16th17th18thC Fortifications in North America-NOV17.kmz

16th/17th/18thC Fortifications in North America
Much of the information about these fortifications was gathered from WIKIPEDIA*, condensed for brevity and edited for continuity. Several errors have been discovered which we have tried to correct. If further errors are detected, please notify HistoryMapping through our 'Comments' page.
[*See this primary source for more detailed information.]

Star forts

Star Forts - defined
A bastion fort or star fort* is a fortification in a style that evolved during the age of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield. It was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy.
The star fortress was a very flat structure, often a square, pentagon or hexagon, composed of a varying number of triangular bastions at the corners of the walls, specifically designed to cover each other.* These projections were present for the purpose of a total, panoramic view of the battlefield. As a result of this design, archers and cannon operators could hit any target on the battlefield without having to lean over the wall and put themselves in danger.
In addition, there would have been a ditch that surrounded this structure. The outer side of the ditch was usually provided with an artificial slope upwards to deflect cannonballs aimed at the lower part of the main walls. In addition, defensive walls were made lower and thicker in order to deflect the cannon barrage. To counteract the fact that lower walls were easier to climb, the ditch was widened so that attacking infantry were still exposed to fire from a higher elevation.
Many bastion forts also featured 'cavaliers', which are raised secondary structures based entirely inside the primary fort. Other structures and even detached forts could be added to create complex outer works to further protect the main walls from artillery and sometimes provided additional defensive positions. They were built of many materials, but most commonly of earth and brick, because brick does not shatter on impact from a cannonball as stone does.
[WIKIPEDIA]
[*The complex geometric formula for determining size and shape of walls & bastions can be obtained from sources such as: Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier by William A Hunter.]

diagram for construction of a star fort - Hunter

plan of Fort DuQuesne - 1759

example: Fort Warren MA - 1833

example: Fort McHenry MD - 1798

Liberty Island [Fort Wood NY - 1806]

The Countries
The earliest "forts" were primarily just trading posts that did business with the Native Americans in the area. The Dutch and the Swedes were early 17thC settlers in the northeastern part of the continent, developing areas of coastal New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Swedes were a smaller presence, settling along the Delaware River in what became Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.
As unrest escalated with the various native American tribes as well as the British & French, these trading posts became increasingly more fortified. By the French & Indian War era [1754-1763], numbers of these fortifications had been built. They often changed country of ownership over the course of the various conflicts, many surviving to be used into the Revolutionary War period as well.
NOTE - THESE FORTS ARE COLOR-CODED AS FOLLOWS:
Dutch - orange
Swedish - pink
French - blue
English/British - green
Spanish - red
American or unknown - yellow
[For further information on individual forts, see WIKIPEDIA or 'The Colonies', listed below.]

17thC Dutch
The Dutch were a strong presence in the northeast part of the continent (especially New York & New Jersey) early in the history of this country. But their strength quickly waned when the English came in and by 1664 they had lost hold of their power and their properties.

Fort Nassau NY - 1614

Fort Orange NY - 1624

Fort Amsterdam NY - 1625

Star Fort - south of The Wall

Fort Wilhelmus NJ - 1625

Fort Nassau NJ - c. 1627

Zwaanendael Colony DE - 1631

Fort Good Hope CT - 1633 [vicinity]

Dutch blockhouses NY - 1636/1663

Fort Casimir DE - 1651

Fort Beversreede PA - 1651 [exact location unknown]

The Wall - 1653 [very approximate location]
There are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named "de Waalstraat" got its name. A generally accepted version is that the name of the street was derived from a wooden palisade on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, built to protect against Native Americans, pirates, and the British.
In the 1640s, basic picket and plank fences defined plots and residences in the colony. Later, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, using both African slaves and white colonists, collaborated with the city government in the construction of a more substantial fortification, a strengthened 12-foot wall.
In 1685, surveyors laid out Wall Street along the lines of the original stockade.

[Fort Christina>] Fort Altna DE - 1655

The Rondout NY - 1657

Fort Bergen/Bergen Square NJ - 1661

17thC Swedish
The Swedes were a minor power in the mid-Atlantic along the lower Delaware River and were shorlty overcome by the stronger Dutch presence in the area. The word "Nya" in Swedish means 'new'... so they were naming their villages after ones they remembered from home.
[For descriptions of the forts, see States.]

Fort Christina DE - 1638

Fort Mecoponacka PA - 1641

Fort Nya Elfsborg NJ - 1643

Fort Nya Gothenborg PA - 1643

Fort Nya Vasa PA - 1646

Fort Nya Korsholm PA - 1647

17th & 18thC Spanish

Castillo de San Marcos FL - 1672 [Spanish>British>Spanish]
This is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. The fort was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza. Construction began in 1672, 107 years after the city's founding, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. The first stones were laid in 1672; the construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695.
When Britain gained control of Florida in 1763, pursuant to the Treaty of Paris, St. Augustine became the capital of British East Florida, and the fort was renamed Fort St. Mark until the Peace of Paris (1783) when Florida was transferred back to Spain.
In 1819 Spain signed a treaty which ceded Florida to the United States in 1821. At that point the fort was renamed Fort Marion, in honor of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion.

Fort Mose FL - 1738
As early as 1687, the Spanish government had begun to offer asylum to slaves from British colonies. In 1693, the Spanish Crown officially proclaimed that runaways would find freedom in Florida, in return for converting to Catholicism and a term for men of four years' military service to the Crown.
In 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano ordered construction of the Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé military fort about two miles north of St. Augustine. Slaves escaping from the British colonies were directed there. The village had a wall around it, with dwellings inside, plus a church and an earthen fort.
Following the murder of some inhabitants at the fort by Indian allies of the British, it was abandoned and its inhabitants resettled in St. Augustine. In 1740, British forces led by James Oglethorpe of Georgia attacked and captured the fort in the Siege of Fort Mose. During the ensuing conflict, a Floridian force consisting of Spanish troops, Indian auxiliaries, and free black militia counterattacked Oglethorpe's troops and defeated them decisively, destroying the fort in the process. Because the fort was destroyed, its inhabitants stayed in St. Augustine. By 1752, the Spanish had rebuilt Fort Mose.
An archeological excavation in 1986 revealed the site of the original Fort Mose, as well as the second facility constructed in 1752.

16th/17th/18thC French
The French forts built in what is now the United States were part of a series of fortresses built from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi Delta, as far west as the Dakotas, and as far east as Maine.
The earliest of the French forts were located in Canada:
Fort Charlesbourg Royal [1541-1543] Cap-Rouge, Quebec
Fort St. Louis [1620-1834] Quebec, Quebec
Fort St. Louis [1623-1930] Cape Sable Island Nova Scotia
Fort Sainte Anne [1629-1641] Englishtown, Nova Scotia
Fort Anne [1636] Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
Fort Richelieu [1641] near Sorel-Tracy, Quebec
Fort Ville-Marie [1642-1688] Montreal, Quebec
Fort Saint-François [1660] Trois-Rivières, Quebec
Fort Plaisance [1662] Placentia, Newfoundland & Labrador
Fort Chambly [1665] Chambly, Quebec
Fort Sainte Thérèse [1665] Carignan, Quebec
Fort Lachine [1669-1695] Lachine, Quebec
Fort Sainte Anne (Hudson Bay) 1670 (1686) Fort Albany, Ontario
Fort Pointe-aux-Trembles [1670] Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec
Fort Senneville [1671] Montreal, Quebec
Fort Frontenac [1673] Kingston, Ontario
Fort Témiscamingue [1679] Ville Marie, Quebec
Fort St. Louis [1670s/1686) Moose Factory, Ontario
Fort de la Montagne [1685] Montreal, Quebec
Fort Saint Jacques [1686-1693 & 1697-1713] Waskaganish, Quebec (Fort Rupert) Quebec
Fort Laprairie [1687] Laprairie, Quebec
Fort Royal (Newfoundland) 1687 Placentia Newfoundland and Labrador
Fort Saint Louis [1690-1713] Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Citadelle of Montreal [1690-1821] Montreal, Quebec
* Citadelle of Quebec [1693] Quebec City, Quebec
Fort Bourbon (North) [1697] York Factory, Manitoba
Fort St. Pierre [1731] Fort Frances, Ontario

first French fort - 1541 [Canada]
In the summer of 1541, after arriving on his third and final voyage, Jacques Cartier established a French colony of 400 people at present-day Cap-Rouge, Canada named Fort Charlesbourg Royal, after Charles II, Duke of Orleans, third son of King Francis I of France.
It consisted of an upper fort, and lower fort located near the mouth of Cap-Rouge river. The upper fort, constructed at an elevation of 40 metres, offered a strategic defensive position, while the lower fort provided a potential anchorage for ships. The two forts had three towers.
In August 2006, Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Canadian archaeologists under Yves Chretien announced the discovery of this long-lost settlement.

16th & 17thC

Fort Charles SC - 1562

Charlesfort SC-1562 [>Spanish Santa Elena-1566]

Charlesfort FL - 1562

Fort Caroline FL - 1564

Fort Pentagouet ME - 1638

Fort Ste. Anne VT - 1666

Fort de La Présentation NY - 1671

Fort Conti NY- 1679

Fort Miami MI - 1679

Fort Crevecoeur IL - 1680

Fort Buade MI - 1683

Fort St. Louis TX - 1685 [exact location unknown]

Fort Denonville NY - 1687

Fort St. Joseph MI - 1691 [>British]

Fort St, Louis du Pimiteoui IL - 1691

Fort Maurepas/Old Biloxi MS - 1699

Fort Detroit - 1701 [>British 1760]
[or Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit]
The site of the former fort, north of the Rouge River, is now within the city of Detroit. In the 18th century, French colonial settlements developed on both sides of the river, based on the fur trade, missions and farms.

Fort Louis de La Louisiane AL - 1702

Fort Michilimackinac MI - c. 1715 [>British]

Fort St. Philippe/Fort Miami IN - 1715 [>British]

Fort Rosalie MS - 1716 [>British>Spanish]

Fort St. Jean Baptiste/Fort des Natchitoches LA - 1716

Fort Ouiatenon IN - 1717 [>British>American]

Fort Toulouse/Fort des Alibamons AL - 1717

Fort de Chartres IL - 1720 [>British]

Fort Conde AL - 1723

Fort Orleans MO - 1723 [exact location unknown]

Fort Niagara NY - 1726

Fort Beauharnois MN - 1727

Fort Vincennes IN - 1731 [>British Ft. Sackville>American Ft. Patrick Henry]

Fort St. Charles MN - 1732

Fort St. Frederic NY - 1734

Fort Tombecbe AL - 1736

Fort Assumption TN - 1739

Fort de Cavagnial KS - 1744 [>Spanish]

Fort Sandoské OH - c. 1750

Fort Le Boeuf NY - 1753

Fort Presque Isle PA - 1753 [>British>American]

Fort Duquesne PA - 1754

Fort Kaskaskia IL - 1754

Fort Machault PA - 1754

Fort Carillon NY - 1755 [British>Fort Ticondaroga]

Fort de L’Ascension/Fort Massiac IL - 1757

Fort Lévis NY - 1759 [British>Fort William Augustus]

16th/17th/18thC British

Fort Raleigh [Lost Colony] NC - 1585

Fort William & Mary NH [Ft. Constitution] - early 17thC

[Ft. Darby] Fort Miller MA - c. 1630

Fort Sewall MA - 1644

[Dutch Ft. Orange>] Fort Frederick NY - 1676

Ft Anne-1702/Ft Wolcott-1724/Ft George RI - 1730

Fort Christanna VA - 1714

Fort George ME - 1715

Fort St. George ME - 1720

Fort King George GA - 1721

Fort Dummer VT - 1724

Fort Frederick SC - 1726/1734 [ck]

Fort Oswego NY - 1727

Fort Frederica GA - 1736

Fort St. Andrews GA - 1736

Fort at Number 4 NH - 1740

Fort Ohio WVA - 1749

NOTE: This was one decade of construction, the most in the century.

Fort Chiswell VA - 1752/1758?

