169 Reform and Revitalization: The Endicott and Taft Eras of Harbor Defense

America at War

In this episode we take a look at Harbor Defense in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the most consistent missions of the US Army since the founding of the republic was defending the nation's harbors. The Civil War demonstrated that the granite of bricks of yore were outclassed by modern weapons. After a period of stagnation in the years after the Civil War, in 1886 Secretary of War Endicott released a plan for modern fortifications. While it took more than a decade to appropriate funding, these fortifications would defend the nation's harbors well into the twentieth century.

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