Fort Monroe

Fort Monroe was built as the centerpiece of the United States coastal-defense system at Old Point Comfort, where the Elizabeth River and James River approaches meet Chesapeake Bay. Construction began in 1819 after the War of 1812 exposed weaknesses in American harbor defenses, and the main fort was completed in 1834.¹ Its enormous stone walls form an irregular hexagonal bastion fort surrounded by a moat, making it one of the largest masonry forts ever built in the United States.

The fort occupies a strategic site used by Indigenous peoples and later claimed by English colonists at Point Comfort in 1607. Its position controlled maritime access to Hampton Roads, an anchorage connecting the Chesapeake to the interior waterways of Virginia. The military reservation eventually included batteries, housing, wharves, hospitals, and other installations beyond the central fort.

Fort Monroe remained under Union control throughout the Civil War, giving the United States a critical base in Confederate Virginia. In May 1861, three enslaved men who had been forced to work on Confederate military defenses escaped to the fort. Major General Benjamin Butler refused to return them, reasoning that Confederate use of enslaved labor made them “contraband of war.” The decision established a precedent for sheltering other escapees, although it did not initially declare them free under general law.²

The fort and surrounding region became a refuge for thousands of formerly enslaved people. The policy helped transform Union military practice before the Emancipation Proclamation and the enlistment of Black soldiers. The Contraband Decision is therefore remembered as an early wartime step toward emancipation, while also reflecting the uncertain legal status and difficult living conditions faced by refugees at the fort.

Fort Monroe became a National Monument in 2011, recognizing its military architecture, Civil War history, and role in the long history of African American freedom. The National Park Service administers the monument in cooperation with local partners and preserves the fort, the surrounding landscape, and associated historic sites.³

The site is part of the broader Hampton Roads cultural landscape, which includes the nearby Hampton University, founded in 1868 to educate formerly enslaved people and their descendants. Visitors can encounter the fort’s ramparts and moat, Casemate Museum exhibits, historic officers’ quarters, and views across the water. Preservation is complicated by the site’s coastal exposure: sea-level rise, storms, erosion, and changing military infrastructure all affect long-term stewardship.

Fort Monroe’s history includes scientific, literary, and technological dimensions beyond its Civil War reputation. The young engineer Robert E. Lee served at Old Point Comfort during the fort’s construction, while Edgar Allan Poe was stationed there briefly as a United States Army soldier in 1828.⁴ The fort also formed part of a changing system of coastal defense that moved from masonry batteries to rifled artillery, mines, and modern harbor-defense technologies.

Old Point Comfort was also associated with earlier colonial and military episodes, including the arrival of English settlers in 1607 and the presence of Fort George during the colonial period. After the Civil War, Fort Monroe remained an active Army post until its closure in 2011, when its national-monument designation preserved a layered site rather than a single-period battlefield. Its significance consequently joins Indigenous, colonial, military, African American, architectural, and environmental histories.

Bastion fort

A fortification with projecting angular platforms that allow defenders to cover the walls and surrounding ground with fire.

Contraband of war

A Civil War-era Union designation for enslaved people who escaped to Union lines and were not returned to Confederate owners.

Old Point Comfort

The peninsula in Hampton, Virginia, on which Fort Monroe stands at the entrance to Hampton Roads.

Hampton Roads

The Virginia harbor and estuarine region formed by the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond rivers and their approaches to Chesapeake Bay.