Defending America's Coasts,
950
Once again the country briefly all but forgot its
The Quasi-War with France
new construction program in 1798 to rehabilitate and complete existing works and erect new ones.
their earlier work, the temporary engineers, still mostly foreign, directed the erection
of some masonry structures, including Baltimore's Fort McHenry and Philadelphia's Fort Mifflin."
The next few years brought major organizational changes. In 1799, Congress created the position of
Inspector of Fortifications to report on the state of the works. The War Department appointed Major
Jonathan Williams to the post two years later. Williams, an officer in the Corps of Artillerists and
Engineers, had already published a treatise on fortifications. In 1802, Congress enacted an even more
important law establishing a Corps of Engineers. The legislation assigned the Corps to West Point,
New York, and stipulated that it would constitute a military academy!
In October 1802, the new Corps of Engineers reached its authorized initial complement of seven
officers, all assigned to West Point. Soon, though, the Secretary of War began ordering Corps
to fortification duty. Although Congress appropriated only paltry sums for this work until
1807, the engineers did accomplish some construction at Norfolk, Virginia; New York Harbor;
Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Smithville, North Carolina; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Following the Chesapeake affair in 1807, Congress, fearing a second war with England, passed a
large appropriation bill for fortifications. Thanks to the Military Academy, which then provided a
rudimentary military engineering education, the United States had American military engineers
available to plan and supervise fortification construction. Therefore, the Secretary of War ordered
Williams to Washington to prepare a system of defenses. Soon afterward, Williams dispatched Corps
to various areas where they would direct fortification rehabilitation and
Differing considerably from earlier coastal defenses, these new works consisted of
batteries,
masonry-faced earth forts," and more permanent "all-masonry"
During the second war with
England, in 1812-15, the mere existence of these forts generally deterred the British from attacking
the defended harbors. In a few cases, the British did assault the defenses. At Baltimore, in 18 14, Fort
McHenry and its subsidiary fortifications halted a determined landing attempt?
The War of 1812 stimulated the construction of fortifications. At New York City, Brigadier General
Joseph G. Swift, Chief Engineer, used volunteer laborers in the construction of an extensive system
of batteries, towers, and redoubts that supplemented the more permanent works. Other construction
occurred at various localities such as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New Orleans, Louisiana?
In 1816, the War Department created a Board of Engineers to study coastal defenses and recommend
changes. Simon Bernard, a former officer in Napoleon's army with vast experience and knowledge,
accepted a commission in the United States Army as an assistant engineer and served as head of the
board. Composed of one
from the Navy and three from the Corps of Engineers, the Bernard
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