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Posted on March 29, 2008 | Category: Forts, History, Places
Fort Wetherill is a historic fort located on Conanicut Island, which contains the entire the city of Jamestown and sits in the middle of Narraganset Bay. The location had fortifications going back as far as the colonial period. The site was called the battery at Dumpling Rock, and served together with the then newly constructed Fort Adams in Newport to protect the East Passage of Narragansett Bay.
However, the West passage between the other side of Conticut Island and the mainland was left unprotected. This failure to protect the West passage allowed the British to sail right up the bay and capture Newport and Jamestown during the revolutionary war without firing a shot.
They would then hold the them until October of 1999, when they left to concentrate their forces in New York. Though, they did not leave without first burning Beavertail Lighthouse, and destroying the fortifications they had used. Fort Wetherill was later fortified with large breach loading cannons under Secretary of War Endicott’s large coastal defense project, which was designed to free up the primarily offensive naval ships of the era. The fort was name after Captain Alexander Wetherill who was KIA (Killed in Action) on July 1, 1898 at the battle of San Juan in Cuba. Although, the fort was manned during both World War I and World War II it never saw action. Eventually on August 16, 1972 the 61 acres of landing surrounding Fort Wetherill were given over to the state and made into a recreation area.
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