Historical Markers

We've all driven past them.  Those roadside signs that say "such and such happened here".  Whenever I see one I try to pull over to read it.  There's something about being near a spot where a famous event happened, or a famous person from history happened to be, that I really enjoy.  It turns out that there is a website for people who "collect" historic markers:  The Historic Marker Database  http://www.hmdb.org/.  It has a listing of markers, with pictures, that folks have sent in from across the US and Canada.  It's organized by topic (Civil War, War of 1812, churches, railroads, etc) as well as location.  It includes highway markers, markers from national and state parks and inscriptions on buildings.  It's a pretty interesting site.  Here are some of the ones I've seen.

Civil War Reads

I just finished re-reading Bruce Catton's "Mr. Lincoln's Army".  This book is the first of a three part trilogy he wrote on the Army of the Potomac.  This book was actually the one thing that started my interest in the Civil War.  Prior to reading it I had a general, passing knowledge of the war.  I first came across this book in the summer of 1982.  I was living in NJ with my aunt and uncle and they had rented a place at the shore in Bay Head.  The house had a copy of this book.  It introduced me to John Pope and the short-lived Army of Virginia, created by combining the independent commands of Irvin McDowell (beaten at Bull Run AGAIN), Nathaniel Banks and John Fremont (soon replaced by Franz Siegel).  And I got my first in depth exposure to the enigma that was George McClellan.  How Lincoln was able to keep his sanity while dealing with that guy is beyond me.
There was a book recently published on 150 things one should do to help "celebrate" the Civil War's 150th "anniversary".  One of the items on the checklist was "Read a Bruce Catton book".  I guess I can cross that one off the list!!

History Reads

Honor in the Dust is the story of one of the lesser known, "wish that hadn't happened" stories in US history, namely the occupation of the Philippines and the war there that took place from 1899-1902.  It also covers the Spanish-American War.  It was a time when a mood of expansionism and imperialism took hold in the country.  The best description I've heard was that the country was temporarily gripped by a "madness", the cause of which was the European land grab in Africa and China.  There was a feeling that the US was going to be "left out" and that it would cost the country in the long term.  So after the Philippines were ceded to the US as a result of the war, rather than grant independence, the were retained as a colony.  This ignited a brutal civil war that was only put down by ruthless measures, which, in turn, generated some war crimes trials directed at the US officers in charge there.  Nobody was found guilty of those charges and most emerged from this period with their reputations intact, especially the main character of the story, Teddy Roosevelt.

I give this book a high recommendation.

Adult ADD?

I think I have it.  At least with regards to reading.  I have an attic that is stuffed full of books that I own but have not yet read.  I actually started to read two of my "own" books, even though I had a library book sitting around that I haven't read yet (the next installment in Elizabeth George's series).  So I went to the library yesterday to return some books I had previously checked out (and read).  Of course, I CAN'T just drop them off and leave, so I start to browse.  Here's one that looks interesting, Honor Turned to Dust, about the Spanish American War and the US' subsequent involvement in the Philippines.  Let's take that one.  Let me see..oh look, a biography on Daniel Webster, one of the great American statesmen of the early to mid 19th century.  I'll take that too.  What's this?  Henry Adams' History of the Madison Administration, 1,400 pages.  I'll take that too.  So now I have 3 new books, PLUS the two I was already reading.  But that's not all.  My wife's book club is reading The Art of Fielding. So I'm reading that as well.

Adult ADD.

Morristown National Park

This past Sunday, September 2, my buddy and I decided to visit the Morristown National Park, which has three units:  Washington's Headquarters, Fort Nonsense, and Jockey Hollow.  Morristown served as the winter encampment for the Continental Army in 1779-1780, a much more severe winter than the one at Valley Forge.  We started out at Jockey Hollow, and went to the visitor's center there, and then decided to hike to the Soldiers' huts, which was about a mile there, and a mile back. We started out on the trail but soon switched to the road (easier on the knees!). So we had an enjoyable walk, shooting the breeze about stuff, got to the huts, looked around, and headed back. Of course, once we got a fair distance from the huts the rain started. We were on the road so we saw a spot on the road that was still dry and stopped there. We then experienced that sinking sensation of hearing the rain start to fall harder and watch our dry spot get smaller and smaller and eventually disappear altogether. We got a pretty good drenching. Still, we made it back, talked to one of the rangers who was in the barn about the park and its history and decided we'd go to the museum at Washington's HQ in Morristown. So we toured the museum there (but NOT the house that served as his HQ).  The museum is very small, actually disappointingly small.  It does have some interesting weapons, but we finished the tour in about 15 minutes.

