page_title: Fort Trumbull
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Trumbull / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Fort Trumbull
context_page_description: Fort Trumbull is a fort near the mouth of the Thames River on Long Island Sound in New London, Connecticut and named for Governor Jonathan Trumbull. The original fort was built in 1777, but the present fortification was built between 1839 and 1852. The site lies adjacent to the Coast Guard Station New London and is managed as the 16-acre Fort Trumbull State Park by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
context_section_description: The fort was repaired circa 1808, and redesigned and rebuilt in 1812 to meet changing military needs under the second system of US fortifications. First a redoubt was built at the site to react to threat of British attack. Secretary of War Henry Dearborn's report on fortifications for December 1811 describes the fort as "an irregular enclosed work of masonry and sod, mounting 18 heavy guns [with] a brick barracks for one company". The present fortification replaced the older fort, and was built between 1839 and 1852 as a five-sided, four-bastion coastal defense fort. It could accommodate 42 guns on the seacoast fronts, plus 10 additional guns in two flanking batteries outside the fort, along with flank howitzers in bastions for close-in defense. The new fort was built under the supervision of Army engineer George Washington Cullum, who later served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
  During the Civil War, Fort Trumbull served as an organizational center for Union troops and headquarters for the 14th US Infantry Regiment. Here, troops were recruited and trained before being sent to war.  Fort Trumbull was briefly commanded by John F. Reynolds, who rose to the rank of major general and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
  From 1863 to 1879, Ordnance Sergeant Mark Wentworth Smith was assigned to Fort Trumbull and served as the caretaker of Fort Griswold, which was an un-garrisoned subpost of Fort Trumbull across the Thames River in the town of Groton.  Among other duties, he maintained a vegetable garden to help feed the soldiers at Fort Trumbull.  Smith was born in New Hampshire in 1803 and enlisted in the Army on January 27, 1827 at the age of 23.  He was wounded in action at the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican War.  For unknown reasons, he was allowed to serve on active duty in the Army until his death in 1879 at the age of 76.  He was possibly the oldest enlisted man to serve on active duty in the United States Army in the 19th Century.  (Army Air Forces Master Sergeant John W. Westervelt served on active duty during World War II until he was retired at age 77 in 1945.  Chief Torpedoman's Mate Harry S. Morris was born in 1888 and served in the Navy from 1903 to 1958 when he was "only" 70 years old.)   Sergeant Smith is buried in the Colonel Ledyard Cemetery in Groton.
  In the late 1800s Fort Trumbull was modified to accommodate more modern artillery pieces.  Specifically, these artillery pieces were 15-inch and 10-inch Rodman smooth bore guns and 8-inch converted rifles.  Two 8-inch converted rifles are still at Fort Trumbull in a restored firing position.
caption: Fort Trumbull[4]
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