Angel Island Coastal Artillery History Photos
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As concerns mounted over threats to San Francisco Bay from Confederate sympathizers and naval forces, the Federal Government established Camp Reynolds on the western side of Angel Island in 1863. Artillery batteries were built near the camp at Point Stuart, Point Knox, and Point Blunt. These installations were mostly of wood and earth and none have been preserved. These were part of a ring of forts including Fort Point, Fort Mason, Fort Baker, and Alcatraz, the first two of these are preserved today. Along with the shore batteries, the Navy sent a Monitor with two 15-inch cannon to defend the harbor. A year after the end of the war a four gun Monitor arrived. San Francisco's harbor defenses were among the best in the world.
Two decades later, in 1886, a report critical of Pacific Coast harbor defenses led to the installation of new gun batteries throughout the Bay and a series of mine fields. Three new coastal defense Monitors were commissioned from 1892 to 1902, though they spent little time in the Bay. Three gun emplacements were built on the southwest side of Angel Island facing San Francisco and Alcatraz. Batteries Ledyard, Wallace, and Drew (the remains of which are visible today) were in operation by 1901, but were decommissioned prior to WW I. Strategies had changed and the valuable guns were needed elsewhere. Larger guns and mine fields guarded the Golden Gate, and by WW II the airplane had made most shore defenses obsolete.
In the 1950's Nike Missiles were developed to protect against Soviet bombers, and again Angel Island became part of the defensive ring that guarded the Bay Area.
Civil War Period - Original Artillery
The early artillery consisted of smooth bore muzzle loading weapons of various sizes. The construction was mostly of wood and earthworks; no traces remain today. There were 21 smooth bore muzzle loading weapons installed at Point Stuart, Point Knox and Point Blunt.
32 POUND SEACOAST HOWITZERS
The three cannon above (left) were 32 pound muzzle loaded guns known as Seacoast Howitzers, which were mounted in earthen fortifications at Point Stuart. This picture was taken in the 1870's when the guns were obsolete and no longer maintained. These guns weighed about 7,500 pounds, and were secondary batteries installed during the Civil War, to supplement the larger Columbiad cannons described below. About 8 pounds of gunpowder would send a 32 pound (6.4" diameter) projectile just over a mile.
These 32-pound Seacoast Howitzers are displayed at Ft. Moultrie, Charleston, SC. Note that the angles on the wood and the bolt patterns on the carriages are identical to the carriages shown at Point Stuart above. The gun in the foreground is forward for firing; the one in the background is slid back in the recoiled position, ready for loading. A Howitzer has a relatively short barrel, and is designed to use less powder for a higher trajectory with less velocity, than the bigger Columbiad type cannons shown below.
10-INCH RODMAN-COLUMBIADS
This is a Rodman 10 inch muzzle loading cannon of the Columbiad type. This cannon is on display at Fort Mason in San Francisco, but is representative of the main batteries installed at Angel Island during the Civil War. A 10-inch Rodman cost $1,795 in April 1865, and weighed about 15,000 pounds, about as much as three SUVs. Twenty pounds of gunpowder would propel a 10 inch diameter (125 pound) projectile just over three miles.
This 15-inch Rodman gun at Fort Knox, Prospect,
Maine is a bit larger than the 10-inch deployed at Angel Island.
This is a diagram of a 20-inch Rodman cannon, tilted down for loading. Thomas Jackson Rodman, a young Army officer perfected a better way of casting the Columbiad type cannon; guns made with his process could be larger than those made with earlier techniques. Although rifled cannon were replacing smooth-bores at that time, the shear size of the Rodman's made them an effective weapon for coastal defense well past the Civil War.
Endicott Period - Upgraded Artillery
During the late 1890's and early 1900's, new emplacements were constructed to house modern breach loading rifled cannons to replace the old muzzle-loading smooth-bore cannons . These batteries were part of a program initiated by the Endicott Board, a group headed by a mid-1880's Secretary of War, William Endicott. Instead of many guns located in a small area, the image most people have of a fort, the Endicott batteries are spread out over a wide area. This system used dispersion and concealment for protection from naval gunfire, which had become more accurate and powerful than in the past. The use of the modern powerful weapons eliminated the need for the concentration of guns that was common in earlier forts. In this new plan four modern guns replaced the 21 cannon installed during the Civil War. This was a tremendous upgrade.
The four guns were dispersed to three locations: Battery Drew, Battery Wallace, and Battery Ledyard. The first two were one 8" rifled canon each, and the last contained two 5" rapid fire canons.
BATTERY DREW - 1898 - ONE 8-INCH RIFLE - BARBETTE MOUNTED
This a picture of the actual gun positioned at
Battery Drew. This is a model 1888 8-inch cannon, mounted in a Model 1892
barbette carriage, which is a very heavy and stable gun platform.
The gun weighed about 32,500 pounds and cost almost $17,000; the carriage
weighted 84,000 lbs and cost about $14,000. This gun did not hide away like the
gun at Battery Wallace (discussed below).
