Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe National Monument

FORT MONROE WALKING TOUR

STOP 1: CASEMATE MUSEUM

The name “Casemate Museum” is somewhat misleading, for it sounds like you are about to enter a museum dedicated to casemates, which are fortified structures from which guns (cannon or other artillery) are fired. However, that’s not it at all. The name comes from the simple fact that the museum is housed in the casemates of Fort Monroe. When the museum opened in 1951 it consisted only of the room where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was held prisoner for charges of treason after he was captured when the Civil War ended. Since then it has expanded to cover the entire history of Fort Monroe.

Diorama inside the Casemate Museum demonstrates the traditional use of a fort’s casemates, Fort Monroe National Monument

The Casemate Museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM. A free timed-entry ticket is required to visit the museum. Get one at the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center at 30 Ingalls Road.

Tours of the museum for individuals are self-guided. Guided tours are available only for groups of 10 or more people and must be booked two weeks in advance. Tours are not conducted by the National Park Service but by the Fort Monroe Authority. For information, visit the Casemate Museum web page.

The Casemate Museum tells not only the story of Fort Monroe from its construction in 1819 until its closure in 2011, but also the history of Point Comfort, the area of land that the fort now sits on; a place recognized for its military significance since the early days of British colonialism. Exhibits tell the story of the first forts built on the peninsula.

Model on display in the Casemate Museum depicts what the first fort on Point Comfort might have looked like, Fort Monroe National Monument

Although Fort Monroe was not built until after the War of 1812, the museum dedicates a good deal of real estate to the war with England, and you will learn way more about this somewhat forgotten chapter in American History than you will, or did, in high school history class. The War of 1812 is part of the Fort Monroe story because it is what led to the construction of Fort Monroe. When the war started there was no fort at Point Comfort. The last fort had been destroyed by a hurricane in 1749 and was never replaced. As a result, the English could easily sail the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads waters and terrorize the coastal towns of the United States unhindered.

British siege mortar that was captured during the War of 1812 on display at Fort Monroe National Monument’s Casemate Museum

After the war, President Monroe decided that it was time to upgrade America’s coastal defenses, the third incarnation of upgrades since the nation was founded. The plan to build many new coastal defense forts began in 1819, and the first fort to begin construction was Fort Monroe (named for the president). The fort was deemed complete enough to begin service in 1834, though construction projects continued for years afterward. A young Robert E. Lee, newly graduated from West Point with a degree in engineering, was stationed at the fort in 1831 and oversaw its last years of construction.

Model of Fort Monroe

While the fort began operation during the 1830s with the Indian wars, the most important chapter in its history is that of the Civil War. It was one of the very few southern forts that was never taken by the Confederates. Though the fort did not see much actual action, many military campaigns of the war were launched from here. Much of the museum focuses on the Civil War years, including two of the most memorable events in the fort’s history. One was the decision of fort commander Major General Benjamin Butler not to return three run-away slaves to their southern owner. The owner claimed the slaves should be returned as outlined by the Fugitive Slave Act. Butler countered that since Virginia was no longer part of the United States that the law did not apply to it, and that the slaves were therefore “contrabands of war.” Word got out, and every run-away slave in the area tried to reach Fort Monroe.

Exhibits in the Casemate Museum on the ex-slave community that formed at Fort Monroe during and after the Civil War, Fort Monroe National Monument

The second major event took place shortly after the war. While officers in the Confederate Army were pardoned for their roles in the treasonable war, civilian leaders were not. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was on the run the moment the war ended, but Union soldiers finally caught up with him on April 26, 1865. A modern day equivalent would be the hunt for Sadam Hussein, who was eventually found hiding in a hole. The fort’s role in all of this is that Davis was jailed in one of its casemates for nearly five months until being moved to better quarters at the fort. The casemate had been converted into living quarters for officers before the Civil War and no longer served as a fortification for firing artillery. Today, guests can enter the room and see it decorated as it might have been when Davis was held here. Davis was jailed at Fort Monroe until May 1867. After supporters paid a $100,000 bond, he was released and charges were eventually dropped.

Room where Jefferson Davis was held prisoner when he first arrived at Fort Monroe, Fort Monroe National Monument

The US Flag that was hung in Jefferson Davis’s cell to remind him of the Confederate defeat is on display in Fort Monroe National Monument’s Casemate Museum

Other notable events in the fort’s history are Edgar Allen Poe’s stationing at the fort in the late 1820s and the battle between ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor, known as the Battle of Hampton Roads. Those stationed at the fort had press box seats for the battle that changed naval history.

Exhibit in the Casemate Museum on Edgar Allen Poe’s stay at Fort Monroe

Exhibit in the Casemate Museum on the Battle of Hampton Roads

After the Civil War, the fort took an active role in training, becoming the military’s main school for the study of artillery. The Casemate Museum also tells this story and features exhibits on the artillery school, the instructors (many of the streets in the fort and surrounding town are named for these men), and the life of cadets, officers, and their families. The Artillery School remained open until 1898 when the Spanish-American War (April -December 1898) started and the U. S. Army needed its student-soldiers on the battlefield.

Diorama in the Casemate Museum depicts Emory Upton, Superintendent of Theoretical Instruction at Fort Monroe’s Artillery School from 1877-1880, Fort Monroe National Monument

Diorama in the Casemate Museum of a cadet at the artillery school with a painting by Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum, a prominent military artist, in the background, Fort Monroe National Monument

The nation’s fourth upgrade to its coastal forts started in the late 1890s and was known as the Endicott System, named for the man who proposed the plan, Secretary of War William Endicott. Fort Monroe received many new upgrades including “disappearing guns.” When shot, the recoil caused the carriages for these 10- and 12-inch guns to disappear below the fort’s walls, allowing the soldiers to reload without being exposed to enemy fire. Once loaded, the guns were raised back up to the top of the walls and fired again.

Model of a “disappearing” gun installed at Fort Monroe

From the early 1900s until the fort was closed in 2011, its primary mission was again training, breaking from this role only during the World Wars. The later part of the museum has exhibits on the various training schools that evolved as technologies changed, as well as on life at the base, including an exhibit on the Fort Monroe Club, the officers’ club at the fort. The information panels contain a number of interesting tales of events that went on during the club’s 100+ years of existence.

Diorama in the Casemate Museum depicting the Fort Monroe Club–bottles on the shelf were found in the fort’s moat, Fort Monroe National Monument

Artifacts from past lives at Fort Monroe are on display at the Casemate Museum, Fort Monroe National Monument

Information panel on the Fort Monroe’s Decommission Ceremony in 2011

There is also a 9-minute film about Fort Monroe that loops continuously. Another interactive exhibit is an animated light map that shows the range of the guns installed at the many forts around the Chesapeake Bay and how the waters were once completely covered by protective fire.

Small theater inside the Casemate Museum shows the 9-minute film about Fort Monroe National Monument

The Casemate Museum is a fairly large museum. To read and see everything takes about three hours. Of course only a nut like me would stand and read everything. Most people stroll through in a half hour. I even saw some visitors cruise right through as if they were going for a walk in the neighborhood. My suggestion for an abbreviated tour is to catch the film and animated map and to at least stop and see the Davis prison cell.

Next Stop: Robert E. Lee’s Quarters | Return to Tour Introduction

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