![]() ![]() Fort Woolįort Monroe has a companion fortification in the Hampton Roads harbor. It is almost exactly in the middle of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. It is located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, a very important body of water with direct access to our nation's capitol. It's a deep-water port and is the northern-most harbor in the US that stays ice-free year-round. Hampton Roads is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. During that time, he married and his first child, George Washington Custis Lee, was born at Fort Monroe on September 16th, 1832. Lee was just 24 years old while stationed at Fort Monroe. In addition, he worked on Fort Calhoun, the man-made island fortification in Hampton Roads later renamed Fort Wool. Under Lee, the moat was excavated to its proper depth, and he was responsible for overseeing the pointing and finishing of key walls. From 1831 to 1834, Lee was responsible for directing large engineering projects during the construction of Fort Monroe. His quarters, built in 1823, continue to be occupied by military personnel and their family. ![]() Lee's QuartersĪs a young lieutenant, Robert E. Davis was released from Fort Monroe a year and a half later upon being permitted to post $100,000 bail, paid by prominent northerners Horace Greely, Gerrit Smith, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. He remained in the casemate for six months until he was moved to a better-appointed cell inside Carroll Hall. In May of 1865, he was escorted to a casemate cell within the walls of Fort Monroe, chained in ankle irons for three days and heavily guarded with soldiers. Jefferson Davis, the one-time lieutenant in the US Army and later President of the Confederacy, was here on two occasions: once as the secretary of war and once as prisoner.įollowing the Civil War, Davis was accused of treason, plotting the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and mistreatment of Union prisoners of war. The casemates in these walls have been used for defense, living quarters, a prison, an officers' club and a museum. Fort Monroe's outside walls are 10 feet thick. Casemates allowed solders to fire cannons from relative safety. The casemates, or vaulted chambers inside the fort's walls, consist of a series of arches above, below and in the walls that connect the chambers to one another, giving the structure formidable strength. Depending on the tide, the water in the moat ranges from 3 to 5 feet deep and is fed through a gate from Mill Creek.Īt the time construction was completed only the Point Comfort Light existed beyond the moat. Upon its completion in 1834, Fort Monroe cost nearly two million dollars and covered 63 acres of land with its walls stretching 1.3 miles around. The granite for the walls came from rock quarries in Virginia and Maryland, while the other building materials were supplied by local contractors. It was begun by employing slave labor, which was gradually replaced by military convicts. Named for James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, Fort Monroe took 15 years to build. President James Madison put Simon Bernard, a French military engineer, in charge of a newly elected board of engineers to oversee the construction of Fort Monroe. Old Point Comfort was identified as one of the strategic locations and work commenced in 1819. During the war, British forces entered Hampton Roads and the lower Chesapeake unchallenged and proceeded north to attack Washington. The fort was constructed as part of a coastal defense strategy developed by the U.S. The body of water just outside these walls is a natural deep-water harbor and historically it was the key to controlling the Chesapeake Bay and to accessing by water the capital of the colonies, the Commonwealth of Virginia and Washington, D.C. The massive fort that exists today, and the smaller forts that preceded it, have guarded and defended Hampton Roads, one of the world's largest natural harbors. It became known as Point Comfort, as Smith and his weary men found the site brought them "great comfort." To this day, the name Old Point Comfort is frequently heard in reference to Fort Monroe and this historic area of Virginia. The point of land has been a place of strategic importance ever since. After surveying the area in 1608, he pronounced this place a "little isle fit for a castle." In 1609 colonial settlers built a wooden structure large enough to hold fifty men and seven mounted cannons, and called it Fort Algernourne. ![]() Over 400 years ago, in 1607, the English explorer Captain John Smith came ashore near here. Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort ever built in the United States and the only moat-encircled fort remaining in active duty. ![]()
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