BGuthrie Photos: NJ -- Fort Mott State Park

NJ -- Fort Mott State Park:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.22.61.246 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] FTMOTT_080608_013.JPG	[2] FTMOTT_080608_021.JPG	[3] FTMOTT_080608_025.JPG
[4] FTMOTT_080608_027.JPG	[5] FTMOTT_080608_029.JPG	[6] FTMOTT_080608_037.JPG
[7] FTMOTT_080608_043.JPG	[8] FTMOTT_080608_048.JPG	[9] FTMOTT_080608_055.JPG
[10] FTMOTT_080608_059.JPG	[11] FTMOTT_080608_064.JPG	[12] FTMOTT_080608_065.JPG
[13] FTMOTT_080608_072.JPG	[14] FTMOTT_080608_078.JPG	[15] FTMOTT_080608_083.JPG
[16] FTMOTT_080608_086.JPG	[17] FTMOTT_080608_088.JPG	[18] FTMOTT_080608_092.JPG
[19] FTMOTT_080608_095.JPG	[20] FTMOTT_080608_100.JPG	[21] FTMOTT_080608_104.JPG
[22] FTMOTT_080608_108.JPG	[23] FTMOTT_080608_111.JPG	[24] FTMOTT_080608_116.JPG
[25] FTMOTT_080608_123.JPG	[26] FTMOTT_080608_126.JPG	[27] FTMOTT_080608_131.JPG
[28] FTMOTT_080608_138.JPG	[29] FTMOTT_080608_144.JPG	[30] FTMOTT_080608_146.JPG
[31] FTMOTT_080608_155.JPG	[32] FTMOTT_080608_175.JPG	[33] FTMOTT_080608_181.JPG
[34] FTMOTT_080608_186.JPG	[35] FTMOTT_080608_189.JPG	[36] FTMOTT_080608_192.JPG
[37] FTMOTT_080608_197.JPG	[38] FTMOTT_080608_202.JPG	[39] FTMOTT_080608_204.JPG
[40] FTMOTT_080608_215.JPG	[41] FTMOTT_080608_219.JPG	[42] FTMOTT_080608_223.JPG
[43] FTMOTT_080608_224.JPG	[44] FTMOTT_080608_228.JPG	[45] FTMOTT_080608_231.JPG
[46] FTMOTT_080608_234.JPG	[47] FTMOTT_080608_237.JPG	[48] FTMOTT_080608_239.JPG
[49] FTMOTT_080608_244.JPG	[50] FTMOTT_080608_249.JPG	[51] FTMOTT_080608_251.JPG
[52] FTMOTT_080608_261.JPG	[53] FTMOTT_080608_266.JPG	[54] FTMOTT_080608_273.JPG
[55] FTMOTT_080608_277.JPG	[56] FTMOTT_080608_280.JPG	[57] FTMOTT_080608_285.JPG
[58] FTMOTT_080608_292.JPG	[59] FTMOTT_080608_296.JPG	[60] FTMOTT_080608_302.JPG
[61] FTMOTT_080608_306.JPG	[62] FTMOTT_080608_315.JPG	[63] FTMOTT_080608_319.JPG
[64] FTMOTT_080608_324.JPG	[65] FTMOTT_080608_329.JPG	[66] FTMOTT_080608_332.JPG
[67] FTMOTT_080608_339.JPG	[68] FTMOTT_080608_342.JPG	[69] FTMOTT_080608_346.JPG
[70] FTMOTT_080608_349.JPG	[71] FTMOTT_080608_355.JPG	[72] FTMOTT_080608_360.JPG
[73] FTMOTT_080608_365.JPG	[74] FTMOTT_080608_369.JPG	[75] FTMOTT_080608_374.JPG
[76] FTMOTT_080608_376.JPG	[77] FTMOTT_080608_380.JPG	[78] FTMOTT_080608_390.JPG
[79] FTMOTT_080608_394.JPG	[80] FTMOTT_080608_398.JPG	[81] FTMOTT_080608_404.JPG
[82] FTMOTT_080608_405.JPG	[83] FTMOTT_080608_415.JPG	[84] FTMOTT_080608_430.JPG
[85] FTMOTT_080608_433.JPG	[86] FTMOTT_080608_442.JPG	[87] FTMOTT_080608_446.JPG
[88] FTMOTT_080608_453.JPG	[89] FTMOTT_080608_458.JPG	[90] FTMOTT_080608_462.JPG
[91] FTMOTT_080608_470.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTMOTT_080608_013.JPG: Welcome! Fort Mott is an Endicott-era fortification (ca. 1896) that was begun prior to the Spanish-American War. Construction of an earlier fortification, known as the Battery at Finns Point, was begun in 1872 but never completed. Components of the earlier fortification were incorporated in the 1896 construction plan and are visible today at the west end of the main batteries. The fort was officially named in 1897 in honor of Major General Hershom Mott of Burlington, New Jersey, who served with distinction in the Mexican and Civil Wars. Fort Mott has five batteries which originally mounted twelve guns: Battery Arnold (three 12-inch disappearing guns), Battery Harker (three 10-inch disappearing guns), Battery Gregg (two 5-inch rapid-fire guns), Battery Krayenbuhl (two 5-inch rapid fire guns), and Battery Edwards (two 3-inch casemate rapid fire guns).
