Visit the Casement Museum at Fort Monroe in Virginia

In June of 2007 my family and I visited a fort that has 5 entrances and all 5 are over water; the fort is Fort Monroe. Fort Monroe was built with a moat around the entire fort with entrances that were barley wide enough for our van to enter.

Fort Monroe’s history goes back to Captain John Smith in 1608 when he recognized this area would be a good defense in protecting the colony at Jamestown. Through the years the defense was inadequate when the British burned the White House in 1814 so a new coastal defense was needed. So the largest in the United States, hexagon-shaped stone fortress and last fort built was and is Fort Monroe.

Fort Monroe’s mission was to protect the entrance to Hampton Roads and the other cities that had access to the waters. It was named after President James Monroe. It had the biggest and most powerful artillery of the time, 32-pounder guns that had a grange of over one mile. In 1824 it became the Army’s new Artillery School of Practice.

In 1831 to 1834 Robert E. Lee was stationed at Fort Monroe. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in the corps of Engineers and his first son was born at the fort. He has almost complete charge of construction and put the finishing touches on the fort. Edgar Allen Poe was also stationed here in 1828 as a Sergeant Major of Artillery. Edgar sold his enlistment in 1829 for $75.

During the civil war the fort was reinforced so that the Confederate forces could not take it. The Union troops from Fort Monroe along with the Navy controlled the coasts of the Carolinas. The reinforcement was secure enough that president Lincoln visited the fort at the height of the war.

The casemates were used for the soldiers and their families to live in up until World War II. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned May 22, 1865 in one of these casements for 2 years. He was accused of plotting the assassination of President Lincoln. His reading material was restricted to a bible and a Episcopal Prayer book. He was allowed only a spoon to eat his meal with. During the first 5 days of his captivity he was chained in ankle irons but was removed on May 28th due to a doctor. On May 13, 1867 Jefferson Davis was released on $100,000 bail. He was never brought to trial and the all charges were dropped in 1869.


Over the years the fort was improved and became the most heavily defended area in the United States. During World War II it served as headquarters for artillery guns that ranged from 3-inche rapid fires to 16-inch guns, capable of firing 2,000-pound projectile for 25 miles. The army also controlled the submarine barriers and underwater mine fields.

Since WWII the fort has been responsible for training soldiers for war. Since 1973, it has been the home for the Training and Doctrine command, which is the training soldier with development of operational doctrine and also of new weapons systems.

Upon entering the fort I just assumed you had to have a military ID, so my family pulled our out but you don’t. Anyone can visit this fort as long as you have a picture ID if you are 18 years old and older. We drove across the moat and parked to visit the Casement Museum. We parked right in front of the house that Robert E. Lee and his wife lived in.

The casement Museum is free; there is no admission charge. As you walk through the museum you get a feel of what it would have been like to live there during the times of war.

There are waxed figures portraying men that lived and fired the big guns. They almost look as if they could come alive; you expected them to move. There are artifacts, pictures and stories that have been collected from the families of these men and their families that actually lived at this fort. One picture showed where the family tried to keep the dust down by laying a large rug on the dirt floor. Many of the artifacts at one time or another were fished out of the moat.

There is also a film that you can watch and it will tell you the entire story of the fort. A lot of the information above is on this film.

Today the Army’s Training and doctrine command (TRADOC) continues to use fort Monroe for offices and housing. We had also heard that they are going to close the fort down sometime soon. I just hope they continue to have the Casement Museum for generations to come to learn about our history.

The Civil War: More Troops Died Than All Other Wars Combined

If you combine all the United States wars from the beginning of our great country up to the Civil War, skipping over the Civil War, and adding all the rest of the wars to today; the number of killed and wounded wouldn’t total the number of killed and wounded during the Civil War. Bet you didn’t know that!

There were a total of 360,000 Union soldiers killed, 282,000 that were wounded and 140,000 of the dead were killed in battle. On the Confederate side 258,000 soldiers killed, 94,000 killed in battle and the number of wounded was never tallied. That is a total of 900,000 men in our country that was either killed or wounded.

Just think of all the wives that had to raise there children with out a father, mothers who lost their sons, sister that lost their brothers, children who lost their fathers and you could go on and on. The Civil War was the bloodiest war that Americans have ever seen and I hope it never happens again. But in order for it to never happen, people have to educate them selves about why the Civil War came to a head and why so many men, brothers, husbands had to die in order for this country to unite as one.

