The Suffragist Memorial

 

     The national women’s suffrage movement began in 1848 and had gained a substantial following by 1916.  With the approach of the First World War, many of the activists in the National American Woman Suffrage Association turned to either pacifism or to support for American preparedness.  The more radical National Woman’s Party, created by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in 1916, continued to focus on winning the vote for women.  Lucy Burns and Alice Paul were activists, suffragists and good friends. Lucy Burns had attended Vassar College and Yale University, and Alice Paul had attended Swarthmore College and earned her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. The pair was despised by men, and conservative women opposed them. 

     The National Woman’s Party felt betrayed by Woodrow Wilson.  The women believed that Woodrow Wilson had made a commitment to support a suffrage amendment in his campaign for a second Presidential term. When, after his second inauguration in 1917, Wilson did not fulfill this promise, Paul organized picketing of the White House.  This was unprecedented.  Never before had anyone protested in front of the White House.  Some considered the action nothing short of treason.  A woman in New York wrote a letter to the editor calling picketing of the White House, “a menace to the life of the President--a silent invitation to the assassin.”  Undeterred, suffragist demonstrators carried banners quoting Wilson’s own speeches, "We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments."

     On January 9, 1918, President Wilson announced support for a Constitutional Amendment to allow women’s suffrage.  To keep up the pressure, suffragist protestors resumed picketing the White House.  Paul urged men to vote against anti-suffrage Congressmen in the November 1918 elections.  After the election, most re-elected members of Congress were pro-suffrage.  Approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate, and ratified by the requisite thirty six states, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex, was ratified on August 18, 1920.

     On May 16, 2021 the “Turning Point Suffragist Memorial” was dedicated to honor the millions of women who worked for more than seven decades to win the vote:

 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Custer’s Indian Allies

  

The Lakota Sioux were an aggressive and predatory warrior nation.  Since their adoption of the horse in the 1730s, the Sioux had become the Mongols of the American Great Plains…killing and burning…driving smaller and weaker tribes before them.

This was certainly true in the case of the Arikara and Crow tribes.  The Crow once inhabited the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota, but were displaced by the invading Sioux.  The Lakota regarded the former Crow territory as theirs “by right of conquest.” 

The Crow moved farther west to the vicinity of the Little Big Horn River in present day Montana, but the Lakota continued pressing westward into the lands of the Crow, so it is not surprising that the Crow were only too willing to support the U.S. Cavalry against a long time enemy.

In 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed an “Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States.” This Act had an important impact on the Crow and Arikara tribes who now had a new way of resisting the aggressive Lakota Sioux…they could serve as scouts for the powerful U.S. Cavalry.

The half-Sioux, half-Arikara scout “Bloody Knife” became George Armstrong Custer’s favorite scout.  Custer met Bloody Knife in 1873, and Bloody knife accompanied the Custer expedition in the Yellowstone that year. 

Custer occasionally gave Bloody Knife gifts, including a silver medal inscribed with Bloody Knife's name.  Bloody Knife warned Custer not to attack the overwhelming Indian village the scouts had located during the campaign against the Sioux in 1876, but to no avail. 

On June 25, 1876, Bloody Knife participated in Reno’s charge on the Indian village along the Little Big Horn River.

Bloody Knife was shot through the head, his brains splattering all over Major Marcus Reno, which may have so unhinged Reno that he ordered a disorderly “Charge to the Rear.”

Meanwhile at the other end of the field, the Crow scouts, including White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, Curly, and Hairy Moccasin, advised Custer to wait for reinforcements.

Custer refused, believing he could whip the entire Sioux nation.  Since the scout's only duties were to find the Indian encampments, not necessarily to fight, Custer sent these Crow scouts away about an hour before engaging in the final battle.

After the battle, Curly found an army supply boat, the Far West, at the confluence of the Bighorn and Little Bighorn Rivers. He was the first to report the Custer’s annihilation, using a combination of sign language, drawings, and an interpreter. Curly did not claim to have fought in the battle, but only to have witnessed it from a distance.

When accounts of “Custer's Last Stand” began to circulate in the press, however, legends grew that Curly had actively participated in the battle, but had managed to escape.  According to one of these legends when Curley saw that the party with Custer was about to be overwhelmed, he begged Custer to let him show him a way to escape.  “…Custer looked at Curly, waved him away and rode back to the little group of men, to die with them.”  Or so goes the story.

