Fort Jay

Coordinates: 40°41′28.89″N 74°0′57.63″W / 40.6913583°N 74.0160083°W / 40.6913583; -74.0160083
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fort Jay
Fort Columbus
Part of Governors Island
New York County, New York, United States
TypeFortification
Site information
OwnerPublic - National Park Service
Controlled byUnited States of America
Open to
the public		Yes
Fort Jay
Fort Jay is located in New York City
Fort Jay
Fort Jay is located in New York
Fort Jay
Fort Jay is located in the United States
Fort Jay
Coordinates40°41′28.89″N 74°0′57.63″W / 40.6913583°N 74.0160083°W / 40.6913583; -74.0160083
Visitation126,000 (2008)
NRHP reference No.74001268
NYCL No.0543
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMarch 27, 1974[1]
Designated NYCLSeptember 19, 1967
ConditionGood
Site history
Built1794, 1806, 1833
Built by
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jonathan Williams
In use1794-1997
MaterialsSandstone, Granite, Brick

Fort Jay is a

Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes. From 1806 to 1904 it was named Fort Columbus, presumably for explorer Christopher Columbus. Today, the National Park Service administers Fort Jay and Castle Williams as the Governors Island National Monument
.

American Revolution

Main article: New York and New Jersey campaign

Fort Jay is situated on Governors Island (which was known as Nutten Island from 1664 to 1784, based on Dutch Noten Eylandt for "Nut Island"). Specifically, the fort is located on the site of earthworks originally built to defend New York City during the American Revolution. General

Battle of Brooklyn. The Americans abandoned the earthworks that September, resulting in the eventual British occupation of New York City. The British Army improved the existing earthworks and used the island as a British Royal Navy hospital until they departed on November 25, 1783
. At that time Governors Island was conveyed to the State of New York.

Federal period

In the years following the end of British occupation of New York in 1783, the works deteriorated. A decade later in 1794, the State of New York began to finance improvements to the earthworks, then in ruins. The fort was reconstructed as a square with four corner bastions, and was named after the Federalist New York governor John Jay. By 1797 Congress appropriated $30,117 for continued construction. Eventually, to allow for continued federal funding and upkeep of the works, the state conveyed Governors Island and the works at Fort Jay to the federal government in February 1800 for one dollar.

In 1806 the earthworks were replaced by granite and brick walls and the footprint of the fort enlarged to designs by

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and supervisor of fortifications in New York Harbor.[2] The fort was rebuilt and enlarged as part of what became known as the Second System of US seacoast fortifications.[3] Williams replaced the earthworks with sandstone and granite walls and an arrow-shaped ravelin, all surrounded by a dry moat. The moat was in turn surrounded by a sloped grassy area or glacis
that was once was cleared of trees, providing a clear field of fire toward any advancing enemy forces. The slope was also designed to retard or stop cannon shot from warships. The overall result is still evident in the fort's design and its position on the highest point on the island. Construction of the walls and gate of the existing fort were completed in 1808. Later, small wood and brick barracks buildings were constructed in the enclosed square space.

The fortification was initially named Fort Jay for

Fort Columbus, presumably for Christopher Columbus
.

The post was renamed at some time between December 15, 1806 and July 21, 1807. Edmund Banks Smith, an Episcopal priest, Army chaplain, and author of an early history of Governors Island wrote in 1913 that this was "supposed to have been due to Jay’s temporary unpopularity with the Republican party, which was not satisfied with the Jay Treaty with England". However, this has not been substantiated, and no documentation for the name change has been found. The fort retained the name "Columbus" throughout the rest of the 19th century, finally reverting to Fort Jay in 1904.[4]

Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of

Upper New York Bay. This system of coastal fortifications is credited with discouraging the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812, who preferred easier targets in the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay (resulting in the burning of Washington, D.C.), and the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.[original research?
]

19th century and the Civil War

Main article: New York in the American Civil War

In subsequent years, beginning in the 1820s, Fort Richmond, Fort Hamilton, and Fort Lafayette at the Narrows of New York Harbor reduced the need for the Upper Harbor forts, and in time, the Army transferred most properties in Upper New York Bay to other federal agencies or sold them to the state of New York. Fort Columbus, however, possessed 68 acres (280,000 m2), a sufficient land mass for a modest garrison at a reasonable proximity (1,000 yards (910 m)) to Manhattan, making it the most practical of the Second System forts for the Army to retain and continue to garrison.[original research?]

Personnel stationed at Fort Columbus began to record meteorological observations in the 1820s.[original research?]

