Off Conanicut Island's eastern shore lies Gould Island, the third of the major islands that comprise the town of Jamestown. It was named for Thomas Gould, who purchased the island in 1657 to use as farmland. In 1858, the Maitland family bought the entire island. After 12 years, they sold it to the Homan family, also from New York, who had the esteemed architecture firm of McKim, Mead and White design them a "cottage."

During the summer of 1911, coming off their national championship, Harvard’s football team could be seen practicing on Gould Island. Harvard’s football coach, Percy D. Haughton and his wife Gwendolyn now owned the island and a Boston paper reported that the team routinely exercised there. Following the trends of the summer social scene at Newport, entertaining was part of the Jamestown lifestyle.

The Haughtons were the last private citizens to own Gould Island. With the threat of war looming, Congress authorized the seizure of land along the eastern seaboard. Torpedoes were being developed on nearby Goat Island and a more remote place was needed for storage and testing. In September 1918, the government notified Mrs. Haughton that Gould Island was being requisitioned--they had 30 days to vacate.

In 1919, construction of hangars for seaplanes and concrete piers began. The Haughton's home became barracks for marines.

Throughout the 1940s, torpedo guidance systems were tested at Gould Island. Torpedoes launched from the firing piers were followed by aircraft tasked with tracking them for retrieval. No system is perfect though, and Jamestown residents distinctively remember hearing torpedoes come up on the rocks. Camp Seaside's pier had a large warning light, which lit up when a torpedo was fired, giving swimmers time to get out of the water.

Although four of Gould Island's building were declared "historic" and worthy of preservation in 1975, the Navy demolished everything but the firing pier in 1999. Currently, the island is managed by The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) as a conservation habitat. It is scheduled for an environmental study to asses the viability of future development.

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Dutch Island, in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay, is an uninhabited, irresistible place that for decades has lured local kids across the water to camp or climb around the remains of what was once an impressive, self-sufficient, military fortification named Ft. Greble.

Named for John T. Greble, the first U.S. Military Academy graduate to die in the Civil War, Fort Greble was established as an Endicott fortification in 1897 and was part of the RI Coastal Defense. The fortifications were open-topped reinforced, concrete walls protected by sloped earthworks with large-caliber breech-loading artillery and mortar batteries.

In 1898, troops arrived and the construction of permanent housing and facilities began and continued for five years. Barracks for over 300 enlisted men were constructed as well as significant homes for officers and their families. A 12-bed Post Hospital was built in 1904, and at one point, temporary buildings housed as many as 495 men. There were two large docks, a tennis court, a commissary, a bowling alley, and a bakery that provided 280 rations daily. Letters from home were important to soldiers and a post office was established in 1910.

In the early 1900s, Jamestown was a bustling summer destination. The town boasted five resort hotels on its eastern side. On its western side, Jamestown and Ft. Greble were inextricably linked via underwater communication and power cables. The Jamestown Ferry, carrying visitors to the mainland and back, displayed a panoramic view of the impressive structures on the little island. Particularly notable were the large warehouses along the shore close to where the troops disembarked on arrival.

Two batteries at Ft. Greble remained armed at the beginning of WWII but were considered obsolete by 1942. Today, only concrete defense positions of the once powerful weapons remain. Dutch Island is currently closed to the public. Since 2015, the Army Corps of Engineers has been securing the remaining structures so that visitors may visit safely.

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Few Rhode Islanders remember the German Prisoner of War (POW) camps in RI. Fewer people realize that as they drive into Fort Getty, the stone gate posts were built by the German POWs encamped there in 1945. Ellen Brownell, a local Jamestown resident recalled, "We had prisoners at Fort Getty. I remember being out with my doll carriage going down Hamilton Avenue and a truck going by with prisoners, hollering and waving to me."

In 1945, the U.S. Army approved numerous "re-education schools" throughout the U.S. for German POWs. Five 60-day training sessions graduated 528 German POWs from the school at Fort Getty. The classes included English language, American and German history, and stressed democracy as a way of life. The prisoners were taught by academics from first-rate universities and were carefully screened, promising to help Americans in Germany after repatriation. POWs were anxious to be part of the program since they anticipated a quicker return to Germany and their families. Christian McBurney states "POWs were not allowed to stroll around town unescorted. However, they could use the beach near the school and a few residents remember seeing some of them on work details." Alcina Blair recalled two prisoners--who had gotten lost-- appeared on the front porch of her family's house on Windsor Street. "My mother and father were concerned and called the chief of police who came and got them. They were not escaping. They were lost." Only one POW, Gerhard Hetzfuss, escaped from Ft. Getty. He and his American girlfriend wanted to remain in the U.S.

In 1900, Fort Getty began as a Endicott Period Coastal Fort. By 1905, three gun batteries were completed: "Battery Tousard" with 12-inch M1900 guns on disappearing carriages, "Battery House" with 6-inch M1900 guns on pedestal mounts, and "Battery House Whiting" with 3-inch M1903 guns on pedestal mounts.

In 1948, the fort was abandoned. In 1995, it was sold to the town of Jamestown for $5,500. The purchase was narrowly passed by town residents: 159 to 114.

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Through the centuries, Jamestown's approximately 26 miles of rocky coastline have been a lure for fishermen. From the late 19th century until World War II, the southern part of the Beavertail Peninsula was primarily a private playground for outdoorsmen.

Many were guests of clubs and camps that were established chiefly for fishing. Often, these organizations came complete with a clubhouse and outbuildings, ensuring guests could fish and be comfortable at the same time.

