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.

All these mark­ers from Portsmouth, and we didn’t need to cross the street to see them. Then when we do…

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-s
John Luke Porter (19 Sept. 1813 — 14 Dec. 1893)

Location: In the median of High St (between Water St & Crawford St), Portsmouth VA 23704.

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:20pm

Transcription of marker:

John Luke Porter, first pres­i­dent of the Portsmouth com­mon coun­cil, was born just two blocks south of here. An accom­plished naval con­struc­tor, com­mis­sioned first by the United States and later by the Confederacy, Porter super­vised, at the Norfolk Navy Yard, the con­ver­sion of the frigate Merrimac to the iron­clad CSS Virginia. On 8 March 1862, the Virginia rammed and sank USS Cumberland and destroyed USS Congress at Newport News. The next day Virginia fought a his­toric but incon­clu­sive bat­tle with USS Monitor in nearby Hampton Roads, in the world’s first naval com­bat between iron­clads. Porter later became chief naval con­struc­tor for the Confederacy, design­ing 21 iron­clads. He died in Portsmouth.

Department of Historic Resources, 1997

My impres­sions: An absolutely beau­ti­ful set­ting in the median of High Street, though prob­a­bly less acces­si­ble than it could be, in the mid­dle of the street, but it is cer­tainly quite vis­i­ble between the trees in the mid­dle of the street. A lot of these names are becom­ing famil­iar from ear­lier trips to Nauticus, etc. and from names that have been passed on in the area, but I plead igno­rance on the Civil War, too. I do like the way this marker explains both Porter’s ties to his­tory as well as his ties to Portsmouth, not only answer­ing the “Why is he impor­tant?” ques­tion but also “Why is this marker placed in this location?”

Notes for future snar­fers: If you get off the ferry from Norfolk at the High Street land­ing, walk towards the street and you won’t be able to miss the two state mark­ers in the mid­dle of High Street.

Markeroni sta­tus: Visit logged June 3, 2009. Waiting for whelm level to drop before ask­ing for cor­rec­tion of blank city name to Portsmouth.