Fort Wadsworth is a former United States military installation on Staten Island in New York City, situated on The Narrows, which divide New York Bay into Upper and Lower bays, a natural point for defense of the Upper Bay, Manhattan, and beyond. Prior to its closing in 1994, the fort was claimed to be the longest continuously garrisoned military installation in the United States. It comprises several fortifications, including Fort Tompkins and Battery Weed, and was given its present name in 1865 to honor Brigadier General James Wadsworth, who had been killed in the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. Fort Wadsworth is now part of the Staten Island Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, maintained by the National Park Service.
History
Early history The first use of the land for military purposes was as the site of a blockhouse built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries on Signal Hill (now the site of Fort Tompkins), in 1655.Fort Wadsworth at American Forts Network The site is said to have been continuously garrisoned since another blockhouse was built in 1663, which survived at least through 1808. During the American Revolution the area became known as Flagstaff Fort; captured by the British in 1776, it remained in British hands and was expanded until the war's end in 1783. It became the responsibility of New York State in 1806, at which time four forts were built on the site with state resources, being ready for service in 1808 though incomplete. These included the red sandstone Forts Richmond (on the site now called Battery Weed) and Tompkins, on the sites of the current forts but of different design, and Forts Morton and Hudson, with positions for a total of 164 guns in the four forts.Fort Wadsworth at FortWiki.com Fort Tompkins at that time included a red sandstone enclosure containing the 1663 blockhouse. Fort Richmond was initially semicircular while Fort Tompkins was a regular pentagon with circular bastions, both very different from their Third System replacements. Although these forts were contemporary with the federal government's second system of seacoast fortifications, they were not part of the federal program. Federal rebuilding of Forts Richmond and Tompkins did not begin until 1847.
Fort Richmond was named for Richmond County, in which Staten Island is located. Fort Tompkins was named for Daniel D. Tompkins, New York's governor in the War of 1812. Fort Morton was possibly named for Major General Jacob Morton, commander of the New York state militia in the War of 1812. Fort Hudson was named for Henry Hudson, a British-born explorer for the Dutch East India Company who explored the river named for him.
War of 1812 During the War of 1812, New York State expanded Fort Richmond and its surrounding forts. In 1814, money was appropriated to complete Forts Richmond and Fort Tompkins, and by 1815, 900 cannons were reportedly amassed in the area. New York City was not attacked in that war (probably due to the vast number of forts and cannon in the city and harbor), so the forts never fired in anger.
Third System By 1835 Forts Richmond (now Battery Weed) and Tompkins had deteriorated to the point that they were declared unfit for use, and the next year the federal government began a decade-long process of purchasing them. In 1847 total reconstructions of both forts began, under the federal third system of seacoast fortifications, an across-the-board program of new forts sparked by the burning of Washington, DC in the War of 1812. Some sources state that the new Forts Richmond and Tompkins were initially designed by Robert E. Lee during his tenure as post engineer at Fort Hamilton in the 1840s.Fort Richmond at New York State Military Museum Fort Richmond had one landward front and three seacoast fronts, with an unusual four tiers of cannon totaling 116 guns to seaward, plus 24 flank howitzers on the landward front.
The four-tier arrangement was only duplicated in the United States by Castle Williams on Governors Island and Fort Point in San Francisco, California. Fort Tompkins provided the bulk of the landward defense in the area, with one seaward and four landward fronts. It was unusual in having no embrasures for cannon in the main fort. A seacoast cannon battery was mounted on the roof of the seacoast front, and the rest of the fort had only musket loopholes. It had a ditch on the landward sides with tunnels to counterscarp galleries providing additional musket fire against enemies in the ditch, supplemented by a few well-placed flank howitzers. Both forts were ready for service, though still incomplete, when the Civil War broke out in April 1861.
Civil War era
New York City was not attacked by sea in the Civil War, so the forts did not have an active role. However, they were important as mobilization centers, including Smith's Cantonment near the forts. The North and South Cliff batteries were built flanking Fort Richmond, which was renamed Fort Wadsworth in 1865. Two small batteries of two and five guns were also built near Fort Tompkins. Following the war, it was determined that masonry forts were obsolete. In the 1870s a large-scale but short-lived program of building new earth-protected batteries near existing forts commenced. The new defenses were mainly armed with Rodman guns, large smoothbores of 15-inch and 10-inch caliber along with 8-inch converted rifles. At Fort Wadsworth, this included improvements to the batteries built during the Civil War, along with rebuilding Battery Hudson for new guns and a new mortar battery near Fort Tompkins that was never armed. Battery Hudson included an emplacement for the United States' first type of disappearing gun, a 15-inch Rodman on King's depression carriage, which was not widely adopted. A mine casemate for controlling an underwater minefield was built in Fort Richmond in 1875 and was later re-used when mines became a standard part of the harbor defenses. In the late 1870s funding for coast defenses was cut off, and it was 20 years before significant new defenses were completed.