Fort Prince George SC - 1753

Fort Cumberland MD - 1754

Fort Halifax ME - 1754

Fort Necessity PA - c. 1754

Fort Prince George PA - 1754
This was the first of five forts that would be built to control the strategic "Forks of the Ohio". The French erected Fort Duquesne after seizing and destroying the tiny Fort Prince George, while the British built Fort Pitt after they captured the French post in 1758. Mercer's Fort was a temporary British fort built to defend against a French counterattack while Fort Pitt was being constructed. The final fort near what is now downtown Pittsburgh was an American post called Fort Lafayette and was located further up the Allegheny River.

Fort Western ME 1754

Fort Ashby WVA - 1755

Fort Cocke WVA - 1755 [ck]

Fort Seybert WVA - c. 1755

Fort Sellers WVA - c. mid 1700s [ck]

Fort Wentworth NH - 1755

Fort William Henry NY - 1755

Fort Ontario NY - 1755/1759

Fort Augusta PA - 1756

Fort Loudoun PA - 1756

Fort Loudoun TN - 1756

Fort Frederick MD - 1757

Fort Loudoun VA - 1757

Fort Bedford PA - 1758

Fort Juniata Crossing PA - 1758

Fort Ligonier PA - 1758

Fort Stanwix NY - 1758

Fort Crown Point NY - 1759

Fort Pitt PA - 1759 [British>French>British]

[French>] Fort Niagra NY - 1759

[Fort de La Presentation>] Fort Oswegatchie NY - 1760

Fort Schlosser NY - 1760

Fort Venango PA - 1760

[French>] Fort Sandusky OH - 1761

Fort Charlotte SC - 1765

Fort Henry WVA - 1774

Fort au Fer NY - 1775

[Old] Ninety Six & Star Fort SC - c. 1775

Conanicut Battery RI - 1776

Flagstaff Fort NY - 1776

Fort Salonga NY - 1776

Fort Wetherill/Fort Dumpling RI-1776 [American>British>French]

Fort Franklin NY - 1778

Fort George FL - 1778

Fort Detroit- 1760 [French>British 1760]
[formerly Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit - 1701]
This fort was taken over by the British after the French surrendered Montreal in 1760 during the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years War). They held it until during the American Revolutionary War, and it was taken over by the United States afterward, being superseded by Fort Lernoult, built to the north along the river in 1779.

Fort George ME - 1779

Fort New Richmond LA - 1779

Fort Brooklyn NY- 1780

Fort Motte SC - c. 1780

Fort Golgotha NY - 1782

Fort Mackinac MI - 1782

Fort Barrancas FL- 1787

Fort Miami OH - 1794

Fort Adams MA - late 1700s [>Fort Independence-1833]

The Colonies
The forts shown in this section were located in the original thirteen colonies that stretched along the Boston Post Roads and the King's Highway from Boston, MA to Charleston, South Carolina. Maps identifying these roads are therefore included with this summary.
[For further information on individual forts, see the colonies as listed below or WIKIPEDIA.]

Old Post Road

King's Highway / Post Roads
The King's Highway was a roughly 1,300-mile road laid out from 1650 to 1735 in the American colonies. It was built on the order of Charles II of England, who directed his colonial governors to link Charleston, South Carolina, and Boston, Massachusetts.
In the section north of New York City, the road followed an Indian trail known as the Pequot Path. It was laid out in January of 1673 and became the Upper Boston Post Road.
The three main Boston Post Roads - Upper, Middle & Lower- were a system of mail-delivery routes (some following other trails of Native American Indians) used by post riders between New York City and Boston. The entirety of the King's Highway evolved into the first major road system in the United States.
During the 19th century, turnpike companies took over and improved pieces of the roads. Large sections of the various routes are still called the King's Highway and Boston Post Road. From Virginia southward, modern U.S. Route 17 has many segments that follow the old King's Highway.

Boston, MA

New Haven, CT

Fairfield, CT

Greenwich, CT

Rye, NY

Kingsbridge, NY

New York City

Newark, NJ

Elizabeth, NJ

Rahway, NJ

Perth Amboy, NJ

New Brunswick, NJ

Princeton, NJ

Lawrenceville, NJ

Trenton, NJ

Bordentown, NJ

Burlington, NJ

Philadelphia, PA

Chester, PA

Wilmington, DE

New Castle, DE

Baltimore, MD

Annapolis, MD

Alexandria, VA

Fredericksburg, VA

Bowling Green, VA

King William, VA

Williamsburg, VA

Yorktown

Hampton, VA

Norfolk, VA

Suffolk, VA

Edenton, NC

New Bern, NC

Wilmington, NC

Georgetown, SC

Charleston, SC

King's Highway

Boston Post Roads
The Boston Post Roads were a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States [The King's Highway]. The colonists first used these trails to deliver the mail using post riders. The first ride to lay out the Upper Post Road started on January 1, 1673.
Later, the newly blazed trails were widened and smoothed to the point where horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches could use them. During the 19th century, turnpike companies took over and improved pieces of the roads. Large sections of the various routes are still called the King's Highway and Boston Post Road. [Wiki]
The three major alignments were:
Upper Post Road (now US 5 & US 20) from New Haven, CT via Springfield, MA
Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, CT and ran northeast to Boston via Pomfret, CT
Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1) along the shore via Providence, RI

Upper Post Road [Pequot Path]
The Upper Post Road was originally called the Pequot Path and had been in use by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived. What is now called the Old Connecticut Path and the Bay Path were used by John Winthrop the Younger to travel from Boston to Springfield in November, 1645, and these form much of the basis for the Upper Post Road.
The country's first successful long-distance stagecoach service was launched by Levi Pease along this road in October, 1783. Much of the Upper Post Road is now U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 5, & U.S. Route 20. [Wiki]

Upper Boston Post Road - north end

Cambridge, MA

Watertown, MA

Waltham, MA

Weston, MA

Wayland, MA

Sudbury, MA

Marlborough, MA

Northborough

Shrewsbury, MA

Worcester, MA

Leicester, MA

Spencer, MA

Brookfield, MA

West Brookfield, MA

Western [Warren], MA

Palmer, MA

North Wilbraham

Springfield Plain/Springfield

West Springfield, MA

Suffield, CT

Windsor, CT

Hartford, CT

Wethersfield, CT

Berlin, CT

Meriden, CT

Wallingford, CT

North Haven, CT

Boston Post Road - south end

West Haven, CT

Milford, CT

Stratford, CT

Bridgeport, CT

Southport, CT

Green Farms, CT

Norwalk, CT

Stamford, CT

Greenwich, CT [Horseneck]

Port Chester, NY

Mamaroneck, NY

New Rochelle, NY

West Farms, NY

Morrisania, NY

NYC

Middle Post Road
This road ran from Boston to Hartford, where it intersectd with the Upper Post Road.

Middle Post Road

Roxbury, MA

Ames [locate]

Dedham, MA

Medfield, MA

Medway, MA

Holliston MA

Bellingham [Holliston]

Milford, MA

Mendon. MA

Uxbridge, MA

Douglas, MA

Thompson, CT

Pomfret, CT

Ashford, CT

Mansfield, CT

Coventry, CT

Bolton, CT

East Hartford, CT

Lower Post Road
This road ran from Boston to Providence & Newport, RI; then across the southern coast of New England to New Haven, CT where it joined the main route into New York City.

Lower Post Road

S. Dedham [locate]

Wrentham, MA

Attleboro, MA

Providence, RI

Warren, RI

Bristol, RI

Newport, RI

Kingston, RI

Westerly, RI

Stonington, CT

New London, CT

Old Lyme, CT

Old Saybrook, CT

Guilford, CT

Branford, CT

New York

Fort Nassau - 1614 [Dutch]
?Preceded by French fort in1540?
Fort Nassau 1614-1618
Succeeded by Fort Orange 1623-1676
Fort Nassau [Fort van Nassouwen] was the first Dutch settlement in North America, located beside the North [Hudson] River. The small fortification, a wooden structure surrounded by earthenworks, served as a trading post and warehouse.
It was a 36-foot long by 26-foot wide building enclosed by a 58-foot square stockade surrounded by an 18-foot wide moat. The fort was defended by two large cannon and eleven swivel guns and was garrisoned by 10-12 men.

Governor's Island - early 1600s [Dutch>English]
Fort Jay-1794/Fort Columbus
The Lenape of the Manhattan region referred to the island as "nut island"), likely after the island's plentiful hickory, oak, and chestnut trees. The Dutch explorer Adriaen Block called it Noten Eylant, a translation, and this was converted into English as Nutten Island. The island's current name, made official in 1784, stems from the British colonial era, when the colonial assembly reserved the island for the exclusive use of New York's royal governors.
In May 1624, this island was the landing place of the first settlers in New Netherland. They had arrived from the Dutch Republic with the ship 'New Netherland' under the command of Cornelius Jacobsen May, who disembarked on the island with thirty families in order to take legal possession of the New Netherland territory. As such, the New York State Senate and Assembly recognize Governors Island as the birthplace of the state of New York.
In 1633, the fifth director of New Netherland, Wouter van Twiller, arrived with a 104-man regiment on Governors Island—its first use as a military base. Later he operated a farm on the island. He secured his farm by drawing up a deed on June 16, 1637, which was signed by two Lenape.
New Netherland was conditionally ceded to the English in 1664, and the English renamed the settlement New York in June 1665.
On April 9, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, in one night Continental Army General Israel Putnam fortified the island with earthworks and 40 cannons in anticipation of the return of the British Army and Navy who had quit New York City the year before. The harbor defenses on the island continued to be improved, and the colonists' cannons inflicted enough damage to make the British commanders cautious of entering the East River. This later contributed to the success of General George Washington's retreat across it from Brooklyn into Manhattan.
The Continental Army forces eventually withdrew from Brooklyn and from Governors Island as well, and the British occupied it in late August. From September 2 to 14, the new British garrison would engage volleys with Washington's guns on the battery in front of Fort George in Manhattan. The fort, along with the rest of New York City, was held by the British for the rest of the war until Evacuation Day at the end of the war in 1783.

Fort Orange - 1624 [Dutch]
Fort Orange was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland; the present-day city of Albany, New York developed at this site.
It was built in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been on nearby Castle Island and served as a trading post until 1617 or 1618, when it was abandoned due to frequent flooding. Both forts were named in honor of the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau.

Fort Amsterdam - 1625 [Dutch]
Fort Amsterdam [subsequently named Fort James, Fort Willem Hendrick, Fort James (again), Fort William Henry, Fort Anne and Fort George] was on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then switched back and forth between English & Dutch rule until being torn down in 1790 after the American Revolution.
Probably originally intended as a standard star-shaped fort, Fort Amsterdam had four sides with a bastion at each corner to better protect the walls. The fort was built of hard-packed earth or rubble because earthworks would absorb cannon fire without collapsing, as stone walls might. The elevation of the site was originally somewhat higher than today. The fort stood on a hill which was cut down in 1788 when the fort was demolished, and the site was graded to about its present level.

Star Fort - south of 'The Wall' [Dutch]
See below 'The Wall' which was built later.

Dutch blockhouses - 1636/1663
The first use of the land for military purposes was as the site of a blockhouse built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1636 on Signal Hill [now the site of Fort Tompkins], which was burned in an Indian raid of the Peach Tree War in 1655. The site is said to have been continuously garrisoned since another blockhouse was built in 1663; it survived at least through 1808.

The Wall - 1653 [Dutch - very approximate location]
There are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named "de Waalstraat" got its name. A generally accepted version is that the name of the street was derived from a wooden palisade on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, built to protect against Native Americans, pirates, and the British.
In the 1640s, basic picket and plank fences defined plots and residences in the colony. Later, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, using both African slaves and white colonists, collaborated with the city government in the construction of a more substantial fortification, a strengthened 12-foot wall.
In 1685, surveyors laid out Wall Street along the lines of the original stockade.

The Rondout - 1657 [Dutch]
Rondout was established by the Dutch in the seventeenth century as an Indian trading post. Furs were brought from the inland areas down the Rondout, Walkill and Esopus Creeks and sent by boat down the Hudson River to New York City. The creek empties into the Hudson through a large, protected tidal area.
The name is derived from the fort, or redoubt, that was erected near the mouth of the creek.

