Editing Fort Hamilton (section)

==History==
On July 4, 1776, a small American battery (the Narrows Fort)<ref>Roberts, p. 598</ref> on the site of today's Fort Hamilton (the east side of [[the Narrows]]) fired into one of the British [[Man-of-war|men-of-war]] convoying troops to suppress the [[American Revolution]]. [[HMS Asia (1764)|HMS ''Asia'']] suffered damage and casualties, but opposition to the immense fleet could be little more than symbolic. However, this very significant event marked one of the earliest uses of the site for military purposes.
[[File:1996.164.2-707 glass IMLS SL2.jpg|thumbnail|Shore at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, {{Circa|1872}}–1887]]

The [[War of 1812]] underscored the importance of [[coastal defence and fortification|coastal defense]] (since the British burned parts of Washington, DC) and helped to promote a new round of fort building. The new forts, including Fort Hamilton, were eventually termed the [[Seacoast defense in the United States|third system of US seacoast forts]]. The cornerstone for Fort Hamilton was set in place by its designer, [[Simon Bernard]], on June 11, 1825.<ref name=FWiki1>[http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Hamilton_(1) Fort Hamilton at Fort Wiki.com]</ref> 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 Air Defense Artillery Regiment|4th US Artillery]].<ref name=FWiki1/>

Fort Hamilton (now the [[Casemate Fort, Whiting Quadrangle]]) was designed primarily as a landward defense for [[Fort Lafayette]], although it had a sea-facing front as well. Fort Lafayette was offshore on Hendricks Reef, and was demolished in the 1960s to make room for the eastern tower of the [[Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge]]. Fort Hamilton was in the shape of a trapezoid, with the wide side facing the Narrows and the narrow side facing inland.<ref name=Weav1>Weaver, pp. 148–152</ref> It had two tiers of cannon all around: a [[casemated]] tier inside the fort and a [[barbette]] tier on the roof. Loopholes for [[musket]]s 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.<ref name=Weav1/>

Though references to the structure as Fort Hamilton occur as early as 1826, it was not officially named for the former [[Commanding General of the United States Army|Senior Officer of the United States Army]] and first Secretary of the Treasury, [[Alexander Hamilton]], until the twentieth century. In 1839 the Federal government gave permission to [[New York State]]'s 27th Regiment to drill at the fort, thus qualifying it as the nation's first [[National Guard of the United States|National Guard]] training camp.<ref name=gotham /> The following year, it allocated $20,000 to improve the fort's armaments, and Captain [[Robert E. Lee]], then an officer of the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]], was assigned the task of improving the defenses of the fort as well as those of other military installations in the area.<ref name=gotham>{{cite gotham |page= 636}}</ref> 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 [[Battery Weed|Fort Richmond]]<ref>[http://dmna.ny.gov/forts/fortsQ_S/richmondFort.htm Fort Richmond at New York State Military Museum]</ref> and [[Fort Tompkins (Staten Island)|Fort Tompkins]],<ref>[http://dmna.ny.gov/forts/fortsT_Z/tompkinsFort.htm Fort Tompkins at New York State Military Museum]</ref> along with the [[Fort at Willets Point]]<ref>Roberts, p. 586</ref> and the [[Fort at Sandy Hook]].<ref>Weaver, p. 163</ref> Lieutenant [[Stonewall Jackson|Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson]] also served at Fort Hamilton, and Captain [[Abner Doubleday]] served as the post commander in 1861, shortly after serving at [[Fort Sumter]] during the [[Battle of Fort Sumter|bombardment]] that started the Civil War.
[[File:1996.164.2-705 glass IMLS SL2.jpg|thumbnail|Sentry, Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, {{Circa|1872}}–1887]]

===Civil War===
{{Main|New York in the American 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 States of America|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.<ref name=NAForts1>[http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/nycity3.html#harbor Fort Hamilton at American Forts Network]</ref>

Rifled cannon made vertical-walled masonry fortifications obsolete during the [[American Civil War|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.<ref name=NAForts1/> Money for these projects ran out in the late 1870s, and US coast defense languished, with few improvements completed for nearly 20 years.

===Endicott program===
The 1885 [[Board of Fortifications]], chaired by [[Secretary of War]] [[William Crowninshield Endicott|William C. Endicott]] and also called the Endicott Board, recommended sweeping improvements to US coast defenses, with a new generation of modern breech-loading rifled guns and numerous new gun batteries. Most of the Board's recommendations were adopted as the Endicott program, and that included major changes and improvements for Fort Hamilton. More than half of the old fort was demolished to make room for new concrete gun batteries. Fort Hamilton became part of the Artillery District of New York, renamed in 1913 as the [[Coast Defenses of Southern New York]].

