Early Rhode Island forts Colonial period Prior to the Revolution there was only one significant fort in Rhode Island: Fort Anne (later Fort George, eventually
Fort Wolcott) on
Goat Island in
Newport harbor. The site was first fortified with an earthen battery in 1700, replaced by Fort Anne (named for the reigning
Queen of England) in 1702. It was gradually enlarged until in 1727 it was described as a 50-gun stone fort, which in 1730 was renamed Fort George, after
George II. In 1764 and 1769 two attacks on British ships by persons dissatisfied with British rule took place at and near the fort. In 1764 persons who believed was carrying stolen goods from local merchants seized the unmanned Fort George and fired on the ship, which escaped. In 1769 had seized two ships from Connecticut in the course of
customs enforcement. The merchant captain whose ships had been seized led a mob which captured and burned the ship on Goat Island, near Fort George. Another fortified site of the Colonial period was Brenton's Battery, on Brenton's Point in Newport, later the site of
Fort Adams. This battery had four guns in 1641, and two guns in 1683. It was rebuilt in the 1750s. The Easton's Point battery once forced the besieging
HMS Scarborough to move away from the town. Another 12-gun battery was built on
Conanicut Island across the bay from Newport, initially named the
Dumpling Rock Battery or Fort Brown, after its commander, Abdiel Brown. This fort was also called Fort Conanicut after 1779. The patriots also fortified the bay's West Passage with the Beaver Tail Fort and the
Conanicut Battery. However, the British abandoned Newport in October 1779, concentrating their forces in New York City. At this point Fort George was reoccupied by the patriots and became Fort Washington. An
expedition of 5,500 French troops under
Count Rochambeau arrived in Newport by sea on 10 July 1780. They built Fort Chastellux (later known as Fort Harrison and Fort Denham) on high ground behind Goat Island (near King Avenue, later renamed Chastellux Avenue), not far from the current site of the
Ida Lewis Yacht Club, and rebuilt and re-used the British barracks on Brenton's Point. A French map of this period reportedly shows a total of 39 forts and batteries in Newport and
Middletown.
1783-War of 1812 Newport received several new forts under the
first system of US fortifications in the 1790s. By this time Newport was considered the most important coastal site in New England, with two companies of the
Regular Army's Artillerists and Engineers stationed there. Its naturally well-protected harbor, if seized by an enemy, could serve as a base for land and sea attacks on Boston or New York. The other large fort was
Fort Hamilton on
Rose Island, northwest of the harbor and intended for 60 guns. However, construction on this fort was abandoned while still largely incomplete. Two smaller forts were a rebuilt
Fort Dumpling on Conanicut Island with 8 guns, Around 1806 a war scare with Great Britain prompted another round of fort construction that was later called the second system of US fortifications. In Rhode Island the improvements were modest, being limited to repairs at Fort Wolcott and Fort Adams. In the
Secretary of War's report for 1811 Fort Dumpling was noted as incomplete, and Fort Greene was "in a state of ruin". Rhode Island was not attacked in the War of 1812. State troops were mobilized to garrison Fort Adams and Fort Greene. Fort Adams' initial design was by French military engineer
Simon Bernard, and the first 13 years of its construction were personally overseen by
Joseph G. Totten of the
Army Corps of Engineers, the foremost American fort designer. The fort was begun in 1825 and was first garrisoned in 1841, A drawing in the
National Archives shows that a similarly large fort in
Jamestown on
Conanicut Island, at the eventual location of
Fort Wetherill, was considered but not approved. The new Fort Adams was unusual among American forts in having a
tenaille and crownwork, plus a detached
redoubt, protecting the fort on the landward side. These were designed to break up and channel an assault force, effectively forcing an attacker to resort to a long siege. In 1854 the fort was armed with 200 guns, and had positions for over 400. Fort Wolcott went into
caretaker status in 1836 and was never re-garrisoned; it was probably abandoned in the 1900s. The Civil War had shown that masonry forts were vulnerable to modern rifled cannon, particularly in the
siege of Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia in 1862. Also, the 15-inch (381 mm) smoothbore
