In that same year, several hundred Munsee briefly occupied New Amsterdam during the Peach War and caused significant damage and loss of life in Pavonia and on Staten Island.

Stuyvesant felt the colony could not defend itself, regretting that his prior requests for troops and defensive resources from the Dutch West India Company had not been met, and on 8 September he surrendered New Netherland to the English.

[12] The Signal Hill site on Staten Island at The Narrows, eventually known as Fort Wadsworth, was first fortified with a blockhouse by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1636.

The French took advantage of the situation by raiding Schenectady with their Indian allies in February 1690, causing Leisler to divert most of his resources to an unsuccessful retaliatory expedition against New France.

That conflict united the colonies for the first time in common defense, and ended by eliminating the French military threat that the colonists had relied upon Britain to defend them from.

Their commander, General George Washington, thought the evacuating British force would immediately attempt to capture New York and sent troops to the city, soon followed by himself.

Washington's forces were thrown back to their fortifications on Brooklyn Heights, and soon made a withdrawal under cover of night and fog across the East River to Manhattan, unimpeded by the Royal Navy.

Lee reported that he attempted to attack HMS Eagle, flagship of Admiral Sir Richard Howe, brother of the general.

Washington also gave his permission, and on 2 September Sullivan told the Congress that the Howes wanted to negotiate, and had been given much broader powers to treat than those they actually held.

On 11 September, the Howe brothers met with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Rutledge in the Staten Island Peace Conference.

Howe and Henry Clinton, one of his principal subordinates, had been in command at the costly British victory in the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, and a desire to avoid heavy casualties in assaults on fortified positions seems to have colored their actions through the rest of the war.

[31] In early 1777 the British planned to cut New England off from the rest of the colonies by sending a force under John Burgoyne southward from Montreal through the Lake Champlain area and the Hudson Valley to Albany.

Word of it reached Commissioner Benjamin Franklin in Paris on 4 December, and negotiations resulted in France declaring war on Britain in March 1778.

The new Whig government suspended offensive operations in the Thirteen Colonies and commenced lengthy peace negotiations, culminating in the Treaty of Paris that ended the war on 3 September 1783.

[45] The forts around Signal Hill on Staten Island were augmented by numerous batteries; reportedly over 900 cannon were amassed in the area by the war's end in 1815.

[13] Although New York was not attacked in the War of 1812, Washington, DC was captured and burned due to inadequate defenses locally and in the Chesapeake Bay area.

The school's first commander, Major Henry Larcom Abbot, worked on projects that paved the way for the Army's future coast defense efforts.

The Board of Fortifications was convened in 1885 under Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott to develop recommendations for a full replacement of existing coast defenses.

This was designed to place the mortars as closely together as possible, in the hope of scoring multiple hits on an enemy ship by firing simultaneously.

During World War I the two rear mortars in each pit were removed at most forts to further improve reloading and provide weapons for a railway artillery program.

[4] Although neutral in the early part of World War I, the United States was producing munitions (primarily artillery ammunition) for the Allies: the British blockade of Germany prevented trade with the Central Powers after 1915.

It broke windows in lower Manhattan and damaged the Statue of Liberty's raised arm; since then tourists have not been allowed to visit the torch.

At most coast defense commands, garrisons were drawn down to provide experienced gun crews on the Western Front, mostly using French- and British-made weapons.

During World War I, in response to rapid improvements in dreadnought battleships, the Coast Artillery developed a new weapon, the 16-inch gun M1919 (406 mm).

However, shortly after developing this carriage, the Coast Artillery's experience in delivering plunging fire with howitzers on the Western Front (especially the French-made French-made 400 mm (15.75 inch) Modèle 1916 railway howitzer) was used to develop a new barbette carriage with a 65° elevation, thus maximizing the guns' range and exploiting weak deck armor on potential target ships.

[1][79][80] On 10 July 1926 lightning sparked a catastrophic series of explosions at the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot (now Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township, New Jersey).

Early in World War II numerous temporary buildings were again constructed at the forts to accommodate the rapid mobilization of men and equipment.

[6][81][82] The 265th Coast Artillery Regiment (HD) of the Florida National Guard was stationed at Fort Hancock and operated defenses there from February through June 1943, then was transferred to Alaska.

The former Fort Totten Officers' Club, one of many buildings in the United States resembling the Army Corps of Engineers' castle symbol, is now home to the Bayside Historical Society.

The Highlands Military Reservation is now Hartshorne Woods Park, and a Navy 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun has been placed on display at one of the 16-inch casemates.