The following table shows the gun batteries completed at Fort Hamilton from 1898 to 1905. In most cases references do not indicate the precise model of gun or carriage at a particular battery, or the batteries' namesakes:<ref name=FWiki1/><ref name=Berhow209>Berhow, p. 209</ref>
[[File:Fort Hamilton Bain LOC 01939.jpg|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<ref>[http://cdsg.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/FORTS/CACunits/CAregNG.pdf National Guard Coast Artillery regimental histories at the Coast Defense Study Group]</ref>]]
[[File:The people's war book; history, cyclopaedia and chronology of the great world war (1919) (14595327968).jpg|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 coast defense mortar|12-inch mortar]]||[[barbette]]||1901–1942
|-
|[[Harvey Brown (officer)|Harvey Brown]]||2||[[12-inch gun M1895|12-inch gun]]||[[disappearing gun|disappearing]]||1902–?
|-
|[[Abner Doubleday|Doubleday]]||2||12-inch gun||disappearing||1900–1943
|-
|Neary||2||[[12-inch gun M1888]]||barbette M1892||1900–1937
|-
|[[Quincy Adams Gillmore|Gillmore]]||4||[[10-inch gun M1895|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
|-
|[[John Mendenhall (colonel)|Mendenhall]]||4||6-inch gun||disappearing||1905–1917
|-
|Griffin||2||[[QF 4.7-inch Gun Mk I–IV|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.<ref name=ComRep1>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RUtZAAAAIAAJ&dq=submarine+mine+kennebec&pg=PA3780 Congressional serial set, 1900, ''Report of the Commission on the Conduct of the War with Spain'', Vol. 7, pp. 3778–3780, Washington: Government Printing Office]</ref> 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 [[Coast Artillery fire control system|fire control]].<ref name=FWiki1/><ref name=Berhow209/>

===World War I===
The [[American entry into World War I]] brought many changes to Fort Hamilton, as at most other coast defense installations. Numerous temporary buildings were constructed to house the influx of new recruits, draftees, and units in training prior to deployment overseas. As the Coast Artillery was one of the Army's few sources of trained personnel, the branch was chosen to operate almost all US-manned heavy and [[railway artillery]] in that war, most of which was French- or British-made. Most personnel at the forts were transferred to new heavy artillery regiments. Also, several of Fort Hamilton's guns were dismounted for potential service on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]; however, very few Army Coast Artillery weapons were actually used in that war, due to shipping priorities and extensive training. Battery Spear's three 10-inch guns were dismounted for potential use as railway artillery. The eight 6-inch guns of Batteries Burke and Mendenhall were dismounted for potential use on field carriages. Two of these guns, along with four of Battery Piper's 12-inch mortars, were used as the first batteries of [[Fort Tilden]] in nearby [[Far Rockaway, Queens]]. The removal of half of the mortars was also part of a forcewide program to improve the rate of fire of the remaining mortars. None of the weapons removed from Fort Hamilton in World War I were returned to the fort.<ref name=FWiki1/><ref name=Berhow209/>

===Between the wars===
The end of World War I also meant more changes for Fort Hamilton. Around 1920 Battery Livingston's pair of 6-inch [[disappearing gun]]s were transferred to [[West Point]] to be used for training cadets. These two guns are preserved today at [[Fort Pickens]] near Pensacola, Florida and [[Battery Chamberlin]] at the [[Presidio of San Francisco]], the last 6-inch disappearing guns outside of the Philippines. Battery Griffin's pair of 3-inch M1898 guns was removed in 1920, part of a withdrawal from service of some gun types. In 1921 two long-range batteries of 12-inch guns were completed at [[Fort Hancock, New Jersey]], and by 1924 the installation of 16-inch guns at [[Fort Tilden]] relegated Fort Hamilton to the second line of New York's coast defenses. In 1937 Battery Neary's pair of 12-inch guns was removed.<ref name=FWiki1/><ref name=Berhow209/>

===World War II===
In World War II Fort Hamilton primarily served as a mobilization center, as it had in World War I. Except for the two remaining 6-inch pedestal guns of Battery Livingston and the pair of 3-inch guns at Battery Griffin, the remaining guns were gradually scrapped; the pair of 16-inch guns at the [[Highlands Military Reservation]] in New Jersey along with Fort Tilden superseded the older defenses. An anti-aircraft battery, probably of [[90 mm Gun M1/M2/M3|90 mm guns]], was at the fort during the war.<ref name=NAForts1/>

===Post World War II===
Shortly after World War II it was decided that gun coast defenses were obsolete. In 1948, the last coast defense gun was removed from Fort Hamilton.<ref name="oasis">{{cite web | last=Gogolak | first=E. C. | title=To Live in This Oasis, Money Won't Help, but a Uniform May | website=The New York Times | date=July 23, 2013 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/nyregion/money-wont-help-land-a-place-in-this-oasis-but-a-uniform-may.html | access-date=October 24, 2018}}</ref> A battery of four [[120 mm M1 gun]]s was at the fort 1952-54, part of the Cold War air defense system.<ref name=NAForts1/> In the late 1950s and early 1960s the now-disused gun batteries were demolished or buried for the [[Verrazano-Narrows Bridge]] and the [[Belt Parkway]].<ref name=NAForts1/>

===Units===

The following [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]] units were established at Fort Hamilton:
* [[12th Infantry Regiment (United States)|12th Infantry Regiment]]: October 20, 1861
* [[21st Infantry Regiment (United States)|21st Infantry Regiment]]: May 20, 1862
* [[5th Coast Artillery]] Regiment, 1924

In the 1960s, Fort Hamilton also served as the home for the [[Chaplain Corps (United States Army)|United States Army Chaplain]] School as it moved from the recently closed [[Fort Slocum (New York)|Fort Slocum]]. Hundreds of Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Chaplains and their assistants were trained here for active duty and reserve ministries to soldiers and their dependents. The school was later moved across the Narrows to [[Fort Wadsworth]], and still later to [[Fort Jackson (South Carolina)|Fort Jackson]], South Carolina where it now resides.