Fort Macon State Park
Posted by: 
geodave88
N 34° 41.832 W 076° 40.673
18S E 346320 N 3840745
Fort Macon is a five-sided brick and stone fort that was constructed in 1826 to protect the ports of Beaufort and Morehead City on the North Carolina mainland.
Waymark Code: WM45YH
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2008
Views: 53
Fort Macon State Park encompasses the eastern tip of Bogue Banks, which is an east-west trending barrier near the southern terminus of the OBX. Fort Macon overlooks a deep channel in Beaufort Inlet that provides shipping access to the North Carolina mainland. This stretch of coast has endured a long, perilous history that dates back to the early 18th century. Maurading pirates, such as the infamous Blackbeard, took advantage of the treacherous shoals around the OBX to launch attacks on merchant trading vessels. The town of Beaufort was raided by Spanish bandits in 1747 and again by the British in 1782. Fort Macon was part of a chain of coastal defensive forts constructed for national defense after the war of 1812.
The following is a brief description of Fort Macon's role in the American Civil War (from Wikipedia):
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, and only two days elapsed before local North Carolina militia forces from Beaufort arrived to seize the fort for the state of North Carolina and the Confederacy. North Carolina Confederate forces occupied the fort for a year, preparing it for battle and arming it with 54 heavy cannons.
Early in 1862, Union forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside swept through eastern North Carolina, and part of Burnside's command under Brig. Gen. John G. Parke was sent to capture Fort Macon. Parke's men captured Morehead City and Beaufort without resistance, then landed on Bogue Banks during March and April to fight to gain Fort Macon. Col. Moses J. White and 400 North Carolina Confederates in the fort refused to surrender even though the fort was hopelessly surrounded. On April 25, 1862, Parke's Union forces bombarded the fort with heavy siege guns for 11 hours, aided by the fire of four Union gunboats in the ocean offshore and floating batteries in the sound to the east.
While the fort easily repulsed the Union gunboat attack, the Union land batteries, utilizing new rifled cannons, hit the fort 560 times. There was such extensive damage that Col. White was forced to surrender the following morning, April 26, with the fort's Confederate garrison being paroled as prisoners of war. This battle was the second time in history new rifled cannons were used against a fort, demonstrating the obsolescence of such fortifications as a way of defense. The Union held Fort Macon for the remainder of the war, while Beaufort Harbor served as an important coaling and repair station for its navy.
Type of site: Battlefield
Address:
2300 East Fort Macon Rd.
Atlantic Beach, NC USA
28512
Phone Number: 252-726-3775
Admission Charged: No Charge
Website: [Web Link]
Driving Directions: Not listed
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