♫ [ music plays ] ♫
NARRATOR: For more than 500 years,
the Algernourne Oak has stood witness
in this place...
...a place where American Indians traded
and foraged...
...only to be forced from their land...
...a place where the first Africans
brought to English North America
arrived enslaved...
...and where a dramatic decision would be made
centuries later, hastening slavery's unraveling.
It is the site of a fort
for the defense of the Chesapeake Bay
and for the protection of Union forces
during the Civil War...
...where the United States' forces trained
in defense of liberty...
and where the quest for freedom is remembered,
honored, and continues today.
[ birds squaw`king ]
♫ [ music plays ] ♫
For thousands of years, American Indians
utilized the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding areas
for fishing, communication, and trade.
Wahunsenacawh,
commonly known as Chief Powhatan,
led a 10,000-square-mile-wide confederacy
of Virginia tribes,
including the Kecoughtan Indians,
who encountered Captain John Smith
and other English colonists when they arrived
upon the shore of Point Comfort in 1607.
Over time, the people who had first lived
upon this land would become persecuted
and displaced.
The English recognized the importance
of this strategic location for defense,
building the first fortification,
Fort Algernourne, two years later.
In late August of 1619, an English privateer ship,
White Lion
looking to trade for provisions and supplies.
The Africans had been taken by force
from a Spanish slave-trade ship.
These first Africans were taken
from the kingdom of Ndongo in the Angola region.
Having lost their freedom and home,
they brought their culture, language, traditions,
and skills to this new land.
In 1624, two of the first Africans,
Antoney and Isabella, welcomed
the first documented child of African ancestry
born in English America,
a boy named William Tucker.
Two hundred years later, enslaved labor
would form part of the workforce used to build
the last fortification at this strategic point.
Fort Monroe would be completed
by the United States Army in 1834...
...the largest masonry fort ever constructed
in the United States.
The oldest structure here
is the 1803 Old Point Comfort Lighthouse,
protecting the ships critical to maritime trade
by guiding them into the harbor.
During the War of 1812, a British force
captured the lighthouse and used it as a lookout.
It is the oldest continuously active lighthouse
on the Chesapeake Bay.
Throughout the American Civil War,
Fort Monroe remained a Union stronghold.
May 23, 1861: the day Virginia seceded.
In a bold and risky move, three enslaved men
known as Frank Baker, James Townsend,
and Shepard Mallory escaped Confederate lines
seeking refuge at Union-held Fort Monroe.
Fort Monroe's commander,
US Major General Benjamin F. Butler, argued
that because these men were considered property
and their labor used by the Confederate Army,
he could confiscate them as "contraband of war."
The decision set in motion the events leading to
the end of slavery in the United States.
Within weeks, 500 freedom seekers had arrived
at the gates of Fort Monroe.
Some would later become soldiers.
By the end of the American Civil War,
tens of thousands of enslaved people
sought refuge at Fort Monroe,
earning it the nickname "Freedom's Fortress."
[ cannons firing ]
On March 8, 1862,
Fort Monroe witnessed the epic battle
of the first ironclad warships,
the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia,
known as the Merrimack.
Later that year, President Lincoln
spent four nights in Quarters No. 1
to plan the recapture of nearby Norfolk, Virginia.
The first 15-inch Rodman gun, named in his honor,
rests at the edge of the Parade Ground today.
Lincoln returned in 1865,
seeking a negotiated end to the war.
He met with Confederate officials
on the steamboat River Queen
for the unsuccessful
Hampton Roads Peace Conference.
Later, following the Confederacy's surrender,
former Confederate President Jefferson Davis
was imprisoned here for two years.
Fort Monroe hosted
the US Army Artillery School of Practice
and Coast Defense Artillery School
during the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 1901, the evolution of military technology
led to the installation of new gun positions...
...which included 12-inch disappearing guns
and coast-defense mortars.
During World War II,
the role of women in the nation's military
expanded from service support
to more traditional duties,
providing new opportunities.
Nurses at Fort Monroe began military drill
and calisthenics, gaining national attention.
In 1973, Fort Monroe assumed a new mission...
...as headquarters
for the US Army Training and Doctrine Command,
which would revolutionize training, organization,
and planning for the future
of US Army operations.
After 188 historic years
as an active Army installation,
Freedom's Fortress was officially deactivated
in 2011 under Colonel Anthony D. Reyes.
Touchstones of history abound at Fort Monroe.
Built in 1881, the Fort Monroe firehouse
was the oldest fire department on an Army post
when the post closed.
The Bandstand at Continental Park was constructed
by a segregated African American camp
of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934.
St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church
has served Fort Monroe and the local community
since 1860.
The current church was built in 1903.
The Chapel of the Centurion, built in 1858,
has three stained-glass windows
crafted by the world-famous Louis Comfort Tiffany.
While life at the fort was highly regimented,
an unexpected example of military life
is the pet cemetery.
It is the final resting place of roughly 400 pets,
three war dogs, and three unit mascots...
...including Sergeant Patches,
the mascot of the Second Coast Artillery,
Battery G, at Battery DeRussy.
He was trained to pull the lanyard
to fire the battery's gun.
[ artillery gun fires ]
Sergeant Patches has returned to service
as the park ambassador.
[ birds squawking ]
♫ [ music plays ] ♫
Deep water channels create an area
rich in marine life and natural resources.
Fishermen, crabbers, and oystermen,
known in the Hampton Roads as watermen,
have made a living here for centuries.
It is a natural maritime road into safe harbor
for large ships.
Fort Monroe sits adjacent
to the world's largest naval base
and the commercial maritime transportation hub
in Norfolk, Virginia.
In addition to President Lincoln, many presidents
of the United States have visited Fort Monroe.
President Theodore Roosevelt visited
for the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition...
...and to celebrate
the US Navy Great White Fleet
that sailed around the globe from Hampton Roads.
President Harry Truman was known
as the walking president
and enjoyed strolling the grounds while visiting
his cousin, a major general stationed here.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended
the wedding of his son
in the Chapel of the Centurion.
[ camera shutters clicking ]
On November 1, 2011,
after years of community support,
President Barack Obama proclaimed Fort Monroe
a national monument.
The North Beach area is a less developed
coastal landscape that provides an opportunity
to connect with nature.
Nearby, the salt marsh of Mill Creek
is part of the nation's first water trail,
the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.
More than 300 Southern live oaks,
iconic of the South,
can be found at Fort Monroe National Monument.
The Algernourne Oak continues to bear witness
to the unfolding of history...
...a history that resonates in the buildings
and surrounding grounds here.
Fort Monroe preserves a record
of American Indian presence,
European colonization, slavery in America,
and the struggle for freedom.
It is a bastion of defense,
forever changing the history of this nation.
On the shores of this land,
the quest for life, liberty, and freedom
is honored and continues to unfold today
at Freedom's Fortress.