Fort Hancock's Endicott Era Defenses

Gun crew leading Battery Granger.

NPS/Gateway NRA Museum Collection

Fort Hancock’s Endicott Era gun batteries and defenses included:

Dynamite Gun Battery: three 15-inch and one 8-inch dynamite guns.

Battery Potter: two 12-inch disappearing guns. This along with the mortar battery were the first prototype concrete gun batteries of the Endicott system.

Battery Granger: two 10-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

Nine-Gun Battery consists of:

Battery Alexander: two 12-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

Battery Richardson: two 12-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

Battery Bloomfield: two 12-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

Battery Halleck: three 10-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

The Mortar Battery, along with Battery Potter were the prototype for future gun batteries of the Endicott system. It consisted of:

Battery McCook: eight 12-inch mortars.

Battery Reynolds: eight 12-inch mortars.

Rapid fire guns like those listed below protected the underwater mine field from smaller, swifter moving vessels:

Battery Engle: one 5-inch gun on a pedestal mount.

Battery Morris: four 3-inch guns on a pedestal mount.

Battery Urmston: four 15-pounders and two 3-inch guns on a pedestal mount.

Battery Peck: two 6-inch guns on a pedestal mount.

Battery Gunnison: two 6-inch counterweight disappearing guns.

Harbor defenses included a hidden, unseen weapon: An underwater controlled minefield system that utilized a mine casemate on Sandy Hook from where underwater mines could be denotated via electrical cables to destroy warships.

To learn more about Endicott Era Defenses, click here.

 

Fort Hancock soldier, c. 1900. This is the typical enlisted man's uniform of the Endicott era.  Uniform color added to image for effect.

NPS/Gateway NRA Museum Collection.  Color added by Janet Kurka.