which were begun the previous year. For this purpose congress had in 1861–2 appropriated $100,000 to be expended at the mouth of the Columbia, and with such rapidity had the work been pushed forward that the fortifications on Point Adams, on the southern side of the entrance to the river, were about completed at the time of McDowell's visit. With the approval of the war department, Captain George Elliot of the engineering corps named this fort in honor of General I. J. Stevens, who fell at the battle of Chantilly, September 1, 1862.[1]
Immediately on the completion of this fort corresponding earthworks were erected on the north side of the entrance to the river on the high point known as Cape Disappointment, but recognized by the department as Cape Hancock. Both of these fortifications were completed before the conclusion of the civil war, which hastened their construction, and were garrisoned in the autumn of 1865.[2] In 1874, by order of the war department and at the suggestion of Assistant adjutant-general H. Clay Wood, the military post at Cape Hancock was named Fort Canby, in honor of Major-general Edward R. S. Canby, who perished by assassination during the Modoc war of 1872–3, and the official name of the cape was ordered to be used by the army.
- ↑ Fort Stevens was constructed of solid earthworks, just inside the entrance, and was made one of the strongest and best armed fortifications on the Pacific coast. It was a nonagon in shape, and surrounded by a ditch thirty feet in width, which was again surrounded by earthworks, protecting the walls of the fort and the earthworks supporting the ordnance. Or. Argus, June 5 and 29, 1863; Ibid., Aug. 18, 1863; Victor's Or., 40–1; Surgeon Gen. Circ., 8, 484–7.
- ↑ On Cape Disappointment was a light-house of the first class, rising from the highest point. Extending along the crest of the cape on the river side were three powerful batteries mounted on solid walls of earth. Under the shelter of the cape, around the shore of Baker Bay, were the garrison buildings and officers' quarters. It was and is at present one of the prettiest places on the Columbia, though rather inaccessible in stormy weather. Surgeon Gen. Circular, 8, 461; Victor's Or., 36–8; Overland Monthly, viii. 73–4; Steel's Rifle Regt, MS., 5; Portland Oregonian, April 4, 1864, Oct. 19, 1865; S. F. Bulletin, Nov. 25, 1864; Or. Pioneer Hist. Soc., 7–8.
