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 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
[
edit
]
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,
[4]
this
fort
mounted 17 cannon and was garrisoned during the
War of 1812
by Wood's State Corps of Rhode Island
militiamen
.
[5]
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
."
[6]
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
650 yards (594 m) south of the main fort.
[7]
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.
[8]
Construction of the new fort began in 1824 under
First lieutenant
Andrew Talcott
[9]
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.
[10]
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
World War II
(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
1
⁄
4
mile (0.4 km) south of the main fort, was built during this war.
[11]
[12]
[7]
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
SS
San Francisco
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.
[13]
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.
[14]
Civil War
[
edit
]
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
USS
Iowa
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
USS
Maine
, and future Captain
Charles Vernon Gridley
, who commanded the
protected cruiser
Olympia
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
[
edit
]
As part of a major upgrade to U.S. seacoast defenses, Fort Adams' armament was modernized in the 1870s with eleven 15-inch (381 mm)
Rodman guns
, thirteen 10-inch (254 mm) Rodman guns, and four 6.4-inch (163 mm) (100-pounder)
Parrott rifles
. Three new emplacements were built for the 15-inch (381 mm) guns; the remainder replaced older weapons in the fort, of which all but 20 32-pounders were removed by 1873. For mobile defense, four
4.5-inch (114 mm) siege rifles
, four
3-inch (76.2 mm) Ordnance rifles
, and four 10-inch (254 mm) mortars were provided. In 1894, four
8-inch (203 mm) converted rifles
were added in a new
battery
south of the fort.
[13]
Twentieth century
[
edit
]
Endicott period
[
edit
]
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.
[11]
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:
[11]
[15]
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
4.72-inch (120 mm) Armstrong guns
.
[11]
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.
[16]
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
.
[11]
[15]
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.
[17]
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
USS
Constitution
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.
[11]
In 1913 Battery Bankhead was disarmed and its three 6-inch (152 mm) guns sent to Hawaii.
[11]
World War I
[
edit
]
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.
[18]
[19]
[20]
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.
[
citation needed
]
The two 10-inch (254 mm) 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.
[11]
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
.
[21]
World War I ended on 11 November 1918. With the war over, Battery Talbot was disarmed in 1919 and its guns sent to Newport and Westerly as memorials. At some time after the war three
3-inch (76.2 mm) M1917
anti-aircraft
guns were deployed at the fort, supplemented by at least two
mobile 3-inch (76.2 mm) guns
(or possibly
mobile 75 mm guns
) on
White truck
or
Ford
Model T
chassis.
[13]
Battery Belton's two 3-inch (76.2 mm) guns were transferred to
Fort Wetherill
in 1925 to replace obsolescent M1902 guns there. This left the eight
mortars
of Battery Greene-Edgerton as Fort Adams' only armament.
[11]
[15]
World War II
[
edit
]
In the Second World War a peak strength of over 3,000 soldiers were assigned to the
Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay
. In September 1940 the
243rd Coast Artillery Regiment
of the
Rhode Island National Guard
was mobilized and sent to Fort Adams to reinforce the
Regular Army
's
10th Coast Artillery Regiment
. The two regiments garrisoned several coast defense forts and
anti-aircraft
installations under the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay. The United States entered the war on 7 December 1941, and during the war Fort Adams and most of the other Endicott Period forts in Rhode Island were superseded by new defenses centered on
Fort Church
and
Fort Greene
and their guns were scrapped.
[15]
However, the previous anti-aircraft guns at the fort were replaced by two
90-millimeter guns
with several
40 mm Bofors guns
and
.50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns
.
[22]
An Anti-
Motor Torpedo Boat
Battery (AMTB 925), with two 90-millimeter guns on mobile mounts, was also at Fort Adams by December 1943.
[23]
As the war progressed, the number of troops was gradually reduced to about 500 by the end of the war in August 1945.