2. FTMOTT_080608_021.JPG: Battery Gregg: Battery Gregg is named in honor of Captain John C. Gregg, who served as Captain in the 4th Infantry and was killed in action near Mariquana, Philippine Islands, on March 31, 1899. Completed in December 1900, Battery Gregg was the fourth of Fort Mott's five batteries to be constructed. This battery contained emplacements for two 5-inch rapid-fire guns (model 1900) mounted on pedestal mounts with shields. Both guns were not mounted at the battery until 1906. In 1913, they were removed and later shipped to Benica Arsenal, California. Several years after the guns were removed, a Battery Commander's Station was built on emplacement No. 1 for the 10-inch guns of Battery Harker. Battery Gregg's 5-inch rapid fire guns: Test firing of the guns in 1907 shattered windows on the post and neighboring farms. The 5-inch rapid fire guns were produced at the Watervliet Arsenal, NY, and were designed to have all-around (360 degree) fire capability. Fort personnel reported that when the guns were installed, the field of view was obstructed by newly planted trees on the reservation. Battery Commander's Station: By 1920, the Battery Commander's Station was built to direct the fire of the 10-inch guns in Battery Harker. This structure, and a similar one built at Battery Krayenbuhl for Battery Arnold... provided a placed for the Battery Commander to supervise the operation of his guns. He would check the work of the plotting room by setting his sighting instrument where the target should be and note the accuracy of the plot. He would also spot the fall of the shot and make any corrected needed to bring the fire of his Battery on target.
3. FTMOTT_080608_027.JPG: Battery Gregg
4. FTMOTT_080608_037.JPG: Battery Commander's Station at Battery Gregg
5. FTMOTT_080608_055.JPG: Observation Tower
6. FTMOTT_080608_072.JPG: The Moat and the Parados: The parados (Spanish for rear door) is the earthen hill adjacent to the gun battery. It served as a shield against gunfire from the rear. Construction of the moat and parados of Fort Mott began in 1897 and took over two years to complete. The earth used to build the parados came from digging the moat; 44,500 cubic yards of earth, over 200,000 tons, was moved with grappled, wheelbarrows, and shovels. The work was grueling. Each man was expected to move nearly five tons of earth daily for a wage of $1.25. Once completed, the parados was 20 feet wide at the top and extended the entire 750-foot length of the main fortification wall. The moat was constructed by hand using shovels and wheelbarrows. Mules were used to help move soil and shape the parados. The parados originally reflected the "mirror image" of the moat. This feature provided a substantial obstacle to help thwart the advance of an enemy force attempting to capture the main gun line, as well as protect the gun crews from enemy artillery fire.
