Black Point Battery

A look at one of the original cannons at the Battery's overlook restored for visitors to see.

Chad Beale

Quick Facts

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

A beautiful and secluded place under the shade of cypress trees, the parapet and Rodman cannon give an impression of the army outpost here in the mid-1800s. Initially called Point San Jose, the Army used the battery in 1863 to defend gold-rich San Francisco against potential Confederate attack.

Following the Civil War, the post became the headquarters of the US Army 9th Infantry Regiment, and served as the military headquarters for the US Army on the West Coast. The Rodman cannons stationed here were San Francisco's last line of coastal defense against enemy ships entering the bay for over a century.

The Abolitionists of Black Point

In the absence of army authority, a rather interesting community of educated, well-to-do private citizens including the leader of the Bear Flag Revolt, John C. Fremont, moved into the private homes at Point San Jose. It wasn't their education or their wealth that made them interesting, but their forward thinking philosophy and activist roots: they were all abolitionists, dedicated to ending US slavery. For the next few years, the Black Point community became a center for political and social dialogue. With the outbreak of the Civil War, the army reclaimed the land and constructed a proper military fort here.

Dueling Ideologies

The community of Black Point staunchly supported California Senator and "Free Soiler" Democrat David Broderick for his progressive beliefs. The outspoken Broderick managed to get elected on his anti-slavery platform in a time when the issue was divisive, but it cost him a friendship with fellow politician and one-time Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, David Terry.
Not only did the friendship sour, but because Terry made some rather strong statements concerning Broderick's character and claimed that Broderick's election to the Senate contributed to Terry losing his own re-election campaign, things went from bad to worse to awful. Terry challenged Broderick to a duel at Lake Merced south of the city, and Broderick accepted.
The two men chose pistols to settle their affair. Broderick's misfired into the ground before the official count was over, giving Terry the right at a free shot, which found its target in Broderick's lung. Two days later, Broderick succumbed to his wound at his friend Haskell's Black Point home, where he was heard to say he'd been killed for his support of freedom and accountable government.

A Spooky Discovery

Right around Halloween in 2010, archaeological monitoring near the hostel at Fort Mason led to an excavation and discovery of a pit filled with human bones. 1,400 human bones to be exact, enough for about 20 bodies, all stacked by type. Research is on-going, though a leading theory about the remains ties them to the Point San Jose hospital in the 1860s, where a Dr. Edwin Bentley is thought to have used the bones to teach medical students about causes of death.