Fort Johnston (North Carolina)
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Fort Johnston
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| Location | Moore Street Southport, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates | 33°55′5″N 78°01′3″W / 33.91806°N 78.01750°WCoordinates: 33°55′5″N 78°01′3″W / 33.91806°N 78.01750°W |
| Area | 6 acres (2.4 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 74001327 |
| Added to NRHP | 7 June 1974 |
Fort Johnston was a British fort, later a United States Army post, in Brunswick County, North Carolina on Moore Street near Southport, North Carolina. It stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River, four miles above its mouth.
Before the construction of Fort Johnston, British settlements along the Carolina coast lacked fortifications to protect them against pirates and privateers, and numerous Spanish attackers exploited this weakness. In response to these attacks, Governor Gabriel Johnston in 1744 appointed a committee to select the best location to construct a fort for the defense of the Cape Fear River region. France meanwhile declared King George's War against Britain in 1744. The Governor of South Carolina agreed to lend ten small cannons for the fort. Facing increasingly bold Spanish privateer raids, the General Assembly of North Carolina colony in April 1745 authorized the construction of "Johnston's Fort" near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. In spring 1748, the legislature appropriated 2000 pounds, and construction finally began.
Two Spanish privateers in summer 1748 intended to seize slaves working on construction of the fort. Finding none at the time of their raid, the privateers sailed upriver and attacked Brunswick, North Carolina by sea and land, looting the town and taking hostages over two days. The local militia eventually drove the raiders back to their ships, but the Spanish privateers continued to bombard the town for a third day. Only after one privateering ship accidentally exploded and sank did the fleet retreat toward the sea.
Although Governor Johnston declared the fort complete in April 1749, work on the fortification, the first in North Carolina colony, continued to progress well into the 1750s. North Carolina garrisoned the fort with a few dozen militia soldiers and used it for coastal protection and as a quarantine station for incoming mariners. The militia men included Captain Robert Howe, first stationed at Fort Johnston in 1766.
American patriots attacked the home of Josiah Martin, British royal governor of the Province of North Carolina, at New Bern, on 24 April 1775. Governor Martin then sent his family to New York, transferred his headquarters to Fort Johnston on 2 June 1775, and instigated a plot to arm the slaves. After the patriots discovered this plot, John Ashe of the Wilmington Committee of Safety led a group of patriotic colonists in a plot against Fort Johnson in July 1775. Governor Martin and his supporters removed most military stores, dismounted the cannon of the fort, and fled aboard the British sloop-of-war Cruiser at anchor in the Cape Fear River. American patriots controlled, burnt, and destroyed Fort Johnston, including the home of its commandant. Governor Martin rallied Loyalist forces from his offshore redoubt.
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Wikipedia