![]() ![]() Lee was a 24-year old lieutenant at Fort Monroe, an engineer from 1831 – 34. Think he was writing poetry on duty? Connect to Familiar Civil War Stories in Different Ways His likeness sits at a desk with a window overlooking that moat. You’ll find Edgar Allen Poe here as a soldier stationed from 1828-29. Casemate is the name of the museum to meet Edgar Allen Poe, and other figures in history. Floors are an artistic herringbone brick pattern: pretty to me, serious for its ability to support 7,000 pounds of canon. I believe it’s excellent architecture for a history museum and this museum contains at least a dozen. I didn’t know what a “casemate” until I arrived, but now I know it means: Vaulted chamber within the walls of a fortification. Inside, encounter scenes with lifelike characters helping the history to live. There’s a 50-foot wide moat around Hampton’s Casemate Museum. Join our Private FB Group for more travel inspiration and tips! JOIN HERE Casemate Flows With Tableaux One reason I suspect that works so well is the philosophy of the curator of 31 years: “History is about people so look for them in museum exhibits,” Cobb says. “The Hampton story is so full, so rich from beginning to now just pick what you want, follow the objects that appeal to you, imagining what it took for people to do what they did.” Located in the walkable downtown, Hampton History Museum offers up 400 years of history in 10 galleries-not overwhelming as museums can be. ![]() Artifacts enrich stories in Hampton History Museum. Civil War buffs keep up with facts but the rest tend to hold on to only a few.īoth museum afternoons were refreshing in their reasonable sizes and welcoming locations. Same waters of the fabled Monitor and Merrimac story too, but visiting here you learn the Merrimac used to be named the Virginia. The difference – my journey aboard a comfortable tour boat named the Miss Hampton II. Michael Cobb, retired curator, now consultant and storyteller extraordinaire with the Hampton History Museum.įor me, learning about the three original contrabands-Frank Baker, James Townsend and Shepard Mallory, “same place as history” meant sailing the waters the slaves crossed. “It means something to be in the same place as the history which occurred,” says J. Travel connections enrich stories of history Archeologists are digging now in the Hampton neighborhood the location of the original contraband camp, often involving descendants of those early residents. Photo by Christine TibbettsĮxhibits in both museums share that story. The Hampton History Museum adds new understandings.Because the people of Hampton had burned their own city and fled, rather than leave it for the Union-space was available for the 9,000 contrabands to find safety and space to cobble together homes and community.To their owner’s emissary, Butler said he would return slaves only to those who declared allegiance to the Union.Butler declared them contraband of war, illegal war goods, and then freed them. Rather than follow the 1850 law sending runaways back to owners, Maj. Three runaway slaves in 1861 sought a way to not leave their families while being ordered to move from Hampton to build Confederate fortifications got to Fort Monroe.Here’s what happened and how it matters still today: Faced with a big dilemma, he drew on a lawyer’s lifetime of seeking loopholes and his bent as a social activist. Butler charged with Union forces at Fort Monroe during the Civil War. But check out the stained glass windows in Hampton, near the two museums, for another unusual look at history in the worship setting. Ben Butler is the fascinating new discovery for me and I encountered him in both museums.Ĭhurches and their cemeteries intrigue some travelers and create a ho-hum mood with others. John Smith was an early arriver in 1607, but you know that story. ![]() From contrabands of war and connecting history with travel is how you’ll discover history with a twist in Hampton, Virginia. Head to Hampton with the pleasures of the Chesapeake Bay in mind and energize in the Hampton History Museum and the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe. ![]()
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