Editing Fort Wool

{{Short description|Historic island fortification in Virginia}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox military installation
| name          = Fort Wool
| partof        = [[Harbor Defense Command|Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Bay]] 1905–1945
| location      = [[Rip Raps]] island between [[Willoughby Spit]] and [[Old Point Comfort]], Virginia
| coordinates   = 
| pushpin_map   = 
| pushpin_mapsize = 
| image         = FtWool.JPG
| caption       = Fort Wool
| image_size    = 250px
| type          = [[Sea fort]]
| code          = 
| built         = 1818–1861
| builder       = [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]]
| materials     = Stone
| height        = 
| used          = 1861–present
| demolished    = 
| condition     = 
| ownership     = *[[U.S. Government]] (1818–1953)
*[[Commonwealth of Virginia]] (1953–present)
| open_to_public = No
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                           = Fort Wool
| embed                          = yes
| nrhp_type                      =
| designated_other1              = Virginia Landmarks Register
| designated_other1_date         = November 5, 1968<ref name=register>{{cite web|title=Virginia Landmarks Register|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=19 March 2013}}</ref>
| designated_other1_number       = 114-0041
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| image                          =
| caption                        =
| location                       = [[Rip Raps]] island between Willoughby Spit and Old Point Comfort, [[Hampton, Virginia]]
| coordinates                    = {{coord|36|59|12|N|76|18|04|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin                       = Virginia#USA
| architect                      = [[Simon Bernard]]
| built                          = {{Start date|1819}}
| added                          = November 25, 1969
| area                           = {{convert|15|acre}}
| refnum                         = 69000339<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
}}
| controlledby  = *[[United States Army]] (1818–1953)
*City of [[Hampton, Virginia]] (1953–present)
| garrison      = 
| current_commander = 
| commanders    = 
| occupants     = 
| battles       = [[American Civil War]]<br>[[World War I]]<br>[[World War II]]
| events        = 
}}

'''Fort Wool''' is a decommissioned island [[fortification]] located in the mouth of [[Hampton Roads]], adjacent to the [[Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel|Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT)]]. Officially known as [[Rip Raps|Rip Raps Island]], the fort has an elevation of 7 feet and sits near [[Old Point Comfort]], [[Old Point Comfort Light]], Willoughby Beach and [[Willoughby Spit]], approximately one mile south of [[Fort Monroe]].

Originally named '''Castle Calhoun''' or '''Fort Calhoun'''<ref name=AFN1>[https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/varoads.html#hampton Hampton Roads forts at American Forts Network]</ref> after [[Secretary of War]] [[John C. Calhoun]], the fort was renamed after [[John E. Wool|Maj. Gen. John Ellis Wool]] on 18 March 1862 during the [[American Civil War]].<ref name=Batt1/> It is noted on current nautical maps as "Rip Raps"<ref>[[Riprap]] is a name for rocks used as an embankment to reinforce shorelines.</ref> and was sometimes referred to by that name during the Civil War.<ref name=Batt1>[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-hampton-roads-fort-wool The Civil War in Hampton Roads: Fort Wool at Battlefields.org]</ref>

Fort Wool was one of more than 40 forts developed after the [[War of 1812]], when British forces sailed the Chesapeake Bay to [[Burning of Washington|burn the Capital]].<ref>{{cite web
| title= Simon Bernard and America's Coastal Forts
| url   = http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/regional_review/vol2-2b.htm
| publisher  = National Park Service
| access-date = 21 December 2012
}}</ref> This program was later known as the [[Seacoast defense in the United States|third system of U.S. fortifications]]. Designed by Brigadier General of Engineers [[Simon Bernard]], an expatriate Frenchman who had served as a general of engineers under [[Napoleon]], Fort Wool was constructed on a [[shoal]] of [[Sailing ballast|ballast stones]] dumped as sailing ships entered Hampton's harbor and was originally intended to have three tiers of [[casemate]]s and a [[barbette]] tier with 216 muzzle-loading [[cannon]], although it never reached this size. Only two-thirds of the fort's bottom two tiers were completed.<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=186–190 |publisher=Redoubt Press |location=McLean, VA |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-7323916-1-1 }}</ref> Fort Wool was built to maintain a crossfire with Fort Monroe, located directly across the channel, thereby protecting the entrance to the harbor.<ref>{{cite book
|title= Permanent Fortifications and Sea-Coast Defenses April 23, 1862
|year = 1862| url   = https://books.google.com/books?id=G_DHuvB5YugC&q=%22Fortification+%26+Sea-Coastal+Defences%22
| publisher  = pp 330-345 37th Congress, 2nd Session Report No. 86
| access-date = 21 December 2012
}}
</ref>

