Fort Macon was a brick and stone fort constructed in the 1820s on the eastern end of an Outer Bank Island to guard the Beaufort Inlet and Beaufort Harbor, the only deep-water ocean port in the Tarheel State. Two days after the outbreak of the War Between the States, troops of the North Carolina militia seized Fort Macon and in the following year, the Confederate soldiers positioned fifty-four heavy cannons on the fort.

the War
Between
the States

Fort Macon,
North Carolina
25^th April 1862

This photograph was taken from inside the southwest gallery looking east down an avenue between the citadel and the outer walls. Cannon or small arms fire could be utilized by defenders of the front to fire upon enemy attackers caught in the avenues.

This photograph is of one of the twenty-six casemates or rooms that surround the parade grounds in the Citadel of Fort Macon. Fort Macon is five sided and the staircase to the right is another corner of the fort and underneath the stairwell was a reinforced room used to store gunpowder.

This is looking down the avenue between the outer and inner walls. Notice the gun ports at the far wall that could be used to fire down the avenues.