Markers of History

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.

We’re almost ready to leave the site of the Lightship Portsmouth, but there’s one last marker at this site, before we move on.

Path of History
The Coast Guard

Location: Water St & London St, Portsmouth, VA 23704, just in front of the Lightship Portsmouth.

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:15pm

Transcription of marker:

The City of Portsmouth has had a long his­tory of sup­port­ing U.S. Coast Guard oper­a­tions. Today it serves as a cen­ter for Coast Guard regional admin­is­tra­tion and oper­a­tional over­sight through the Atlantic Area Command head­quar­ters, Fifth District head­quar­ters and the local Integrated Support Center. Portsmouth hosts the Atlantic Area Command head­quar­ters, which admin­is­ters all Coast Guard dis­tricts east of the Rocky Mountains. The Fifth District is one of those dis­tricts and it over­sees Coast Guard activ­i­ties in the states of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and south­ern New Jersey. Located at nearby Craney Island, the Integrated Support Center serves as a home­port for Coast Guard per­son­nel and water­craft, such as cut­ters, buoy ten­ders and patrol boats.

My impres­sions: The pho­tos on the marker help bring some life. Unfortunately, the text sounds like an org-chart walk­through. What will I take away from this marker? “There’s Coast Guard stuff in Portsmouth.” That’s it.

Notes for future snar­fers: This one’s on the side­walk of Water St, beside the path to the Lightship Portsmouth. The light­ship is a snarf fac­tory, as a National Historic Landmark, with two asso­ci­ated Path of History mark­ers, as well as being a museum.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Path of History before sub­mit­ting to Markeroni.

Note: Lightship Portsmouth has two mark­ers for the Path of History and a des­ig­na­tion as a National Historic Landmark. This is the sec­ond of three posts that will appear here, one for each snarf.

It is not clear to me whether or not there’s an intended order to the two Path of History mark­ers for the Lightship Portsmouth, so I’m blog­ging about them in the order that I came upon them.

Path of History
Lightship Portsmouth

Location: Alongside the Lightship Portsmouth, at the Water St end of London St, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:10pm

Transcription of marker:

Lightship Portsmouth
101-WAL524

Lightships and the City of Portsmouth go back to the begin­ning of light­ship duty in this coun­try in 1820. The first light­ship was estab­lished off Craney Island at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Working light­ships were con­stant vis­i­tors on the Portsmouth water­front at the buoy yard until 1966, when the last light­ships were dis­con­tin­ued in the dis­trict. At this time Lightship #101 was brought back to Portsmouth to become a per­ma­nent fix­ture on the water­front. It was to be a trib­ute to the light­ship ser­vice and to her own first home port. The cus­tom was for the light­ship ves­sels to take the name of the sta­tion where they were stand­ing duty. Thus, she was renamed Portsmouth.

In 1967 the City of Portsmouth placed this ves­sel on the water­front and opened it as a museum. In 1989 LIGHTSHIP PORTSMOUTH was des­ig­nated a National Historic Landmark.

My impres­sions: This one makes a bet­ter marker, in my view, for all but the most ded­i­cated his­tory lover. It gives the gen­eral overview of this light­ship and explains inter­est­ing things about why it’s here and how it came to be here.

Notes for future snar­fers: This marker is on the walk­way that con­nects London St to the sea wall along the Elizabeth River. The other Path of History marker is along the sea wall.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Path of History before sub­mit­ting to Markeroni.