Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island, that was established on July 4, 1799, as a First System coastal fortification, named for the American Founding Father and president John Adams, who was in office at the time. Its first commanding officer was Captain John Henry, who was later instrumental in starting the War of 1812. The current Fort Adams was built between 1824 and 1857 under the Third System of coastal forts; it is part of Fort Adams State Park today.
History The first Fort Adams was designed by Major Louis de Tousard of the United States Army Corps of Engineers as part of the first system of US fortifications. After some additions in 1809,Wade, p. 141 this fort mounted 17 cannon and was garrisoned during the War of 1812 by Wood's State Corps of Rhode Island militiamen.Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 23–24 The United States Secretary of War's report for December 1811 describes the fort as "an irregular star fort of masonry, with an irregular indented work of masonry adjoining it, mounting seventeen heavy guns. ... The barracks are of wood and bricks, for one company."Wade, p. 242
After the War of 1812, there was a thorough review of the fortification needs of the United States and it was decided to replace the older Fort Adams with a newer and much larger fort. This was part of what became known as the Third System of U.S. fortifications. The new fort was designed by Brigadier General Simon Bernard, a Frenchman who had served as a military engineer under Napoleon Bonaparte. Bernard designed the new Fort Adams in the classic style and it became the most complex fortification in the Western Hemisphere. It included a tenaille and crownwork, a complex outer work on the southern (landward) side, designed to break up and channel an assault force. The fort also had a detached redoubt south of the main fort.Weaver, pp. 120–133 In the United States, it is rivaled in size only by Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, and Fort Jefferson on the Dry Tortugas in Florida.Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 32–35
Construction of the new fort began in 1824 under First lieutenant Andrew TalcottDuchesneau and Troost-Cramer, p. 27 and continued at irregular intervals until 1857. From 1825 to 1838 construction was overseen by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Gilbert Totten, the foremost American military engineer of his day. In 1838 Totten became U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and served until his death in 1864.Ann Johnson, "Material Experiments: Environment and Engineering Institutions in the Early American Republic," Osiris, NS 24 (2009), 53–74.
The new Fort Adams was first garrisoned in August 1841, functioning as an active U.S. Army post until 1950. During this time the fort was active in five major wars – the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), American Civil War (1861–1865), Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–1918), and (1941–1945) — but never fired a shot in anger.
At the start of the Mexican–American War in 1846, the post was commanded by Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, the brother of President Franklin Pierce. The fort's redoubt, about south of the main fort, was built during this war.FortWiki article on Fort AdamsDuchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 37–40
From 1848 to 1853, Fort Adams was commanded by Colonel William Gates, a long-serving veteran of both the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. The fort's garrison was ordered to California and many of the soldiers lost their lives when the steamer was wrecked in a North Atlantic storm on December 24, 1853.
A report of 1854 stated that Fort Adams was armed with 100 32-pounder seacoast guns, 57 24-pounder seacoast guns, and 43 24-pounder flank howitzers. All of these weapons were smoothbore cannon. The flank howitzers were short-barreled guns deployed in casemates in the tenaille and redoubt to protect the fort against a landward assault.Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 154–156
From 1859 to 1863 the fort was in the care of Ordnance Sergeant Mark Wentworth Smith, a Mexican–American War veteran who was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec. He died in 1879 at the age of 76, the oldest active-duty enlisted soldier in the history of the U.S. Army.Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 44–46
Civil War The United States Department of War was concerned about the political sympathies of residents in Maryland during the American Civil War, so the United States Naval Academy was moved in 1861 from Annapolis, Maryland, to Fort Adams. In September 1861, the academy moved to the Atlantic House Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, and remained there for the rest of the war.
Among the midshipmen assigned to the Naval Academy while it was at Fort Adams was Robley D. Evans who was wounded at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in 1865, commanded the battleship during the Spanish–American War in 1898, and later commanded the Great White Fleet on the first leg of its epic around-the-world voyage of 1906–1908. Among Evans' classmates at Fort Adams were future Rear Admiral Charles Sigsbee, who commanded the battleship , and future Captain Charles Vernon Gridley, who commanded the protected cruiser at the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898.
In 1862 Fort Adams became the headquarters and recruit depot for the U.S. Army's 15th Infantry Regiment. This regiment, along with several others, was reorganized into a regiment of three eight-company battalions, with the 3rd Battalion formed at Fort Adams in March 1864.
From August to October 1863, Fort Adams was commanded by Brigadier General Robert Anderson, who had commanded Fort Sumter when it was attacked by Confederate forces in April 1861, beginning the American Civil War.
1870s upgrade As part of a major upgrade to U.S. seacoast defenses, Fort Adams' armament was modernized in the 1870s with eleven Rodman guns, thirteen Rodman guns, and four (100-pounder) Parrott rifles. Three new emplacements were built for the guns; the remainder replaced older weapons in the fort, of which all but 20 32-pounders were removed by 1873. For mobile defense, four siege rifles, four Ordnance rifles, and four mortars were provided. In 1894, four converted rifles were added in a new battery south of the fort.
