Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which is headquartered by the Military District of Washington. Its mission is to provide the New York metropolitan area with military installation support for the Army National Guard and the United States Army Reserve. The original fort was completed in 1831, with major additions made in the 1870s and 1900s. About half of the original fort defenses remains.

History

On July 4, 1776, a small American battery (the Narrows Fort) on the site of Fort Hamilton (the east side of the Narrows) fired at HMS Asia, which was part of a British fleet convoying troops to fight in the New York and New Jersey campaign. Asia suffered minor damage, but such attacks on the fleet were militarily of no value, and the British soon occupied New York City after their victory at the Battle of Long Island. This event marked one of the earliest uses of the site for military purposes.

thumbnail|Shore at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, –1887

The War of 1812 underscored the importance of coastal defense (in particular the British burning of Washington) and helped to promote a new round of fort building. The new forts, including Fort Hamilton, were eventually termed the third system of US seacoast forts. The cornerstone for Fort Hamilton was set in place by its designer, Simon Bernard, on June 11, 1825. Bernard was previously a French military engineer under Napoleon, who had joined the US Army after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Six years and a half million dollars later, the fort was ready to receive its garrison, initially Battery F of the 4th US Artillery. It had two tiers of cannon all around: a casemated tier inside the fort and a barbette tier on the roof. Loopholes for muskets were provided on the three landward sides. A dry ditch also protected these three sides. A caponier, a rare feature in US forts, projected into the ditch to defend it against attack. Two smaller caponiers enclosed the ends of the ditch, projecting off the seacoast front. The fort's sally port was in the middle of this front. A square redoubt with its own ditch was located behind the fort to provide an initial landward defense position. Lee served as Fort Hamilton's post engineer from 1841 to 1846 and is credited with the initial design of several subsequent New York-area forts, notably the rebuilt Fort Richmond and Fort Tompkins, along with the Fort at Willets Point and the Fort at Sandy Hook. From 1848 to 1850 Lieutenant Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson also served at Fort Hamilton, and in 1861 Captain Abner Doubleday served as the post commander, shortly after serving at Fort Sumter during the bombardment that started the Civil War.

thumbnail|Sentry, Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, –1887

Civil War

During the Civil War, Fort Hamilton's garrison expanded. A ship barrier across the Narrows assisted Fort Hamilton and its sister forts on Staten Island, now called Fort Wadsworth, in protecting the harbor against the possibility of Confederate raiders. The forts also provided troops to help put down the New York Draft Riots of 1863. Fort Hamilton also served as a prisoner-of-war camp, and an exterior "New Battery" of guns was added.

Rifled cannon made vertical-walled masonry fortifications obsolete during the Civil War. The first response of the US coast defense forces to this was a series of new batteries, with guns in open positions behind low earth walls and brick magazines with heavy earth cover between the guns. Most of these were located near existing forts. In 1871 construction began at Fort Hamilton on an 8-gun water battery and a 15-gun mortar battery, but the latter was never completed or armed.

thumb|right|In June 1908, the 10th Company of the 13th Artillery District, NYNG (later the [[245th Coast Artillery (United States)|245th Coast Artillery) loads a 10-inch gun at Fort Hamilton]]

thumb|right|12-inch disappearing gun at Fort Hamilton with [[Fort Lafayette in the background]]

{| class="wikitable"

!Name

!No. of guns

!Gun type

!Carriage type

!Years active

|-

|Piper||8||12-inch mortar||barbette||1901–1942

|-

|Harvey Brown||2||12-inch gun||disappearing||1902–?

|-

|Doubleday||2||12-inch gun||disappearing||1900–1943

|-

|Neary||2||12-inch gun M1888||barbette M1892||1900–1937

|-

|Gillmore||4||10-inch gun||disappearing||1899–1942

|-

|Spear||3||10-inch gun||disappearing||1898–1917

|-

|Burke||4||6-inch gun M1900||pedestal M1900||1903–1917

|-

|Livingston||2||6-inch gun M1905||disappearing M1903||1905–1920?

