Fort Wolcott was a fortification on the small
Goat Island in Newport Harbor of
Narragansett Bay less than 1 mile west of the city of
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...
. The attacks on and occurred near the fort.
Fort Anne
An earthen Fort Anne, built on Goat Island in 1702 or 1703 during the
War of Spanish Succession, taking the name of
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 8 March 1702, and List of British monarchs, Queen of Great Britain and Irel ...
. The fort with 12 guns lasted until 1724.
Fort George

In 1730, the fort returned to service under a new name, Fort George after King
George II of Great Britain
George II (George Augustus; ; 30 October / 9 November 1683 – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover, Hanover) and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Em ...
.
In 1738, defenders of Rhode Island built a stone fortification on the site with perhaps fifty guns.
In 1764, residents of Newport, Rhode Island, took over Fort George and fired shots at
HMS ''St John'' under orders from the governor of Rhode Island and the
General Assembly. In another early act of rebellion against British rule, Rhode Islanders in 1769 burned the British customs ship ''Liberty'' when it drifted to the north end of Goat Island.
Fort Liberty
With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the fort was renamed as Fort Liberty. In 1776, American patriots armed Fort Liberty with 25 guns and built various breastworks to defend the City of Newport. In December 1776 the British army occupied Newport without resistance and renamed the fort "Fort George." The British left Newport in November 1779. The French army under
Count de Rochambeau occupied Newport in 1780 and used the fort as part of their defenses until their departure in 1781.
Fort Washington
In 1784, Rhode Islanders repaired the fort, renamed it Fort Washington after General
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
, and armed it with 28 guns. In 1794, the City of Newport sold Goat Island to the federal government for $1,500 to maintain a fort to defend Newport Harbor. Control of Fort Washington passed from the Rhode Island state militia to United States Army artillery and engineering companies. The Army rebuilt Fort Washington and outfitted it with 38 guns. The first United States Army officer to command the fort was Captain
William Littlefield, a native of Newport who had served during the American Revolution. Captain Littlefield assumed his duties in either June or July 1794 which marked the beginning of a presence of the United States Armed Forces in Newport which continues to this day. (Only
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
, New York can claim a longer continuous presence of the US Armed Forces.)
Fort Wolcott
The Army rebuilt the fort again in 1798 as part of the first system of
Seacoast defense in the United States and renamed it Fort Wolcott, commemorating the services of the late
Oliver Wolcott, a general of the Connecticut militia, a member of the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
and a signer of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
.
The Army assigned Captain
John Henry, who was instrumental in starting the War of 1812, to Fort Wolcott in the late 1790s. From 1798 to 1800, the American government rebuilt the earthworks of the fort. After 1802 Fort Wolcott was the primary fort defending Newport harbor along with the smaller
Fort Adams, which was activated in 1799. The Army repaired Fort Wolcott in 1808.
Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
William Eustis on 19 December 1809 (American State Papers, Volume 016, page 245.) records 12 guns mounted within Fort Wolcott and 18 more guns mounted on the flank batteries to the north and south of the fort. The Secretary of War's report on fortifications for December 1811 describes Fort Wolcott as "a small enclosed work, with open batteries, extending from two opposite flanks, of stone, earth, sods, &c. mounting thirty-eight heavy guns... The barracks are of bricks and wood, for one company...".
[Wade, p. 243]
By the time of the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
, Fort Wolcott along with other fortifications at
Fort Adams (on nearby
Brenton Point),
Fort Greene (in the
Point Section of Newport),
Fort Hamilton (on
Rose Island,
North Battery (location uncertain),
Fort Dumpling (on
Conanicut Island), and
Tonomy Hill defended Newport harbor and strategically important
Narragansett Bay. Fort Wolcott, built of stone cemented with lime, featured a brick-and-stone
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
,
sally-port, ditch, furnace, and bomb-proof brick barracks. Armament included five long-range 32-pounder guns.
President
James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...
visited the garrison on 28 June 1817 and left with a positive impression. By 1818, Fort Wolcott featured 28 guns. After 1821, Fort Wolcott absorbed troops from the other forts in Rhode Island and hosted the only continuous army garrison in the state. Meteorological observations began by 1822. In 1823 or 1824, the first
Newport Harbor Lighthouse was built at the north end of Goat Island.
Decommissioning
The Army transferred the garrison from Fort Wolcott on 22 May 1836 to fight in the
First Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were a series of three military conflicts between the United States and the Seminoles that took place in Florida between about 1816 and 1858. The Seminoles are a Native American nation which co ...
. This left Rhode Island without an active coast defense fort until the opening of the new
Fort Adams in 1841.
The United States Government built the present Goat Island Lighthouse at the northern tip of this island in 1842 to replace the old lighthouse which had been moved to Prudence Island.
Goat Island hosted the training ship squadron of
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. The War Department still stationed an ordnance sergeant at the fort to maintain its artillery pieces as late as the 1870s.
Naval activities
In 1869, the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
founded a United States
Naval Torpedo Station on the site of the former Fort Wolcott. This naval facility greatly expanded during the succeeding century, and the Navy Torpedo Factory on Goat Island produced many
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...
es for the Navy through World War I and World War II. The Navy nevertheless closed the torpedo station in 1951 and created
Naval Undersea Warfare Center at the nearby Newport Navy base.
United States Coast Guard
In addition to the Goat Island lighthouse, the
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
has maintained a
cutter at Goat Island since at least the late 1960s. The served her entire 31-year career at Goat Island from when she was
commissioned on 14 April 1967 until she was
decommissioned on 3 April 1998. The tradition of having a Coast Guard cutter stationed at Goat Island resumed when the was commissioned on 16 July 2005.
''Tiger Shark'' was based at Goat Island until about 2013 when its berth was moved to Pier 2 at the
Naval Station Newport.
Privatization
In the 1960s, the federal government sold the majority of Goat Island to a private developer, Globe Manufacturing. The developer demolished most buildings from the old fortifications. Over the next several decades, Globe constructed a hotel and condominiums and converted the only former navy building remaining on the island into a marina.
See also
*
Seacoast defense in the United States
References
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External links
History of Fort Wolcottby John T. Duchesneau
{{Forts in Rhode Island
Military installations closed in the 1830s
Wolcott
Buildings and structures in Newport, Rhode Island
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