Curly died of pneumonia on May 22, 1923 and is buried at the National Cemetery at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. 

Secrets of Confederate Military Prisons

 Confederate military prisons in Richmond became notorious during the Civil War. 

Libby prison was for Union officers.  It was considered second only to Andersonville Prison in Georgia as hell on earth.  Prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition and a high mortality rate. By 1863, one thousand prisoners were crowded into the prison which had been a warehouse before the war.

According to the Daily Richmond Enquirer of February 2, 1864 “Libby takes in the captured Federals by scores, but lets none out; they are huddled up and jammed into every nook and corner; at the bathing troughs, around the cooking stoves, everywhere there is a wrangling, jostling crowd; at night the floor of every room they occupy in the building is covered, every square inch of it….”

Castle Thunder

A tobacco warehouse before the war, Castle Thunder was converted into a prison to house spies, political prisoners and traitors to the Confederacy.  The prison guards had a reputation for brutality.

On April 10, 1864, Dr. Mary Walker, a female Union surgeon, was taken prisoner by Confederate soldiers and accused of being a spy.  She was imprisoned at Castle Thunder.  Mary Walker spent six months as a prisoner, during which she wrote numerous letters to the press describing the horrible conditions at the prison.  She complained that her mattress was infested with insects, rats ran throughout the prison at night and food rations were meager and inedible. 

Dr. Mary Walker

Later in life Walker complained a guard had fired at her while she stood in the doorway to her cell, just narrowly missing her head.  Both the Confederate and Union armies were desperate for physicians, and on August 12, 1864, Dr. Walker was exchanged for a male physician, a Confederate major.

Belle Isle

Richmond’s Belle Isle, lying in the James River, served as a prison for Union soldiers. The prison housed more than 30,000 prisoners during the course of the war.  Some 1,000 of these prisoners died.  Prisoners were housed in tents surrounded by a stockade.

Belle Isle prison held 10,000 Union soldiers, with tents for only 3,000. With no barracks for the prisoners, exposure to the elements was a large factor contributing to a cruel captivity.

In February 1864, Confederate authorities began to evacuate Belle Isle, sending its inmates south to Andersonville, Georgia; to relieve overcrowding in Richmond. By October 1864, all of Belle Isle’s inmates had been transferred south and the prison was closed. 

Captain Henry Wirz

The Commandant of Belle Isle, Captain Henry Wirz, became the Commandant at Andersonville and was hanged after the war for his treatment of prisoners at Andersonville.

The Commandants of Libby Prison and Castle Thunder fled abroad fearing a similar fate.

Secrets of Manassas Battlefield

 

Video

Wilmer Mclean

The Civil War virtually began in Wilmer Mclean’s kitchen in Manassas on July 18, 1861, when a Union shell dropped into the chimney and exploded in a pot of stew.  Mclean moved his family to central Virginia but he remained in Northern Virginia.  From his experience as a merchant he knew that a long war would cause the price of commodities to rise higher and higher. He began to speculate in sugar and made a tidy income during the war.  Wilmer McLean left northern Virginia in March 1862 and moved to Appomattox Court House,  only to have his house chosen for the surrender of Robert E. Lee in 1865. 

Portici

The Lewis family of  “Portici” found themselves at the center of the First Battle of Manassas. Confederate officers notified the Lewis family that a battle was imminent and that their house would be exposed to fire. They evacuated, taking everything they could with them, but left valuable and heavy furniture behind.  The furniture was stored in a small room in an angle of the house, and the room securely nailed shut.  The only shot that struck the house during the battle struck this room and destroyed all of the furniture.  Furniture was a trifling matter however.  Fannie Lewis was in her ninth month of pregnancy and went into labor as they began to evacuate the house.  Servants found a nearby ravine and dug a small earthen hollow into the bank.  They covered this with greens.  It was here that Fannie Lewis delivered her first baby, John Beauregard Lewis.

Zouave

The Manassas Battlefield, in Prince William County, is also home to a number of Civil War spirits.  During the Second Battle of Manassas, in 1862, the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry [Zouaves] sustained devastating losses.  One of the dead may still haunt the area.  A phantom Zouave soldier has been seen repeatedly on the battlefield’s New York Avenue Field.  The phantom beckons the onlooker to follow him into the woods.  To date, no one has taken the ghost up on the offer.

