FORT CRAFFORD HALS VA-76 (Jamestown Island-Hog Island-Captain John Smith Chesapeake HALS VA-76 National Historic Trail District) ( District) Mulberry Island Road, Joint Base Langley-Eustis Newport News Virginia

WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY FORT CRAFFORD (Jamestown Island-Hog Island-Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail District) (James River District)

HALS NO. VA-76

Location: Mulberry Island Road, Joint Base Langely-, Newport News, Virginia

37.128954, -76.618621 (Center of Fort Crafford, ArcGIS, GSC WGS 1984)

Significance: Fort Crafford was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1969 (VDHR Site Files). Fort Crafford is significant for its role in the Civil War and as a well-preserved example of a Civil War period strategically placed earthwork, and for its potential archaeological information. Fort Crafford retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and setting. The resource also retains integrity of association for its association with the Civil War. The integrity of feeling has been diminished somewhat by the presence of the nearby military installation; however, the fort’s location on a small wooded peninsula is reminiscent of the landscape and feeling of the mid-nineteenth century.

Description: Fort Crafford was designed as a pentagonal shaped earthwork with 20-foot high inner walls. The fort encompasses approximately 7 acres in the northwestern portion of Mulberry Point. The fort looks out over the James River with Hog Island in the distance to the northwest and the Ghost Fleet to the west/southwest. The fort is located on the property of Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia. Although the main area of Fort Eustis is not assessable to the public, the earthworks associated with Fort Crafford are accessible for public presentation. The fort’s interior is accessed by several cleared foot paths leading from the access road. The fort’s earthworks, although extant in most sections, are grass covered in sections and have pine trees growing from the top and walls of the structure. The center of the fort is covered with mown grass and is relatively open, although sparsely spaced deciduous trees are located throughout. The remains of the house at Fort Crafford are cordoned off for safety reasons (VDHR Site Files). The resource is currently maintained by Fort Eustis; however, the resource has not been restored and has only limited signage. During spring and summer visibility to and from the James River is limited.

History: Fort Crafford is located on a point of land historically known as Mulberry Island/Mulberry Point, north of Newport News and to the east of I-64. Settled c. 1618, not long after the first colonists arrived at Jamestown, Mulberry Point, originally part of Warwick County, gradually became a community of mainly tobacco farmers during the early to mid-seventeenth century, and by 1624 13 households with 30 occupants were present. Carter Crafford, for whom the fort was named, acquired the land in 1749. The Crafford family ran a ferry from the FORT CRAFFORD HALS NO. VA-76 PAGE 2

property as well as a tavern. During the Revolutionary War, a fort was located on the point for defense against the British at Yorktown (Brown 2012; LVA 2014; McDaid 2014; Loth 1999:338).

By the Civil War, Mulberry Point had become a strategic point in the defense system. Shortly after Virginia seceded from the Union, work began on a system of defensive lines to protect Richmond from invasion by way of the James River and along the peninsula by land. Confederate General John Magruder was in charge of overseeing the building of these fortifications, and chose to build three separate lines as layers of the defense of Richmond. The second line of these defenses began at Mulberry Point on the James River and extended along the to about 1 mile from Yorktown. As part of this system of defenses, and to aid in the defense of the point, the Confederates constructed a fort on Mulberry Point (Quarstein 2012:46 and 51). Fort Huger, located on Hardin’s Bluff directly across the James River from Mulberry Point, complimented the line by providing protection against approaching vessels coming upriver.

On August 14, 1861, work began on the Mulberry Island Point battery under supervision of naval officers (Quarstein 2012:49). It was designed for six cannons, but only four emplacements covered the enemy’s approach. The small number of guns and the protection provided by the battery concerned Magruder, as well as the geographical location of the battery itself. During storms the river could rise to a height that meant water levels posed a danger of entrapping the troops defending the battery. Magruder was concerned that the fort could not adequately defend against a land invasion and ordered another fortification to be built further inland along the same line.

On September 5, 1861, Magruder ordered the 14th Virginia Infantry to immediately start building an inland fortification in the area directly around the Crafford House (Brown 2012). This new fortification, known as Fort Crafford, was designed as a pentagonal shaped earthwork with 20-foot tall inner walls encompassing approximately 7 acres (Quarstein 2012:50-51; Loth 1999:338). During late autumn of 1861, the Virginia Infantry and Cavalry stationed at Fort Crafford constructed winter quarters as the troops awaited the that would come the following spring (Quarstein 2012:52).

Fort Crafford served as a line of defense for the mouth of the Warwick River and served as the extreme right flank of the Warwick Line of ground defenses working in conjunction with Fort Huger on the opposite bank of the James River. A telegraph line was also installed from this location, which connected the right flank to points east along the line. The right flank of the Warwick- Yorktown line at Fort Crafford was never tested by Union General McClellan during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862; instead, McClellan engaged the line further east at Dam No 1 and was pushed back. Afterward, McClellan made his FORT CRAFFORD HALS NO. VA-76 PAGE 3

way up the peninsula through Yorktown, to the east at the opposite end of the defensive line. By May of 1862 the fortifications at Fort Crafford were abandoned (Salmon 2001:61).

The Crafford House, located within the fortification, presumably abandoned by the family during the Civil War, was occupied until the Crafford family sold the property to the United States Government in 1918. At that time, Camp Eustis, later Fort Eustis, was formed (McDaid 2014; Brown 2012; LVA 2014). The house was demolished in 1924. The parcel also contained the Crafford family graveyard as well as a slave graveyard (Loth 1999:338). The extensive pentagonal earthworks of the fort remain, as does the Crafford House foundation (VDHR #44NN0070).

Sources: Brady, Ellen and Sandra DeChard. Addendum to the Phase I Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed Dominion Virginia Power Skiffes Creek to Surry 500 kV Transmission Line in James City, Isle of Wight, and Surry Counties, Virginia. Glen Allen, VA: Stantec Consulting Services Inc., 2014.

Brady, Ellen, Sandra DeChard, and Corey Gray. Cultural Resources Effects Assessment, Surry-Skiffes Creek-Whealton Transmission Line Project, Surry, James City, and York Counties, Cities of Newport News and Hampton Virginia. Glen Allen, VA: Stantec Consulting Services Inc., 2015.

Brown, Jason J., Senior Airman. “The Anchor on the Line: The History of Fort Crafford, Fort Eustis’ Civil War Relic,” accessed 2012

Loth, Calder. The Virginia Landmarks Register. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1999.

McDaid, Dr. Christopher. Personal communication, 2014.

Quarstein, John V. Yorktown’s Civil War Siege: Drums along the Warwick. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012.

Salmon, John. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001.

Virginia Department of Historic Resources Site Files.

Historian: Sandra DeChard Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. 1049 Technology Park Drive Glen Allen, Virginia 23059

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July 10, 2017

View from Fort Crafford towards James River (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014)

View towards Fort Crafford from James River (Wes Stewart, 7/15/2014).

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Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

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Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

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Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

Fort Crafford (Andrew Kohr, 7/21/2016).

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Fort Crafford (Emily Curme, 10/6/2014).

Fort Crafford (Andrew Kohr, 7/21/2016).