Fort at Salisbury Point
former American Civil War fort
The Fort at Salisbury Point was a fort in use from 1863 to 1865 in Salisbury, Massachusetts, during the American Civil War. It was also called the Fort at Salisbury Beach. It was a nine-gun earthwork located at the mouth of the Merrimack River at what is now the Salisbury Beach State Reservation, where eventual erosion washed it away. A 1903 reference states it was on the site of the Revolutionary War Fort Nichols, but that site is in doubt, and may have been at the location called Salisbury Point in Amesbury, several miles up the river. The Fort at Salisbury Point was sometimes referred to by local civilians as Fort Nichols in the Civil War era. The fort was designed and built under the supervision of Major Charles E. Blunt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. An armament report dated June 30, 1866 lists nine heavy guns and one 12-pounder field gun. The heavy guns were three 8-inch smoothbore Rodman guns, three 42-pounder rifled guns, and three 30-pounder rifled guns. From November 1864 to June 1865 it was garrisoned by the 20th Unattached Company of Massachusetts militia. The Museum at Salisbury Point commemorates the soldiers who fought in the war.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Fort at Salisbury Point” as former American Civil War fort. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as former American Civil War fort. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15218193. Authority coordinates are 42.819, -70.820. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1865, 1903 and 1866.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Fort at Salisbury Point”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Fort at Salisbury Point primary sources, Fort at Salisbury Point archive and Fort research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fort at Salisbury Point”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Fort at Salisbury Point” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.