Fort Monroe

1125howard

Cadet
Joined
Jun 26, 2020
Wanted to share some recent photos I took at Fort Monroe, Fort Monroe is a decommissioned military installation in Hampton, Virginia. There is also a pet cemetery on top of the historic fortress.
To see the rest of the photos I took, please visit here https://www.jhmcreationz.com/HISTORICAL-HAUNTED/Virginia/FORT-MONROE/

DSC_0039.jpg

DSC_0059.jpg

DSC_0080.jpg
DSC_0025.jpg
DSC_0057.jpg

DSC_0017.jpg
 
Wanted to share some recent photos I took at Fort Monroe, Fort Monroe is a decommissioned military installation in Hampton, Virginia. There is also a pet cemetery on top of the historic fortress.

Fascinating photos. I love your focus on detail. Fort Monroe has quite a history, doesn't it? Going back to colonial times. Especially important as a Civil War fort. You know what would be interesting, would be if you could pull out a few individual photos of locations at the fort, then add some comments about the Civil War history of those particular locations. I'm wondering, for example, if you took any shots related to escaped slave contrabands and the US Colored Troops (USCT), or Gen Butler's headquarters, or the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis -- things like that?

Anyway, I looked up a couple of overhead views that might be interesting. This is an 1862 plan by Robert Knox Sneden (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons):

Fort_Monroe_Map.jpg


The peninsula seems to have changed significantly since then, but it does look as if the basic outline of the fort is close to what it was during the Civil War, looking at this Google sat map image:

FtMonroe_GoogleSat.png


Roy B.
 
Last edited:
Wanted to share some recent photos I took at Fort Monroe, Fort Monroe is a decommissioned military installation in Hampton, Virginia. There is also a pet cemetery on top of the historic fortress.
To see the rest of the photos I took, please visit here https://www.jhmcreationz.com/HISTORICAL-HAUNTED/Virginia/FORT-MONROE/

View attachment 364200
View attachment 364196
View attachment 364197View attachment 364198View attachment 364199
View attachment 364202
Welcome, enjoy. Excellent post
 
What is the difference between a Fort and a Fortress?

There's no rule but generally a fortress is a large and/or particularly strong fort. Or sometimes a fortified town or city, especially very heavily fortified towns on likely invasion routes such as Almeida and Elvas in Portugal and Belfort and Metz in France.

Below--Almeida, Elvas and an outlaying fortress (with 7 layers of defense on its north side) guarding an approach to Elvas.

62955829-49B8-4D91-B17E-71AF3A795877.png
5A5994DC-166B-42F5-9F6C-9980976955AD.png
CFBEB793-D2E1-4EB3-9DC0-292D57E6A60F.png
 
Last edited:
Was there last year...well worth the stop....Jeff Davis was imprisoned there for awhile.. On one of the walls on the upper Deck of the fort...graffiti someone carved ( T. A. Stacey 1898 - 31 ) ..And Point Comfort...where the White Lion, a British privateer based in the Netherlands. in Aug 1619 landed where it is believed to be the First Slave ship landed in Virginia..
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for the replies and kind words. My dad who is now retired actually was an engineer and helped setup generators there for a couple of years. Here are a couple more photos
DSC_0076.jpg
DSC_0079.jpg
DSC_0063.jpg
DSC_0064.jpg
DSC_0067.jpg
DSC_0008.jpg


Not sure what the below "Star" meant or represented. While we were walking around, we stumbled crossed it on one of the decaying buildings and i thought it would be a cool capture to get with my camera.
DSC_0022.jpg
 
Wanted to share some recent photos I took at Fort Monroe, Fort Monroe is a decommissioned military installation in Hampton, Virginia. There is also a pet cemetery on top of the historic fortress.
To see the rest of the photos I took, please visit here https://www.jhmcreationz.com/HISTORICAL-HAUNTED/Virginia/FORT-MONROE/

View attachment 364200
View attachment 364196
View attachment 364197View attachment 364198View attachment 364199
View attachment 364202
Fortress Monroe is in need of some real money and real attention. Butler would be very sad.
Virginia should be very embarrassed at the condition of both Monroe and its sister Ft Wool just across the point.
 
Fascinating photos. I love your focus on detail. Fort Monroe has quite a history, doesn't it? Going back to colonial times. Especially important as a Civil War fort. You know what would be interesting, would be if you could pull out a few individual photos of locations at the fort, then add some comments about the Civil War history of those particular locations. I'm wondering, for example, if you took any shots related to escaped slave contrabands and the US Colored Troops (USCT), or Gen Butler's headquarters, or the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis -- things like that?

Anyway, I looked up a couple of overhead views that might be interesting. This is an 1862 plan by Robert Knox Sneden (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons):

View attachment 364433

The peninsula seems to have changed significantly since then, but it does look as if the basic outline of the fort is close to what it was during the Civil War, looking at this Google sat map image:

View attachment 364436

Roy B.
In actuality, the perimeter of the fort is exactly what it was during the Civil War, minus the casemated coverface (water battery). The drawing above, unfortunately, is not accurate at all. The shape of the redoubt is not at all close to what was built, and what existed during the war. I have a lot of detailed pictures of the fort. Just let me know what you would like me to post.

10-19 Monroe Aerial 2 Color Rev02.jpg
 
What is the difference between a Fort and a Fortress?
By definition, a Fort has only a military population while a fortress has a significant civilian population, such as a walled city. This strict definition was corrupted during the early days of Fort Monroe, as it was a very large fort - 65 acres inside the moat! The standing joke among us fort nerds is the difference between a fort and a fortress is breastworks. LOL
 
Evidently the fort's outworks are gone; too bad, outworks are interesting. And at one time there was a casemated water battery of which only a small part remains.
View attachment 364455
Unfortunately, during the Endicott Period of coastal fortifications, the road around the fort was not wide enough to move the large steel guns to the concrete fortifications. The casemated coverface shown in this picture was torn down to allow the road to be widened. What a loss.
The outworks in advance of the fort were destroyed to make room for various buildings on the site during the Endicott Period and later. The redoubt was leveled and replaced with a concrete battery, that was subsequently torn down. Only a portion of the coverface toward the land approach remains.
 
By definition, a Fort has only a military population while a fortress has a significant civilian population, such as a walled city. This strict definition was corrupted during the early days of Fort Monroe, as it was a very large fort - 65 acres inside the moat! The standing joke among us fort nerds is the difference between a fort and a fortress is breastworks. LOL
You win the comedy whoopy cushion
 
Back
Top