Fort Hamilton
Fort Hamilton | |
---|---|
Part of | |
Coordinates | 40°36′22″N 74°01′51″W / 40.60611°N 74.03083°W |
Site information | |
Controlled by | United States Army |
Open to the public | partly |
Condition | partly demolished, remainder occupied |
Site history | |
Built | 1825–1831 |
Built by | Simon Bernard |
In use | 1825–present |
Garrison information | |
Current commander | COL Brian A. Jacobs |
Past commanders | Major Benjamin Kendrick Pierce Captain Abner Doubleday Captain Robert E. Lee (post engineer)[1][failed verification] |
Garrison | Brooklyn, New York |
Fort Hamilton is a
History
On July 4, 1776, a small American battery (the Narrows Fort)[2] on the site of today's Fort Hamilton (the east side of the Narrows) fired into one of the British men-of-war convoying troops to suppress the American Revolution. HMS Asia suffered damage and casualties, but opposition to the immense fleet could be little more than symbolic. However, this very significant event marked one of the earliest uses of the site for military purposes.
The War of 1812 underscored the importance of coastal defense (since the British burned parts of Washington, DC) and helped to promote a new round of fort building. The new forts, including Fort Hamilton, were eventually termed the third system of US seacoast forts. The cornerstone for Fort Hamilton was set in place by its designer, Simon Bernard, on June 11, 1825.[3] Bernard was previously a French military engineer under Napoleon, who had joined the US Army after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Six years and a half million dollars later, the fort was ready to receive its garrison, initially Battery F of the 4th US Artillery.[3]
Fort Hamilton (now the
Though references to the structure as Fort Hamilton occur as early as 1826, it was not officially named for the former
Civil War
During the Civil War, Fort Hamilton's garrison expanded. A ship barrier across the Narrows assisted Fort Hamilton and its sister forts on
Rifled cannon made vertical-walled masonry fortifications obsolete during the Civil War. The first response of the US coast defense forces to this was a series of new batteries, with guns in open positions behind low earth walls and brick magazines with heavy earth cover between the guns. Most of these were located near existing forts. In 1871 construction began at Fort Hamilton on an 8-gun water battery and a 15-gun mortar battery, but the latter was never completed or armed.[10] Money for these projects ran out in the late 1870s, and US coast defense languished, with few improvements completed for nearly 20 years.
Endicott program
The 1885
The following table shows the gun batteries completed at Fort Hamilton from 1898 to 1905. In most cases references do not indicate the precise model of gun or carriage at a particular battery, or the batteries' namesakes:[3][11]
Name | No. of guns | Gun type | Carriage type | Years active |
---|---|---|---|---|
Piper | 8 | 12-inch mortar | barbette | 1901–1942 |
Harvey Brown | 2 | 12-inch gun | disappearing | 1902–? |
Doubleday | 2 | 12-inch gun | disappearing | 1900–1943 |
Neary | 2 | 12-inch gun M1888 |
barbette M1892 | 1900–1937 |
Gillmore | 4 | 10-inch gun | disappearing | 1899–1942 |
Spear | 3 | 10-inch gun | disappearing | 1898–1917 |
Burke | 4 | 6-inch gun M1900 |
pedestal M1900 | 1903–1917 |
Livingston | 2 | 6-inch gun M1905 |
disappearing M1903 | 1905–1920? |
Livingston | 2 | 6-inch gun M1900 | pedestal M1900 | 1905–1948 |
Johnston | 2 | 6-inch gun M1900 | pedestal M1900 | 1902–1943 |
Mendenhall | 4 | 6-inch gun | disappearing | 1905–1917 |
Griffin | 2 | 4.72-inch/45 caliber Armstrong gun |
pedestal | 1899–1913 |
Griffin | 2 | 3-inch gun M1898 |
masking parapet M1898 |
1902–1920 |
Griffin | 2 | 3-inch gun M1903 | pedestal M1903 | 1903–1946 |
Several batteries (Burke, Johnston, Brown, and Griffin) were directly in front of the remains of the old fort, with Battery Griffin in front of and below the others. The other batteries extended in a line southeast of the old fort, with Battery Piper, the mortar battery, well to the rear of the line. Battery Griffin seems to have been designed as a mixed battery of two each M1898 and M1903 3-inch guns. The 4.72-inch guns of this battery were hastily added after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898; they were British guns purchased because most of the Endicott program was still years from completion.[13] The 4.72-inch/45 caliber guns were transferred to Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii in 1913 to concentrate this type of weapon in one area. Battery Livingston was also an unusual combination of two disappearing 6-inch guns and two guns on pedestal mounts. Batteries Gillmore and Spear were originally a 7-gun battery under the former name, but were split up in 1903, probably for improved fire control.[3][11]
World War I
The
Between the wars
The end of World War I also meant more changes for Fort Hamilton. Around 1920 Battery Livingston's pair of 6-inch
World War II
In World War II Fort Hamilton primarily served as a mobilization center, as it had in World War I. Except for the two remaining 6-inch pedestal guns of Battery Livingston and the pair of 3-inch guns at Battery Griffin, the remaining guns were gradually scrapped; the pair of 16-inch guns at the
Post World War II
Shortly after World War II it was decided that gun coast defenses were obsolete. In 1948, the last coast defense gun was removed from Fort Hamilton.