Endicott period (1885–1916) The 1885 Board of Fortifications, chaired by Secretary of War William C. Endicott and also called the Endicott Board, recommended sweeping improvements to US coast defenses, with a new generation of modern breech-loading rifled guns and numerous new gun batteries. Most of the Board's recommendations were adopted as the Endicott program, and that included major changes and improvements for Fort Wadsworth. The fort became part of the Artillery District of New York, renamed in 1913 as the Coast Defenses of Southern New York. Part of the Endicott Program included renaming the entire fort area as Fort Wadsworth, with the former Fort Richmond becoming Battery Weed, in General Order No. 16 of February 4, 1902. Battery Weed was named for Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed, killed at Gettysburg in 1863.
From 1896 to 1905 the following batteries were completed at Fort Wadsworth: NameNo. of gunsGun typeCarriage typeYears activeAyres212-inch gun M1895disappearing M18951901-1942Dix212-inch gun M1900disappearing M19011904-1944Hudson212-inch gun M1888disappearing M18961899-1944Richmond212-inch gun M1888disappearing M18961899-1942Barry210-inch gun M1888disappearing M18961897-1918Upton210-inch gun M1888disappearing M18961897-1942Duane58-inch gun M1888disappearing M18941896-1915Unnamed28-inch gun M1888Rodman carriage1898-1898Mills26-inch gun M1897disappearing M18981900-1943Barbour26-inch Armstrong gunpedestal1898-1920Barbour24.72-inch/40 caliber Armstrong gunpedestal1898-1920Turnbull63-inch gun M1902pedestal M19021903-1944Bacon23-inch gun M1898masking parapet M18981899-1918Catlin63-inch gun M1903pedestal M19031903-1942
Facilities for planting and controlling an underwater minefield were also built. The unnamed battery of two 8-inch guns and the two sections of Battery Barbour were commenced shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in early 1898. At that time most of the Endicott batteries were still years from completion, and it was feared the Spanish fleet would bombard East Coast ports. The 8-inch guns were an expedient conversion of carriages for Rodman guns to allow the modern 8-inch M1888 gun to be brought into service. The 6-inch and 4.72-inch Armstrong guns were purchased from the United Kingdom, to rapidly deploy medium caliber quick-firing guns at the forts.Congressional serial set, 1900, Report of the Commission on the Conduct of the War with Spain, Vol. 7, pp. 3778–3780, Washington: Government Printing Office The guns of the temporary 8-inch batteries were removed soon after the war ended (also in 1898), to be deployed in the new Endicott batteries, while the Armstrong guns remained in service until the 1920s. In 1901 the heavy artillery companies at all forts were redesignated as coast artillery companies, and in 1907 these units became a separate corps, the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. An unusual problem occurred with Battery Duane: it was made of inferior concrete which eventually deteriorated, and the battery was removed from service in 1915. In 1913 Batteries Turnbull and Catlin swapped their guns.
In 1910, the fort fired a 21-gun salute to former President Theodore Roosevelt as his ship passed through the Narrows on his return from a nearly year-long trip to Africa and Europe. In 1913, ground was broken by President William Howard Taft for a proposed National American Indian Memorial that was to be built on the site of Fort Tompkins. The monument was to include a statue of an American Indian on the bluff overlooking the Narrows, but difficulties in fundraising and the advent of World War I precluded fruition of the plan.Staten Island Register, May 5, 1998, p. 5
World War I
Following the American entry into World War I, Fort Wadsworth's role as the largest fort guarding New York City was an important one. Some batteries were directed to be ready to fire 24/7. Most coastal forts in CONUS had their garrison reduced to provide crews for heavy and railway artillery units destined for the Western Front. This did not seem to occur at Fort Wadsworth. Also, a number of 10-inch and 12-inch guns were withdrawn from forts in 1917-1918 for potential use as railway artillery;US Army railway artillery in World War I at Fort Wadsworth most of these weapons were relatively promptly replaced by guns from less-threatened forts. Both guns of Battery Ayres, one gun of Battery Hudson, and one gun of Battery Upton were replaced in 1918 due to this program. However, Battery Barry's pair of 10-inch guns was removed and not replaced.
Between the wars Following World War I, a number of coast artillery weapon types were withdrawn from service. These included the 4.7-inch and 6-inch Armstrong guns of Battery Barbour, and the 3-inch M1898 guns of Battery Bacon, all in 1920. These were not replaced. By 1924, Fort Wadsworth had become an infantry post, with the coast artillery batteries in caretaker status, with only a few soldiers garrisoned for maintenance. The construction of long-range 12-inch gun batteries at Fort Hancock, New Jersey and a 16-inch gun battery at Fort Tilden had relegated Fort Wadsworth to the second line of defense for Greater New York.
World War II