Fort Macon State Park

             Over spring break I got the chance to visit Fort Macon in Carteret County. Living only ten minutes from the fort, I used to visit it all the time growing up. What I find most interesting about this site its purpose during different periods of history. During the early 18th century, Blackbeard and other well-known pirates easily passed through Beaufort Inlet at will. This area was also vulnerable to the threat of coastal raids. The War of 1812 demonstrated this weakness and the construction of the fort began in 1826. The fort was just one of the forts created during this period as the United States began to build up coastal defenses.

Main Entrance into the fort

The fort was named after North Carolina Senator Nathaniel Macon. Construction lasted for 8 years and was completed in 1834. What I found most interesting during my visit was that during the 1840s, Robert E. Lee, who was a Captain in the US Army Engineers at the time, inspected the fort and developed permanent jetties to halt shore erosion on the beach outside the fort.

Parrott Rifle

Central Courtyard

At the beginning of the Civil War, Fort Macon was taken by local Confederate militia forces. It remained in Confederate hands until September of 1862. Brigadier General John G. Parke, under the command of Ambrose Burnside, was sent to capture the fort. The Confederate forces

were able to hold out a month until surrendering the fort to Union forces. Fort Macon would remain under Union control for the rest of the war. Until 1876, Fort Macon would serve as a military prison and, at one point, as a federal penitentiary. After the fort was deactivated in 1877, it would only be occupied by state troops during the Spanish-American War in 1898 before being abandoned in 1903.

Moat surrounding the fort

View of Fort Macon from one of the seaward sides

            The fort would be sold to the state of North Carolina in 1923 and would become the states first functioning state park in 1936. At the outbreak of World War II, the fort was leased by the US Army to protect the coast from German U-Boat attacks. The fort would be occupied by from December 1941 until November 1944. It would be returned to the state in 1946. From pirates to U-boats, Fort Macon provided protection to the Beaufort Inlet and North Carolina coast for nearly a century.