Last updated: March 10, 2021
Place
Battery Gunnison
Quick Facts
Amenities
3 listed
Beach/Water Access, Benches/Seating, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board
Battery Gunnison, later called Battery New Peck, is a six-inch coast artillery battery located on Sandy Hook in New Jersey. Gunnison was built in 1903 as a twin six-inch disappearing gun battery. This site is only open to the public while on a tour.
Captain John W. Gunnison
Battery Gunnison was named in honor of U.S. Army Captain John W. Gunnison in 1904.
Captain Gunnison served in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and was killed in 1853 at Sevier Lake, Utah, in the line of duty. He was part of an expedition searching for a feasible passage across the Continental Divide for a transcontinental railroad route from Saint Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California.
Two 6-inch Guns
The south side gun and carriage was mounted in 1905, and the north side gun and carriage was mounted in 1908. During World War II, the Army wanted to make Battery Gunnison a faster firing gun battery. To do this, the Army removed the old disappearing guns and carriages, raised up the gun platforms with more concrete, and emplaced another pair of 6-inch guns, mounted on pedestal carriages. These carriages enabled the guns to fire 108-pound armor-piercing projectiles in any direction up to ten miles away.
New Battery Peck
The guns and carriages for the revamped Battery Gunnison came from Battery Peck, which was one mile north of Battery Gunnison overlooking the tip of Sandy Hook. The Army renamed Battery Gunnison "New Battery Peck." Around 1949, the Army stopped using the former Battery Gunnison and abandoned it.