Fort Independence (Boston, Massachusetts) | fortification, star fort

 fortification, star fort

www.bostonfortindependence.com/

The present five pointed granite structure is the eighth fort to occupy this site and contains over 172,687 linear feet of hammered stone and was constructed under the direction of Colonel Sylvanus Thayer between 1833 and 1851 as a modification of an earlier fortification under the Third System.

As of 1851, it was intended to be armed with six 42-pounder seacoast guns, forty-nine 32-pounder seacoast guns, twenty-five 24-pounder guns, twenty flank howitzers, fifteen 8" heavy seacoast howizters, two 13" mortars and four 10" heavy mortars, for a total of 121 guns.

An incident at the fort involving an abusive drunken commanding officer who was buried alive by a junior officer in the 1840s served as the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado"
Poe served at the fort during his stint in the Coast Artillery.