Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

Harbor Defenses of San Diego

 

 

Harbor Defenses of San Diego

by Mark J. Bernow, Coast Defense Study Group

 

Many of the coastal defense remnants built to protect San Diego are generally inaccessible to the public. A few structures are on land controlled by the Cabrillo National Monument. Arrangements may be made to visit some of the batteries on Navy property by contacting the Navy Public Relations Officer at San Diego. Cabrillo National Monument has a good general information on the subject.

 

Cabrillo Historical Association
P.O. Box 6670
San Diego, CA 92106

 

 

Fort Emory

Naval Receiving Facility, Imperial Beach, California Highway 75 W to 8th St., straight west on Palm St., north on Silver Strand Blvd., to Gate. Access: By permission only.

This area was used for harbor defenses during the war. It was named after Brigadier General William H. Emory in 1942. The area was turned over to the Navy in 1947 which has converted the gun bunkers, Battery 134 and Battery Grant (#239), into a Naval radio receiving station. All gun batteries still exist, though overgrown somewhat. Access to the area is very restricted, though the hills of the two 1940 constructions are readily visible from outside the gates.

 

 

Fort Pio Pico

North Island Naval Air Station: No public access.

The only structures built by the Army at Fort Pio Pico were Battery Meed and a cable terminal box. The post was named after the last Mexican governor of Alta California, Pio Pico. The post was abandoned by the Army in the 1920s and subsequently turned over to the Navy with the rest of the old Army Rockwell Air Field on North Island (est. 1917) in 1935. Subsequent construction has obliterated these structures and even the site itself.

 

 

Fort Rosecrans

Cabrillo National Monument: Visitor's Center, hiking trails
Naval Ocean Systems Center
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery : Rosecrans Blvd. (SH 209) to Cannon Blvd, follow signs (SH 209) to Catalina Blvd., and south to gate. Public Access to National Monument and National Cemetery Access to Naval facilities by permission only.

Naval Submarine Base, San Diego: Entrance gate at the end of Roscrans Blvd. Access to base by permission only.

Point Loma was reserved as a military reservation by the United States in 1852, as it had been part of the public domain under the Mexican government. The small battery built by the Spanish in 1797 at Ballast Point had long since fallen into decay. A battery was constructed at Ballast Point by the Army in 1873, but was never completed. New construction began in 1896 on 4 batteries on Ballast Point with the barracks and associated buildings nearby. The post was named in 1899 after Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, a prominent Civil War veteran. New construction added weapons to the post's arsenal in 1914, 1937, 1941 and 1943. In June of 1959, the Army turned over control of the remainder of the reservations to the Navy .

Today, there are a considerable number of remnants from the Army's tenure at Point Loma, but most are on Navy property and generally off limits to the public. Cabrillo National Monument has some information in their visitor center and a bay-shore trail goes by a number of fire control and searchlight installations. At the bend in the road enroute to the oceanside section of the monument is the site of a 4 gun 155mm emplacement, but only one mount has been uncovered, and there are no interpretive signs. The Navy Submarine Base is the location of a number of old Army buildings, but the rest of the emplacements are generally off limits to all unauthorized personnel. The HECP is visible from the NW corner of the National Cemetery and Battery White (4-12" M) can be seen from the eastern edge of the cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place of a number of distinguished American Service men, including the men who fell in the Battle of San Pasqual (near present day Escondido) during the Mexican War.

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Spanish Period

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Constructed	Completed	Decommisioned
Ballast Point	Fort Guijarros	10	Smoothbores	1797	1799	183?

For all coastal defenses built in the smoothbore era, (Spanish, American Third system and Post-Civil War periods), the number of guns actually emplaced was usually less than the number of emplacements built. Many of the cannons were on hand and not emplaced and those numbers changed from year to year. In addition, there often were several different calibers of cannons present. The calibers of the Spanish era cannons were given by the weight of the round shot fired by the gun, i.e. a 42 pounder. The Americans had cannons of calibers given both in pounds or inches of bore. These are not delineated in the table as those of later years are.

