THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510110215
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
IT'S AFFECTIONATELY called ``the dungeon.''
It's dark. It's damp. And, yes, there are bars on the windows and doors.
From the looks of the lower chambers of the nation's first Naval Hospital, the nickname is well-deserved.
But it was not built as an underground cell to house the mentally insane or prisoners of war, as is widely rumored.
``It was constructed to house coal, wood and oil - provisions to supply the building with heat and light,'' said Al Cutchin, a Civil War buff fascinated with the history of the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.
``The reason they put the bars on the windows and doors was to keep people out, not to keep people in,'' he said. ``However, during the Civil War, there were some people locked up down there for voting to remain in the Union.''
On Saturday, Cutchin will conduct tours of the hospital and its burial grounds as part of the city's fourth annual Civil War Day, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Downtown Portsmouth.
The event will feature a walking tour and two separate trolley tours. Trolley Tour 1 will visit Trophy Park at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Trolley Tour 2 will visit Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, Emanuel AME Church and Cedar Grove Cemetery.
The walking tour and the Trophy Park trolley tour each start at 11 a.m. and will run on the hour until the final tours are given at 3 p.m. The hospital trolley tour departs at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. only. All tours are free.
Portsmouth's Civil War Day started in 1992 as a spinoff of the Olde Towne Lantern Tours, walking tours led by re-enactors in period attire who would recount the history and legends of Portsmouth. The naval hospital visit was added to the event last year.
``The hospital is quite rich in Civil War history,'' said Cutchin, a production controller who has worked at the hospital for 27 years and who has been a student of its history since 1972.
``Shortly after I came here, I realized just how rich in history this place was. It was just unbelievable,'' said Cutchin, an Olive Branch resident. ``The evolution of shore-based American Navy medicine is right here.''
Each of the two hospital visits will last about 90 minutes. The narratives, as told by Cutchin, include:
Hospital Point, a natural point of land on the grounds of the hospital that at one time extended hundreds more feet into the Elizabeth River.
Within days of Virginia's entry into the Civil War, a fortification was built on the point and named Fort Nelson in honor of the Revolutionary War fort that existed there in 1776.
The fort, hastily constructed of cotton bales and earthwork, contained thirteen 32-pound cannons, along with two 8-pound cannons.
Re-enactors portraying the 3rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry, which occupied the point at the outbreak of the war, will provide a living history.
The first U.S. Naval Hospital, designed and constructed by architect John Haviland of Philadelphia, was started in 1827 and completed in 1834.
The hospital's first patient, ``an officer who suffered from partial aberration of mind,'' was admitted in 1830.
Though it was completely gutted and renovated in 1908 and 1910, the structure (now called Building 1) still retains its original foyer and some molding and fireplaces that date to 1830. In addition, the stone on the outside of the building and the underground chambers is original.
Money for the hospital's construction was raised by deducting 20 cents a month from the pay of Navy personnel.
The hospital's most famous Civil War patient was Capt. Franklin Buchanan, commodore of the CSS Virginia, who was wounded on the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads. It was on March 8, 1862, when the Virginia, the first armored ship to engage in battle, sank the Cumberland and set fire to the Congress, two wooden Union vessels.
While a patient, Buchanan wrote one of the most famous accounts of that memorable fight.
The underground ``dungeon.'' More than a half-million bricks from what had been part of the original Fort Nelson during the American Revolution were used in its foundation and walls.
Many of the bricks were laid in inverted arches, which served as additional support for the building's massive weight.
An unusual aspect of the dungeon is that each of its cells is flat, with the exception of one. It is believed that ice was stored on the floors of this tapered cell, allowing the melted ice to easily flow and drain down the sides.
The hospital burial grounds. Men who fought on both sides in the Civil War are buried in the hospital's graveyard. In addition, inscriptions in English, French, German, Russian and Japanese can be found on markers throughout the yard.
The oldest known burial dates to Aug. 1, 1838. The grave belongs to George Butler, a native of Bath, England, who died at 23 when he fell from the yardarm of Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution. Butler's marker was erected by his shipmates.
In fact, many of the headstones of the 840 bodies buried there were erected by shipmates, a reflection of the camaraderie among servicemen.
One of the most impressive sites is a cairn erected in memory of the 337 men of the Cumberland and the Congress who lost their lives on March 8, 1862, in a battle with the ironclad Virginia.
The monument not only serves as a memorial to those who perished, but it represents the end of the use of wooden ships in naval warfare.
