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Fort Adams is a defensive fortress situated in Newport, Rhode Island in United States. It is a massive historic stronghold abandoned for more than half of a century. Many parts of this fortress were not touched by reconstruction and it still keeps its original feeling of past decades.
First coastal fortifications were erected here in a single night of April 6th 1776 during American Revolution. These were simple earthworks that protected Colonial American soldiers and their artillery. They didn't wait too long for an enemy. On April 7th at 5 am 24 gun frigate H.M.S. Glasgow with a hospital ship attempted to make it inside a harbour. Colonel Richmond of the Rhode Island militia drove the enemy away with 35 shots fired from cannon. Just three days later on April 10th this point became again crucial in attacking and driving away two ships of the British Royal Navy, H.M.S. Scarborough and H.M.S. Cimetar. This allowed the state of Rhode Island to remain free of British rule and proclaim independence on Mayth 1776.
The first Fort Adams was designed by Commander Louis de Tousard
of the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the first system of
fortifications in the United States. After some additions in
1809, this fort contained 17 guns and was garrisoned during the
War of 1812 by Wood's Rhode Island State Corps militiamen. The
Secretary of War's report of December 1811 described the fort as
"an irregular star-shaped fort of masonry, with an irregular
recessed work of masonry adjacent to it, accommodating seventeen
heavy guns. […] The barracks are of wood and brick, for one
company. »
After the War of 1812 there was a thorough
review of the nation's fortification needs and it was decided to
replace the old Fort Adams with a newer and much larger version.
It is part of what is becoming known as the United States' Third
Fortification System. The fort is designed by Brigadier General
Simon Bernard, a Frenchman who served as a military engineer
under Napoleon. Bernard designs the new Fort Adams in the
classical style and it becomes the most complex fortification in
the Western Hemisphere. It includes a pincer and a crown, a
complex outer work on the south side (towards the earth),
intended to break and channel a hostile force. In the United
States, it is rivaled in size only by Fort Monroe in Hampton,
Virginia, and Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas, Florida.
Construction of the new fort began in 1824 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 Chief of Engineers and served until his death in 1864.
New Fort Adams was first garrisoned in August 1841, which
functioned as an active army post until 1950. During this time,
the fort was active in five major wars (the Mexican-American
War, the Civil War, Spanish–American War, World War I and World
War II), but never fired a shot.
At the start of the
Mexican-American War, the post was commanded by Benjamin
Kendrick Pierce, the brother of President Franklin Pierce. The
fort redoubt, about 400 meters south of the main fort, was built
during this war.
From 1848 to 1853, Fort Adams was
commanded by Colonel William Gates, a longtime veteran of both
the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. The fort's
garrison was sent to California, and many soldiers lost their
lives when the steamer SS San Francisco was wrecked, but not
sunk, in a North Atlantic storm on December 24, 1853.
In
an 1854 report, Fort Adams was armed with one hundred 32-pounder
coastal guns, 57 24-pounder coastal guns, and 43 24-pounder
broadside howitzers. Flank howitzers are short-barreled guns
deployed in casemates in the tenaille to protect the fort
against a ground assault.
The War Department was concerned about the political sympathies
of Maryland residents during the Civil War, so the United States
Naval Academy was moved in 1861 from Annapolis to Fort Adams. In
September 1861, the academy moved into Atlantic House Hall in
Newport and remained there for the remainder of the war.
Among the midshipmen assigned to the naval academy while at Fort
Adams was Robley D. Evans who was wounded at Fort Fisher, North
Carolina, in 1865, commanding the battleship Iowa during the war
Spanish-American, and later commands the Great White Fleet on
the first leg of its epic voyage around the world. Among Evans'
classmates at Fort Adams were future Rear Admiral Charles
Sigsbee, who would command the battleship Maine, and future
Captain Charles Vernon Gridley, who would command the cruiser
Olympia in the Battle of Manila Bay. .
In 1862, Fort
Adams became the headquarters and recruiting center of the 15th
Infantry Regiment. This regiment, along with several others, was
organized into a three-battalion, eight-company regiment, 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 commanded Fort Sumter
when it was attacked by Confederate forces in April 1861.
1870s upgrade
As part of a major update to United States
coastal defenses in the 1870s, the armament of Fort Adams was
modernized with eleven 15-inch Rodman guns, thirteen 10-inch
Rodman guns, and four Parrott guns 6.4 inches (100 pounds).
Three new mounts are built for 15-inch guns; the rest replaced
the fort's old guns, all of which were withdrawn except the 20
of 32-pounders in 1873. For mobile defenses, four 4.5-inch siege
guns, four 3-inch ordinance guns, and four mortars of 10 inches
are provided. In 1894, four converted 8-inch guns were added in
a new battery south of the fort.