Located several hundred yards from the lighthouse, the Beavertail Fishing Club was one of the most elaborate of the sportsmen associations. Not only did the establishment contain a clubhouse, it boasted a dining room, sleeping accommodations, and a stable.

A little less glamorous was Peckham Camp. In the 1910s, Peckham Camp consisted of seven cottages, each rented for $100 for the "season" of four months. An advertisement describes them as: "Bungalows fitted only for camp life. Most all cottages have large pleasant rooms, with broad verandas, hot and cold water, set tubs, open fire places, and are heated by steam or hot air."

The bungalows at the Peckham Camp continued to be leased each summer until the beginning of World War II. The same families returned year after year, and in some cases, generation after generation.

On Dec. 4, 1941, the U.S. Army established Fort Burnside. The 185-acre fort occupied the entire Beavertail Peninsula, including Peckham Camp, which the family sold to the government for $15,500 in 1943.

Prior to WWII, strategic Harbor Entrance Command Posts (HECPs) were built to protect US coastlines. Fort Burnside was the designated post for Narragansett Bay. Posing as a large seaside cottage, an observation building monitored all the comings and goings of military shipping, all while keeping a watchful eye to the horizon for enemy attacks. Additional structures were built to hold top-secret equipment with advanced radar. In 1945, the military installation was renamed the Naval Radio Station Newport. Over the next two decades, 25 radio antennas were erected, each connected to one or more of 30 transmitters, making Beavertail a Navy communications hub.

In 1980, the land was declared surplus and became Beavertail State Park.

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On August 28, 1863, the 1st battalion of the 14th R.I. Heavy Artillery (Colored) under Colonel Nelson Viall paraded through Providence on their way to an island in Narragansett Bay. Jamestowners felt the effects of the Civil War, even though battlefields were far away. Confederate cruisers were causing havoc on commerce in the unprotected West Passage of Narragansett Bay. Dutch Island, which commands the western entrance to the bay, was where the 1st Battalion headed to from their training in Providence. They were to assist in the construction of a camp and anti-Conferderate fortifications.

On November 19th, with the fortifications nearly complete, Governor James Y. Smith, the RI legislature, and other distinguished guests presented the standard to Colonel Viall at the newly-formed Camp Bailey.

"It affords me much pleasure to present to your regiment, our Fourteenth Corps d'Afrique, this flag, and I feel confident that it will be entrusted to as brave men as ever enter the service in our defense of our country and its liberties."

Although there was much fanfare at the dedication of Camp Bailey, it's not surprising that Black soldiers faced many forms of discrimination during their service in the Union Army. Most apparent was that Black units were commanded by White officers and had little opportunity for promotion. The issue of pay was also divisive. Initially, enlisted Black men thought that they would receive equal pay, but later found they would receive less per month than White soldiers.

Documents show that financial incentives, known as "bounty," used to increase enlistment, were rampant with fraud. Racist attitudes, coupled with illiteracy among many Black recruits, led to exploitative documents being "willingly" signed by Black soldiers. Most cases of deceit involved the deduction of expenses for worthless items and bounty never being paid. This corrupt behavior by recruiting officers wasn't rectified until testimonies of soldiers, including those of Privates Calvin Bailey, George Gordon, and John Dorsey from Camp Bailey, were given in a hearing to the House of Representatives in 1864.

In the winter of 1863-1864, units from Camp Bailey began to leave for Texas and Louisiana. The Providence Journal specifically named three of the Black soldiers: Charles Freeman, Peter Freeman, and Jeremiah Noka. Only Peter Freeman survived.

Although the 14th R.I. Heavy Artillery was mustered out on October 2, 1865, Dutch Island, almost deserted, remained an official outpost until 1897. At the time, an ambitious round of coastal defense construction had already begun at Ft. Greble.

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In May of 1776, the Americans hastily built an earthwork battery in a large field on the west side of the Beavertail peninsula on Conanicut Island. British diarist Frederick Mackenzie later described the fortification as a "Battery or Redoubt with 4 embrasures” facing the West Passage of Narragansett Bay.

There were at least two other fortifications on Conanicut during the American Revolution: another battery at Beavertail and a battery on the eastern side of the island that later was rebuilt and named Fort Dumpling, after the shape of the rocky protrusions along the shoreline. There may have been another American battery further north on Beavertail at Sheffield Cove. These defenses, along with a battery across the West Passage on Bonnet Point, were intended to protect Narragansett Bay from British naval incursions. They failed in this role.

When the British sailed past Conanicut Battery on December 7, 1776, they were met with no opposition. The British forces occupied Conanicut and Aquidneck Island, and took control of the abandoned American defenses. The British improved most of these fortifications, including the Conanicut Battery, to defend their occupation.

When the French finally arrived on July 29, 1778, British soldiers at Conanicut Battery fired its guns at two of the French ships. American Colonel John Laurens wrote to his father that, “The Sagittaire, a ship of the line, went up the western passage on the morning of the 30th , and was fired upon by a two gun battery of 24 pounders, which the enemy had on the west side of Cononicut. The Sagittaire returned a broadside as she passed, and we discovered from the Admiral's ship an explosion at the battery, which induced us to believe that the enemy had abandoned it. … The ship received two scratches in her hull, and proceeded to her station.” Upon their departure, the British destroyed the magazines, and the abandoned fort was left to decay.

After the Revolution, Beavertail returned to agricultural uses. In 1931, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a bronze plaque on the site, but it has since disappeared. During World War II, the military installed observation and communication posts nearby. In the 1990s a local profit group, Friends of the Conanicut Battery, secured funding to protect the site. Today the 22-acre park features trails to the World War II structures, interpretive signs, and the remains of the Conanicut Battery.

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