Twentieth century Endicott period As time went by, the fort's armament was upgraded to keep up with technological innovations. Major kinds of ordnance used at the fort included muzzle-loading cannon in the 19th century, rifled breech-loading artillery pieces in the early 20th century, and anti-aircraft guns during and after World War II. The fort received significant armament, in the form of batteries to the south of the main fort, under the Endicott and Taft programs from 1896 through 1907. These were to defend the East Passage of Narragansett Bay in combination with the new Fort Wetherill in Jamestown, Rhode Island, as part of the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay.
The Endicott and Taft-period batteries at Fort Adams were:Berhow, p. 204
NameNo. of gunsGun typeCarriage typeYears activeGreene-Edgerton16 coast defense mortar M1890barbette M18961898–1942Reilly2 gun M1888disappearing M18961899–1917Talbot2 Armstrong gunpedestal1899–1919unnamed1 gun M1888converted Rodman carriage1898–1899?Bankhead3 Armstrong gunpedestal1907–1913Belton2 gun M1903pedestal M19031907–1925
Batteries Greene-Edgerton, Reilly, and Talbot were built between 1896 and 1899 and were the first of these to be completed. Battery Greene-Edgerton included sixteen mortars, all of which were at first called Battery Greene, but the battery was divided into two groups of eight in 1906. Battery Talbot, one of a number of batteries added on the United States East Coast at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, included two Armstrong guns. One gun of Battery Talbot is preserved at Equality Park in Newport.Rhode Island; another was in Westerly, Rhode Island, circa 1920–1977 and now is at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina.Berhow, p. 233 An unnamed battery of a single 8-inch M1888 gun on a converted 1870s carriage also existed briefly from 1898. In 1907 two additional batteries were completed, Battery Bankhead with three 6-inch Armstrong guns and Battery Belton with two 3-inch M1903 guns.
Battery Greene-Edgerton was named for Major General Nathanael Greene of the American Revolutionary War and Lieutenant Colonel Wright P. Edgerton, a professor at the United States Military Academy. Battery Reilly was named for Captain Henry J. Reilly, killed in the China Relief Expedition near Peking on 15 August 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion who previously served at Fort Adams.Arlington Cemetery entry for Henry J. Reilly (1845–1900) Battery Talbot was named for Silas Talbot, a U.S. Army officer from Rhode Island in the American Revolutionary War who later became a United States Navy officer and commanded the frigate from 1799 to 1801. Battery Bankhead was named for Brevet Major General James Bankhead, who served in the War of 1812, Second Seminole War, and Mexican–American War. Battery Belton was named for Francis S. Belton, who served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
In 1913 Battery Bankhead was disarmed and its three guns sent to Hawaii.
World War I
The United States entered World War I in April 1917. During the war, Fort Adams served as the headquarters for the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay, as well as a training center. The United States Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was chosen to man all U.S. heavy artillery in that war, as it was the only part of the U.S. Army with experience using big guns and had a significant number of personnel trained in the operation of such guns. Four heavy artillery regiments and two heavy artillery brigade headquarters were organized at Fort Adams and served in France, with troops of Coast Defense Commands from Maine, Rhode Island, New York, and elsewhere as their cadre. These included two of the four U.S. railway artillery regiments that saw action in that war (using French-made weapons) and their brigade headquarters. The railway gun units were designated the 52nd and 53rd Artillery Regiments (CAC) (originally the 7th and 8th Provisional Regiments), and the 30th Separate Artillery Brigade (Railway) (CAC) (originally the 1st Expeditionary Brigade). The 51st Artillery Regiment (CAC) (originally the 6th Provisional Regiment), 66th Artillery Regiment (CAC), and 34th Artillery Brigade (CAC) also were organized at Fort Adams and sent to France, but only the 51st completed training in time to see action.Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 146–147History of the Coast Artillery Corps in World War I Thornton Wilder, author and playwright whose 1973 novel Theophilus North is set in Newport, served a three-month enlistment in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Adams during World War I. Wilder rose to the rank of corporal in the Army.
The two guns of Battery Reilly were dismounted in 1917 for potential service as railway guns, but after considerable delay they were sent to Fort Warren near Boston, Massachusetts, in 1919 to replace guns removed from that fort. Eight of the sixteen mortars at Battery Greene-Edgerton were removed in 1918 for potential railway artillery service; this was also done as a force-wide program to improve the rate of fire due to overcrowding in the mortar pits during reloading.
Some sources state that Battery Talbot's guns were redeployed to Sachuest Point, a few miles from Fort Adams, from 1917 to 1919. However, U.S. Army records show that these guns came from Fort Strong, Massachusetts, in the Coast Defenses of Boston.Gun and Carriage cards, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 156, Records of the Chief of Ordnance, Entry 712