7. FTMOTT_080608_078.JPG: Observation Towers: Fifty-two feet above the ground, soldiers in this observation tower were able to identify an enemy vessel, calculate its speed and distance, note weather conditions and communicate this information to the main plotting room and the ten-inch guns at Battery Harker. Soldiers at the gun batteries used the information to compensation for weather, set the firing range and direction and potentially fire at an unsuspecting vessel. This tower was completed in 1903. It has two levels: an observation room and meteorological station on the glass-topped upper level, and a target plotting room below, from which critical data would be relayed to soldiers aiming the big guns. Vibration Dampening Device: When the big guns were fired, vibrations similar to a small earthquake affected the delicate instrumentation within the observation towers. Soldiers had to continuously adjust their instruments to make accurate readings. To solve this problem, Army engineers designed a concrete-filled tube below the tower and attached it between the instrument platform and the ground. The tube was then encased in a steel jacket. It served as a basic vibration-dampening device to protect the instruments and a means of insulating power and phone wiring as well.
8. FTMOTT_080608_088.JPG: Parade Ground
9. FTMOTT_080608_092.JPG: Parade Ground: In the early twentieth-century, when Fort Mott was an active military post, the parade ground was the hub of daily life at the fort. The soldiers' day began and ended here. In the morning, troops gathered on the Parade for Colors and flag raising and at the end of the day for Retreat. Post commanders assigned daily work scheduled on the parade ground and, when necessary, addressed the entire post on the Parade. During leisure time, the parade ground was the site of recreational activities. Baseball was among the most popular of these pastimes. Fort Mott even had its own baseball team. Facing the parade ground to the west were two barracks in which 214 enlisted men were housed. The post hospital and noncommissioned officers' housing were on the north side. On the opposite side of the parade ground, the post headquarters and commissioned offices' housing faced the noncommissioned officers' housing. The barracks and hospital were dismantled after the Army declared Fort Mott surplus in 1943.
10. FTMOTT_080608_095.JPG: Post Headquarters: Once the administrative heart of the fort, the Post Headquarters housed the office of the Post Commander. The other personnel assigned to the headquarters were the Materiel officer and the Adjutant. Activities such as general correspondence, basic orders, and responses to Army requests were managed through this building. When Port DuPont in Delaware was assigned the administrative responsibilities for Fort Mott, it was converted into a residence. Built in 1902, the house reflects the Army's commitment to high quality construction. The roof of the Post Headquarters is slate, and the porch roof is painted, galvanized steel. Gutters were not hung off the roof edge, but were elegantly hidden within the architectural detail. The clapboard siding is tradition in Army construction of this period. Today, the headquarters is one of the last remaining original buildings at Fort Mott.
11. FTMOTT_080608_100.JPG: Post Headquarters
12. FTMOTT_080608_104.JPG: Officer's Row: Since Fort Mott was a self-contained community with its own hospital, school, library and YMCA, many married officers brought their families to live with them on the post in Army provided housing. Along Officer's Row were several single homes, including the Captain's Quarters, which was located next to the post headquarters. Lieutenants lived in duplexes. Enlisted men lived in barracks with one company (about 107 men) per building. The house located at the corner of Fort Mott and Cemetery Roads was the Field Officer's Quarters. On military posts, buildings are numbered to give reference to their location. At Fort Mott, the houses of Officer's Row were numbered 1 through 8. In 1952, several buildings were transported on barges across the river to Fort DuPont in Delaware as part of a military exercise and a few remain there today.
13. FTMOTT_080608_123.JPG: This is the farthest end of the parapet with Battery Harker's communication post.
14. FTMOTT_080608_126.JPG: Battery Harker: Battery Harker was named in honor of General Charles G. Harker, who served in the 2nd, 9th, and 11th Infantry and was killed in action at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864. This battery has three emplacements for 10-inch guns mounted on disappearing carriages. Battery Harker shares the continuous parapet wall with Battery Arnold. Each gun emplacement has individual powder and shell magazines located beneath the gun platform. An electric hoist was installed at each emplacement to lift ammunition from the magazine to the platform level. Initially, speaking tubes were installed at each gun platform for communication between the magazines below and with the adjacent gun platforms. Teleautographs and later telephones were installed to improve the means of communication.
