of the Montauk Point Lighthouse. War of 1812 During the War of 1812 British frigates once again controlled the northern bays of East Hampton with frigates headquartered in Gardiners Bay particularly harassing ships going into Sag Harbor. Sag Harbor had a fort manned by 3,000 troops on Turkey Hill. July 11, 1813 One hundred British Marines raided the wharf but were driven back after setting fire to one sloop by Americans led by Capt. David Hand. During the War of 1812 a British fleet of seven ships of the line and several smaller frigates anchored in Cherry Harbor and conducted raids on American shipping Long Island Sound. Crews would come ashore for provisions which were purchased at market prices. During one of the British excursions, Americans captured some of the crew. The British came to arrest then Lord of the Manor John Lyon Gardiner. Gardiner, who was a delicate man, adopted the "green room defense" where he stayed in a bed with green curtains surrounded by medicine to make him look feeble. The British, not wanting a sick man on board, let him be. The British were to bury several personnel on the island. Some of the British fleet that burned Washington assembled in the harbor in 1814. Gardiner's supply boats were manned by slaves during the war and this made it easier for them to pass through British lines. Many of the Gardiner slaves were to live in the Freetown (East Hampton), just north of East Hampton (village), New York. American Civil War During the American Civil War, some of the Sag Harbor whaling ships were scuttled in Charleston, South Carolina harbor to blockade the city. The USS Montauk, a monitor which was constructed at the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, saw considerable action throughout the war. In 1865 the ship, docked at the Washington Navy Yard, was used as the prison for accused Abraham Lincoln assassination conspirators and the autopsy and identification of the body of assassin John Wilkes Booth. Spanish–American War During the Spanish–American War, the Army built Fort Tyler on Gardiners Point Island in an attempt to protect Long Island. A more important fort was the massive Camp Wickoff (also called Wyckoff) which stretched from the current Montauk Long Island Railroad station to the Montauk Point Lighthouse. The area was used to quarantine soldiers coming from the conflict. The most prominent group among the 20,000