Fort Warren, Massachusetts
| Fort Warren | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark District | |||
 The sally port of Fort Warren |
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| location | Georges Island in Boston Harbor , Massachusetts | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 19 '12.8 " N , 70 ° 55' 39.5" W | ||
| Built | 1833 to 1861 | ||
| architect | Sylvanus Thayer | ||
| NRHP number | [1] 70000540 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | August 29, 1970 | ||
| As NHLD declared | August 29, 1970 | ||
The Fort Warren is a historic fortification on the 28 acres (11.3 hectares ) large island Georges Iceland in the outer regions of Boston Harbor in the State of Massachusetts of the United States . The fort is laid out as a pentagon , and the building itself was constructed from stone and granite between 1833 and 1861. It was completed shortly after the Civil War began and served to defend the Boston harbor basin during the Spanish-American War , World War I, and until the end of World War II . It was also used as a prison for government officials and officers of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War .
The facility was decommissioned in 1947, entered the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1970 and is now a popular destination for tourists. The fort is named after Joseph Warren , a national hero of the American Revolutionary War , who sent Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride. Warren fell at the Battle of Bunker Hill .
history
Civil War
Fort Warren was completed in 1861 shortly after the Civil War began . Responsible for most of the building was Sylvanus Thayer , who later became well known in his office as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point . During the Civil War, the fort also served as a prison for captured members of the land and naval forces of the Confederate States of America , elected civil servants of the state of Maryland and political prisoners of the northern states .
Those in prison included Confederate diplomats James Murray Mason and John Slidell , who were captured in the Trent affair . On the military side, prisoners included Richard Stoddert Ewell , Isaac R. Trimble , John Gregg , Adam Rankin Johnson , Simon Bolivar Buckner, and Lloyd Tilghman . Among the senior civilian inmates were Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens and Confederate Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan .
The prison was known for treating its inmates humanely. Imprisoned Confederate officers gave Justin E. Dimick , the camp commander's son, a letter on his departure to take part in the war, ordering good treatment should he himself be captured. In fact, however, he was fatally wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 .
It was in the fort that the famous March of the Northern States, entitled John Brown, was written using the melody of an ancient Methodist song . Julia Ward Howe later wrote the poem “ The Battle Hymn of the Republic ”, the text of which was merged with the melody of the John Brown song and replaced the old one. Today the song is one of the most famous of the civil war.
After the Civil War
The fort was later used during the Spanish-American War and the First World War . From the late 1890s to the beginning of the 20th century, it was modified to accommodate more modern artillery pieces designed specifically for coastal defense at the time.
During the Second World War , the fort was home to the control center for the southern minefield of the harbor basin, which had been designed to ward off possible attacks by U-boats of the Navy . At that time, the 241st Coast Artillery (Harbor Defense), founded in 1940, was stationed at the facility. After 1950, Fort Warren was decommissioned.
Decommissioning and opening to tourists
The fort was owned by the federal government of the United States until 1958 , when it was transferred to the state of Massachusetts by the General Services Administration . After the renovation work was completed, it was opened to the public in 1961.
Today the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is responsible for the maintenance and management of the facility, which forms a central part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area . The fort can be reached by ferries from Boston, Hingham and Hull . From Georges Island , on which Fort Warren is located, other ferries also go to other islands in the harbor basin.
The facility is usually open from May to the weekend of Columbus Day . DCR rangers offer guided tours.
See also
literature
- Frank Key Howard: Fourteen Months in American Bastiles . Kelly, Hedian & Piet, Baltimore 1863, OCLC 60721941 .
- Jay Schmidt: Fort Warren . New England's most historic Civil War site. 1st edition. UBT Press, Amherst, NH 2003, ISBN 0-9721489-4-9 .
- William Best Hesseltine: Civil War prisons . Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 1962, ISBN 0-585-28152-1 .
- Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Myrta Lockett Avary: Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens . his diary kept when a prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston harbor, 1865, giving incidents and reflections of his prison life and some letters and reminiscences. Ed .: Oliver Wendell Holmes Collection, Library of Congress. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York 1910, OCLC 2108780 .
- John A. Marshall: American Bastille . a history of the illegal arrests and imprisonment of american citizens. Gale Ecco, Making Of Mode, p. l. 2010, ISBN 978-1-240-18448-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved January 23, 2007.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.