This accurate and exciting pictorial history will acquaint the reader
with the seacoast defense of New Bedford. Fortified since the 1700s,
seacoast defenses provided important protection for the New Bedford
area. By the time of the Civil War, a strong granite fortress was under
construction to guard the seaward approaches to the harbor of New
Bedford and, later, powerful long-range guns were installed to protect
the seaport. In The Military History of New Bedford, great care has been
taken to identify more than two hundred vintage photographs of the
harbor defense systems at all the points of Buzzards Bay, coastal
fortifications, and the observation and radar towers from the Cape Cod
Canal to Westport. The book identifies and explains the long-abandoned
granite and concrete monoliths of New Bedford. It touches upon Gen.
Robert E. Lee's role in the construction of the granite fort at Clark's
Point (Fort Taber) and describes the impact that Henry Martyn Robert had
in the area by writing Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative
Assemblies, later known as Robert's Rules of Order.