15. FTMOTT_080608_131.JPG: Shell Room (200 rounds): Coast artillery projectiles were cast iron or forged steel. The service projectiles were the armor-piercing shot, armor-piercing shell, and the high explosive. The 10-inch armor-piercing projectiles of Battery Harker weighed 617 pounds. At 3,500 yards, this shell could penetrate over 14-1/2 inches of steel. Projectile: The term applied to a missile thrown from a firearm by an explosive. The principal parts of an armor-piercing projectile are the ballistic cap, the armor piercing cap, the nose or point, the ogive, the bourrelet, the body, the rotating band, the cavity, the base plug, and the fuse, as shown in the diagram.
16. FTMOTT_080608_144.JPG: Powder Magazine. (200 rounds): For military purposes, propellent was packed in zinc cases or cartridge cases for shipment and storage. Inside these cases were serge silk bags filled with the appropriate amount of powder and priming charges. For the 10-inch guns of Battery Harker, 280 pounds of nitro cellulose propellant (brown prismatic powder) went behind each projectile. These 280 lb silk bags were put onto wooden powder serving trays and delivered to the breech of the gun. Moisture in the magazines was a problem from the beginning. Suspending ceilings and air spaces behind interior walls were built in several batteries to combat this problem. Vent shafts, located in [the] rear wall of rooms, were drilled through about 16" of concrete and granite. (Note plug on floor from one such vent shaft drilling.)
17. FTMOTT_080608_155.JPG: Overhead rail system and electric hoists: Each gun emplacement was outfitted with its own electric hoist. A Taylor-Raymond back delivery ammunition hoist was installed to lift shells from the magazine level up to the gun platform. The electric hoist could also be operated by hand in the event of a power failure. A 5-horsepower motor operated each of the 10-inch hoists in Battery Harker and a 7-1/2 horsepower motor was used for the 12-inch hoists in Battery Arnold. Ammunition and supplies were brought from the wharf to the batteries, on a narrow gauge rail system. From the rail system, the ammunition was lifted on overhead trolley rails. These were 5-inch steel I beams which ran through the entire interior of the emplacement at ground level. A chain hoist with a special lifting tong was used to lift the projectiles.
18. FTMOTT_080608_175.JPG: Advantages of an earthwork fortification over masonry forts Field guns perfected during the Civil War led to the demise of masonry forts. Masonry forts could be extensively damaged by the accurate and powerful rifled guns perfected and fired from ship during [the] Civil War. Military officers quickly realized the advantages of earthwork fortifications. Direct hits could be filled and repaired. At a masonry fort, projectiles would penetrate and collapse entire walls. The top of the parapet wall of this and other batteries at Fort Mott is angled to help deflect any incoming projectiles. The concrete parapet and earth exterior slope absorbed incoming shells. The parapet wall in front of the gun emplacements and magazines is 750 feet long and composed of poured concrete, sand and earth. In front of the magazines, the parapet has a twenty-two to thirty-five foot concrete thickness, combined with an additional thirty feet of sand and earth fill. To produce the enormous amounts of concrete required to construct the parapet at Fort Mott, a complete concrete plant with two cable ways for hauling construction materials from the wharf was erected at the fort in 1896. Despite its appearance, Fort Mott is one of the best surviving examples of an Endicott-era fortification in the United States. Much of the moisture problem afflicting the fort was inherent in the original construction process. Mass concrete construction was a relatively new process in the 1890s, and many of the techniques to counter the effects of moisture in concrete had not yet been developed. Cold joint and thermal cracking appeared shortly after construction was finished.