Fort Wadsworth/Flagstaff Fort - after 1663 [Dutch]
The first use of the land for military purposes was as the site of a blockhouse built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1636 on Signal Hill [now the site of Fort Tompkins], which was burned in an Indian raid of the Peach Tree War in 1655.
The site is said to have been continuously garrisoned since another blockhouse was built in 1663, which survived at least through 1808. During the American Revolution the area became known as Flagstaff Fort. Captured by the British in 1776, it remained in British hands and was expanded until the war's end in 1783.

Fort Conti - 1679 [French]
Fort Conti was built in early 1679 at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario as a post for the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Because of the fort's location, the French hoped to control the fur trade in the lower Great Lakes. The fort was named after Louis Armand I, Prince of Conti, the patron of La Salle's lieutenant, Henri de Tonti.
The storehouse and stockade were used as a shifting point for ships coming from Fort Frontenac (modern day Kingston, Ontario. The fort burned in late 1679 and was never rebuilt.
Later the site would serve the French as Fort Denonville, which failed after less than a year, and then as the more permanent Fort Niagara which still stands today.

Fort La Galette - c. 1683 [French]
Sometime before 1683, the French had built Fort la Galette, a fortified post located on the St. Lawrence, above Ogdensburg.

Fort Denonville - 1687 [French]
Fort Denonville was a French fort built in 1687 at the current site of Fort Niagara. It replaced Fort Conti which had been built on the site in 1679 and had burned later that year.
The fort was located at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario. In the summer of 1687 the Governor of New France, Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville, was on a military expedition to pacify the Iroquois. Nearing the end of the campaign season the governor, wishing to keep French presence in the area, moved his army to the site and constructed a post and named it after himself. The fort, which comprised eight wooden buildings and a stockade, was garrisoned by one hundred men.
The fort was re-garrisoned, but in September 1688 the French pulled down the stockade and would not winter there again until 1726 when "The House of Peace" (today known as the French Castle) and Fort Niagara were built on the same site.

1691 - earliest fort at Ticonderoga Point
In 1691 Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the Ticonderoga Point on the western shore of the lake.

Ft. Hunter - 1712 [British]
The fort was built by English colonists in 1712 near the Mohawk village of Tionondoroge for their defense. Queen Anne ordered the fort built at the request of the Mohawk, in exchange for their allowing her to settle German Palatines in their territory. The English called the Mohawk settlement the Lower Mohawk Castle.
Within a few years, the fort included an Anglican chapel, first built of logs and then replaced by a stone church in 1741. It was a mission church for the Mohawk in addition to English settlers.
The fort survived the wars in the region; it was taken down in 1820 to make way for construction of the Erie Canal.

Fort George #1 - 1714 [Dutch>British]
The first Fort George was built in 1626 in New Amsterdam and originally named Fort Amsterdam. The British Army renamed it Fort James in 1664. It was briefly re-occupied by the Dutch from 1673–1674 as Fort Willem Hendrick. The British named it Fort William Henry in 1691, Fort Anne or Queen's Fort in 1703, and finally Fort George in 1714.
The north side bastions and ramparts were destroyed in 1776 by the Americans and finally demolished in 1790.

Fort Niagra - 1726 [French>British]
In 1726, a two story house fortress was constructed on the site of the earlier Forts Conti & Denonville. The fort was expanded to its present size in 1755 due to increased tensions between French and British colonial interests.
The fort fell to the British in July 1759. The fort remained in British hands for the next thirty-seven years. Fort Niagara served as the Loyalist base in New York during the American Revolutionary War.

Fort Oswego - 1727 [British]
Fort Oswego was first an 18th-century trading post that was a way-station for French traders. In 1727 a log palisade fort and stone blockhouse were built by the English adjacent to the post. This established a British presence on the Great Lakes. A triangular stone wall, ten feet high and three feet wide was added in 1741.
The French knew the fortification as Fort Chouaguen. Many historic references to Fort Oswego actually refer to other forts that existed simultaneously or later. The terrain at the site explains this. The original fort was built around the trading post on the lower ground on the north west side of the mouth of the Oswego River. This was convenient to canoe and bateaux traffic. Later structures were located on higher ground. Some references to Fort Oswego refer to the entire complex as it developed over time.
Except for the marker in Oswego, nothing is left of the fort itself.

Fort Saint Frederic[k] - 1734 [French]
Beginning in 1734, the French constructed a fortress at Crown Point for the purpose of securing the region against British colonization and to control the lake. They named it Fort St. Frederick. It had 12-foot thick limestone walls.
British forces targeted it twice during the French and Indian War before the French destroyed it in the summer of 1759. The fort was never attacked, and was destroyed in 1759.
The British constructed the much larger Fort Crown Point next to the ruins of Saint Frederick. The new fort also never came under attack. Its small garrison was captured in 1775 in the early days of the American Revolutionary War, after which Fort Crown Point also fell into ruin.

Fort Herkimer - 1740
The fort was first built in 1740, around the homestead of the Herscheimer [Herkimer] family. It was originally known as Fort Kaouri (Fort Bear). It is sometimes confused with nearby Fort Dayton, around which the village of Herkimer was built.
During the American Revolutionary War, the fort was rebuilt as a defensive stone stockade around the Fort Herkimer Church. Both the old and new forts were destroyed during expansion of the Erie Canal in 1840.

Fort de La Presentation - 1749 [French]
Earlier Fort La Galette; later English [Fort Oswegatchie] and finally in 1796, American.
The Fort de La Présentation was a mission fort built in 1749. It was also sometimes known as Fort La Galette. It was built at the confluence of the Oswegatchie River and the St Lawrence River in present day New York.
The French wanted to strengthen their alliance with the powerful Iroquois, as well as convert them to Catholicism. With increasing tensions with Great Britain, they were concerned about their thinly populated Canadian colony. By 1755 the settlement included 3,000 Iroquois residents loyal to France, in part because of the fur trade, as well as their hostility to encroachment by British colonists in their other territories.
In 1758, with the Seven Years' War intensifying, a French-Canadian military commander took charge of a garrison at the fort. In 1759, French military forces abandoned the fort to move to Fort Lévis.
After the British victories of 1760, the French ceded their Canadian territory to Great Britain. The British renamed it Fort Oswegatchie. It remained under their control until 1796, when redefinition of the northern boundary caused the land to be taken over by the United States.

Roger's Island - mid 1700s [British]
Due to its strategic location on the Hudson, Rogers Island (and Fort Edward opposite it) became a fortress operated by the British Empire, involved in the French and Indian War (1754–1763) with invasions into French Canada to the north often beginning from the area.
Due to the expansion required to house such large numbers of troops, estimated to be 16,000, Fort Edward and Rogers Island became the third largest community in North America after New York City and Boston.
From 1756 to 1759, Rogers Island was used as a training ground for Major Robert Rogers, from which the island takes its name. Here, Rogers trained irregular fighting forces.
Fort Edward and Rogers Island were evacuated in 1766 and left to ruin during the American War of Independence, though it was briefly garrisoned until 1777.

Fort Le Boeuf NY - 1753 [French]
This fort was established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek [LeBoeuf Creek]. The fort was part of a line that included Fort Presque Isle, Fort Machault, and Fort Duquesne which the French built between spring 1753 and summer 1754 to assert their possession of the Ohio Country. They represented the last links of France's effort to connect its dominions in Canada with those in the Illinois Country and Louisiana.

Fort Bull - 1755
Fort Bull was located at the Oneida Carry in New York, during the French and Indian War.
On October 29, 1755 Governor William Shirley ordered Captain Mark Petrie to take the men under his command and to build a fort on the upper landing of Wood Creek to protect the Oneida Carry.
The fort was capable of holding a garrison of sixty to seventy men. The fort was attacked and burned to the ground by the French on March 27, 1756 in the Battle of Fort Bull.

Fort Carillon - 1755 [French]
Earliest fort 1691. [see also Fort Ticonderoga]
Fort Carillon, the precursor of Fort Ticonderoga, was constructed by Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, to protect Lake Champlain from a British invasion.
Situated on the lake some fifteen miles south of Fort Saint Frédéric, it was built to prevent an attack on Canada and slow the advance of the enemy long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
The French, who had colonized the Saint Lawrence River valley to the north, and the English, who had taken over the Dutch settlements that became the Province of New York to the south, began contesting this area as early as 1691, when Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the Ticonderoga point on the western shore of the lake. These colonial conflicts reached their height in the French and Indian War, which began in 1754.

Fort George #2 - 1755 [British]
A second Fort George was built by the British in 1755 at Oswego, New York, but it was destroyed by the French in 1756. Fort George was also called Fort Rascal or the West Fort.

Fort George #3 - 1755
A third Fort George was built in Lake George, New York in 1755. It was destroyed in 1777 and finally abandoned in 1780. It was located south east of Fort William Henry facing Lake George.

Fort Ontario - 1755/1759 [British]
The original Fort Ontario was erected in 1755, during the French and Indian War in order to bolster defenses already in place at Fort Oswego on the opposite side of the river. At that time its name was the "Fort of the Six Nations. The fort was destroyed by the French and rebuilt by British forces in 1759.
During the American Revolutionary War, a detachment from the 3rd New York Regiment destroyed the fort in July, 1778, after the British abandoned it. The British returned and rebuilt the fort in 1782. The British held the fort after the war was over until 1796 after the signing of Jay's Treaty.

Fort Ticonderoga - 1755 [French>British]]
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain. It was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between October 1755 and 1757, during the French and Indian War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.

Fort William Henry - 1755 [British]
The fort's construction was ordered by Sir William Johnson in September 1755, during the French and Indian War, as a staging ground for attacks against the French fort at Crown Point called Fort St. Frédéric.
It was part of a chain of British and French forts along the important inland waterway from New York City to Montreal, and occupied a key forward location on the frontier between New York and New France.
Design and construction of the new fortification was overseen by British military engineer William Eyre of the 44th Foot. Fort William Henry was an irregular square fortification with bastions on the corners, in a design that was intended to repel Indian attacks, but not necessarily withstand attack from an enemy armed with artillery. Its walls were 30 feet thick, with log facings around an earthen filling. Inside the fort were wooden barracks two stories high, built around the parade ground. Its magazine was in the northeast bastion, and its hospital was located in the southeast bastion. The fort was surrounded on three sides by a dry moat, with the fourth side sloping down to the lake. The only access to the fort was by a bridge across the moat. The fort could house 400 to 500 men; additional troops were quartered in an entrenched camp 750 yards southeast of the fort.
It was named for both Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland, the younger son of King George II, and Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, a grandson of King George II and a younger brother of the future King George III.
Following the 1757 siege, the French destroyed the fort and withdrew.

Fort Stanwix/Fort Schuyler - 1758 [British]
Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The star fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carrying Place during the French and Indian War.
The fort was reoccupied by Colonial troops under the command of Colonel Elias Dayton on July 12, 1776. They began reconstruction and renamed it Fort Schuyler, although many continued to call it Fort Stanwix. Colonel Peter Gansevoort took over command of the fort on May 3, 1777.
[reconstruction]

Fort Crown Point - 1759 [British]
Fort Crown Point was built in 1759 as a British fort by the combined efforts of both British and provincial troops [from New York and the New England Colonies] at a narrows on Lake Champlain on what later became the border between New York and Vermont.
Erected to secure the region against the French, the fort is in upstate New York near the town of Crown Point and was the largest earthen fortress built in the United States. According to archaeologist David R. Starbuck, Crown Point was "the greatest British military installation ever raised in North America."
The fort was never directly assaulted. Mostly built after the threat of French invasion had ended, it was used largely for staging rather than as a position in its own right. A fire in 1773 destroyed most of it.

Fort Brewerton - 1759
Fort Brewerton was erected in 1759 to defend the passage from Albany to the port of Oswego. It was located at what is now Brewerton in Oswego County.
The fort was built in the form of an eight-pointed star with sixteen 30-foot faces surrounded by a 10-foot moat. The 480-foot-long parapet had earth walls 5 feet high from which projected log palisades. Within the parapet were four log blockhouses, smaller buildings for munitions and supplies, and wells.
There is a reconstruction of a late 18th-century log block house that was located on the site.

