Of artillery and infections

Hey All!
All in all, I've been having a great week, with doing work in exhibits such as Frankel's readymade clothing store, the Provost Marshal's office, and the dry goods store.

On Friday, I was supposed to give my first tour in the park, doing a "Harpers Ferry, place in time" tour, giving a basic overview of the history of the town, and so on and so forth. This was the plan, but my physical body had other ideas, and decided to make me take a sick day instead, starting out with a tooth ache (on the side that finally has no cavities, nonetheless), and then taking me down with a high fever on thursday night. Thankfully though, the people at the Charlestown urgent care center are on top of their game, and I'm on antibiotics, and will be giving a tour on wednesday and saturday!

Now, for this past weekend (my weekend, not the literal weekend), I went up to Baltimore with three friends from work, to see the tall ships in Baltimore harbor and Fort McHenry, the reason being that Monday was the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812. The tall ships were incredible, and the ceremony at Fort McHenry was awesome, so it was a pretty great day.

Anyway, THIS weekend (literal), we were up on Bolivar heights (which is apparently pronounced BAHlivar, instead of BOlivar) battlefield for artillery weekend. And in spite of being still a little sick from the day before, I had an awesome time, and by noon of the first day, was feeling perfectly healthy. My position on the cannon is position #1 aka, being the sponge-rammer. My duty is first to wet the sponge on one end of my tool to cool down the barrel and more importantly, to make sure there are no sparks that could detonate the cartridge prematurely, killing me (being in front of the barrel most of the time), or my comrades around the gun. Second, my job is to ram home the cartridge, seating it in the very back of the barrel so the friction primer can be inserted and fired.

It was a lot of fun, and I'm ready to go another round if anyone gives the word.

As to my weekend off, going to a dentist isn't fun, but I suppose its necessary, and as for the rest of the weekend, its pretty open, so I'm guessing I'll be hanging out and enjoying AC for most of it. :)

Still working on getting photos, I think I'll make my albums a public post, so ya'll can see it if you're not on FB. Any way, I'm out, and I'll see you soon!

This is a fantastic video, a sequel to "where the hell is Matt?" from 2008.
Its not Civil War based, but I just love how it shows that people can actually
put aside their differences and create something beautiful. Its something I need
to learn.  Enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwe-pA6TaZk

Yes, yes, I'm still alive

Hey all, sorry for being slow in posting again, its been busy around here, or otherwise I'm just wiped out. I've been having a blast, as always, and have been learning alot about the national parks, about the Harpers Ferry history, and about historic trades.

Since it is beyond my ability (at the moment) to remember when I posted last, I'll just post about what I've been up to recently that I can actually remember.

Well, recently, I've been to several major battlefields, and viewed the areas where my reenacting unit, the 4th US Infantry, fought. Needless to say, its been pretty surreal, and sometimes I can't quite believe that I am standing in the actual places where the events and deeds I have read about actually happened. For example, a couple weeks ago I went to the battlefield at Antietam, in Sharpsburg Maryland. It was sobering and stunning to me to be able to walk through the cornfield and along bloody lane, where so many young lives ended,  or to stand on Burnside's bridge which turned out to be the Confederate answer to Thermopolye, with 800 men holding back several thousand.

This past 'weekend' (which for me is mondays and tuesdays), I went to Gettysburg with my room mate, Kevin, and one of his friends from college. Not only was the trip a lot of fun with plenty of jokes and quoting of the movie "Gettysburg", but it gave me the chance to see the battlefield more up close, which I was slightly limited in on my last visit to this amazing spot. For the first time, I walked through the Devil's den, and had a more up close look at Culp's hill. Thankfully, Gettysburg is so close (as is everything in this part of the country), that it shouldn't be a problem going back. :)

As far as work goes, it has been a blast, especially this week in particular, as my fellow interns and I are finally WORKING, not training. Don't get me wrong, the training has been very useful and sometimes fun, but I really appreciate finally being up close and personal with the public now. Thus far, I have worked in the Provost Marshal's Office, the Dry Good's store, and the blacksmith's shop.

For me, being the military guy in the group, the Provost office is the most fun, as I am talking about the military duties of the provost guard, back then the 34th Massachusetts Infantry, from Worchester county (pronounced "Woosta", according to some inhabitants of said county that I met yesterday).
It is an interesting challenge to tie in the duties of the Provost guards (issuing passes, transferring and booking prisoners, and keeping the hearts and minds of locals in the Union, maybe or maybe not at gunpoint) into the generic duty of the Union soldier, which is to free 4 million people who are in bondage. In this particular exhibit, the most 'interesting question' I've been asked is: "is it okay if we use our ghost detector in this exhibit?" I honestly wasn't sure what to say. :P

The dry goods store is also a lot of fun, its just like the old fashioned general store you'd see in a western film or something. The challenge here is to not only exhibit to visitors what everything is/does in the store, but how EVERYTHING is tied into both the industrial revolution and slavery.

An example that I generally enjoy using is the cotton cloth we have for sale in the store: the cotton is picked by slaves in the southern US, then is shipped north to the cotton mills in New York or Boston, or possibly to England or France. It is then woven into fabric by the machines of the north or other nations, then shipped back to be sold in southern stores. Or, if it is shipped to England or France, it comes back in the form of imported goods, like English china, French decanters, or Chinese tea. Therefore, the argument that "not all Confederates were fighting for slavery", really doesn't hold water, because they were fighting to protect a system whose lifeblood was slavery. This also makes the issue of slavery both a northern as well as southern issue, as well as a international issue, with Britain and France indirectly supporting slavery.