19. FTMOTT_080608_181.JPG: Test Firing: During July 1898, five of the six 10-inch and 12-inch guns were each fired once, for the first time since being mounted, under the direction of Maj. William Crozier, artillery inspector. The results of the tests for emplacement No. 6 were recorded as followed: Ten-inch emplacement No. 6. Ten-inch carriage No. 14 (Pond) 10-inch rifle No. 41. Gun was fired with three-fourths charge, as it went into battery too quickly. On recoil, gun did not come down to buffer by about 36 inches. Azimuth: 354 degrees 6' Elevation: 9 degrees. Time: 3:15pm
20. FTMOTT_080608_186.JPG: The 10-inch disappearing guns would have been mounted here
21. FTMOTT_080608_192.JPG: Means of Communication: Some of the means employed for transmission of orders and information in the coast artillery service were as follows: * radiotelegraphy for communication between coast-defense headquarters, other radio stations, and boats equipped with radio sets; * the telephone for communications between the units of the tactical chain of command and for the transmission of data; * the electrical or the mechanical transmission device as an auxiliary means of transmitting data from plotting rooms to emplacements or pits; * speaking tubes for communication between stations and plotting rooms and as an auxiliary means of communication between plotting rooms and emplacements of powder magazines; * flags, heliographs, and other means of signaling for communication between forts and between forts and boats when radiotelegraphy or other means of communication are not installed.
22. FTMOTT_080608_197.JPG: Gun Platform Features: Each emplacement had two cranes located at the edge of the gun platform. These service cranes were used to raise and lower parts and equipment in addition to providing emergency back up for the ammunition hoists. Each emplacement had a set of exterior stairs that provided quick access for the soldiers to their gun positions on the platform. Access, by the soldiers, between the gun platforms was provided in the form of a catwalk or elevated passageway that was incorporated onto the rear of the battery. This also provided for communication truck passage between guns in case of hoist failure.
23. FTMOTT_080608_204.JPG: Loading and firing 10-inch guns on Disappearing Cartridges: At the gun platform level, the projectiles were loaded onto an ammunition truck. Soldiers then pushed the truck with the projectiles to the breech for loading into the cannon. Gun crews could quickly load and fire the large 10- and 12-inch weapons at Fort Mott in relative safety. One distinct advantage of the disappearing carriage was that the gun always recoiled to the same position relative to the concrete platform behind the carriage. This made it possible to load the weapon directly from the wheeled shot trucks on which the ammunition was brought from the electric hoist. Guns could thus be fired rapidly, with crack crews firing two rounds a minute.
24. FTMOTT_080608_215.JPG: The Wharf: The construction of a fortification the size of Fort Mott required the delivery of a large amount of materials and equipment. The river provided an excellent "highway" and the government constructed a wharf to receive the construction materials. Equipment, materials, and supplies were unloaded at the wharf onto a rail line which was built from the wharf to the fortification site. Once the fort was completed, the rail line additionally served to transport ammunition from the wharf to the various magazines. Eventually, the rail line was extended through the parados to pull large service carts along the rail line.
25. FTMOTT_080608_219.JPG: The wharf. In the distance, you can see Pea Patch Island with Fort Delaware is in the distance. That's Delaware across the water and the toll bridge on the far left.
26. FTMOTT_080608_223.JPG: Two Batteries in One: Battery Harker and Battery Arnold share the continuous 750 foot long parapet wall. Battery Harker (right) contains three 10-inch gun emplacements and Battery Arnold (left) has three 12-inch gun emplacements. A protective earthwork, the parados, was built behind the gun emplacements to protect the fortification from enemy fire from the rear. Material for the parados was excavated from a moat that was created behind it. Grapples were used to excavate earth from the ditch and deposit it on the bank. From the bank, wheeled scrapers were used to take the material to the top of the parados. The embankment is twenty feet wide across the top and runs the entire length of the parapet wall (750 feet). Two latrines, or "earth closets", with concrete walls were built into the parados for use by the soldiers manning the battery area. In addition to the protection the parados offered, the moat would slow down a rear enemy assault on foot.
27. FTMOTT_080608_228.JPG: Pea Patch Island: Fort Mott was one of three forts built at this location on the Delaware River: At this section of the Delaware estuary, the waterway narrows from a broad bay into a river. Considered a strategic location early in the nineteenth century, military officials selected this area for a coastal defense fortification. Fort Delaware was built on Pea Patch Island during the first half of the nineteenth century. However, the advent of steam-powered naval vessels necessitated a more elaborate defensive scheme to adequately protect the upstream ports. Fort DuPont on the Delaware shore and Fort Mott on the New Jersey side were designed and built during the last half of the nineteenth century to reinforce Fort Delaware. The three fort system remained in force until after World War I. Fort Delaware is visible on Pea Patch Island. Finished in 1859, it also served as a prison for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Many of the prisoners who died there are buried at Finns Point National Cemetery, located adjacent to the north side of Fort Mott.
