Fort Mansfield (Westerly, Rhode Island)
Westerly · Rhode Island · Early 20th Century Coastal Defense
History & Significance
Fort Mansfield was part of the Endicott Board's comprehensive coastal defense network, constructed as one of numerous coastal artillery installations in the Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound to protect New York City. Named after Joseph K. Mansfield, an engineer officer who served in the Mexican–American War and was promoted to Inspector General of the Army before his death at Antietam, the fort represented late-nineteenth-century modernization of American coastal defenses.
The government purchased 60 acres on Napatree Point in 1898, and construction began the following year. When first occupied in 1901, it was a sub-post of Fort Trumbull but achieved independent battery status in 1902.
The main armament consisted of Battery Wooster with two 8-inch M1888 disappearing guns, Battery Crawford with 5-inch M1897 guns, and Battery Connell with 5-inch M1900 guns. However, war games held in 1907 proved the fort had a fatal flaw: attacking vessels could approach from a "dead angle" along the Rhode Island coast which the fort's 8-inch cannon could not cover.
Because of this design flaw, the fort was removed from active service in 1909, reduced to caretaker status, and its guns were removed in 1917. The government placed the land up for sale in 1926.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Concrete gun emplacements from 1901 coastal artillery fort on Napatree Point
- Two surviving batteries visible as ruins on public beach
- Part of early 20th-century Harbor Defense network protecting Long Island Sound
- Erosion and coastal exposure show fort's vulnerability to nature
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mansfield
- https://varnumcontinentals.org/feature-article-westerlys-forgotten-coast-defense-fortification-on-napatree-point-the-story-of-fort-mansfield/
- https://fergusonmuseum.org/2020/06/fort-mansfield-napatree-point/
- https://thewatchhillconservancy.org/napatree/history-of-napatree/
- https://seewesterly.com/a-fatal-flaw-a-history-of-fort-mansfield-on-napatree-point/
Other Forts in Rhode Island
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