James B. McPherson, Joseph Stewart, William A. Winder
Fort Alcatraz was a United States Army coastal fortification on Alcatraz Island near the mouth of San Francisco Bay in California, part of the Third System of fixed fortifications, although very different from most other Third System works. Initially completed in 1859, it was also used for mustering and training recruits and new units for the Civil War from 1861 and began secondary use as a long-term military prison in 1868.
Major improvements, needed because of changes in artillery, began in the 1870s, but were underfunded and never fully completed, as the post came to be seen less as defense and more as a jail. The site was not used for any major works of the Endicott Board’s plan for the defense of the Bay.
A large concrete prison block was erected between 1910 and 1912. In 1933–1934, this was modernized and became the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
History
Early history
Native Americans, known as Ohlone (A Miwok Indian word), were the earliest known inhabitants. They gathered bird eggs and other products there, but did not generally permanently live on the island.
19th century
The Alcatraz citadel building, completed in the 1850s and razed in 1909; 1908 photo
The earliest recorded owner of Alcatraz was William Workman, of the Workman-Temple family to whom it was given by Mexican governor Pio Pico in June 1846, with the understanding that Workman would build a lighthouse on it. Workman was co-owner of Rancho La Puente and personal friend of Pio Pico. Later in 1846, acting in his capacity as Military Governor of California, John C. Fremont, champion of Manifest Destiny and leader of the Bear Flag Republic, bought the island for $5,000 in the name of the United States government from Francis Temple.[1][2]
In 1850, President Millard Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island be set aside specifically for military purposes based upon the U.S. acquisition of California from Mexico following the Mexican–American War.[3] Fremont had expected a large compensation for his initiative in purchasing and securing Alcatraz Island for the U.S. government, but the U.S. government later invalidated the sale and paid Fremont nothing. Fremont and his heirs sued for compensation during protracted but unsuccessful legal battles that extended into the 1890s.[3]
The start of construction was a citadel, in this case meaning a lightly fortified barracks, at the top of sandstone rock outcrops. In every other Third System works, such structures are masked from direct fire by more solid fortifications, but not here. The upper part of the island was encircled with walls built of stone and bricks abutting the rock faces, unlike most other Third System works, which laid a heavier hand on the natural landscape. Near the wharf, though, a later sallyport and a fortified barracks showed a more conventional design. A lighthouse was built and 11 cannons were fixed.
Lighthouse and citadel building, c. 1893
Army engineer James B. McPherson, later to become a prominent general during the Civil War, was one of the earliest commanders to serve on Alcatraz in 1858.[6] In 1859 Captain Joseph Stewart became commander of the active fort.
Alcatraz was used to house soldiers who were guilty of crimes as early as 1859. By 1861, the fort was the military prison for the Department of the Pacific and housed Civil War prisoners of war (POWs) as early as that year. Starting in 1863, the military also held private citizens accused of treason, after the writ of habeas corpus in the United States was suspended.[7]
The number of cells were increased in 1867 and the facility became a long-term military prison in 1868.[6] Alcatraz was crucial to defense during the American Civil War (1861–1865), having some 111 cannons encircling the island at peak,[8] and was also used as a war camp. During the Civil War, the local federal forces had the onerous task of preventing local fighting between the Union and Confederate supporters who were both part of the population of California, and to protect San Francisco.
For example, in 1863, Asbury Harpending outfitted a schooner, the J. M. Chapman as a confederate privateer, intending it to prey on the Pacific Mail ships, which often carried cargoes of precious metals. The plan was interrupted early by the USS Cyane, among others. Consequent to this, more and more were arrested for treason or enemy sympathies. To hold the increased number of prisoners, a temporary makeshift wooden prison was built in 1863 to the north of the guardhouse. In 1864, 15-inch Rodman cannons were added to the fort's armament, and more bombproof barracks built. By end of the Civil War in 1865, there were more than one hundred cannon on the island.