28. FTMOTT_080608_237.JPG: Battery Arnold: The three 12-inch guns were mounted at Fort Mott between February and June, 1898. The guns and carriages were unloaded from vessels at the government wharf and transported down the rail lines behind the parapet. The guns were then hauled up inclined trestles that were constructed at each emplacement. General Lewis G. Arnold: Born in New Jersey, Arnold was Military Academy Cadet from 1833 to 1837, and graduated and promoted in the Army to Second Lieut., 2nd Artillery. He served with distinction in the Florida, Mexican, and Civil Wars and attained the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers in 1862.
29. FTMOTT_080608_239.JPG: You can see the second observation tower here
30. FTMOTT_080608_249.JPG: Battery Krayenbuhl's 5-inch rapid fire guns: The 5-inch gun platforms, finished in the summer of 1899, had to be changed to conform to changes in the type of gun mount to be installed. The platforms had to be cut down approximately one foot, and the new platform was ready by December 2, 1899. The battery was finally turned over to the artillery the next year in December, 1900. Two 5-inch rapid fire guns (model 1897, numbers 6 and 8, Watervliet Arsenal) were mounted on a pair of 5-inch Barbette balanced-pillar mounts (Model 1896, numbers 24 and 25, Detrick and Haarey Machine Co.). The guns were capable of achieving all-around fire with a maximum depression of 3" and a maximum elevation of 18 degrees.
31. FTMOTT_080608_251.JPG: Battery Krayenbuhl's 5-inch rapid fire guns were here
32. FTMOTT_080608_329.JPG: Moat and the Parados (on the left)
33. FTMOTT_080608_339.JPG: You can see the hoists and the remnants of the catwalks between gun emplacements here.
34. FTMOTT_080608_355.JPG: The Latrines: Two latrines were built within the parados for soldiers assigned to the gun batterys [sic]. The bathrooms each had several toilets for enlisted men, a private stall for officers and a large cast-iron urinal. Toilers were similar to our modern flush toilets, except that the plumbing took the waste directly to the moat and not to a septic system. Since the moat was tidal and controlled by a sluice gate, the sewage was flushed out into the Delaware River with each tidal change. In addition to the practical necessity of the latrines, this system also served as part of an overall defense strategy: any enemy who tried to cross the moat first had to get through the sewage.
35. FTMOTT_080608_360.JPG: Latrines
36. FTMOTT_080608_374.JPG: Generator Room: The fort's electrical plant was placed in a room sixteen feet by thirty feet in the west end of the main battery. The original plans for generating electrical power at the battery used a coal fired steam system. Two 25-kilowatt General Electric dynamos, two 50-horsepower boilers, a switchboard, a Worthington pump, a feedwater heater, a water cistern, and a Sturtevant blower were placed in the dynamo room. Later modifications and improvements led to the installation of a gasoline powered system. The plant generated sufficient power to run the hoists and the lights in the main battery, as well as those in the 5-inch rapid fire gun emplacements.
37. FTMOTT_080608_376.JPG: Switchboard Room: A central switchboard room is where all the important kinds of communication terminated. By means of this switchboard, all base lines were made interchangeable. A distribution switchboard was installed in a switchboard room as a standard part of the fire commanders station. Plotting Room: Several aiming techniques were developed and used after 1905, but the most precise method made use of two or more widely spaced sighting structures technically known as base end stations. Observers in these structures continuously made bearings of a moving target and the angles of sight were communicated to a central plotting room. In this room ,the sightings were plotted and future positions were predicted. Corrections were made for meteorological factors, target progress during the projectile flight, and the time taken to calculate and transmit the data. All these variables were computed and translated into aiming directions which were conveyed to the gun crews.
