Let us leave our engineering criticisms and approach the absolutely hideous, yet oddly beautiful, Endicott era batteries that clutter Fort Warren's eastern side. The east was the direction from whence any attacking force would notionally endeavor, so it was to the east that the big scary 10" and 12" disappearing guns needed to point. And when you're pointing such vast guns in the 1890's, you need to surround them with ugly concrete.