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((Short description|French-American soldier and civil engineer (1789–1864)))
((Infobox person
| name        = Claudius Crozet
| image       = Claudius Crozet.jpg
| alt         =
| caption     =
| birth_name  =
| birth_date  = ((Birth date|1789|12|31))
| birth_place = [[Villefranche-sur-Saône|Villefranche, France]]
| death_date  = ((Death date and age|1864|01|29|1789|12|31))
| death_place = Virginia, [[Confederate States of America]]
| nationality =
| other_names =
| known_for   = Chief engineer of the [[Virginia Board of Public Works]], including the [[Blue Ridge Railroad (1849–1870)|Blue Ridge Railroad]]
| occupation  = [[Civil engineer]], [[Educator]]
))

'''Claude "Claudius" Crozet''' (December 31, 1789 – January 29, 1864) was a soldier, [[educator]], and [[civil engineer]]. <ref>Sean Patrick Adams, Claudius Crozet (1789-1864) available at https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Crozet_Claudius_1789-1864</ref>

Crozet was born in [[France]] and trained as an artillery officer and civil engineer. After the defeat of Napoleon's army, he emigrated to the United States in 1816 and joined the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at [[West Point, New York|West Point]].<ref>Appleton's Cyclopedia, Vol. II p. 22</ref> 

After resigning his commission in 1823, he took a job with the [[Virginia Board of Public Works]] and oversaw the planning and construction of [[canal]]s, [[Toll roads in the United States#History, funding through toll|turnpikes]], [[bridge]]s and [[railroad]]s in [[Virginia]], including the area which became [[West Virginia]] during the [[American Civil War]] (during which Crozet sided with the [[Confederate States of America]]). Crozet also helped found the [[Virginia Military Institute]] in 1839 and earned a nickname as the "Pathfinder of the Blue Ridge."

==Early life, family==
Claudius Crozet was born in [[Villefranche-sur-Saône|Villefranche]], [[Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur]], France on December 31, 1789 to Pierrette Varion Crozet and her husband, wine merchant François Crozet. His mother died when he was a boy, and his father moved to Paris in 1800 with Claude and two siblings. Claude secured permission to attend the [[École Polytechnique]] in 1805. He studied engineering (including bridge-building) as well as military matters, and graduated as sub-lieutenant on October 1, 1807. Crozet then graduated from the Imperial Artillery School in [[Metz]], and received a commission as a second lieutenant on June 9, 1809. Thus, he served in the French Army under [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], and won a promotion to captain on July 22, 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of [[Russia]]. 

At the [[Battle of Borodino]] in September 1812, Captain Crozet was taken prisoner, but released in 1814 and returned to duty in the French army.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Crozet_Claudius_1789-1864|title = Crozet, Claudius (1789–1864) – Encyclopedia Virginia))</ref> Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, but returned to power about a year later, was defeated at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] on June 18, 1815 and surrendered about a month later. Crozet resigned from the French military on April 11, 1816.

On June 7, 1816, in [[Paris]], Crozet married Agathe Decamp, and they would have daughters Agatha and Claudia Crozet Mills and a son (Alfred) before her death in March 1861.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Crozet_Claudius_1789-1864https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Crozet_Claudius_1789-1864|title = Crozet, Claudius (1789–1864) – Encyclopedia Virginia))</ref>

==Immigration to United States and West Point ==
In the fall of 1816, Crozet and his bride immigrated to the [[United States]].<ref>Couper, William  (1936), ''Claudius Crozet: Soldier-Scholar-Educator-Engineer (1789-1864)''; Charlottesville: Historical Publishing Co. as cited in Hunter (1961)</ref> Almost immediately after arriving, Crozet began work as a professor of engineering at the [[U.S. Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York]].<ref>Angulo, A. J. (2012). ''The  polytechnic comes to America: How French approaches to science instruction influenced mid-nineteenth century American higher education.'' History of Science, 50(168), 315.</ref>

While at West Point, Crozet is credited by some as being the first to use the chalkboard as an instructional tool. He also used the "Elementary Course of Civil Engineering", translated from the course of M. J. Sganzin at the [[École Polytechnique]], designed several of the buildings on the campus, and published ''A Treatise on Descriptive Geometry''. [[Thomas Jefferson]] referred to Claudius Crozet as "by far the best mathematician in the United States."<ref name="gazette">((cite web |last=Carroll |first=Clover |title=Claudius Crozet's Richmond Sojourn |url=http://www.crozetgazette.com/2011/12/08/claudius-crozets-richmond-sojourn/ |accessdate=8 March 2018 |work=Crozet Gazette |date=8 December 2011 ))</ref>

==Life in Virginia==

===Virginia Board of Public Works===
In 1823, Crozet was elected Principal Engineer and Surveyor for the [[Virginia Board of Public Works]].<ref>Hunter,(1963)</ref> He resigned from his duties at West Point, and brought his wife and two children (a boy and a girl) with him to live in [[Richmond, Virginia]].

Virginia's Board of Public Works was very active in promoting the development of canals, roads, and railroads. His work included approving various proposals and determining their engineering feasibility. At the time, Virginia extended all the way from the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[Ohio River]] and was the largest state east of the [[Mississippi River]]. It included what is now the State of [[West Virginia]]. Crozet worked on hundreds of transportation projects, such as the [[Northwestern Turnpike]].

Typical of his many projects of this nature was the [[Chesterfield Railroad]], the first in Virginia, the plans of which he examined before Board of Public Works funds were approved. It began operations in 1831.

