Fort Massachusetts

[Danny West]

Does anyone have any information on this fort located in the Mississippi Sound?
Thanks

 

[John Hartwell]

Fort Massachusetts is on Ship Island off the Mississippi coast.

Ship Island was significant, in part, as a rendezvous and depot for Federal operations in the Gulf and up the Mississippi, against New Orleans. Later, the fort served as a prison for Confederate prisoners.

 

[bdtex]

It is a NPS venue and only accessible by boat.

https://www.nps.gov/guis/learn/historyculture/fort-massachusetts.htm

 

[bdtex]

Found this link for boat services to and from Ship Island:

https://msshipisland.com

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Does anyone have any information on this fort located in the Mississippi Sound?
Thanks

Quitman is not too far from the Coast.

Next time you're down there (Biloxi, Gulfport or the other coastal towns), I would highly recommend a trip out to Ship Island.

The island itself is a major part of Mississippi history.
From the 1500's, during the the Spanish exploration era up through French Colonization in 1699.

Moreover, Ship Island was the major staging area for the Royal Navy during the British attack on New Orleans during the War of 1812.
As it was with the US Navy in their strategy to take New Orleans fifty years later.

Regarding this Fort.

The links @bdtex provided are great.

Here are a few interesting facts:

The name 'Fort Massachusetts' is unofficial.
Technically, the fort never received an official name.

The gunboat USS Massachusetts played a major role in re-taking the original unfinished fort from Mississippi State troops during the early months of the War.

The Fort and Ship Island served primarily as a Confederate POW camp throughout the remainder of the War, garrisoned by USCT troops who some say fared as badly as the prisoners they were guarding.

The current Fort was not completed until after the War.

The remaining massive cannon is also post-War and somehow escaped the scrap iron 'drives' of both World Wars.

Just a few interesting facts about the fort.

http://fortwiki.com/Fort_Massachusetts_(1)


You might enjoy this home 'drone' video.

 

[gary]

There was also a Fort Massachusetts in Colorado. Its site is south of Sand Dunes National Park and north of Fort Garland (CO state park site) that replaced it.

 

[JOHN42768]

Thanks for the posting

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Here's another article some may find interesting.

Union Soldiers on Ship Island During the Civil War
By James G. Hollandsworth Jr.

Most Union soldiers fought the American Civil War close to home. Recruits from Pennsylvania in the Army of the Potomac, for example, spent the entire war within one or two hundred miles of home. Farther west, men from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio did not have far to travel to reach the battlefields of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Nevertheless, there were some Union soldiers during the Civil War who served in remote places that were very different from what they were used to at home. These men ended up on Ship Island, a desolate barrier island twelve miles off the coast of Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their story began September 10, 1861, just six weeks after the Union lost the battle to the Confederates at Bull Run, the first battle of the American Civil War. Major General Benjamin F. Butler had received authorization to "raise, organize, arm, uniform, and equip a volunteer force for the war in the New England States."
General Butler
Initially, Butler intended to use these troops to clear Confederate forces from the eastern shore of Virginia but shifted his attention to the Gulf Coast when he learned that the Confederates had already abandoned the eastern shore. Butler's new plan was either to attack Mobile, Alabama, or to establish a foothold in Texas. Eventually, he hoped to take New Orleans, Louisiana.
Butler selected two infantry regiments, the 9th Connecticut and the 26th Massachusetts, and a battery of light artillery, the 4th Massachusetts, and ordered them to Ship Island.

Entire article at:

http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/211/union-soldiers-on-ship-island-during-the-civil-war

 

[bdtex]

Here's another article some may find interesting.

View attachment 215545Union Soldiers on Ship Island During the Civil War
By James G. Hollandsworth Jr.
Most Union soldiers fought the American Civil War close to home. Recruits from Pennsylvania in the Army of the Potomac, for example, spent the entire war within one or two hundred miles of home. Farther west, men from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio did not have far to travel to reach the battlefields of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Nevertheless, there were some Union soldiers during the Civil War who served in remote places that were very different from what they were used to at home. These men ended up on Ship Island, a desolate barrier island twelve miles off the coast of Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their story began September 10, 1861, just six weeks after the Union lost the battle to the Confederates at Bull Run, the first battle of the American Civil War. Major General Benjamin F. Butler had received authorization to "raise, organize, arm, uniform, and equip a volunteer force for the war in the New England States."
General Butler
Initially, Butler intended to use these troops to clear Confederate forces from the eastern shore of Virginia but shifted his attention to the Gulf Coast when he learned that the Confederates had already abandoned the eastern shore. Butler's new plan was either to attack Mobile, Alabama, or to establish a foothold in Texas. Eventually, he hoped to take New Orleans, Louisiana.
Butler selected two infantry regiments, the 9th Connecticut and the 26th Massachusetts, and a battery of light artillery, the 4th Massachusetts, and ordered them to Ship Island.

Entire article at:

http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/211/union-soldiers-on-ship-island-during-the-civil-war

Thanks for the link. Good read.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Thanks for the link. Good read.

Ship Island & Fort Massachusetts are a great way to spend a full or half day in the Gulf.

I used to camp on Cat Island, about a mile away from Ship Island. There's a lot of history there as well, only there are no historic structures left. Cat Island is larger, more biologically diverse and is not under the control of the National Park Service.

 

[Danny West]

Quitman is not too far from the Coast.

Next time you're down there (Biloxi, Gulfport or the other coastal towns), I would highly recommend a trip out to Ship Island.

The island itself is a major part of Mississippi history.
From the 1500's, during the the Spanish exploration era up through French Colonization in 1699.

Moreover, Ship Island was the major staging area for the Royal Navy during the British attack on New Orleans during the War of 1812.
As it was with the US Navy in their strategy to take New Orleans fifty years later.

Regarding this Fort.

The links @bdtex provided are great.

Here are a few interesting facts:

The name 'Fort Massachusetts' is unofficial.
Technically, the fort never received an official name.

The gunboat USS Massachusetts played a major role in re-taking the original unfinished fort from Mississippi State troops during the early months of the War.

The Fort and Ship Island served primarily as a Confederate POW camp throughout the remainder of the War, garrisoned by USCT troops who some say fared as badly as the prisoners they were guarding.

The current Fort was not completed until after the War.

The remaining massive cannon is also post-War and somehow escaped the scrap iron 'drives' of both World Wars.

Just a few interesting facts about the fort.

http://fortwiki.com/Fort_Massachusetts_(1)


You might enjoy this home 'drone' video.

I've been to fort! But, I was looking for info in the 1870s about a threat from Spain. Yeah I go coast often about 2 hour 30 minute drive 150 miles give or take.