6-inch gun M1897

In 1885, William C. Endicott, President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of War, was tasked with creating the Board of Fortifications to review seacoast defenses.

The findings of the board illustrated a grim picture of existing defenses in its 1886 report and recommended a massive $127 million construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coastline.

In the overall system, it was an intermediate caliber between the heavy 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch weapons and the small 3-inch guns intended to defend minefields against minesweepers.

Within a few years, it was realized that operating the disappearing carriage negatively impacted the rate of fire, and the M1900 low-profile pedestal mount was designed.

To quickly arm some works a few weapons were purchased from the United Kingdom including nine 6-inch Armstrong guns, two of which survive at Fort DeSoto near St. Petersburg, Florida.

Between the Endicott program and the 1905–15 Taft Board fortifications, approximately 200 6-inch guns were emplaced in the United States and its possessions, around 150 of which were on disappearing carriages.

One survives on a field carriage in the collection of the U.S. Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center, Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia.

In June 1919, after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the field carriages for the 6-inch guns were declared obsolete and almost entirely scrapped.

Many 6-inch weapons (most of them stored since World War I) were remounted on M1 through M4 shielded barbette carriages at new locations in two-gun batteries to complement the 16-inch guns.

[13] Some additional 6"/50 caliber ex-Navy guns were mounted in the year after Pearl Harbor to provide some defense while the new batteries were under construction; locations included Alaska, American Samoa, and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) among others.

6-inch M1900 gun on M1900 pedestal mount, similar to two weapons still present at Fort Hancock, New Jersey
6-inch M1900 gun on M1900 pedestal mount, annotated
Two 6-inch guns on an M1917 carriage (foreground) and an M1917A carriage (background) in early 1919. [ 5 ]
Annotated photograph of an M1901 Buffington–Crozier disappearing carriage for an M1900 12-inch gun, generally similar to 6-inch disappearing carriages
6-inch gun M1905 on shielded barbette carriage at Fort Columbia State Park , Washington state
Rear view of shielded barbette carriage
Battery 245 at Fort Stevens, Oregon, two 6-inch guns on shielded barbette carriages, built in World War II. The battery's ammunition and fire control bunker is behind the gun.
Typical entrance to 6-inch ammunition bunker at Fort Ebey, Washington state