Fort Columbus 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 . 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 ( 1000 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 barrack s 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 . In 1836 , South Battery became the Army School of Music Practice , training young boys to become company drummers and fife players and regimental musicians . Role in the beginning of the Civil War . Twice in early 1861 , the Army secretly dispatched troops and provisions from Fort Columbus to relieve the besieged garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston , South Carolina . Outgoing President James Buchanan initiated the first effort , but cadets from The Citadel , The Military College of South Carolina , fired on the Army - chartered New York - based steamship " Star of the West " on 9 January 1861 as it entered Charleston Harbor . The incident provoked a crisis while other southern states began to more seriously consider secession from the Union . The second effort , which marked the beginning of the Civil War , also failed when it prompted South Carolina forces to fire on Fort Sumter early in the morning of 9 April 1861 . During the Civil War , Fort Columbus served as a recruitment center and hospital . Fort Columbus and Castle Williams also served as a temporary prisoner of war camp and confinement hospital for Confederate prisoners during the war . Major General William H . C . Whiting ( CSA ) died of dysentery in February 1865 while in captivity in post hospital shortly after his surrender at the Battle of Fort Fisher in North Carolina . He was the highest ranking Confederate officer to die as a prisoner of war . Division and departmental headquarters . In the years after the American Civil War , New York Arsenal served as a major center for disposing of surplus and excess cannons and munitions for war memorials , scrap , or sale to foreign governments . In 1878 , as part of a nation - wide cost - cutting effort , the United States Army relocated many of its administrative functions from rented quarters in large urban centers to neighboring army posts . In New York City , nearly all army functions in the city were relocated to Governors Island , making Fort Columbus the headquarters for the Division of the Atlantic and later the Department of the East . Both commands then included almost all army activities east of the Mississippi River . The prestige of a command at Fort Columbus as a premier posting ranked second only to high - ranking army positions in Washington , D . C . and many commanders went on to become Commanding General of the United States Army . Its departmental commanders from the 1880s to the 1900s included Winfield Scott Hancock , Wesley Merritt , Oliver O . Howard , Nelson Miles , Arthur MacArthur , and other combat commanders in the Civil War , the Indian Wars , and the Spanish - American War . Fort Jay again . Secretary of War Elihu Root , an appointee of President Theodore Roosevelt , redesignated the fortification Fort Columbus as Fort Jay in February 1904 , shortly before leaving office . Root , a New Yorker was an admirer of John Jay and his Federalist Party . He ordered the name of the fortification restored and extended it to the army post that evolved around it on Governors Island .