Built on a high embankment overlooking the Severn River, Fort Grey was pivotal in protecting Union interests during the earliest days of the Civil War. In a slave-holding Maryland vulnerable to uprisings by local Confederate sympathizers, it commanded key military assets and critical transportation routes by rail, road, and water, securing Annapolis and a vital alternate route to Washington for the duration of the war. After the fall of Fort Sumter in early April 1861, President Lincoln sent troops to keep Maryland in the Union and prevent it from joining the Confederacy, but tensions escalated through sabotage and attacks on Union troops and supply chains. Following the mob attack in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, later known as the Pratt Street Massacre, and open encouragement by Maryland's governor and Baltimore's mayor to destroy infrastructure to impede Union troops, General B.F. Butler sent the 8th New York State Militia to Annapolis in late April to secure Annapolis and the Union's northern route to Washington. On April 25, Lincoln ordered Butler, working with the naval commander there, to arm and hold Fort Madison and old Fort Nonsense, along with other necessary points on the opposite bank of the Severn. Butler and the 8th then established Fort Grey on land known as Mount Misery. On April 26, 1861, under Colonel G. Lyons, the 8th New York arrived by steamer as part of a massive influx of Union troops into Maryland. The troops first occupied the grounds of the Naval Academy, and Butler sent about 200 men, seven engineers, and Varian's Light Artillery Battery with two howitzers up the Severn River to construct Fort Grey. From this outpost, with commanding views of the Severn and Magothy Rivers, south to the United States Naval Academy and west to the railroad junction of Annapolis Junction, the Union held Annapolis and the northern route to Washington. The 8th New York later repaired the rail line to Annapolis Junction and advanced to Baltimore to secure Federal Hill.
