Fort Boreman was a United States Army fortification built during the Civil War to help protect the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Northwestern and Staunton-Parkersburg turnpikes, and river port facilities vital to the Union war effort. From its hilltop position, sentinels had a broad view of river traffic, the railroads, and the turnpikes. Under Col Daniel Frost, soldiers of Company A of the Eleventh West Virginia Infantry began construction in June 1863. The fort was triangular and included a powder magazine, five gun stations on its northwest and northeast faces, artillery consisting of two 12-pound siege guns, one six-pound field gun, and two three-inch guns, and trenches capable of holding 100 men. It never faced hostile military action, and its guns were used only for celebrations. During one such occasion, Richard Miller was killed on August 14, 1863, when a gun misfired. In the last year of the war, the post 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. In 1898, the Parkersburg Post of the Grand Army of the Republic erected a cannon and carriage atop the hill, where it became known as Long Tom, and in 1921 this Civil War artillery piece was moved to Parkersburg's City Park, where it remained honored as a symbol of the region's historical heritage.