Beyond What You See Today

Fort Hunt, first used as a coastal defense during the Spanish-American War, later served additional military purposes. During World War II, the military brought enemy prisoners there in unmarked, windowless buses to conceal the location and held them as unofficial prisoners of war while U.S. Army and Navy personnel interrogated them for information about enemy activities. Its facilities included interrogation and prison rooms, solitary confinement, and exercise areas. Korvettenkaptan Werner Henke, the highest-ranking German officer shot and killed while in American captivity, died there after being falsely branded "War Criminal No. 1" by the Allied press, believing he would face execution if turned over to the British, and choosing death in a suicidal escape attempt. Battery Porter, completed just after the Spanish-American War, once held a single gun designed to help draw enemy ships into range of the larger guns of Battery Mount Vernon at Fort Hunt.

Fort Hunt, Virginia · United States