Life in Fort Adams

At Fort Adams, Lieutenant John C. Tidball recalled around 1848 that as the junior officer of the garrison he had little choice in quarters and took the only available casemate, which he made comfortable by sweeping it, glazing broken windows, and relying on a shared servant, a young Irishman fresh from the Emerald Isle, to build a roaring fire that drove out the mold and moisture of a room long unused. Other officers were less satisfied with casemate quarters, which had been designed for cannons rather than people, and less than a year before Tidball arrived, General Winfield Scott had asked Congress for more comfortable housing for officers serving in coastal fortifications, calling the casemates most unwholesome and miserable places. A 1900 census snapshot of life at Fort Adams counted 535 residents, including 1 colonel, 6 captains, 3 lieutenants, 38 sergeants, 39 corporals, 269 privates, 7 cooks, 10 musicians, 4 mechanics, 2 hospital stewards, 27 wives, 95 children, 2 mothers, 1 sister, 21 servants, and 10 miscellaneous residents. Fort Adams Cemetery contains 287 deaths total: 158 men, 33 women, 81 children, and 15 unknown.

Newport, Rhode Island · United States