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Fort Jay is a coastal bastion fort and the name of a former United States Army post on Governors Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. Fort Jay is the oldest existing defensive structure on the island, and was named for John Jay, a member of the Federalist Party, New York governor, Chief Justice of the United States, Secretary of State, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. It was built in 1794 to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes. From 1806 to 1904 it was named Fort Columbus, presumably for explorer Christopher Columbus. Today, the National Park Service administers Fort Jay and Castle Williams as the Governors Island National Monument.
In 1806 the earthworks were replaced by granite and brick walls and the footprint of the fort enlarged to designs by Major Jonathan Williams, chief engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and supervisor of fortifications in New York Harbor. The fort was rebuilt and enlarged as part of what became known as the Second System of US seacoast fortifications. Williams replaced the earthworks with sandstone and granite walls and an arrow-shaped ravelin, all surrounded by a dry moat. The moat was in turn surrounded by a sloped grassy area or glacis that was once was cleared of trees, providing a clear field of fire toward any advancing enemy forces. The slope was also designed to retard or stop cannon shot from warships. The overall result is still evident in the fort's design and its position on the highest point on the island. Construction of the walls and gate of the existing fort were completed in 1808. Later, small wood and brick barracks buildings were constructed in the enclosed square space.
The fortification was initially named Fort Jay for John Jay, a member of the Federalist Party, New York governor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State and one of the Founding Father of the United States. Jay, as George Washington's Secretary of State, negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain. With the election of Thomas Jefferson as POTUS in 1800 there was a shift of power from the Federalist Party, of which Jay was a prominent member, to the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson's party objected to the treaty, which resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution. Following the 1806 rebuilding, and with the change in presidential administrations and the recent transfer to the federal government, the fort was renamed Fort Columbus, presumably for Christopher Columbus.
The post was renamed at some time between December 15, 1806 and July 21, 1807. Edmund Banks Smith, an Episcopal priest, Army chaplain, and author of an early history of Governors Island wrote in 1913 that this was "supposed to have been due to Jay’s temporary unpopularity with the Republican party, which was not satisfied with the Jay Treaty with England". However, this has not been substantiated, and no documentation for the name change has been found. The fort retained the name "Columbus" throughout the rest of the 19th century, finally reverting to Fort Jay in 1904.
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 Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, and two other fortifications on Governors Island, South Battery and Castle Williams, provided protection for the city and Upper New York Bay. This system of coastal fortifications is credited with discouraging the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812, who preferred easier targets in the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay (resulting in the burning of Washington, D.C.), and the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.
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 John G. Barnard, Horace Brooks, 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 others.
In the 1830s, the protective value of Fort Columbus diminished with the advance of weapons technology, but other uses evolved for the army post. The Army renovated the fortification beginning in 1833 with the construction of four barracks that remain to the present day, replacing wooden barracks. The barracks were built as the fortification's importance in protecting New York was diminished by the construction of the new forts at The Narrows of New York Harbor. The Greek Revival style barracks, unified by two-story Tuscan order first served as officers' and enlisted men's housing for the permanent garrison. That same year the Ordnance Department established the New York Arsenal as a separate installation, adjacent to but not part of Fort Columbus, as a major depot taking delivery of contracted manufactured arms and weapons and distributing both contract and federally manufactured weapons to army posts across the nation. In 1836, the South Battery became the Army School of Music Practice, training young boys to become company drummers and fife players and regimental musicians.
The army located its General Recruiting Service for infantry troops at Fort Columbus in November 1852, and many regiments in the army detailed officers to Fort Columbus on recruiting details.
Twice, in December 1860 and April 1861, the Army "secretly" dispatched troops and provisions from Fort Columbus to relieve the besieged garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Outgoing President James Buchanan initiated the first effort, but a battery garrisoned by cadets from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina fired on the Army-chartered New York-based steamship Star of the West on January 9, 1861 as it entered Charleston Harbor. The incident provoked a crisis, prompting other southern states began to more seriously consider secession from the Union. The second effort, with new Army recruits departing from Fort Columbus on April 9, 1861, also failed when it prompted South Carolina forces to fire on Fort Sumter early in the morning of April 12, 1861, resulting in the start of the Civil War.
In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer to other Union prisons such as Camp Johnson in Ohio, Fort Delaware or Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. 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 of dysentery in February 1865 in the post hospital shortly after his surrender at the Battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. He was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die as a prisoner of war.
Late in war and the immediate years after it, the armament of the fort was upgraded with nearly fifty and . As the result of a World War II scrap drive, four 10-inch and one 15-inch guns were retained at the fort's east entrance gate and north ravelin as ornaments, while the remainder were shipped on barges to steel mills in Pittsburgh, PA and scrapped for the war effort in October 1942.
In 1878, as part of a servicewide 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, D.C., and many commanders went on to become Commanding General of the United States 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 the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War.
A 1930s WPA project was the complete conversion of the barracks in Fort Jay to family housing. Each company barracks was transformed into four townhouse-style apartments that served junior officers as family housing. As a further concession to the automobile, eight two-car garages were constructed inside the fort behind the barracks to serve the fort's residents.
During World War II Fort Jay was the headquarters of First Army in the early part of the war, and later the Eastern Defense Command (EDC), responsible for all Army units and defense coordination in the northeastern United States, and in the east coast states from Maine through Florida. These were primarily coast defense, antiaircraft, and fighter assets. US Army forces in Newfoundland and, from April 1942, Bermuda were also included in the EDC.Conn, pp. 29, 33-39
On January 19, 2001, Fort Jay, Castle Williams and a surrounding 23 acres were proclaimed part of the Governors Island National Monument, administered by the National Park Service with Fort Jay recognized as being one of the finest remaining examples of the Second System of American military fortifications. Since 2003, both fortifications have been open to the public on a summer seasonal basis as they undergo stabilization and the remainder of the island undergoes redevelopment by the City of New York through the Trust for Governors Island.
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