Fort Kearny was built under the Endicott Program 1904-1908 as part of the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay.

The fort is named for Major General Philip Kearny, killed in the American Civil War.

[1][2] Fort Kearny was a prisoner-of-war camp in World War II, beginning in February 1945.

[4] It was the headquarters of a program to re-educate German prisoners with democratic values, one element of which was the German-language newspaper Der Ruf (The Call).

[5][6] Fort Kearny is now the Narragansett Bay Campus of the University of Rhode Island.