Editing Ellis Island (section)

===Military use and Fort Gibson===
Ellis Island was also used by the military for almost 80 years.<ref name="NPS-places_colonial_early_american">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/historyculture/places_colonial_early_american.htm |title=Colonial and Early American New York |date=February 26, 2015 |website=Ellis Island Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |access-date=June 4, 2019 |archive-date=June 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614215632/https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/historyculture/places_colonial_early_american.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> By the mid-1790s, as a result of the United States' increased military tensions with Britain and France, a U.S. congressional committee drew a map of possible locations for the [[First System]] of fortifications to protect major American urban centers such as New York Harbor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Novak |first=Liza |date=July 21, 2010 |url=https://archive.org/stream/culturallandscap10nati#page/n1/mode/2up |title=Cultural Landscape Report for Governors Island National Monument |publisher=[[United States Department of the Interior]], [[National Park Service]] |page=30 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>{{sfn|Smith|1913|p=54}}A small part of Ellis Island from "the soil from high to low waters mark around Ellis's Island" was owned by the city. On April 21, 1794, the city deeded that land to the state for public defense purposes.<ref name="Stakely p. 16" /><ref name="GPO-1963">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XapGAQAAIAAJ |title=United States Congressional serial set |author=United States Congress |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1963 |access-date=June 4, 2019 |issue=v. 12532}}</ref> The following year, the state allotted $100,000 for fortifications on Bedloe's, Ellis, and [[Governors Island]]s,<ref name="Stakely p. 16" /> as well as the construction of [[Castle Clinton|Castle Garden]] (now Castle Clinton<ref>{{cite web |title=History & Culture |website=Castle Clinton National Monument |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |date=March 24, 2010 |url=https://www.nps.gov/cacl/learn/historyculture/index.htm |access-date=January 6, 2020 |archive-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815012434/https://www.nps.gov/cacl/learn/historyculture/index.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>) along [[The Battery (Manhattan)|the Battery]] on Manhattan island.<ref name="Stakely p. 16" /> Batteries and magazines were built on Ellis Island in preparation for a war.<ref>{{cite book |title=American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States |publisher=Gales and Seaton |year=1832 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanstatepap_e01unit |series=Volume 1, Military Affairs |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanstatepap_e01unit/page/193 193] |access-date=June 4, 2019}}</ref> A [[jetty]] was added to the northwestern extremity of the island, possibly from soil excavated from an inlet at the northeastern corner; the inlet was infilled by 1813.<ref name="Stakely p. 16" /> Though the military threat never materialized, further preparations were made in the late 1790s, when the [[Quasi War]] sparked fears of war with France;<ref name="Stakely p. 16" /><ref name="HSR Main p. 11">{{harvnb|ps=.|Belle|Finegold|1988|p=11}}</ref> these new preparations were supervised by [[Ebenezer Stevens]].<ref name="NPS-ellis-island-chronology" />{{sfn|Smith|1913|pp=153–154}} The military conflict also failed to occur, and by 1805, the fort had become rundown.<ref name="Stakely p. 18">{{harvnb|ps=.|Stakely|2003|p=18}}</ref>

