California
State Military DepartmentCalifornia
State Military DepartmentOn September 23, 1899, an engineer lieutenant cleared and graded a road into the Point Lobos Military Reservation, began clearing the ground, and soon had laid out a battery for two 12-inch guns on Buffington-Crozier 'disappearing' carriages. He also supervised erection of construction buildings and shops.
Work began on November 27, 1899 on a battery for 16 12-inch mortars. Both batteries were nearing completion and the reservation was renamed Fort Miley in 1900 after Lieutenant Colonel John D. Miley, U.S. Volunteers, who had died in Manila, Philippine Islands, in 1899.
Meanwhile, the mortar battery was completed in 1902 and transferred to the Coast Artillery Corps on September 26, 1902. Its sixteen mortars all were Model 1890 but reports differ on whether all were from Watervliet Arsenal or some were from Watertown Arsenal. The carriages were all Model 1896 Mark I, half made by Watertown Arsenal, half made by the Rarig Engineering Company. On December 27, 1904, the battery was named "Battery LaRhett Livingston" for a 3rd Artillery colonel and Civil War veteran who had died in March 1903. In 1906, crowded conditions in the four mortar pits induced the army to remove the two forward guns in each pit emplacements 2 and 4), and to fill over and concrete those pits. This provided much more room for serving the remaining two guns in each pit.
Also in 1906, the battery was split administratively into two batteries of two pits each, although physically it was a single structure. Pits A and B to the north remained Battery Livingston, while Pits C and D, to the south, were redesignated Pits A and B of Battery Anton Springer, named after a lst Infantry captain killed in action near Lipa in the Philippine Islands in 1901.
Many mortar batteries around the United States had 2 mortars removed from each pit in 1917-1918. Many of these mortars were remounted in railroad car carriages for use overseas. In 1943, the remaining mortars were removed and the two batteries were abandoned. Today it serves as a maintenance and storage facility for the National Park Service and the US Park Police.
