56th Company, Coast Artillery Corps 1912

I found these two 1912 dated real picture post cards (RPPC) at a flea market this past weekend.   The portrait is identified to "Frank Yost, Co 56, Fort Hancock, NJ".   I figured this must be some sort of Militia designation, since this guy was clearly an artilleryman of some sort and I had never known combat arms branches to use numbered companies (let alone Artillery, which is know for using the term "battery" in place of "company").  So this was a mystery that I felt I needed to get to the bottom of.

So here's the story:

In 1901 the Coast Artillery (as in sea coast) was organized into a series of 126 consecutively numbered companies.  Batteries were fixed positions of guns, companies were organizations of soldiers.  Each Company could have up to 109 men and NCOs, and could operate more than one battery.

So Artilleryman Yost shown here was in fact a member of the 56th Company, Coast Artillery Corps.   In 1912 he and his Company were stationed at Fort Hancock New Jersey, part of the harbor defenses for New York Harbor.  This Fort had the first battery of so-called "disappearing guns" in the USA.   The Fort is now part of the Sandy Hook Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area, and many of the coastal defense works can still be seen today.  For more info click here.

The inscription on the bottom of this photo reads" " -In Camp- Cooks and K.P.s of 56th Co, C. ARTY Fort Hancock NJ AUG 1912"

Battery Potter, Fort Hancock as seen today (NPS Photo)