Fort O'Brien - Machiasport, ME - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Historic Fort Machias

Built in 1775 immediately after the first naval battle of the American Revolution took place offshore, Fort Machias was a four-gun battery that guarded the mouth of the Machias River in cooperation with Fort Foster, located a mile or so upriver. The British destroyed the fort in the same year. This state historic site is one of few Maine forts active during three wars - the American Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War. The fort's layout was altered several times over the 90 years it was active on this site, but the fort's important role in protecting the Machias River and its towns remained unchanged. It was refortified in 1777.

From 1808 - 1818, this was a four-gun crescent-shaped earthwork fort. In 1814 the British captured the fort and burned the barracks. It was returned in 1818.

The Cannon
In the middle of the earthworks of the Civil War era battery is a bronze cannon known as a "Napoleon" or 12-pounder. It fired 12 pound cannonballs, spherical case shot, or cannister, the latter being made up of numerous small pieces of iron that tore through infantry formations or a ship's rigging at close range. This cannon tube weighs 1216 pounds and was made at the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts in 1862. It originally sat on a wooden carriage that weighed an additional 1128 pounds. In optimal conditions, this gun could fire a ball 1600 yards, just enough to reach across the mouth of the Machias River.

Fort O'Brien
Fort O'Brien (1863 - 1865) was a Civil War five-gun earthworks fort built next to the ruins of Fort Machias. Well-preserved earthworks which overlook Machias Bay were erected fora battery of guns in 1863. In 1923, the United States Government deeded the site of both forts to the State of Maine.

The Foster Rubicon
A bronze tablet, mounted on a stone on the east side of Route 92 between here and Machias, reads:


Near this spot, in June 1775, the men of Machias, confronted by a peremptory demand backed by armed force that they should furnish necessary supplies to their country's enemies, met in open air council to choose between ignoble peace and all but hopeless war. The question was momentous and the debate was long. After some hours of fruitless discussion, Benjamin Foster, a man of action rather than words, leaped across this brook and called all those to follow him who would, whatever the risk, stand by their countrymen and their country's cause. Almost to a man the assembly followed and, without further formality, the settlement was committed to the Revolution.
From informational plaques at the fort