Editing Fort Wool (section)

==History==
===Design and construction===
Brigadier-General of Engineers [[Simon Bernard]] was tasked by Secretary of War [[John C. Calhoun]] to create or improve fortifications for the protection of vital U.S. ports.<ref>See "Harbor Defenses of the United States of America" [https://cdsg.org/short-history/ Short history of US forts at CDSG.org]</ref> Bernard's plan was to build more than forty new forts, including Fort Wool, which he had named Fort Calhoun.<ref>See "The First, Second, and Third Systems, 1794–1860" [https://cdsg.org/united-states-seacoast-defense-construction-1781-1948-a-brief-history/ CDSG website].</ref> The fort was to have three tiers of [[casemate]]s and a [[barbette]] tier with a total of 216 muzzle-loading [[cannon]] mounted, and was to be manned by a garrison of 1,000 soldiers. With four tiers, it was planned as the first "tower fort" of the third system, resembling the four-tier [[Castle Williams]] in New York harbor. Early plans called it "Castle Calhoun". The fort was effectively a [[sea fort]], as the island had to be built up considerably to accommodate it. The fort was planned as a shallow "V" shape pointing north, with rounded ends. It was to be built on a {{convert|15|acre}} [[artificial island]] southeast of [[Old Point Comfort]] in [[Hampton, Virginia]]. Construction got underway in 1819 when crews started dumping granite boulders into the water. It took four years to bring the rock pile up to the 6-foot-tall island called for in the plans, and three more years before the foundation was ready to begin the fort's construction.<ref name="GMU">
{{cite web
| title = The Chesapeake Bay: Avenue for Attack
| url = http://www.virginiaplaces.org/chesbay/chesattack.html
| publisher  = George Mason University
| access-date = 21 December 2012
}}
</ref>{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=186–190}}

Construction of the fort began in 1826, and after considerable delays caused by subsidence of the island, two-thirds of the first level of casemates was finally completed in 1830.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=186–190}} Construction continued through 1834, and only half of the second tier was completed. It was then found that Fort Calhoun's foundations had [[subsidence|continued settling]]. Reports to the chief of engineers repeatedly state that the island had stabilized and construction could continue "the next year". In fact, the island continues to settle in the early 21st century.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=186–190}} A young second lieutenant and engineer in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], [[Robert E. Lee]] was transferred there to assist Captain [[Andrew Talcott]], the U.S. Army engineer in charge of the construction of Fort Wool and its larger companion Fort Monroe, across the channel on the mainland. Lee was given the task of stabilizing the island as his first independent command.  He found that the island would not hold the weight of the two tiers of casemates and brought more stone in to stabilize it, but the fort never reached its intended size. Lee found the stone foundation under the fort was the problem and that it could not support the weight of four tiers of the completed fort.<ref>Freeman 1934, Chapter 7.</ref>

Work on the structure began again in 1858,<ref name="FWiki1" /> but the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861 brought the fort's construction to a halt, with one complete tier and one open-top tier of casemates on about two-thirds of the designed perimeter. The south-facing "gorge" or back of the fort remained open.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=186–190}}

===Civil War===
[[image:Battle between the Monitor and Merrimac, Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 9, 1862. Copy of engraving by Evans after J.O. D - NARA - 530500.tif|thumb|right|The battle of the ironclads]]
The fort was originally named after John C. Calhoun, President Monroe's secretary of war who was a Southern politician of secessionist tendencies. In 1862 it was renamed after [[John E. Wool|Maj. Gen. John Ellis Wool]], a [[Mexican–American War|Mexican War]] hero and commander at Fort Monroe.<ref name="GMU"/> The fort was armed during the Civil War, initially with only 10 guns,<ref name=AFN1/> and fired on [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] positions and vessels.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=186–190}}

[[File:Civil War officers. Union (1909) (14576108858).jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Sawyer gun being demonstrated by Major General [[Benjamin Butler]] for Major General Wool at the Rip Raps (Fort Calhoun), 1861]]
A long-range experimental cannon, the Sawyer gun, was installed at Fort Calhoun in mid-1861 during the Civil War. The weapon was rifled, and an illustration in an August 1861 newspaper shows it mounted on a high-angle carriage.<ref>
{{cite web
| title = Frank Leslie ''Famous Leaders and Battle Scenes of the Civil War''
| url = http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/11200/11297/sawyer_gun_11297.htm
| publisher  = USF Clip Art Gallery web site
| access-date = 20 December 2012
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1 = Quarstein | first1 = John V. | last2 = Mroczkowski | first2 = Dennis P. | title = Fort Monroe: The Key to the South | page = 41 | publisher = Arcadia Publishing | year = 2000 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kSZv7unExEQC | isbn = 0-7385-0114-X }}
</ref> The range of this weapon extended all the way to [[Sewell's Point]], more than three miles away (where the [[Naval Station Norfolk|Norfolk Naval Base]] is now located),<ref name=Batt1/> the site of a Confederate earthen fort with [[bastion]]s and a [[redan]] and three artillery batteries totaling 45 guns. The weapon was a rifled 24-pounder (which would fire a projectile of 42–48 pounds), one of several rifled artillery pieces developed by [[Sylvanus Sawyer]]; however, none of his designs were widely adopted. A weapon of this type was tested at Fort Monroe in 1859, and two different Sawyer weapons, a 24-pounder rifle and a 3.67-inch, were used in the [[Siege of Richmond]] of 1864–65, although the 24-pounder burst at the tenth round and the 3.67-inch rifle was seldom used.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last =Ripley 
 | first =Warren
 | year =1984
 | title =Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War
 | pages =173–174
 | place =Charleston, S.C.
 | publisher =The Battery Press
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1 = Abbot | first1 = Henry Larcom | author-link = Henry Larcom Abbot | title = Siege Artillery in the Campaigns against Richmond, with notes on the 15-inch gun | page = [https://archive.org/details/siegeartilleryi00abbogoog/page/n90 85] | location = Washington | publisher = Government Printing Office | year = 1867 | url = https://archive.org/details/siegeartilleryi00abbogoog }}</ref> The [[Battle of Hampton Roads]] took place off Sewells Point on March 8–9, 1862. [[USS Monitor|USS ''Monitor'']] faced [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']] during the [[Battle of the Ironclads]] in 1862. The Sawyer gun also fired at ''Virginia'', although it did no damage to the ironclad's armor.<ref>
{{cite web
| title = CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack
| url = http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-sz/virginia.htm
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010622014701/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-sz/virginia.htm
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = June 22, 2001
| publisher  = U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command
| access-date = 21 December 2012
}}
</ref>