The Stone House

Near the New York Avenue Field, a structure known as the old Stone House is also said to be haunted. Originally a tavern, the house served as a field hospital during both the battles of First (1861) and Second (1862) Manassas.  Strange lights have been seen in the house at night, although it is locked every night by park rangers.  Strange sounds, like screams and groans are also said to come from the house.

Civil War ghosts, real or imagined?  Investigate more deeply, if you dare.

Virginia Legends and Lore

Captain James Gordon: The Real Horatio Hornblower

 

Sir James Gordon

British forces routed American troops at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814 and marched into Washington City.  The British commander reported to London, “I reached [Washington] at 8 o’clock that night. Judging it of consequences to complete the destruction of the public buildings with the least possible delay, so that the army might retire without loss of time, the following buildings were set fire to and consumed: the capitol, including the Senate house and House of representation, the Arsenal, the Dock-Yard, Treasury, War office, President’s Palace, Rope-Walk, and the great bridge across the Potomac: In the dock-yard a frigate nearly ready to be launched, and a sloop of war, were consumed.”

While Washington still smoldered, seven British warships under the command of Captain James Gordon (thought by some to be the inspiration for C.S. Forester’s fictional hero Horatio Hornblower) appeared on the Potomac River headed for the Alexandria, just south of the city.  On the morning of August 28, 1814, a committee led by Alexandria Mayor Charles Simms rowed south to meet the British and request terms of surrender. Gordon and his fleet arrived in front of Alexandria in the evening. The next morning, the British lined up their gun boats with cannons bristling at the ready.

At the mercy of the British squadron, the town council agreed to the enemy's demands, and for the next five days the British looted stores and warehouses of barrels of flour, hogsheads of tobacco, bales of cotton, along with wine, sugar and other items.

While the British confiscated goods in Alexandria, American forces were setting up a battery on the river at White House Landing below Mount Vernon. On September 1, Captain Gordon sent two of his ships to fire on the battery to impede its completion, but by evening the Americans had five naval long guns and eight artillery field pieces in place.  On September 6, the entire squadron engaged the battery destroying all thirteen American guns within forty five minutes.  All seven British warships and twenty one captured merchant vessels returned to the main fleet.

Warsand Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

General George S. Patton once said, “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” Here are four stories about the history of the world IF wars we know about happened differently or IF wars that never happened actually took place.

The Real Sergeant York

 

Sergeant Alvin C. York was one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I.  He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack if a German machine gun nest, capturing 35 machine guns and 132 enemy soldiers.

American DomesticPropaganda in World War I

A brief look at the changing historical views (1920 to the present) on the uses and abuses of American domestic propaganda during World War I. Was this a necessary evil or a gross infringement of civil liberties? How, when, and why has opinion changed?

Union Hospital Ships in the Civil War

During the Civil War, the Union outfitted hospital ships to care for the wounded.  The Hospital Transport System was run by the United States Sanitary Commission.  Large steamers were outfitted as hospital vessels. The ships had beds, medical supplies, surgeons, nurses, ward-masters, apothecaries, and other personnel, and were all provided without cost to the government.  A contemporary account describes the scene:

 “Imagine an immense river-steamboat filled on every deck: every berth, every square inch of room, covered with wounded men, even the stairs and gangways and guards filled with those who were less badly wounded; and then imagine fifty well men, on every kind of errand, hurried and impatient, rushing to and fro, every touch bringing agony to the poor fellows, whilst stretcher after stretcher comes along, hoping to find an empty place; and then imagine what it was for these people of the Commission to keep calm themselves, and make sure that each man, on such a boat as that, was properly refreshed and fed. Sometimes two or even three such boats were lying side by side, full of suffering and horrors.”

    The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

In 1860, disgruntled secessionists in the deep North rebel against the central government and plunge America into Civil War.

                  On Amazon 

 

Women Doctors and the Union Army

 Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

     In the mid-nineteenth century, sex discrimination prevented women from pursuing medicine, and those few who did were often obstructed by their male colleagues.  The University of Pennsylvania, established the first medical school in the country, and set the pattern of barring women from obtaining medical degrees.  It was not until January 23, 1849 that Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in America.

