Historic Powder Houses of New England: Arsenals of American Independence

Shaftsbury.

CHAPTER 1

HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF POWDER HOUSES

For anyone who thoroughly enjoys reading and studying early American history, New England must truly represent the closest thing to historical paradise this side of heaven. Here the history enthusiast can easily find a wide array of fascinating historical landmarks, people, places and events that date back into the early 1600s. There are a seemingly endless number of ancient landmarks that dot the scenic rolling hills and valleys of New England. These landmarks provide quiet testimony and visual reminders of the rich heritage so closely associated with the birth of our nation and with the struggles of our early ancestors who had to settle and tame the once vast New England wilderness into thriving homesteads and close-knit communities.

Many of these familiar New England landmarks include white steeple churches; rustic stream-lined mills; old taverns and inns; imposing college, academy and university buildings; stately tree-lined town commons; tiny one-room schoolhouses; sprawling old graveyards; abandoned town pounds; white-painted bandstands; towering lighthouses; quaint country stores; endless miles of stonewalls; weather-worn garrison houses; historic forts; and stately old Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival–style homes. Unfortunately, missing among this long list of notable New England landmarks are the 201 known powder houses that once dotted the New England countryside, serving as vital military arsenals for many communities. These old forgotten powder houses played a pivotal and significant role in the establishment and preservation of early American Independence, and three of them unwittingly became home to the catalyst that started the American Revolution.

Most readers may be unaware that it was three particular powder houses—one located at Charlestown, now Somerville, Massachusetts; another in New Castle, New Hampshire; and the last in Concord, Massachusetts—that the British Army initially set in their sights. Soldiers were marching (or sailing) toward them for the purpose of confiscating all the powder, guns and ammunition stored within all three of these powder houses in 1774 and 1775. The British were doing this so that valuable gunpowder and arms would not fall into the hands of American rebels and thus be used against the British should war eventually break out within the unruly American colonies. On September 1, 1774, the British succeeded in capturing the gunpowder at the Charlestown powder house, causing great concern within the region with the powder alarm. The powder alarm was the term used to warn town officials in New England communities to secure and protect their supplies of gunpowder from potentially being confiscated by the British Army. Fortunately the Americans were able to secure the firearms and gunpowder from each of the other two powder houses before the British were able to confiscate them. Little did the British realize that their march to the Concord powder house under the cover of darkness on the morning of April 19, 1775, would be the final incident that would actually trigger the start of the American Revolutionary War.

These powder houses—or, as the author prefers to call them, Arsenals of American Independence—served various communities as storehouses for military firearms, ammunition, artillery equipment and gunpowder in the event of a possible attack on the community or region. Through the years, these attacks could come in the form of Indians, British armies, British Tories or even Southern Confederates. Local militia companies also utilized the firearms and ammunitions stored within these powder houses for annual spring and autumn militia training exercises. These twice-yearly militia trainings were designed to keep all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of sixteen and fifty militarily prepared in the event that a war or battle should break out. Therefore, some of these old powder houses played a significant and useful role in helping to secure American independence. They also continued to help maintain that freedom and independence during the early years when the United States was still a young and fledgling nation.

In many New England towns where a militia company was maintained, the supply of powder, ammunition and armaments was stored in a shelter designed for that purpose. Most of these powder houses were made of brick and were usually square or circular in shape. A few were constructed of granite, and a few others were made of wood. These powder houses were usually constructed on a stone floor or on rock outcroppings atop small hills that were often locally known as Powder House Hill. Most square powder houses were capped with a hip roof, while circular powder houses like Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Haverhill and Newburyport, Massachusetts all had conical roofs. Amesbury, Massachusetts had an unusual dome-styled roof. Eastport, Maine, and Fairfield, Connecticut were unusual in that they were designed as long stone or brick archway-shaped structures.

The powder house was often located with an eye to safety in most towns and to convenience in others. Those with an eye toward safety were usually constructed at some distance from the more settled sections of the community, such as Exeter, New Hampshire; and Ashburnham and Dedham, Massachusetts. Otherwise, powder houses were built near town commons or in a corner of a graveyard. Harvard, Massachusetts, was unusual in that it built a powder house quite close to the meetinghouse and town pound. Many New England communities also housed their stock of gunpowder and ammunition in the attics and cellars of meetinghouses, barns and, in one case, even a corn crib since there were no stoves or fireplaces in meetinghouses much before 1820. Sunday worshippers were known to flee meetinghouses during lightning storms in the event that lightning might strike the building and ignite the hidden supply of gunpowder.

Closely related to the powder house or powder magazine was the gun house. These structures were erected by the state in towns where the militia unit consisted of an artillery company. Gun houses were constructed on state-owned land and were not necessarily located in or near the center of town. In a few cases, some gun houses were built near homes or public buildings like Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Gun houses appear to have been built in their respective towns to suit the convenience of the local militia companies. The most recent gun house was built at Concord, Massachusetts, in 1960 to house equipment essential in re-enacting Revolutionary War battles.

Though not among the typical powder houses primarily recorded within this book, four commercial powder houses have also been included within this text due to the almost unimaginable destruction three of them visited upon their respective communities. The fourth commercial powder house is mentioned because it caused considerable fear to residents living within a Manchester, New Hampshire neighborhood in 1903 shortly after another commercial powder house in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, blew up, killing twenty-two people and injuring sixty to seventy others. The Tewksbury explosion also damaged hundreds of houses and businesses. With the exception of these four commercial powder houses, all other powder houses that were actually part of various gunpowder-making mills scattered throughout New England were not included, with the exception of Andover, Massachusetts, because gunpowder manufacturing is another separate topic of study.

