Description: Fort Rodman was the Army's officially name for the installation and it was completed on May 11, 1861. Brass and iron cannons were mounted to protect the Clark’s Cove and Acushnet River approaches to New Bedford. This installation was temporarily named Fort Taber, in honor of the city’s chief executive. As the granite fort was yet unnamed and appeared on government records simply as “the fort at Clark’s Point” so it was natural to refer to it locally as Fort Taber. This local diction persists even today. In 1898 the entire military property was officially named in honor of Lt. Col. William Logan Rodman of New Bedford, killed in the Civil War battle at Port Hudson, Louisiana. At the turn of the century, Fort Rodman was place on caretaker basis, with a small body of troops to insure the protection of weapons and federal property. During that period, the remainder of the modernized seacoast artillery batteries was completed. The gradual build up of port defense continued throughout the early part of the century. During the First World War the Harbor Defenses were increased dramatically.
All batteries, with the exception of Battery Milliken, are examples of the so-called Endicott-Taft Era of coastal defenses. |
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