1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps
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The U. S. Army Coast Artillery Corps was a corps level organization responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery during World War I, as early as 1882 the need for heavy fixed artillery for seacoast defense was noted in Chester A. In 1885 the Endicott Board was convened under the subsequent Grover Cleveland administration and this board recommended a large-scale program of harbor defenses at 29 ports, including guns, mortars, and mine fields. Most of their recommendations were implemented and new defenses were constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers 1895-1905, as the defenses were constructed, each harbor or rivers installations were controlled by Artillery Districts, renamed Coast Defense Commands in 1913 and Harbor Defense Commands in 1925. An extensive fire control system was developed and provided for the forts of each Coast Artillery District, Army leaders realized that heavy fixed artillery required different training programs and tactics than mobile field artillery. Prior to 1901 each of the seven artillery regiments contained both heavy and light artillery batteries, in February 1901 the Artillery Corps was divided into two types, field artillery and coast artillery. The previous seven artillery regiments were dissolved, and 30 numbered companies of artillery and 126 numbered companies of coast artillery were authorized. 82 existing heavy artillery batteries were designated as coast artillery companies, the company-based organization was for flexibility, as each harbor defense command was differently equipped and a task-based organization was needed. The Coast Artillery would alternate between small unit and regimental organization several times over its history, the head of the Artillery Corps became the Chief of Artillery in the rank of brigadier general with jurisdiction over both types of artillery. The Coast Artillery became responsible for the installation and operation of the mine fields that were planted to be under observation, fired electrically. The mine component was considered to be among the armament of coastal defense works. In 1905, after the experiences of the Spanish–American War, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a new board on fortifications and they updated some standards and reviewed the progress of the Endicott boards program. Most of the changes recommended by this board were technical, such as adding more searchlights, electrification, the board also recommended fortifications in territories acquired from Spain, Cuba and the Philippines, as well as Hawaii and a few other sites. Defenses in Panama were authorized by the Spooner Act of 1902, due to rapid development of the dreadnought battleship type, a new 14-inch gun was introduced in a few locations, primarily Los Angeles, the Philippines, and Panama. The Taft program fortifications differed slightly in construction and had fewer numbers of guns at a given location than those of the Endicott program. By the beginning of World War I, the United States had a defense system that was equal to any other nation. The rapidity of technological advances and changing techniques increasingly separated coastal defenses from field artillery, officers were rarely qualified to command both, requiring specialization. National Guard coast artillery units were formed by the states to attempt to bring the CAC up to strength in wartime
3.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
4.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
5.
Rhode Island
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Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, the state also shares a short maritime border with New York. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, on May 29,1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution. Rhode Islands official nickname is The Ocean State, a reference to the fact that the state has several large bays, Rhode Island covers 1,214 square miles, of which 1,045 square miles are land. Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States, the official name of the state is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is derived from the merger of four settlements. Rhode Island is now commonly called Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay, Providence Plantation was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the city of Providence. This was adjoined by the settlement of Warwick, hence the plural Providence Plantations and it is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island, although there are two popular theories. Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1524, subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island that Verrazzano had named, but the Pilgrims who later colonized the area assumed that it was Aquidneck. A second theory concerns the fact that Adriaen Block passed by Aquidneck during his expeditions in the 1610s, historians have theorized that this reddish appearance resulted from either red autumn foliage or red clay on portions of the shore. The earliest documented use of the name Rhode Island for Aquidneck was in 1637 by Roger Williams, the name was officially applied to the island in 1644 with these words, Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island. The name Isle of Rodes is used in a document as late as 1646. Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island Red Island, Williams was a theologian forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeking religious and political tolerance, he and others founded Providence Plantation as a proprietary colony. Providence referred to the concept of providence, and plantation was an English term for a colony. State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is the longest official name of any state in the Union, advocates for excising plantation asserted that the word specifically referred to the British colonial practice of establishing settlements which disenfranchised native people. Advocates for retaining the name argued that plantation was simply an archaic English synonym for colony, the referendum election was held on November 2,2010, and the people voted overwhelmingly to retain the entire original name. It shares a maritime border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island
6.
