Fort Phoenix is an American Revolutionary War-era fort located at the entrance to the Fairhaven-New Bedford harbor, south of U.S. 6 in Fort Phoenix Park in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
On September 5–6, 1778, Fort Phoenix was destroyed by the British when they were raiding the harbor. When it was rebuilt, it was given the name "Fort Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from its owns ashes.
The British tried to seize Fort Phoenix in 1814, but they were scared off when they mistook the horn of a postman's bicycle as a sounding of charge.
The fort was founded in 1775 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Famous quotes containing the words fort and/or phoenix:
“How often we read that the enemy occupied a position which commanded the old, and so the fort was evacuated! Have not the school-house and the printing-press occupied a position which commands such a fort as this?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A victorious tomcat is like a tiger; a plucked phoenix is not worth a chicken.”
—Chinese proverb.