Twentieth century
Endicott period
As time passes, the weaponry of the fort is
updated to keep up with technological innovations. The main
types of cannon used in the fort include the barrel-loading gun
of the 19th century, the breech-loading rifled artillery pieces
of the early 20th century, and the anti-aircraft guns during and
after the Second World War. World War. The fort received
significant armament, in the form of batteries to the south of
the main fort, with the Endicott and Taft programs from 1896
until 1907. This was to defend the eastern passage of
Narragansett Bay in combination with the new Fort Wetherill at
Jamestown, part of the coastal defenses of Narragansett Bay.
The Greene-Edgerton, Reilly, and Talbot batteries were built
between 1896 and 1899 and were the first to be completed.
Battery Greene-Edgerton comprised sixteen mortars, all of which
were initially called Battery Greene, but the battery was split
into two groups of eight in 1906. Battery Talbot, one of a
number of batteries added on the East Coast at the start of the
Spanish American War in 1898, includes two Armstrong 4.72 inch
guns. A Talbot battery gun is preserved at Equality Park in
Newport; the other is at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South
Carolina and is at Westerly, Rhode Island circa 1920-1977. A new
battery of a single M1888 8-inch gun on a carriage converted in
the 1870s was also present briefly from 1898. In 1907 two
additional batteries were completed, Battery Bankhead with three
Armstrong 6-inch guns and the Belton battery with two M1903
3-inch guns.
Greene-Edgerton Battery is named after
Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene and West Point
professor Lt. Col. Wright P. Edgerton. Battery Reilly is named
after Captain Henry J. Reilly, killed during the China Relief
Expedition near Peking, August 15, 1900, who previously served
at Fort Adams. Battery Talbot is named after Silas Talbot, an
Army of Rhode Island Revolutionary War officer who later became
a naval officer, and commanded USS Constitution from 1799 to
1801. Battery Bankhead is named in reference to Major General
patented James Monroe Bankhead, who served in the War of 1812,
the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican-American War. Belton
Battery is named after Francis S. Belton, who served in the War
of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
In 1913 the
Bankhead battery was disarmed and its three 6-inch guns sent to
Hawaii.
First World War
Thornton Wilder, author and
playwright, whose 1973 novel Mr. North (Theophilus North) is set
in the town of Newport is serving in a three-month enlistment
with the Army Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Adams during the
First World War. Wilder attained the rank of corporal in the
army.
During the First World War, Fort Adams served as
the headquarters for the coastal defenses of Narragansett Bay,
as well as a training center in two world wars. The United
States Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was selected to handle
all United States heavy artillery in this war because it was the
only entity in the army with experience in the use of big guns,
and with a significant amount of trained personnel. Four
regiments of heavy artillery and two brigades of heavy artillery
are organized at Fort Adams and serve in France, along with
troops from Coastal Defense Command, Maine, Rhode Island, New
York and elsewhere as that frame. These are two of the four
railway artillery regiments that took part in combat during the
war (with French-made weapons) and their brigade headquarters.
The rail artillery units are designated as the 52nd and 53rd
Artillery Regiments (CAC) (originally the 7th and 8th
Provisional Regiments), and the 30th Separate Artillery Brigade
(Railway) (ACC) (originally the 1st Expeditionary Brigade). The
51st Artillery Regiment (CAC) (originally the 6th Provisional
Regiment), 66th Artillery Regiment (CAC) and 34th Artillery
Brigade (CAC) were also organized at Fort Adams and sent to
France, but only the 51st completed training in time to fight.
Battery Reilly's two 10-inch guns were dismantled in 1917
for potential use as railway guns, but after considerable delay
they were sent to Fort Warren, near Boston, in 1919 to replace
the guns removed from that fort. Eight of the sixteen mortars at
Battery Greene-Edgerton were removed in 1918 for potential use
as railway guns; it is also part of a force-wide program to
improve the rate of fire due to overcrowding in mortar pits
during reloading.
Some sources claim that the guns of the
Talbot Battery were reassigned to Sachuest Point in 1917-1919, a
few miles from Fort Adams. However, army records show that these
guns came from Fort Strong in Boston's coastal defenses.
After World War I was over, Battery Talbot was decommissioned in
1919 and its guns sent to Newport and Westerly on static
display. At some point after the war, three M1917 3-inch
anti-aircraft guns were deployed to the fort, supplemented by at
least two mobile 3-inch guns.
