Historic California Posts, Camps,
Station and Airfields
Fort Winfield Scott: Battery Baldwin
Battery Baldwin sometime
before removal of its guns in 1920. Image courtesy of Mr. Chuch
Woffard.
Battery Baldwin
by Justin M. Ruhge
Battery Baldwin was a battery of two 3-inch
rapid-fire breech-loading guns mounted on balanced pillar mounts.
Driggs-Seabury Gun and Ammunition Company manufactured the Model
1898 guns and balanced pillar mounts.
Battery Baldwin was named in October 1902
in honor of Lieutenant Henry M. Baldwin, Fifth Artillery, who
died of wounds received at Cedar Creek, Virginia, in October
1864.
Battery Baldwin was mounted north of Battery
Slaughter. Baldwin was removed when the Golden Gate Bridge, Doyle
Drive roadway was constructed
Battery Baldwin
by Chuck Wofford
This Endicott battery was named in War
Department General Order 105 October 9, 1902, in honor of 2nd
Lieutenant Henry M. Baldwin, Fifth Artillery, who died of wounds
received at Cedar Creek, Virginia, on October 19 1864. Lt. Baldwin
was born in New Jersey, and appointed from New Jersey.
This Battery was armed with Two 3-inch
rapid fire 15 ponder Model 1898, nos. 73 and 74 manufactured
by Diggs Seabury Gun and Ammunition Company, but were modified
by Frankford. These guns cost $3,165.00, and were placed 30'
apart. It had a range of 15500 yards.
The guns in this battery were mounted
Diggs-Seabury (Balanced Pillar Mounts) Model 1898 nos. 73 and
74. This was a unique model that warrants special comment, the
3-inch gun on a carriage known as the Balanced Pillar Mount,
operated somewhat in the manner of the large gun lift carriage.
This mount consisted of a vertical, telescoping cylinder that
allowed the entire gun and carriage to be lowered behind the
parapet crest after firing.
This battery saw service from October
9 1902 until May 26 1920, when the guns were dismounted The perfection
of underwater mines made inner-harbor defensive works largely
obsolete, so this battery was disarmed in 1920. For many years
it was believed that the construction of the Doyle Drive highway
approach to the Golden Gate Bridge had destroyed the empty battery,
but the California Department of Transportation in a July 1995
excavation of the area to remediate lead build up in the area
has uncovered the old fortification,. buried at the time, and
it looks very intact, this is a real find.
Ordnance
This Battery was armed with two 3-inch
rapid fire 15 pounders, Model 1898, numbers 73 and 74 manufactured
by Diggs Seabury Gun and Ammunition Company, but were modified
by the Frankford Arsenal. These guns cost $3,165.00, and were
placed 30' apart. It had a range of 15,500 yards.
The guns in this battery were mounted
on Diggs-Seabury Model 1898 Balanced Pillar Mounts also numbered
73 and 74. This was a unique model that warrants special comment,
the 3-inch gun on a carriage known as the Balanced Pillar Mount,
operated somewhat in the manner of the large gun lift carriage.
This mount consisted of a vertical, telescoping cylinder that
allowed the entire gun and carriage to be lowered behind the
parapet crest after firing. There were 120 built, and were employed
from 1899 to 1905 at the cost $4,250.00 each
Ammunition Service
As to ammunition storage and service,
this battery had two magazines. The movement of ammunition must
be very rapid and it is the duty of the Corps of Engineers to
so design the emplacement that each and every step of the ammunition
service may be performed with such speed that the ammunition
can be carried to the breech of the gun at least as rapidly as
it can be loaded into the gun and fired. This gun being 3-inch,
the projectiles are ordinarily stored and transported to the
gun in the form of complete cartridges, put up in a metallic
case much like a cartridge used in a infantry rifle, theses cartridge
weigh so little that they can be moved by hand, with out any
mechanical handling. The 3-inch round is always issued and shipped
to the battery in wooden boxes or cases containing several rounds.
Complete rounds without packing weighed 26.7 lbs. or 4 rounds
packed in a box weighted 166.8 lbs. and were 3.66 cubic feet,
the boxs were 43 x 12 1/8 x 12 1/4, in inches, or 61.92 cubic
inches. Fixed rounds of ammunition for these guns are packed
moisture-resistant fiber containers in wooden packing boxes or
without individual containers in sealed metal lined wooden packing
boxes. Its storage, therefore consist simply in piling up the
boxes in the most convenient arrangement, about 6 boxes high,
so they were easy to get down, The projectile are stored in rows
along the wall of the shell room. The ammunition supply for this
battery was stored in the magazine which was 9' X 15' (there
were 2 of them) and were to the left on the lower floor of the
guns, held 800. Larger amounts could be put in the shell and
power rooms, by stacking higher or closer together.
