Fort Norfolk

Fort Norfolk. est. 1794. , (Side 1) , Fort Norfolk , First Series Fort 1794, On 28 March 1794, President George Washington approved funding for the fortication of 19 coastal harbors in the United States, stretching from Portland, Maine to Savannah, Georgia., Fort Norfolk and Fort Nelson were constructed on opposite sides of the Elizabeth River to protect the Norfolk harbor. One company of men from the Army Corps of Engineers manned both forts., Fort Nelson was demolished in 1827 to make room for the 1830 Norfolk Naval Hospital (today’s Naval Medical Center Portsmouth). Bricks from the fort are believed to have been used in the construction of the hospital., (caption) , Plan of Fort Nelson by Benjamin Latrobe, 1794; , Credit: National Archives and Records Administration, (Side 2) , Fort Norfolk , Civil War Fort 1861, Soldiers from the Virginia Militia seized Fort Norfolk on 19 April 1861 after Virginia's secession from the union. The Confederate Army manned the fort for coastal defenses until May 1862. Ordinance and gun powder from the magazine at the fort supplied the ironclad CSS Virginia in her historic battle with the USS Monitor in March 1862. After the battle, President Abraham Lincoln, aboard the side wheel steamer Baltimore, stopped by Fort Norfolk, Craney Island and other local batteries to observe the strength of their positions., Norfolk’s mayor surrendered the City of Norfolk to the Union Army on 10 May 1862. The city and the fort were under Union occupation until the end of the war., The fort served as a prison for Confederate soldiers, civilians, and miscreant Union soldiers from the end of 1862 until May 1866. , , Soldiers from Company B, 1st Regiment, United States Colored Troops were stationed at Fort Norfolk as prison guards in 1864. The United States War Department had established the Bureau of Colored Troops in May 1863 to recruit African Americans to serve in the Union Army., (captions) , Guard House and Guard, 107th U.S. Colored Infantry, , Fort Corcoran near Washington, D.C., 1865; , Credit: The Library of Congress, Insert drawing: Federal troops entering Norfolk, , Harper’s Weekly, 24 May 1862; , Courtesy of Norfolk Public Library, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)