Fort Nelson, Norfolk, Virginia-- Part 1

From the Colonial America.com site.

In the last post I mentioned that Captain Hannibal Montresor Allen was buried at Fort Nelson with its cemetery unknown.  Couldn't remember it, so had to look it up.

It was located on the site of the present-day Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia.  During Virginia's revolution, the government constructed a fort of timber and rammed earth in 1776.  Three years later, the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Collier came and confiscated the artillery and destroyed most of the parapet.

The fort was reconstructed in 1799 of earth lined with with brick following a design by architect B. Henry Latrobe and was again abandoned after the War of 1812.

The Confederates strengthened Fort Nelson during the Civil War, but on 10 May 1862, the Union Army under General John E. Wool occupied Norfolk and Fort Nelson.

--Brock-Perry