Editing Fort Monroe (section)

====1860–61====
Fort Monroe played an important role in the [[American Civil War]]. On December 20, 1860, [[South Carolina]] became the first state to secede from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. Four months later, on April 12, 1861, troops of that state opened fire on [[Fort Sumter]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] Harbor. Five days later, Virginia's legislature passed (subject to voters' ratification) the [[Ordinance of Secession]] of Virginia to withdraw from the Union and join the newly formed [[Confederate States of America]]. On 23 May 1861, voters of Virginia ratified the state's secession from the union.

President [[Abraham Lincoln]] had Fort Monroe quickly reinforced so that it would not fall to Confederate forces. It was held by Union forces throughout the Civil War, which launched several sea and land expeditions from there.

A few weeks after the [[Battle of Fort Sumter]] in 1861, U.S. Army General-in-Chief [[Winfield Scott]] proposed to President Abraham Lincoln a plan to bring the states back into the Union: Cut the Confederacy off from the rest of the world instead of attacking its army in Virginia. His [[Anaconda Plan]] was to [[blockade]] or occupy the Confederacy's coastline to limit the activity of [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runners]], and control the [[Mississippi River]] valley with gunboats. In cooperation with the Navy, troops from Fort Monroe extended Union control along the coasts of [[the Carolinas]] as Lincoln ordered a blockade of the southern seaboard from the South Carolina line to the [[Rio Grande]] on April 19 and, on April 27, extended it to include the [[North Carolina]] and Virginia coasts.

On April 20 the Union Navy burned and evacuated the [[Gosport Navy Yard]] in [[Portsmouth, Virginia|Portsmouth]], destroying nine ships in the process, keeping Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort as the last bastion of the United States in [[Tidewater region of Virginia|Tidewater Virginia]]. The Confederacy's occupation of [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]] gave it a major shipyard and thousands of heavy guns, but they held it for only one year. Confederate Brigadier General [[Walter Gwynn]], who commanded the Confederate defenses around Norfolk, erected batteries at [[Sewell's Point]], to protect Norfolk and to control Hampton Roads.

The Union dispatched a fleet to Hampton Roads to enforce the blockade. On May 18–19, 1861, Federal gunboats based at Fort Monroe exchanged fire with the Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point. The little-known [[Battle of Sewell's Point]] resulted in minor damage to both sides. Several land operations against Confederate forces were mounted from the fort, notably the [[Battle of Big Bethel]] in June 1861.

On May 27, 1861, Major General [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] made his famous "[[contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]]" decision, or "[[Fort Monroe Doctrine]]", determining that the enslaved men who reached Union lines would be considered "contraband of war" (captured enemy property) and not be returned to bondage. Prior to this, the Union had generally enforced the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|Fugitive Slave Act]], returning escaped slaves to their owners. The order resulted in thousands of slaves fleeing to Union lines around Fort Monroe, which was Butler's headquarters in Virginia. Fort Monroe became called "Freedom's Fortress", as any self-emancipating person reaching it would be free. In the Summer of 1861 Harry Jarvis made his way to Fort Monroe and insisted General Butler let him enlist. Butler refused because he believed "it wasn't a black man's war." Jarvis replied, "It would be a black man's war," due to the presence of the incoming of thousands of runaway slaves. This marked a sudden shift in the war.<ref>Hahn, Steven. The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures : The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom. Cambridge, US: Harvard University Press, 2009. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 16 October 2016.Copyright © 2009. Harvard University Press.</ref> In March 1862 Congress passed [[Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves|a law formalizing this policy]]. By the fall, the Army had built the [[Great Contraband Camp]] in Hampton to house the families. It was the first of more than 100 that would be established by war's end, and the [[Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony]] (1863–1867), which started as a contraband camp. Many contrabands were employed by the Union Army in support roles such as cooks, wagon drivers, and laborers. Beginning in January 1863, the [[United States Colored Troops]] were formed, with many contrabands enlisting; these units were composed primarily of white officers and African-American enlisted men, and eventually numbered nearly 180,000 soldiers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gladstone |first1=Gladstone, William A. |title=United States Colored Troops, 1863–1867 | pages= 9, 120 |publisher=Thomas Publications |location=Gettysburg, PA |year=1990 |isbn=0-939631-16-4 }}</ref>

[[Mary S. Peake]] was teaching the children of freedmen to read and write near Fort Monroe. She was the first black teacher hired by the [[American Missionary Association]] (AMA), a northern missionary group led by black and white ministers from the [[Congregational]], [[Presbyterian]] and [[Methodist]] denominations, who strongly supported education of freedmen. Soon she was teaching children during the day and adults at night. The AMA sponsored hundreds of northern teachers and hired local teachers in the south; it founded more than 500 local schools and 11 colleges for freedmen and their children.

During the Civil War Fort Monroe was the site of a military [[balloon]] camp under the flight direction of aeronaut [[John LaMountain]]. The [[Union Army Balloon Corps]] was being developed at Fort Corcoran near Arlington under the presidentially appointed Prof. [[Thaddeus S. C. Lowe]].  At the same time, LaMountain, who was vying for position as Chief Aeronaut, had gained the confidence of Butler in using his balloon ''Atlantic'' for aerial observations. LaMountain is credited with having made the first successful report from an aerial station that was of practical [[military intelligence]]. LaMountain was later reassigned to Lowe's balloon corps, but after a period of in-fighting with Lowe, he was released from military service. Lowe eventually assigned regular military balloons to Fort Monroe.

[[File:The Lincoln gun LCCN2012646299.tif|thumb|left|250px|15-inch prototype Rodman gun (nicknamed the "Lincoln gun") at Fort Monroe during 1864]]
In 1861 the prototype 15-inch [[Rodman gun]] was delivered to Fort Monroe and was subsequently fired 350 times in testing. This weapon (Fort Pitt Foundry No. 1 of 1861) is displayed at the fort as of 2018; a plaque states that it was test fired for President Lincoln and was nicknamed the "Lincoln gun". This type of weapon was deployed for coastal defense during the war (an 1862 map shows an external battery of them at Fort Monroe) and more widely deployed following the war.<ref>{{ cite book | last =Ripley | first =Warren | year =1984 | title =Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War | page = 80 | place =Charleston, S.C. | publisher =The Battery Press | oclc = 12668104 }}</ref>