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DEFENSES OF PORTSMOUTH AND THE NAVY-YARD AT KITTERY— continued.

Plans for the completion of this work have been prepared by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications and approved by the Secretary of War, but are only partially executed. The plans require revision.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

DEFENSES OF BOSTON AND THE NAVY-YARD AT CHARLESTOWN.

Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, in charge of Maj. Charles W. Raymond, Corps of Engineers.-This fort, situated on George's Island, commands the main ship-channel and the anchorage of Nantasket Roads. It consists of a granite, casemated, full-bastioned enceinte, with an earthen cover-face and ravelin.

It was commenced in 1833, and its plans have been modified by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications to adapt it for modern ordnance. These modified plans were partly executed when operations were suspended in 1875-'76 for want of appropriations.

During the fiscal year operations have been confined to the following: The sea wall and riprap shore protections were repaired and strengthened.

The boarding-house drains were repaired.

One of the flank embrasures of Front IV was enlarged to serve as a doorway for the use of the garrison.

The torpedoes on hand were scraped and painted.

The plastering of the casemates of Front III was repaired.

The exterior slope of the parapet of Front IV was repaired and resodded.

All existing 10-inch and 15-inch gun platforms were put in serviceable order. Additional front traverse rails were placed on two of the 10-inch barbette platforms, to adapt them to the new carriage for 8-inch converted rifles.

The estimated amount required to complete the work is $185,000. The plans require revision.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

Battery at Long Island Head, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, in charge of Maj. Charles W. Raymond, Corps of Engineers.-This earthwork occupies an important position in the outer line of defense for Boston Har bor, and its guns bear on all the channels of entrance.

It was commenced in 1871, and was designed for the reception of the heaviest modern ordnance. Nothing has been done in construction since the fiscal year 1875–76 for want of appropriations, and the work, the plans of which have been prepared by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications and approved by the Secretary of War, is in an unfinished condition.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, operations have been limited to putting in serviceable order all the existing gun platforms, to making minor repairs to the engineer buildings, fences, drains, and sodded slopes; and the battery is now in fair order.

To complete the work in accordance with existing plans it is estimated that $90,000 will be required. The plans require revision.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

DEFENSES OF BOSTON AND THE NAVY-YARD AT CHARLESTOWNcontinued.

Fort Winthrop, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, in charge of Maj. Charles W. Raymond, Corps of Engineers.-This fort is situated on Governor's Island; it forms part of the inner line of defense for Boston Harbor and the Charlestown navy-yard.

It was commenced in 1844, and consists of a central casemated tower, with outlying earthen barbette batteries.

The batteries were modified by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications for the reception of modern ordnance, and their plans have been partly executed, although no active operations have been in progress since 1875-76, for want of funds.

Operations during the fiscal year were confined to those necessary for the repair of earth-slopes, the parade of the tower, and the engineer buildings. All existing gun platforms were put in serviceable condition. The work is essentially in as good order as at the date of the last annual report.

The estimated amount to complete the work in accordance with existing plans is $180,000. Of this amount $100,000 can be profitably expended during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887.

The plans of the batteries require revision.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, in charge of Maj. Charles W. Raymond, Corps of Engineers.-This work is situated on Castle Island, and forms part of the inner line of defense for Boston Harbor and the navy yard at Charlestown. It was commenced in 1833, and consists of a granite casemated enceinte, with two exterior earthen barbette batteries.

The plans of this work were modified by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications for the reception of modern ordnance, and these plans have been well advanced towards completion, although active operations have been suspended since 1875-76 from want of appropriations.

Operations during the fiscal year have been limited to placing all existing gun platforms in serviceable order, including the partial rebuilding of one 15-inch platform, and making minor repairs to the engineer buildings, wharves, &c.

The work is in as good order as at date of last report.

The estimated amount necessary to complete the work in accordance with the present plans is $50,000.

The plans require revision.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

DEFENSES OF NEW BEDFORD.

