Continued from Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012.
Fort Wool and Fort Monroe were designed by Simon Bernard of France, who served under Napoleon.
Construction of the fort and garrison duty were both harsh, especially during the summer's heat.
It was dedicated (even though not complete) 1826 as Fort Calhoun, named after Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. By 1834, Fort Monroe was completed, but there were already problems with Fort Calhoun as its foundation was settling and the fort was never completed.
The original plans for the fort called for 232 cannons to be manned by a garrison of 1,000. Robert E. Lee was given the task of stabilizing it in 1834 as his first independent command. He found that the island wouldn't hold the weight of the two tiers of casemated and brought more stone in to stabilize it, but the fort never reached its intended size. Essentially, Lee failed in his task.
One little-known aspect of the fort's history involved President Andrew Jackson, who in the late 1820s and 1830s, came to the fort heartbroken over the death of his first wife and in frail health.
More to Come. --Old B-Runner
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