File:Coast watch (1979) (20659462365).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_6 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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During World War II, a man in the Atlantic anti-submarine force stationed at the fort used an old Civil War shell casing as an andiron in a fireplace. The shell exploded, injuring the man. The fort became internationally known when "Ripley's Believe it or Nor published the incident as ihe last shot fired in the American Civil War." and the men stationed there would surrender their arms. The general generously pardoned all the Confederates as prisoners of war for exchange. For the remainder of the war, Fort Macon stayed in Union hands, guarding the entrance to Beaufort Harbor from Confederate gunships and privateers. After the Civil War, its glory made obsolete by sophisticated weaponry like rifled cannons, the fort was abandoned by the U.S. Army. The federal government used the structure as a penitentiary until 1876, and the Army stationed a garrison of men there during the Spanish-American War in 1898. By 1903, the Army abandoned Fort Macon permanently and al- lowed the catbrier, yaupon and blowing sand to attack at will. In 1924, after the Army offered the fort and its compound for sale as surplus property, the U.S. Congress allowed North Carolina to acquire the fort for $ 1. And on May 1, 1936, Fort Macon became the state's first functional state park. The fort's last official duty came during World War II, when the federal government again leased the property as quarters, this time for anti-submarine forces stationed on the barrier islands. 0
Text Appearing After Image:
Scotl D Taylor 18 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1993

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