Early 19c U.S. Lighthouses: The Original Tallies

In the course of doing research for our lighthouse maps, we came across widely varying estimates as to the number of lighthouses in early 19th century America. Which to believe?

We were stumped. Then after months of exhaustive Googling, we hit the jackpot: THE AMERICAN STATE PAPERS: Documents, Legislative and Executive of the Congress of the United States, from the First Session of the First to the Third Session of the Thirteenth Congress, Inclusive: Commencing March 3, 1789, and Ending March 3, 1815.

Above: Sandy Hook, NJ (1764), the oldest standing U.S. lighthouse. Illustration by Peter M. Mason, from Mid-Atlantic Lighthouses: Illustrated Map & Guide.

From an 1804 report in THE AMERICAN STATE PAPERS:

Our own Government has attended to the erection of light houses, with a vigilant eye. Already their number on our extended sea coast amounts to thirty-one...

Those lighthouses, listed north to south, were in a statement "shewing" expenses:

New Hampshire: Portsmouth; Massachusetts: Boston, Nantucket, Nantucket Beacon, Cape Roge [Cape Pogue], Thatcher's Island, Plum Island, Plymouth, Seguin Island [now in Maine], Baker's Island, Cape Cod, Wigwam Point [Annisquam], Gayhead; Rhode Island: Newport; Connecticut: New London, Faulkner's Island, Lynde's Point; New York: Montauk, Sandy Hook, Eaton's Neck; Delaware: Cape Henlopen; Virginia: Cape Henry, Smith's Point, Old Point Comfort; North Carolina: Cape Fear, Cape Hatteras, Shell Castle [off Ocracoke Island]; South Carolina: Charleston, George Town; Georgia: Tybee.

In 1811 Winslow Lewis won a contract to outfit all U.S. lighthouses with his patented lighting system, which was a cheap imitation of the Argand system used in Europe (an example of the need for international copyright protection). He listed 45--in no discernible order, whether geographical, alphabetical or financial:

New Bedford Gay Head Cape Page [Cape Pogue] Nantucket Chatham, 2 lights Cape Cod Plymouth, 2 lights Boston Baker Island, 2 lights Cape Ann Wigwam Point Newburyport, 2 lights Portsmouth Portland Seguin Franklin Island West Quoddy Scituate Whitehead St. Simonds Sapelo Island Charleston, S.C. Georgetown, S.C.

Cape Fear Cape Lookout Cape Henry Cape Hatteras New Point Comfort Old Point Comfort Smith’s Point Cape Henlopen Sandy Hook Montauk Point Little Gull Island Eaton’s Neck New London Faulkner’s Island Lynde Point Five Mile Point Fair Weather Point Watch Hill Newport Point Judith Tybee Wood Island

Civil War Lighthouse Report

Lighthouses were key to protecting and controlling shipping, hence they were of vital strategic importance in the Civil War. Confederates dismantled or sabotaged many lighthouses to keep them out of Union hands, with varying success.

Per the 1863 Journal of the Franklin Institute: "this wicked rebellion has extinguished 125 lights [out of 556], many of them of the highest importance."

Below are some noteworthy excerpts from a "report of the operations and condition of the light-house establishment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1863" submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury:

In the fifth light-house district, embracing the coasts from Metomkin inlet, Virginia, to New River inlet, North Carolina, including Chesapeake bay and tributaries, Albemarle and Pamplico sounds, circumstances have not permitted the board to make many improvements...

The new illuminating apparatus ordered for Cape Hatteras main light, combining the latest and highest improvements, has been placed in its position....

The light-houses at Roanoke marshes, northwest point of Royal Shoal, Croatan, Cape Lookout, and Ocracoke [NC] have been refitted and the lights re-exhibited.

The light-house at Wade's Point [NC] was also re-established, but early in May last it was visited by a guerilla force from the main land and again destroyed....

The light-houses at Craney Island shoal, Back river, and Cape Henry [VA] have been repaired, renovated, and refitted, and are now in operation, the important light at Cape Henry being protected from the enemy by a military guard detailed by the general commanding at Fortress Monroe....

A new fog-bell, frame, and machinery has been placed at Old Point Comfort light-house, and extensive general repairs made at that station....

The light-vessels in this district have received careful attention, and with but one or two exceptions have remained securely at their stations. The light-vessel built under contract for Frying Pan shoals, off Cape Fear, North Carolina, has been sent to her station, but the lights have not been exhibited in compliance with the wishes of the naval authorities....

