An Island Fort as Presidential Getaway

Winter 2009, Vol. 41, No. 4 | Authors on the Record

Interview by Hilary Parkinson

J. Michael Cobb was 12 years old when he first saw Fort Wool. He was on his cousin’s boat, out for a day on the waters of Hampton Roads in Virginia. As he heard his cousin on the radio give their position off Fort Wool, Cobb looked out and saw the abandoned fort at the entrance of Hampton Roads looking out towards the Chesapeake Bay, a foreboding sight under a gray sky.

Although it was a landmark for fishermen and boaters, the fort was closed. Today, a tour boat carries visitors, some of them veterans who had been stationed there in World War II, out to explore several periods of fortifications and to learn about the island’s presidential and military past. Cobb is now the curator of the Hampton History Museum in Virginia.

How did you come to write Fort Wool: Star-Spangled Banner Rising?

I assisted in the opening of Fort Wool as a historic site some 25 years ago, and over the years since then I have chronicled the saga of the island fort. As the restoration and documentation of the old stone fort progressed, it became clear that its story needed to be told.

This is the first time that in-depth research has been undertaken on this important battlement. We wanted the thousands of people who visit the island—and the many history buffs interested in its rich legacy—to have the opportunity to be exposed to the wealth of additional information gathered from new documents, plans, and images uncovered in preparing this work.

Did you begin your research with the intent to write a book on Fort Wool?

The research actually began to support the original exhibits that were created for the opening of the fort in 1985. We had a very small budget, and I had worked in the National Archives before. I made a two-day trip to the Archives research rooms in Washington, D.C., and Suitland, Maryland, and to the cartographic division then located in Alexandria.

There was a wealth of information  including 81 plans going back to the genesis of the fort in 1819 and through the  Second World War.

Over the last 20 years, it slowly formed in my mind to do the book, which took about one year to put together.

What was it like to hold the dual roles of curator at the Hampton History Museum and researcher at the National Archives? Did your experiences in one role influence the other?

As curator of the Hampton History Museum, my duties include conducting research in all aspects of our city’s history. My first entry into the National Archives was almost three decades ago, uncovering material on Confederate Richmond during the Civil War for an M.A. thesis. I remember first entering the august central reading room in the imposing National Archives in downtown Washington, D.C. In my current position, I have been repeatedly led back to the National Archives as a needed resource for information vital to performing my curatorial responsibilities.

What materials did you consult in the National Archives?

I used supplemental maps and building plans in the DC area, but I mainly used the National Archives in Philadelphia for the indispensable U.S. Army Engineer record books with daily and monthly progress reports of  Fort Wool’s construction. They are remarkable volumes, huge and dusty (they’re like Ebenezer Scrooge’s account books). The West Point–trained engineers recorded everything including the delivery of granite stone and timber, construction of buildings, and the names of the workers, free and enslaved.

It’s the details that transform the history into a narrative that vividly captures the imagination. From these pages I not only drew specific accounts of the everyday activities, but also created profiles of Andrew Talcott and Robert E. Lee, who directed the work, along with the many stone masons and laborers who were tasked with the arduous undertaking. It’s not really a guns and bugle story—it's a nuts and bolts history.

Did you find anything in the records that was particularly surprising?

The big surprise was the discovery of three beautiful plans in pastel colors made in the 1820s that showed the fort and buildings in profile. The other surprise was learning the names of the captains and their work boats that brought stone to the fort. The vessels bore names such as the Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay and expressed what patriotism meant to Americans at that time—many of the boats came from Port Deposit, Maryland, and many of their captains were veterans of the War of 1812.

You’ve been working with Fort Wool for more than 20 years—were you aware of its many presidential connections before you began researching it?

I was aware of the presidential significance associated with the island—however, I was not aware of the extent of Andrew Jackson’s presence and how enamored he was with the natural attributes and solitude of the island retreat. For significant periods of time he governed America from this island of stone.

We knew he stayed in the officers’ quarters, but what I didn’t know was that he found solitude in a small hut he had built for himself on the highest point of the fort’s ramparts.

How has your understanding of Fort Wool changed as result of the book?

Even through the lens of my perspective of many years of association with the site, I was thrilled at the numerous social, political, and military narratives uncovered in producing this work.

For instance, in the 1830s, South Carolina under the leadership of John C. Calhoun is threatening to secede from the Union, and Jackson is on the island threatening war. The seeds of the coming of the Civil War were sown on the island.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered about Fort Wool's past?

That the shaping of virtually every major issue of Andrew Jackson’s administration was partially formulated while he was secluded at the fort—including the Peggy Eaton Affair, the Bank War, the Indian removal, the nullification controversy, and the annexation of Texas.

And of course, people are always surprised to learn that comedian Red Skelton entertained the troops stationed on Fort Wool during World War II and got seasick on the way there.

At the very end of the book, you say that there needs “to be breathed into these ruins something essential to the spirit of a mighty fortification.” Is there anything you would like to see on the island that would show visitors the varied and important past of Fort Wool?

We have recently placed eight historical markers interpreting the story and plan to establish additional ones in the near future. We are working with Dominion Power, which has funded an outdoor classroom to enhance our ability to meet education needs. And based on documentation from the National Archives, we have the reconstruction of buildings—such as the original officers’ quarters that Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee inhabited and the World War II period barracks—in our future planning.