After World War I was over, Battery Talbot was decommissioned in
1919 and its guns sent to Newport and Westerly on static
display. At some point after the war, three M1917 3-inch
anti-aircraft guns were deployed at the fort, supplemented by at
least two 3-inch mobile guns (or possibly 75mm mobile guns) on a
White truck or truck chassis. Ford Model T. The two 3-inch guns
of Belton Battery were transferred to Fort Wetherill in 1925, to
replace the obsolete M1902 guns. The eight battery mortars
Greene-Edgerton then remain the only armament of Fort Adams.
Second World War
During World War II, a peak strength of
over 3,000 soldiers were assigned to the harbor defenses of
Narragansett Bay. In September 1940, the Rhode Island National
Guard's 243rd Coast Artillery Regiment was mobilized and sent to
Fort Adams to reinforce the regular army's 10th Coast Artillery
Regiment. Both regiments were garrisoned at several coastal
defense forts and anti-aircraft installations under the command
of Narragansett Bay Harbor Defences. During the war, Fort Adams
and most of the other Endicott period forts in the state of
Rhode Island were replaced with new defenses centered on Fort
Church and Fort Greene and their guns demolished. However, the
previous anti-aircraft guns at the fort were replaced by two
90mm guns, along with several 40mm guns and .50 caliber machine
guns. As the war progressed, the number of troops was gradually
reduced to around 500 by the end of the war in 1945.
In 1953, the Army transferred ownership of Fort Adams to the
Navy, which still used some of the land for family housing. In
1965, the fort, and much 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. In
1994, the Fort Adams Trust was formed, which offers guided tours
of the fort and oversees ongoing restoration work at the fort.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower lived in the former officers'
quarters (now called the Eisenhower House) during his summer
vacation in Newport in 1958 and 1960.
From the early
1950s through the mid-1970s, Fort Adams suffered from neglect
and vandalism.
Thanks to the efforts of State Senator
Eric O'D. Taylor, in the 1970s, Fort Adams was cleaned up and
opened for tours and was used for the filming of the PBS TV
movie The Scarlet Letter (based on the novel The Scarlet
Letter). The tour program was canceled around 1980 due to Rhode
Island state budget cuts.
Since 1981, the grounds of Fort
Adams have hosted the Newport Jazz Festival, and the Newport
Folk Festival.
In the early 1990s, Fort Adams went
through an environmental remediation program that allowed public
access to the fort. Around this time, the Fort Adams Trust was
formed to oversee public programs and the restoration of the
fort.
In 1995, the Fort Adams Trust began offering guided
tours of the fort from May to September. Since that time the
fort has had several parts restored and the grounds of the
defenses cleared of brush.
In 2012, the park is the
official site of the America's Cup World Series in Newport.
Robert Anderson – commander of Fort Sumter and general in the
Civil War.
John G. Barnard – Army engineer, Civil War general
and Superintendent of West Point.
Alexander Dallas Bache –
army engineer and superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey.
Pierre G.T. Beauregard – Confederate Civil War general.
Simon
Bernard – general in the French army, military engineer under
Napoleon and designer of Fort Adams.
Ambrose Burnside – Civil
War General, Governor of Rhode Island and United States Senator.
Fox Conner – AEF, World War I operations officer and adviser to
General and President Dwight Eisenhower.
George W. Cullum –
Civil War General and Superintendent of West Point.
Henry A.
du Pont – Medal of Honor recipient, President of the Wilmington
& Northern Railroad Company and United States Senator.
Dwight
Eisenhower – Fort Adams vacationer while president.
William
P. Ennis – army lieutenant general born at Fort Adams.
Robley
D. Evans – Navy Rear Admiral and Commander of the Great White
Fleet.
John G. Foster – Civil War general.
William Gates –
long-serving army officer
John Henry – first commander of
Fort Adams and adventurer.
Henry Jackson Hunt – Civil War
general and artillery commander at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Lyman Lemnitzer – Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.
John B. Magruder – Confederate Civil War general.
General Franklin Pierce – senator and president of the United
States.
William S. Rosecrans – Civil War general.
Isaac
Ingalls Stevens – Civil War general.
Thomas W. Sherman –
Civil War general.
Joseph G. Totten – construction supervisor
of Fort Adams and chief engineer of the United States Army.
Louis de Tousard – Revolutionary War hero and designer of the
first Fort Adams.
Thornton Wilder – author. Portions of his
novel Mr. North (originally Theophilus North; made into a film
as Mr. North) were inspired by his experiences serving at Fort
Adams during the First World War.
William Griffith Wilson –
better known as “Bill W.”, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Stationed at Fort Adams during the First World War.