First known as Fort Whipple when it was part of the Defenses of Washington DC during the US Civil War, Fort Myer, Virginia is key in the US Air Force’s history. A significant milestone, actually the cornerstone, as the first military aviation flights occurred on Post in September 1908 when the Wright Flyer ascended the skies above the drill field. In response to the US Army’s Signal Corps request, the fledgling craft would spend the days of the next week that September circling the acres where the US Army’s cavalry and field artillery trained and General Philip Sheridan deemed a showcase for the Cavalry.
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Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago at 12:46 pm. Add a comment
Fort Sumter - Currier and Ives
It was the Spring of 1861. Trouble and dissent were brewing for months within the South and on the horizon there would be an attack that would be considered the beginning of the US Civil War. All the Federal buildings within the port city of Charleston, South Carolina had been seized, except one… Fort Sumter which lay in the middle of Charleston’s harbor.
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GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc nc nc nc Posted 9 months, 4 weeks ago at 9:41 pm. Add a comment
was the distinction awarded by General George Gordon Meade to the 14th Infantry Regiment of the Army of the Potomac…
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GHTime Code(s): 28f39 nc nc 9ae53 Posted 2 years ago at 3:13 pm. 1 comment
November 19, 1863
President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address…
“
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Posted 3 years, 2 months ago at 6:44 am. Add a comment
HAMPTON, VIRGINIA – Soon it’s role as a key US Army facility will be over. The location has been included in the list of those which will be “BRAC’d” (Base Realignment and Closing).
Fort Comfort was the first name that the land that protected the emerging British colonies and it was over 100 years ago that “FORTRESS MONROE” was erected (Robert E. Lee, an engineer, was instrumental in its construction along with Fort Wool, which occupied a man-made island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay) — With these two fortifications in place, the area was given the name of
The Gibraltar of Chesapeake Bay!
Within the Fortress Walls are some interesting historical landmarks (Chapel of the Centurion, The quarters where Robert E. Lee resided) and items (A Lincoln Gun)
Ironically, after the US Civil War, Confederate President, Jefferson Davis was incarcerated at Fortress Monroe (I met a Civil War re-enactor who was portraying Lee and when I asked him about this irony at his work in Hampton, Virginia, he replied, “But that was not my first work – Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia was…”)
The commonwealth of Virginia ponders what to do with this hallowed landmark, developers want to turn it into housing — the hotel that sat outside the Fortress has already been turned into senior living accommodations.
Posted 3 years, 4 months ago at 11:05 pm. Add a comment
The 1988 version of a book “Mr. Lincoln’s Forts” by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II has offered a wealth of information about the fortifications of Washington DC during the Civil War. One interesting item is that they honored Brigadier General John G. Barnard with the title of the “Father of the Defenses of Washington”
(Photo Courtesy of National Archives)
Surrounded by an interconnected complex of sixty-eight forts and 93 unarmed batteries, Washington, DC was the most fortified cities in the world. One doesn’t realize until you explore such a well researched and presented tome, the engineering and protections that were in place during the “WAR BETWEEN THE STATES”. Though the progress of events have “invaded” and left little remnants of these works, this shows the thoroughness of the protection that was put in place to guard against invasion.
In BG Barnard’s
A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and everchanging nature of the project: In Barnard’s A Report on the Defenses of Washington, published after the Civil War, he commented on the complexity and everchanging nature of the project:
“From a few isolated works covering bridges or commanding a few especially important points, was developed a connected system of fortification by which every prominent point, at intervals of 800 to 1,000 yards, was occupied by an inclosed field-fort every important approach or depression of ground, unseen from the forts, swept by a battery for field-guns, and the whole connected by rifle-trenches which were in fact lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men and affording covered communication along the line, while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover, from point to point along the line.”
Posted 3 years, 4 months ago at 11:57 am. Add a comment
Back in May 2008, I was allowed to visit and photograph another salute battery located at FT Monroe, VA.
In speaking with a previous commander of the Presidential Salute Battery of the 3d Infantry regiment of the US Army – The Old Guard, who commanded them in the 1980′s, he mentioned that he saw a battery there at one of the oldest fortified locations in the United States. And that they fired a different gun than what is used in “THE BIGGEST GUNS of THE OLD GUARD”
I was thrilled to learn of this, since it would provide me a comparison with that I could use and provide additional learning of how salutes are carried out in different locations.
After several phone calls and logistics of when they were going to fire, I took a field trip down to the Virginia peninsula and spent the day on Fort Monroe. The first mission they had was a retirement ceremony and in attendance was a 3 star general, who the battery was to fire a corresponding 15 gun salute.
Getting on post was a bit easier than here in the Washington DC area. It was the drive that was the challenge since the ceremony began at 0900. I was up and out by 0400 just to make sure that I had plenty of time to do some reconnaissance and get familiar with the area.
Fort Monroe, VA home of US Army’s TRADOC command, is a very historic location in military history. The current perimeter surrounds one of the rarities in the US Military – Fortress Monroe the largest stone fortification in the United States. Its engineer included a one rather sharp Robert E. Lee who had a residence that was inside the fortress. His contribution included the engineering of the moat that surrounds the fortress. Not too far around the corner so to speak is the chapel of the centurion — the OLDEST wooden structure in continuous use for religious services in the US Army. The construction began in 1856 and it was consecrated in May of 1858.
Posted 3 years, 6 months ago at 11:26 pm. Add a comment
