Army with heavy artillery experience and significant manpower, the Coast Artillery was chosen to operate almost all US-manned heavy and
railway artillery in that war. Stateside garrisons were drawn down to provide experienced gun crews on the
Western Front. Some weapons were removed from forts with the intent of getting US-made artillery into the fight. 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch guns and 12-inch mortars were converted to railway artillery, while 5-inch and 6-inch guns became
field guns on wheeled carriages. However, few railway artillery pieces were mounted and few or none saw action before the
Armistice. The remounted 5-inch and 6-inch guns were sent to France, but their units did not complete training in time to see action. Two 10-inch guns from Fort Williams and seven 6-inch guns from Forts Williams, McKinley, and Lyon were removed; after the war the 10-inch guns and two of Fort McKinley's 6-inch guns were returned. The mortar batteries at Forts Preble and McKinley were permanently halved, both to provide railway mortars and increase the rate of fire of the remaining mortars (by reducing overcrowding in the mortar pits).
Interwar In January 1921 Battery Foote at
Fort Levett was completed; this was a battery of two 12-inch (305 mm) guns on long-range barbette carriages that increased the guns' range from to . The battery originally had open mounts, but was
casemated in World War II. On 1 July 1924 the harbor defense garrisons completed the transition from a company-based organization to a regimental one, and on 9 June 1925 the commands were renamed from "Coast Defenses..." to "Harbor Defenses...". With greatly reduced manpower requirements, on 25 February 1944 most of the 8th Coast Artillery's personnel were reassigned to HD Portland and the remaining personnel reassigned elsewhere. Following mobilization in 1940 HD Portland was subordinate to
First Army. On 24 December 1941 the Eastern Theater of Operations (renamed the
Eastern Defense Command three months later) was established, with all
east coast harbor defense commands subordinate to it, along with
antiaircraft and fighter assets. This command was disestablished in 1946. The
US Navy also participated in defending Casco Bay with
net defenses and submarine-detecting
indicator loops, with stations at Fort Williams, Peaks Island (Station 1F), Cape Elizabeth (Two Lights) (Station 1B), and Bailey Island (Station 1A). Although it was a major naval
anchorage, the
Casco Bay area saw action only once in World War II.
USS Eagle 56 (PE-56) exploded and sank a few miles east of the Cape Elizabeth Military Reservation on 23 April 1945. Despite some evidence of an enemy submarine in the area, a Court of Inquiry initially attributed this to a boiler explosion. However, in 2001 the Navy determined that
Eagle 56 was torpedoed by
U-853, a German
U-boat that was later sunk in the
Battle of Point Judith, Rhode Island on 5–6 May 1945, two days before Germany's surrender.
Post World War II Following the war, it was soon determined that gun defenses were obsolete, and they were scrapped within a few years. By 1948 this was complete, and the remaining coast defense functions were turned over to the Navy. On 1 January 1950 the Coast Artillery Corps and all Army harbor defense commands were finally dissolved. Today the
Air Defense Artillery carries the lineage of some Coast Artillery units. ==Present==