State Park
[
edit
]
In 1953, the U.S. Army transferred ownership of Fort Adams to the U.S. Navy, which still uses some of the grounds for family housing
[
citation needed
]
. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
lived at the former commanding officer's quarters (now called the
Eisenhower House
) during his summer vacations in Newport in 1958 and 1960.
From the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, Fort Adams fell victim to neglect, the weather, and vandalism. In 1965, the fort and most of the surrounding land was given to the State of Rhode Island for use as
Fort Adams State Park
. In 1976, Fort Adams was declared a
National Historic Landmark
in recognition of its distinctive military architecture, which includes features not found in other forts of the period.
[24]
Through the efforts of State Senator Eric O'D. Taylor, in the 1970s Fort Adams was cleaned up, opened for tours, and used for the filming of the
PBS
television miniseries
The Scarlet Letter
. The tour program was cancelled circa 1980 due to budget cutbacks by the State of Rhode Island. Since 1981, the Fort Adams grounds have been host to the
Newport Jazz Festival
and the
Newport Folk Festival
.
In the early 1990s, Fort Adams was subjected to an environmental remediation program which made the fort safe for public access. In 1994, the Fort Adams Trust was formed; to provide guided tours at the fort and oversee restoration work there. In 1995 the Fort Adams Trust began giving tours at the fort from May to September. Since that time, the fort has had several areas of the fort restored as well as having its land defenses cleared of overgrowth, and the trust's restoration efforts are ongoing..
In 2012, the park was the official venue for the
America's Cup World Series
in Newport.
Notable persons associated with Fort Adams
[
edit
]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Entrance, 1968
-
1968
-
-
-
-
Tunnel
-
-
-
Fort Adams in 2008
-
Postcard view
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Duchesneau, John T.; Troost-Cramer, Kathleen (2014).
Fort Adams: A History
. The History Press.
ISBN
9781625850584
. Retrieved
15 March
2017
.
- ^
"Fort Adams"
.
National Historic Landmark summary listing
. National Park Service. Archived from
the original
on 2012-10-07
. Retrieved
2008-06-29
.
- ^
"National Register Information System"
.
National Register of Historic Places
.
National Park Service
. April 15, 2008.
- ^
Wade, p. 141
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 23?24
- ^
Wade, p. 242
- ^
a
b
Weaver, pp. 120?133
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 32?35
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, p. 27
- ^
Ann Johnson, "Material Experiments: Environment and Engineering Institutions in the Early American Republic,"
Osiris
, NS 24 (2009), 53?74.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
FortWiki article on Fort Adams
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 37?40
- ^
a
b
c
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 154?156
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 44?46
- ^
a
b
c
d
Berhow, p. 204
- ^
Berhow, p. 233
- ^
Arlington Cemetery entry for Henry J. Reilly (1845?1900)
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, pp. 146?147
- ^
Rinaldi, Richard A. (2004).
The U. S. Army in World War I: Orders of Battle
. General Data LLC. pp. 156?166.
ISBN
0-9720296-4-8
.
- ^
History of the Coast Artillery Corps in World War I
- ^
Gun and Carriage cards,
National Archives and Records Administration
, Record Group 156, Records of the
Chief of Ordnance
, Entry 712
- ^
Duchesneau and Troost-Cramer, p. 167
- ^
Schroder, p. 120
- ^
"NHL nomination for Fort Adams"
. National Park Service
. Retrieved
2015-02-17
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Berhow, Mark A., ed. (2004).
American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide
(Second ed.). CDSG Press.
ISBN
0-9748167-0-1
.
- Schroder, Walter K. (1980).
Defenses of Narragansett Bay in World War II
. East Greenwich, RI: Rhode Island Publications Society.
ISBN
0-917012-22-4
.
- Wade, Arthur P. (2011).
Artillerists and Engineers: The Beginnings of American Seacoast Fortifications, 1794?1815
. CDSG Press.
ISBN
978-0-9748167-2-2
.
- 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
[
edit
]
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