Fort Levis - 1759 [French]
Fort Lévis, a fortification on the St. Lawrence River, was built in 1759 by the French. They had decided that Fort de La Présentation was insufficient to defend their St. Lawrence River colonies against the British. Named for François Gaston de Lévis, Duc de Lévis, the fort was constructed on Isle Royale, three miles downstream from the other fort. Although some military officials wanted a masonry fort, it was built of wood, in a four-bastioned, square configuration.
The fort was rebuilt by the British as Fort William Augustus. The island, Chimney Island (or Isle Royale), on which the fort stood was partially destroyed during the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s.

Fort William Augustus - date [British]
The French Fort Levis was rebuilt by the British as Fort William Augustus.

Fort Schlosser - 1760 [British]
Fort Schlosser was a fortification built around 1760 by British Colonial forces, in order to guard the upper entrance to the portage around Niagara Falls. The fort was named for its first commander, Captain Joseph Schlosser. It consisted of a wood stockade with two storehouses and living quarters for officers and soldiers. Four cannons provided protection for the fort.

Fort George #5 - 1776
The last Fort George, or Fort George Hill, was built in 1776 in New York City. Briefly named Fort Clinton and again Fort George, from 1895 to 1914.

Fort George #4 - 1777
A fourth Fort George was an encampment built on Staten Island around 1777 in the area of St. George, Staten Island (likely Fort Hill).

Fort Brooklyn - 1780 [British]
Fort Brooklyn was a British-built large star fort built to support the occupation of Brooklyn during the American Revolutionary War. The site was on Brooklyn Heights, near present-day Pierrepont and Henry Streets, about four blocks from Fort Stirling.
The fort was 450 feet square with ramparts 40 to 50 feet above the bottom of an encircling ditch. Each angle had a bastion and there was a substantial barracks and two magazines.
After the British evacuation, the fort was leveled for development between 1823 and 1825 .

New Jersey

Fort Wilhelmus - 1625 [Dutch]
Fort Wilhelmus was an installation in the 17th-century colonial province of New Netherland, located on what had been named Hooghe Eyland [High Island, also called Verhulsten Island] on the Zuyd [South] Rivier, now Burlington Island in the Delaware River in New Jersey.
More a trading post than a military installation, it was built in 1625 by colonists from the Netherlands in the employ of the Dutch West India Company, with the intention of establishing a physical claim to the new territory and to engage in the fur trade with the indigenous population.

Fort Nassau - c. 1627 [Dutch]
Fort Nassau was a trading post in New Netherland between 1627-1651 located at the mouth of Big Timber Creek at its confluence with the Delaware River. It was the first known permanent European-built structure in what would become the state of New Jersey.
Initially the fort was occupied intermittently, and on occasion used by the local population in seasonal migrations. In 1635, colonists from Virginia Colony occupied the fort. The governor of New Netherland at the time sent a force and was successful in retaking the fort. This was the first of conflicts between the English and Dutch in the New World.
As a better location for trade, much of its structure and contents were moved to the west side of the Delaware River and renamed Fort Casimir.

Fort Nya Elfsborg - 1643 [Swedish]
Fort Nya Elfsborg was a fortification and settlement established as a part of New Sweden. Built in 1643 and named after the Älvsborg Fortress of Gothenburg, the fort was built shortly after Johan Printz, governor of New Sweden, arrived in the colony. He allowed the previous Dutch settlement to remain if they swore allegiance to Sweden. He also built Fort Nya Gothenborg on Tinicum Island [SW of Philadelphia], where he constructed his own manor house which he called The Printzhof.
Fort Nya Elfsborg had iron and brass 12-pound cannons mounted on earth and wooden palisades. It was a Swedish-style three-cornered earthen redoubt with eight guns. Log farmsteads similar to those found in Sweden went up around the fort further downriver, to act as sentinels against the Dutch West India Company ships coming up from the bay.
At that time, this area of the river was mostly swamp and the soldiers garrisoned there were inundated by mosquitos. The fort was eventually abandoned, and New Sweden burned it after the Dutch built Fort Casimir across the river in 1651.
The actual site of the fort is now under water at Elsinboro Point.

Fort Bergen/Bergen Square - 1661 [Dutch]
This square and the streets that now surround it are the site of what is considered to be the oldest municipality in the state of New Jersey. It was first established in 1660 as Bergen in the province of New Netherland.
The area was temporarily evacuated during a series of raids and retaliations between the Dutch and the Lenape Indians. A stipulation for resettlement was that a garrison be built so that homesteaders, whose farms spread out around the village, could retreat there in the event of an attack.

Bulls Ferry/Block House Point - RevWar [British]
During the Revolutionary War, the British built and occupied a blockhouse in the area of Bull's Ferry, known to the British as Block House Point. This fort was the site of several skirmishes between the British and American forces.

Bergen Neck Fort/Fort Delancey - 1776 [American/British]
This fort was built in 1776, occupied by the British in 1777, and demolished in September 1782. In British hands the fort was renamed for Oliver De Lancey, Sr. as Fort Delancey.

Fort Lee [Fort Constitution] - 1776
Fort Lee, originally Fort Constitution, was an American Revolutionary War fort and was named for General Charles Lee of the Continental Army. The fort was located on the crest of the Hudson Palisades, opposite Fort Washington which was at the northern end of Manhattan Island. At this stage of the war, a ferry operated as a supply line and the only link between Forts Lee and Washington.
General George Washington issued orders to General Mercer to erect a fort on the west side of the Hudson River. Construction commenced in July 1776 and the fort was to be called Fort Constitution. Concurrently, Fort Washington was being built almost directly across the North [Hudson] River in New York.
At the site there is now a reconstruction of the encampment including the blockhouse, battery, and quarters that were used during the Revolutionary War.

Paulus Hook - 1776 [American/British]
In 1776, patriot colonists built several forts to defend the western banks of the Hudson, one of which was located at Paulus Hook. After suffering defeats in New York City, the rebels abandoned Paulus Hook and the British occupied it. The fort was a naturally defensible position that guarded the gateway to New Jersey.

Pennsylvania
In response to an increasing number of attacks in Pennsylvania by French troops in the western part of the state and by Indian hostilities close to Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Legislature placed Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton in charge of erecting a chain of forts along the Blue Mountains.

Fort Mecoponacka - 1641 [Swedish]
In Chester, near Finlandia or Upland in Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Fort Nya Gothenborg - 1643 [Swedish]
This was a Swedish colony from 1638 to 1655 on Tinicum Island, near the site of The Printzhof, the lavish home of Johan Printz.

Fort Nya Vasa - 1646 [Swedish]
At Kingsessing, on the eastern-side of Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia.

Fort Nya Korsholm - 1647 [Swedish]
Located at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, probably on Province Island.
The Swedes had a competing claim for land at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, and they often vandalized the Dutch Fort Beversreede. In 1648, they built a stockaded 30-by-20-foot blockhouse directly in front of it, called Fort Nya Korsholm. The Swedish building was said to be only twelve feet from the gate of the Dutch fort. It was meant to intimidate the Dutch residents and intercept trade.
There is no remnant of either Fort Beversreede or Fort Nya Korsholm. Nearby Mud Island became the site of Fort Mifflin in 1771.

Fort Beversreede - 1651 [Dutch]
Fort Beversreede or Fort Beaver Road [after 1633–1651] was a Dutch-built palisaded trading post located near the confluence of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River. It was an outpost of the colony of New Netherland. Its exact location is unknown.
The Swedes had a competing claim for land at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, and they often vandalized Fort Beversreede. In 1648, they built a stockaded 30-by-20-foot blockhouse directly in front of it, called Fort Nya Korsholm. The Swedish building was said to be only twelve feet from the gate of the Dutch fort. It was meant to intimidate the Dutch residents and intercept trade.
There is no remnant of either Fort Beversreede or Fort Nya Korsholm. Nearby Mud Island became the site of Fort Mifflin in 1771.

Light's Fort - 1742
Light's Fort was built in 1742 by Johanes Licht (John Light). It is the oldest standing building of any kind in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It was built on a tract of land on a branch of the Quittapahilla Creek in Lancaster County (now Lebanon County). The tract contained 274 acres including an allowance of 6% for roads together with woods, water courses, etc.
The main uses of the fort were as a house, a Mennonite Meeting Hall, a fort for protection against the Indians, and a barn. During the Indian raids of the French and Indian Wars, it was said to have housed and sheltered up to sixty families at once. Built of local limestone and in a Dutch hip-roof style, its dimensions were 30 feet by 40 feet. It was originally three stories in height, but only two survive today.

NOTE: This is only one decade... at the height of the French & Inidan War.

Fort Presque Isle - 1753 [French/British]
Fort Presque Isle was a fort built by French soldiers in the summer of 1753 along Presque Isle Bay at present-day Erie, Pennsylvania, to protect the northern terminus of the Venango Path. It was the first of the French posts built in the Ohio Country, and was part of a line that included Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Machault, and Fort Duquesne.
The fort was built as part of the French military occupation of the Ohio Country. Rival claims to the area by the British led to the French and Indian War. After the 1759 British victory at the Battle of Fort Niagara, the French burned the fort and retreated from the area.
The British built a new Fort Presque Isle, which was captured by American Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion.

Fort Le Boeuf - 1753 [French]
Fort Le Boeuf was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort was part of a line that included Fort Presque Isle, Fort Machault, and Fort Duquesne.
The fort was located about 15 miles from the shores of Lake Erie, on the banks of LeBoeuf Creek, for which the fort was named. The French portaged supplies and trade goods from Lake Erie overland to Fort Le Boeuf. From there they traveled by raft and canoe down French Creek to the rivers Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi.

Fort Duquesne - 1754 [French]
Formerly the site of the small British Fort Prince George. In April 1754, the French began building Fort Duquesne at the beginning of the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War). The Braddock expedition, a 1755 attempt to take Fort Duquesne, met with defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela at present-day Braddock, Pennsylvania. The French garrison defeated an attacking British regiment in September 1758 at the Battle of Fort Duquesne. French Colonel de Lignery ordered Fort Duquesne destroyed and abandoned at the approach of General John Forbes' expedition in late November.

Fort Prince George - 1754 [British]
Fort Prince George was an uncompleted fort on what is now the site of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. The site was originally a trading post established by Ohio Company trader William Trent in the 1740s.
Construction of Fort Prince George, named for the crown prince and later King George III, was begun in January 1754 by 41 Virginians. The plan to occupy the strategic forks was formed by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie, on the advice of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, whom Dinwiddie had sent on a mission in late 1753 to warn French commanders they were on English territory, and he had made a military assessment of the site.
Captain Trent commanded the force constructing the fort, but his men were captured by 1,000 French soldiers and Indians. The fort was surrendered on April 18, 1754. The French attack was the hostile act of the war, and it led to George Washington's own surprise attack at the Battle of Jumonville Glen.
This was the first of five forts that would be built to control the strategic "Forks of the Ohio". The French erected Fort Duquesne after seizing Fort Prince George, while the British built Fort Pitt after they captured the French post in the 1758 Forbes Expedition. Mercer's Fort was a temporary British fort built to defend against a French counterattack while Fort Pitt was being constructed. The final fort near what is now downtown Pittsburgh was an American post called Fort Lafayette and was located further up the Allegheny River.

Fort Machault - 1754 [French]
Fort Machault was a fort built by the French in 1754 near the confluence of French Creek with the Allegheny River, at present-day Franklin, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort was part of a line that included Fort Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, and Fort Duquesne. It was burned by the French in 1759 near the end of the French and Indian War.
The fort was built on a hill, 60 yards west of the Allegheny River. It was in the form of a parallelogram, about 75 by 105 feet. The curtain was made of hewed timber, stacked lengthwise. The four corners had bastions in the form of polygons. The bastions were built of saplings, eight inches thick and 13 feet in height. The gate fronted the river. Inside the fort were a magazine, several officer's barracks, with two stories and stone chimneys. The soldiers barracks consisted of 45 buildings outside the fort.

Fort Shirley - mid 1700s
In the mid-1700s, adjacent to the homestead and trading post of George Croghan, a well-populated settlement called Aughwick Old Town, sprang up. This was apparently the impetus for the building of Fort Shirley, erected by the Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War.