History Visited

My recent trip to some Civil War battlefields inspired me to compile a list of battlefields and other historical places I've visited.   Here goes:

Civil War battlefields and related sites:
1.  First Manassas

2.  Second Manassas
3.  Chancellerorsville

4.  Salem Church

5.  Wilderness
6.  Spotsylvania
7.  Fredericksburg
8.  South Mountain (Md)
9.  Antietam
10.  Monocacy
11.  Harper's Ferry (Bolivar Heights)
12. Gettysburg
13.  Kennesaw Mountain (I just saw a couple of signs here.  Arrived late and didn't really have time to tour).
14.  Fort Monroe
15.  Yorktown (also Revolutionary War)
16.  Cold Harbor
17.  Malvern Hill
18.  Gaines Mill
19.  Confederate White House/Museum of the Confederacy
20.  Petersburg
21.  City Point (Grant's HQ)
22.  Drewry's Bluff
23.  Ball's Bluff
24.  Cedar Creek
25.  Fisher's Hill
26.  New Market

27.  First Winchester

28.  Second Winchester
29.  Third Winchester (Va)
30.  Battle of Williamsburg Walking Trail
31.  Ford's Theater
32.  Fort Pulaski
33.  Grant Park, Atlanta Ga (not sure Grant Park was the site of one of the battles fought around Atlanta, but they have the Atlanta Cyclorama).
34.  Chattanooga (This was a long time ago.  I remember Lookout Mountain but not much else).
35.  Cedar Mountain
36.  Fort Harrison
37.  First and Second Kernstown
38  Appomattox Court House
39.  Saylor's Creek Battlefield
40.  Five Forks battlefield
41.  Port Republic
42.  Cross Keys.

43.  Battle of Hunterstown (PA)

44.  Hanover (PA)

45.  Fort Couch (Lemoyne, PA.  Near Harrisburg)

46.  Carlisle (shelling)

47.  Monitor-Merrimac Overlook

48.  Congress-Cumberland Overlook

49.  Lee's Mill Walking Tour

50.  Twin Forts Walking Trail (Newport, Va) Battle of Dam #1

51.  Mariner's Museum (Monitor)

52. Roanoke Island NC sites

53. Battle of Lee's Mill

Revolutionary War battlefields and related sites
1.  Saratoga
2.  Stony Point
3.  Fort Montgomery
4.  Monmouth (NJ)
5.  Springfield (NJ.  Some assorted signs and the Caldwell House in Union NJ)
6.  Brandywine (PA)
7.  Independence Hall
8.  Yorktown (also Civil War)
9.  Washington's Crossing (Pa)
10.  Valley Forge
11.  Morristown Historical Park (Washington's HQ and Jockey Hollow encampment)
12.  Quebec (also French and Indian War)
13.  Fort Ticonderoga (also French and Indian War)
14.  Colonial Williamsburg (Va)
15.  Newton Battlefield (NY)
16.  Federal Hall
17.  Liberty Bell
18.  Mount Independence
19.  Dewint House (Washington's HQ; Tappan, NY)
20.  Hubbardton Battlefield
21.  Bennington Battlefield
22.  Washington's Headquarters; Newburgh, NY
23.  Fort Griswald, Groton, Ct.

