Fort Strong is a former U.S. Army Coast Artillery fort that occupied the northern third of Long Island in

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...

. The island had a training camp during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, and a gun battery was built there in the 1870s. The fort was built in 1893-1906 during the Endicott period of expansion in U.S. coast defense, and was part of the Coast (later Harbor) Defenses of Boston. Formerly, it was also known as Long Island Military Reservation. Before World War I, a large station for handling submarine mines was added to the fort's defenses. Prior to World War I the fort was probably manned by over 1,000 soldiers. During World War II, two batteries of 3-inch guns (Basinger and Stevens) defended channel minefields, but the big guns and other 3-inch batteries (except for the AA guns) were decommissioned. Declared surplus in 1947, the fort served as a

Nike missile The United States Army's Nike Ajax was the world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile (SAM), entering service in 1954. Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes abov ...

site until 1961, and was redeveloped in 2005-2009 for a children's summer camp and later a homeless shelter. However, in 2014 the island's bridge was demolished due to safety concerns, and all activities were removed.Abel, David
"On Long Island, haunting signs of a hasty departure: The pieces left behind at island’s shelters highlight uncertainty"
''The Boston Globe'', October 28, 2014

Origins

The fort had its origins in the Civil War period. Camp Wightman, a Civil War training camp, was located on the island in 1861. At the end of the Civil War, the state government decided to name a new battery on Long Island for the old Fort Strong, a Revolutionary War and War of 1812 earthwork which had been located in East Boston on

Noddle's Island Noddle's Island was historically one of the Boston Harbor Islands off Boston, Massachusetts. Most of the original land of Noddle's Island now makes up the southern part of the neighborhood of East Boston; it is now part of the mainland since the ...

.Fort Strong (1) at NorthAmericanForts.com
/ref> The old fort and the Long Island Head Battery were named for Massachusetts Governor

Caleb Strong Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 – November 7, 1819) was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father who served as the sixth and tenth governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in draf ...

, while the new fort was named for Major General George C. Strong in 1899. Until 1899, the fort was also named the Long Island Military Reservation. From 1874 to 1876, the fort had a battery of 10 cannon, called the Long Island Head Battery, on the northeast tip of the raised northern portion of the island. Remains of this battery can still be found, concealed by heavy brush, about 100 feet (30 m) north of Battery Ward, the easternmost concrete battery on the tip of the island (see the map of the "Obsolete Battery"). In 1893, as part of the Endicott Board's recommendations, construction began at the fort on a series of massive concrete gun batteries to defend the harbor approaches. A large barracks building for the soldiers and a series of quarters for officers and NCOs were also constructed, as well as structures for mining operations and support functions at the fort. The fort was named in General Order 134, 22 July 1899, for Brigadier General George Crockett Strong. A quick look at the map will show how Fort Strong's central location made it so well suited for harbor defense. Its principal armament (the 10-inch guns) could engage any ship attempting to enter either the northern or southern approaches to the harbor, while its smaller rapid fire (3-inch) guns could fire directly over all approach channels and the mine fields that criss-crossed them.

Modern Gun Batteries

The Endicott-era and later gun batteries at Fort Strong were:Fort Strong at FortWiki.com
/ref>
/ref>Berhow, p. 205 The main armament of Fort Strong was its two batteries of 10-inch guns on

disappearing carriage A disappearing gun, a gun mounted on a ''disappearing carriage'', is an obsolete type of artillery which enabled a gun to hide from direct fire and observation. The overwhelming majority of carriage designs enabled the gun to rotate bac ...

s, totaling five guns. Originally, two of these guns were located in Battery Ward, the easternmost concrete fortification on Long Island Head, and three more in Battery Hitchcock, immediately to its west. The construction of these batteries, begun in 1893, was completed in 1899. Electrically powered ammunition and powder hoists were added soon after. With a maximum range of , or almost 8 miles,Berhow, p. 61 these guns covered an arc from Revere to North Scituate. The batteries were intended to engage medium and larger sized ships as directed by the

fire control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a h ...

