THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407150224
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: OLDE TOWNE JOURNAL
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Defending Norfolk and Portsmouth frustrated Gen. George Washington.
For not only were the British after the vast naval stores of Gosport shipyard, but the redcoats also knew they could refill their ships' holds with fresh water and foodstuffs from nearby Norfolk County farms. With few exceptions, they came and went around Norfolk and Portsmouth as they pleased.
In the war's beginning, there was an attempt to man Colonial batteries on both sides of the river, but neither site survived the war despite the ambitious construction in August 1776 of a ``Fort at Portsmouth,'' which boasted walls that were 14 feet high and 15 feet thick.
With 42 embrasures, the fort must have looked formidable from the water. When a British fleet comprised of six warships under the command of Commodore Sir George Collier sailed up the Elizabeth on May 9, 1779, it simply avoided its guns and dropped anchor farther down river off Parish Glebe.
The next day, 28 transports deployed from HMS Rainbow, Otter, Diligent, Harlem and Cornwallis.
With Collier straining to see the action from the larger Raisonable, 1,800 Royal infantrymen disembarked from the sides of their boats and sloshed inland to the white, sandy strip of beach along what is now the shores of Port Norfolk.
It was by any standard a ``cake walk'' to capture the fort on May 11 as it had been abandoned by its commander, Major Thomas Mathews.
Taking possession of Portsmouth, Gosport and Norfolk, British troops foraged the area in what became known as ``Collier's Raid.''
By the time it was over, 137 private vessels, many ladened with cargoes, were destroyed or captured. Although Collier called the Gosport shipyard ``the most considerable in America,'' he was ordered to burn it to the ground.
Once the British had finished with the urban areas, Collier's men fanned into the countryside and along the way burned the City of Suffolk. Meanwhile, the Colonial fort at Portsmouth was dismantled.
Considering the fact that Washington's supply lines from the south were cut and that military equipment worth 1,000,000 pounds sterling was lost, it could have been worst.
Because of the favorable testimony of a former British prisoner of war about his fair treatment by the American garrison at the fort, Portsmouth was spared from being burned.
But when the British sailed for New York on May 24, Norfolk and Portsmouth were decimated and open to a series of future raids that would plague the area until the end of the war.
It thus became a priority of the Washington administration to fortify the inner harbor. Congress was in agreement and allocated funding on May 21, 1794 to begin construction of what would become Fort Norfolk, still standing directly across from the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, and Fort Nelson, named after Revolutionary War hero and later governor Gen. Thomas Nelson.
To expedite matters, Washington commissioned engineer John Jacob Ulrich Rivardi to build both on a similar design. By May 12, 1812 a survey described them as having ``about 200 regulars posted . . . with sixty large pieces of ordnance.'' The report states that, ``the platforms are in good order . . . embrasures judiciously selected and kept open . . . a wall of Fort Nelson of usual thickness and composed of earth and brick work; its form is an irregular polygon, some of the angles of which enable the fort to play upon an approaching fleet, and some of it would be stationary for the purpose of the bombardment of the lower end of Norfolk.''
However, both locations were replaced by Fort Monroe and Fort Calhoon, better known as Fort Wool, after the War of 1812.
Fort Nelson fell on hard times once its location was chosen as the site for a naval hospital. In the early 1830s, Fort Nelson's granite, brick and timber were used to repair Trinity Church.
Fort Norfolk, on the other hand, was used by the United States and Confederate Navy and finally the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as their district headquarters. Fortunately, it was preserved and is now adopted by the Norfolk Historical Society as a headquarters and re-enactment site with a just-completed celebration marking Fort Norfolk's 200th anniversary.
Despite British attacks, Civil War and urban renewal, things have never looked brighter for Fort Norfolk, and even though Fort Nelson isn't around anymore, the one standing reflects best what things were like defending the Norfolk harbor two centuries ago.
We have George Washington to thank for that. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
An aerial view of Fort Norfolk, which still stands directly across
from the Portsmouth Naval Hospital and Fort Nelson.
by CNB