Fort Halifax - mid-1700s
Fort Halifax was located along the Susquehanna River near the present day borough of Halifax, PA. It was a temporary stronghold in northern Dauphin County from 1756 to 1757, during the time of the French and Indian War.
The fort was erected by Col. William Clapham, with the order of Governor Morris, and guarded by a garrison of the Third Battalion of the Pennsylvania Provincial Regiment. It was constructed as a subpost along the Susquehanna with three other forts: Fort Harris, Fort Hunter, and Fort Augusta. The fort was originally named "Camp at Armstrong" until General Morris changed it in 1756.
It was a 160 feet square log stockade with four bastions. It was dismantled in 1763 when it was no longer needed.

Fort Ligonier - mid 1700s [British]
Fort Ligonier was a British fortification from the French and Indian War located in Ligonier, PA. The fort served as a staging area for the Forbes Expedition of 1758. During the eight years of its existence as a garrison, Fort Ligonier was never taken by an enemy. It served as a post of passage to the new Fort Pitt, and during Pontiac's War of 1763 was a vital link in the British communication and supply lines. It was attacked twice and besieged by the Native Americans, prior to the decisive victory at Bushy Run in August of that year.
The fort was decommissioned from active service in 1766. Today there is a museum next to the reconstructed fort.

Fort Necessity - c. 1750s
Supposedly named by Washington as Fort Necessity or Fort of Necessity, the structure protected a storehouse for supplies such as gunpowder, rum, and flour. The crude palisade they erected was built more to defend supplies in the fort's storehouse from Washington's own men, whom he described as "loose and idle", than as a planned defense against a hostile enemy.
Now a National Battlefield Site that preserves the site of the Battle of Fort Necessity. The battle, which took place on July 3, 1754, was an early battle of the French and Indian War, and resulted in the surrender of British colonial forces under Colonel George Washington to the French and Indians.

Fort Granville - 1755
Fort Granville was a militia stockade located in the colonial Province of Pennsylvania. Its site was about a mile from Lewistown, in what is now Granville Township, Mifflin County. Active from 1755 until 1756, the stockade briefly sheltered pioneer settlers in the Juniata River valley during the French and Indian War.

Fort Hunter - 1755
This fort was a blockhouse surrounded by a stockade and had additional barracks on the outside for the recruits on their way to Fort Augusta.

Fort Hyndshaw - 1755
Fort Hyndshaw was a fort in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County built 1755-1756 during the French and Indian War. The fort was named after Lieutenant James Hyndshaw (1720-1770), who was born in Ulster County, New York and was married to Maria Dupuy, a niece of Nicholas Dupuy, one of the earliest European settlers of Monroe County, whose home became Fort Dupuy during the French and Indian War around the same time as Fort Hyndshaw was established.
The structure was a 70-foot square blockade and was built around Hyndshaw's home. It was active for a little over a year, at which point it was apparently abandoned.

Fort Dupuy - 1755
Fort Depuy was one of many forts in Colonial Pennsylvania built in 1755 and 1756 during the French and Indian War. The fort was established on the farm of Nicholas Dupuy, the first white settler in the area who arrived in 1727 and purchased 3,000 acres. In 1755 Benjamin Franklin insisted that the Dupuy home, because of its strategic location along the Delaware River, be commandeered to serve as a fort.
It was constructed in the shape of a square with guns at each corner. The fort also served as a commissary base for the other forts in the area. After 1763 the fort was returned to the family and to its function as a farm.

Fort Augusta PA - 1756 [British>American]
Fort Augusta was a stronghold in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the upper Susquehanna Valley from the time of the French and Indian War to the close of the American Revolution.
The fort was erected by Col. William Clapham in 1756 at a site now within the limits of the city of Sunbury, in an area the Indians called "Shamokin." Named for Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the mother of King George III, Fort Augusta was the largest of the Provincial forts.
It was first constructed as part of the British defense against the raids of the French and Indians from the upper Allegheny region. Later, it served as an American fortress to aid in protecting settlers of the upper Susquehanna from Britain's Indian allies to the north.

Fort Loudin - 1756 [British]
Fort Loudoun was a fort in colonial Pennsylvania, one of several forts in colonial America named after John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. The fort was built in 1756 during the French and Indian War by the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment under Colonel John Armstrong, and served as a post on the Forbes Road during the Forbes expedition that successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne.
In 1765, following Pontiac's Rebellion, settlers upset with the resumption of trade with Native Americans forced the British garrison to evacuate the fort, part of an uprising known as the Black Boys Rebellion. A replica of the fort was built on the original site in 1993.

Fort Bedford - 1758 [British]
Fort Bedford was a French and Indian War-era British military fortification located at the present site of Bedford, Pennsylvania. The fort was a star-shaped log fortress erected in the summer of 1758. It was one of a string of British forts and blockhouses designed to protect British supply lines on the Forbes Road, a pioneer trail built by the British during their invasion of the Ohio Country and campaign against the French garrison at Fort Duquesne (modern day Pittsburgh).

Fort Juniata Crossing - 1758 [British]
Fort Juniata Crossing, also known as Fort Juniata or simply Juniata Crossing, was a British French & Indian War era fortification located along the Forbes Road. The fort was located along a strategic ford of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River about 2.4 miles west of the current site of Breezewood, Pennsylvania.
It was constructed in the summer of 1758 as part of a string or forts located along the line of supply and communication westward from the British Army's forward base at the frontier settlement of Carlisle as General Forbes’ army pushed westward toward the French garrison at Fort Duquesne.
Located about halfway between the British fortifications at Fort Littleton to the east and Fort Bedford to the west, Fort Juniata Crossing protected a vital ford across the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. As the Juniata was the only major river ford along the road between Carlisle and Fort Duquesne, the site was of particular strategic importance.
Smaller and with a smaller garrison than larger forts such as Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier, Fort Juniata Crossing consisted of fortified storehouses on each side of the river along with a main stockade on the west side of the river. The stockade was a log star shaped fort with five bastions enclosing an area of about 1.7 acres.

Fort Pitt - 1759/64 [British>French>British]
Fort Pitt was a fort built by British colonists during the Seven Years' War. It was located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, where the Ohio River is formed in western Pennsylvania. It replaced Fort Duquesne, a French colonial fort built in 1754, as tensions increased between Great Britain and France in both Europe and North America. Protection of this area ultimately led to the development of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania by British-American colonists and immigrants.

NOTE: This is only two decades... spanning the French & Indian War and the Revolutionary War.

Fort Venango - 1760 [British]
Replacing Fort Machault, a French fort burned by the French in 1759 near the end of the French and Indian War, Fort Venango was a small British fort built in 1760 near the site of Franklin, Pennsylvania.

Fort Deshler - 1760
Fort Deshler, located near Egypt, Lehigh County, was a French and Indian War era frontier fort established in 1760 to protect settlers from Indian attacks. The fort was built by Adam Deshler, who was employed during the French and Indian War to furnish provisions for provincial forces.
The fort was actually a fortified stone blockhouse, 40 feet long and 30 feet wide, with walls 2.5 feet thick. It also served as Deshler's home. Adjoining this was a large wooden building, suitable as barracks for twenty soldiers and for storing military supplies. There appears to be no evidence that the fort was either garrisoned with provincial troops or served any military purpose beyond functioning as a place of refuge and rendezvous for settlers of the region.
Fort Deshler stood in ruins until it collapsed around 1940.

Fort Lafayette - 1792 [American]
The final of five forts in the Pittsburg area was located near what is now downtown Pittsburgh.
Following the American Revolutionary War, hostilities continued between the Indians and Americans in Western Pennsylvania. This perceived threat prompted the government in 1792 to build Fort Lafayette in Pittsburgh, to replace Fort Pitt, as a supply center for Fort McIntosh.
In 1803 Fort Lafayette was a staging ground for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The fort later served as Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's supply base during the War of 1812. The army abandoned the fort in 1814.

Redstone Old Fort / Fort Burd - 1759
Redstone Old Fort was a prehistoric Native American earthwork mound on a bluff overlooking the river crossing. The aboriginal mound structure may have once been part of a fortification.
Fort Burd was a wooden fort constructed at Redstone Old Fort in 1759 during the French & Indian War. It was built by Virginia militia Colonel James Burd to guard the ancient Indian trail's river ford on the mound overlooking the eastern shore of the Monongahela River.

Fort Durkee-1769 / Fort Dickinson-1783
In 1769, Major John Durkee and his men erected Fort Durkee on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River at the town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The fort changed hands several times during the conflicts of the following decade. Fort Durkee was renamed Fort Dickinson in 1783. It was destroyed by Connecticut Yankees the following year.
Fort Dickinson was built with four small blockhouses, armed with four guns, manned by 100 men. It was constructed as part of the internal Pennamite Wars.

Fort Island Battery / Fort Mifflin - 1771
Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island (or Deep Water Island) on the Delaware River below Philadelphia.
During the American Revolutionary War, the British Army bombarded and captured the fort as part of their conquest of Philadelphia in the autumn of 1777.
The United States Army began to rebuild the fort in 1794 and continued to garrison and build on the site through the 19th century. It housed prisoners during the American Civil War.
There is no remnant of either Fort Beversreede or Fort Nya Korsholm. Nearby Mud Island became the site of Fort Mifflin in 1771.

Fort Bosley - 1773/1777 [American]
Fort Bosley was a fort in the Susquehanna Valley frontier, fortified in 1777 to protect settlers.
Following the defeat of General George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine, the decision was made to develop a system of forts along the Susquehanna Valley frontier to protect settlers and support the greater defense of Fort Augusta at present day Sunbury. Almost all of these frontier forts, roughly a dozen in the immediate Susquehanna Valley region, were developed either along the north or west branches of the Susquehanna River. Bosley’s Mill was one of the few protected locations off of the two river branches.
This remotely located mill formed the nucleus of a larger fort which had portholes in its walls and for a while, a small howitzer mounted within its enclosure. In times of an anticipated raid, the settlers of the valley surrounding Chillisquaque Creek fled to this fortification for protection. Fort Bosley as it became to be called, was the only fortified location in Montour County, Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. Records from the 19th century have also listed this fortification as “Brady’s Fort” and “Boyle’s Fort.

Fort Allen - 1774
Fort Allen was a defense built in 1774 for protection from Indian attacks.

Sparks Fort - c. 1774 [locate]
Spark's Fort was a pioneer blockhouse erected as early as 1774 on the southern side of the Youghiogheny River, near Burn's Ford.

Fort Piper - c. 1777
Fort Piper was built in Yellow Creek Valley at the south end of Black Oak Ridge around 1777 as a settler's fort during the time of the American Revolutionary War. It was named after Colonel John Piper, one of the most highly regarded heroes of these colonial times. There is no data of provincial records showing that this fort was authorized to be built or if it was a garrison.
After the construction of the wooden fort for the protection of the local settlements from hostile Indian attacks, Colonel Piper built a two story stone dwelling. Settlers fled to the fort for refuge during hostilities.
[extant]

Fort Martin - late 1770s
A Revolutionary War era stockade, Fort Martin was constructed on or near the site of Fort Juniata in the late 1770s. The exact location of the stockade has been lost to history, but it is described as being near the "chain bridge" at the site of the former Fort Juniata Crossing.
It was a small blockhouse structure constructed by local civilians and designed as a haven for local settlers against raids by hostile Native American war parties. It fell into disuse after the war ended and the threat of raids was over.

Doddridge's Fort - c. 1773
Doddridge's Fort was a series of stockaded log cabins. It was built c. 1773 by John Doddridge as a refuge for settlers in area, which was then the American frontier. It was named for Dr. Joseph Doddridge who was born and raised there.

Fort Freeland - 1775
In order to protect the settlers from the Indians, Fort Freeland was built here in 1775. It was the site of the first European settlement in the area.
More heavily manned than Fort Bosley, it was a stockaded log house with half an acre of land inside the walls. The fort provided visibility for approximately a mile upstream and downstream.
It was destroyed on July 28, 1779 by 100 British troops under the command of John McDonald and 200 Indians commanded by Hiokoto, a Seneca chief.