Rodman gun was introduced during the war. In the 1870s through 1890s Fort Adams was rearmed with eleven 15-inch Rodmans, thirteen 10-inch (254 mm) Rodmans in the original casemates, and four 100-pounder (6.4-inch (163 mm))
Parrott rifles in a set of casemates that pointed south towards potential attackers. New earth-protected positions were built for five of the 15-inch guns, two atop the southwest corner of the fort and three new positions south of the fort; the remainder were on the barbette tier atop the fort. Parrott rifles had shown an alarming tendency to burst when fired, so procurement was stopped shortly after the Civil War and they were deployed only in limited quantities. In 1867-69 a battery for six 15-inch Rodman guns was built on Dutch Island and armed with five of the weapons. In 1870 a massive fort mounting forty 15-inch Rodman guns was proposed for Dutch Island, but funding for this was cut off in 1875, and within a few years nearly all coast defense funding was cut off nationwide. In 1869 the
Naval Torpedo Station was founded on Goat Island; this became the US Navy's primary research, development, and manufacturing center for
torpedoes. Two
underwater minefields in the East and West Passages also guarded the bay. The defenses of the East Passage were the new
Fort Wetherill and new batteries at
Fort Adams, south of the main fort. The West Passage was adequately defended for the first time with three new forts. These were
Fort Getty on Beaver Head in Jamestown,
Fort Greble on
Dutch Island, and
Fort Kearny in
Saunderstown on the mainland, opposite Dutch Island. Fort Wetherill was the largest of the new forts in armament, and included the
mine planting and storage facilities for the area. Heavy weapons for the East Passage included four
12-inch (305 mm) guns at Fort Wetherill (two on
barbette carriages, two on
disappearing carriages), with three
10-inch (254 mm) disappearing guns there, along with sixteen
12-inch (305 mm) mortars and two 10-inch (254 mm) disappearing guns at Fort Adams. The West Passage had three 10-inch disappearing guns and eight 12-inch mortars at Fort Greble, with three 12-inch disappearing guns at Fort Getty. Medium caliber weapons in the initial design were five
6-inch (152 mm) guns at Fort Wetherill (two disappearing, two on pedestal mounts), three 6-inch disappearing guns at Fort Greble, and two 6-inch pedestal guns at Fort Getty, along with six 6-inch disappearing guns at Fort Kearny. Each fort had at least one battery of
3-inch (76 mm) guns to defend the minefields against
minesweepers. Generally, the heavy batteries were built first, followed by the 3-inch and then the 6-inch batteries. However, the Spanish–American War broke out in early 1898. Most of the Endicott batteries were still years from completion, and it was feared the
Spanish fleet would bombard the
US east coast. A number of batteries of medium-caliber
rapid-fire guns were hastily built. Fort Adams received a one-gun battery with an
8-inch M1888 gun (203 mm) on a modified Rodman carriage, and a battery of two
4.72-inch (120 mm) Armstrong guns. Fort Getty received a single
6-inch (152 mm) Armstrong gun. The fort was placed in
caretaker status in 1909 and disarmed to provide guns for World War I in 1917. It was abandoned and sold in 1928. The initial Endicott batteries were completed in 1907. Some of the Spanish–American War batteries were short-lived; Fort Getty lost its 6-inch Armstrong gun by 1900, along with Fort Adams' single 8-inch gun. However, in 1907 there was a re-alignment of 6-inch Armstrong guns. Fort Adams received a battery of three 6-inch Armstrong guns as a result. In 1913 these were transferred to
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Some weapons were removed from forts with the intent of getting US-made artillery into the fight. 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch guns and 12-inch mortars were converted to railway artillery, while 5-inch and 6-inch guns became
field guns on wheeled carriages. 12-inch mortars were also removed to improve reload times by reducing the number of mortars in a pit from four to two. Few railway artillery pieces were mounted and few or none saw action before the
