Fort Howard is the name of a former military installation in Baltimore County, Maryland, near the present-day settlement of Fort Howard.
This park's historical significance is its connection with the War of 1812 and largest invasion of the United States in history on the morning of September 12, 1814. In the Battle of Baltimore, the British landed about seven thousand men near the site that later became Fort Howard, as a part of a campaign to capture and burn Baltimore. In coordination with their navy's bombardment of Fort McHenry, the British troops were to march up Patapsco Neck and capture Baltimore from the east. But the British advance was first demoralized when American sharpshooters Daniel Wells and Henry McComas killed their popular commanding general, Major-General Robert Ross. The advance had been temporarily stalled by the Americans in the Battle of North Point, and finally stopped dead when the British perceived the strength of the American defenses at Patterson Park. Disheartened, they reboarded their ships near North Point (Fort Howard) and sailed away to another defeat in the Battle of New Orleans.
In the 1700's, the site served as an important part of the transportation route between the Eastern Shore and the port of Baltimore.
Originally known as North Point, the site was taken over in 1896 by the federal government for the construction of coastal artillery fortifications. The fort was renamed by the Secretary of War in 1902 after Colonel John Eager Howard, a Baltimore philanthropist and distinguished soldier of the Maryland Continental Line during the American Revolutionary War. The installation earned the nickname the "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate" and served as the coastal artillery headquarters for Baltimore. The installation was turned over to the Veterans' Administration in 1940, which still owns the majority of the property. The portion of the property containing the old coastal artillery fortications was declared surplus federal land and is now the county park.
In the 1960's it was used as an auxiliary training area for the USArmy Intelligence School at Fort Holabird in Dundalk. A Vietnamese Village was built there to train Special Forces for counterinsurgency operations. The village had realistic tunnels. Instructors acted the part of insurgents who were captured and subjected to training interrogation and often to harsh treatment. Also in the 1960's and until the mid-1970's, other students were trained there in water and land infiltration and instructors were the opposition. When students were caught they were interrogated in the underground coastal defense bunkers. Interrogation usual meant the students holding bricks on their outstreched arms while standing naked on rubber tires. All training ceased when the Intelligence school moved to Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
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