The Civil War isn’t an easy one page article for people to read and totally understand; you have to start from the beginning and read, study and learn about every state, every battle and even read soldiers letters and diaries in order to actually get the picture in your mind so you can feel what those people felt.

I know, you don’t have the time or money to read every book that has and will be printed about the Civil War so I will try to sum it up in a nut shell for you then hopefully you can take it from here and do your own reading.

You can follow the roots of the American Civil War back to the dividing differences that the North and South took and kept growing as the 19th century progressed. The main issues were the Confederate states wanting to expand the slavery into the territories, retaining of slavery, states rights and the political power the south had.

All of these issues had been building for decades and in 1860 they exploded right after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. President Lincoln was against the spread of slavery. Soon after his election, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the Union

Hostilities started on April 12, 1861 as the Union held Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard was ordered to open fire on the Union fort. It took 34 hours of bombardment and the fort surrendered. Because of this attack President Lincoln made a call for 75,000 volunteers to put an end to the rebellion.

The Northern states responded to this call quickly but Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas refused. All four seceded and joined the Confederacy. General Irvin McDowell of the Union forces began the march to the south to take the rebel capital of Richmond in July. They met a Confederate army on the 21st near Manassas and they were defeated.

During 1862-1863, after the defeat of Bull Run, General George McClellan took over command of the new Union Army of the Potomac. Gen. McClellan, using the Peninsula, marched his troops south to attack Richmond, early 1682.Marching his troops slowly he was defeated and was forced to retreat after the Seven Days Battles. This was now the rise of Robert E. Lee as the commander of the Confederate forces in the East. Lee won the battle at the Second Battle of Bull Run and started moving his troops north in Maryland. Gen. McClellan was sent to intercept Lee at Antietam on the 17th

Despite McClellan’s larger forces and knowledge of Lee’s dispositions, McClellan was too cautious and tailed to achieve a victory. The victory at Antietam let President Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves of the South and changed the Union’s war direction. President Lincoln wasn’t happy with McClellan so he gave command to Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

Burnside was defeated at Fredericksburg in December so Gen. Joseph Hooker replaced him. Hooker and Lee engaged in the following May; Lee was outnumbered but he outmaneuvered Hooker and forced Hooker to retreat.

General Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862 and he defeated a Confederate army at Shiloh, TN two months after taking the two forts. The Union Naval Forces captured New Orleans on April 29th. To the east, marching towards
Kentucky, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg attempted to invade but was stopped at Perryville on October 8th. He was also beaten in December at Stones River, TN.

Grant now had his attention of capturing Vicksburg and opening the Mississippi River. His troops march through Mississippi and laid siege to Vicksburg on May 18, 1863.

Lee began to move his troops north towards Pennsylvania in June 1863 with the Union troops hot on there heals. After the Union defeat in Chancellorsville, Lincoln gave command to Gen. George Meade to take over the Army of the Potomac. On July 1, the two armies clashed at Gettysburg, PA. Following three days of fighting Lee was defeated and forced to retreat.

One day later, Grant successfully ended the siege of Vicksburg, July 4, opening the Mississippi River to Union ships; this cut the Confederacy in two.

Gen. William Rosecrans marched into Georgia, late summer of 1863, and was defeated at Chickamuaga; fleeing to the north he was besieged at Chattanooga. Grant was sent and in doing so victories was at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. General William Sherman took over command for Grant the following spring.

Sherman began moving south, and took Atlanta then marched to Savannah. After he reached the sea, Sherman marched his troops to the north. This pushed Gen. Joseph Johnston troops of the Confederacy into surrendering at Durham, NC on April 18, 1865.

Grant was given command of all the Union armies in March of 1863 and marched his troops east to square off against Lee in Virginia. Both armies clashed in May at the Wilderness. Grant received heavy casualties but pressed on south; fighting took place at Spotsylvania C.H. and Cold Harbor. Grant was unable to get through Lee’s army to reach Richmond. Grant tried to cut Richmond off by taking Petersburg but Lee arrived first; the fighting took place on April 2 and 3, 1865. Lee was forced to evacuate the city and retreat west. This allowed Grant to take Richmond.

On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.

Five days after Lee surrendered President Lincoln was assassinated at the Ford’s Theater in Washington. John Wilkes booth, the Presidents killer, was killed by Union troops on April 26.

At the end of the Civil War a period of Reconstruction began. Union troops were in the Southern states overseeing the Southern states back into the Union. Following this there were three new amendments that were added to the constitution.

1. 13th: Abolished slavery.
2. 14th: Extension of legal protection regarding of race.
3. 15th: Abolished all racial restrictions on voting.

