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Fort Columbus was the name of a fortification and later the army post that developed around it from 1806 to 1904. Located on Governors Island in New York Harbor, a half mile from Lower Manhattan, it was originally constructed as Fort Jay about 1794 and named in honor of New York Governor, later Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay. With the election of Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800 there was a shift of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson's party objected to the negotiations of John Jay with Britain, which resulted in the Jay Treaty of 1794, which resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution. The Democratic-Republicans therefore renamed the fort in New York Harbor as Fort Columbus after famous European explorer Christopher Columbus. In 1806, under the direction of Jonathan Williams, chief of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Columbus was reconstructed and enlarged with granite and brick walls. This was part of what became known as the Second System of US seacoast fortifications. Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of New York City as the largest army post defending the city. The fortification, in concert with Fort Wood on Liberty Island, Fort Gibson on Ellis Island, Castle Clinton at the Battery in Lower Manhattan, and two other fortifications on Governors Island, South Battery and Castle Williams, provided protection for New York City and Upper New York Bay. This system of coastal fortifications discouraged the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812. ==Peacetime role== In subsequent years, Fort Wadsworth, Fort Hamilton and Fort Lafayette at the Narrows of New York Harbor reduced the need for the Upper Harbor forts, and in time, the Army transferred most properties in Upper New York Bay to other federal agencies or sold them to the state of New York. Fort Columbus, however, included , a sufficient land mass for a modest garrison at a reasonable proximity (1,000 yards) from Manhattan, making it the most practical of the War of 1812-era forts for the Army to retain and continue to garrison. Personnel stationed at Fort Columbus began to record meteorological observations in the 1820s. As the closest major army post to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Fort Columbus for many years served as a first posting or a major departure point for newly graduated cadets shipping to army posts along the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Many future generals in the Civil War were posted to or passed through Fort Columbus as young junior officers. They included Abner Doubleday, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, John Bell Hood, Theophilus H. Holmes Thomas Jackson, Henry Wager Halleck, James B. McPherson, John G. Barnard and others. In the 1830s, the protective value of Fort Columbus diminished with the advance of weapons technology, but other uses evolved for the army post. The Army renovated the fortification beginning in 1833 with the construction of four barracks that remain to the present day. That same year the Ordnance Department established the New York Arsenal as a separate installation, adjacent to but not part of Fort Columbus, as a major depot taking delivery of contracted manufactured arms and weapons and distributing both contract and federally manufactured weapons to army posts across the nation. The army located its General Recruiting Service for infantry troops at Fort Columbus in November 1852 and many regiments in the army detailed officers to Fort Columbus on recruiting details.〔Smith, Edmund Banks (). 106.〕 In 1836, South Battery became the Army School of Music Practice, training young boys to become company drummers and fife players and regimental musicians. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fort Columbus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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