strategic locations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, including Ship Island. Construction of a fort on the island began in 1859, and continued up to the Civil War when the Confederates named the uncompleted structure Fort Twiggs after Confederate General David E. Twiggs. The island later became a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, and a base for the U.S. Second Regiment (Louisiana Native Guards led by Colonel Nathan W. Daniels), a unit composed of African-American soldiers. On July 9, 1861, a twenty-minute cannon exchange between Confederates in Fort Twiggs and the screw steamer occurred. Ship Island was abandoned by the Confederates because it could not be adequately garrisoned. The USS Massachusetts returned and took possession of Ship Island in September 1861. According to the historian John D. Winters, the island was "a valuable base from which to break up the traffic of the small Confederate vessels plying between Mobile and New Orleans through Mississippi Sound." In 1862, the fort was renamed Fort Massachusetts in honor of the Union warship which had seized the abandoned outpost. Construction on Fort Massachusetts was halted in 1866, although the fort was not fully completed. The January 4, 1862, edition of Harper's Weekly describes Ship Island: In 1880, the island was designated as the country's first quarantine station. The fort closed in 1903, and the quarantine station was placed on reserve status in 1916. In 1886, a wooden lighthouse was built to replace the brick lighthouse erected in 1853, which was damaged by waves. During World War II, the Coast Guard used the island for anti-submarine beach patrol. In 1942, the Army Air Corps used the quarantine station as a military recreation facility, as did Keesler Air Force Base in 1955. In 1969, Hurricane Camille with its tidal surge cut Ship Island into two distinct islands, to form East Ship Island and West Ship Island. The gap was known as the Camille Cut. In 1972, the original 1886 wooden lighthouse was accidentally burned down by campers. In 1998, Hurricane Georges washed away a mile of East Ship Island's beach. In 1999, Friends of Gulf Islands National Seashore dedicated a commemorative reproduction of the 1886 wooden lighthouse. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina almost completely submerged East Ship Island. West Ship Island received most of the developed property damage as Katrina's tidal surge wiped out the visitor and employee facilities on the island, as well as