Editing Fort Monroe (section)

===Design and construction===
[[File:Fort Monroe Map.jpg|thumb|Map of Fort Monroe by [[Robert Knox Sweden]], 1862, showing casemated water battery, redoubt, and gorge position; the redoubt was protected by a secondary moat. The outer moat shown for the water battery did not exist.]]
Following the [[War of 1812]], the United States realized the need to protect Hampton Roads and the inland waters from attack by sea. [[Battle of Craney Island|A British attack]] on Norfolk and Portsmouth was repulsed, but they then bypassed the existing fortifications and went on to [[Burning of Washington|burn Washington, D.C.]], and unsuccessfully [[Battle of Baltimore|attack Baltimore]]. In March 1819, President [[James Monroe]]'s [[United States Department of War|War Department]] came up with a plan of building a network of coastal defenses, later called the [[Seacoast defense in the United States|third system of U.S. fortifications]]. In 1822 construction began in earnest<ref>Konstam, Angus & Spedaliere, Donato: ''American Civil War Fortifications (1): Coastal brick and stone forts'', p.19; Osprey Publishing, 2013</ref> on the stone-and-brick fort which would become the safeguard for Chesapeake Bay and the largest fort by area ever built in the United States.<ref name=NAFortsHamp1/> It was intended as the headquarters for the third system of forts.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=41, 179–186}} Among the original buildings is [[Quarters 1 (Fort Monroe)|Quarters 1]], designed as a residence and headquarters for Fort Monroe's commanding officer.<ref name=VAnom1>{{cite web|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Hampton/114-0002-0004_Quarters-1_Fort_Monroe_2010_nomination_FINAL.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Quarters 1 |author=Katherine D. Klepper |date=December 2009|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources}}</ref> Work continued for nearly 25 years.<ref name="Fort Monroe During the Civil War">{{cite web |url=http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Fort_Monroe_During_the_Civil_War |publisher=Kenmore Stamp Company |title=Fort Monroe During the Civil War |access-date=4 February 2011}}</ref>

The fort was designed by brevet Brigadier General of engineers [[Simon Bernard]], formerly a French brigadier general of engineers and aide to [[Napoleon]], who had been banished from [[France]] after the latter's defeat at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]] in 1815, moved to the United States, and later commissioned as a brigadier general in the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weaver II |first1=John R. |title=A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867, 2nd Ed. | pages= 179–186 |publisher=Redoubt Press |location=McLean, VA |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-7323916-1-1 }}</ref> From the beginning of its construction until 1832 the fort's name was "Fortress Monroe", and it was sometimes referred to by that name subsequently.<ref name=NAFortsHamp1/>

Fort Monroe was the first of the third system forts to begin construction, and was intended as a headquarters for the system as well as a fort. It is a [[bastion fort]] with an irregular hexagon shape and seven bastions. The southern and longest front is divided in two fronts by a bastion in the middle; the other bastions are at the corners. The fort is surrounded by a [[moat]] and covers {{convert|63|acre|0}}. At the time it was built, the only land access to the fort's location was via a long, narrow [[isthmus]] to the north. A [[redoubt]] with a secondary moat was built northeast of the fort to guard against attack from this direction; the redoubt no longer exists, but the water gate for the secondary moat remains. The fort has a continuous [[barbette]] tier of cannon emplacements on the roof, but only a partial [[casemate]]d tier in the fort, mainly on the southwestern and southern fronts. No positions for casemated flank [[howitzer]]s exist on the northern and northwestern fronts (except two alongside the north [[sally port]]); this partial tier is unusual in the third system.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=179–186}} The main channel the fort protected was to the southeast; a casemated external battery (also called a "casemated coverface" or "water battery") of forty 42-pounder [[cannon]]<ref>{{cite book | last = Lewis | first = Emanuel Raymond | title = Seacoast Fortifications of the United States | publisher = Leeward Publications | year = 1979 | location = Annapolis | pages = 40–41 | isbn = 978-0-929521-11-4 }}</ref> was built just outside the moat in this area.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=179–186}} This increased the number of cannon in this direction compared with casemated guns in the [[Curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]] from 28 to 40; it was accessed from the main fort via a bridge. As of 2018, only a small part of the external battery's north end remains, along with a salient [[place-of-arms]] just north of it with three gun positions.{{sfn|Weaver II|2018|pp=179–186}} The fort's walls were up to ten feet thick and the moat was eight feet deep. The initial design provided for up to 380 guns and was later expanded to 412 guns, intended for a garrison of 600 troops in peacetime and up to 2,625 troops in wartime. However, the fort was never fully armed.<ref name="FWikiMon1"/>