Edgar Allan Poe
A persistent, though mostly apocryphal story involving Fort Independence was allegedly the inspiration behind one of Edgar Allan Poe's well known works. A monument outside the west battery of the fort marks the grave of Lieutenant Robert F. Massie who was killed in a duel there on December 25, 1817. According to folklorist Edward Rowe Snow, Massie was so popular with the soldiers stationed at Fort Independence that they took out their frustration on his killer, Lieutenant Gustavus Drane, by walling him up within a vault in the fort. Edgar Allan Poe, while serving with the 1st United States Artillery Regiment at Fort Independence purportedly heard the tale and was inspired, according to Snow, to write The Cask of Amontillado.
The legend that purportedly inspired Poe is not entirely accurate. The duel did in fact take place, but the victor, Lieutenant Drane, was not murdered by the fort's soldiers but continued in his military career and was later promoted to the rank of captain. After the Second World War Lietenant Massie's remains were moved to the cemetery at Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts.
Read more about this topic: Fort Independence (Massachusetts)
Famous quotes by edgar allan poe:
“The painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought;... he grew tremulous and ... crying with a loud voice, ‘This is indeed Life itself!’ turned suddenly to regard his beloved:MShe was dead!”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“And we passed to the end of a vista,
But were stopped by the door of a tomb—
By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said—’ What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?’
She replied—’Ulalume—Ulalume!—
‘Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!’”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The death ... of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“He made no resistance whatever, and was stabbed in the back.... I must not dwell upon the fearful repast.... Words have no power to impress the mind with the exquisite horror of their reality.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)