Fort Boreman was a United States Army fortification built during the Civil War to help protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Northwestern and Staunton-Parkersburg turnpikes, and river port facilities at the strategic transportation center of Parkersburg, through which tens of thousands of soldiers passed between 1861 and 1865. From its hilltop position, sentinels had a broad view of river traffic, the railroads, and the turnpikes. Under the command of Col. Daniel Frost, Company A of the Eleventh West Virginia Infantry began construction in June 1863. The fort was triangular and included a powder magazine, winter quarters, and a stable, with five gun stations on its northwest and northeast faces. Its artillery included two 12-pound siege guns, one six-pound field gun, and two three-inch guns, and its zigzag trenches, rifle pits, and firing holes cut into logs could hold 100 men. Fort Boreman never faced hostile military action, and its guns were fired only for celebrations, but on August 14, 1863, Richard Miller was killed when a gun misfired during one of those occasions. In the last year of the war, the fort was occupied by Batteries D, G, and H of the First West Virginia Light Artillery and later by the Thirty-Second New York Independent Battery; Battery D, the Wheeling Light Artillery, was commanded by Capt. John Carlin. After the war, the site was returned to its previous owner, Jonathan B. Beckwith. In the late 1890s, the Parkersburg Post of the Grand Army of the Republic erected a cannon and carriage atop the hill that became known as Long Tom, and in 1921 this Civil War artillery piece was moved to Parkersburg’s City Park, where it remains a symbol of the region’s historical heritage.