1800-1803 under the first system of US fortifications (some sources place it in the second system), as designed by French-born military engineer Jean Foncin. The Secretary of War's report on fortifications for December 1811 describes the fort as "...a regular pentagon, with bastions of masonry, mounting 42 heavy cannon, with two [additional] batteries for six guns...". During the War of 1812, a squadron of the British Royal Navy repeatedly captured American merchant and fishing vessels in Massachusetts Bay; however, they never attempted an attack on the port of Boston owing largely to the strength of Fort Independence. Colonel John Breck, namesake of Brecksville, Ohio, was the Commandant of Fort Independence during the War of 1812. Existing structure Work on the present fort was to begin in 1833 under the third system of US fortifications, supervised by Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, one of the nation's leading military engineers of the time. However, commencement was delayed until 1836 due to funding problems cause by an inflation spike. The new fort would have walls high and thick. It was constructed primarily out of granite from Rockport, Massachusetts. The re-built fort was substantially complete by 1848, although repairs and other work continued until 1861. At the height of its strength during the American Civil War, the fort mounted 96 cannon, some of which were 15-inch Rodman guns capable of firing a 450-pound shot more than . A small part of Castle William's brick structure remains in the rear portion of the present fort, but is covered up by subsequent stonework. At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Fort Independence was garrisoned by the Fourth Battalion Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The battalion set the fort in order and were trained in infantry and artillery drill, eventually forming the nucleus of the 24th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. At least two other infantry regiments were trained at Fort Independence during the Civil War—the 11th Massachusetts and the 13th Massachusetts. Following the Civil War, Fort Independence gradually fell out of use, as its importance was reduced by the larger Fort Warren which had also been constructed under the direction of Sylvanus Thayer. In the 1880s, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed a series of parkways and parks in Boston known as the Emerald Necklace. Olmsted had originally envisioned a parkway to be known as the Dorchesterway that would connect Castle Island (via a new earthen causeway) to the