Claudius Crozet

By Joan Wenner, J.D. · Originally published June 2022 · p. 37

VMI’s First President and his Blue Ridge Tunnel Today by Joan Wenner, J.D. Claude “Claudius” Crozet was born in 1789 near Lyons, France, and educated as an engineer., After serving as an officer in Napoleon’s army and surviving two years as a Russian prisoner of war captured at Moscow, he immigrated to America in 1816, joined the U.S. Army, and had a stint at West Point. Later holding engineering positions within the Virginia Board of Public Works, Crozet began pushing his “vision that a new railroad could open the Shenandoah Valley for settlement and serve as a corridor for tying the Virginia Tidewater to the Ohio River.” From 1837–1845, Crozet was the Virginia Military Institute’s first presiding officer, the president of its Board of Directors. In 1849, the Virginia State Legislature incorporated the Blue Ridge Railroad so exasperatingly pushed by the civil engineer. In 1849 Crozet became the chief engineer of the Blue Ridge Railroad Company. The Blue Ridge Tunnel opened in 1858. During the Civil War General Stonewall Jackson used the tunnel to quickly move forces from the Valley to east of the Blue Ridge, much “to the puzzlement and consternation of Union military leaders.” Crozet died in Midlothian, Va., aged 75 years, during January 1864 and was buried in the VMI Cemetery in Lexington where an impressive monument marks his grave. It’s said that the also impressive Library of Virginia in Richmond contains hundreds of his plans and drawings. The rural Albemarle County town of Crozet 12 miles west of Charlottesville at the base of the Blue Ridge was renamed in his honor in 1870. In 2014, Col. Edwin Dooley, a co-author of a 1989 Crozet biography spoke at VMI’s Crozet Library, describing his remarkable engineering feats and stating that he was one of Virginia’s most important historical figures saying, “It’s incredible what he did…” Note: The (Claudius Crozet) Blue Ridge Tunnel restoration project created a 2-1/2 mile hiking trail from its eastern trailhead in Nelson County, Virginia, through the 4,273-foot tunnel to the trail’s western end in Augusta County. See: nelsoncounty.va.gov/ parks-recreation for information about this “Rails to Trails” project that incorporates the third largest pedestrian tunnel in the U.S. Open sunrise to sunset though check first for closure for scheduled maintenance. Call 434-263-7130 or go online for additional information and maps go to nelsoncounty.com/ blue-ridge-tunnel. Joan Wenner, J.D. is a longtime historical and maritime writer with a law degree and contributor & book reviewer for Civil War News. Comments are welcomed at [email protected].

Claudius Crozet.

Claudius Crozet as as a colonel (left) and as a civilian. (Crozet Gazette)

Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel north entrance.