24. Old Stone Fort; Schoharie, NY

25. Old Barracks, Trenton, NJ

26. Paoli Battlefield

27. Battle of the Capes Overlook

War of 1812
1.  Fort McHenry
2.  River Raisin
3.  Old Fort Niagara (also French and Indian War)
4.  Stonington, Ct.
5.  Groton Long Point, Ct (small marker commemorating small battle there)

Other Military Sites
1.  Castillo de San Marcos
2. Fort Matanzas
3.  Fort Frederica
4.  USS New Jersey
5.  USS North Carolina
6.  USS Texas (did not board)
7.  USS Massachusetts (did not board)
8.  San Jacinto battlefield (Texas)
9.  USS Intrepid
10.  Fort Wadsworth (Staten Island)
11.  Crown Point, NY
12.  Fort Trumbull (New London, Ct)

13. USS Olympia

14. USS Nautilus

15. Fort Jay (Governor's Island)

16. Historic Deerfield (Queen Anne's War. Mass.)

Other Sites
1.  Mount Vernon
2.  Monticello
3.  Winterthur (Dupont Estate)
4.  Mary Washington House
5.  Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb)
6.  Hamilton Grange
7. Castle Clinton
8.  Kill Devil Hills-Kitty Hawk (Wright Brothers)
9.  St. Paul's Church
10.  Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
11.  Grant's Cottage

14. Eisenhower Farm

15. Jamestown

16. Springfield Armory

17, Fort Raleigh

18. FDR Home

Historic B&B's

1. Piper House on Antietam National Battlefield. No longer serves as B&B.

History Travels, continued

After Balls Bluff we drove through the pretty Western Virginia country to Harper's Ferry.  Harper's Ferry is one of my most "favorite" settings.  The setting is beautiful, as the little town is nestled right where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers join.  It's surrounded by Maryland Heights (in Maryland) and Loudoun Heights (in Virginia).  There is a great deal of history here, from the start of Meriwether Lewis' trip, to John Brown's raid, to some action in the Civil War.  The combination of natural beauty and history makes it a great place to visit.

After Harper's Ferry we wanted to have lunch at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown, WV, but we were too late (lunch ended at 2:30).  We drove past it.  It has a nice setting overlooking the Potomac.  Maybe next time!  We did grab a quick lunch and then had one more stop before heading home, the battlefield at Antietam.  Obviously this is a large battlefield and I knew we wouldn't have enough time to do it justice.  In any event, the issue was decided by a major thunderstorm that broke just as we arrived at the battlefield.  It let up just enough to give me time to visit Burnside's Bridge which can be seen in the pictures below.

History Travels

My wife and I took my daughter down to Gettysburg College to start her freshman year a couple of weeks ago.  Now although Gettysburg is obviously full of history, we're going to be back there in October for parents' weekend so we decided to take advantage of being down there to visit a couple of other places.  For my wife "visiting other places" meant an outlet mall in Leesburg,Va.  For me, it meant any historical site I could get to while we drove to Leesburg and back over the next couple of days.

On the way down we made a quick stop at Catoctin National Park, mainly just to say we were there.  It's in northern Maryland, just south of the Pa border.  Looks like it has lots of hiking trails and campgrounds.  I looked around the visitor's center for a bit, got the stamp, and off we went.

From there we went to the Monocacy battlefield, just outside of Frederick.  The battle at Monocacy was fought in July 1864 and is sometimes known as "the battle that saved Washington".  Even though it was a Federal defeat, it slowed down the Confederate advance on that city just long enough for reinforcements to arrive.  I was fortunate enough to visit the battlefield while it was displaying the famous "Lost Orders" associated with the Battle of Antietam, so that was a real treat.  I really don't know a lot about this battle and  so I wasn't able to appreciate the battlefield.  I need to read up on it.  After we finished it up it was off to Leesburg and the outlet mall.

After a trip to the outlet mall we stayed at a place near Leesburg (thanks Priceline!)  it was off to visit the battlefield at Ball's Bluff.  The entrance to this battlefield is literally at the end of a fairly new housing development (the suburbs of DC keep pushing out farther west).  Balls Bluff was a vicious little fight that took place in October 1861.  The Union sent a force over the Potomac River to conduct a raid on a Confederate camp.  The size of the Confederate force was underestimated, and the fight soon developed.  A US Senator, Edward Baker, who was commanding some Union troops, was killed (only US Senator killed in a military action), and when the Union line broke they had to retreat down a very high bluff.  When they got to the river there was a shortage of boats to get them back across, and many surrendered.  Looking at the Bluff today you can understand that it was a terrible place to have a battle, especially with their backs to that bluff.

