Editing Fairhaven, Massachusetts (section)

===Fort Phoenix===
{{Main|Fort Phoenix}}
[[Fort Phoenix]], owned by the Town of Fairhaven, is located in Fairhaven at the mouth of the Acushnet River, and it served, during colonial and revolutionary times, as the primary defense against seaborne attacks on New Bedford harbor. It is adjacent to the [[Fort Phoenix State Reservation|Fort Phoenix State Beach and Reservation]] operated by the state.

Within sight of the fort, [[Battle off Fairhaven|the first naval battle]] of the [[American Revolution]] took place on May 14, 1775. Under the command of Nathaniel Pope and Daniel Egery, a group of 25 Fairhaven [[minutemen]] (including [[Noah Stoddard]]) aboard the sloop ''Success'' retrieved two vessels previously captured by a British warship in Buzzards Bay.

On September 5 and 6, 1778, the British landed four thousand soldiers on the west side of the Acushnet River. They burned ships and warehouses in New Bedford, skirmished at the Head-of-the-River bridge (approximately where the Main Street bridge in Acushnet is presently situated), and marched through Fairhaven to Sconticut Neck, burning homes along the way. In deference to the overwhelming force approaching from the landward side, the fort was abandoned, and it was destroyed by the enemy. An attack on Fairhaven village itself was repelled by militia under the command of Major Israel Fearing, who had marched from [[Wareham, Massachusetts|Wareham]], some {{convert|15|mi}} away, with additional militiamen. Fearing's heroic action saved Fairhaven from further molestation.

The fort was enlarged before the [[War of 1812]], and it helped repel an attack on the harbor by British forces. In the early morning hours of June 13, 1814, landing boats were launched from the British raider, HMS ''Nimrod''. Alerted by the firing of the guns at Fort Phoenix, the militia gathered, and the British did not come ashore.

The fort was decommissioned in 1876, and in 1926 the site was donated to the town by [[Abbie G. Rogers#Cara Leland Rogers Duff Broughton: Lady Fairhaven|Cara Rogers Broughton]] (a daughter of [[Henry Huttleston Rogers]]). Today, the area surrounding the fort includes a park and a bathing beach. The fort lies just to the seaward side of the harbor's hurricane barrier.