In the sixth light-house district, embracing the coasts from New River inlet, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral light-house, Florida, inclusive, the same reason which called for a brief summary of operations in the last annual report still exists, i.e., the slow recovery of the territory by the United States military forces.

Congress, at its last session, having made an appropriation for the establishment of range lights to facilitate the entrance into Port Royal harbor, early measures were adopted to secure the designed end. The necessary preliminary examinations were made, the plans and estimates of the engineer approved, and the construction of the buildings completed at Portland, Maine.

When ready they were sent out to Port Royal and put up. These ranges consist of two lights on Hilton Head island, one light on Bay Point, and a light-vessel anchored on Fishing Rip. Through the courtesy of the general commanding the United States forces at Port Royal, the necessary details of soldiers were made to assist in opening a vista through the woods for the inner range on Hilton Head, and by the kindness of the admiral commanding the South Atlantic Gulf squadron, a suitable vessel for Fishing Rip was placed at the disposal of the board. These lights have been completed and lighted, to the great benefit of the increasing commerce seeking that port.

Early in the year a competent engineer was sent to this district to make, as far as possible, a detailed examination into the condition of the light-houses, &c., on this coast, and the damage done by the enemy thereto. He performed the duty confided to him with marked promptitude and ability, and his report conveys the intelligence that the following named lights have been more or less completely destroyed:

• St. Helena sound [SC] light-house, blown up.
• Hunting Island [SC], undermined and thrown down.
• Combahee Bank [SC] light-vessel, removed and burnt.
• St. Simon's Island [GA] light-house, blown up.
• Wolf Island [GA] beacons, blown up.

He reported the almost total destruction or removal of the buoys by the enemy, and a large number of suitable sizes and kinds, with the necessary accessories, was promptly forwarded from the buoy depots of the north. Upon their arrival at Port Royal [SC; captured in 1861] they were, as far as required, placed in position under the direction of the officers of the Coast Survey on duty on that station.

In addition to the light-vessel for Fishing Rip [Port Royal Sound, SC], placed at the service of the board, the kindness of Admiral DuPont secured the services of a small schooner, a prize to the naval forces, as a tender for the district. She has been officered, manned, and placed in commission, and has proved of the greatest possible assistance in the performance of various works in the district, such as buoyage, transporting materials, supplies, &c.

The seventh light-house district embraces the coast of Florida from St. Augustine to Egmont key. The lights in this district have been maintained in useful operation.

Cape Florida light has not been re-exhibited. The necessary materials for its repair, and a suitable illuminating apparatus to replace the one destroyed by the enemy, have been provided and stored at Key West, so that the work may be prosecuted to early completion whenever it may be found safe and prudent to do so.

The eighth and ninth light-house districts have received the especial attention of the board, and in view of the many serious difficulties to be overcome in the re-establishment of the various aids to navigation, it has reason to congratulate itself upon having accomplished so much.

The important light at Pensacola has been repaired and re-exhibited, showing temporarily a fourth order, instead of the first order lens, which is allotted to that station, and the placing of which is not deemed advisable until the occupancy of a greater portion of the surrounding country by the United States forces shall have placed the station beyond risk of damage and spoliation.

Extensive repairs to the light-house at Ship island [MS] (whose re-establishment was stated in the last annual report) have been made, and further needful renovations are in progress.

The screw-pile structure at Merrill's Shell Bank [Pass Marianne, LA] was found in measurably good condition. A new illuminating apparatus was provided, the necessary repairs made, and the light re-exhibited.

Pleasanton's island [LA] light-house has been repaired, refitted temporarily, and the light exhibited.
West Rigolets light-house [LA] has been repaired temporarily, and the light reestablished.

The light-houses at Port Pontchartrain, Bayou St. John, and New Canal [LA] have been refitted and the lights put into operation.

Pass à 1'Outre [LA] light-house has been thoroughly repaired, a new keeper's dwelling erected, and the light exhibited.

The old light-house at the head of the Passes [LA] was burned at the commencement of the rebellion. A new structure has been erected, and the light shown.

South Pass and Southwest Pass lights [LA] have been renovated, extensive repairs being made to the latter, and the lights re-exhibited.

Illustration: Price's Creek, NC, lighthouse ruin by Gerald C. Hill, from Southeast Lighthouses Illustrated Map & Guide.