     Blackwell received her medical degree despite the odds.  She started her quest in 1847, applying to every medical school of which she knew, and was rejected by all nineteen schools.  In the end a small school in upstate New York, Geneva Medical College, accepted Blackwell.  The male students thought her admission a hilarious joke, but later learned to respect her brains and talent. Blackwell later wrote,

 

“I had not the slightest idea of the commotion created by my appearance as a medical student in the little town. Very slowly I perceived that a doctor's wife at the table avoided any communication with me, and that as I walked backwards and forwards to college the ladies stopped to stare at me, as at a curious animal. I afterwards found that I had so shocked Geneva propriety that the theory was fully established either that I was a bad woman, whose designs would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be apparent. Feeling the unfriendliness of the people, though quite unaware of all this gossip, I never walked abroad, but hastening daily to my college as to a sure refuge, I knew when I shut the great doors behind me that I shut out all unkindly criticism, and I soon felt perfectly at home amongst my fellow students...”

 

     Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class.  Blackwell’s sister, Emily, soon followed her older sister into the field of medicine.  She faced the same obstacles that her sister had faced.  Emily Blackwell’s applications for admission were rejected by twelve medical schools, including Geneva Medical College, her sister's alma mater, which had re-thought the whole notion of women doctors.  Emily Blackwell was eventually accepted at the Western Reserve University medical school in Cleveland, Ohio, where she earned her medical degree in 1854, becoming the third woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.  The obstacles encountered by the Blackwell sisters were common for women seeking a medical education in the decades prior to the Civil War. 

     When the Civil War broke out, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell helped organize the Women’s Central Association of Relief in New York City, which collected and distributed life-saving food and medical supplies.  Blackwell also joined with several other physicians in New York City to offer a training course for 100 women who wanted to be nurses for the army. This was the first formal training for women nurses ever to have been offered in America.

     In 1861 there were only some 250 women doctors in the entire United States.  Some of these pioneering women would serve in the war directly supporting the Union army.

American Civil War Medicine 1861-1865

 Of the approximately 600,000 soldiers who died in the American Civil, fully two-thirds died from disease.  It is estimated that some 300,000 men died from sickness caused by intestinal disorders alone, mainly typhoid fever, diarrhea, and dysentery.  The fault lay with the shocking filth of the army camps themselves.  A Federal inspector reported in late 1861 that Union camps were, “ littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within the camp limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp.” Confederate camps were no better.  Bacteria and viruses spread through the camps.  Typhoid fever, caused by the consumption of food or water contaminated by salmonella bacteria was devastating.  Poor diet and exposure to the elements often developed into pneumonia, which was the third great killing disease of the war, after typhoid and dysentery.  Tuberculosis was a common disease among the troops.  Camps populated by soldiers from small rural areas, who lacked immunity to common contagious diseases, were stricken by outbreaks of measles, chickenpox, and mumps. Additionally, epidemics of malaria spread through camps located near swamps.

 Approximately 110,000 Union and 94,000 Confederate soldiers died of battle wounds.  Most of the wounded were treated within the first forty eight hours.  Emergency medical care on the battlefield consisted of bandaging a soldier’s wounds as fast possible, and giving him whiskey and morphine, if necessary, for pain. Primary care took place in field hospitals.  Those who survived were then transported in overcrowded ambulance wagons to rail lines where they were put on box cars and rushed to nearby cities and towns, where doctors and nurses did their best to care for them in makeshift hospitals.

The most common battlefield operation was the amputation of arms and legs.  Amputation was a quick and reliable answer to the severe wounds created by the .58 caliber Minie ball used during the war.  This heavy bullet of soft lead caused large gaping wounds that filled with dirt and pieces of clothing.  It shattered bone.  Surgeons usually chose amputation over trying to save the limb.  Heavy doses of chloroform were administered and some seventy five percent of all soldiers survived the operation.  The poet Walt Whitman, who served as a nurse in the Union army at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862, recounted seeing, “a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, etc, a full load for a one-horse cart.”

 When the Civil War began, the Federal army had 98 medical officers, and the Confederate army had 24 medical officers. By the end of the war in 1865, some 13,000 Union doctors had served in the field and in the army hospitals; in the Confederacy, about 4,000 medical officers treated war casualties.

Exchange Hotel and Civil War Hospital: Gordonsville, Virginia

Civil War Humor 1861-1865

Despite the horrors of war, or maybe because of them, humor still had a place in American life. Abraham Lincoln best summed up the role of humor in the war when he said, “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”

A brief but fascinating look at humor in the Civil War including: (1) Stories Around the Campfire, (2) Parody, (3) the Irish, (4) Humorous Incidents, (5) Civil War Humorists, and (6) Lincoln.

