The public and private reasons for Fort Germanna's existence underscored its tie to traditional practices of frontier fortification and land settlement. The reasons also reveal the mixture of motives which surrounded the fort. Mingled with Alexander Spotswood's entrepreneurial designs were the multiple roles of the Germanna colonists, part frontier defenders, part settlers, part mineral prospectors.
John Fontaine's descriptions of Fort Germanna help the archaelogical interpretation of the site. It was a first-hand description, written at the time. And it informs us about the Germans.
John Fontaine was a French Huguenot, or at least the son of a French Huguenot, who had settled in Ireland. He sought land for himself and members of his family. From 1714 to 1718, he searched for land while engaging in speculative ventures. He had good connections to Gov. Spotswood. On two visits, he spent more than seven days at Germanna. The first visit had been an excursion from Williamsburg seeking land to buy. Germanna was the farthest extent of his travels, though his interest in land did not extend out that far. His second visit, much the longer of the two, was while he was a member of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." Had he not been a member of this expedition, and recorded some of the events, we would hardly be aware that the trip was made.
On his first trip, Fontaine said Germanna was thirty miles above the falls of the Rappahannock, which are located where Frederickburg is located today. He was in error on the distance, as it is closer to twenty miles. But remember that his estimates were formed by the number of hours he was on horseback. If the countryside were wild and undeveloped, which it was, then progress would be slower and the distances would seem to be longer. On November 20, 1715, he wrote,
". . . continued on the road. About five we crossed a bridge that was made by the Germans and about six we arrived at the German settlement. We went immediately to the minister's house. We found nothing to eat but lived on our small provisions and lay upon good straw. We passed the night very indifferently."
On the next day, he penned the critical description of Fort Germanna.
"Thursday. Our beds not being very easy, as soon as 'twas day we got up. It rained hard, but, notwithstanding, we walked about the town which is pallisaded with stakes stuck in the ground, and laid close the one to the other, of substance to bear out a musket shot. There is but nine families and they have nine houses built all in a line, and before every house, about 20 feet from the house, they have small sheds built for their hogs and hens, so the hog stys and the houses make a street. The place that is paled in is a pentagon, very regularly laid out, and in the very centre there is a blockhouse made with five sides which answer to the five sides of pales or great inclosure. There is loop holes through it, from which you may see all the inside of the inclosure. This is intended for a retreat for the people in case they were not able to defend the pallisadoes if attacked by the Indians."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.