Fort Hancock (New Jersey)
Fort Hancock is a former United States Army fort at Sandy Hook in Middletown Township, New Jersey. The coastal artillery base defended the Atlantic coast and the entrance to New York Harbor, with its first gun batteries operational in 1896. The fort served from then until 1950 as part of the Harbor Defenses of New York and predecessor organizations. Between 1874 and 1919, the adjacent US Army Sandy Hook Proving Ground was operated in conjunction with Fort Hancock. It is now part of Fort Hancock Memorial Park. It was preceded by the Fort at Sandy Hook, built 1857–1867 and demolished beginning in 1885.
The Sandy Hook Light, built in 1764 and the oldest working lighthouse in the United States, is located on the grounds of Fort Hancock.
History
Fort at Sandy Hook
The Sandy Hook area was first fortified as part of the third system of US fortifications. Construction on the Fort at Sandy Hook began in 1857 and ceased in 1867, with the fort serviceable though largely incomplete. This fort was never officially named, but since the area was named Fort Hancock in 1895 it is often called by that name. It was sometimes locally called Fort Lincoln or Fort Hudson. Originally two tower forts were proposed, but a much larger single fort was decided on instead. The initial design of the fort was by then-Captain Robert E. Lee of the Army Corps of Engineers. The fort was designed as a five-bastion irregular pentagon, with two tiers of cannon totaling 173 guns on three seacoast fronts, with another 39 guns covering the landward approaches. As was common in Third System forts in the Northeast, it was built primarily of granite. At some point, with the casemate tier of the three seacoast fronts largely complete, the fort was redesigned to speed its overall completion, basically by eliminating the landward bastion and simplifying its neighboring bastions. Following the Civil War, it was determined that masonry forts were vulnerable to rifled guns, and funding for their construction was cut off in 1867. The fort remained incomplete until 1885, when almost all of it was cannibalized to build the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, the new Fort Hancock, and supporting structures such as a seawall. A small portion of one wall remains in place with four cannon ports.Fort Hancock
In 1874 the Sandy Hook Proving Ground was established as a weapons testing area, primarily for coast defense weapons. This was operated by the Ordnance Department and was organizationally separate from Fort Hancock.In 1890 construction began on the artillery batteries at Fort Hancock, which was named for Major General Winfield Scott Hancock in 1895. These resulted from the large-scale Endicott Program, which in 1885 proposed a new, comprehensive system of forts defending port cities. Fort Hancock was one of the first forts built and prototyped several weapon installations. The first batteries begun at Fort Hancock were Battery Potter and Battery Reynolds, initially the "Gun Lift Battery" and the "Sandy Hook Mortar Battery", both of which were built with high walls all around for land defense, a feature not found in most subsequent US installations.
;Battery Potter
Image:Steamliftgun.jpg|thumb|Drawing of Battery Potter
Battery Potter was the prototype battery for the steam-hydraulic gun lift carriage. The Endicott Program centered on disappearing guns, which would remain concealed behind a concrete-and-earth parapet until raised to fire. Most of the weapons in the program were mounted on Buffington-Crozier disappearing carriages. However, early on there was doubt that this carriage could successfully raise and lower a 12-inch gun. The alternative developed for this was the gun lift carriage, essentially a barbette carriage mounted on a hydraulic elevator. A steam plant powered the hydraulic system. One advantage of the gun lift carriage not found in most US disappearing gun installations was 360° all-around fire. Battery Potter received its first gun in 1892 and was completed in 1894, but for some reason was not accepted for service until 1898, possibly due to extensive testing. The gun lift system proved expensive to build and operate, as the steam plant had to be running continuously to provide pressure for elevator operation. Other early 12-inch gun installations were on simple non-disappearing barbette carriages until the M1896 Buffington-Crozier carriage was developed for the 12-inch gun. Although a few installations such as Battery Torbert at Fort Delaware were begun as gun lift batteries, these were completed with disappearing guns, and Battery Potter was the only gun lift battery completed. In 1903 Battery Potter was named for Joseph H. Potter, a Civil War general. By 1907 several additional batteries were completed at Fort Hancock, and with the construction of Battery Arrowsmith under way to cover its sector, Battery Potter was disarmed. Three spare gun lift carriages were modified as barbette carriages, designated Altered Gun Lift Carriage M1897, and emplaced at Fort Flagler and Fort Worden in the Puget Sound area of Washington state.
