Quincy Adams Gillmore, considered one of the greatest military engineers and artillerists of the Civil War, was born at this location in 1825 to Quartus Gillmore and Elizabeth Reid Gillmore. He attended Norwalk Academy and taught high school in Elyria before beginning a military career. After graduating first in his class at West Point in 1849, he entered the Corps of Engineers. In August 1861, he served in the Union’s Port Royal expedition in South Carolina and later took part in the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which defended the water approach to Savannah, Georgia. The fort, considered impregnable to artillery, fell to Gillmore’s rifled cannon on April 11, 1862, after a two-day bombardment, and his success effectively ended the use of large masonry fortifications. In 1863, he was given command of the Department of the South, including South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, with the task of taking Charleston from the Confederacy. His department came to include the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, an African American unit that led a courageous assault on Fort Wagner, and the 54th’s bravery inspired the recruiting of African-American units for the Union Army. Gillmore’s bombardment of Confederate-held Fort Sumter caused its near total destruction. In 1864, he was involved in the landing at Bermuda Hundred in Virginia and subsequent battles. From February to November 1865, Gillmore again commanded the Department of the South. After the war, he was appointed chief engineer for fortification, harbor, and river improvements along the Atlantic coast. His research on cements and artificial stone is considered authoritative in the field. Gillmore died in 1888 and is buried at West Point.