Alcatraz Island, 1895
As the civil war ended, the military prison housed Confederate sympathizers who celebrated Lincoln's death. During the Indian Wars that followed the civil war, Indians who went against the government were sent to the Alcatraz prison. On June 5, 1873, Paiute Tom was the first Native American who was imprisoned there on transfer from Camp McDermit in Nebraska.[9] In the 1870s, Major George Mendell ordered the prisoners, aided by mules, to assist in changing the natural landscape of the island and creating a top level, dumping debris into the coves and bay.[6]
In 1882 the citadel was enlarged to provide more accommodation for the families of the military officers working on Alcatraz.[6] Between 1873 and 1895, 32 Native Americans were imprisoned at the citadel on Alcatraz, including 19 Hopi men held in captivity there between January and August 1895 after being transferred from Fort Defiance.[6]
The island continued to develop in the 1880s and in 1898 the population of Alcatraz increased dramatically from 26 to over 450 due to the Spanish–American War and placed a demand for new buildings.[6] The original barracks evolved into Building 64 in 1905. The first hospital on Alcatraz opened in 1893.[6]
As the number of prisoners to be housed in the citadel increased, more space was built in the form of the Upper Prison, which consisted of three wooden structures, each of two tiers, with the lower prison getting converted as a workshop. However, both Upper and Lower Prison cells, being made of wood, were frequently subject to fire hazards, and this led to change of the structural form of the barracks; concrete structures were built, replacing the wooden ones.[10]
20th century
Cannon at the fort
During the Spanish–American War, the number of prisoners increased substantially to 461 by 1902.[11] In 1904, an upper prison building was built at a higher level on the island and replaced the lower prison, with a capacity of 307 inmates.[6]
Alcatraz was renamed as the "Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison" in 1907, and as the importance of the Island citadel became less and less obvious due to modernization of the naval facilities, infantry soldiers were shifted and prison guards brought in their place.[10] It developed a reputation for its brutal methods of torturing prisoners.[12]
A view of the island and citadel in 1908
Alcatraz was barely affected by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which devastated the city, and the prison population dramatically increased as prisoners were temporarily transferred to the island due to damage in the city.[6] In 1907, Alcatraz Citadel ceased function as a military defense and became the Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison solely.[6][13] When the original 1860s citadel collapsed in 1908, the Citadel was demolished in 1909 up to its basement over which the new prison was built by the military prisoners between 1909 and 1911 and named as "the Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks for the U.S. Army," which became popular as "The Rock."[14]
The prison was entirely rebuilt in concrete in 1910–1912 under the command of Colonel Reuben Turner on a $250,000 budget on the site of the remains and short-lived upper prison building. Many of the former tunnels and chambers of the original fort remain today and are still accessible. This building was modernized in 1934 when it reopened as a federal penitentiary, the notorious Alcatraz prison which held America's most ruthless criminals until 1963.
In 1915 Alcatraz was renamed the "Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks", to indicate that rehabilitation as well as punishment were to be provided. Soldiers with minor offences could be re-trained and returned to the army.[11] As a result, many reformed prisoners returned to active service. Although the facility was a military establishment, it had its fair share of prison escapes. 29 escapes were reported involving 80 convicts out of which 62 were caught and tried while the rest of the prisoners were not traced. In the prison escape of November 28, 1918, there were four prisoners who escaped in rafts, and they were seen at Sutro Forest. However, only one was caught and the others escaped.[10]
Transfer to the Justice Department
With a small peacetime budget, and a small military, the Army was amenable to transferring the post to the Bureau of Prisons which sought a high-security site to combat prison escapes and prison breaks connected to the Prohitition and Depression-era crime wave.[11]
The main mode of transport accessing the island was the General McPherson. Upon embarking at the wharf, the citadel building was reached by going up through the sloping passage behind the sally port, continuing to the top of the island, and crossing a drawbridge over the 12 feet (3.7m) deep dry moat.[6][5][8] It could hold up to 200 men during an emergency and enough supplies to last four months.[8]
Alcatraz Citadel consisted of a basement, which contained the kitchen, bakery, bedrooms, storerooms and jail cells, and two levels above ground which contained the military personnel quarters, servant quarters, parlors and a mess room.[6] In-ground water tanks and water tanks were situated on the roof of the citadel. Other buildings included Batteries Rosecranz and Halleck in the north, the barracks building in the northeast, Battery McClellan and Fog Bell House in the south, Battery McPherson in the west and Batteries Stevens and Mansfield in the northwest and the lighthouse aside the main citadel.[6]
Battery McClellan was equipped with a 15-inch Rodman gun weighing over 25 tons, capable of launching a 330-pound explosive 4,680 yards when angled at 25 degrees.[6] The Parade Grounds were located in the left centre.[6] When the new concrete prison was built in 1910–1912, iron staircases in the interior were retained from the old citadel and massive granite blocks originally used as gun mounts were reused as the wharf's bulkheads and retaining walls.[8]
Related Research Articles
Alcatraz Island is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.
Fort Point, known historically as the Castillo de San Joaquín is a masonry seacoast fortification located on the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed.
Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia International Airport.
Fort Jay is a coastal bastion fort and the name of a former United States Army post on Governors Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. Fort Jay is the oldest existing defensive structure on the island, and was named for John Jay, a member of the Federalist Party, New York governor, Chief Justice of the United States, Secretary of State, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. It was built in 1794 to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes. From 1806 to 1904 it was named Fort Columbus, presumably for explorer Christopher Columbus. Today, the National Park Service administers Fort Jay and Castle Williams as the Governors Island National Monument.
The Department of the Pacific or Pacific Department was a major command (Department) of the United States Army from 1853 to 1858. It replaced the Pacific Division, and was itself replaced by the Department of California and the Department of Oregon.
