Fort Wetherill is a former coast artillery fort that occupies the southern portion of the eastern tip of

Conanicut Island Conanicut Island is the second-largest island in Narragansett Bay in the American state of Rhode Island. It is connected on the east to Newport on Aquidneck Island via the Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, and on t ...

Jamestown, Rhode Island Jamestown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island in the United States. The population was 5,559 at the 2020 census. Jamestown is situated almost entirely on Conanicut Island, the second largest island in Narragansett Bay. It also includes the u ...

. It sits atop high granite cliffs, overlooking the entrance to

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

. Fort Dumpling from the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

occupied the site until it was built over by Fort Wetherill. Wetherill was deactivated and turned over to the State of Rhode Island after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and is now operated as Fort Wetherill State Park, a reservation managed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Early history

In 1776, an 8-gun earthwork fortification was constructed by patriot forces at the site of Dumpling Rock, which overlooks the strategic East Passage toward Newport. This old fort was occupied by American, British, and French forces for various periods of time during the

. The patriots called it the Dumpling Rock Battery; the British called it Fort Dumpling Rock. The British abandoned it in 1779 when they evacuated Newport, and after this it was called Fort Conanicut (not to be confused with the Conanicut Battery on the other side of the island near Beaver Head). In 1798, construction was started on a permanent fortification at Dumpling Rock under the supervision of Major Louis Tousard of the Army Corps of Engineers. This fort was officially called Fort Louis and, later, Fort Brown (after Major General

Jacob Brown Jacob Jennings Brown (May 9, 1775 – February 24, 1828) was known for his victories as an American army officer in the War of 1812, where he reached the rank of general. His successes on the northern border during that war made him a national ...

, commanding general of the United States Army, or possibly after its Revolutionary War commander Abdiel Brown), but it was commonly called Fort Dumpling throughout its existence. Fort Dumpling was in the form of an oval stone tower and was frequently used as an artistic motif and a place for social outings. The fort was mentioned in the

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 ...

's report on fortifications for December 1811 as being at "the Dumplins" and is described as "a circular tower of stone, with casemates... with a small expense, there can be mounted six or eight heavy guns; and now in an unfinished state".

Modern history

In 1899, the U.S. government purchased additional land during the Endicott period of coastal fortification, and built Fort Wetherill at the site of Fort Dumpling. Fort Wetherill was the largest fort of the

Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

(Harbor Defenses after 1925). It was named for Captain Alexander Macomb Wetherill, a Jamestown native who was killed in action during the

Battle of San Juan Hill The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish fo ...

. Fort Dumpling was destroyed in the process of building the new fort, which featured numerous concrete emplacements for 20th-century breech-loading, rifled coast artillery pieces. Wetherill-1921-Map-S

In 1901, Battery Varnum was the first modern battery to be completed, mounting two 12-inch guns on barbette carriages and situated in the far southeast corner of the fort. By 1910, the other six batteries in the fort's pre-World War II arsenal had been brought into service. Several of these batteries are now overgrown with brush, but they offer what is perhaps the longest linear concrete gun line in the coast defenses of New England. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the fort was garrisoned by five companies of the

Rhode Island National Guard The Rhode Island National Guard consists of the: *Rhode Island Army National Guardbr>*Rhode Island Air National Guardbr>** 102nd Information Warfare Squadron ** 143d Airlift Wing ** 281st Combat Communications Group ** 282nd Combat Communication ...