38. FTMOTT_080608_380.JPG: Switchboard Room
39. FTMOTT_080608_394.JPG: Battery Edwards: Named in honor of Captain Robert Edwards, who was killed in action near Frenchtown, Michigan in 1813, Battery Edwards has two easements for 3-inch rapid fire guns, and was partially constructed using two magazines from the 1872 fortification. The magazines were converted into casemates by removing the fronts and replacing them with embrasures arranged to allow the guns to sweep the mine field in the river. The earth cover over the old batteries was cut down to render them less conspicuous and to make the slope in front of the parapet as uniform as possible.
40. FTMOTT_080608_398.JPG: Battery Krayenbuhl: Named in honor of Captain Maurice Krayenbuhl, who was killed in action near Meycausyan, Philippine Islands in March, 1899. Battery Krayenbuhl's two 5-inch rapid fire guns on the right flank of the heavy caliber battery, in conjunction with the rapid fire guns at Battery Gregg on the left flank, were an important component to the defensive scheme at Fort Mott. These guns were positioned to protect a minefield in the river from small fast moving vessels that could potentially evade the large weapons. In addition to sweeping the minefield, the guns were designed to protect the channel below and above the fort. They could also effectively fire to the rear of the fort. An interior magazine was built below the gun platforms and an electric chain hoist was used to deliver ammunition.
41. FTMOTT_080608_404.JPG: Battery Commander's Station
42. FTMOTT_080608_405.JPG: Battery Commander's Station: After the two 5-inch guns were removed in 1917, an observation station was built over one of the original gun emplacements. This structure, the battery commander's station for Battery Arnold, was made of reinforced concrete at a cost of $850,000. It was partially concealed by the parapet wall. Power was supplied from the power plant and data transmission was done by telephone.
43. FTMOTT_080608_415.JPG: Because technologies such as radar and aerial reconnaissance did not exist when Fort Mott was functional, observation stations, like this one and its counterpart at Battery Gregg, were the only means by which the movements of enemy vessels could be observed. The coordinates of a vessel would constantly be relayed from the observation stations to the plotting rooms. In the plotting rooms, mathematical calculations were made so the large guns could be accurately aimed before firing. Because an enemy vessel may be within the firing range of all three forts but visible to only one at a given time, observation stations at the forts provided a system network.
44. FTMOTT_080608_430.JPG: Battery Krayenbuhl
45. FTMOTT_080608_442.JPG: Sunset at Fort Mott State Park, NJ
Wikipedia Description: Fort Mott (New Jersey)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Mott was part of a three-fort defense system designed for the Delaware River during the post-bellum modernization period following the American Civil War. The other two forts in the system were Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware.

Original plans for Fort Mott specified eleven gun emplacements with twenty guns and a mortar battery with six emplacements for Rodman Smoothbore guns. Construction was started in 1872, however, only two of the gun emplacements and two magazines in the mortar battery were completed by 1876 when all work stopped.

A general War Department Order #72, issued on December 16, 1897, designated the new fort as Fort Mott, in honor of Major General Gershom Mott, of Trenton. Gershom Mott had served with distinction as Second Lieutenant in the Tenth Infantry in the Mexican-American War, as Lieutenant-Colonel in the 5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, as Colonel and commander of the 6th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry before he was promoted to first Brigadier General. He was wounded four times, resigned from the Army in 1866 and died on November 29, 1884.

Fort Mott, along with Fort Delaware and Fort DuPont, became obsolete as the principal defensive installation on the Delaware River with the construction of Fort Saulsbury, near Milford, Delaware, shortly after World War I.

Troops were regularly stationed at Fort Mott from 1897 to 1922. The federal government maintained a caretaking detachment at the fort from 1922 to 1943. New Jersey acquired the military reservation as a historic site and State park in 1947. Fort Mott State Park was opened to the public on June 24, 1951. The site is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

Apart from regular practice sessions and testing, the guns at Fort Mott were never fired in battle.

As part of a budget reduction, the park is slated to close pending the adoption of the new state budget.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].