Another picture of the Battery Drew 8-inch cannon. This gun was faster firing but less protected than the more complicated "disappearing" installation at Battery Wallace (discusses below). These guns were loaded with a projectile and separate bags containing gunpowder.
The gun was removed from Battery Drew before WWI. The specifications for the emplacement were: Number of Bolts: 16, Circle Diameter: 9' 10", Parapet Height: 6'. Virtually identical emplacements of two guns exist at Battery Duncan, Fort Baker at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge (Marin side). Many of these guns were modified to be mounted on railway cars as mobile artillery, for WW I service, although none were shipped overseas.
This photo shows a model 1888 8-inch cannon remounted in a M1918 railway mount; could it be one of the Angel Island cannons? This gun is now on display at the University of Tampa, in Tampa, FL (color insert). The four short tubes near the rear of the gun are balancing weights which were added for stability in a mobile application.
BATTERY WALLACE - 1901 - ONE 8-INCH RIFLE - DISAPPEARING CARRIAGE
Diagrams of typical Buffington-Crozier disappearing gun carriage model 1896 which was used at Battery Wallace.
Example of typical Buffington-Crozier disappearing gun carriage, model 1896 with an 8 inch coastal rifle. Battery Wallace featured this carriage, using the same1888 8-inch rifled cannon as Battery Drew. The carriage allowed the gun to retract and hide, after each firing see example below. The recoil from firing pushed the gun back and down. Hydraulics cushioned the force. Note the open breach ready for loading.
This is an example of typical Buffington-Crozier carriage in the elevated position -- ready to fire (with a 10-inch gun). One disadvantage was a limitation on the angle of elevation, this limited the range of the weapon. Also as naval armor became thicker it was advantageous to have high trajectories in order to rain shells down on the less protected decks etc.
This shows a later model 1901disappearing carriage in the down position. This gun was used in the WWII defense of Corregidor in the Philipines, but is now on display at the restored Fort Casey in Washington State. Men who operated this gun probably suffered through the Bataan Death March in 1942. A 6-inch gun on M1903 disappearing carriage is on display at the San Francisco Presidio.
BATTERY LEDYARD - 1901 - TWO 5-INCH RAPID FIRE GUNS - PEDESTAL MOUNTED
The gun above is an example of a rapid-firing pedestal mounted cannon. Battery Ledyard built in 1901 was armed with two 5 inch model M1900 guns manufactured by Watervliet Arsenal mounted in M1903 pedestals. These guns were the new generation of light caliber guns that could fire as many as 20 to 30 rounds per minute for short periods of time and had a range of approximately 7.5 miles. These guns were loaded with metal cartridges weighing about 84 pounds, which contained the projectile and the propellant, unlike the 8 inch guns which were loaded separately with bags of gunpowder. The gun weighed over11,000 lbs, and cost over $6,000, the carriage weighted about 15,000 lbs, at a cost over of $8,000.
Battery Baldwin in San Francisco used similar rapid-firing guns, but they were smaller than those at Battery Ledyard. Tacticians recognized the advantages of many small cannons after the huge impact that the small guns of the US Fleet had against the Spanish Navy in the Spanish American War. In close quarters like the Bay, many rapid-fire small cannons could have more effect than one 16-inch monster.
The fortification remains, but the guns of Battery Ledyard were removed to Battery Call at Fort Miley in San Francisco prior to WWI. Shifting tactics and the use of advanced harbor mines changed the dynamics of gun emplacement strategies. Fort Miley was converted to a Veterans' Hospital from the 1930' to the 1940's, and remains active today.
The picture below shows a similar pedestal mounted gun at Battery Chamberlin in San Francisco.
A typical Pre WW I Coastal Defense gun crew, poses with a disappearing carriage circa 1915, about the time that all of the guns were removed form Angel Island.
HARBOR DEFENSE MINES
In
June 1883 the first shipment of "buoyant torpedoes" arrived in San
Francisco Bay. Each was what we now call a mine, carried 800-pounds of TNT, and was connected by
electric cable to a shore-based detonating station. When a vessel struck a mine,
an impact-sensitive device in each mine sounded the alarm in the control bunker.
The order could then be given to detonate the mine and blow up the vessel which
hit it. These were harmless to vessels passing even directly over them, unless
that switch on shore was closed to fire them beneath an enemy ship.
Electrically fired "torpedoes" or mines required a control room from which cables ran out into the water and from which an operator sent the electrical impulse to fire the mine. There were two of these control rooms on Angel Island, built prior to the Spanish American War, one on Mortar Hill to the South and another at Quarry Point to the East. The first mine was planted on June 11, 1898, and mine planting continued until July 16, when 63 had been emplaced before the end of the Spanish American War. The mines were retrieved, cleaned and again stored by November 1898.
WWII Anti Aircraft Batteries
During World War II four 90mm anti aircraft batteries (example above) were deployed on Angel Island at Point Blunt. Two 40mm Bofors automatic anti aircraft batteries were deployed at Point Knox.
Nike Missiles
A Nike aircraft missile site was built on Angel Island in 1954. See Nike Missiles .
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