Battery Arthur Wagner (San Francisco, California)

 artillery battery, interesting place

Construction on Battery Howe began in 1893 and was completed two years later. Originally a single battery of 16 rifled mortars, it was named for Colonel Albion P. Howe, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, who died in 1897. Unlike the other mortar batteries in California which built in a straight line, Battery Howe was built in the shape of a cross, with a mortar pit in each quarter.

The battery was divided into two separate administrative entities, with Pits C and D becoming Batttery Arthur Wagner. The naming of the battery was to honor Colonel Arthur L. Wagner, Military Secretary of the Army, who died in 1905.

In 1920, the mortars were removed and the two batteries became a storage site. At some time later, Battery Wagner and Battery Howe's Pit B was buried under an artificial hill. This leaves only pit A visible today.

www.militarymuseum.org/BtyHoweWagner.html