Armistice. The remounted 5-inch and 6-inch guns were sent to France, but their units did not complete training in time to see action. The 5-inch guns were removed from service in 1920. By this time, pedestal mounts for 6-inch guns were known to be superior to disappearing mounts, being able to more rapidly track targets with a faster rate of fire. Thus, most disappearing guns (except the M1897, shorter than the others) were dismounted for use as field guns, while most of the few pedestal guns dismounted were returned to the forts soon after the war. The removed 6-inch disappearing guns (primarily M1903 and M1905) were stored and many returned to service in World War II. Fort Wetherill lost a 10-inch gun (transferred to Fort Greble) and its three 6-inch disappearing guns. Fort Adams' pair of 10-inch guns was dismounted in 1917, and after some delay transferred in 1919 to
Fort Strong in the
Harbor Defenses of Boston to replace guns removed there. Fort Greble lost a 10-inch gun (replaced by Fort Wetherill's gun in 1918) and its three 6-inch disappearing guns. Fort Kearny lost four of its six 6-inch disappearing guns. The mortar batteries at Fort Adams and Fort Greble were all halved in size (to eight and four mortars respectively) to improve the rate of fire. A pair of
4.72-inch Armstrong guns, transferred from
Fort Strong in Boston Harbor, were mounted at
Sachuest Point in
Middletown to guard the
Sakonnet River from 1917 to 1919. A misspelling of Sachuest Point as "Sauchet Point" on the gun cards for these weapons led to their destination being lost; it is often assumed incorrectly that they were Fort Adams' guns of the same type. As the Naval Torpedo Station expanded, Fort Wolcott was probably completely demolished in 1917–18. Some of these weapons remained in service through early World War II, others were replaced by towed 3-inch guns in the 1930s. In 1920 a number of weapons deployed in limited quantities, plus the
3-inch gun M1898, were declared obsolete and removed from the forts. These included all of the 4.72-inch Armstrong guns. One of the Sachuest Point guns is preserved as a memorial in Ansonia, Connecticut. Both of Fort Adams' guns survive: one is preserved as a memorial in Equality Park, Newport, RI; the other was initially at
Westerly Armory, but was later traded to
Fort Moultrie near Charleston, SC.
World War II Early in World War II numerous temporary buildings were again constructed to accommodate the rapid mobilization of men and equipment. Two batteries of the 10th Coast Artillery were activated on 1 July 1939 and 1 September 1940, followed by four more batteries on 10 February 1941. Another 16-inch battery, Battery 109 at Fort Greene, was also built but not armed. Fort Wetherill retained its pair of 6-inch pedestal guns. Fort Burnside gained a pair of 3-inch guns from Fort Getty. All the original Endicott-era guns of Forts Adams, Getty, Greble, and Kearny were removed or scrapped by 1944. Along with the move in July 1944, the 37 mm guns in the AMTB batteries were upgraded to
40 mm Bofors guns. AMTB 924 was at Fort Wetherill with two mobile 90 mm guns. AMTB 925 was at Fort Adams with two mobile 90 mm guns. The
US Navy also participated in defending the Narragansett Bay area with
net defenses and submarine-detecting
indicator loops, including a station at
Fort Burnside (Station 1H). Four 5-inch (127 mm) antiaircraft guns (probably the widely-available
5"/38 caliber gun) were emplaced on
Rose Island in 1942, replaced by an Army battery of four 90 mm AA guns in 1943. Unlike most of the eastern harbor defense commands,
fire control towers in Rhode Island were low-profile. Many were two stories tall and disguised as seaside cottages, or were dug into rock outcroppings. In World War II an Army-Navy harbor entrance control post-harbor defense command post was built at
Fort Burnside, resembling a seaside mansion. The removal of most weapons and an Army-wide shift from a regimental to a battalion-based system meant organizational changes in Rhode Island's defenses. On 25 February 1944 the 10th Coast Artillery was effectively disestablished, and on 7 October 1944 the 243rd Coast Artillery was redesignated as the 188th and 189th Coast Artillery Battalions, which themselves were disestablished on 1 April 1945. Personnel from these units were absorbed by HD Narragansett Bay. Some of the Rhode Island forts served as
POW camps during World War II, including
Fort Getty,
Fort Greble, and
Fort Kearny. The latter was the headquarters of a
program to re-educate German prisoners with democratic values, one element of which was the German-language newspaper
Der Ruf (The Call).
Post World War II Following the war, it was soon determined that gun defenses were obsolete, and they were scrapped by the end of 1948, with remaining harbor defense functions turned over to the Navy. ==Present==