Fort at Clark's Point, New Bedford Harbor, Massachusetts, in charge of Lieut. Col. George H. Elliot, Corps of Engineers.-This casemated work,

DEFENSES OF NEW BEDFORD-Continued.

commenced in 1857, commands the entrance to the harbor of New Bedford.

Plans for new earthen batteries for modern heavy guns have been completed by the Board of Engineers for Fortifications, but nothing has been done towards their construction. The plans require revision.

The operations of the last fiscal year were confined to work of preservation and repair as follows: One of the land front casemates on the lower tier was fitted up for a store-room, properly secured, and all the portable engineer property was stored therein. The material of two of the old wooden buildings, of which one had been blown down and the other was in danger of being blown down, was removed, and their sites were cleaned up. The old derrick on the dock was taken down, and the portable railroad iron was removed from the dock and stored away. The traverse irons of the casemates were scraped and painted. Temporary doors were provided for the barbette magazines. A pent-house on the barbette over one of the staircases was rebuilt. New flue-covers were provided on the parapet of the land front. The grass of earthwork of the barbette tier was mowed. Skids for all the guns and shot-beds for the large number of shot and shell on hand at this fort were constructed, the latter in the gun casemates.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

DEFENSES OF NARRAGANSETT BAY.

Fort Adams, Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, in charge of Lieut. Col. George H. Elliot, Corps of Engineers.-This large and important work, commenced in 1824, defends the harbor and city of Newport, and commands the principal passage to Narragansett Bay, one of the best roadsteads on the coast.

The preparatory work for the construction of the new exterior earthen battery for modern ordnance (such as opening roads, draining the grounds, &c.) having been all completed, rapid progress can be made in construction when the necessary funds are appropriated. This important battery at the end of the fiscal year 1875-76 had but recently been commenced in accordance with plans approved by the Secretary of War, and no work has been done since that year for want of appropriations. The plan of this battery requires revision.

The operations of the last fiscal year were as follows: The work of covering the terreplein of the main work, for the purpose of preventing leaks into the gun casemates and the casemates used for quarters and magazines, which work has been in progress for several years under successive appropriations for preservation and repair of fortifications, was nearly completed; 37,329 square feet of surface were laid during the year, leaving 5,743 square feet to complete the work during the next fiscal year. Of the rubble-stone sea-wall for the protection of the eastern shore of the fort lands there were constructed during the year 180 running feet north of the engineer wharf, and 551 running feet south of that wharf, leaving about 450 running feet to be completed; 166 running feet of similar wall were constructed on the western shore

DEFENSES OF NARRAGANSETT BAY-continued.

of the fort lands, completing the work on that shore. The work of repairing and refacing the embrasures, which had been damaged by exfoliations, was continued, and forty were completed. The parade ends of the arches of all the gun casemates were repaired and were replas tered with cement mortar. The underground sewerage of the main work and the outworks was uncovered, cleaned, and repaired. The total development of these sewers, many of which had probably not been uncovered since the construction of the work and were in a bad sanitary condition, was 4,995 feet. The work of recutting and fitting the stonework of four platforms for 15-inch or heavy rifled guns for their iron work was commenced, but had not been completed at the end of the fiscal year. The other work of the year embraced cutting the grass on the parapets and magazines of the new batteries, repairing the pavement of the permanent dock, scraping and painting casemate traverse irons, repairing earthen parapets of the main work and the horn work, and repointing the scarp of the north curtain, which effect. ually stopped the driving of wet into some of the casemates used as quarters, in northerly storms, complained of by the garrison for some years. The laying of the floors in two service magazines, for which the lumber was procured, was commenced, but could not be completed during the year by reason of the difficulty and delay found in procuring the necessary composition nails.

