Fort Massachusetts

Fort Massachusetts

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Ship Island, Mississippi

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Trailhead

In 1855, Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, a native of Mississippi, advocated for building fortifications on Ship Island. Davis recalled that the British used the Mississippi Sound near Ship Island in 1814 to attack New Orleans. Though the fort never received an official Army title, Major General Winfield S. Hancock, called the structure Fort Massachusetts in 1884.

This report is the first time it has been known by that name in an official document. Later, the fort on Ship Island became known as Fort Massachusetts, after the Union ship which retook in the island in the fall of 1861.