The Military Post of Fort Macon in the Nineteenth Century

The Military Post of Fort Macon in the Nineteenth Century. . If you could go back in time to the years of the last half of the Nineteenth Century you would find this area looked quite a bit different than it does today. The area around Fort Macon was cleared of any vegetation. The fort itself was only one building of a small military city that once existed here. Scattered around the fort were a number of quarters, buildings and support structures that enabled it to function as a military post. These building included officer quarters, laundress quarters, a storehouse, stables, a hospital, and a railroad extending down to the wharf. Also included were wells, a bake house, a blacksmith’s shop, a boat house and the “sink,” which served as the privy for the fort’s garrison. During 1855 to 1862, a 50-foot brick lighthouse and a 30-foot beacon also stood near the fort until they were destroyed during the War Between the States., Of all these structures, only the fort remains today. Most of these structures were wood frame buildings that did not fare well in the coastal environment as the years passed. The last of them were sold as removed in the early 1900s after Fort Macon was abandoned., (captions) , (upper right) The railroad from the wharf, looking toward the fort. Supplies and munitions were offloaded from supply vessels at the wharf onto railroad flatcars, which were pulled by horses or mules up to the fort. , (center right) One of several small cottages outside the fort that served as officer quarters or laundress quarters. , (lower right) A sketch of the Blacksmith Shop made by a Union soldier.