The fort was built at the direction of Stephen Rochefontaine, a former French military engineer and Revolutionary War veteran working in the United States as a civilian; the next year he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and commander of the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers.

[3][4] Assisting him was Major John Lillie, a former artillery officer with the Continental Army and possibly the fort's namesake.

[5][6] The goal was to mount eight seacoast guns with a separate citadel, but as no federal funds were appropriated after 1795, it is not clear how much was accomplished.

[8] The report for December 1811 states "At the head of the harbor, an enclosed battery, mounting seven guns, covered by a blockhouse".

[7][10] Abandoned after that war, the land remained a federal reservation into the 1920s; it is unclear when the fort was demolished.