Markers of History

Cannonball Trail
The First Battle of Ironclad Ships, 1862

Location: West end of Town Point Park at the Elizabeth River, steps east of the Armed Forces Memorial and its marker, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:30pm

Transcription of marker: On March 8, 1862 CSS Virginia steamed past this point (1) to a bat­tle which would for­ever change naval war­fare. This ship had pre­vi­ously been a Union steam frigate, USS Merrimack, which had been destroyed near the Gosport Navy Yard (2). Confederate forces found its hull to be sound and con­structed a super­struc­ture with iron plates to cre­ate a new kind of war­ship. The Virginia pro­ceeded out into Hampton Roads where she sank USS Cumberland and severely dam­aged USS Congress (3). The next day she returned to destroy the Union fleet and open the port. However, USS Monitor, another iron­clad, had slipped into Hampton Roads unde­tected by the Confederates (4). A major naval bat­tle ensued (5). Neither iron­clad did sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to the other. The Virginia tried to ram the Monitor but failed to sink her and opened a gash in her own hull. She returned to Gosport never to fight again. She was scut­tled and burned on May 11, 1862 to pre­vent her cap­ture by Union forces (6).

My impres­sions: I love the way this marker uses a map to help you under­stand the geog­ra­phy of the bat­tle, com­plete with a “YOU ARE HERE” indi­ca­tor. I’m not sure whether this is the best marker I’ve seen on the sub­ject of the Monitor and the Merrimack or whether I’m just get­ting famil­iar enough with this impor­tant event in local his­tory that my brain is able to fill in the details which would have con­fused me by their omis­sion (since a marker has lim­ited space, there are ALWAYS omissions!).

And I’m glad that, more than two and a half weeks after this trip to Norfolk, I have finally fin­ished blog­ging about the mark­ers I found that day (when I really hadn’t intended to make it a snar­fari). Tomorrow, we move on to July 4th (one day later) and an inten­tional snar­fari. We’ll start with a cou­ple of mark­ers from the drive to Yorktown and, some­time soon, I’ll have to fig­ure out how to post the mark­ers I found along the Colonial Parkway and at Historic Jamestowne. After all that, I have a few mark­ers and sites from around Virginia Beach, and after that, it will be snarfs from this week and the future. Thanks for read­ing, and feel free to leave a com­ment on any­thing you see here.

Civil War Trails
Olde Towne Portsmouth

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

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker:

Olde Towne Portsmouth
* * *
Southern  Architectural Splendor

The one square block his­toric dis­trict before you is Portsmouth’s Olde Towne. The dis­trict dates to 1752 when Portsmouth was founded by William Crawford. Olde Towne con­tains one of the largest col­lec­tions of his­toric build­ings in Virginia fea­tur­ing Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Georgian, and Victorian archi­tec­tural styles.

Olde Towne is the cen­ter­piece of Portsmouth’s Civil War his­tory. Several of the build­ings found through­out the dis­trict played an impor­tant role in events that unfolded in Portsmouth dur­ing the war.

The 1846 Courthouse was once the site of gov­ern­ment in old Norfolk County. Before the Civil War, slaves were sold at the front of the build­ing, and it was here that a vote was taken approv­ing secession.

On April 19, 1861, the day before the Federal evac­u­a­tion of Gosport Navy Yard, mem­bers of Portsmouth’s mili­tia com­pa­nies slept with their weapons in the cour­t­house. The build­ing was used as a hos­pi­tal by Union troops from 1862 until 1865.

The Macon House Hotel knew both gai­ety and despair dur­ing the war. From its Middle Street porch the Virginia Defenders, a local vol­un­teer infantry com­pany, accepted a flag from the ladies of Portsmouth. After the Confederates evac­u­ated Portsmouth in 1862, the Federals used the Macon House as a troop quar­ters and hos­pi­tal. The names of Federal sol­diers carved into the hotel’s floor are still visible.

Two houses, Pass House and the William H. Peters House, played a major role in the Union occu­pa­tion of Portsmouth. The William H. Peters House served as head­quar­ters for Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler while he com­manded the Union forces in Portsmouth. Local leg­end claims that Butler earned his nick­name of “Spoons” while in Portsmouth because of the sud­den dis­ap­pear­ance of fam­ily sil­ver­ware when homes were occu­pied by his troops. The James Murdough Home, known as the Pass House, took on an omi­nous air when it became the head­quar­ters of the Union Adjutant General. In order to leave the city, cit­i­zens first had to report here and secure a pass.

These his­toric build­ings and the many oth­ers that line Olde Towne’s streets pro­vide a glimpse into what a Southern city looked like dur­ing the Civil War.

My impres­sions: When it comes to the National Register of Historic Places, one of the things I’ve avoided record­ing so far are his­toric dis­tricts, because it is too easy to say “Yes, I’ve been there,” but not have done any­thing to appre­ci­ate the his­tory there. A marker like this, though, opens the area up to me, and so I think next time I pay a visit to Portsmouth, I’ll spend some time in Olde Towne, appre­ci­at­ing it, and I’ll record my visit here and at Markeroni.

Markeroni sta­tus: I have direct-logged this site, which has not yet been trans­ferred to its proper data­base code to be recorded by others.