Markers of History

State Historical Markers
Virginia Q-8-Q
Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781

Location: Crawford Pkwy, west of Court Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker: A brick wind­mill near here was close to the south­ern limit of a line of British redoubts erected in March 1781 by order of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, who under Major General William Phillips, com­manded British troops occu­py­ing Portsmouth. This line of for­ti­fi­ca­tions extended north in an arc along Washington Street to the water­front near Court Street.

Virginia State Library, 1962

My impres­sions: I’m a lit­tle con­fused when I take this marker together with marker num­ber Q-8-P, also titled Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781, which I blogged about on Thursday. I am fairly cer­tain that at least one of these mark­ers is no longer in the loca­tion the marker text assumed, because there is very lit­tle north-south dif­fer­ence between their loca­tions, only the width of Crawford Parkway.

They may both be moved from their orig­i­nal loca­tions, because Q-8-P seems fur­ther east than the arc described in this marker, and the cur­rent marker [Q-8-Q] seems to be too far north, given Q-8-P’s ref­er­ence to Dinwiddie Street.

The other thing that strikes me about this marker is that the low­er­case q in the marker num­ber seems “off” to me. It doesn’t look like a q should look in that type. It looks like some­body was impro­vised with a back­wards p. But that could just be my eyes.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

Path of History
Craney Island

Location: Crawford Pkwy, just west of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:40pm

Transcription of marker:

Craney Island played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the War of 1812, fly­ing the Flag of 1795, with fif­teen stars and stripes. American defend­ers held off over­whelm­ing British forces there on June 22, 1813.

Two hun­dred British sol­diers were killed, thir­teen taken pris­oner and forty deserted. There were no American casu­al­ties. This suc­cess­ful bat­tle saved Norfolk, Portsmouth and the Gosport Shipyard from British occu­pa­tion and destruction.

The USS Merrimack (1856 – 1861) was at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. The Federal forces burned and sank the Merrimack as they with­drew from the Navy Yard.

The Confederates sal­vaged the ship and con­verted her to an iron­clad. She was com­mis­sioned the CSS Virginia in February 1862.

In May of 1862, as the Confederates aban­doned the Norfolk area, efforts were made to lighten the Virginia enough to allow her to move up the James River. Unable to do so, she was destroyed by her crew off Craney Island on May 11.

My impres­sions: More War of 1812. And I’ll con­fess that about all I remem­ber from what I learned of that war in his­tory class was “We won.” Oh yes, “and the Americans think they did.” I know the def­i­n­i­tion of “win” is what is impor­tant in fig­ur­ing out what one believes about the war, but as usual, I lack the knowl­edge of what hap­pened to even begin to under­stand it. Maybe a library trip is in my future, so I can pick up the his­tory that isn’t con­densed into only a few para­graphs on a marker here and there.

Given my under­stand­ing of the geog­ra­phy, this seems like a strange loca­tion for a marker about Craney Island, pre­sum­ably there because of the desire for the Path of History to be a walk­a­ble path.

I also received word, via a Flickr com­ment, that next month a his­tor­i­cal marker will be unveiled com­mem­o­rat­ing the Battle of Craney Island. (From fur­ther research, I believe that this will be a state his­tor­i­cal marker, but can’t con­firm that detail yet.) Unfortunately, it appears that my sched­ule won’t per­mit me to attend the unveil­ing, but I def­i­nitely hope to get there in the days after it’s unveiled.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting response on inclu­sion of Path of History.

Path of History
Crawford Bay

Location: Crawford Pkwy, just east of the inter­sec­tion of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:35pm

Transcription of marker:

The peace­ful waters of Crawford Bay play host each year to a num­ber of boat­ing events includ­ing the Cock Island Race and the Crawford Bay Crew Classic. The homes vis­i­ble across the inlet are in a neigh­bor­hood called Swimming Point.

One of the few eighteenth-century manor houses remain­ing in Hampton Roads, the Dale-Reed House, is located in Swimming Point. The fam­ily of Revolutionary War hero Richard Dale once lived in this home. Although mod­ern­ized, the home still has sec­tions of what is prob­a­bly the old­est house in Portsmouth.

My impres­sions: This is a busy area for mark­ers: There is another Path of History marker just west of Court Street. Across from that, there is a block that includes three state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers and a Civil War Trails marker.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting response about inclu­sion of the Path of History list to Markeroni.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8K
Elizabeth River

Location: Crawford Pkwy, where the road curves beside the river, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker: The Elizabeth River, explored by Captain John Smith in 1608, was named for Princess Elizabeth. Shipbuilding activ­ity began in 1620 when John Wood, a ship­builder, requested a land grant. Many his­toric ships were built at the naval ship­yard here, includ­ing the USS Delaware, first ship dry-docked in America, and CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac) first iron­clad to engage in battle.

Virginia State Library, 1959

My impres­sions: This feels like a “name-dropper” marker. I guess a river can’t really do any­thing itself, so a marker would have to com­mem­o­rate those who have used it for his­tor­i­cal pur­poses. But it does seem rather empty and lifeless.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.