Coastal Defense: The Endicott System

Battery Jasper, a black concrete fortification at Fort Moultrie, was built in 1898 as part of the Endicott System, a chain of concrete and steel coastal defenses armed with heavy-caliber guns along the U.S. coastline and supported by nearby batteries to protect Charleston Harbor. Developed from America's need to modernize coastal defenses in the 1880s, the system coordinated cannon, mortars, rapid-fire weapons, electrically controlled minefields, and round-the-clock coastal surveillance against enemy attack. At Battery Capron on Sullivans Island, four emplacements each held four 12-inch mortars grouped to fire 700-pound shells simultaneously at an enemy ship, while Battery Jasper mounted four disappearing rifles that fired 10-inch 571-pound shells. Nitroglycerine-based powder replaced black powder, and breech-loading rifles replaced muzzle-loading cannon, increasing the range and destructive power of shells. By World War II, the Endicott System was obsolete, and in 1943 it was replaced at Fort Moultrie by a new harbor defense system; the HECP, or Harbor Entrance Control Post, inside the fort remains from that system. Mines controlled by electric cables were placed at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, and mine fields were protected by batteries of rapid-fire 4.7 inch guns.

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina · United States