Battery Rodney-Best

 (1900-1942) - Battery Rodney-Best was a reinforced concrete, Endicott Period 12 inch coastal mortar battery on Fort DuPont (1), Delaware. The battery was first named in G.O. 16, 14 Feb 1902 after Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, major general of Delaware Militia, and delegate to the Continental Congress. The battery was administratively split in 1906 with half of the battery retaining the Battery Rodney name and the other half renamed by G.O. 20, 25 Jan 1906, after Major Clermont L. Best, Artillery Corps, who served with distinction during the Spanish-American War, and who died 14 Apr 1903. Battery construction started 30 Jul 1897, was completed in August 1899 and transferred to the Coast Artillery for use 2 May 1900 at a cost of $ 217,721.31. Deactivated in 1942.

Endicott Period
Originally built as an Endicott Period concrete coastal mortar battery with sixteen 12" M1890MI mortars mounted on M1896 mortar carriages. The battery was built as a single battery with sixteen mortars configured into four mortar pits (A,B,C,D) with four mortars in each pit. Originally named Battery Rodney in 1902, the battery was administratively split in 1906 into two batteries named Battery Best and Battery Rodney, each having two mortar pits (A,B) with four mortars in each.



World War I
No indication that the remaining eight mortars were considered for overseas deployment or that they were involved in the 1920 disarmament program.

The mortar battery configuration was further complicated when each mortar pit was reduced to two mortars to reduce crowding and manpower requirements. Four mortars were sent in 1914 from Battery Best to Fort Ruger in Diamond Head Crater, Hawaii and four more were sent to Fort Rosecrans in 1918.

World War II
By the start of World War II, the mortar batteries were obsolete but they remained in place until the first large scale scrap drive of World War II in the fall of 1942. The mortar carriages were ordered scrapped on 4 Nov 1942. The gun tubes were first ordered scrapped on 13 Apr 1943 but that may not have happened until 4 Jul 1945.

Current Status
No period guns or mounts in place.

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