Fort Norfolk

Fort Norfolk was established as a First Series fort after President George Washington approved funding on 28 March 1794 for the fortification of 19 coastal harbors in the United States from Portland, Maine to Savannah, Georgia. Fort Norfolk and Fort Nelson were built on opposite sides of the Elizabeth River to protect Norfolk harbor, and one company of men from the Army Corps of Engineers manned both forts. Fort Nelson was demolished in 1827 to make room for the 1830 Norfolk Naval Hospital, and bricks from the fort are believed to have been used in constructing the hospital. During the Civil War, soldiers from the Virginia Militia seized Fort Norfolk on 19 April 1861 after Virginia's secession from the Union, and the Confederate Army manned it for coastal defense until May 1862. Ordnance and gun powder from the fort's magazine supplied the ironclad CSS Virginia in her battle with the USS Monitor in March 1862. After that battle, President Abraham Lincoln, aboard the side wheel steamer Baltimore, stopped at Fort Norfolk, Craney Island, and other local batteries to observe the strength of their positions. Norfolk's mayor surrendered the city to the Union Army on 10 May 1862, and the city and fort remained under Union occupation until the end of the war. From the end of 1862 until May 1866, the fort served as a prison for Confederate soldiers, civilians, and miscreant Union soldiers. Soldiers from Company B, 1st Regiment, United States Colored Troops were stationed there as prison guards in 1864 after the United States War Department had established the Bureau of Colored Troops in May 1863 to recruit African Americans for Union Army service.

Norfolk, Virginia · United States