page_title: Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay
section_title: Revolutionary War
hierarchical_section_title: Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay / History / Early Rhode Island forts / Revolutionary War
context_page_description: The Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program. These included both coast artillery forts and underwater minefields. The command originated circa 1895 as an Artillery District, was renamed Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay in 1913, and again renamed Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay in 1925.
context_section_description: In 1775 the American Revolution broke out. Fort George was seized by patriot forces and renamed Fort Liberty. In 1776 the fort was rearmed with 25 guns, a mix of 24- and 18-pounders, with a 50-man garrison under Captain Samuel Sweet. The patriots built at least two other batteries in Newport, one on Easton's Point at Battery Park, site of the later Fort Greene, and another at Castle Hill. The Easton's Point battery once forced the besieging HMS Scarborough to move away from the town. Another 12-gun battery was built on Conanicut Island across the bay from Newport, initially named the Dumpling Rock Battery or Fort Brown, after its commander, Abdiel Brown. This fort was also called Fort Conanicut after 1779. The patriots also fortified the bay's West Passage with the Beaver Tail Fort and the Conanicut Battery.
  On 6, 10, and 14 April 1776, four guns at Brenton's Point manned by the Artillery Company of Newport drove off British ships attempting to attack Newport.  Despite this, the British captured Newport on 8 December by assaulting the Beaver Tail Fort and Conanicut Battery in Jamestown, then sailing around the west and northeast parts of Conanicut Island to approach Newport from the north. They renamed the main fort as Fort George, and occupied the city for three years, building a barracks at Brenton's Point. The appearance of a French fleet off Newport in mid-1778 caused the British to scuttle some of their own ships in an attempt to block the harbor. Patriot forces attempted to recover Newport in August 1778, fighting the Battle of Rhode Island about seven miles north of the town, but were unsuccessful. However, the British abandoned Newport in October 1779, concentrating their forces in New York City. At this point Fort George was reoccupied by the patriots and became Fort Washington.
  An expedition of 5,500 French troops under Count Rochambeau arrived in Newport by sea on 10 July 1780. They built Fort Chastellux (later known as Fort Harrison and Fort Denham) on high ground behind Goat Island (near King Avenue, later renamed Chastellux Avenue), not far from the current site of the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, and rebuilt and re-used the British barracks on Brenton's Point. A French map of this period reportedly shows a total of 39 forts and batteries in Newport and Middletown. A year later the French left Rhode Island to join Washington's forces north of New York City, eventually participating in the Yorktown campaign that effectively won the Revolution. Their overland route from Newport to Yorktown is marked today as the Washington–Rochambeau National Historic Trail.
caption: Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau.
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