Units
The following Regular Army units were established at Fort Hamilton:
- 12th Infantry Regiment: October 20, 1861
- 21st Infantry Regiment: May 20, 1862
- 5th Coast ArtilleryRegiment, 1924
In the 1960s, Fort Hamilton also served as the home for the
Today
This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2016) |
Fort Hamilton is the only active-duty
At present, U.S. Army Fort Hamilton Garrison is the home of the New York City Recruiting Battalion, the Military Entrance Processing Station, the North Atlantic Division Headquarters of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the 1179th Transportation Brigade and the 722nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron, the latter organization being a geographically separated unit (GSU) of the 439th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command. Fort Hamilton also supports many Army Reserve and New York Army National Guard units, These Army National Guard units include the 133d Quartermaster Company, Company C/642d Aviation Support Battalion, 222d Chemical Company, and the 107th Military Police Company. Currently Fort Hamilton is under Installation Management Command headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, TX.
The construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in the early 1960s did away with several historic structures, including Fort Lafayette, which was located near the Brooklyn shore where the bridge tower now rises from the water. During the same period, efforts toward saving the historical heritage of the Narrows increased. Part of the U.S. Army's contribution to preserving this heritage is in the Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton.
The original fort later became the Officers' Club and now houses the Community Club. The caponier, a miniature fort guarding the main fort's gate, now houses the Harbor Defense Museum. Other notable landmarks include the Robert E. Lee House, where Lee, then a captain, resided while post engineer of the garrison,[16] and Colonels' Row, six historic townhouses that used to house senior officers. All of these structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the 2000s, the historic parade field that once lay behind the old New York Area Command (NYAC) Headquarters Building and the Military Personnel Office, former site of numerous ceremonies and festivities, was developed into swiftly built privatized housing. The historic flag pole and cannon are still present at the site, near the old headquarters building and across from the Post Exchange barber shop.
In 2007, the historic brick barracks, located on the plot of land within
A Civil War-era experimental 20-inch
In popular culture
In Marvel Comics, the second issue of G.I. Joe (1982) has a primary character reporting that Cobra prisoners will be delivered to the stockade located on Fort Hamilton.
Fort Hamilton is featured prominently in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit season 19 episode 18, titled "Service" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7195376/
Fort Hamilton is the setting for nearly all of Nelson DeMille's novel, Word of Honor.[17]
In The Lords of Flatbush, Jane Bradshaw's (Susan Blakely) father (Bill van Sleet) is an Army officer newly assigned to Fort Hamilton. Jane's parents tell her on their way out to dinner that they can be reached at the Fort Hamilton officers' club that evening.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "Commanders of Fort Hamilton 1831–1987". Official Harbor Defense Museum of Fort Hamilton. Harbor Defense Museum of Fort Hamilton. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- ^ Roberts, p. 598
- ^ a b c d e f Fort Hamilton at Fort Wiki.com
- ^ a b Weaver, pp. 148–152
- ^ ISBN 0-195-11634-8.
- ^ Fort Richmond at New York State Military Museum
- ^ Fort Tompkins at New York State Military Museum
- ^ Roberts, p. 586
- ^ Weaver, p. 163
- ^ a b c d e Fort Hamilton at American Forts Network
- ^ a b c d Berhow, p. 209
- ^ National Guard Coast Artillery regimental histories at the Coast Defense Study Group
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Gogolak, E. C. (July 23, 2013). "To Live in This Oasis, Money Won't Help, but a Uniform May". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Chen, David W. (December 16, 2001). "Fortress New York, Falling to Time; Across City, Vestiges of the Days of Redcoats, Rebels and Russians". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Freeman, Douglas Southall (1934). "Five drab years end in opportunity". R. E. Lee: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
...Reaching New York on the night of April 10, 1841, in a period of very bad weather, Lee soon discovered that his task was not as interesting as he had hoped it would be – that it was laborious but technically not difficult. His instructions were to institute somewhat elaborate repairs at Fort Lafayette, and to make various changes in Fort Hamilton, particularly in the parapet, so as to adapt it to barbette guns.
- ^ Stewart, Henry (July 24, 2015). "The Bay Ridge Canon: Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille". Hey Ridge.
Bibliography
- Roberts, Robert B. (1988). Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-926880-X.
- Weaver II, John R. (2018). A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816–1867 (2nd ed.). McLean, VA: Redoubt Press. ISBN 978-1-7323916-1-1.
External links
- Fort Hamilton (U.S. Army Garrison)
- Harbor Defense Museum official Facebook page
- Harbor Defense Museum Archived March 28, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Official site
- Harbor Defense Museum at NYC Arts.org
- Harbor Defense Museum at New York magazine
- North Atlantic Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- New York State Military Museum - Information about Fort Hamilton
- American Forts Network, lists forts in the US, former US territories, Canada, and Central America
- List of all US coastal forts and batteries at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
- FortWiki, lists most CONUS and Canadian forts