Contracts were made during the year for the cement required for concreting the terreplein of the main work, for the iron work required for four front pintle platforms for 15-inch or heavy rifled guns, for laying this iron work, and for the composition work required for the doors of two service magazines.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same

reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

Defenses of Dutch Island, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, in charge of Lieut. Col. George H. Elliot, Corps of Engineers.-The earthen batteries on this island, commenced in 1863, command the western entrance to Narragansett Bay. Nothing has been done in the construction of the defenses since the fiscal year 1875–76. They are incomplete, and the plans require revision.

The operations of the last fiscal year embrace repairing the engineer overseer's house occupied by the ordnance sergeant, removing the flagging which had been broken by frost from the breast-height wall of the lower battery and grading the superior slope of the parapet, painting the wind-mill, and making arrangements and contracts for completing four front pintle platforms and one center pintle platform for 15-inch or heavy rifled guns and their service magazines. The lumber was procured for laying the floors of these magazines, but they could not be finished in the fiscal year on account of the difficulty and the delay found in procuring the necessary composition nails.

No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

DEFENSES OF NARRAGANSETT BAY-continued.

Fort Greene, Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.-On the 9th of January, 1885, the Senate passed the following resolution respecting Fort Greene, in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be, and he hereby is, directed to report without unnecessary delay to the Senate, whether any private person is in the possession and occupation of Fort Greene, in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, belonging to the United States; and, if so, under what authority does such person hold the same; whether the said Fort Greene is of any present use to the Government of the United States; and, if not, will the United States probably have any future use for the said fort; and if there is no present or prospective use for the said fort, whether or not the same ought not to be sold and the proceeds thereof be covered into the Treasury of the United States; and if the said Fort Greene is not of any present use to the United States but will probably be of use thereto hereafter, whether the said Fort Greene may not well be committed to the care and custody of the city of Newport, to be by the said city used as a public park until further action of Congress or of the Secretary of War is had in reference thereto.

The letter of the Secretary of War, with accompanying papers, recommending the transfer of the fort and the land belonging thereto to the city of Newport for use as a public park, copies of which will be found in Appendix No. 2, were sent to the Senate January 20, 1885, and printed as Senate Ex. Doc. No. 41, Forty-eighth Congress, second session.

DEFENSES OF NEW LONDON HARBOR AND NAVY-YARD.

Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, in charge of Lieut. Col. Walter Mc Farland, Corps of Engineers.-This is a pentagonal, masonry, bastioned, casemated work of one tier, with a barbette battery on top, having three water fronts and but four bastions-the bastion at the junction of the two land fronts being omitted. The casemates furnish positions for fourteen heavy guns and eight flank howitzers, and the barbette for twenty-four heavy guns.

The northern land front, through which the sallyport passes, is protected by a cover-face arranged with a place of arms and positions for six barbette guns. The north exterior earthen battery is arranged for mounting five 15-inch guns to command the channel. The platforms for these guns are ready with the exception of the traverse irons, which are on hand and ready to be laid.

The south exterior water battery, which now mounts six 8-inch Rodmans and two 100-pound Parrotts, under an approved plan of the Board of Engineers, is to be fitted for 15-inch Rodmans, but no money has yet been applied toward carrying out this project.

The fort is situated on a promontory on the west shore of New London Harbor, about 2 miles from Long Island Sound, and is in good condition, with the exception of some of the brick facing of the casemates, which has been damaged by leakage through the covering of the arches or between the arches and the scarp-wall.

No work has been done during the past year on the fort itself, but out of the small allotment made for it the parade drain has been extended across the parade into the vault in the southwest bastion.

The alteration of the south water battery, as planned by the Board of Engineers, to fit it for the use of 15-inch Rodmans, is necessary to the proper defense of the position.

Fort Trumbull is garrisoned by two companies of the First Artillery. No appropriation having been made, no work was done at this fortification during the last fiscal year beyond its protection, preservation, and repair, as far as was possible with the general appropriation made for this purpose, and no other work is contemplated during the current fiscal year for the same reason.

No appropriation asked for next fiscal year.

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