Fort Scammel

Designed as a Second System fortification for the harbor defense of Portland, Maine. It was built under the direction of Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn who w...
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Designed as a Second System fortification for the harbor defense of Portland, Maine. It was built under the direction of Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn who was the son of the Secretary of War. Dearborn also oversaw the construction of nearby Fort Preble.

Fort Scammel was built as a semi-circular fortification facing Casco Bay and the entrance to Portland Harbor. Like many of the Second System forts, Fort Scammel had a large, octaginal blockhouse built from heavy timbers with guns on the upper floor. The blockhouse was located at the rear of fortification, at the center was a powder magazine and a shot furnace. The fort and the blockhouse were painted white so that all would know that the port was defended (see Fort Edgecomb for a blockhouse example). At the top of the blockhouse was a large carved wooden eagle. The original fort had emplacements for eleven 24 and 32-pounder cannons and several more guns on a separate battery on the east side of the island.

In the 1840s and 1850s the walls of the original semi-circular fortification were extended on the right and left flanks and finally to the rear to fully enclose a much larger area. This new configuration provided a land side defense as well as covering the approaches to Portland Harbo
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