As the post on Davids Island grew, in the 1880s the Army invested in new brick construction of more than 20 new buildings, including officers’ quarters, enlisted men’s barracks, mess halls, hospital buildings, and support facilities. It was later converted to a coastal artillery defense post and was eventually given the name Fort Slocum after Major General Henry W. Slocum, U.S. Volunteers in 1896. Construction of fortifications on the island resulted from the recommendations of the Endicott Board of Fortifications, an 1885 study of America’s coastal defenses. The study called for better protection of ports such as New York Harbor, and Davids Island became part of its system of defenses. Between 1891 and 1904, artillery batteries were erected at three places on the eastern half of the island: Battery Practice near the southeastern shoreline, with 1870s-era weapons for training personnel for older forts, the state-of-the-art Abbot Quad heavy mortar batteries, Haskin and Overton, mounting a total of 16 breech-loading 12-inch mortars, at the southeast end of the island; and two adjoining medium-range breech-loading rifled gun batteries, Fraser and Kinney, on the northeastern shore. Battery Practice had at least one 15-inch smoothbore Rodman gun and two 8-inch converted rifles, all muzzle-loading and typical of weapons emplaced in the 1870s. It was disestablished in 1899, although the 15-inch gun remains on the island. Battery Kinney had two 6-inch M1900 guns on pedestal mounts, and Battery Fraser had two 5-inch M1900 guns on pedestal mounts. (Despite the presence of mis-captioned postcards, including those in the New Rochelle Public Library, there were never large-caliber breech-loading disappearing guns placed at Davids Island.)