Military
4
Battery Osceola was added to the fort in 1898 and mounted two 12-inch long-range rifles on barbette carriages. Each gun weighed over 117,000 pounds and fired shells to targets over 30,000 yards, or almost 17 miles. The shells weighed almost 1,000 pounds and used over 100 pounds of powder. On the lower level, the battery contained two powder magazines to store powder and projectiles, two motor generators to provide electric power for lighting, communication, and movement of ordnance, a plotting room, and shell hoists that raised shot and powder from the magazine to the upper level. Between 1906 and 1916, and again between 1921 and 1941, the U.S. Army kept it in caretaker status. By World War II, the 12-inch guns were obsolete and no longer in use, and in 1943 the U.S. Army removed the guns and carriages and shipped them to the Watervliet Arsenal.
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