Construction
As with any battery built in any engineer
district, as much information as may be necessary is sent to
the district officer. In May 1900, instruction had been received
to select a site to prepare plans and estimates for the construction
of two emplacement for 15-pounder rapid-fire guns on balanced
pillar mounts, on 11 May 1901 the site was approved and by the
end of the fiscal year the plan's were completed.
There was considerable delay was experienced
in the selection of the site, three locations being thoroughly
examined and abandoned on account of too expensive construction
and other objections. A site was finally approved on March 23
1901, and the plans were approved April 11 1901. A provisional
allotment of $12,000.00 was made on November 8 1900. Of this
$800.00 was withdrawn 11 April 1901 and $137.25 expended in the
preliminary work leaving $11,062.75 for the construction of the
battery.
Construction of this battery began in
1901, In the latter part of April, the grading and clearing of
the site, and the road to it put in good condition. In May a
temporary tool and cement shed was put up, and the excavation
could be started with the removal of approximately 1,294 cubic
yards of dirt and sand. The excavation was in sand to a depth
of, from 7 feet in the rear to 14 feet in the front end in clay
of moderate hardness below the sand. The excavation was carried
on principally by four-horse scrapper; the clay was loosened
with a plow. As the sand extended below the foundation on one
corner of the emplacement, the excavation was carried below the
grade to the clay and filled in to grade with concrete in the
proportion of 1:5:11. The floors were made entirely separate
from the wall and the space below them was filled in with sand
to grade. The concrete in the emplacement was in proportion of
1:3:6, Portland cement of the "Hemmoor" and "Red
Diamond" brands being used, and mixing being done by hand.
Most of the forms had been built by this
time, on the timber used in making the forms, in all cases dressed
lumber will be used. At this time before the pouring of the concrete
all of the iron and steel, in the form of I beams for reinforcing
ceilings, and in columns for supporting ceilings, for reinforcing
concrete, they used deformed steel bars. The next step is to
star pouring the foundation, Now the concrete which was hand
mixed, was poured, it used 463 cubic yards of concrete and 1,100
lbs of reinforcing steel bar and 286 cubic yards of back and
top fill. In contrast to earlier batteries, this one was built
as separate monoliths in order to guard against unequal setting,
and no damp-proof course was placed in the monolith containing
the magazines. To date there has been no sign of leakage.
This battery was 67 feet across the front
and 52 feet in depth and 30 feet between the guns and was a two
story battery, there was also an oil room, approximately 4' x
12', on the left flank of emplacement # 2. From the back of the
battery there were steps that descended down a slope to the macadamized
road behind the battery from McDowell Avenue to the battery,
and a fence with a gate constructed, there does not seem to be
a guard room or a commander's room in this battery.
By the end of the fiscal year the work
was complete except painting, whitewashing, top dressing, part
of the rear slopes, wiring for the electric lights, setting the
doors, painting the recesses for the doors, and setting the cylinders.
When the structure is completed the district engineer officer
and the local Coast Artillery officer, make an inspection of
the structure, and if all are in order the keys, are transferred
to the Artillery commander. This battery was completed in 1903,
and transferred on December 3 1903 at a cost of $11,119.09.
Power
This battery was electrified around December
of 1903, it used 0.8 kw, and there were no motors in this battery.
Miscellaneous
Trunnion elevation in battery was 70.9,
Datum plane mean low water level, battery was connected to water
and sewer, but had no latrine. It used a telephone for data transmission,
ventilated by natural draft, 6" terra cotta flues from magazines,
terminating at rear wall over entrance door.
Abandonment
This battery saw service from October
9 1902 until May 26 1920, these gun were dismounted (Reference
War Department letter 400.702/445, O of Co. May 26, 1920). The
remainder of the armament dismantled and salvaged in 1943 (Reference:
letter, Service of Supply, November 19 1943 SPX 662 (November
12 1943) GB-S. SPDDO subject; Proceedings of Local Harbor Defense
Board, October 5 1942, Salvage of Obsolete Armament). It is near
the National Cemetery, and the emplacement was turned over to
the Presidio of San Francisco in accordance with an adjustment
of the administrative boundary between Fort Winfield Scott and
the Presidio The perfection of underwater mines made inner-harbor
defensive works largely obsolete, so this battery was disarmed
in 1920. For many years it was believed that the construction
of the Doyle Drive highway approach to the Golden Gate Bridge
had destroyed the empty battery, but the California Department
of Transportation (CalTrans)excavation of the area to remediate
lead build up in the area has uncovered the old fortification
in July 1995, buried at the time, and it looks very intact, this
is a real find.
Report of
Completed Works - Seacoast Fortifications