August 1893: Death & Destruction

After the August 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane. From The State.

As the U.S. eastern seaboard prepares for Hurricane Irene, we are reminded of the horrific storm that hit at this exact time in 1893. Later dubbed the Sea Islands hurricane, it caused widespread death and destruction, especially in the Carolinas and Georgia, which was already reeling from a yellow fever epidemic.

Washington Post, August 22, 1893:

PANIC OVERTAKES THE CITY
People Flying from Brunswick in Fear of an Epidemic.
ONE MORE CASE OF FEVER
Another Man Is Stricken, and Despite the Assurances of the Surgeons that Danger of the Disease Spreading Has Passed, the Mayor Issues a Proclamation Advising People to Leave--Free Transportation for the Poor--Exodus from the Stricken Town.
ATHENS OPENS HER GATES. SAVANNAH'S RIGID QUARANTINE.
A FEVER SHIP AT WILMINGTON.
SURG. GEN. WYMAN NOTIFIED.

From the Light-House Board Annual Report for 1893:

The first storm, in August 1893, was preceded by cyclones off the coast on the 15th, 20th, and 23d, and the high seas engendered by them culminated on August 27-28 in a tide in the Sixth light-house district [New River Inlet, NC, to Jupiter Inlet, FL] higher by 2 feet than any which has been recorded. The center of the storm crossed the coast line between Savannah and Charleston leaving desolation in its course and causing, it is estimated, a loss of more than 2,000 lives on the sea islands of South Carolina. Its force was very great as far south as Cape Canaveral, Florida, and as far north as Bull Bay on the South Carolina coast.

On the Savannah River 5 barks were wrecked within a quarter of a mile of Tybee Knoll Cut front light, and in Charleston Harbor the wrecks were numerous. The light-house schooner Pharos, then at anchor in the bight at Cape Canaveral, narrowly escaped being driven ashore after parting the chains of 3 anchors which she had down at the time. The Wolf Island front beacon was overturned by the force of the sea. The Tybee beacon was undermined and overturned. The structures of the Tybee Knoll Cut front beacon, Elba Island front beacon, Bloody Point front beacon, Daufusikie Island front beacon and the wharf at the rear, Hilton Head front beacon, Paris Island front and rear beacons, Morris Island front beacons, and Fort Sumter and Bull Bay light-stations suffered seriously, small structures being carried some distance from their foundations and larger ones being injured by wind and tide. Boat landings and elevated wooden plank walks, of which there are some miles in this district, suffered especially, and almost all of them required such extensive repairs as to make it economical to rebuild them. This also was the case with the long wharves at Tybee Knoll Cut and Daufuskie Island light-stations, and at the buoy and supply depot at Charleston. The beacons on Morris Island, South Carolina, were swept away to sea so completely that nothing remained even of the sand hills on which they formerly stood....

One light-vessel, No. 37, then on Five-Fathom Bank, in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape May, N. J., foundered not far from her moorings, and was practically destroyed by the cyclone of August 23, 1893, when four out of the six men on board were lost. Another light-vessel, the one then on Rattlesnake Shoals, Atlantic Ocean, off Charleston, S. C., was torn from her moorings and driven ashore. Her crew were saved and it is hoped that the vessel may be hauled off from the beach.

Castle Pinckney, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.—This depot was wrecked by the cyclone of August 26 and 27, 1893, and most of its contents were destroyed.... Boats stored on the land in rear of the fort, high above the ground, were washed away and lost, and even the keeper's dwelling, which was built several feet above the general level of the site, was in serious danger from the waves.

Cutoff Channel range, Patapsco River, Maryland.—A severe storm on August 28, 1893, carried away the bridge, built of timber and stone, connecting the front beacon with the shore, and washed out the strip of land originally purchased for a means of communication between the beacon and the keeper's dwelling on shore...

Washington Post, August 31, 1893:

DROWNED BY THE HUNDRED
Negro Bodies Found in Appalling Numbers Around Beaufort.
FOUNDERED ON THE COAST
The Steamship City of Savannah Wrecked with Scores of Other Craft-Charleston Under Water-Ten Drowned on the Lakes--Tybee and Sullivan Island Villages
Swept Away--Awful Scenes Reported from the South Carolina Marshes.
WRECKED THE CITY OF SAVANNAH.
The Steamship Shattered by the Storm and Driven on the Shoals.