History Reads

“First Frontier” covers the history of the relations between Native Americans and Europeans from the time of first contact through Pontiac’s Rebellion.  Although some attention is given to the Spanish and French settlers, the majority of the story centers around the English and Native Americans.  It also discusses some of the very early contact with Europeans, pre-Columbus, and the devastating impact that contact had on the Indians as they were exposed to disease for which they had no naturally immunity yet.  It’s estimated that well over half the native American population pre-“Contact” was killed by disease even before the Europeans started arriving in larger numbers.

The book discusses the many conflicts during the Colonial time, from King Phillip’s War, through the various “French and Indian Wars” and finally Pontiac.   I did learn of the Yamasee War involving Southern Indian tribes and South Carolina in 1751.  The book states that this war was the largest American Indian uprising against any colonial power and it nearly accomplished what no other native uprising did-the elimination of a colonial threat. Like most of the major uprisings it was neither centrally plan nor centrally led.  And therein was the weakness of all the Indian conflicts, in that the Europeans were able to exploit the divisions between the various tribes and turn some against the other. It was seen again and again, first in King Phillip’s War, then in the Yamasee War and especially in the French and Indian War when the English were finally able to turn the Ohio tribes in their favor.

I give a strong recommendation to this book.

National Parks

Spent a couple of hours at one of the country's newest national parks, Patterson Great Falls in Patterson, NJ.

Although there are write-ups that state the falls are quite impressive during "floods", the recent drought here has resulted in some fairly low water levels.  Still, the falls are 77 feet high and you definitely can understand how powerful they must be when there's a greater volume of water pouring over them.

While I was in the visitor's center I met a fellow collector of national park passport stamps.  These are self-inking stampers that serve as a small memento of one's travels.

Historical Travel

In 1966 my father was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia.  I was 7 years old at the time. While we lived down there we would take driving vacations to Florida.  We went to St. Augustine a few times.  I have to say, I really liked the place.  Even though it was, and still is, a tourist trap, there’s something about it I really like.  I remember visiting the alligator farms, the Old Jail and the Fountain of Youth.  But for me the biggest attraction (literally and figuratively) was the fort there, the Castillo de San Marcos.  I enjoyed walking along the walls and looking out over the water and the land there.  As a young boy, it was very easy to imagine being a Spanish soldier besieged in the fort by the English.
  
It actually successfully withstood 2 sieges by the English. 

While going to school in Atlanta we had a course in Georgia history, and that’s where I learned about James Oglethorpe and the War of Jenkins’ Ear. Oglethorpe led one of the sieges of the Castillo, which failed.  He later redeemed himself by turning back a Spanish invasion of Georgia at St. Simons Island.  

I was fortunate to visit St. Simons and view the remnants of Fort Frederica, pictured here.

In addition to the Castillo, the Spanish also built a smaller fort on the Matanzas river which leads to St. Augustine.  The fort was designed to protect the inlet.  Despite many trips as a boy to Florida, I never saw Fort Matanzas.  Finally, on a trip to Florida with Karen after we were married, we drove down the east coast of Florida and I saw it.  Alas, it’s only accessible by boat, and there was a thunderstorm in progress so I wasn’t able to get out there.  Maybe some other time!!!

  

After a long and painful process I finally finished Catch 22.  I hated this book, but was too stubborn to quit reading it.  It's on all of the "bests" lists I currently have going so I needed to plow through it.  I understand that it's an "anti-war" book and I get that, I just found it way too quirky for my liking.  So to Yossarian, Milo Mindbender, Colonel Korn, Colonel Cathcart, Hungry Joe and the rest of you nitwits, I bit a fond good riddance.

I'm going to see how long the idea of having a blog lasts.  I'm going to use this to keep track of thoughts on the books I read as well as other things.  I just finished "This Body of Death" by Elizabeth George.  This is the third book by her that I've read and I enjoy her very much.  I plan to go back to the beginning and read her "Inspector Lynley" novels in order.  Elizabeth George lives in Ohio but her books are set in England.
I recently read a book by P.D. James, who also sets her stories in London. I'll be trying to read her series in order as well.