In 1902, as a result of the [[Board of Fortifications|Endicott Board's findings]],<ref>{{cite web
|title=Endicott board's report
|url=http://www.cdsg.org/downloads/46%20WD%20Bd%20of%20Review%2011-26-15.pdf
|publisher=Coast Defense Study Group (CDSG)
|access-date=20 December 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525213545/http://www.cdsg.org/downloads/46%20WD%20Bd%20of%20Review%2011-26-15.pdf
|archive-date=25 May 2011
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> all of the original fort, except for eight casemates at the west end, was demolished and new fortifications were constructed. The new armament, mounted in three batteries of two [[6-inch gun M1903|6-inch (152 mm) guns]] each, plus two batteries totaling six 3-inch (76&nbsp;mm) guns, remained in place for decades, with modifications made from time to time.<ref>
{{cite web
|title=Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Bay Armament
| date = 23 May 2016
| url   = https://cdsg.org/the-harbor-defenses-of-chesapeake-bay/
| publisher  = Coast Defense Study Group
| access-date = 10 March 2019
}}
</ref> Only the six original three-inch guns remained in 1942, when two were sent to nearby [[Fort John Custis]] on [[Fisherman Island (Virginia)|Fisherman Island]]. A modern battery of two new long-range six-inch guns was constructed over one of the old Endicott period batteries during World War II but was never armed. The fort was decommissioned by the military in 1953.<ref name=NatReg>{{cite web|title=Fort Wool National Register Nomination|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Hampton/114-0041_Fort_Wool_1969_Final_Nomination.pdf|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=28 July 2011}}</ref>

==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}}

==Decommissioning and present==
The fort was decommissioned in 1953<ref name="NatReg"/> and given to the Commonwealth of Virginia. In the 1950s, the [[Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel|Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT)]] was constructed next to Fort Wool, with its southern island connected to the fort by an earthen causeway. The HRBT opened to traffic in 1957. In 1967 and again in 1970, the city of Hampton developed the fort into a park, accessed by the passenger ferry ''Miss Hampton II''. The fort can also be seen by westbound vehicles on approach to the HRBT southern tunnel, which carries [[Interstate 64]] across the mouth of [[Hampton Roads]].<ref name="dp" />

The island, now called [[Rip Raps]], continues to settle, and occasionally the casemates of the original fortress are off-limits for safety reasons.<ref name="dp" /> On 28 April 2007, a [[garrison flag]] was raised over Fort Wool for the first time. This took place during a parade of [[tall ships]] sailing past the fort, part of the 400th anniversary celebrations of the settlement of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]]. In 2020 the fort was converted into a bird sanctuary, and routine public access was terminated.<ref>[https://wset.com/news/at-the-capitol/gov-northams-plan-to-protect-migratory-birds-includes-island-for-nesting-bird-managemen "Plan to protect migratory birds" at WSET.com, 15 February 2020]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Seacoast defense in the United States]]
*[[United States Army Coast Artillery Corps]]
*[[Harbor Defense Command]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{Cite book|first=Douglas S.|last=Freeman|author-link=Douglas S. Freeman|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Robert_E_Lee/FREREL/home.html|title=R. E. Lee, A Biography|publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]]|year=1934|access-date=2008-05-20}}

==External links==
* [https://hampton.gov/2052/Fort-Wool Official website at City of Hampton] with virtual tour

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Fort Wool}}
* {{cite book | last = Lewis | first = Emanuel Raymond | title = Seacoast Fortifications of the United States | publisher = Leeward Publications | year = 1979 | location = Annapolis | isbn = 978-0-929521-11-4 }}

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wool, Fort}}
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Hampton, Virginia]]
[[Category:Artificial islands of Virginia]]
[[Category:Forts in Virginia|Wool]]
[[Category:Virginia in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Hampton, Virginia]]
[[Category:Parks in Hampton, Virginia]]
[[Category:Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia|Wool]]
[[Category:1819 establishments in Virginia]]
[[Category:American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places]]