BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Fort Howard Park

MD -- Fort Howard Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTHOWP_150904_005.JPG: Fort Howard: "The Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate" Imagine a line of huge enemy warships sailing up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Patapsco River intent on bombarding and invading Baltimore. It happened right here at North Point in 1814 when the British landed 4000 troops and sent a squadron of gunboats up the river to attack Fort McHenry. Baltimore turned back the British in 1814 but we never forgot that fearful event and how vulnerable our coastal cities were to attack by sea. By 1885, America's obsolete coast defenses led Congress to create a board to identify those port cities where defenses were lacking and to recommend upgrades to military installations at those locations. Full funding for those improvements took another decade to be implemented, but by 1898, construction began in earnest, spurred by war with Spain and the fear of Spanish naval attack against a relatively unprotected coastline. Fort Howard was one of those forts. It, and 3 others on the Patapsco, including Fort Smallwood, Fort Armistead, and Fort Carroll were built or modified to house state of the art breech-loading long range artillery and electrically controlled mines. Construction began in 1898, and by 1907, the entrance to the harbor of Baltimore bristled with 36 artillery pieces and scores of buoyant mines. In 1908, a local newspaper reporting on the completion of the 4 forts called them "The Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate". For two decades, the four forts watched over the Patapsco but by 1920, the size and range of coast artillery had advanced to the point where the guns of Fort Monroe and Fort Story closed the Chesapeake Bay, making the guns of the Baltimore harbor forts obsolete. The last gun battery in the Baltimore Defenses was deactivated in 1927. Five of the concrete gun batteries are still here at the fort. Feel free to explore them and imagine the days over a century ago when they were inhabited by huge guns and companies of artillerymen ready to defend our freedom. Fort Howard housed 18 artillery pieces in 6 huge concrete gun batteries.
2. FTHOWP_150904_010.JPG: Friends of Fort Howard Park
3. FTHOWP_150904_031.JPG: Battery Nicholson Completed in 1900 and armed in 1902 with two 6 inch disappearing rifles, named in honor of Judge Joseph H. Nicholson, Captain of Volunteer Artillery, in Defense of Fort McHenry, September 13 & 14, 1814
4. FTHOWP_150904_097.JPG: Searchlight Power House: This building originally contained the electrical generating and power distribution equipment for the fort's searchlights, used for night illumination of the river.
5. FTHOWP_150904_100.JPG: This Maple: Was planted by the Patapsco Neck Bicentennial Committee in July 1976, after the tree was used in a display depicting the battle of North Point at the 1976 Dundalk Heritage Fair.
6. FTHOWP_150904_181.JPG: Power House: At one time, this building housed all of the generators and power distribution panels for the fort's gun emplacements.
7. FTHOWP_150904_205.JPG: Battery Clagett: Completed in 1900, this battery contained two 3" rapid fire guns. Named in honor of Lieut. Levi Clagett, who was killed in the defense of Fort McHenry.
Wikipedia Description: Fort Howard (Maryland)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Howard is the name of a former military installation in Baltimore County, Maryland, near the present-day settlement of Fort Howard.

This park's historical significance is its connection with the War of 1812 and largest invasion of the United States in history on the morning of September 12, 1814. In the Battle of Baltimore, the British landed about seven thousand men near the site that later became Fort Howard, as a part of a campaign to capture and burn Baltimore. In coordination with their navy's bombardment of Fort McHenry, the British troops were to march up Patapsco Neck and capture Baltimore from the east. But the British advance was first demoralized when American sharpshooters Daniel Wells and Henry McComas killed their popular commanding general, Major-General Robert Ross. The advance had been temporarily stalled by the Americans in the Battle of North Point, and finally stopped dead when the British perceived the strength of the American defenses at Patterson Park. Disheartened, they reboarded their ships near North Point (Fort Howard) and sailed away to another defeat in the Battle of New Orleans.

In the 1700's, the site served as an important part of the transportation route between the Eastern Shore and the port of Baltimore.

Originally known as North Point, the site was taken over in 1896 by the federal government for the construction of coastal artillery fortifications. The fort was renamed by the Secretary of War in 1902 after Colonel John Eager Howard, a Baltimore philanthropist and distinguished soldier of the Maryland Continental Line during the American Revolutionary War. The installation earned the nickname the "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate" and served as the coastal artillery headquarters for Baltimore. The installation was turned over to the Veterans' Administration in 1940, which still owns the majority of the property. The portion of the property containing the old coastal artillery fortications was declared surplus federal land and is now the county park.

In the 1960's it was used as an auxiliary training area for the USArmy Intelligence School at Fort Holabird in Dundalk. A Vietnamese Village was built there to train Special Forces for counterinsurgency operations. The village had realistic tunnels. Instructors acted the part of insurgents who were captured and subjected to training interrogation and often to harsh treatment. Also in the 1960's and until the mid-1970's, other students were trained there in water and land infiltration and instructors were the opposition. When students were caught they were interrogated in the underground coastal defense bunkers. Interrogation usual meant the students holding bricks on their outstreched arms while standing naked on rubber tires. All training ceased when the Intelligence school moved to Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
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