California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east to support the war effort, recruiting volunteer combat units to replace regular U.S. Army units sent east, in the area west of the Rocky Mountains, maintaining and building numerous camps and fortifications, suppressing secessionist activity and securing the New Mexico Territory against the Confederacy. The State of California did not send its units east, but many citizens traveled east and joined the Union Army there, some of whom became famous.
Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 1882 the defenses were named for Richard Barnes Mason, a military governor before statehood. Fort Mason became the headquarters for an Army command that included California and the Hawaiian Islands from 1904 to 1907. In 1912 the Army began building a port facility with piers and warehouses to be a home base for ships of the Army Transport Service serving Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines and other Pacific Army posts and focus of Army supply for the Pacific.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15 million visitors a year. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.
The Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War consists of major military operations in the United States on the Pacific Ocean and in the states and Territories west of the Continental Divide. The theater was encompassed by the Department of the Pacific that included the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, the territories of Washington, Utah, and later Idaho.
Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse—the first one built on the U.S. West Coast—located on Alcatraz Island in California's San Francisco Bay. It is located at the southern end of the island near the entrance to the prison. The first light house on the island was completed in 1854, and served the bay during its time as a Citadel and military prison. It was replaced by a taller concrete tower built in 1909 to the south of the original one which was demolished after it was damaged due to earthquake in 1906. The automation of the lighthouse with a modern beacon took place in 1963, the year Alcatraz closed as the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It is the oldest light station on the island with a modern beacon and is part of the museum on the island. Although when viewed from afar it easily looks the tallest structure on Alcatraz, it is actually shorter than the Alcatraz Water Tower, but as it lies on higher ground it looks much taller.
The General Frank M. Coxe was a steam ferry which was built for the United States Army to provide transportation services among several military facilities that ring California's San Francisco Bay. The Army port facilities, including the vessels, throughout the bay were under the command of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation from its establishment in May 1932 through World War II and the Korean War.
Joseph Stewart was an officer in the United States Army notable for serving as commander of Fort Alcatraz, Fort Churchill and the Department of Alaska. His name is occasionally seen as Jasper Stewart.
The District of California was a Union Army command department formed during the American Civil War. The district was part of the Department of the Pacific, the commander of the department also being District commander. The district was created as a separate command on July 1, 1864, after Irvin McDowell took command of the Department of the Pacific, relieving General Wright, who then remained as District of California commander. The District comprised the state of California and the areas of the Rogue River and Umpqua River in Southern Oregon. Its headquarters were in San Francisco, co-located with those of the Department of the Pacific. On March 14, 1865, the District of Oregon was extended to include the entire state of Oregon, removing the Rogue River and Umpqua River areas from the District.
Alcatraz Morgue is the morgue on Alcatraz Island, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. It is located on the northwestern side of the island towards the centre, halfway between the Alcatraz Water Tower and the Dining Hall, below the side of the Recreation Yard.
Building 64, also known as the Building #64 or the Building 64 Residential Apartments, was the first building constructed on the island of Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco, USA, entirely for the purpose of accommodating the military officers and their families living on the island. Located next to the dock on the southeastern side of the island below the Warden's House, the three-story apartment block was built in 1905 on the site of a U.S. Army barracks which had been there from the 1860s. It functioned as the Military Guard Barracks from 1906 until 1933. One of its largest apartments in the southwest corner was known as the "Cow Palace" and a nearby alleyway was known as "Chinatown".
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.
Alcatraz Hospital is a defunct hospital which was located on Alcatraz Island, California, US. It began operations in the 19th century while the United States Army operated Fort Alcatraz and continued to provide services after the transition to the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Though Alcatraz is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the hospital is not included on the general tour.
Alcatraz Wharf is located on the southeast side of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, California, US. Classified as building number 33 of the Alcatraz Island National Historic Landmark, its historic name variants were "Alcatraz Dock" and "Alcatraz Pier". It is the main access point to Alcatraz. Another dock on the island's northwest side was only used for rock loading. The wharf contained many of the islands historic buildings, including Building 64, the Bombproof Barracks, Chinatown, Ranger Office, Garage, Dock Tower, Storage Vault, and Firebox #3.
Robert A. Simmons was an African American conscientious objector and anti-war activist who was imprisoned on Alcatraz Island shortly after World War I.
↑ "Civil War at Alcatraz". National Park Service. March 19, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2019. the army continued to work on Alcatraz throughout 1860 and 1861, expanding and improving the island's existing fortifications. The military also used the island as a training ground for soldiers. New troops continually arrived on the island, underwent training, and departed for other assignments. With many new enlistees, the military personnel on Alcatraz increased to over 350 by the end of April 1861. The army slowly increased the number of men assigned to Alcatraz throughout the Civil War, reaching a high point of 433 men in early 1865. The army shipped most of these soldiers out to the Southwestern frontier; however, some were sent to battlefields in the East.
The Rock (1915). "A Brief History of the Island of Alcatraz". The Rock. Improvement Fund, Pacific Branch United States Disciplinary Barracks, Alcatraz, California. 1 (January): 3. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
