Borodino 2002

Friday Tour:
Fort Monroe Casemate Museum

by Russ Lockwood


Fort Monroe contains a museum, and Borodino 2002 had a guided tour on Friday and Saturday after lunch (attendee's pick). Although it would probably take you an hour or so to see the entire thing, I squeezed it down to about 30 minutes because I had to go back and set up for the afternoon speakers.

1:1 Scale cannon

Now, because it is an active military base, you were not allowed to take any photos of the outside. In fact, when PBS filmed, the curator had to get permission for them to film his bit against a wall of some sort.

If you don't think security is heightened, consider the following incident. Somebody on base reported a "suspicious" person with beard and a tan sports jacket. As we were taking the tour of the museum, a couple of MPs arrived asking if we had seen such a suspicious fellow. Well, such a fellow was indeed part of our group, so they questioned him. Fortunately, Pete Panzeri, that's Major Pete Panzeri, he who put toegther JodieCon, was in our group, and so we stayed back to chat with MPs. Well, he chatted. I just observed. The MPs took this fellow's driver's license and radioed it in, and had whoever on the other end check it out.

Jefferson Davis' prison cell after the ACW.

It turns out that our guest was a day visitor on Friday, and had not signed up for the lunch time meal plan. When lunch time rolled around, he went looking for lunch. Remember, the Hotel's restaurant was closed. So, he went looking for another place to eat on base. That's when the "suspicious person" tip came in. After lunch, he came along for the tour. And that's when the MPs showed up.

Evidently, he checked out and the MPs were very polite. Pete later apologized to him for the inconvenience, but noted the heightened security and the fact that they had to check out all notices. And we went on with the tour.

At left: canteen of George Fahrenbach, Co. B, 55th PA.

At right: US Spanish-American War uniform.

The casemates run throughout, with low arched ceilings and numerous rooms carved from the space. The museum runs along part of the fort, not the entire circuit.

Some of the highlights are the 1:1 scale manikins manning a Civil War-era cannon, numerous small arms and uniform displays, the prison cell of Confedereate President Jefferson Davis, and so on. It is mostly centered around the Civil War, but included post ACW period as well.

Some of the displays contains models of various artillery pieces too large to accommodate in the museum, some taped commentary, and so on. As I noted, you could spend an hour going through the displays.

On Saturday, I led some attendees after lunch to the museum, left them in the hands of the curator, and took a walk around the top of the walls, looking out over the moat, cutting out a side entrance by the lighthouse, and walking back to the hotel along the water.

All told, it's a nice place to visit if you are in the area. As I recall, there is another fort on the other side of the river in Norfolk.

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