Why Custer Lost the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand)

 Custer's Last Stand

In 1926, to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, William A. Graham published the first authoritative book on the battle entitled The Story of the Little Big Horn: Custer's Last Fight.

Graham’s book was based largely on the voluminous information provided during the 1879 Court of Inquiry into the conduct of Major Reno.

Of the number, intention and armaments of the Indians, Graham writes: “The Seventh Cavalry was sent by (General) Terry to round up a band of recalcitrant variously estimated at between eight and fifteen hundred fighting men.  They found almost three times the number at the highest estimate. 

They rode to locate and to drive or capture a band which, judged by all past experiences, would scatter and run at their approach; they found instead a force of stern warriors who fought with determination and tenacity equal to their own….

They thought to find a band equipped with ancient muskets and discarded rifles, with primitive spear and bow and arrow.  Instead, they found a foe far better armed than they themselves, possessing Winchester rifles of the latest pattern and stores of ammunition that seemed inexhaustible.”

Graham writes, “When Reno rode into the attack with his pitiful force of 112 men, his was the only part of the regiment on the western or village side of the river….Benteen’s battalion was at this time miles away to the left and rear, its whereabouts unknown, and had no orders to cooperate with Reno or with Custer.  Reno, when he crossed the river, believed and had reason to believe that he was expected to bring only an advance-guard action, and that Custer, with his larger and stronger force would deliver the main attack, supporting his charge from the rear.  But instead of supporting, Custer changed direction and rode five miles down the river without notifying Reno of his change of purpose.”

     Of Custer’s flawed logistics, Graham writes, “The pack train, which with its escort accounted for 130 men, more than twenty per cent of the regiment, and which had in charge all the reserve ammunition, had been left far back on the trail, to struggle along the best it might.  The men of the (other) three battalions carried only one hundred rounds apiece of carbine ammunition, and four loadings, or twenty-four rounds, for their pistols.  When the fight in the valley began, therefore, not one of the three fighting battalions had ammunition sufficient for prolonged combat, nor was within communicating distance of the reserve supply; nor was any one of the four detachments of the regiment within supporting distance of either of (the) others.”

      One of the interesting aspects of Graham’s book is that he effectively provides a timeline of the events of June 25, 1876.  (1) 12:07 PM, Custer divides his command, Benteen marches south; (2) 2:30 PM Reno crosses the river and commences offensive operations; (3) 3:00 PM Reno retreats to the timbers; (4) 4:00 PM Reno retreats to the bluffs; (5) 4:00 PM Benteen receives the “Come quick” order from Custer; (5) 4:30 PM Benteen joins Reno. Firing is heard downriver. Captain Weir marches to the sound of the guns; (5) 5:00 PM the last of the pack train joins Reno and Benteen; (6) 6:00 PM Reno and Benteen join Weir and are engaged by the Sioux; (7) 7:00 PM Reno and Benteen complete a fighting withdrawal and take up the command’s original defensive positions.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Since his death along the bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River, in Montana, on June 25, 1876, over five hundred books have been written about the life and career of George Armstrong Custer. Views of Custer have changed over succeeding generations. Custer has been portrayed as a callous egotist, a bungling egomaniac, a genocidal war criminal, and the puppet of faceless forces. For almost one hundred and fifty years, Custer has been a Rorschach test of American social and personal values. Whatever else George Armstrong Custer may or may not have been, even in the twenty-first century, he remains the great lightning rod of American history. This book presents portraits of Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn as they have appeared in print over successive decades and in the process demonstrates the evolution of American values and priorities.

 

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George Armstrong Custer and the Judgement of History

George Armstrong Custer

Is it possible to write “objective” history? Every writer is a prisoner of his/her own time and personal biases (both intentional and unintentional). “Good history” is as subjective a term as “good law”, both are subject to the shifting values of the times and subject to the vagaries of advocacy. Just as there is “Enough law for every client’s position”, so too there appears to be enough history to serve a multitude of worthy ends if one doesn’t insist on one eternal, immutable and knowable Truth. Worthy ends such as: (1) History as art (fact based expositions of the human condition much like the fictional exposition of the human condition found in novels), (2) history as predictive tool (e.g. military after action reports), and (3) history as an instrument of socialization (an inclusive and expanding public mythology for an immigrant nation). History is not an immutable thing, but a process and a set of relationships…fragile, contested, unstable, and sometimes explosive. Robert M. Utley perhaps said it best in remarks made at the ceremonies commemorating the centennial of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. “The fact is that history, like life, is complex, contradictory, and ambiguous. There are few genuine heroes or villains in real life, merely people who are sometimes heroic, sometimes villainous, but most of the time simply human.”

