Defending a rich target - Fort Taber Park - New Bedford, MA - Massachusetts Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Defending a rich target
History of the Stone Fort at Clark’s Point

In 1840, the Army board of engineers met in Boston to plan a defense of the Atlantic Coast. New Bedford was considered important because of its fine harbor and industrial base. Major R. Delafield, (considered the “father of American Seacoast Artillery”) and Captain Robert E. Lee (later to become commander of the Army of Northern Virginia) drew up plans for a granite fort at Clark’s Point. $50,000 was authorized by the federal government for the construction of a 5-sided, 3-level fort. In 1857, the government paid $7000 Fort Edward Wing Howland’s farm as the site of the fort. Building began in 1857 after construction of a stone pier on the east side of the point. The pier was used for off-loading granite. Old whaleships were used to transport the stone from Sullivan, Maine. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the forts walls were incomplete. In 1862, LT Henry Maryland Robert (arthur of Robert’s Rules of Order) was appointed superintendent of construction. The first cannon were installed in 1863. With the end of the Civil War in 1865, construction slowed to a halt. In 1869, the beacon of Clark’s Point Lighthouse was moved atop the Fort. In 1871, construction ended with the second level. The unused blocks may still be seen along the shore today. The Army officially named the Fort in honor of New Bedford native Lt. Col. Logan Rodman, of the 38th Massachusetts Infantry, who fell at the head of his regiment in the assault on Port Harbor, LA in 1863. Although the Fort never “saw the flame of battle,” it served as a deterrent to those who might consider New Bedford and its whaling fleet a rich target.

Captions
upper right
The Stone Fort, in 1889, shown with old and new Clark’s point light houses

lower left
12-inch Rodman smoothbore heavy artillery rifle in one of the forts gun bay embrasures