CDSG Web site Updates
Remember ALL CDSG memberships expire on Dec. 31. Please renew your membership! Please send all membership renewals, correspondence and fund donations to Alan Hardey, 1577 Braeburn Road, Altadena, CA91001-2603 USA.
3/9/10: Uploaded a new section on the virtual harbor defense pages for the Harbor Defenses of Puget Sound. This along with the pages for the Harbor Defenses of the Columbia River provide info on what was at a harbor defense. The pages are generally by location/fort and has pages for each gun battery. Check it out at Coast Artillery and Harbor Defenses. Expansion will include more specific info from the RCWs/QM records on the fire control, searchlight, radar, communications, buildings, etc. Check out the Fort Ward page to see a more complete example.
2/14/10: The February 2010 publications will be taken to the printers on Monday. They will likely be in the mail by early March, so expect delivery by late February, early March. The table of contents for the February 2010 (Vol 24, Issue 1) Journal have been posted on the Journal Contents page and a downloadable version of the February 2010 newsletter is on the newsletter page.
2/14/10: If you have not renewed your membership PLEASE do so as soon as posible. Be sure to include your current contact information especially your current email address.
2/9/10: Updated information and the registration forms for the April 2010 meeting in Puget Sound are online. The registration form, fees, and schedule for the 2010 conference the add on tour for the Canadian defences on Vancouver Island are now set. The conference headquarters and daily hospitality room will be at Fort Worden in the old Chapel Building. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments please send them to either of the conference co-chairmen: Alfred Chiswell, AGChiswell@aol.com or Steven Kobylk, sjkobylk@aol.com. You can download the Conference PDF registration form and the Canadian Add on Tour Form from here or on the meeting webpage. Fill out the forms and send in your registration in today!
2/9/10: updated special offers pages with new flyer from the Redoubt press offering several books and a limited set of issues of FORT from the Fortress Study group (Volumes 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008). Click link for Reboubt PDF flyer.
11/11/09: Updated the membership flyers for 2010 and posted on the download page. Remember ALL memberships expire Dec 31, 2009. Please renew promptly. 1/31/09: The CDSG ByLaws are now available as a PDF download from the CDSG Membership Page or the Download Page.
6/5/09: added new web pages on research in the National Archives concerning American seacoast artillery: Basic Research in Textual Records at the National Archives and Quartermaster Buildings: Records and Plans
6/4/09: Added a link to the Friends of Fort Trumbull website on the links page.
5/11/09: posted the PDF version of the CDSG Conference Attendance list on the Download page.
1/25/09: added an update to the Battery Pratt pages as Jack is making some modifications before installing the counterweights. See Battery Pratt page
10/10/08: An original printed copy of the 1915 War Department Board of Review report was scanned as a PDF. It runs about 3 MB. From RG 77, Entry 103, File # 95991/46 (Box 2346). The PDF has been posted to the CDSG download page
10/5/08: Added online lists of 1, 2, 3 System Forts to Locations pages
10/1/08: posted PDFs of revised (2008) sections of American Seacoast Defenses, a Reference Guide on Coast Artillery organization, uniforms, insignia, and buildings on the Coast Artillery Corps page
8/2/08: Added details about the latest CDSG scanning project of the Quartermaster building records to the CDSG ePress page.
5/9/08: Made some minor revisions to the list of forts and batteries from the American Seacoast Defenses a Reference Guide. The current up-to-date list is dated May 6, 2008. You can download it from either the download page or the Fort Location page.
3/21/08: Added CDSG Representative site report for Fort John Curtis. See the Fort John Curtis site report for the updated details.
3/3/08: We have been updating and cleaning up the various PDF files for the RCW and map collection files for the various harbor defenses. The RCWs have now been sorted by major fort/reservation and oriented in the landscape mode for better computer viewing. Additional reports (if available in PDF format) have also been added in the harbor defense collections. The entire US harbor defense collection (maps, RCWs, engineer notebooks, annexes and any special reports (NPS, DERPS-FUDS, etc.)) is about 40 GB and will fit on 10 DVDs. If you are interested in specific harbor defenses, please contact Mark Berhow (berhowma@) for a listing of the collection and an estimate of how many CDs needed to get the collection.
2/17/08: Dale Manuel copied some additional drawings, maps. etc., for the 2008 Galveston meeting, which have been scanned, but not in time to be included on the CDs that will be handed out at the meeting. The additional material has been posted on the CDSG download page.
1/14/08: Updated the CDSG Press page. The CDSG Press hard-bound reprints of The Endicott and Taft Board Reports are now available. The preprint orders were shipped out January 5th by USPS book rate. See the CDSG Press page for ordering details.
1/14/08: The PDF versions of Volumes 1-8 of the CDSG publications have been reworked in Abobe Acrobat version 8. All the issue files are now text searchable. The 2 CDs now include scans of the all the covers of Volumes 7-21. The price is still $55 for the set. Updates can be obtained by active members by sending $10 to Mark Berhow. See the details on the CDSG ePress page.
1/12/08: NEW PDF copies of seven reports arre now on the CDSG download site under "PDF Download files." But they won't be there for long, so get them this month! After that they will be availalble via the CDSG ePress.