. After the war, Fort Wetherill reverted to "caretaker status," with only a single Coast Artillery sergeant assigned to watch over it and other nearby facilities. Fort Wetherill was reactivated by the U.S. Army in September 1940 as a major part of the

Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

, and new barracks were built to house the National Guard's 243rd Coast Artillery Regiment and its 1,200 soldiers. The 10th Coast Artillery Regiment of the

Regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standin ...

also garrisoned forts in Rhode Island 1924–45. The fort also functioned in the year before

as a military training facility, and late in the war as a training center for German prisoners of war. However, the big guns of the Endicott era were mostly scrapped by 1943, as Fort Wetherill was superseded by new defenses centered on

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...

and Fort Church. In 1946, the U.S. military ceased operations at Fort Wetherill, and the site remained abandoned for the quarter century that followed. The

State of Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

officially acquired the fort on 16 August 1972 and reconfigured the site for public use as a state park. In 1972, the site was also added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The park continues to attract visitors with a variety of modern recreational uses. The property offers walking trails through wooded areas and along the rocky coast, and is a popular destination for

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

. Another distinctive feature of the fort is its surviving buildings and tramway system that were once used in the submarine mining operation that was run from the fort during World War 1 and World War 2. During World War 2, some 300 mines were planted on the east and west sides of Conanicut Island, protecting the approaches to Newport, and almost all of these were maintained from the Mine Wharf at Fort Wetherill. The image shows the old mine storehouse, one of the best preserved in the United States, with the remains of the tram tracks that used to carry the massive mines in and out of its front door. Mine launches would tie up at the nearby wharf, load the mines that were to be laid, transport them to the inlet, and lay them, together with their electric cables. Then, when these mines needed to be taken in, they were ferried back to the wharf and transported on the tramway to the various service buildings. A dual mine observation station sat atop the hill between the storehouse and Battery Varnum. Spotters manned this station and others scattered around the harbor defenses, and could locate enemy ships approaching the minefields, signaling to the operators in the mining casemate when a given mine was to be electrically detonated.

Modern armament

Beginning in the early 20th century, the seven major concrete gun batteries listed below were built and armed at Fort Wetherill. During World War II, Anti- Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) Battery 923 was built, consisting of two fixed 90 mm guns plus two mobile 90 mm guns on platforms that remained from an earlier antiaircraft gun battery, along with two 37 mm guns. This battery was previously at Brenton Point in Newport until July 1944. Battery 924, with two 90 mm guns on mobile mounts, was also at the fort.Schroder, p. 120 Only Batteries Dickenson and Crittenden (plus the AMTB battery) were operational during World War II. New batteries at Fort Church and

included 16-inch guns which superseded most of Fort Wetherill's batteries. The batteries at Fort Wetherill were: Battery Varnum was named for

James Mitchell Varnum James Mitchell Varnum (December 17, 1748 – January 9, 1789) was an American legislator, lawyer, generalHeitman, ''Officers of the Continental Army'', 559. in the Continental Army, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country.Wilkins, ''Memoirs of the R ...

, a Revolutionary War general from Rhode Island. Battery Wheaton was named for Frank Wheaton, a

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

general from Rhode Island. Battery Walbach was named for

John de Barth Walbach John Baptiste de Barth Walbach (October 3, 1766 – June 10, 1857) was an Alsace, Alsatian baron who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was one of the few foreign-born senior officers in the United States Army prior to the American Civi ...

, a career Army officer of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, and the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

. Battery Zook was named for

Samuel K. Zook Samuel Kosciuszko Zook (born Samuel Kurtz Zook, March 27, 1821 – July 3, 1863) was a Union general during the American Civil War who was mortally wounded in action at the Battle of Gettysburg. Early years Zook was born in Tredyffrin, Chester ...

, a Civil War general. Battery Dickenson was named for George Dickenson, an artillery officer killed in the Civil War. Batteries Crittenden and Cooke were named for two officers killed in the

Battle of the Little Big Horn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

, also called "Custer's Last Stand". After the US entered

, Battery Zook's three 6-inch guns were removed for service on field carriages on the Western Front in 1917 and were never returned to the fort. Records show that the guns arrived in France, but a history of the Coast Artillery in World War I states that none of the regiments in France equipped with 6-inch guns completed training in time to see action before the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

.History of the Coast Artillery Corps in WWI
/ref> Battery Walbach's three 10-inch guns were also dismounted in 1917 for potential use as

railway gun 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 ...