Readers should keep in mind that the first battles and skirmishes of the American Revolution were fought over preventing the British from capturing the arms and ammunition stored at powder houses in New Castle, New Hampshire, on December 14 and 15, 1774, and at Concord, Massachusetts, on that eventful day of April 19, 1775, when the shot heard round the world took place at Concord’s historic North Bridge. As it was, American Patriots deeply resented that the British had captured all the gunpowder, guns and ammunition stored at the towering stone powder house in Somerville, Massachusetts (then a part of Charlestown), on September 1, 1774, resulting in the historic event forever known as the powder alarm that quickly spread throughout the New England countryside warning Americans that the British had confiscated the vitally important military stores at Charlestown/Somerville. Therefore, because of the powder alarm, American Patriots were not about to allow future supplies of gunpowder, ammunition, firearms and cannons to fall into British hands again if they could possibly prevent it. Thus the reason many of these old powder houses are such important and overlooked portions of our American heritage. They—like other symbols of the American Revolution, War of 1812, and the Civil War—should be proudly preserved and cherished for centuries to come.

Paul Revere made his first midnight ride from Boston, Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the night of December 13, 1774, to warn locals that the British were planning to sail to New Castle, New Hampshire, to capture the ammunition stored there in the powder house at Fort William & Mary. Just four months later, on the night of April 18, 1775, Revere made a second midnight ride in which he attempted to warn locals between Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, of the British Army’s march to capture the arms and ammunition stored at Concord in a wooden building serving as a powder house. He was captured by a British patrol before he could reach his Concord destination. Fortunately, a second rider by the name of Dr. Samuel Prescott successfully reached Concord in time to warn of the approaching British Army, and members of the Concord militia were able to remove or destroy most of the supplies in the powder house/store house and were able to prepare themselves to fight the British once they reached Concord. Within three weeks after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775, powder houses were seized by American Patriots in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia, as was the vitally important cache of guns, cannons and ammunition captured by Ethan Allen from the powder house at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, on May 10, 1775. The munitions captured from Fort Ticonderoga were later used atop Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor in early 1776, which finally forced the British Navy to evacuate Boston, thus reinforcing again why these powder houses played such a significant and pivotal role in the formation of our nation.

Ironically, the majority of these powder houses were built in the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century. Consequently, they ended up playing an instrumental role in helping to win America’s second War of Independence—the War of 1812. The significance of this forgotten war, fought for a second time against Great Britain, has unfortunately been largely overlooked by students of American history. It was this war that reaffirmed America’s hard-fought goals of securing the ideals of freedom and democracy, which were successfully won during the American Revolutionary War of 1775–83. It was the winning of the War of 1812 that firmly secured America’s right to be an independent republic capable of defending itself against belligerent nations that sought to undermine our strength and attack our borders. Winning the War of 1812 proved that the young and growing nation was indeed strong and determined enough to maintain its independence and sovereignty.

Upon defeating the British for a second time in 1815, the United States of America proved that a democratic republic was indeed a practical, viable and suitable alternative form of government versus the many totalitarian, monarchical or dictatorial forms of government that existed nearly worldwide at that time. After winning the war, the United States was now about to embark on a path that would eventually achieve manifest destiny from sea to shining sea, and thus along a path that would allow the United States to gradually become a strong and powerful leader of nations on the worldwide front at the turn of the twentieth century.

This book is the first comprehensive study of all the known powder houses erected throughout the six New England states. Many of these 201 old powder houses still stand either in forts, on lonely hilltops or in remote, isolated locations usually found just outside village or city limits. Many others have disappeared due to neglect. Sadly, these historic structures have largely been forgotten and overlooked by historians of New England history and architecture. Fortunately, in recent years there has been a resurgence of awareness and interest in restoring several existing powder houses.

Scenic view of the restored 1771 Exeter, New Hampshire powder house overlooking the Squamscott River. Author’s photo.

Hopefully, the author did not overlook many communities that had or currently have powder houses and gun houses. Unfortunately, many town histories fail to record them, or some towns do not have town histories, eliminating a vital resource for learning of their existence. A search of the Internet found several others now mentioned in this book, but still a few have probably gone undetected. Diligent efforts were made over several years to locate every powder house in New England. Undoubtedly, there are also a few others that exist, or once existed, in many of the ancient forts that currently stand or formerly dotted the rocky seashores and wooded inland communities of New England.

CHAPTER 2

CONNECTICUT POWDER HOUSES

Connecticut—the Nutmeg State—joined the Union as the fifth state on January 9, 1788. At the time of the American Revolution (1775–83), it was the home of the famous American Patriot Nathan Hale, who was hanged in September 1776 for being caught carrying British military secrets to his American military superiors. On the other hand, Connecticut was also the birthplace of the infamous general Benedict Arnold, who, despite being a rising star in the American army, switched his allegiance over to the British during the Revolutionary War in September 1780 when he tried to hand over the fort at West Point, New York, to the British Army. He also ordered the British Army to burn Connecticut in 1781. To this day, the people of New London have neither forgotten nor forgiven this American traitor who ended up dying alone, distrusted and deservedly unappreciated in England on June 14, 1801—ironically, Flag Day here in America.

Connecticut suffered severely from the effects of the Revolutionary War, particularly during the Fort Griswold Massacre, where eight hundred British soldiers slaughtered eighty surrendering American Patriots during the Battle of Groton Heights, also known as the Battle of Fort Griswold, on September 6, 1781. New London, a port harboring a large number of American privateers and located across the Thames River from Groton, was set afire in September 1781 by the command of British general Benedict Arnold, who was born just up the road in nearby Norwich. Other