 

 

Post Civil War Period

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Constructed	Completed
Point Loma	None	15	15 inch Smoothbores	1870	Not Completed

 

 

Endicott Period

 

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Type of Carriage	Constructed	Completed	Decommisioned
Fort Rosecrans	Wilkeson	1	10 Inch M1895	M1896 Disappearing		1900	1943
Fort Rosecrans	Wilkeson	1	10 Inch M1888MI	M1896 Disappearing		1900	1943
Fort Rosecrans	Calef	2	10 Inch M1888MI	M1896MI Disappearing		1900	1943
Fort Rosecrans	McGrath	2	5 Inch M1897	M1896 Ballanced Pillar		1900	1943 (1)
Fort Rosecrans	Fetterman	2	3 Inch M1898	M1898 Masking Pedestal		1900	1943 (2)
Fort Pio Pico	Meed	2	3 Inch M1903	M1903 Pedestal	1898	1906	1919 (3)

(1) Battery McGrath's guns were removed in 1917. In 1919 the guns of Battery Meed at Fort Pio Pico were transfered to Battery McGrath.

(2) The concrete emplacement of Battery Fetterman was destroyed in July 1940.
(3) Battery Meed was damaged by storm waves in 1914. After Battery Meed's guns were removed in 1919, the post and the rest of North Island was turned over to the Navy in 1935. All trace has been destroyed by the development of the Naval Air Station.

Taft Period

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Type of Carriage	Constructed	Completed	Decommisioned
Fort Rosecrans	Whistler	4	12 Inch M1890MI	M1896MI Mortar	1914	1916	1942
Fort Rosecrans	John White	4	12 Inch M1890MI	M1896MI Mortar	1914	1916	1942

Four of these mortars were from Fort DeSoto, Florida, and 4 were from Fort DuPont, Delaware. Battery Whistler is now substantially altered to a underwater testing tank facility. The breeches for a 12-inch and a 16-înch naval gun are also inside.

 

 

World War II Temporary

 

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Type of Carriage	Constructed	Completed	Decommisioned
Fort Rosecrans	Zeilin	2	7 inch Naval	Pedestal	1937	1937	1943 (1)
Fort Rosecrans	Gillespie	3	5 inch Naval	Pedestal	1937	1937	1943 (1)
Fort Rosecrans	North	4	155mm	Panama Mount	1942	1942	1943 (2)
Fort Rosecrans	Point Loma	4	155mm	Panama Mount	1942	1942	194?
Coranado Heights	Imperial	4	155mm	Panama Mount	1941	1943	194? (2)

(1) These were temporary constructions, no trace remains at the site.
(2) North Battery guns transfered to Battery Imperial in 1943.

 

1940 Program

 

Location	Battery name	Number of Guns	Type of Gun	Type of Carriage	Constructed	Completed	Decommisioned
Fort Rosecrans	Fredrick S. Strong	2	8 inch MarkVI M3A2	Long Range Barbette, M1	1938	1941	1946
Fort Rosecrans	Thomas Q. Ashburn	2	16 inch MarkIIMI	Casemated Long Range Barbette M1919M4	1942	1943	1948
Fort Rosecrans	237 (1)	2	6 inch M1903A2	Shielded Long Range Barbette M1	1942	1943	194?
Fort Rosecrans	Charles Humphreys	4	6 inch M1903A2	Shielded Long Range Barbette M1	1942	1943	194?
Ballast Point	Fetterman	4	90mm M1	Fixed M3 and Mobile M1	1943
Ballast Point	Fetterman	2	37mm	Mobile	1943
Point Loma	Cabrillo	4	90mm M1	Fixed M3 and Mobile M1	1943
Point Loma	Cabrillo	2	37mm	Mobile	1943
Point Loma	Channel	2	37mm	Mobile	1943
Point Loma	Bluff	2	37mm	Mobile	1943
Point Loma	Cliff	2	37mm	Mobile	1943
Fort Emory	Homor B. Grant	2	6 inch M1905	Shielded Long Range Barbette M1	1942	1943	1946
Fort Emory	134 (1)	2	16 inch	Casemated Long Range Barbette	1943	Not Completed
Silver Strand	Cortez	4	90mm M1	Fixed M3 and Mobile M1	1943
Silver Strand	Cortez	2	37mm	Mobile	1943

(1) Battery Contructions 237 and 134 were unofficially named Charles G. Woodward and Gatchell respectively.

 

 

Additional Online Histories

 

War History Harbor Defenses of San Diego

The Guns of San Diego

Administrative History of Fort Rosecrans

Officer of the US Army and Others in Honor of Whom Coast Artillery Posts and Batteries in the Harbor Defenses of San Diego Have Been Named

The Army Posts Around San Diego Bay

War Period History, Harbor Defenses of San Diego

 

 

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Updated 8 February 2016