In 1832, Crozet left Virginia to work in [[Louisiana]]. However, he returned to his old job in Virginia in 1837 to work on roads, canals, railroads and other points of necessity for the state. By this time, some railroads were already under construction and the canal system had reached its potential. He left office in 1843 after losing support of canal owners when he correctly forecast the future advantages railroads would hold for Virginia.  Authoring textbooks on highway, railroad and aqueduct design, his 1848 map of the entire state was the first since the one prepared by [[Peter Jefferson]], father of Thomas Jefferson, over a century earlier.

===Virginia Military Institute===
[[Image:Blueridgetunnel.jpg|225px|thumb|The North Entrance to the Blue Ridge tunnel]]
Crozet was one of the founders of [[Virginia Military Institute]] (VMI) at [[Lexington, Virginia]], a major training institution for engineers and militia officers for Virginia and the South. When VMI opened in 1839, Crozet was the architect of the college's academic program and military organization. At its first meeting, the members of the VMI Board of Visitors elected Crozet president of the Board, a position he held for six years (while remaining the state's Chief Engineer).

However, his varied duties meant Crozet did not reside in Lexington, Virginia. In 1840, he and his family and five enslaved people lived in Richmond, Virginia.<ref>U.S. Federal Census for Richmond Ward 3, Henrico County, Virginia</ref> Ten years later, he and at least two much younger engineers boarded with plantation owner John T. Cocke in [[Albemarle County, Virginia]].<ref>U.S. Federal Census for Albemarle County, Virginia, family 1250</ref>

===Blue Ridge Tunnels===
((main|Greenwood Tunnel|Brookville Tunnel|Blue Ridge Tunnel))
In 1839, Crozet surveyed the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]] and determined that the best way to allow the [[Blue Ridge Railroad (1849-1870)|Blue Ridge Railroad]], an extension of the [[Virginia Central Railroad]], to cross the mountain would be through a series of four [[tunnel]]s (from east to west:  [[Greenwood Tunnel]], [[Brookville Tunnel]], Little Rock Tunnel, and [[Blue Ridge Tunnel]]) near [[Rockfish Gap]] at Afton Mountain. The ((convert|4273|ft|m|1)) long Blue Ridge Tunnel was opened in 1856, although rail service did not begin until April 1858.  At that time, it was the longest tunnel in the United States and one of the longest in the world.  Dug a decade before the invention of [[dynamite]] it was considered to be an "engineering wonder of the world" and was less than a half-foot (15.2 centimetres) off perfect alignment, as construction had proceeded from either end. Upon completion of the tunnels in 1858, the Blue Ridge Railroad ceased to exist, becoming a part of the Virginia Central Railroad.

During the [[American Civil War]], Confederate General [[Thomas Stonewall Jackson]], a former instructor at VMI, used Crozet's tunnel to transfer his "[[foot cavalry]]" (comparable to a ''rapid deployment force'' today) from the [[Shenandoah Valley]] to the east side of the Blue Ridge quickly, to the puzzlement and consternation of Union military leaders.

In 1868, the Virginia Central Railroad was merged with the [[Covington and Ohio Railroad]] to create the [[Chesapeake and Ohio Railway]]; the original tunnel served until it was replaced with a different alignment in 1944. Perhaps as mute testament to Crozet's extraordinary skills, despite advances in technology from the 1850s, the "new" mid 20th century tunnel was ((convert|4|ft|cm|1)) off-center, in comparison with only 6&nbsp;inches in Crozet's earlier project.

==Death and legacy==
[[File:CrozetsGrave.JPG|thumb|Crozet's grave on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, Virginia]]
Crozet died in January 1864 at the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, as the Confederacy was losing the Civil War, but more than a year before its defeat. He was initially buried near his wife and children in [[Shockoe Hill Cemetery]], but in 1942 his remains were reinterred in the [[Virginia Military Institute]]  cemetery.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Crozet_Claudius_1789-1864|title = Crozet, Claudius (1789–1864) – Encyclopedia Virginia))</ref> Hundreds of plans and drawings which he oversaw have been retained in the archives of the [[Library of Virginia]].

The town of [[Crozet, Virginia]] was named in his honor in 1870.<ref name=gazette /> The original [[Blue Ridge Tunnel]] was converted into a "[[rail trail|rails-to-trails]]" project sponsored by [[Nelson County, Virginia|Nelson County]] in 2020 and is the third-longest pedestrian tunnel in the United States.

VMI also named its dining hall in his honor, so cadets sometimes affectionately call it "Club Crozet".

==References==
'''Notes'''
((reflist))

'''Bibliography'''
* Couper, William  (1936), ''Claudius Crozet: Soldier-Scholar-Educator-Engineer (1789-1864)''; Charlottesville: Historical Publishing Co. See also ''Southern Sketches'', Number 8, first series.
* Hunter, Robert F., and Edwin L. Dooley (1989), ''Claudius Crozet, French Engineer in America, 1790-1864''; Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, Print.
* Hunter, R. F. (1963). Turnpike Construction in Antebellum Virginia. Technology and Culture, 4(2), 177-200.

==External links==
*[http://www.spturnpike.org The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in West Virginia was designed by Claudius Crozet]

((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Crozet, Claudius))
[[Category:American people in rail transportation]]
[[Category:1789 births]]
[[Category:1864 deaths]]
[[Category:Crozet, Virginia]]
[[Category:École Polytechnique alumni]]
[[Category:French emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:French Army officers]]
[[Category:People from Villefranche-sur-Saône]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]

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