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 Fort Norfolk 1844

Fort Norfolk History - 1844

 

In 1844, W. P. S. Sanger, an Engineer for the Navy, prepared a plan of the abandoned fort on which he labeled the buildings (see above).  Sanger located the "shot oven” in the northwestern comer of the fort and a well inside the northeast bastion near the old magazine.  Sanger’s depiction of the "edge” of a bank on the south side of the fort probably indicates that the glacis was badly eroded. As the inscription on the plan indicates, the 1844 survey of Fort Norfolk was conducted at the request of the Secretary of the Navy.  By the end of the decade, the Navy obtained the use of Fort Norfolk for a powder storage facility.  Additional markings on the 1844 plat show that it was used by Navy officials in planning the construction of the magazine.  The rectangle sketched on the fort's parade ground identifies the spot where the powder magazine was eventually built during the 1850s and where it still stands today.  One can also see where the plat was updated by having the word "old" written to the denote the former army magazine (see above).

On December 4, 1844 Commodore Lewis Warrington, the Chief of the Bureau of Yards & Docks, sent a letter to Captain Jesse Wilkinson, the Commandant of the Gosport Navy Yard. In this letter he requested; “Be pleased to furnish this Bureau with the dimensions of the Powder Magazine near the Yard under your command, and state also what number of casks, of one hundred pounds each, can be conveniently, and safely stowed therein.” This Naval Powder Magazine was located on the grounds of the Naval Hospital which had been built on the site of Fort Nelson. The Hospital and the Magazine were both under the command of the Commandant of the Gosport Navy Yard.

On December 7, 1844 Captain Jesse Wilkinson replied with reports from T. M. Latimer and Lieutenant Oliver S. Glisson. T. M. Latimer stated: “I went down to the Magazine yesterday with Mr. Marshall the Gunner, measured the building, and the dimensions of the same are as follows:

The exterior dimensions are, 70 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 13 feet elevation from the ground to the square of the brick masonry.

The interior dimensions 67 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 10 feet elevation between the span beams, or girders and the floor which comprises the Storage Room.”

Lieutenant O. S. Glisson stated: “The Magazine at this place will conveniently hold two thousand barrels of Powder, of 100 pounds each and leave room for transient Powder, landed from different Ships.”

This is the Powder Magazine that would eventually be replaced by the Magazine at Fort Norfolk.

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Source of Information

W. P. S. Sanger, "Plan of Fort Norfolk, March 1844", National Archives, College Park, MD - Cartographic (RDSC), Record Group 71: Records of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1784 - 1963, Series: Bureau of Yards and Docks Plans of Navy Facilities, 1815 - 1966, 557-3-1.

College Of WILLIAM & MARY, "A CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN OF FORT NORFOLK, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA", November 1995, prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District under Contract No. DACW65-94-Q-0075, 23.

Lewis Warrington, "Lewis Warrington to Jesse Wilkinson" December 4, 1844, National Archives, Record Group 71 Records of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Records of the Office of the Chief of Bureau, 1820 - 1946, Letters Sent 1842 - 95, Vol. 02 of 104, PI-10, E. 1, Page 93.

Jesse Wilkinson, "Jesse Wilkinson to Lewis Warrington" December 7, 1844, National Archives, Record Group 71 Bureau of Yards and Docks, Letters Recieved from Commandants of Navy Yards -- Norfolk, July 1 1844 - Oct 31 1846, Box No. 153, Entry 5.

T. M. Latimer, "T. M. Latimer to Jesse Wilkinson" December 7, 1844, National Archives, Record Group 71 Bureau of Yards and Docks, Letters Recieved from Commandants of Navy Yards -- Norfolk, July 1 1844 - Oct 31 1846, Box No. 153, Entry 5.

Oliver S. Glisson, "Oliver S. Glisson to Jesse Wilkinson" December 7, 1844, National Archives, Record Group 71 Bureau of Yards and Docks, Letters Recieved from Commandants of Navy Yards -- Norfolk, July 1 1844 - Oct 31 1846, Box No. 153, Entry 5.