|-

|Livingston||2||6-inch gun M1900||pedestal M1900||1905–1948

|-

|Johnston||2||6-inch gun M1900||pedestal M1900||1902–1943

|-

|Mendenhall||4||6-inch gun||disappearing||1905–1917

|-

|Griffin||2||4.72-inch/45 caliber Armstrong gun||pedestal||1899–1913

|-

|Griffin||2||3-inch gun M1898||masking parapet M1898||1902–1920

|-

|Griffin||2||3-inch gun M1903||pedestal M1903||1903–1946

|-

|}

Several batteries (Burke, Johnston, Brown, and Griffin) were directly in front of the remains of the old fort, with Battery Griffin in front of and below the others. The other batteries extended in a line southeast of the old fort, with Battery Piper, the mortar battery, well to the rear of the line. Battery Griffin seems to have been designed as a mixed battery of two each M1898 and M1903 3-inch guns. The 4.72-inch guns of this battery were hastily added after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898; they were British guns purchased because most of the Endicott program was still years from completion. The 4.72-inch/45 caliber guns were transferred to Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii in 1913 to concentrate this type of weapon in one area. Battery Livingston was also an unusual combination of two disappearing 6-inch guns and two guns on pedestal mounts. Batteries Gillmore and Spear were originally a 7-gun battery under the former name, but were split up in 1903, probably for improved fire control. A battery of four 120 mm M1 guns was at the fort 1952-54, part of the Cold War air defense system.

U.S. Army Fort Hamilton Garrison is the home of the New York City Recruiting Battalion, the Military Entrance Processing Station, the North Atlantic Division Headquarters of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the 1179th Transportation Brigade and the 722nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron, the latter organization being a geographically separated unit (GSU) of the 439th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command. Fort Hamilton also supports many Army Reserve and New York Army National Guard units, These Army National Guard units include the 133d Quartermaster Company, Company C/642d Aviation Support Battalion, 222d Chemical Company, and the 107th Military Police Company. Currently Fort Hamilton is under Installation Management Command headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, TX.

The construction of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge in the early 1960s did away with several historic structures, including Fort Lafayette, which was located near the Brooklyn shore where the bridge tower now rises from the water. During the same period, efforts toward saving the historical heritage of the Narrows increased. Part of the U.S. Army's contribution to preserving this heritage is in the Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton.

The original fort later became the Officers' Club and now houses the Community Club. The caponier, a miniature fort guarding the main fort's gate, now houses the Harbor Defense Museum. Other notable landmarks include the Robert E. Lee House, where Lee, then a captain, resided while post engineer of the garrison, and Colonels' Row, six historic townhouses that used to house senior officers. All of these structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the 2000s, the historic parade field that once lay behind the old New York Area Command (NYAC) Headquarters Building and the Military Personnel Office, former site of numerous ceremonies and festivities, was developed into swiftly built privatized housing. The historic flag pole and cannon are still present at the site, near the old headquarters building and across from the Post Exchange barber shop.

In 2007, the historic brick barracks, located on the plot of land within Pershing Loop on the eastern portion of the base, which formerly housed the New York Area Command's Ceremonial Platoon and Military Police Company, was demolished. The ceremonial platoon, consisting of only infantrymen, once performed funeral honors and ceremonial functions (such as deployment as color guards in New York City parades, or firing cannons to start the New York City Marathon), in the greater N.Y. area, including Long Island, New York City, as well as parts of New Jersey, along with the 26th Army Band unit that was similar to the Old Guard in Washington, D.C.

A Civil War-era experimental 20-inch Rodman gun, one of two remaining and the largest gun produced by either side in that period, is in John Paul Jones Park immediately north of the fort. Numerous shells for this weapon are displayed on the fort grounds. An ex-Navy 12"/45 caliber Mark V Mod 8 gun is also displayed on post, representative of the type of weapon the fort had in the Endicott era.

Education

On-post residents, including their dependents, are in the New York City Department of Education school district. The zoned K-8 school is P.S./I.S. 104 The Fort Hamilton School, and the public high school in the area is Fort Hamilton High School.

In Marvel Comics, the second issue of G.I. Joe (1982) has a primary character reporting that Cobra prisoners will be delivered to the stockade located on Fort Hamilton.

Fort Hamilton is featured prominently in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit season 19 episode 18, titled "Service".

Fort Hamilton is the setting for nearly all of Nelson DeMille's novel Word of Honor.

In The Lords of Flatbush, Jane Bradshaw's (Susan Blakely) father (Bill van Sleet) is an Army officer newly assigned to Fort Hamilton. Jane's parents tell her on their way out to dinner that they can be reached at the Fort Hamilton officers' club that evening.

See also

  • Seacoast defense in the United States
  • United States Army Coast Artillery Corps

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Fort Hamilton (U.S. Army Garrison)
  • Harbor Defense Museum official Facebook page
  • Harbor Defense Museum Official site
  • Harbor Defense Museum at NYC Arts.org
  • Harbor Defense Museum at New York magazine
  • New York State Military Museum
  • American Forts Network, lists forts in the US, former US territories, Canada, and Central America
  • List of all US coastal forts and batteries at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website