Fort Monroe was built between 1819 and 1834, but the history of fortifications on the site goes back much further. As early as 1608, Captain John Smith recognized the importance of building a fort at Point Comfort, as the English colonists called this land. The first gunners occupied this position in 1609, when the colonists built Fort Algernourne here, with the mission of protecting the approaches to Jamestown. Throughout the colonial period, there were other fortifications at this site, but none lasted very long.

When the United States entered the War of 1812 against Great Britain, the young nation soon found that its old systems of defense were inadequate to protect its coasts and port cities. The capture and burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814 was a hard lesson. But from that experience grew a new system of coastal defenses, of which the first and largest was Fort Monroe.

Fort Monroe’s original mission was to protect the entrance to Hampton Roads and the several port cities that had access to its waters. Its gunners accomplished this mission by mounting an impressive complement of the most powerful artillery of the time, 32-pounder guns with a range of over one mile. This was just enough range to cover the main shipping channel into the area. In 1824, the fort received another important mission when it was chosen as the site for the Army’s new Artillery School of Practice.

During the Civil War, Fort Monroe was quickly reinforced so that it would not fall to Confederate forces. Several land operations against Confederate forces also were mounted from the fort, notably the battle of Big Bethel in June 1861, Major General George McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and the siege of Suffolk in 1863. 

Over time the armament at the fort was improved, taking advantage of new technologies. In addition, the fort controlled several subinstallations around Hampton Roads, making the area one of the most heavily defended in the United States. By World War II Fort Monroe served as headquarters for an impressive array of coast artillery guns ranging from 3-inch rapid fire guns to 16-inch guns capable of firing a 2,000 pound projectile 25 miles.  But this vast array of armaments, and our Coast Artillery Brothers, became obsolete with the development of technologies such as the aircraft carrier and long-range bomber.

Since 1973 Fort Monroe has been home to the US Army Training And Doctrine Command, which develops  the Army's Soldiers and Civilian leaders and designs, develops and integrates capabilities, concepts and doctrine in order to build a campaign-capable, expeditionary Army in support of joint warfighting capability through Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN).

After the operational armament was removed, the Fortress Monroe Chapter of the United States Field Artillery Association was charged as keeper of the Redleg heritage on this historic terrain.  Today, we honored few, stand with the ghosts of "Point Comfort" cannoneers who have manned the guns on this position for over four hundred years.