St. John's Bluff 8" Battery

St. John's Bluff 8" Battery (1898-1899) - St. John's Bluff 8" Battery was a concrete Spanish American War 8" gun battery on modified front pintle carriages in Duval County, Florida. Battery construction started on 27 Apr 1898 and was completed by January 1899. The guns were mounted in January 1899 but were never serviced or test-fired. Deactivated in 1899. - St. Johns Bluff 8" Battery Gun Emplacement - Looking South-East 1934 HABS Photo. St Johns Bluff 8" Battery, 1934 HABS Photo, South-East View of Pylons and Rampart. St. John's Bluff 8" Battery Location Map, see lower right side. Spanish American War Work began on the harbor defenses of Jacksonville on 1 Apr 1898, when laborers began to clear the brush on St. Johns Bluff. On 25 Apr 1898, the US declared war, and on 27 Apr 1898, an order was issued to build a permanent emplacement on St. Johns Bluff for two 8-inch breech-loading rifles. On 12 Aug 1898, a peace protocol was signed, but work continued on the 8" gun battery. In January 1899, the two M1888 8-inch breech-loading rifles, each weighing 32,480 pounds, were mounted at the top of St. Johns Bluff on the carriages that were modified, strengthened, front pintle carriages of the type originally provided for l5-inch Rodman smoothbore guns. The war had ended a month earlier, and further work on the St. Johns Bluff batteries was suspended. The 8-inch guns were never serviced by troops nor test fired. St. John's Bluff 8" Battery General Plan. St. John's Bluff 8" Battery Sections. On 28 Sep 1899, a contract was awarded to remove the ordnance from the emplacements on the bluff. The two 8-inch guns were slated for shipment to Fort McRee.Later documentation indicates that two M1888MII, 8" guns (Sn 41 & 10) were installed in Battery Slemmer on Fort McRee. Not until 4 Mar 1923 did Congress authorize the sale of St. Johns Bluff Military Reservation. On 1 Jun 1925, the government sold it to a private party for $53,839.38. Construction Construction of the 8" battery required the Corps of Engineers to greatly modify the infrastructure they had built for the smaller batteries. Initially, the Corps had cleared a roadway from the river bank to the top of the bluff and a wharf on the riverbank to receive the guns, carriages, and materials. They rented enough track to run a rail line from the wharf up a ravine to the top of the bluff but not to the batteries. At the top of the track, a stationary engine would bring supplies & equipment to the top and conventional transportation would move them to the sites. The order to build permanent emplacements for two 8" guns caused the Corps to extend the track another 1,200 feet to the site of the 8" battery in order to deliver the 32,480 pound 8" gun tubes directly to the battery. Current Status No period guns or mounts in place. No public access yet. Through a mix of private and public funds, $400,000 was raised to purchase the site. Ownership of the property was transferred to the National Park Service in December 2018. {"selectable":false,"height":"-500","width":"-500"} Location: St. John's Bluff, Duval County, Florida. Maps & Images Lat: 30.38547 Long: -81.48737 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: .....' GPS Locations: 30.38547, -81.48737 St. John's Bluff 8" Battery See Also: Battery Slemmer Fort McRee Sources: Berhow, Mark A. ed, American Seacoast Defenses: A Reference Guide, 3rd Edition - PDF, CDSG ePress, McLean, VA, 2012, ISBN 0-9748167-0-1, page 214 Buker, George E., Spanish-American War Fortifications St. Johns Bluff, Florida, Fort Caroline National Memorial Contract No PX 531090043. Pdf Preservation Efforts - Spanish-American War Battery at St. John's Bluff, Jacksonville, Florida, Coast Defense Study Group News, Vol. 2, No. 4, May 1988, page 4. HABS 15-2 FL Spanish-American War Fort, St. John's Bluff, Duval County, Florida, Library of Congress, Documentation Links: Jacksonville Magazine - A Spanish-American War artillery battery in Arlington is now part of the National Park Service CDSG Visited: No