Another description of Fort Christianna comes from the pen of Richard Beresford who wrote in a letter of July 1716,
"The fort consists of five large pentagonal log houses which serve for bastions and a curtain of mauld wood with earth on inside from one house to another, aft of four enclosed. Each house has a great gun, about 1400 pounds each."
In case the word "mauld" is not clear, it means split from a larger piece. Thus the descriptions of Fort Christanna and Fort Germanna are similar in some respects, especially in the pentagonal structure. As a working guide, excavations at Fort Germanna will probably use the initial assumption that the sides are 300 feet. But Fort Christanna had five houses to serve for bastions at the corners whereas Germanna had none.
At Fort Christanna, two archaeological surveys, from 1978 to 1981, found physical evidence supportive of the contemporary written descriptions. Artifact-wise, the archaeologists recovered a variety of objects related to the fort's construction and occupation. Nails, iron hardware, ceramics, gunflint, clay tobacco pipes, and animal bones were the material remains of life on the frontier. Some goods, such as knives and brass trinkets, comprised the physical remnants of the Indian trade.
Compared to Fort Germanna, Fort Christanna is at the opposite end of the frontier fort spectrum. Though they share the same basic design, the Christanna fortification was more substantial and more trade and military-oriented. Fort Germanna had a military aspect but the limitation as such is indicated by the fact that it was the Germans who were denoted as Rangers, and even this was perhaps motivated by tax avoidance. Germanna remained more of a protected domestic settlement.
The German settlers of Germanna, in the absence of Indian trade and a need to continually guard against attack, went about the business of settling the land. They cleared ground, tended gardens and livestock, built roads and at least one bridge, and prospected for minerals in the neighborhood. A clue to the nature of the living there lies in Fontaine's references to it. More often than not, he refers to it as a town, not as a fort. He called it German Town more than anything else. Once or twice he called it Germanna, but never Fort Germanna, or any other name which implied a military nature.
Much work remains to be done at Germanna by the archaeologists and there will probably be excellent rewards. Descendants will follow this work with much interest.
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.