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Show Famous Forts in U. S. History By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (). $H, Western Newspaper Union.) He Cut the Cross From the British Flag In 1C3G the colonists of Massachusetts Massachu-setts bay were In a state of great perturbation. per-turbation. The master of a British ship which had sailed into Boston harbor har-bor had demanded to know why no flag was flying over the little palisaded pali-saded fort on Castle isiand to render . him a salute and be saluted in turn. That was an embarrassisg question, for a short time before one Richard Davenport, acting upon the orders of stern old John Endicott, had cut the cross out of the British flag because to that dour Puritan leader it symbolized sym-bolized the ancient Catholic religion of the mother country. That was one reason why no Hag flew over Castle Island, and it took considerable explaining ex-plaining to avoid unpleasant results. Thus early In Massachusetts history, his-tory, Castle Island, this little scrap ot land less than a dozen acres In extent, ex-tent, became an Important spot. The next incident in its history came In 1689, when the hatred of the colonists for their governor, Sir Edmund Andros, resulted in a revolt and one of the first places they seized, because of Its strategic Importance, was the little fort on Castle island. In 1705 Colonel Romer, a famous English engineer, was employed to repair re-pair the fort, whose palisades had fallen into sad disrepair. He demolished demol-ished nil of the old works and erected new ones of timbers and earth, and this new fortification, the most formidable for-midable that had yet graced Castle Island, Is-land, was named Castle William, or Fort William, In honor of the ruling British king. During the French wars, Fort William Wil-liam was one of the most Important defenses along the Atlantic coast, and at the close of these wars It had a total of 120 guns mounted on Its walls. It was strongly garrisoned by the British Brit-ish at the outbreak of the Revolution as an aid In holding the rebellious colonists col-onists In subjection, but when Lord Howe evacuated Boston In 1776 the British flag was lowered over Fort William, never to be raised there again. In 1798 Massachusetts ceded Fort William to the federal government. The next year when President John Adams visited Boston he suggested that Fort Independence would be a more appropriate name for this defender defen-der of American liberties, and his suggestion sug-gestion was adopted. In 1832 Fort Independence was enlarged into a casemated, pentagonal, bastioned fortification, for-tification, and for the first time in nearly 200 years Boston had a defender defen-der worthy of the name of "fort." |