Fort Preble (South Portland, Maine)
South Portland · Maine · War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II
History & Significance
Secretary of War Henry Dearborn authorized construction of Fort Preble in 1808 with his son, Henry A. S. Dearborn, supervising the construction. The fort was named in honor of Commodore Edward Preble, who led a squadron of American warships during the Barbary Wars.
In October 1808, Dearborn ordered a company of the Regiment of Light Artillery to occupy the fort and enforce the Embargo Act against embargo-breaking ships. The embargo was an attempt to punish Britain and France for actions against US shipping.
The embargo was lifted in March 1809, but the situation eventually led to the War of 1812. When Winfield Scott and other American soldiers returned from British imprisonment in Quebec, they were landed at Fort Preble.
Many of them were emaciated and ill, and some died at the post's hospital. During the American Civil War, Fort Preble became the headquarters and recruiting depot of the 17th US Infantry Regiment and was also mobilization site for volunteer regiments recruited in Maine.
Soldiers from the fort saw action when Confederate Army raiders entered Portland Harbor on June 26, 1863, aboard a captured ship named Archer. The Confederates captured the United States Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing the next day, and attempted an escape in an action known as the Battle of Portland Harbor.
In the 1870s Fort Preble was modernized under the supervision of Army engineer Thomas Lincoln Casey. These improvements included added emplacements for large caliber guns behind earthen parapets, as masonry walls were found to be ineffective against rifled artillery shells. After World War II it was determined that coast defense forts were obsolete and Fort Preble, along with most forts of its kind, was inactivated in 1950.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Early 1800s coastal defense fort overlooking Portland Harbor
- Original and modernized artillery batteries spanning War of 1812 through WWII eras
- Preserved early 20th-century military buildings and structures
- Museum exhibits on coastal defense history and fort operations
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Preble
- https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/fort-preble
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55568
- https://www.smccme.edu/about/fort-preble-the-greenbelt/
- https://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/fortifying-portland-harbors-sentinel/
- https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/3372/display?use_mmn=1
- https://fortwiki.com/Fort_Preble
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbor_Defenses_of_Portland
- https://grokipedia.com/page/fort_preble
- https://www.pressherald.com/2025/01/13/from-augusta-repairing-fort-preble-and-preserving-our-history/