The uniquely-shaped Fort Macon was constructed from 1826 to 1834, and designed by the hero of the Third System of American seacoast defense, Simon Bernard (1779-1839). Lieutenant William A. Eliason, the superintending engineer constructing the fort, originally indicated that Fort Macon should be supplied with no fewer than three such furnaces, but only two would ever be built.

The fort's first hot shot furnace was built in 1836, at the location where the reconstructed furnace stands today. In 1840, US Army Engineer Captain Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) visited Fort Macon, and suggested that a second hot shot furnace be built, to provide heated shot for the fort's outer guns, on what is called the covertway.

Information on the second hot shot furnace is less plentiful: It was only mentioned once, briefly, in an engineer report. It is known to have been built around 1843, and was probably located in Fort Macon's ditch, next to stairs leading to the upper level of guns (see pesky arrows on the image to the right for the shot furnaces' locations).

Both of Fort Macon's hot shot furnaces were demolished by 1867. The location of the furnace on the fort's parade ground was obvious to future generations by its remaining foundation, but no visible trace remained of the second furnace. Heroic probings of the ground at the ditch location by Fort Macon expert Paul Branch, possibly one of the coolest humans ever, revealed brick rubble. That sure sounds like the right location to me!

It is not known if heated shot was fired from Fort Macon. Mr. Branch points out that it is likely that both hot shot furnaces were fired up when the Union blockading squadron approached the Confederate-held Fort Macon on the morning of April 25, 1862, as this would have been the standard fort defense during a naval attack. If hot shot were fired in the oncoming fracas, no mention has been made of the occurrence.

The guns employed against Fort Macon in the ensuing 11-hour Federal bombardment were of an advanced generation compared to those at the fort, and were able to fire from such a range that the fort was unable to reply effectively. As much as Confederate Colonel Moses J. White (1835-1865) and his 400 men defending Fort Macon might have wished to fling heated shot into the attacking ships of the US Navy, their Model 1841, Navy 32-pounder smoothbores probably didn't have the range to do so.

The reason we have a hot shot furnace at Fort Macon today is that the Friends of Fort Macon organization raised the money to have one reconstructed in 1996. The original cost to build a hot shot furnace in 1836 was $300, while the 1996 reconstruction cost $23,000! The bricks for the furnace had to be handmade by a restoration brick company, so as to match the size of the bricks used at the fort, while the iron stars were specially cast in England. The end result is quite possibly the most lovely remaining example of a hot shot furnace in existence today.

I visited Fort Macon in November of 2012, before I knew how much I appreciated hot shot furnaces, and thus took far fewer pictures than I should have done.

Please click on any of the images on this page, as such action will take you to that image's full-sized version, along with even more of my brilliant observations!