Fort McIntosh - 1778
Fort McIntosh was an early American log frontier fort situated near the confluence of the Ohio River and the Beaver River.
The fortress was constructed in 1778 under the direction of Lt. Col. Cambray-Digny, a French engineer, and named in honor of General Lachlan McIntosh. It was occupied until it was abandoned in 1791. After the Revolution, the fort was the home of the First American Regiment, the oldest active unit in the United States Army.
The fort was in the form of a trapezoid, about 150 feet on each side, with raised earthen bastions on each corner. Log palisades connected the bastions, and a 15 foot wide ditch protected three sides of the fort, with the 130 foot slope to the Ohio River protecting the other side. Inside were three barracks, warehouses, officer's quarters, a forge, kitchen, and powder magazines.

Fort Antes - c. 1778
Fort Antes was a stockade surrounding the home of Colonel John Henry Antes, built circa 1778 under the direction of Colonel Antes, who was a member of the Pennsylvania militia. It was on a plateau on the east side of Antes Creek, overlooking and on the left bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River.
The local militia held the fort for a short period of time until it was ordered to abandon it during the Big Runaway. Despite being abandoned and attempts by the attacking British forces to burn it down, Fort Antes was one of only two structures in the valley to survive the Big Runaway.

Wolff's Fort - c. 1780
Wolff's Fort was a stockaded log house built in about 1780 by Jacob Wolfe. The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission describes it as "one of the most important forts in the area."

Miller's Blockhouse - c. 1780
This blockhouse was built in about 1780 by Jacob Miller, Sr., a pioneer in the American Frontier of western Pennsylvania. The fort served to protect settlers in the Dutch Fork area from Indian attacks.

Rice's Fort - c. 1780
Rice's Fort was a fortified blockhouse. It was built during the American Revolution by Abraham Rice along Buffalo Creek.

Boone's Fort
A stockaded gristmill owned by Hawkins Boone, cousin of Daniel Boone.

Fort Brady
Fortified homes such as that of Captain John Brady were also used on the frontier.

Wallis House/Fort Muncy
The fortified home of Samuel Wallis, just a few miles from Fort Brady.

Harris House
A fortified home near the mouth of the Loyalsock Creek.

Fort Horn
At the mouth of Pine Creek.

Fort Menninger
Near the mouth of White Deer Creek.

Fort Reid
At the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek.

New Hampshire

Fort William & Mary - early 17thC [British]
This was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, manned by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire, who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle", was situated on the island of New Castle at the mouth of the Piscataqua River estuary.
It was renamed Fort William & Mary in circa 1692, after the accession of those monarchs to the British throne. It was captured by Patriot forces, recaptured, and later abandoned by the British during the Revolutionary War.
The fort was renamed Fort Constitution in 1808 following rebuilding.

Fort at Number 4 - 1740 [British]
The Fort at Number 4 was the northernmost British settlement along the Connecticut River until after the French and Indian War. Construction began in 1740.

Fort Stark - 1746
The site of the present Fort Stark was first fortified in 1746 as Battery Cumberland, with nine 32-pounder cannon.
It was rebuilt in 1775 for the American Revolution. The fort was garrisoned until 1778 and is one of several forts in the area that may have been named Fort Hancock during the Revolution.
In 1794 a new battery for nine guns was built on the site as part of the first system of US fortifications.

Fort Wentworth - 1755
Fort Wentworth was built by order of Benning Wentworth in 1755. The fort was built at the junction of the Upper Ammonoosuc River and Connecticut River.
During the American Revolutionary War, a company of rangers garrisoned and repaired the unused fort from 1776–1778 in order to protect northern New Hampshire from attack from the British nearby in Canada. Other units of New Hampshire Militia also formed part of the garrison until the end of the war in 1783.

Massachusetts

Darby's Fort / Fort Miller - c. 1630
Originally Fort Darby or Darby's Fort, Fort Miller was a coastal defense fort in Marblehead, in existence from about 1630-1900.
The fort was originally built circa 1629-1632 by colonial forces under the direction of acting Governor of Massachusetts John Endecott. The location was on Naugus Head at the northwest corner of Marblehead's peninsula. It was initially named Fort Darby or Darby's Fort, allegedly after a similar head of land at Derby, Dorsetshire, England.
It was used in the American Revolution and was subsequently repaired for the War of 1812 as a lookout post and drill area for nearby Fort Sewall. It was rebuilt as a five-gun battery and renamed as Fort Miller for the Civil War, later serving through the Spanish–American War.

Fort Pickering - 1643
Fort Pickering is a 17th-century fort site on Winter Island in Salem. Construction of the original fort began in 1643. Fort Pickering operated as a strategic coastal defense and military barracks for Salem Harbor during a variety of periods, serving as a fortification from the Anglo-Dutch Wars through World War II. It is named for Colonel Timothy Pickering, adjutant general of the Continental Army and secretary of War in 1795.

Fort Sewall - 1644 [British]
Fort Sewall is a coastal fortification in Marblehead. It is located at Gale's Head, the northeastern point of the main Marblehead peninsula, on a promontory that overlooks the entrance to Marblehead Harbor. Established in 1644, it is one of the oldest English coastal fortifications in the United States. It was named after Samuel Sewall, a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice. It was rebuilt with a blockhouse in 1775 during the American Revolution.

Huguenot Fort - c. 1690
The original fort was built by Huguenots (Protestant immigrants who were fleeing state church persecution in France) to protect from Indian attack.

Castle Fort-1634 / Castle William-c. 1692 [British]
The first primitive fortification, called "The Castle", was placed on the site in 1634 and, after two re-buildings, replaced circa 1692 with a more substantial structure known as Castle William.
Re-built after it was abandoned by the British during the American Revolution, Castle William was renamed Fort Adams and then Fort Independence. The existing granite fort was constructed between 1833 and 1851.

Fort Adams-late 1700s / Fort Independence-1833
Rebuilt after it was abandoned by the British during the American Revolution, Castle William was renamed Fort Adams and then Fort Independence. The existing granite fort was constructed between 1833 and 1851. It is one of the oldest continuously fortified sites of English origin in the United States.

Connecticut

Fort Good Hope [vicinity] - 1633 [Dutch]
In 1633, the Dutch West India Company built a fortified trading post on the south bank of the Little [Park] River. The they had planned Fort Good Hope to be the northeastern fortification and a trading center of the Company.
The land was part of a larger tract purchased in1633 by Jacob van Curler on behalf of the Company from the Sequins, one of the clans of Connecticut Indians. Curler added a block house and palisade to the post while New Amsterdam sent a small garrison and a pair of cannons.
In 1653, after settling large numbers of people in the area, the English seized the fort.

unnamed fort - c. late 1660s

Black Rock-1776 / Fort Nathan Hale-early 1800s
A 1659 unnamed fort, a Revolutionary War-era fort, and a Civil War-era fort.
In early 1776, the colony of Connecticut commissioned the construction of a fort to protect the port of New Haven from the British. This was the location of an earlier unnamed fort from circa 1657, and Black Rock Fort was erected on this site. In 1779 British captured Black Rock Fort and burned the barracks as they left.
In 1807-1812, the abandoned fort was reconstructed with six guns as Fort Nathan Hale, and it served to defend the port from the British once again during the War of 1812

Fort Trumbull CT - 1777 [>19thC]
This fort, first completed in 1777, is named for Governor Jonathan Trumbull who recommended building a fortification at the port of New London to protect the seat of the government of Connecticut. It was built on a rocky point of land near the mouth of the Thames River on Long Island Sound.
It was attacked in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War, and was captured by British forces under the command of Benedict Arnold.
The fort was repaired circa 1808, and redesigned and rebuilt in 1812. It is described as an irregular enclosed work of masonry and sod, mounting 18 heavy guns [with] a brick barracks for one company
The present fortification, replacing the older one, was built between 1839 and 1852 as a five-sided, four-bastion coastal defense fort. It could accommodate 42 guns on the seacoast fronts, plus 10 additional guns in two flanking batteries outside the fort, along with flank howitzers in bastions for close-in defense.

Rhode Island

Fort Ninigret - 1637
Most historians believe that the fort was built by the Dutch West India Company or by Portuguese explorers prior to 1637, in addition to the earlier trading post on nearby Dutch Island.

[Goat Island] Fort Anne - 1703
Later: Fort George > Fort Liberty > Fort Washington
An earthen fort was built on Goat Island in 1703 during the War of Spanish Succession. It was named Fort Anne after the reigning Queen Anne. This 12-gun fort lasted until 1724.
In 1730, the fort returned to service under a new name, Fort George after King George II of Great Britain. In 1738, defenders of Rhode Island built a stone fortification on the site with perhaps fifty guns.
In 1764, Newporters took over the fort and fired shots at HMS St. John, a British ship with a crew that had allegedly stolen from local merchants. In 1769, Rhode Islanders burned the customs ship HMS Liberty when it drifted to the north end of Goat Island in another early act of rebellion against British rule.
With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the fort was renamed Fort Liberty. In 1776, American patriots armed Fort Liberty with 25 guns and built various breastworks to defend the City of Newport.
In December 1776 the British army occupied Newport without resistance and renamed it Fort George. The British left Newport in November 1779. The French army under Count de Rochambeau occupied Newport in 1780 and used the fort as part of their defenses until their departure in 1781.
In 1784, after the war ended, it was repaired and renamed Fort Washington after George Washington.

Fort Dumpling / Fort Wetherill - 1776
Fort Dumpling, dating from the American Revolutionary War, used to occupy this site until it was built over by Fort Wetherill. Fort Wetherill was a coastal artillery fort that occupied the southern portion of Conanicut Island. The fort sits atop high granite cliffs, overlooking the entrance to Narragansett Bay.
In 1776, an 8-gun earthwork fortification was constructed by patriot forces at the site of Dumpling Rock, which overlooks the strategic East Passage toward Newport. This fort was occupied by American, British, and French forces for various periods of time during the Revolutionary War. The patriots called it the Dumpling Rock Battery; the British called it Fort Dumpling Rock.
The British abandoned the fort in 1779 when they evacuated Newport. After this it was called Fort Conanicut. In 1798, construction was started on a permanent fortification at Dumpling Rock under the supervision of Major Louis Tousard of the Army Corps of Engineers. This fort was officially called Fort Louis, and later, Fort Brown.

Fort Adams RI - 1799/1824
The first Fort Adams was designed by Major Louis de Tousard of the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the first system of US fortifications. After some additions in 1809, this fort mounted 17 cannon and was garrisoned during the War of 1812.
After the War of 1812, there was a thorough review of the nation's fortification needs and it was decided to replace the older Fort Adams with a newer and much larger fort. The new fort was designed by Brigadier General Simon Bernard, a Frenchman who had served as a military engineer under Napoleon. He designed the new Fort Adams in the classic style and it became the most complex fortification in the Western Hemisphere.

Delaware

Zwaanendael Colony - 1631 [Dutch]
This was a short-lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware built in 1631. A palisaded fort was built, with the "red lion, rampant," of Holland affixed to its gate, and the country was named Swaanendael or Zwaanendael Colony. The existence of the little colony (28 people) was short, for the Indians attacked and destroyed it.
The site of the settlement later became the town of Lewes, Delaware.

Fort Christina - 1638 [Swedish]
Fort Christina was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Queen Christina of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi east of the present downtown Wilmington, Delaware, at the confluence of the Brandywine River and the Christina River.
The fort's earthworks were strengthened in 1640 by Governor Peter Hollander Ridder to help defend against the possibility of Dutch or Native American attacks. As additional colonists arrived from Sweden in the years following the landing, homes and farms began to be built outside of the confines of the fort. The fort was rebuilt entirely in 1647.
In 1654, the Swedes captured the Dutch Fort Casimir. Governor Johan Risingh, fearing reprisals, strengthened the defenses of Fort Christina by adding a wooden palisade around the earthworks.
In 1655, the Dutch under Stuyvesant returned in force and laid siege to Fort Christina. The fort's surrender after ten days ended the official Swedish colonial presence in North America. Stuyvesant renamed Fort Christina as Fort Altena.

Fort Beversreede - 1651 [Dutch]
Fort Beversreede or Fort Beaver Road [after 1633–1651] was a Dutch-built palisaded trading post located near the confluence of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River. It was an outpost of the colony of New Netherland. Its exact location is unknown.

