Fort Columbus
Encyclopedia
Fort Columbus was a fortification and army post in Governors Island
, New York Harbor
, New York City
, New York
, from 1806 to 1904.
about 1794 and named in honor of New York Governor, later Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay
.
.
Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of New York City as the largest army post defending the city. The fortification, in concert with Fort Wood on Liberty Island
, Fort Gibson on Ellis Island
, Castle Clinton
at the Battery
in Lower Manhattan, and two other fortifications on Governors Island, South Battery and Castle Williams
, provided protection for New York City and Upper New York Bay
. This system of coastal fortifications discouraged the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812
.
, Fort Hamilton
and Fort Lafayette
at the Narrows
of New York Harbor reduced the need for the Upper Harbor forts, and in time, the Army transferred most properties in Upper New York Bay to other federal agencies or sold them to the state of New York. Fort Columbus, however, included 68 acres (275,186.5 m²), a sufficient land mass for a modest garrison at a reasonable proximity (1000 yards) from Manhattan
, making it the most practical of the 1812-era forts for the Army to retain and continue to garrison.
Personnel stationed at Fort Columbus began to record meteorological observations in the 1820s.
As the closest major army post to the United States Military Academy
at West Point, New York, Fort Columbus for many years served as a first posting or a major departure point for newly graduated cadets shipping to army posts along the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Many future generals in the Civil War were posted to or passed through Fort Columbus as young junior officers. They included Abner Doubleday
, Ulysses S. Grant
, Robert E. Lee
, Joseph E. Johnston
, John Bell Hood
, Theophilus H. Holmes
Thomas Jackson
, Henry Wager Halleck
, James B. McPherson
, and John G. Barnard
, among others.
In the 1830s, the protective value of the fort to New York diminished with the advance of weapons technology, but other uses evolved for the army post. The Army renovated the fort in 1833 and established New York Arsenal, adjacent to but not part of Fort Columbus, in 1833 as a major depot for accepting delivery of privately manufactured arms and weapons and distributing privately and federally manufactured weapons to army posts across the nation.
United States Army located its General Recruiting Service for infantry troops at Fort Columbus in November 1852. The South Battery fortification became the United States Army School of Music Practice, training young boys to play military music with drums and fifes.
in Charleston, South Carolina
. Outgoing President James Buchanan
initiated the first effort, but cadets from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, fired on the Army-chartered New York-based steamship Star of the West
on 9 January 1861 as it entered Charleston harbor. The incident provoked a crisis while other southern states began to more seriously consider secession from the Union. The second effort which marks the beginning of the Civil War also failed when it prompted South Carolina forces to fire on Fort Sumter on the early morning of 9 April 1861.
During the Civil War, Fort Columbus served as a recruitment center and hospital. Fort Columbus and Castle Williams
also served as a temporary prisoner of war
camp and confinement hospital
for Confederate prisoners during the war. Major General William H. C. Whiting
(CSA) died here while being treated for wounds suffered in combat in North Carolina.
, New York Arsenal served as a major center for disposing of surplus and excess cannons and munitions for war memorials, scrap, or sale to foreign governments.
In 1878, as part of a nation-wide cost-cutting effort, the United States Army relocated many of its administrative functions from rented quarters in large urban centers to neighboring army posts. In New York City, nearly all army functions in the city were relocated to Governors Island, making Fort Columbus the headquarters for the Division of the Atlantic and later the Department of the East. Both commands then included almost all army activities east of the Mississippi River. The prestige of a command at Fort Columbus as a premier posting ranked second only to high-ranking army positions in Washington and many commanders went on to become commanding general of the army. Its departmental commanders from the 1880s to the 1900s included Winfield Scott Hancock
, Wesley Merritt
, Oliver O. Howard
, Nelson Miles, Arthur MacArthur
, and other combat commanders in Civil War, Indian War, and Spanish-American War.
, an appointee of President Theodore Roosevelt
, redesignated the fortification Fort Columbus as Fort Jay in February 1904, shortly before leaving office. Root, a New Yorker, admired Jay and his Federalist party. He ordered the name of the fortification restored and extended it to the army post that evolved around it on Governors Island.