===Endicott batteries===
[[image:Fort Wool Plan Drawing.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Fort Wool in 1921]]

In 1885 the [[Board of Fortifications|Endicott board]] met to recommend improvements to U.S. coast defenses. At Fort Wool the result was the demolition of all but a small part of the western end of the fort to make room for modern gun emplacements. Five gun batteries were constructed after 1902. Fort Wool was armed with relatively small-caliber, rapid-fire guns because Fort Monroe had numerous large-caliber weapons. The 3-inch guns were intended to defend [[Submarine mines in United States harbor defense|controlled underwater minefields]] against [[minesweeper]]s. Some of the mines (called "torpedoes" at the time) were stored at Fort Wool; the mines were controlled from Fort Monroe.<ref name="cdsg123">
{{cite web
| title = The Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Bay
| date = 23 May 2016
| url = https://cdsg.org/the-harbor-defenses-of-chesapeake-bay/
| publisher  = CDSG
| access-date = 11 March 2019
}}</ref><ref name=FWiki1/><ref name=Berhow212>{{cite book |editor-last=Berhow |editor-first=Mark A. | title = American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide |edition=Third | page = 212 | location = McLean, Virginia | publisher = CDSG Press | year = 2015 | isbn = 978-0-9748167-3-9}}</ref>
* Battery [[Ferdinand Claiborne]]: two [[6-inch gun M1903|{{convert|6|in|adj=on|0}} guns]] on [[disappearing carriage]]s (1908-1918)
* Battery [[Alexander Brydie Dyer|Alexander Dyer]]: two {{convert|6|in|adj=on|0}} guns on disappearing carriages (1908-1917)
* Battery [[Horatio Lloyd Gates|Horatio Gates]]: two {{convert|6|in|adj=on|0}} guns on disappearing carriages (1908-1942)
* Battery [[Henry Lee III|Henry Lee]]: four [[3-inch M1902 seacoast gun|{{convert|3|in|adj=on|0}} rapid-fire guns]] (1905-1943)
* Battery Jacob Hindman: two {{convert|3|in|adj=on|0}} rapid-fire guns (1905-1946)

===World War I===

In 1917 and 1918, all but two of the six-inch guns were removed for potential use as [[field gun]]s on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], along with their disappearing carriages. The remaining guns were shifted from Battery Claiborne to Battery Gates.<ref name="cdsg123" /><ref name=FWiki1>[http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Wool_(1) Fort Wool at FortWiki.com]</ref>
* Battery Horatio Gates: two {{convert|6|in|adj=on|0}} guns on disappearing carriages (1908-1942)
* Battery Henry Lee: four {{convert|3|in|adj=on|0}} rapid-fire guns (1905-1943)
* Battery Jacob Hindman: two {{convert|3|in|adj=on|0}} rapid-fire guns (1905-1946)
* [[Indicator net|Anti-submarine nets]] were stretched across the harbor between Fort Wool and Fort Monroe in both world wars.<ref name=AFN1/><ref name="dp">
{{cite web
| title =Fort Wool Holds Spot In U.S. History
| url = https://www.dailypress.com/1991/10/17/fort-wool-holds-spot-in-us-history/
| publisher  = Daily Press Hampton Roads, VA
| access-date = 21 December 2012
}}
</ref>

===World War II===

Battery 229 with two [[6-inch gun M1|{{convert|6|in|adj=on|0}} shielded guns]] on long-range carriages was constructed on a rebuilt Battery Horatio Gates from March 1943 to January 1944. The work was completed, and the shielded carriages were installed; however, the gun tubes were not mounted. On 30 September 1943, installation was completed on an SCR-296A radar to provide [[Coast Artillery fire control system|fire control]] for Battery 229.<ref name=FWiki1/> The previous 6-inch guns were scrapped in 1942–43. Battery Lee's four 3-inch guns were transferred to [[Fort Story]], two each in 1942 and 1943.<ref name="cdsg123" /><ref name=FWiki1/> Anti-submarine nets were stretched across the harbor between Fort Wool and Fort Monroe in both world wars.<ref name=AFN1/>

In 1946 Battery Hindman's pair of 3-inch guns were transferred to Fort Monroe as a saluting battery.{{sfn|Berhow|2015|p=240}}