Fort Monroe

Later Spring Break we had a chance to visit Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA. Angela’s childhood friend, Jen Wyse, who is now a grad student at VPI, was interested in checking out the Casemate museum. She had just written a paper on the “beast” Ben Butler of Civil War fame and wanted to check out where he had proclaimed the “contraband” decision essentially freeing slaves who made their way to Union armies. Along with Nathan, Jen’s man, we checked out where Jeff Davis was held in jail for a few years for his alleged connection to the Lincoln assassination. Fort Monroe is a neat little base still used by the US Army and would be a great place to be stationed, but it is about to be closed. After we checked out the museum, we took a walk on the old embankment, and were rather surprised to find a pet cemetery. We discovered headstones as old as the late 1800s, mainly of dogs. I suppose officers can bury pets up there, around the old gun emplacements?!