Fort Preble

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Fort Preble is a military fort in South Portland, Maine, United States. Fort Preble is on the campus of Southern Maine Community College.

Henry A. S. Dearborn built the fort in 1808 and named it in honor of Commodore Edward Preble. It was designed to guard Portland harbor in Casco Bay, along with Fort Scammel.

Various units manned Fort Preble during the War of 1812. Among them were elements of the Regiment of Light Artillery, the 21st, 33rd, and 34th Regiments of Infantry, as well as U.S. Volunteers--and in times of crisis local militia. When Winfield Scott and other American soldiers returned from British imprisonment in Quebec, they were landed at Fort Preble. Many of them were emaciated and ill, and some died at this post's hospital.

The fort saw action during the United States Civil War, when Confederate Army raiders entered Portland Harbor on June 26, 1863, aboard a captured ship named Archer. The Confederates captured the ship Caleb Cushing the next day, and attempted an escape. Calm seas forced them to set the ship on fire, and they were captured by Union forces. 23 Confederate prisoners were captured and taken to the fort.

The fort remained manned through the United States Civil War, World War I, and World War II. It was decommissioned in 1950.

Spring Point Ledge Light was built near the site in 1897. A 900-foot granite breakwater that extends from the fort and surrounds the lighthouse was later added in 1951.