The United States planned Fort Knox to prevent another attempt by the English to control Maine lands east of the Penobscot, as they had successfully done in the American Revolution and War of 1812.
Fort Knox's construction had not yet begun when a conflict over the location of Maine's border with Canada briefly brought England and the U.S. to war again in 1839 (the so-called "Bloodless" Aroostook War). The boundary dispute was finally settled three years later. The new boundary placed northern Maine directly between British-controlled New Brunswick and Qu?bec, which England saw as a threat to the security of vital transportation routes connecting the St. Lawrence River and Bay of Fundy.
While construction began vigorously in 1845, work on Fort Knox lagged due to a shortage of funds. Fort Knox was thus slow to assume a proper defensive position relative to possible English aggression. Isaac Stevens, the fort's first on-site engineer, described his concerns about the situation in 1851:
The military position of Maine is one of unusual exposure and importance. As a frontier state, she borders the provinces of the most powerful nation (England)...and is enveloped by these possessions. In the event of a rupture with England, we may expect that the first blow will be struck on Maine soil...By her natural position, thrown between the British provinces...and by her railways gradually extending themselves toward Montreal...and to Halifax, the great thoroughfares between these two sections will be in Maine, and it will be England's first object to seize and retain this key communication. While the extended seacoast of Maine...will facilitate this attack, her fortifications, in their present state, could do nothing to oppose it.
When the Civil War began in 1861, the forts on Maine's coast and major rivers were still unfinished. Maine's Governor Israel Washburn appealed to President Abraham Lincoln for help in directing funds to the state's forts. Washburn claimed that an undefended Maine would be the first point of attack if, as seemed possible, England's troops and ships, based nearby in Nova Scotia, joined the South in war. In the end, England remained neutral in the Civil War. Although some Confederate ships conducted raids along the Maine coast, none sailed upriver to attack Fort Knox.
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