Fort Boreman

Fort Boreman. Protecting the B&O Railroad. The men of Co. A, 11th West Virginia Infantry (US), constructed Fort Boreman in 1863 to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad here. The B&O, the most important east-west rail line that linked the Atlantic coast with the American interior, was vitally important for the safe shipment of military supplies as well as the U.S. Army troops. The safety of the railroad, however, depended on its being defended against Confederate attacks that could occur anywhere along the hundreds of miles of track. Although Federal officials at first were slow to act, eventually a series of blockhouses and fortifications were constructed to protect the line itself as well as rail yards and bridges., On August 21, 1863, Col. Daniel Frost, 11th West Virginia Infantry, took formal possession of Fort Boreman (named for the new state’s first governor, Arthur I. Boreman.) Although Frost declared the fort completed and ready for heavy artillery in September, in fact improvements, such as huts for winter quarters, continued to be made as late as November. During the remainder of the war, several artillery units manned the fort successively. The guns were fired only for visiting dignitaries and on special occasions, such as the Fourth of July, never in anger. After the war, the fort was razed, and the quarters were burned., The site of Fort Boreman was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003., (sidebar) , Arthur I. Boreman, West Virginia’s first governor (1863-1869), was a prominent Parkersburg resident. Born July 24, 1823, in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, he moved at age four with his family to Middlebourne, just north of here. He studied law under his older brother and his brother-in-law James McNeill Stephenson of Parkersburg. Boreman was admitted to the bar in 1845 and practiced in Parkersburg. Elected to the first of his many political offices in 1855, Borman was president of the Second Wheeling Convention, First and Adjourned Sessions (June-August 1861), and a circuit court judge in Parkersburg thereafter. He served as a U.S. Senator from West Virginia (1868-1875), Boreman died in Parkersburg on April 19, 1896., (captions) , (lower left) View of Parkersburg from Mount Logan (site of Fort Boreman), 1861 Courtesy West Virginia University Library. , (upper right) B&O Route Map, 1860 Courtesy B&O Railroad Museum , (lower right) Governor Arthur I. Boreman Courtesy Library of Congress