. Battery Drum, at the extreme northwestern end of the gun line on Long Island Head, mounted two 4.7-inch Armstrong guns on pedestal mounts. These were part of a series of batteries hastily ordered after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898. It was feared that the

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy or officially, the Armada, is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation, ...

would bombard the US east coast. Most Endicott batteries were still years from completion, especially the 3-inch and 6-inch batteries. Some 6-inch and 4.7-inch guns were purchased from the United Kingdom and mounted at the Endicott forts still under construction, including the two 4.7-inch guns at Fort Strong. Fort Strong also had four batteries of 3-inch rapid fire guns, with two guns each (or 8 guns total). Battery Basinger (with two 3-inch M1898 guns) was completed in 1901, the remainder (each with two 3-inch M1902 guns) were completed in 1906. These guns were meant to engage faster moving targets by means of direct fire, and were sited to protect the

mine fields A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

that had been laid to block the harbor channels. They could deliver fire up to a range of , or 6.25 miles. Battery Stevens and Battery Smyth were located on the southeast side of the fort, looking out over the channel between Long Island and Hull. Battery Taylor was on the southwest side, looking out toward Spectacle Island, and Battery Basinger was located on the northern tip of the fort (just downslope from the 10-inch gun batteries), looking across toward

Fort Dawes Fort Dawes was a World War II Coast Artillery fort located on Deer Island in Winthrop/Boston, Massachusetts. It was part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston. History The site's military history began in 1906 as the Deer Island Military Reservati ...

on Deer Island. The latter three of these batteries were located in classic Coast Artillery 3-inch gun emplacements, each with two raised gun platforms, one on either side of a large central casemated magazine. Battery Basinger, however, was squeezed into the narrow space above the sea wall, its gun platforms more like narrow tubs at the water's edge. This battery had a unique underground magazine with hand-operated chain hoists to serve ammunition to its two guns. Each of the 10-inch guns was intended to be served by a full-strength complement of 43 enlisted men, so the five guns of the two batteries would have required a total of 215 crew. Manning the four 3-inch batteries (when all their guns were present) would have required roughly another 100 men in total. Add to this the mine and searchlight defenses, the maintenance and support functions of the fort, and its officer, and about 450 soldiers likely manned the fort, living in large barracks buildings and smaller houses that surrounded the parade ground.

World War I through World War II

The

American entry into World War I American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

in early 1917 brought many changes at Fort Strong. In October 1917 the two 4.7-inch guns of Battery Drum were relocated to Sachuest Point in Middletown, Rhode Island. This is misspelled on the gun cards as "Sauchet Point". These guns were removed in 1919; one was scrapped and one remains as a memorial in

Ansonia, Connecticut Ansonia is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. Located on the Naugatuck River, it is immediately north of Derby, and about northwest of New Haven. The population was 18,918 at the time of the 2020 census. The ZIP code for ...

.Gun and Carriage cards,

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

, Record Group 156, Records of the

Chief of Ordnance The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a Combat service support (United States), sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee (Virginia), Fort Lee, Virginia. The ...

, Entry 712Berhow, p. 239 All three guns of Battery Hitchcock were dismounted for potential service on the Western Front as

railway artillery A railway gun, also called a railroad gun, is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon. Many countries have built railway guns, but the best-known are ...

. In June 1918 one of these guns was shipped out for the railway gun program, but the other two were remounted. The transferred gun was never replaced. Also, a two-gun battery of Model 1917A2 3-in antiaircraft guns was constructed on the northwest side of the parade ground during 1917-18. In 1935, a third gun was added to this battery, which remained active through World War II. In 1920-1921 the 3-inch M1898 Driggs-Seabury guns of Battery Basinger were removed and scrapped, part of a withdrawal from service of this type of weapon. The 3-inch M1902 guns of Battery Smyth were transferred to Battery Basinger; Battery Smyth was never re-armed. In 1938-1939 all of Fort Strong's four remaining 10-inch guns were removed and scrapped. In 1942 Battery Taylor's two 3-inch guns (and name) were transferred to

on Deer Island. This left the four 3-inch guns of Batteries Basinger and Stevens and the 3-inch antiaircraft battery as Fort Strong's only armament. During and for some period after World War II Fort Strong hosted an Army Intelligence Service post.

Post World War II

In 1945-46 German rocket scientist

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

and six others were secretly housed at the Army Intelligence Service post at Fort Strong. In 1946 Fort Strong's remaining guns were scrapped. A radar site for the 90 mm antiaircraft gun system (Site B-35) was at the site 1952-1958. Fort Strong was a

launch site (B-37L) in the 1950s, with the control site in Squantum. The Radar Section, 15th Antiaircraft Artillery Group, was there from January 1958 to June 1961. The property to the south of the fort was at one time the Long Island State Hospital, and is now operated by the Boston Public Health Commission. In 2014 the bridge to Long Island was demolished due to safety concerns and all activities there ceased. In 2016 an organic farm was restarted on the island by a local fast food chain.Abel, David
"Farm that once benefited the homeless now run by fast-food chain"
''The Boston Globe'', print edition, July 25, 2016b.good restaurant website
Cf. section on Long Island Farm.

References

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External links