Fort Wetherill
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Fort Wetherill is a former coast artillery fort that occupies the southern portion of the eastern tip of Conanicut Island, located in Jamestown, Rhode Island. The fort sits atop high granite cliffs, overlooking the entrance to Narragansett Bay, Fort Dumpling, dating from the American Revolutionary War, used to occupy a small site until it was built over by Fort Wetherill. The fort was deactivated and turned over to the State of Rhode Island after World War II and is now operated as Fort Wetherill State Park, the park is managed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. In 1776, an 8-gun earthwork fortification was constructed by forces at the site of Dumpling Rock. This old fort was occupied by American, British, and French forces for various periods of time during the Revolutionary War, the patriots called it the Dumpling Rock Battery, the British called it Fort Dumpling Rock. The British abandoned the fort at Dumpling Rock in 1779 when they evacuated Newport, after this it was called Fort Conanicut. In 1798, construction was started on a permanent fortification at Dumpling Rock under the supervision of Major Louis Tousard of the Army Corps of Engineers and this fort was officially called Fort Louis and, later, Fort Brown, but it was commonly called Fort Dumpling throughout its existence. Fort Dumpling was in the form of a stone tower and was frequently used as an artistic motif. The fort was mentioned in the Secretary of Wars report on fortifications for December 1811 as being at the Dumplins and is described as a tower of stone. With a small expense, there can be mounted six or eight heavy guns, in 1899, the U. S. government purchased additional land during the Endicott period of coastal fortification, and built Fort Wetherill at the site of Fort Dumpling. Fort Wetherill was the largest fort of the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay and it was named for Captain Alexander Macomb Wetherill, a Jamestown native who was killed in action during the Battle of San Juan Hill. Fort Dumpling was destroyed in the process of building the new fort, in 1901, Battery Varnum was the first modern battery to be completed, mounting two 12-inch guns on barbette carriages and situated in the far southeast corner of the fort. By 1910, the six batteries in the forts pre-World War II arsenal had been brought into service. Several of these batteries are now overgrown with brush, but they offer what is perhaps the longest linear concrete gun line in the coast defenses of New England, during World War I, the fort was garrisoned by five companies of the Rhode Island National Guard. After the war, Fort Wetherill reverted to caretaker status, with only a single Coast Artillery sergeant assigned to watch over it, the 10th Coast Artillery Regiment of the Regular Army also garrisoned forts in Rhode Island 1924-45. The fort also functioned in the year before World War II as a training facility. However, the big guns of the Endicott era were mostly scrapped by 1943, as Fort Wetherill was superseded by new defenses centered on Fort Greene and Fort Church. In 1946, the U. S. military ceased operations at Fort Wetherill, the State of Rhode Island officially acquired the fort on 16 August 1972 and reconfigured the site for public use as a state park
7.
Point Judith, Rhode Island
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Point Judith is a village and a small cape, on the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island, on the western side of Narragansett Bay where it opens out onto Rhode Island Sound. It is the location for the principal ferry service that connects Block Island to the mainland and contains the fishing hamlet of Galilee. Point Judith was named in the century after Judith Thatcher who was a passenger on a small vessel with her father when it ran aground on the point and was almost wrecked. Allegedly, Judith rendered great service and as a result the vessel was saved, in remembrance of this the crew called the point after her name. According to Edmund Quincys 1874 biography of his father Josiah Quincy, during the American Revolution, the British controlled Narragansett Bay and raided and burned the farms on Point Judith and the surrounding areas in the late 1770s under Captain Wallace. During World War II, Fort Greene was built with 16-inch guns, Point Judith is the site of the last sinking of an Allied ship in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. The lookout at the lighthouse was just preparing to enter the sighting in his logbook when he heard the sound of the torpedo exploding as it hit the ship, black Point sank within twenty-five minutes. Twelve lives were lost among her crew, while survivors were rescued. The resulting United States Navy and Coast Guard hunt for the U-853 is now referred to as the Battle of Point Judith. A United States Navy frigate, destroyers, destroyer escorts, attacks with depth charges and hedgehogs continued until the U-853s destruction was confirmed the next morning by two blimps which dropped a few bombs on the Germans. U-853 may have been the last U-boat to sink a ship during World War II and her wreck lies in 135 feet of water and is a popular, but dangerous destination for sport divers, at least three divers have been killed there. U-853 is recognized as a war grave with most of the 55 crew bodies remaining inside, jandek has a song of the same name. Point Judith Light Galilee, Rhode Island Jerusalem, Rhode Island
8.
Submarine mines in United States harbor defense
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The modern era of defending American harbors with submarine mines began in the post-Civil War period. In 1866, the United States Army Corps of Engineers established the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point, NY. Abbot experimented with explosives, fuzes, cabling, and electrical equipment for over a decade before publishing the first manuals on the use of mines in coast defense in 1876–77. From about 1900 until 1946 the mine defense program grew, until upwards of 10,000 controlled mines were maintained by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. In July 1918, the U. S. Army Mine Planter Service was established to maintain U. S. mine defenses. Controlled mines were anchored to the bottom of a harbor, either sitting on the bottom itself or floating at depths which could vary widely and these mines were fired electrically through a vast network of underwater electrical cables at each protected harbor. Mines could be set to explode on contact or be triggered by the operator, the networks of cables terminated on shore in massive concrete bunkers called mine casemates, that were usually buried beneath protective coverings of earth. The mine casemate housed electrical generators, batteries, control panels, the map of Boston Harbors mine fields shows the harbor mine defenses consisting of 30 groups of mines, with 19 mines per group. Each mine was loaded with 200 lb of TNT. So in Bostons case, a total of 57 tons of explosives guarded the harbor. Each of these also had on-shore facilities to store the mines and the TNT used to fill them, rail systems to load and transport the mines. The preferred method of using the mines was to set them to detonate a set period of time after they had touched or tipped. Each mine casemate controlled about 150 to 300 mines, arranged in groups of 19, the mines in a group were generally laid about 100 ft apart, in lines running across the channel being protected, with 50 ft or less on either end of the line. This meant that one group of mines could protect a total distance of about 1,900 ft, about 3 miles of cable were required to connect one group of 19 mines to its distribution box, with the connecting cables radiating out from the box in a hub-and-spoke fashion. Actually, the box was usually located well behind the line of mines. If more groups of mines were needed, multiple mine casemates were generally built, for example, Boston had three mine casemates, with two originally at Fort Dawes on Deer Island and Fort Strong on Long Island. Later in World War II, Fort Strongs mine casemate was deactivated and these panels were located in the casemates operating room, pictured at left-center in the plan shown at right. In addition to these firing controls, the mine casemate contained one or more electric generators, the generators produced direct current, which was used to signal the readiness of the mines
United States
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army Institute of Heraldry document "10th Coast Artillery". (dead link 12 September 2017)