Fort Corcoran - Wartime Use

Wartime Use

As originally designed, Fort Corcoran's planned 12-gun complement would have been manned by 180 artillerymen, and the fort's 576 yards of perimeter would have been guarded by 620 soldiers, for a total garrison of 800 men. The initial garrison was the 13th New York Infantry Regiment, and the fort's 12 guns were manned by Company K of the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. However, the demands of war meant that the 2nd Wisconsin Regiment was needed for the Peninsula Campaign and left Fort Corcoran in late 1861. Throughout the war, Fort Corcoran's rear location and proximity to the supply depots of Washington meant that a steady stream of Union regiments rotated through the fort and the military camps nearby for much of the war. In August 1861 alone, regiments from Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania served in or near the fort. So many troops were stationed in and near the fort, in fact, that in a report on March 31, 1863, General Barnard, chief engineer of the defenses of Washington, said Fort Corcoran was among a small number of sites that had "more than required as artillery garrisons."

On May 17, 1864, Brigadier General A.P. Howe, Inspector-General of Artillery for the Union Army, concluded an inspection of the garrisons of the various forts defending Washington, D.C. At Fort Corcoran, an "interior work," he found little to commend, with the exception of the size of the garrison, which consisted of three companies of the 2nd New York Heavy Artillery. The men he found to be "very ordinary" in artillery drill, "very deficient" in infantry drill, and "a low state" of discipline overall. These problems, he concluded, were the fault of the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Palmer, who "shows inefficiency in the command." General Howe also counted three magazines and 11 guns (one less than the 1861 plan) of various types at the fort: two 8-inch seacoast howitzers, two 12-pounder heavy guns, four 12-pounder light Napoleons, and three 10-pounder Parrott rifles.