 In early 1776, the colony of Connecticut commissioned the construction of a fort on a point of rock that stretched out into the harbor to protect the port of New Haven from the British.This was the location of an earlier unnamed fort from circa 1657, and on this site was erected Black Rock Fort.Unfortunately for the colonists, in 1779 British General William Tryon, during his raid of Connecticut coastal communities, captured Black Rock Fort along with its nineteen defenders, but only after they had run out of ammunition.