Fort Casimir - 1651 [Dutch]
Briefly known as Fort Trinity [Swedish - 1654], and then New Amstel [Dutch - 1655].
Fort Casimir was a Dutch fort in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. It was located on a no-longer existing barrier island at the end of Chestnut Street in what is now New Castle, Delaware. Casimir was the name of several Polish kings known for success in battle, as well as the contemporary John Casimir when the fort was named by Petrus Stuyvesant.
It changed hands several times in the 17th & 18th centuries and was abandoned around 1675.

Fort Altna - 1655 [Dutch]
Formerly the Swedish Fort Christina.

Maryland

Kent Fort - 1631 [English]
Kent Fort was a fort and settlement located on southern Kent Island in colonial Virginia [later Maryland]. It was the first English settlement within the boundaries of present-day Maryland and the third oldest permanent English settlement in the United States, after Jamestown, VA (1607) and Plymouth, MA (1620). The fort was established by William Claiborne in 1631, and was a central part of early Kent Island.
Today the land on which the fort once stood has been eroded into the Eastern Bay, and the only known traces of the settlement are well bases in the bay. A stone marker indicates where the settlement was located. Kent Fort Manor is also located at the site of the Kent Fort settlement.

Fort Frederick - 1756
Fort Frederick, a star fort, was active in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. It was sold at auction in 1791 and lay abandoned until the American Civil War.
The restored fort is a large stone quadrangle with bastions at each corner. Each face of the curtain wall is about 179 feet long, 17.5 feet high and 3 feet thick at the base. The bastions project diagonally about 100 feet, are 4.5 feet thick at the base, and were filled with earth to provide a platform. The main gate is located in the center of the south curtain wall.
Two of the three barracks buildings have been restored. The west barrack is reconstructed to its 1758 appearance. The north barrack, known as the Governor's House, has not been reconstructed.

Fort Cumberland - 1754
Fort Cumberland was built in 1754 as a frontier fort at the current site of Cumberland, Maryland, USA. Initially named Fort Mount Pleasant, it was renamed Fort Cumberland in 1755. It was an important military and economic center during the French and Indian War.

[Fort Whetstone-1776] Fort McHenry MD - 1798
Fort McHenry was built on the site of the former Fort Whetstone [at Whetstone Point], which had defended Baltimore from 1776 to 1797. It was named after the early American statesman, James McHenry
The Frenchman Jean Foncin designed McHenry in 1798, and it was built between 1798 and 1800. The new fort's purpose was to improve the defenses of the increasingly important Port of Baltimore from future enemy attacks.
It was a bastioned pentagon, surrounded by a dry moat [a deep, broad trench]. The moat served as a shelter from which infantry might defend the fort from a land attack. In case of such an attack on this first line of defense, each point or bastion could provide a crossfire of cannon and small arms fire.

Virginia

James Fort - 1607 [British]
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" in May of 1607 and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. 'James Fort' in Virginia was converted into James Towne in 1619.

Fort Algernon-1609/Old Point Comfort-1632 [British]
Captain John Smith and the colonists of the Virginia Company established the settlement of Jamestown of the British Colony of Virginia on the James River in 1607. On their initial exploration, they recognized the strategic importance of this site for purposes of coastal defense. They initially built Fort Algernon/Algernourne (1609–1612) here. Based on the fort at Jamestown, it is assumed to have been a wooden triangular stockade. It burned in 1612.
Another fort, known only as "the fort at Old Point Comfort" was constructed here in 1632.

Fort Henry - 1645
Later known as Fort Wood and then Peter's Point.
Fort Henry was built in 1645 by order of the House of Burgesses. It marked the 1646 treaty frontier between the white settlers and the Indians following the Second Anglo-Powhatan War. It was situated at the fall line of the Piedmont, near the Appomattoc Indian tribe.
From 1646 until around 1691, it was the only point in Virginia where Indians could be authorized to cross eastward into white territory, or whites westward into Indian territory.
In later years it became known as Fort Wood after its first commander, Abraham Wood (1614-82). He used the fort as a base for several exploratory expeditions of the region. In 1675, command of the fort and adjacent Indian trading post passed to Wood's son-in-law, Peter Jones. The post then became known as "Peter's Point". With trade and related settlement, eventually the city of Petersburg developed here.
At some unknown point the original fort fell into ruins.

Fort Christiana - 1714
Fort Christanna was one of the projects of Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood, who was governor of the Virginia Colony 1710-1722. The fort was designed to offer protection and schooling to the Siouan and Iroquoian tribes living to the southwest of the colonized area of Virginia.
Located in what became Brunswick County, Virginia, near Gholsonville, the fort was completed in 1714 and enjoyed three successful years of operation as the westernmost outpost of the British Empire at the time, before being finally closed by the House of Burgesses in 1718.

Fort George - 1728
In 1728, Fort George was built on the site of Old Point Comfort.
Its masonry walls were destroyed by a hurricane in 1749, but the wood buildings in the fort were used by a reduced force until at least 1775.
In 1781, during the Siege of Yorktown, the French West Indian fleet established a battery on the ruins of Fort George. Throughout the Colonial period, fortifications were manned at the location from time to time.

White's Fort - 1732
White's Fort was an 18th-century residence and fortification located near the present-day unincorporated community of Hayfield, Frederick County. Alternatively known as the "White Hall," the first structure contributing to "White's Fort" was built between 1732 and 1735 by Dr. Robert White (1688–1752), a Scottish American physician, military officer, pioneer, and planter. "White's Fort" was later utilized as a fortification by White's son, Major Robert White, for the protection of European American settlers in the vicinity of Great North Mountain during the French and Indian War.

Fort Dinwiddie - 1755-1789
Fort Dinwiddie was a base for the Virginia Militia during the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War. It was located on the Jackson River, five miles west of Warm Springs, Virginia, in present-day Bath County.
The fort was first built in 1755 around the house of William Warwick during the French and Indian War. It was named for the lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. The fort featured a log-covered passageway that ran from a corner blockhouse to a spring within the fort.
The stockaded structure became one of a chain of forts, 15 to 30 miles apart, established in the mid-1700s to guard the Virginia frontier against the Native Americans of the Ohio River Valley. Colonel George Washington inspected the fort on September 24, 1755.

Fort Loudoun - 1756
Fort Loudoun was a fortification of the French and Indian War, located in what is now Winchester, Virginia. The fort was built between 1756 and 1758 under the supervision of George Washington, then a colonel in the militia of the British Province of Virginia. It was named for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, who commanded the British forces in North America for a time during the war. Washington and his militia regiment were headquartered at the fort for two years. The fort was a roughly square bastioned earthworks.
The property at 419 North Loudoun encompasses the historic heart of the fort, including a well dating to the fort's construction, and a portion of its northwest bastion. This property is now owned by the non-profit French and Indian War Foundation.

Fort Chiswell - 1758
Fort Chiswell is an historic archaeological site located in Wythe County, Virginia. It is the site of a frontier fort built in 1758 as an outpost during the French and Indian War. The fort was situated at the junction of the Great Trading Path and the Richmond Road, near the New River.
The fort fell into disrepair in the 18th century as both the county seat and courthouse were moved from Fort Chiswell to the county seat of Wytheville, 12 miles to the west. The remaining foundations of the Fort and its surrounding buildings were completely covered over during the construction of I-77 in Wythe County during the 1970s.

Fort Seybert - mid 1700s
Fort Seybert was an 18th-century frontier fort in the Allegheny Mountains in what is now Pendleton County. In a 1758 surprise raid occasioned by the French and Indian War (1754–63), most of the 30 white settlers sheltering there were massacred by Shawnee and Delaware warriors and the fort was burned. A similar number of settlers at nearby Fort Upper Tract had met the same fate on the previous day.
Fort Seybert, of which almost no trace remains today, was situated about 8 miles northeast of the present town of Franklin.

North Carolina

Joara / Fort San Juan - 1567
At first a native American settlement, a later expedition under Juan Pardo in 1567 created the first brief European settlement in the interior of the continent, establishing Fort San Juan at this site, together with other forts to the west. It is thought to be the first and the largest of the forts that Pardo established in an attempt to colonize the American South.
Within 18 months of its establishment, the natives killed the soldiers at the fort and burned the structures down. In July 2013, archeologists reported finding evidence of the remains of the fort itself at the site, including the remnants of burned palisades and what appeared to be the main structure within the fort.

Roanoke Colony / Fort Raleigh - 1587 [British]
The Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the present-day United States, was founded in 1587. The colony was promoted and backed by entrepreneurs led by Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1554–1618). It was lost sometime between 1587 and 1590 when supply ships failed to arrive on time. When next visited, the settlement was abandoned with no survivors found. The fate of the "Lost Colony" remains a mystery.

Fort Barnwell - 1712
The fort, originally a Carolina militia post, was founded by Colonel John Barnwell in 1712, and was abandoned in 1715.

Fort Johnston - 1748 [British]
Fort Johnston was constructed to protect British settlements along the Carolina coast against pirates and privateers, and numerous Spanish attackers. In April 1745 the General Assembly of the North Carolina colony authorized the construction of "Johnston's Fort" near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. In spring 1748, the legislature appropriated 2000 pounds, and construction finally began. North Carolina garrisoned the fort with a few dozen militia soldiers and used it for coastal protection and as a quarantine station for incoming mariners. The Governor of South Carolina agreed to lend ten small cannons for the fort.
During the Revolutionary War, American patriots controlled and destroyed Fort Johnston, including the home of its commandant. In 1778, the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated £5000 to rebuild Fort Johnston. The British took control of it again and probably destroyed the fort again.
Following the war, Fort Johnston underwent a period of physical decay. Then Congress appropriated funds for the first system of seacoast defense in the United States to fortify sixteen critical ports on the seaboard, provided that states provide the land. North Carolina did so, and reconstruction began in July 1794. The fort probably contained a seawall, battery, quarters for officers, barracks for enlisted men, gunpowder magazine, bakery, and other buildings.

South Carolina

Fort [Prince] Frederick - 1734 [British]
Fort Prince Frederick was the southernmost fort in British North America from 1726 to 1758. Fort Frederick was named for Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751), son of George II and Queen Caroline.
Initially constructed of logs, it was later improved with tabby walls, which were completed in 1733. A relatively small fort, it measured 125 feet by 75 feet with an obvious bastion on the southwest side. The eastern wall was lined with a battery and cannon. The interior of the fort held a barracks and a magazine. It was garrisoned by an independent company of British regulars until their transfer to Georgia in 1736.
[remains]

Fort Prince George - 1753 [British]
Fort Prince George was constructed in 1753 on the Cherokee Path. It was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III England. It was the principal Carolinian trading post among the Cherokee "Lower Towns".
The fort was built on the Keowee River, across from the largest "lower town", Keowee. The fort was a 200-foot square built of clay and wood with walls 12 to 15 feet high, surrounded by a deep trench. The fort's interior living area was about 100 feet square. The interior contained a guardhouse, a storehouse, a kitchen, a magazine, barracks, and residence. The fort served as a staging point for British assaults on the Cherokee during the Anglo-Cherokee War around 1760.
The fort was abandoned by 1768.
[now submerged]

Fort Johnson - 1765
Fort Johnson was named for Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who served as the Governor of Carolina from 1703 to 1709. It was strategically important during the colonial era. The magazine was built in 1765 and is a brick structure that measures 27 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was buried during the American Civil War by Confederate soldiers, and uncovered in 1931.

Fort Charlotte - 1768 [British]
Construction of Fort Charlotte began in the summer of 1765, and took several years to complete. It was named for the reigning queen at the time.
The fort was made mostly of granite quarried from across the Savannah River. It measured approximately 170 foot squared with bastions at every corner and a wall height of between 10 and 20 feet. The fort was built for defensive purposes rather than as a trading fort.
Almost as soon as the fort was completed, the British government abandoned it by placing it under the authority of the South Carolina government. During that time several forts were closed in the area, and in many cases guns, cannon, powder, bullets and other military supplies were sent to Fort Charlotte for safe keeping.
It is now under water in Lake Thurmond.

