I was excited to learn there was a surviving Civil War era fort remaining in Cape Girardeau, high on a strategic hill on the south side of downtown.

For whatever reason, it was never destroyed and survives in a residential neighborhood. Constructed by Union Army engineers sent down from St. Louis, the influence of those fortifications is obvious, and it’s very cool to see.

As can be seen better in real life, Fort D here in Cape Girardeau is clearly based off of the plans for several forts in St. Louis, including Fort No. 3, which existed in Benton Park for many years after the war. You can see the ground plan of the St. Louis fort and how its relationship to the one here.

There is a small museum where the block house would have been originally.