The Tragic story of Marcus Reno

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Since his death along the bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River, in Montana, on June 25, 1876, over five hundred books have been written about the life and career of George Armstrong Custer. Views of Custer have changed over succeeding generations. Custer has been portrayed as a callous egotist, a bungling egomaniac, a genocidal war criminal, and the puppet of faceless forces. For almost one hundred and fifty years, Custer has been a Rorschach test of American social and personal values. Whatever else George Armstrong Custer may or may not have been, even in the twenty-first century, he remains the great lightning rod of American history. This book presents portraits of Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn as they have appeared in print over successive decades and in the process demonstrates the evolution of American values and priorities.

 

Paperback:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/charles-a-mills/custers-last-stand-portraits-in-time/paperback/product-21812285.html

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The Only Roman Catholic Chaplain in the American Revolution

 

The efforts of the Continental Congress to gain support for the American Revolution in Canada led to the organization of two pro-American Canadian regiments, the 1^st and 2^nd Canadian Regiments.  There were many French Canadians only too willing to help oust the British from North America.

On January 26, 1776, Father Louis Eustace Lotbiniere, although more than sixty years old, was appointed chaplain of the First Canadian Regiment and became the first Roman Catholic chaplain in the United States Army.  Father Lotbiniere was a native French speaker and ministered to the French-Canadian troops rallying to the American cause.

With the failure of the invasion of Canada, the First Canadian Regiment was transferred to the vicinity of Philadelphia.  Fathter Lotbiniere died in poverty in October 1786.  In support of American liberty he had given up his parish, his family associations, incurred the censure of his Bishop and spent his last years in exile among a strange people whose language he could scarcely speak.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

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The Southern Cross of Honor

 

The Southern Cross of Honor (seen in front of this grave) was created by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), and is used as a symbol on the graves of Confederate veterans in recognition of, “loyal, honorable service.”  The Southern Cross takes two different forms.  One is an engraved outline on the gravestone.  The other is a two-sided, cast iron replica of the medal placed at the grave site.  Founded in 1894, the UDC was influential throughout the South in preserving and upholding the memory of Confederate veterans, especially those husbands, sons, fathers and brothers who died in the war.

Treasure Legends of the Civil War

A lively history of the Civil War sprinkled with tales of over 60 buried treasure in sixteen states. History buffs and adventure seekers will enjoy this work.

Building the Pentagon

 The Pentagon

     In the 1930s the War Department was scattered throughout dozens of buildings in Virginia, Maryland and the District.   In May 1941, the Secretary of War told the President that the Department needed a central location.  Congress authorized a new headquarters for the War Department and plans were drawn up.  Arlington Farms, between Arlington National Cemetery and Memorial Bridge was selected as the site.  The building was designed to conform to the dimensions and terrain of the site.  In short, it was designed to be a pentagon to fit the space.

     When presented with the plan, President Roosevelt liked the design but hated the site, which would have impaired the view of Washington from Arlington National Cemetery. Consequently the design remained, but a new site was found.  Ground was broken on September 11, 1941, less than two months prior to America’s entry into World War II.  The building was officially dedicated and ready for occupancy on January 15, 1943. Design and construction of such a building would normally have taken four years

     Minimizing the use of steel because of the exigencies of World War II, the Pentagon was built as a reinforced concrete structure, using 680,000 tons of sand, dredged from the Potomac River.  Army engineers avoided using critical war materials whenever possible. They substituted concrete ramps and stairways for passenger elevators and used concrete drainpipes rather than metal pipes. They eliminated bronze doors, copper ornaments, and metal toilet partitions, and avoided any unnecessary ornamentation.

     The Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area, housing some twenty six thousand military and civilian employees.  The building has five sides, five floors above ground, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles of corridors.  It covers twenty six acres.

     Exactly sixty years after the groundbreaking ceremony, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred.  Hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon, killing almost two hundred people both on-board the plane and inside the building. The plane penetrated three of the Pentagon’s five rings.  The task of rebuilding the damaged section of the Pentagon was given the name, the "Phoenix Project", and set a goal of having the outermost offices in the damaged section occupied again by September 11, 2002. The first Pentagon tenants whose offices had been damaged during the attack began moving back in on August 15, 2002, nearly a month ahead of schedule.

Audio Book

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains