Board of Fortifications

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Board of Fortifications report, 1886

Several boards have been appointed by US presidents or Congress to evaluate the US defensive fortifications, primarily coastal defenses near strategically important harbors on the US shores, its territories, and its protectorates.

Endicott Board

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Endicott Period battery with two guns on disappearing carriages

10-inch disappearing gun at Battery Granger, Fort Hancock, New Jersey

In 1885 US President Grover Cleveland appointed a joint Army, Navy and civilian board, headed by Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott, known as the Board of Fortifications (now usually referred to simply as the Endicott Board). The findings of the Board in its 1886 report illustrated a grim picture of neglect of America's coast defenses and recommended a massive $127 million construction program for a series of new forts with breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coast. Coast Artillery fortifications built between 1885 and 1905 are often referred to as Endicott Period fortifications.

Prior efforts at harbor defense construction had ceased in the 1870s. Since that time the design and construction of heavy ordnance had advanced rapidly, including the development of superior breech-loading and longer-range cannon, making U.S. harbor defenses obsolete. In 1883, the Navy had begun a new construction program with an emphasis on offensive rather than defensive warships, and many foreign powers were building more heavily armored warships with larger guns. These factors combined to create a need for improved coastal defense systems.

The Endicott Board's recommendations led to a large-scale modernization program of harbor and coast defenses in the United States, including the construction of modern reinforced concrete fortifications and the installation of new batteries of large-caliber (14-inch, 12-inch, 10-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch) breech-loading rifled artillery, coast defense mortars, and pneumatic dynamite guns. Fields of electrically controlled submarine mines were also a critical component of the new defenses, as were smaller guns (less than 5-inch caliber) used to protect the mine fields from minesweeping vessels and the larger guns from land attack.

The fortifications constructed as part of this program were a departure from the traditional masonry forts concealing massed batteries of smooth-bore cannon that had dominated U.S. harbor defense for most the 19th century. Instead, smaller batteries of up to four large caliber rifled guns each were installed in well-constructed emplacements hidden behind earth-covered concrete parapets. Most long-range, large-caliber rifles were mounted on disappearing carriages that would allow a gun to be raised to fire, but otherwise remain protected from the enemy's view or fire behind a protective parapet. Some large guns and most smaller guns were mounted on less expensive barbettes or pedestals(see table below).

Taft Board

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Fire control searchlight at Fort Baker, California

In 1905, after the experiences of the Spanish-American War, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a new board, under secretary of war William Howard Taft. They updated some standards and reviewed the progress on the Endicott Board's program. Most of the changes recommended by the Taft Board were technical, such as adding more searchlights, electrification (lighting, communications, and projectile handling), and more sophisticated optical aiming techniques. The Board also recommended fortifications in territories acquired from Spain (Cuba and the Philippines), as well as Hawaii, and a few other sites. Defenses in Panama were authorized by the Spooner Act of 1902. The Taft program fortifications differed slightly in battery construction and had fewer guns at a given location than those of the Endicott program.

World War I and later

By the time of the First World War, many of the Endicott and Taft era forts had become obsolete due to the increased range and accuracy of naval weaponry and the advent of aircraft. In the 1920s and 1930s, most U.S. coast defense facilities were put on "maintenance" status, a type of "mothballing." In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a new program of construction added huge 16-inch gun batteries, as well as rapid-firing 6-inch and 90 mm guns (for use against motor torpedo boats) to many harbors' defenses, and large fields of submarine mines were still being deployed as well. But as it became clearer that the U.S. was unlikely to face seaborne attack, these defenses were largely discontinued (by 1945), and were decommissioned altogether after 1946.

Endicott-Taft forts at war

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Battery Way following the Battle of Corregidor (1945)

The only Endicott era fort to come under direct fire enemy was Fort Stevens at the mouth of Columbia River in Oregon. On the night of June 20, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off the coast and proceeded to shell Fort Stevens in the vicinity of Battery Russell. There were no U.S. casualties and damage to the fort was negligible. The battery commander made the decision not to return fire.

Several Taft era fortifications in the Philippines were attacked and captured by Imperial Japanese forces within a few months of the U.S. entry into World War II. Fort Mills, Fort Hughes, Fort Drum (El Fraile Island), and Fort Frank guarding the entrance to Manila Bay were subjected to a three-month siege that ended when U.S. forces surrendered on May 6, 1942. All four forts were recaptured by U.S. forces in early 1945. At no point was any of the Taft era weaponry used against the targets for which they were designed, namely armored ships.

Preserved forts and surviving weaponry

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Preserved 6-inch disappearing gun at Battery Cooper, Fort Pickens

Several Endicott-Taft era forts have been preserved in the United States, though most of the period weaponry was dismantled and scrapped in the 1940s and 1950s. Fort Casey and Fort Worden on the Puget Sound in Washington State are now state parks, their extensive concrete gun emplacements, as well as many supporting structures, have been preserved and are now open to the public. Fort Winfield Scott at the Presidio in San Francisco contains several Endicott-Taft era emplacements in various states of preservation. Fort Winfield Scott is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Only a few examples of Endicott-Taft era weaponry survive to this day in the United States.

• Battery Worth at Fort Casey contains two 10-inch M1895MI guns on disappearing carriages that were salvaged from Fort Wint in the Philippines in the 1960s.
• Battery Laidley at Fort De Soto just outside the city of St. Petersburg, Florida still possesses four 12-inch M1890-M1 mortars that were originally mounted in 1902.
• Battery Cooper at Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida contains one 6-inch M1905 gun on a disappearing carriage.
• Battery Chamberlain at Fort Scott in San Francisco contains one 6-inch M1905 gun on a disappearing carriage.
• Battery Peck (formerly Battery Gunnison) at Fort Hancock, New Jersey contains one 6-inch M1900 gun on a pedestal mount.

See also

• List of coastal fortifications of the United States of America

References

• American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide, Edited by Mark A. Berhow, 2nd edition, CDSG Press 2004
• Kaufmann, J.E.; Kaufmann, H.W. (2004). Fortress America: The Forts That Defended America, 1600 to the Present. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81550-8. 
• Lewis, Emanuel Raymond (1993). Seacoast Fortifications of the The United States: An Introductory History. Annapolis: US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-502-6. 
• American Coastal Defences 1885-1950 by Terrance McGovern & Bolling Smith, Osprey Publishing 2006
• Harbor Defense of San Francisco US Park Service
• United States Seacoast Defense Construction 1781-1948: a Brief History Coastal Defense Study Group website

Table of guns by caliber and carriage types

The following is summarized from American Seacoast Defenses, edited by Mark Berhow, with pages referenced from the rows. The units column reflects the lower of the original emplacements or the carriages built, since some emplacements were not armed and some carriages not used. Carriage models after 1905 are not included in the Endicott Era table.

Model	Carriage	Tube	Caliber	Units	Page
M1901	disappearing	rifle	12 inch	13	150
M1897	disappearing	rifle	12 inch	35	148
M1897	Altered	rifle	12 inch	3	146
M1896	Mortar	Mortar	12 inch	308	140
M1896	disappearing	rifle	12 inch	27	138
M1892	disappearing	rifle	12 inch	28	136
M1891	Mortar	Mortar	12 inch	86	134
M1888	lift	rifle	12 inch	2	130
M1901	disappearing	rifle	10 inch	16	128
M1896	disappearing ARF	rifle	10 inch	3	126
M1896	disappearing	rifle	10 inch	74	124
M1894	disappearing	rifle	10 inch	35	122
M1893	barbette	rifle	10 inch	9	120
M1896	disappearing	rifle	8 inch	38	110
M1894	disappearing	rifle	8 inch	26	108
M1892	barbette	rifle	8 inch	9	106
M1905	disappearing	rifle	6 inch	33	100
M1903	disappearing	rifle	6 inch	90	98
M1900	pedestal	rifle	6 inch	44	96
M1898	disappearing	rifle	6 inch	29	94
Armstrong	pedestal	rifle	6 inch	8	92
M1903	pedestal	rifle	5 inch	20	90
M1896	pilar	rifle	5 inch	32	88
Armstrong	pedestal	rifle	4.72 inch	34	86
Army/Navy	pedestal	rifle	4 inch	4	84
M1903	pedestal	rifle	3 inch	101	74
M1902	pedestal	rifle	3 inch	60	72
M1898	parapet	rifle	3 inch	111	70