As the closest major army post to the

Henry Wager Halleck, James B. McPherson
and others.

Aerial view of the fortifications.

In the 1830s, the protective value of Fort Columbus diminished with the advance of

Ordnance Department established the New York Arsenal as a separate installation, adjacent to but not part of Fort Columbus, as a major depot taking delivery of contracted manufactured arms and weapons and distributing both contract and federally manufactured weapons to army posts across the nation. In 1836, the South Battery became the Army School of Music Practice
, training young boys to become company drummers and fife players and regimental musicians.

The army located its General Recruiting Service for infantry troops at Fort Columbus in November 1852, and many regiments in the army detailed officers to Fort Columbus on recruiting details.[5]

Twice, in December 1860 and April 1861, the Army "secretly" dispatched troops and provisions from Fort Columbus to relieve the besieged garrison at

The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina fired on the Army-chartered New York-based steamship Star of the West on January 9, 1861 as it entered Charleston Harbor
. The incident provoked a crisis, prompting other southern states began to more seriously consider secession from the Union. The second effort, with new Army recruits departing from Fort Columbus on April 9, 1861, also failed when it prompted South Carolina forces to fire on Fort Sumter early in the morning of April 12, 1861, resulting in the start of the Civil War.

In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer to other Union prisons such as

William H. C. Whiting (CSA) died of dysentery in February 1865 in the post hospital shortly after his surrender at the Battle of Fort Fisher
, North Carolina. He was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die as a prisoner of war.

15-inch Rodman gun (left) and 10-inch Rodman gun (right).

Late in war and the immediate years after it, the armament of the fort was upgraded with nearly fifty 10-inch (254 mm) and 15-inch (381 mm) Rodman guns. As the result of a World War II scrap drive, four 10-inch and one 15-inch guns were retained at the fort's east entrance gate and north ravelin as ornaments, while the remainder were shipped on barges to steel mills in Pittsburgh, PA and scrapped for the war effort in October 1942.

Division and departmental headquarters

In the years after the American Civil War, New York Arsenal served as a major center for disposing of surplus and excess cannons and munitions for war memorials in national cemeteries and for municipalities, scrap, or sale to foreign governments.

In 1878, as part of a servicewide cost-cutting effort, the United States Army relocated many of its administrative functions from rented quarters in large urban centers to neighboring army posts. In New York City, nearly all army functions in the city were relocated to Governors Island, making Fort Columbus the headquarters for the

Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War.[6]

20th century

Looking north across Fort Jay with Lower Manhattan skyscrapers in the background.

At the turn of the century, Fort Columbus and Governors Island began to draw the attention of President

McKim, Mead and White
to develop a master plan for the island which would demolish all the existing buildings on the island except for the three original fortifications on the island and a newly constructed chapel. The retention of the fortifications indicated Root's interest in retaining the historical structures, as some of the army decision makers he supervised were trying to accomplish their demolition. In one of his departing acts as Secretary of War in February 1904, Root restored the original name of Fort Jay to the fortification and to the army post that had evolved around it.

A 1930s WPA project was the complete conversion of the barracks in Fort Jay to family housing. Each company barracks was transformed into four townhouse-style apartments that served junior officers as family housing. As a further concession to the automobile, eight two-car garages were constructed inside the fort behind the barracks to serve the fort's residents.

During World War II Fort Jay was the headquarters of

Bermuda were also included in the EDC.[7]

End of military career

In November 1964 after a year of study to identify ways to downsize Department of Defense installations, the U.S. Army announced the closure of Fort Jay. The merging of

Fort Meade, Maryland. In 1966 the United States Coast Guard (USCG) assumed control of Governors Island
and continued to use Fort Jay to house officers until it closed its Governors Island base in September 1996.

On January 19, 2001, Fort Jay, Castle Williams and a surrounding 23 acres were proclaimed part of the Governors Island National Monument, administered by the National Park Service with Fort Jay recognized as being one of the finest remaining examples of the Second System of American military fortifications. Since 2003, both fortifications have been open to the public on a summer seasonal basis as they undergo stabilization and the remainder of the island undergoes redevelopment by the City of New York through the Trust for Governors Island.

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Smith 1913, p. 112.
  3. ISBN 978-0-9748167-2-2
    .
  4. ^ "Fort Jay Governors Island National Monument" (PDF). National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 2005. Retrieved April 10, 2016. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ Smith 1913, p. 106.
  6. ^ Smith 1913, p. 158-159.
  7. ^ Conn, pp. 29, 33-39

Further reading

External links

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