For more information about the fortification and army post at this location after 1904, see Fort Jay
.
Governors Island
Governors Island is a island in Upper New York Bay, approximately one-half mile from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk Channel. It is legally part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, from 1806 to 1904.
Fort Jay
Fort Columbus was the name of a fortification and later the army post that developed around it. Located in New York Harbor a half mile from Lower Manhattan, it was originally constructed as Fort JayFort Jay
Fort Jay is a harbor fortification and the name of the former Army post located on Governors Island in New York Harbor. Fort Jay is the oldest defensive structure on the island, built to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes...
about 1794 and named in honor of New York Governor, later Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay
John Jay
John Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States ....
.
Fort Columbus
The Army rebuilt the fort and in 1806. The Democratic-Republican Party objected to negotiations of John Jay, which resulted in the Jay Treaty of 1794, wherein Great Britain resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution. The Democratic-Republicans therefore brought about the renaming of the fort in New York harbor as Fort Columbus after famous European explorer Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
.
Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of New York City as the largest army post defending the city. The fortification, in concert with Fort Wood on Liberty Island
Liberty Island
Liberty Island is a small uninhabited island in New York Harbor in the United States, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty. Though so called since the turn of the century, the name did not become official until 1956. In 1937, by proclamation 2250, President Franklin D...
, Fort Gibson on Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
, Castle Clinton
Castle Clinton
Castle Clinton or Fort Clinton, once known as Castle Garden, is a circular sandstone fort now located in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York City, in the United States. It is perhaps best remembered as America's first immigration station , where more than 8 million...
at the Battery
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
in Lower Manhattan, and two other fortifications on Governors Island, South Battery and Castle Williams
Castle Williams
Notes...
, provided protection for New York City and Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay, or Upper Bay, is the traditional heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and often called New York Harbor. It is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne.It...
. This system of coastal fortifications discouraged the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
.
Peacetime role
In subsequent years, Fort WadsworthFort Wadsworth
Fort Wadsworth is a former United States military installation on Staten Island in New York City, situated on The Narrows which divide New York Bay into Upper and Lower halves, a natural point for defense of the Upper Bay and Manhattan beyond. Prior to closing in 1994 it claimed to be the longest...
, Fort Hamilton
Fort Hamilton
Historic Fort Hamilton is located in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Bensonhurst, and is one of several posts that are part of the region which is headquartered by the Military District of Washington...
and Fort Lafayette
Fort Lafayette
Fort Lafayette was an island coastal fortification in the Narrows of New York Harbor, built offshore from Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of what is now Bay Ridge in the New York City borough of Brooklyn...
at the Narrows
The Narrows
The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson River empties into the Atlantic Ocean...
of New York Harbor reduced the need for the Upper Harbor forts, and in time, the Army transferred most properties in Upper New York Bay to other federal agencies or sold them to the state of New York. Fort Columbus, however, included 68 acres (275,186.5 m²), a sufficient land mass for a modest garrison at a reasonable proximity (1000 yards) from Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, making it the most practical of the 1812-era forts for the Army to retain and continue to garrison.
Personnel stationed at Fort Columbus began to record meteorological observations in the 1820s.
As the closest major army post to the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
at West Point, New York, Fort Columbus for many years served as a first posting or a major departure point for newly graduated cadets shipping to army posts along the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Many future generals in the Civil War were posted to or passed through Fort Columbus as young junior officers. They included Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his...
, Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph Eggleston Johnston was a career U.S. Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars, and was also one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
, John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Hood had a reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness...
, Theophilus H. Holmes
Theophilus H. Holmes
Theophilus Hunter Holmes was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate Lieutenant General in the American Civil War.-Early life and career:...
Thomas Jackson
Stonewall Jackson
ຄຽשת״ׇׂׂׂׂ֣|birth_place= Clarksburg, Virginia |death_place=Guinea Station, Virginia|placeofburial=Stonewall Jackson Memorial CemeteryLexington, Virginia|placeofburial_label= Place of burial|image=...
, Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck was a United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory, "Old Brains." He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer...
, James B. McPherson
James B. McPherson
James Birdseye McPherson was a career United States Army officer who served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
, and John G. Barnard
John G. Barnard
John Gross Barnard was a career engineering officer in the U.S. Army, serving in the Mexican-American War, as the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy and as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
, among others.
In the 1830s, the protective value of the fort to New York diminished with the advance of weapons technology, but other uses evolved for the army post. The Army renovated the fort in 1833 and established New York Arsenal, adjacent to but not part of Fort Columbus, in 1833 as a major depot for accepting delivery of privately manufactured arms and weapons and distributing privately and federally manufactured weapons to army posts across the nation.
United States Army located its General Recruiting Service for infantry troops at Fort Columbus in November 1852. The South Battery fortification became the United States Army School of Music Practice, training young boys to play military music with drums and fifes.
Role in the beginning of the Civil War
Twice in early 1861, the Army secretly dispatched troops and provisions from Fort Columbus to relieve the besieged garrison at Fort SumterFort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. Outgoing President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
initiated the first effort, but cadets from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, fired on the Army-chartered New York-based steamship Star of the West
Star of the West
The Star of the West was a civilian steamship hired by the United States government to transport military supplies and reinforcements to the garrison of Fort Sumter, but was fired on by Confederates in its effort to do so at the dawning of the American Civil War...
on 9 January 1861 as it entered Charleston harbor. The incident provoked a crisis while other southern states began to more seriously consider secession from the Union. The second effort which marks the beginning of the Civil War also failed when it prompted South Carolina forces to fire on Fort Sumter on the early morning of 9 April 1861.
During the Civil War, Fort Columbus served as a recruitment center and hospital. Fort Columbus and Castle Williams
Castle Williams
Notes...
also served as a temporary prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp and confinement hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
for Confederate prisoners during the war. Major General William H. C. Whiting
William H. C. Whiting
William Henry Chase Whiting was an United States Army officer who resigned after 16 years of service in the Army Corps of Engineers to serve in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
(CSA) died here while being treated for wounds suffered in combat in North Carolina.
Division and departmental headquarters
In the years after the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, New York Arsenal served as a major center for disposing of surplus and excess cannons and munitions for war memorials, scrap, or sale to foreign governments.
In 1878, as part of a nation-wide cost-cutting effort, the United States Army relocated many of its administrative functions from rented quarters in large urban centers to neighboring army posts. In New York City, nearly all army functions in the city were relocated to Governors Island, making Fort Columbus the headquarters for the Division of the Atlantic and later the Department of the East. Both commands then included almost all army activities east of the Mississippi River. The prestige of a command at Fort Columbus as a premier posting ranked second only to high-ranking army positions in Washington and many commanders went on to become commanding general of the army. Its departmental commanders from the 1880s to the 1900s included Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock
Winfield Scott Hancock was a career U.S. Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War...
, Wesley Merritt
Wesley Merritt
Wesley Merritt was a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War. He is noted for distinguished service in the cavalry.-Early life:...
, Oliver O. Howard
Oliver O. Howard
Oliver Otis Howard was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War...
, Nelson Miles, Arthur MacArthur
Arthur MacArthur
Arthur MacArthur may refer to:*Arthur MacArthur, Sr. , lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and acting governor for four days; United States federal judge*Arthur MacArthur, Jr...
, and other combat commanders in Civil War, Indian War, and Spanish-American War.
Fort Jay again
Secretary of War Elihu RootElihu Root
Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "wise man", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C...
, an appointee of President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, redesignated the fortification Fort Columbus as Fort Jay in February 1904, shortly before leaving office. Root, a New Yorker, admired Jay and his Federalist party. He ordered the name of the fortification restored and extended it to the army post that evolved around it on Governors Island.
For more information about the fortification and army post at this location after 1904, see Fort Jay
Fort Jay
Fort Jay is a harbor fortification and the name of the former Army post located on Governors Island in New York Harbor. Fort Jay is the oldest defensive structure on the island, built to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes...
.