To learn more about the CSS Virginia and the role it played in the Civil War, Trolley Tour 1 will take visitors to Trophy Park at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
In July 1861, work had begun at the shipyard, then called the Gosport Navy Yard, to convert the steam frigate Merrimac into the ironclad called Virginia.
Completion of the conversion led to the world's first ``Battle of the Ironclads'' on March 9, 1862, when the CSS Virginia faced off with the USS Monitor in the Hampton Roads harbor. Trophy Park even contains a piece of the Virginia's armor plate.
Re-enactors from the Confederate States Marine Corps and Ship's Company CSS Virginia will portray the Virginia's crew and be available to answer any questions about her construction.
Bill Whorton, who impersonates Lt. John Taylor Wood, a naval officer for the Confederacy, will be on hand to ``enlist'' sightseers into the Confederate Navy.
``We even pay them in Confederate money, so they'll have something to take home with them,'' said Whorton, 49, a Portsmouth native.
Wood, the naval officer Whorton portrays, was in charge of recruitment for the CSS Virginia.
``The Virginia needed about 320 men to man it and about 30 Marines. . . . And because most local men had gone into the Army by that point, there weren't that many men around,'' said Whorton.
So Wood scrounged up watermen and ``anybody that had any nautical knowledge at all'' to help crew the ship, he said.
``There was a Portsmouth fire company called the United Artillery, and he enlisted almost all of them since they had some artillery experience and they were also a fire engine company,'' said Whorton. ``A lot of Portsmouth natives fought on the Virginia.''
Trophy Park, the site of Whorton's re-enactment camp, opened to the public for the first time in decades during last year's Civil War Day.
The park contains an extensive weaponry collection, including cannons that date back to 1767, a 32-pound gun, a 16-inch carronade and a 15-inch/450-pound round shot from the year 1861.
``It'll be more like a museum for the kids and adults, who can pick up the items and look at them and get a feel for them,'' said Whorton.
``We have a lot of original equipment, thousands of dollars' worth, everything from straight razors that men would use to shave with to eating utensils,'' he said.
In addition, Whorton will bring to the park an 18-foot wooden skiff with six rowing stations.
``We'll run the kids through a boat drill of rowing,'' said Whorton. ``That's something the kids really get into. . . . We want the kids to take an interest in their history so they'll go back and read about it.''
Whorton, a Norfolk pet shop owner, has been involved in re-enacting for about a decade. He says it's more than just a hobby.
``I don't know how to describe it to you,'' he said. ``Most of us feel that not enough history is taught in the schools, and it's just our mission to make people aware that they have a heritage.''
Civil War Day also will include a walking tour of 11 sites, led by guides in period attire, including the Confederate Monument, Trinity Episcopal Church and the 1846 Courthouse Courtyard.
The tour will also stop at Monumental United Methodist Church, Court Street Baptist Church, Owens House, Parrish-Toomer House, Peters House, Macon House, Lee-Murdaugh House and the Pass House.
Re-enactment groups participating in Civil War Day include Confederate States Marine Corps; Ships Company CSS Virginia; 1st Battalion-Virginia Infantry; 79th New York State Militia; 3rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry; 6th Virginia Volunteer Infantry; 9th Virginia Volunteer Infantry; and Norfolk Light Artillery Blues. ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER [color]
Bill Whorton is pictured in Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard by
photographer Mark Mitchell.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Al Cutchin, a Civil War buff, has researched the history of the
dungeon at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center. ``The reason they
put the bars on the windows and doors was to keep people out, not to
keep people in,'' he said.
AT RIGHT: George Livingston wears the uniform of a Civil War sailor
at Trophy Park at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. Trolley
Tour 1 will visit Trophy Park, where re-enactors from the
Confederate States Marine Corps and Ship's Company CSS Virginia will
portray the ironclad Virginia's crew and be available to answer any
questions about her construction.
AT LEFT: A cannon and a pistol will be among the collection of
weaponry at Trophy Park. ``It'll be more like a museum for the kids
and adults, who can pick up the items and look at them and get a
feel for them,'' said Bill Whorton, who portrays Lt. John Taylor
Wood, a naval officer for the Confederacy. Wood will be on hand to
``enlist'' sightseers into the Confederate Navy.
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Men who fought on both sides in the Civil War are buried in the
naval hospital's graveyard. Inscriptions in English, French, German,
Russian and Japanese also can be found on markers.
by CNB