1) PDF of the report of the experimental firing at type seacoast emplacement, Fort Morgan, AL, March 13 & 14, 1916 with a big selection of photogrpahs. Thanks to Shawn Welch, Matt Adams, Sam Stokes and Blanton Blakenship at Fort Morgan State Park for getting this for us.
2) PDF copy of the 1920 report on the Test Firing Against an Obsolite Battleship at Pensacola, thanks to Shawn Welch for providing the PDF,
3) a fully searchable PDF file of Erwin Thompson's Historic Resource Study, Seacoast Fortifications San Francesico Harbor,
4) the DERPS-FUDS Report on the Kahe Point Military Reservation, Hawaii.
5) the DERPS-FUDS report on Battery Ricker (8 inch turret battery) Hawaii.
6) the DERPS-FUDS report on Battery Riggs (8 inch turret battery) Hawaii.
7) the DERPS-FUDS report on Battery Wili (Kirkpatrick) (8 inch turret battery) Hawaii. Thanks to John Bennett for the DERPS FUDS reports.
10/23/07: The CDSG Scanning project has provided more original documents from the National Archives and other sources in PDF format. Now available from the CDSG ePress are: PDF copies of the Proceedings of the Board of Engineers 1887-1905 and the Annual Reports of the Chief of Artillery/Coast Artillery 1901-1937. See CDSG ePress page for details. We have also added some items to CDSG Document CD 3: Copies of the United States Army Lists and Directories (related to Artillery/Coast Artillery units and personnel) 1893-1940, A copy of the History of the Western Defense Command (1945), and copies of the Table of US Army Cannon and Projectiles 1918 and 1924.
10/17/07: Add the CDSG Representative site report for Fort Howard, MD. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
8/30/07: Updated the CDSG Representative site report for Fort Dupont, DE. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
7/31/07: updated CDSG Representative site report for Fort Monroe, Virgina. See the Fort Monroe site report for the updated details.
7/28/07: posted the registration and hotel details on the Galveston Meeting February 21-24, 2008. Click this link to the CDSG calendar page for all the details.
7/9/07: posted new CDSG Representative site report for Fort Norfolk, Virgina. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
6/21/07: Updated the link for Phil & Pete Payette's North American Forts Nerwork on the Links page
6/8/07: posted new CDSG Representative site report for Fort Wool, Virgina. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
3/23/07: posted new CDSG Representative site reports for Fort Story, Virgina and Fort Monroe, Virgina. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
1/3/07: Added some more manuals (Filed Manuals and Technical Manuals) now available from for ordering from the CDSG ePress, thanks to Shawn Welch.
11/29/06: posted new CDSG Representative site reports for Fort Hunt, Virgina and Fort Foote, Maryland. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
10/26/2006: Updated CDSG Representative site reports for Fort Funston, CA; Fort Casey and Fort Ebey on Whidby Island, WA; Fort DuPont, DE; Fort Michie, NY; Fort Mansfield, RI; Highlands Military Reservation, NJ; and Cape May Military Reservation, NJ; and new reports for Castle Clinton, Fort Jay, and Castle Williams, NY harbor; Fort Smallwood and Fort Armistead, Baltimore harbor and Sand Island Military Reservation, Honolulu harbor. See the CDSG Representative page for all the details.
10/19/06: Glen Williford is offering a set of 145 photo reproductions of aeral photos cover a number of habor defense posts taken during the 1920s and 1930s. Ordering information on the special offers page. For further information, contact Glen at williford15@ameritech.net.
10/1/06: Added some photos of the guns at the Philippine Island forts from the 2006 CDSG tour. See Photo Galleries & Surviving Seacoast Artillery page for links to photo pages.
7/25/06: Posted some revised material on the Coast Artillery Corps
5/8/06: Posted updates to the Terry McGovern's Redoubt Press offerings, with a limited number of copies of FORT 2005 and the new Osprey book on American Seacoast Fortifications. See Special offers page for more offers! Also an offer to donate copies of the first edition of American Seacoast Defenses AND Pacific the Northwest Preservation Partnership Historic Fortification Preservation Handbook to parks, museums and libraries nominated by our membership. Click link to donation nomination form.
11/14/05: Updated the CDSG Journal contents webpages. The table of contents (article title, author, and pages by volume and issue) for volumes 6-19 of the CDSG News/Journal/Coast Defense Journal are now on a single webpage for easier searching. The index for the CDSG News Volumes 1-5 remains the same.
4/27/03: Copies of Corps of Engineers publications can be requested from the USACE Office of History in Alexandria, VA, or they can be downloaded as PDF files from the Office's publications page- www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/pubs.htm. Dale Floyd's comprehensive coast defense bibliography is an excellent resource--Defending America's Coasts 1775-1950 (EP-870-1-57), USACE, Historical Division, Office of the Chief of Engineers, GPO, Washington, DC, 1997). An excellent guide to doing research in the National Archives and Records Administration holdings is Environmental Cleanup at Former and Current Military Sites: A Guide to Research (EP-870-1-64), USACE, Historical Division, Office of the Chief of Engineers, GPO, Washington, DC, 2001).