Board of Fortifications - Endicott Board

Endicott Board

In 1885 US President Grover Cleveland appointed a joint Army, Navy and civilian board, headed by Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott, known as the Board of Fortifications (now usually referred to simply as the Endicott Board). The findings of the Board in its 1886 report illustrated a grim picture of neglect of America's coast defenses and recommended a massive $127 million construction program for a series of new forts with breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coast. Coast Artillery fortifications built between 1885 and 1905 are often referred to as Endicott Period fortifications.

Prior efforts at harbor defense construction had ceased in the 1870s. Since that time the design and construction of heavy ordnance had advanced rapidly, including the development of superior breech-loading and longer-range cannon, making U.S. harbor defenses obsolete. In 1883, the Navy had begun a new construction program with an emphasis on offensive rather than defensive warships, and many foreign powers were building more heavily armored warships with larger guns. These factors combined to create a need for improved coastal defense systems.

The Endicott Board's recommendations led to a large-scale modernization program of harbor and coast defenses in the United States, including the construction of modern reinforced concrete fortifications and the installation of new batteries of large-caliber (14-inch, 12-inch, 10-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch) breech-loading rifled artillery, coast defense mortars, and pneumatic dynamite guns. Fields of electrically controlled submarine mines were also a critical component of the new defenses, as were smaller guns (less than 5-inch caliber) used to protect the mine fields from minesweeping vessels and the larger guns from land attack.

The fortifications constructed as part of this program were a departure from the traditional masonry forts concealing massed batteries of smooth-bore cannon that had dominated U.S. harbor defense for most the 19th century. Instead, smaller batteries of up to four large caliber rifled guns each were installed in well-constructed emplacements hidden behind earth-covered concrete parapets. Most long-range, large-caliber rifles were mounted on disappearing carriages that would allow a gun to be raised to fire, but otherwise remain protected from the enemy's view or fire behind a protective parapet. Some large guns and most smaller guns were mounted on less expensive barbettes or pedestals(see table below).