Fort Lyttleton - 1781 [loca]
In the 18th century and early into the 19th century, this land was primarily used for military purposes.
[locate exactly]

Fort Motte [Station] - Rev War [British]
Fort Motte [Fort Motte Station] was built as Mt. Joseph Plantation [1767].
It was commandeered by the British and fortified as a temporary military outpost during the American Revolutionary War. It was significant for its military use as a depot for their convoys between Camden and Charleston, which they occupied.
By May 1781 the British had constructed wood and earth fortifications at Mt. Joseph: palisades (9' tall) and ramparts (10-11' wide), were faced with a 6' deep ditch in front; 20-30' from the ditch was a row of abatis.
It became known as Fort Motte because it was occupied by Rebecca Brewton Motte and her family. During the Patriot Siege of Fort Motte, the plantation mansion was set on fire.

Ninety Six/Old Ninety Six & Star Fort - c. 1775 [British]
'Ninety Six' was a prosperous village by the time of the American Revolutionary War. The first land battle of the war fought in South Carolina took place there in 1775. The village became a Loyalist stronghold early in the war.
The star fort was an earthen structure, fortified by the British in 1780, as they considered this a strategic location.

Georgia

Fort King George - 1721 [British]
The fort served as the southernmost outpost of the British Empire in the Americas until 1727. It was constructed in what was then considered part of the colony of South Carolina, but was territory later settled as Georgia. It was part of a defensive line intended to encourage settlement along the colony's southern frontier.
In 1736, Oglethorpe brought Scottish colonists to settle the site of the then-abandoned Fort King George. They called their village New Inverness, later named Darien.
[reconstructed]

Fort St. Andrews - 1736 [British]
Fort St. Andrews was a British colonial coastal fortification built on Cumberland Island, Georgia in 1736. The fort was built by the British as part of a buffer against Spanish Florida and the colonies to the north. The fort was abandoned and later destroyed by the Spanish in mid-1742.

Fort Frederica - 1736 [British]
The fort was built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids. About 630 British troops were stationed at the fort. They named Frederica for Frederick, Prince of Wales, (1707–1751).
In 1749 the government disbanded the garrison at Frederica. Soon the village fell into economic decline, and by 1755 it was mostly abandoned.

Other 16th/17th/18thC star forts

Charlesfort-1562/Fort Caroline FL - 1564 [French]
The first and second French expeditions in this area established these two forts.
[debatable location - reproduction]

Fort Maurepas/Old Biloxi MS - 1699 [French]
The settlement of Fort Maurepas or Old Biloxi in colonial French Louisiana [New France], began in April 1699 along the Gulf of Mexico. The fort was completed in May of that year. Fort Maurepas was designated as the temporary capital of Louisiana in 1719. Later in the same year, Fort Maurepas (at Old Biloxi) burned. It was never reconstructed.

Fort Louis de La Louisiane AL - 1702 [French]
From 1702 until 1712 the 'Old Mobile Site' was the location of the French settlement, La Mobile, and the associated Fort Louis de La Louisiane, in the French colony of New France. Fort Louis de la Louisiane served as the political, military, and religious center of the settlement. The fort housed the residences of the commander, his officers and soldiers, as well as a chapel and several other structures.
A detailed description of Fort Louis can be found in the narrative of André Pénicaut:
"This fort was [384-ft square]. At each of the four corners there was a battery of six pieces of cannon which, protruding outside in a half circle, covered the sector in front and to right and left. Inside, within the curtains, were four fronts of buildings, fifteen feet back from the curtains behind them. These buildings were to be used as chapel, as quarters for the commandant and the officers, as warehouses, as guardhouse. So, in the midst of these buildings there was a place d'armes [288-ft] square.
The fort bastions were constructed using [mortise & tenon] techniques. In such construction, timbers with tenons [projections] cut on each end are laid atop one another horizontally. The tenons are inserted into vertical grooves in periodically spaced vertical posts. The fort was surrounded by a palisade fence.
Due to the damp conditions of the site, wooden structures rotted quickly, necessitating replacement of the bastion timbers and palisade posts at approximately five-year intervals. By 1705, the rotting wood of the fort made firing of the cannons unsafe. To prepare for the coming conflict with the English, the fort was repaired in 1707. Within a year, however, the bastions of the fort were severely rotted and could barely support the weight of the cannons. As the English threat intensified, the size of the fort was increased by a third so that it could accommodate all of the residents of Old Mobile and the surrounding allied Indian tribes.
In the spring of 1711, there was a major flood. The houses of the settlement were submerged to the top of their roofs for nearly a month. This was the ultimate factor in the decision to relocate the settlement. When the French abandoned Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the fort and houses were burned.

Fort Conde AL - 1723 [French]
Replacing Fort Louis de La Louisiane, and located further inland, Fort Condé guarded Mobile and its citizens for almost 100 years, from 1723-1820.

Fort Kaskaskia IL - c. 1750s [French>British]
The French settlers raised Fort Kaskaskia around 1759. The fort stood atop the bluff that looked down on the frontier village. Fort Kaskaskia was not technically a "fort", but an earthen redoubt. Frontier settlers throughout the woodlands of North America often built such redoubts as defensive moves during times of threat from Native Americans.
In 1763, the French ceded the Illinois country, including Kaskaskia and the redoubt, to Great Britain.

Fort Loudoun TN - 1756 [British]
Built 1756-1757 to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the Seven Years' War, the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was named for the Earl of Loudoun, the commander of British forces in North America at the time.
It was taken over by hostile Indians in 1760 and ultimately destroyed.
It was reconstructed in the 20th century based on the detailed descriptions of the original design.

Fort de L’Ascension/Fort Massiac IL - 1757 [French>British]
Legend has it that, as early as 1540, there was a primitive Spanish fortification here. Maps from the early 18th century show an "Ancien Fort" ("Old Fort") near this location.
Fort Massac was built by the French in 1757, during the French and Indian War and was originally called "Fort de L’Ascension." The name was changed in 1759, to honor of Claud Louis d'Espinchal, Marquis de Massiac, the French Naval Minister.
Following the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the French abandoned the fort and a band of Chickasaw burned it to the ground. When Captain Thomas Stirling, commander of the 42nd Highland Regiment, arrived to take possession for Britain, he found nothing but a charred ruin. The British never rebuilt the fort.
In 1794, during the Northwest Indian War, President George Washington ordered the fort rebuilt, and for the next 20 years it protected U.S. military and commercial interests in the Ohio Valley. In the Fall of 1803, the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped at Fort Massac on its way west.
The Fort was damaged by the New Madrid earthquake in 1812. It was again rebuilt in time to play a minor role in the War of 1812, only to be abandoned again in 1814. Local citizens dismantled the fort for its timber, and by 1828 little remained.
[2002 reconstruction - wooden precursor to a star fort]

Fort George ME - 1779 [British]
Fort George was a British colonial fort, erected in 1715 by Captain John Gyles in Brunswick. The fort was 3 feet underground with a 3-foot-thick wall base, standing at least 10 feet high above ground, laid with lime mortar. The barracks housed fifteen men. A large two-story dwelling house, appearing above the walls.
In 1736, the government decided to dismantle Fort George. The ruins of the fort were standing until 1802.

Ft Lernoult MI - 1779 [British] > Ft Shelby
The first fort in the area [see Fort Detroit] was built by the French in 1701. That fort, constructed shortly after explorers landed, was manned by the French until it was surrendered to the British in 1760 during the French and Indian War.
The second fort, built at a different location, was Fort Lernoult; it was built by the British in 1779. It has walls of earthen ramparts faced with cedar, covering vaulted brick tunnels that contain artillery ports. The design was based on fortifications developed by a 17th-century French military engineer. Artillery emplacements are atop the walls, designed for 10-inch cannons mounted to fire over the parapet, although there is no indication that artillery intended for the fort was ever installed. There is a dry moat surrounding the fort, and a demilune facing the river.
The United States took over this fort after the American Revolution and it was renamed Fort Shelby. It played a significant role in the War of 1812.
In 1805 it was renamed Fort Detroit by Secretary of War Henry Dearborn. The fort was surrendered to the British in 1812, and then reclaimed by the Americans in 1813. The Americans renamed it Fort Shelby. It was given to the city of Detroit in 1826 and dismantled in 1827
NOTE: References to "Fort Detroit" relating to the War of 1812 are to this fort, not to the earlier Fort Detroit, which had been abandoned by the British in 1779 when they builtf Fort Lernoult.

Fort Wayne/Ft.Detroit MI - 1794
Fort Wayne is Detroit's third fort. In its original location, Old Fort Detroit served as a successful trading post until 1747, when Indians attacked the fort and burned it to the ground. [see Fort Detroit - 1701 & Fort Lernoult/Shelby]
In the summer of 1749, a force of French and Indians rebuilt that fort. In November 1760, at the close of the French and Indian War, the French garrison formally surrendered the fort to Great Britain. The British lost control of the fort in 1763, during Pontiac's Rebellion, and the fort was destroyed by the Indians.
The new Fort Detroit was built in 1794.
NOTE: References to "Fort Detroit" relating to the War of 1812 are to this fort, not to the old Fort Detroit, which had been abandoned by the British in 1779 when they builtf Fort Lernoult.

Early 19thC star forts

Fort Wood NY - 1806 [>Liberty Island]
Known as the three Oysters Islands for their food supply, they were: Bedloe's/Love/Liberty, Ellis Island, and Black Tom Island. They were given the name by the Dutch settlers of New Netherland, the first European colony in the Mid-Atlantic states. The oyster beds would remain a major source of food for nearly three centuries. The English took ownership in 1664 when they defeated the Dutch. The U.S. became owners after the Revolutionary War.
In1806, the federal government began the construction of a defensive fort... along with Governors Island and Ellis Island. It was a granite fortification in the shape of an 11-pointed star mounting 24 guns which was completed in 1811. Following the War of 1812, the fortification was named Fort Wood after Lt. Col Eleazer Derby Wood.
By the time it was chosen for the Statue of Liberty in the 1880s, the fort was outmoded and obsolete, disused and its substantial stone walls were then used as the distinctive base for the Statue of Liberty, which was given by the Third French Republic for the American 1876 centenary celebrations.

Fort Bowyer-1813 / Fort Morgan AL-1834
Fort Morgan was built on the site of the earlier Fort Bowyer, an earthen and stockade type fortification involved in the final land battles of the War of 1812. Construction on it was completed in 1834.

Fort Delaware DE - c. 1817
During the War of 1812, efforts were made to fortify Pea Patch Island. During this time a seawall and dykes were built around the island. There is no known evidence that any progress was made on the actual fortification by war's end. Construction of a star fort on Pea Patch island began sometime before December of 1817.

Fort Monroe VA - 1819 to 1834
After arriving at Jamesown in 1607 and on exploring the general area, the English colonists recognized the strategic importance of this site for purposes of coastal defense. They initially built Fort Algernourne (1609–1612). It is assumed to have been a triangular stockade, based on the fort at Jamestown. Other small forts known as Fort Henry and Fort Charles were built nearby. Fort Algernourne burned in 1612. Another fort, known only as "the fort at Old Point Comfort", was constructed in 1632.
In 1728, Fort George was built on the site. Its masonry walls were destroyed by a hurricane in 1749, but the wood buildings in the fort were used by a reduced force until at least 1775.
Fort Monroe was constructed from 1819 to 1834. At Old Point Comfort on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, Fort Monroe, along with Fort Wool, guarded the navigation channel between the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads. Surrounded by a moat, the seven-sided star fort is the largest stone fort ever built in the United States.

Fort Jackson LA - 1822
Fort Jackson was constructed between 1822 and 1832 as a coastal defense of New Orleans, and was a battle site during the American Civil War.

Fort Warren - 1833
Fort Warren was constructed on the 28-acre Georges Island, built to defend the entrance to Boston Harbor. It is a pentagonal star fort of stone and granite, constructed from 1833–1861, and completed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War.

Fort Jefferson FL - 1847
Fort Jefferson is a massive but unfinished coastal fortress. It is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas, composed of over 16 million bricks, the building alone occupying 16 acres. Among United States forts, only Fort Monroe in Virginia and Fort Adams in Rhode Island are larger.