Hampton

Hampton, Virginia

CASEMATE MUSEUM.

Life size 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.

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.