True Meaning of Taps – July 1862

Several years back I visited Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. There on the grounds was a monument with a plaque about taps. You could also push a button and listen to the famous melody. But do you know the real story behind it? If you think you do, guess what, you have been hearing wrong!

As a genealogist, I’m fascinated by history, not just family trees of names and dates but also the stories that go behind people lives. How they lived. What they did and who did what. It is true that the birth of taps was played for the first time near Harrison’s Landing in July 1862. General Daniel Butterfield composed the haunting melody and was played by Butterfield’s bugler, Oliver W. Norton. But how it was found has been told wrong all these years.

You have probably heard the story of the Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe finding his dead son on the battle field along with musical notes written on a piece of paper. If you haven’t heard this, the story goes like this:

It all began in 1862 during the civil war, when Union Army captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison’s Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.

During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment.

When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead.

The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light he saw the face of the soldier it was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son full military burial despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted. The Captain has asked if he could have a groups of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate.

But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician. The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform. This wish was granted.

To this date there has been no proof that a Captain Robert Ellicombe ever existed. The story gives no indication of what unit or state he served. In order to believe, one needs to produce muster, discharge or pension papers and background history of both the father and son, units, etc. also, where is the son’s grave?

So where did this far fetched story come from? It has been traced back to Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not” story that Robert Ripley created for his short-lived TV program in 1949.

It’s a shame to see this story still to this day being told wrong even by well-meaning people who believe it to be true. It has been printed in papers, newspapers, and even sadder, on some military websites as the true version of how the bugle call of Taps came into existence.

Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognized as this one. It’s the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes. It is my hope that people who are interested in history, like I am, can help stop this story and spread the real story behind Taps.

The history of its origin is interesting. The British Army, a similar type call known as Last Post has been sounded over soldier’s graves since the 1885, but the use of Taps is unique to the United States military, since the call is sounded at funerals, wreath-laying and memorial services.

Taps began as a revision to the signal for Extinguish Lights (Lights Out) at the end of the day. Up until the Civil War, the infantry call for Extinguish Lights was the one set down in Silas Casey’s (1801-1882) Tactics, which had been borrowed from the French. Union General Daniel Butterfield adapted the music for Taps for his brigade, (Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) in July 1862.

General Butterfield was not pleased with the call for Extinguish Lights, feeling that the call was too formal to signal the days end, and with the help of the brigade bugler, Oliver Willcox Norton (1839-1920), wrote Taps to honor his men while in camp at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, following the Seven Days battle.

The real story goes like this as told by Oliver W. Norton.

One day, soon after the seven days battles on the Peninsula, when the Army of the Potomac was lying in camp at Harrison’s Landing, General Daniel Butterfield, then commanding our Brigade, sent for me, and showing me some notes on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope, asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call. The music was beautiful on that still summer night, and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade.

The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music, which I gladly furnished. I think no general order was issued from army headquarters authorizing the substitution of this for the regulation call, but as each brigade commander exercised his own discretion in such minor matters, the call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac. I have been told that the 11th and 12th Corps carried it to the Western Armies, when they went to Chattanooga in the fall of 1863, and rapidly made its way through those armies. I did not presume to question General Butterfield at the time, but from the manner in which the call was given to me, I have no doubt he composed it in his tent at Harrison’s Landing.

Much is known about Daniel Adams Butterfield and Oliver Willcox Norton. They both survived the Civil War and went on to become prosperous and respected businessmen and citizens. They both wrote about their Civil War experiences and of the creation of Taps in July 1862.

Both the Union and Confederate armies immediately took up the tune. Now the official bugle call of the, United States Army.

My Own Civil War Family Story

The story goes that William received a letter from his wife stating that they were out of sugar and that he was to come home. He arrived home for a couple days. Bushwhackers got wind of several Confederate soldiers so came knocking. As Williams father talked to the bushwhackers trying to convince them he didn't know where his son was, William escape on horse back. The bushwhackers shot and killed Williams father and took off after William. They never caught him , he returned to his unit safe and sound.

Upon the surrender of Robert E. Lee, William sent a letter to his wife and told her to pack the wagon and head to Missouri; that he would meet them on the road. Hannah, his wife, packed the cover wagon, got the kids and one cow that was tied to the back and headed out.

William was a proud man that believed in the Confederate cause. He never surrendered to the Union. William and his family lived in Missouri for several years. Moved on the Kansas, was a wealthy cattle man; then moved on to Texas where him and his wife are buried today.

I'm proud to call myself a descendant of William!