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Lifesize display: Manikins of Union
soldiers in casemate (the Union
occupied of Fort Monroe during the
Civil War) prepare a cannon for
firing
SECURITY UPDATE: Because of new
regulations required following 9/11,
you must show your car registration
at the security gate to enter Fort
Monroe. Everyone in the car (other
than children) must show picture
IDs, e.g., driver's license. You can
take pictures in the Casemate Museum
but not outdoors in the Fort.
Fort Monroe is scheduled for closing
sometime in the next several years.
But the Casemate Museum remains open
in the meantime.
Edgar Allan Poe,
tired of army life after spending
the dark winter months of 1828-29 at
Fort Monroe, sold his enlistment for
$75, ending his career as an army
artilleryman. After wandering
through the gloomy chambers of
The Casemate Museum you may
wonder if he hadn't just decided
that he had enough inspiration for
his tales of horror. Casemates, the
damp, dungeon-like artillery vaults
within the fort's mammoth stone
walls, make a perfect setting for a
Poe story. They also make a good
setting for exhibitions on the
people and events in the history of
Fort Monroe.
If Poe found
the casemates inspirational, Robert
E. Lee more than likely found them
educational. Lee, an army engineer,
worked from 1831 to 1834 on the
construction of Fort Monroe. During
the Civil War he was careful not to
attack the "Gibraltar of Chesapeake
Bay." The name was well deserved.
Fort Monroe was the largest stone
fort built in North America. At the
time it was completed, it was also
the largest enclosed fortifications
in the United States. The designer,
General Simon Bernard, had been
trained to think big as an
aide-de-camp to Napoleon Bonaparte.
The fort's
impenetrable stone walls imprisoned
Jefferson Davis at the conclusion of
the Civil War. He was charged with
plotting to assassinate Lincoln,
mistreating Union prisoners and
treason. After his capture on May
22, 1865. the former president of
the Confederacy spent five months in
casemate cell 2. For the first five
days he was kept manacled in leg
irons, but even after these were
removed his dank, spartan cell was a
bitter home for a man who had just
led the Confederacy, albeit in
defeat. After five months, Davis was
transferred to better accommodations
in Carroll Hall; its location is
marked on the Fort Monroe Walking
Tour. Davis was released on $100,000
bail May 13, 1867. Two years later
all charges were dropped.
Though Davis
was a most reluctant resident, some
Federal officers made comfortable
homes in the casemates. Photographs
from the 1900s show such living
quarters. A recreated model living
room even has a piano.
Another
exhibit focuses on the four-hour
Civil War battle that occurred just
off Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads
between the ironclads Monitor and
Merrimack (the traditional spelling
is without a "k," but navel
historians prefer Merrimack, after
the New England river for which it
was named).
Scale models
of weapons from the army's Coast
Artillery branch are also exhibited
here. The Coast Artillery School was
located at Fort Monroe, which served
as the headquarters for the defenses
of the Chesapeake Bay during World
War II. Fort Monroe has an extensive
collection of artillery pieces. On
the walking tour you'll see a
15-inch Rodman gun, called the
Lincoln gun in the President's honor
and used to bombard Confederate
batteries on Sewell's Point.
Free admission.
Open year-round, daily
10:30am-4:30pm. Closed Thanksgiving,
Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
Tip to history
buffs: A small but well-stocked
museum offers everything from Civil
War bullets to detailed 4-page
history tracts for 35 cents each on
subjects that include Jefferson
Davis, Edgar Allan Poe and a visit
by Abraham Lincoln.
Directions:
From i-95 in the Richmond area, take
I-64 east to Exit 268 for Hampton.
The entrance to Fort Monroe is
immediately before the Hampton Roads
Bridge Tunnel.
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