Stevens, who observed that the Ellis family still owned most of the island, suggested selling off the land to the federal government.<ref name="NPS-ellis-island-chronology" /> Samuel Ryerson, one of Samuel Ellis's grandsons, deeded the island to John A. Berry in 1806.<ref name="NPS-ellis-island-chronology" /><ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Moreno|2004|p=xxii}}</ref><ref name="GPO-1963" /> The remaining portion of the island was acquired by condemnation the next year, and it was ceded to the United States on June 30, 1808, for $10,000.<ref name="NPS-places_colonial_early_american" /><ref name="NPS-ellis-island-chronology" /><ref name="HSR Main p. 11" /><ref name="Logan-McCarten" /> Lieutenant Colonel [[Jonathan Williams (engineer)|Jonathan Williams]], placed in charge of New York Harbor defenses in the early 1800s, proposed several new fortifications around the harbor as part of the [[Seacoast defense in the United States#Second system|Second System]] of fortifications. The new fortifications included increased firepower and improved weaponry.{{sfn|Smith|1913|pp=55–56}}<ref name="HSR Main p. 11" /> The [[United States Department of War|War Department]] established a circular stone 14-gun [[Artillery battery|battery]], a mortar battery (possibly of six mortars), [[Magazine (artillery)|magazine]], and [[barracks]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wade |first1=Arthur P. |title=Artillerists and Engineers: The Beginnings of American Seacoast Fortifications, 1794–1815 |publisher=CDSG Press |year=2011 |page=243 |isbn=978-0-9748167-2-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Fort Gibson |website=New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs |url=http://dmna.state.ny.us/forts/fortsE_L/gibsonFort.htm |access-date=June 3, 2019 |date=October 1, 2002 |archive-date=October 19, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019190829/http://dmna.state.ny.us/forts/fortsE_L/gibsonFort.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=New York Forts: page 6 |website=North American Forts |url=http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/nycity2.html#gibson |access-date=June 3, 2019 |archive-date=April 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402070314/https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/nycity2.html#gibson |url-status=live }}</ref> The fort was initially called Crown Fort, but by the end of the [[War of 1812]] the battery was named Fort Gibson, in honor of Colonel James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, who was killed in the war during the [[Siege of Fort Erie]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Robert B. |title=Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States |publisher=Macmillan |year=1988 |pages=554–555 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02-926880-3}}</ref><ref name="NPS-places_colonial_early_american" /> The fort was not used in combat during the war, and instead served as a barracks for the [[11th Infantry Regiment (United States)#War of 1812|11th Regiment]], as well as a jail for British prisoners of war.<ref name="Stakely p. 18" />
[[File:(King1893NYC) pg087 ELLIS-ISLAND IMMIGRANT STATION.jpg|thumb|right|Ellis Island buildings circa 1893]]

Immediately after the end of the War of 1812, Fort Gibson was largely used as a recruiting depot. The fort went into decline due to under-use, and it was being jointly administered by the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] and [[United States Navy|Navy]] by the mid-1830s.<ref name="Stakely p. 18" /> Around this time, in 1834, the extant portions of Ellis Island was declared to be an exclave of New York within the waters of New Jersey.<ref name="nyt19980527" /><ref name="HSR Main p. 11" /><ref name="Stakely p. 18" /> The era of joint administration was short-lived: the Army took over the fort's administration in 1841, demoted the fort to an artillery battery, and stopped [[garrison]]ing the fort, leaving a small Navy guard outside the magazine. By 1854, Battery Gibson contained an 11-gun battery, three naval magazines, a short railroad line, and several auxiliary structures such as a [[cookhouse]], gun carriage house, and officers' quarters.<ref name="Stakely p. 19">{{harvnb|ps=.|Stakely|2003|p=19}}</ref> The Army continued to maintain the fort until 1860, when it abandoned the weapons at Battery Gibson.<ref name="HSR Main p. 11" /><ref name="nyt18860509" /> The artillery magazine was expanded in 1861, during the [[American Civil War]], and part of the parapet was removed.<ref name="Stakely p. 19" />

At the end of the Civil War, the fort declined again, this time to an extent that the weaponry was rendered unusable.<ref name="Stakely p. 19" /> Through the 1870s, the Navy built additional buildings for its artillery magazine on Ellis Island,<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Stakely|2003|p=20}}</ref> eventually constructing 11 buildings in total.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1889/10/20/archives/an-island-of-explosives-where-the-navy-stores-its-gunpowder-big.html |title=An Island of Explosives; Where the Navy Stores Its Gunpowder. Big Magazines on Ellis Island in New-York Bay—Precautions Against Accidental Explosions. |date=October 20, 1889 |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605150016/https://www.nytimes.com/1889/10/20/archives/an-island-of-explosives-where-the-navy-stores-its-gunpowder-big.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Complaints about the island's magazines started to form, and by the 1870s, ''The New York Sun'' was publishing "alarming reports" about the magazines.<ref name="NPS-ellis-island-chronology" /> The guns were ordered removed in 1881, and the island passed under the complete control of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance.<ref name="nyt18860509">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1886/05/09/archives/the-story-of-ellis-island-interesting-incidents-of-life-in-a.html |title=The Story of Ellis Island.; Interesting Incidents of Life in a Government Powder Magazine. |date=May 9, 1886 |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605150022/https://www.nytimes.com/1886/05/09/archives/the-story-of-ellis-island-interesting-incidents-of-life-in-a.html |url-status=live }}</ref>