History of Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe

Highlights of the history of Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe:

- April 28, 1607: Capt. Christopher Newport and English settlers land on peninsula before sailing on to Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

- 1609: Fort Algernon, constructed of earthwork and boards "10 hands high," built by British to protect settlements along the James River.

- 1619: Arrival of first enslaved Africans in Colonial America.

- 1612: Fort Algernon burns down.

- 1730s: Fort George built of brick and shell lime, to guard against French invasion.

- 1749: Fort George destroyed by hurricane.

- 1819-1834: Fort Monroe is built, part of a coastal fortification program.

- 1828: Edgar Allen Poe, under the alias Edgar A. Perry, serves several months at Fort Monroe.

- May 23, 1861: Three escaped slaves seek refuge at Fort Monroe. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, appointed by Abraham Lincoln as commander of Fort Monroe, declares the three to be contraband of war and refuses to send them back to their Confederate masters. By the end of the war, more than 10,000 slaves had sought refuge at the fort.

- March 9, 1862: The ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimac) and the Monitor clash in the Battle of Hampton Roads as soldiers from Fort Monroe look on. While inconclusive, the battle marked the end of wooden fighting ships.

- December 1863: One year after Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation, the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Colored Troops attached to Fort Monroe.

- May 19, 1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis begins two-year imprisonment after his capture in Georgia.