Fort Independence, Castle Island

A private called Perry, a lieutenant walled up alive, and what became of him.

Collection: Boston: More Stories · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

Granite walls of Fort Independence · Daderot, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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How the story begins

The army's record for Private Edgar A. Perry gets his name wrong and his age wrong, and he gave them both himself. He signed up in Boston in May of 1827 and said he was twenty-two. He was eighteen, and his name was Edgar Allan Poe. His battery spent about five months on this island, at five dollars a month, in an older fort built around 1800. The story goes that the soldiers told him about a Christmas Day ten years before.

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Visiting

Castle Island, South Boston, on foot along the causeway and HarborWalk. The park and the outside of the fort are public. Inside the fort only on free tours by the Castle Island Association with the state parks department, on set dates, weather permitting; the 2026 tour list appears to be over, apart from a Veterans Day ceremony on 11 November at 11 am. Check the state's schedule.