;Battery Reynolds
Image:Old-Style-Pit.jpg|thumb|This photo shows a mortar pit of the Abbot Quad period. This illustrates the difficulty of reloading four mortars in this configuration. Three of four mortars and 30 soldiers are visible in the crowded space.
Battery Reynolds was a battery of sixteen 12-inch caliber mortars in the "Abbot Quad" arrangement. This was designed to place the mortars as closely together as possible, in the hope of scoring multiple hits on an enemy ship by firing simultaneously in a bracketing "shotgun" pattern. The battery had four pits in a square arrangement, with four mortars per pit, also in a square. The pits were separated by a traverse, which were the ammunition magazines and storages areas that ran the width and breadth of the Battery. These were built of concrete, backfilled with sand, and covered with vegetation. The entire battery was surrounded by a high concrete wall covered with earth for land defense. This arrangement was used at a number of early Endicott forts. However, simultaneously reloading the mortars in each pit proved cumbersome. Four mortars - the mortar closest to the magazine door in each pit - were removed and emplaced in the adjacent Navesink Highlands at the Highlands Military Reservation. In later battery design, the pits were first built with open backs for the four mortars, and then ultimately redesigned to be arranged in a line with open backs, and two mortars per emplacement.
;Initial construction
By 1909 the following batteries were constructed:
| Name | No. of guns | Gun type | Carriage type | Years active |
| Dynamite | 2 | dynamite gun | pedestal | 1896–1902 |
| Dynamite | 1 | dynamite gun | pedestal | 1896–1902 |
| Potter | 2 | gun M1888 | gun lift M1891 | 1898–1907 |
| Reynolds | 8 | mortar M1886 | barbette M1891 | 1898–1918 |
| McCook | 8 | mortar M1886 | barbette M1891 | 1898–1923 |
| Alexander | 2 | gun M1888 | disappearing M1896 | 1899–1943 |
| Bloomfield | 2 | gun M1888 | disappearing M1896 | 1899–1944 |
| Richardson | 2 | gun M1895 | disappearing M1901 | 1904–1944 |
| Halleck | 3 | gun M1888 | disappearing M1896 | 1898–1944 |
| Granger | 2 | gun M1888 | disappearing M1896 | 1898–1942 |
| Arrowsmith | 3 | gun M1888 | disappearing M1894 | 1909–1920 |
| Peck | 2 | gun M1900 | pedestal M1900 | 1903–1946 |
| Gunnison | 2 | gun M1903 | disappearing M1903 | 1905–1946 |
| Engle | 1 | gun M1897 | balanced pillar M1896 | 1898–1917 |
| Unnamed | 1 | Schneider gun | pedestal | 1898-1898 |
| Urmston | 4 | gun M1898 | masking parapet M1898 | 1903–1920 |
| Urmston | 2 | gun M1903 | pedestal M1903 | 1909–1946 |
| Morris | 4 | gun M1903 | pedestal M1903 | 1908–1946 |
Facilities for planting and controlling an underwater minefield were built as well. Battery Dynamite was one of a few built for Zalinski pneumatic dynamite guns; these used a dynamite-loaded projectile with a much larger explosive charge than conventional guns of similar bore. However, they also had a much lower velocity with consequent fire control problems and were withdrawn from service by 1902. Batteries Bloomfield, Richardson, Halleck, and Alexander together formed the "Nine Gun Battery" with one of the longest continuous gun lines in the Endicott system. They were begun as the seven-gun Battery Halleck in 1896, built on top of the third system fort, and were divided in 1904 after expansion to nine guns. The unnamed one-gun battery contained a French-made Schneider gun unique in the US artillery system; it was probably a test gun from the Proving Ground pressed into service after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War. The batteries were often called "mine defense" guns, intended to defend a minefield against minesweepers.
Organization
Fort Hancock was originally part of the New York Artillery District, part of which became the Coast Defenses of Southern New York in 1913, along with Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth. However, circa 1915 Fort Hancock became its own coast defense command as the Coast Defenses of Sandy Hook. In 1924 this was renamed as the Harbor Defenses of Sandy Hook. On 9 May 1942 Fort Hancock became part of the Harbor Defenses of New York and the Sandy Hook command was disestablished.In 1901 coast artillery companies were created by redesignating the heavy artillery companies which previously garrisoned forts, and in 1907 the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps was established to operate the country's new defenses.