page_title: Fort Marshall
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Marshall / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing of Colonel Thomas H Marshall of the Maine 4th and 7th Regiments in the Civil War
context_page_description: Fort Marshall was a historical American coastal four-point bastion fort located in what is now the Highlandtown and Canton neighborhoods of Baltimore, Maryland. It was built at the outset the American Civil War in 1861, to protect the eastern approaches of Baltimore from Confederate attacks. The fort remained garrisoned for the duration of the war. After 1866, the fort's buildings were salvaged for other purposes and the area ultimately became the site of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, surrounded by the developing residential neighborhoods of southeast Baltimore.
context_section_description: After hostilities broke out between the United States and the Confederacy in 1861, Lt. Col. Henry Brewerton of the Union Army was charged in August of that year with strengthening the defenses of Baltimore.  The extant Fort McHenry and Fort Carroll were found to be dilapidated and inadequate to the city's protection.   Brewerton launched a refurbishment of these fortifications, and established many new forts, such as Forts Federal Hill and Worthington.  Lines of elaborate barricades on every approach to the city, and homes fortified for the occupancy of riflemen and sharpshooters demonstrated the military's commitment to holding the city at all costs, or at least denying it to the Confederates.  The number of Union installations in the city was such that the army had "transformed Baltimore into something just short of a military base."
  A key part of Brewerton's extensive defensive plan for the city, Fort Marshall was established on "Snake Hill," in a still rural area east of the city border.  This site, also known as "Murray Hill" or "Potter's Hill," was located approximately a mile and a half from the city center, and was on higher ground than Fort McHenry, allowing its guns to survey a wider area.  Designed as a four-pointed star fort, Fort Marshall was built principally by the 7th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the fall of 1861, and named for Colonel Thomas H. Marshall.   Marshall had been an officer in the Maine 7th, but died at Baltimore shortly before, on October 25th, 1861. The encampment outside the walls of the fort structure proper was known as Camp Emory, named for Union General Emory Upton.  Armed with thirty-three heavy artillery pieces, the fort operated in tandem with Fort McHenry, which sat on the opposite side of Baltimore's Northwest Harbor.  By war's end, its gun complement would further increase to 60 pieces.  The fort also boasted a barracks capable of housing 400 soldiers, with a fully subterranean magazine.
caption: The fort was named for deceased Col. Thomas H. Marshall of the 7th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment
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