- Type
- Fortress
- Built
- 1819 · 19th century
- Location
- Virginia, United States
- Commissioned by
- United States Army Corps of Engineers
- Coordinates
- 37.0036°, -76.3075°
History
English colonists built a fort on Old Point Comfort as early as 1609, and in 1619 the first enslaved Africans brought to Virginia landed here. The present stone fortress, designed by the French engineer Simon Bernard and named after President James Monroe, was built from 1819 to 1834. A young lieutenant, Robert E. Lee, worked on its completion. During the Civil War the fort remained in Union hands, and in 1861 General Benjamin Butler declared escaped slaves “contraband of war”, giving them refuge and earning the fort the nickname “Freedom's Fortress”. Jefferson Davis was imprisoned here from 1865 to 1867. The Army left the fort in 2011.
What to see
The six-sided bastioned fort is surrounded by a water-filled moat, and within its walls stand former barracks, officers' houses and a chapel. The Casemate Museum inside the walls includes Jefferson Davis's cell and exhibitions on the history of the fort and the Civil War. The grounds form Fort Monroe National Monument, and the promenades on Chesapeake Bay and the beach draw walkers.
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