concern from 1794 for the following ten years. A battery and blockhouse were erected for the defense of the town in 1795 and 1796, but these soon fell into decay. A small work which had been authorized by the act of March, 1794, was completed in 1806, and received the name of Fort Sumner, but the site of this work was injudiciously selected, and the engineers reported that new works were necessary. Under date of January 6, 1809, President Jefferson, in a message to Congress on the subject of seacoast defense reports: "Portland Harbor, Fort Preble, a new enclosed work of stone and brick masonry with a brick barrack quarters and magazine, is completed. This work is erected on Spring Point, and commands the entrance of the harbor through the main channel."

This is the record we have of the existence of Fort Preble. The records of the War Department in 1820 are very meager. A fire in the War Department in 1800 consumed most of the records prior to that date, and on the approach of the British in 1814, the records which had accumulated up to that date were either destroyed or distributed in such a manner that few of them have been recovered. It may have been that the designation of this work originated in the War Department, but of this there is no certainty. The names of most of the early works were conferred upon them by the constructing engineers, and not always with the approval of the department.

It has always been considered by this office that Fort Preble was named in honor of the memory of Edward Preble, commodore in the United States navy. He was perhaps the most prominent naval officer of his day, and his operations along the Barbary coast, which resulted in the peace of the third of June, 1805, by which the tribute which European nations had paid for centuries to the Barbaric pirates was abolished, and his efforts were renowned throughout the world. He returned to this country in 1805, where he received an enthusiastic welcome as well as a vote of thanks from Congress (the first to receive them after the adoption of the constitution), and a gold medal.

In 1806 President Jefferson offered him the portfolio of naval affairs, which he declined on account of his feeble health. He returned to Portland, his native town, where he died in August, 1807.

It was at this time that the new work in Portland Harbor was under construction and about being completed, and it is therefore reasonable to suppose that the compliment of bestowing his name upon the work would have naturally suggested itself to those in authority. In fact, the preponderance of opinion is shown from a consultation of numerous authorities to incline to that view.

On the other hand, beyond the fact that the father of Commodore Preble (Jedediah) was a brigadier-general in the Revolutionary army, his services during the war of the Revolution were not of so distinguished a character as to have entitled him to the honor in question, twenty-five years after his death, in contradistinction to his son, who was unquestionably the most eminent citizen of Portland at the time of his death, which was contemporaneous with the naming of the work.

The first Fort Scammel is thus described by Mr. William Goold in "Portland in the Past."

On the highest point of this purchase (the military reservation of Fort Scammel) Dearborn erected an octogonal blockhouse of timber with a pointed roof of eight sides. On the low upright center timber of the roof was placed a carved wooden eagle with extended wings; on each of the eight sides of the blockhouse was an embrasure or porthole and a gun. The upper story contained the battery, and projected over the lower story two or three feet. All the buildings, including the blockhouse and barracks, were clapboarded and painted white. The works were enclosed in an earthen rampart, and presented a picturesque appearance.

Fort Scammel was so named in honor of Col. Alexander Scammel of the army of the Revolution, who was aid-de-camp to Gen. Washington and adjutantgeneral of the army. He was mortally wounded by Hessians while engaged in a reconnaissance near Yorktown, Virginia, September, 1781.

Both posts were named by direction of Maj.-Gen. Henry Dearborn, United States army, who was sec

retary of war from 1801 to 1809, and whose son, Alexander Scammel Dearborn was the agent of the War Department in the construction of Forts Preble and Scammel.

During the war of 1812, temporary batteries were constructed on Fish Point and Jordan's Point. The latter was named Fort Burrows in honor of the gallant commander of the United States brig Enterprise, who fell in the action with the English brig Boxer, on the fifth of September, 1813, off Portland Harbor.

The defenses of Portland like those of other cities on the coast, have been affected by the development of modern artillery.

In 1857 it was found necessary to make radical changes in Forts Preble and Scammel and to construct Fort Gorges. These works were all to be large masonry forts with two tiers of casemate batteries and one barbette each, mounting in all, for the defense of the harbor, two hundred and ninety pieces of artillery. Before their completion the system of heavy smoothbore guns was superseded by the modern heavy builtup breech and muzzle-loading rifles, and the costly and elaborate fortifications of granite were found to be useless against such artillery.

The corps of engineers spent no more money on masonry works, but in 1871 they strengthened Forts Preble and Scammel by the construction of heavy earthen parapets, traverses and magazines, and emplacements for modern artillery. Fort Preble has platforms for seventeen fifteen-inch Rodman guns or twelve-inch rifles, and for three eight-inch rifles.

There are now (1889) two fifteen-inch S. B. guns and two eight-inch rifles mounted in the works. Fort Scammel has six fifteen-inch and four ten-inch S. B. guns mounted and emplacements for several others.

It is understood that the new project of the engineer corps for the defense of Portland Harbor embraces the construction of modern works with the necessary electrical and steam plant on Portland Head and Cow Island.

The compiler of these notes is especially indebted to Mr. James Phinney Baxter of Portland, Maine, for access to and free use of valuable maps of the coast made by early explorers and plans of the early fortifications of the New England coast, copies of which Mr. Baxter secured at private expense from the Public Records office, the Rolls Office and the Library of the British Museum in London; also for giving him access to the valuable collection of the Maine Historical Society. He is also indebted for courtesies to Mr. William Goold, author of " Portland in the Past," and to Messrs. S. W. and Charles Pickard, editors of the "Portland Transcript." In preparing these notes the following authorities have been consulted:

Palfrey's History of New England.

Willis' History of Portland.

Williamson's History of Maine.

Mather's Magnalia.

Sullivan's History of Maine.
Goold's Portland in the Past.
Hull's Capture of Fort Loyal.
Smith and Deane's Journals.

An Historical Sketch, etc., of Cushings Island, by Wm. M.

Sargent, A. M.

The Trelawney Papers, by Mr. James Phinney Baxter.

COL. THOMAS GOLDTHWAIT-WAS

HE A TORY?

BY R. GOLDTHWAITE CARTER, U. S. ARMY.

Read before the Maine Historical Society, December 19, 1895.

ON Fort Point, a bold, rocky promontory of Cape Jellison, at the mouth of the Penobscot River, overlooking the beautiful waters of Penobscot Bay, thickly studded with the greenest of emerald isles, are the crumbling ruins of an old colonial fort.

The local historians have from time to time given some very interesting accounts of the inception and completion of this ancient work by Gov. Thomas Pownall of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in July, 1759, and of its destruction by Col. James Cargill in July, 1775; but of its garrison, those hardy men who occupied it during this period of sixteen years, little has been said, presumably because little has been known.

We are told that Brig.-Gen. Jedediah Preble was the first commandant of Fort Pownall after its completion, and that Col. Thomas Goldthwait, with the exception of one year, was its commanding officer from 1763 to 1775; the longest and most important period of its existence.

In Maine, most historical readers are very familiar with the main incidents of the life of the former, so closely identified is it with the history of old Falmouth, now Portland; but of the latter little is