s, but two were soon remounted while the third was transferred to nearby Fort Greble in December 1918. The remaining two guns were eventually transferred to Fort H. G. Wright on

Fisher's Island, New York Fishers Island (Pequot: ''Munnawtawkit'') is an island that is part of Southold, New York, United States at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, off the southeastern coast of Connecticut across Fishers Island Sound. About long and wide, it ...

in 1936. Battery Cooke was disarmed in 1920 as part of a general removal from service of the 3-inch gun M1898. The "masking parapet" carriage unique to that weapon was a retractable pedestal carriage. Battery Crittenden's M1902 guns were placed in storage in 1925, but were replaced that year by two 3-inch M1903 guns from Battery Belton at

Fort Adams Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Capta ...

in Newport. Battery Varnum's guns were scrapped in 1943 as part of a general scrapping of older heavy weapons once new 16-inch gun batteries were completed. Battery Wheaton was probably also removed from service at this time, but for some reason its guns were exempted from scrapping until the war ended. Battery Dickenson was retained in service throughout World War II along with other 6-inch pedestal batteries, as this mounting could track enemy vessels better than disappearing mounts. The battery lacked a modern gun data computer during World War II and received its fire control radar data from Set 296-9, an SCR-296 radar located at Brenton Point, off Ocean Avenue in Newport.

Current uses

Fort Wetherill was acquired by the state of Rhode Island and quickly became a location for sightseeing. It is popular to view the Tall Ships America event that takes place in Narragansett Bay every summer, and was popular for the America's Cup sailing races prior to 1984. The park offers parking facilities, public restrooms, and picnic tables. , most batteries have been partly buried to the loading platform level for safety in visiting. There is considerable spalling of exterior concrete surfaces. The mine storehouse area is well preserved and restored, with several interpretive plaques describing the mine and net defense systems in Narragansett Bay. , most of the surface of the fort is covered in graffiti.

References

* * * *

Image gallery

File:Fort Wetherill 13.jpg, Due to decay and structural damage several parts of the fort are fenced off (February 2006) File:Fort Wetherill 14.jpg, A room on the first floor (February 2006) File:Fort Wetherill.JPG, Fort Wetherill in 2008. File:Fort Wetherill Jamestown Rhode Island.JPG, Fort Wetherill in 2008. File:Fort wetherill2.JPG, Fort Wetherill as of October 2010 File:Btty-Dickenson-Gun2.jpg, The platform of Gun 2 at Battery Dickenson File:Fort wetherill3.JPG, Battery Zook, October 2010 File:Fort wetherill.JPG, Fort Wetherill as of October 2010 File:Fort wetherill4.JPG, Fort Wetherill as of October 2010 (The fort is just behind the trees) File:Btty-Varnum-Gun-Pits.jpg, Battery Varnum, February 2011 File:Btty-Zook-Mining-Casemate.jpg, The Mining Casemate at the east end of Battery Zook File:FortWetherillBtyWheaton1201.jpg, 12-inch disappearing gun emplacement, Battery Wheaton File:NarraBayRIMineNetDef01.jpg, Diagram of mine, net, boom, and magnetic detection defenses of Narragansett Bay in World War II. File:12-inch Disappearing Gun emplacement.jpg, 12-inch Disappearing Gun emplacement

External links

Fort Wetherill State Park
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Parks and Recreations Division

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Parks and Recreations Division
List of all US coastal forts and batteries
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
American Forts Network, lists forts in the US, former US territories, Canada, and Central America

Fort Wetherill
at FortWiki {{National Register of Historic Places Wetherill Wetherill Wetherill Wetherill Wetherill Buildings and structures in Newport County, Rhode Island Buildings and structures in Jamestown, Rhode Island Protected areas of Newport County, Rhode Island Ruins in the United States United States home front during World War II Government buildings completed in 1899 1899 establishments in Rhode Island 1948 disestablishments in Rhode Island Historic American Engineering Record in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Newport County, Rhode Island