The blacksmith's shop was the most fun, in that I was actually DOING something, instead of just sitting around (literally) and waiting for the public to show up. So far, my metal working skills are making a S hook, with a few twists added for decorum. I am really looking forward to working the the shop more often, as I can make anything I want, and from what I've been told, take it home with me, so I'll probably make some cool stuff, I'm hoping.  You may now call me Thor. ^_^

Oh, and the fireflies have been amazing. Tonight, especially. They made 4th of July look like birthday candles. Unfortunately, fireflies are better at dodging photos and cameras than most celebrities, and that coupled with my lack of photography skills.... welll. Yeah. :P

As for photos, I'm going to try posting my facebook album on here, thereby making my life a little easier. So until then, its over and out! Cheers!

Some contemplative thoughts..

This is something I posted on facebook, and thought it worthy of posting here:

 

I have learned in the past couple weeks that soldiers in the Civil War (as in any other war, I imagine) never chose when or where they would fight and die. It was often by accident or fate, and never predetermined.

 

 The same is true of us in our own daily lives, in that we never choose when or where the battles and troubles in our lives will happen, but only what we will do with them. We win some a...nd we lose some, and most often we can't see where this war will end. Our end is never certain, and our path is always unknown, but we quite honestly have no choice in the matter. We have to move forward or we die, and the enemy wins. I am reminded of a quote by Theoden, in LOTR, as his last few men are still defending Helms Deep: "If we must end, then I would have them make SUCH an end! As to be worthy of remembrance!"

 

This is why I admire the soldiers of the past and most certainly of today, is because they have no idea what end they will have, but they stand for what they believe to be right, and fight and die anyway.

 

 The men at Bloody angle or at Maries heights didn't know how things would end up, and most likely figured that they would lose the day, but they formed lines and fixed bayonets and stormed through the hell that is war anyway, just the same as a young US Marine gets the order to gear up for another patrol, and wonders "why the hell am I here?", but he gears up any way.

 

This is what I envy and admire about the men and women who serve, is that they have personal bravery. If I must have an end, I would make SUCH an end, as to be worthy of remembrance.

Update #2

Well, this week and a half have been very busy, I must say. This past week I have been to Washington DC (where we saw all but two Smithsonians), I was certified by the NPS to work with antique firearms, and then certified to operate NPS artillery. This week I have visited three different battlefields (Bolivar Heights, Loudon Heights, and Antietam), I have learned a lot and also gone through some interesting experiences.

Mostly this week has been training, with exhibits, dealing with the public, and also learning alot. I think by the end of this internship, I will have overdosed on John Brown, and will be sick of hearing about him. :P Although, I must say that it has been an interesting study, as before I came here, I only knew pretty much what Hollywood was telling me in movies like "Santa Fe Trail", with Erroyl Flynn and Ronald Regan. But now I know a whole lot more, and am finally making my own feelings and opinions about John Brown and his raid, not that I am allowed to share that with the public, mind you. As a government worker and agent, I am required to share only the facts, and allow my visitors to make up their own minds, which I honestly appreciate.

So, you're probably wondering what my own feelings on Mr Brown are, so here they are:
First and foremost, I agree with the main nucleus of his politics, while certainly not his execution of them. I consider myself an abolitionist even today, as there is certainly slavery throughout this world in the form of sexual slavery (something we have in Portland), as well as payment in the form of free labor for being sneaked across the border (Mexico is an easy example). Slavery, quite frankly, is alive and well, so I still consider myself an abolitionist.

That being said, I do agree with Brown's politcs, that there is absolutely no excuse or reason for slavery to exist in the world, I feel it to be a moral evil, much as Brown did, and that any and every decent person should want to lend a hand to end it once and for all.

However, that is as far as Brown and I go together. Brown was willing to advocate violence, even against ones own nation to end a political institution. While I do advocate and am willing to co-operate with a violent action AS LONG AS THE MEANS JUSTIFY THE ENDS. This is why I support the Union army even in my current politics, which is also why I hardly ever wear a Confederate uniform. But like I said, I only support violent force if the means justify the ends, such as the case of the Civil War or World War Two.

Brown seperates from my political view when he proceeds into "bloody Kansas". He takes first blood in what is called the "Pottawatomie massacre", and takes part in the militant campaigns against the slave state advocates in Kansas.

In late 1856, he returns to the east coast to confer with "the secret six", six majorly influential abolitionist voices in the American political landscape, by the names of:  Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Gridley Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith, and George Luther Stearns. These men secretly were funding and supplying Brown's clandestine actions against pro-slavery forces, and had immense political and social power.

After speaking to the secret six, Brown traveled throughout New England and southern Canada gathering support from early 1857-mid 1859. In mid July of 1859, John Brown travels to a very small town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, whose only claim to fame was the Harpers Ferry armory and arsenal, as well as the Hall's rifle works, built by John Hall, the inventor of the first breech loading firearm in America.

His objective in this town is to take as many firearms as possible from the arsenal to give to slaves that he is expecting to rise up in a massive slave rebellion in Virginia, which he will conduct from the sanctuary of the Appalachian mountains.

On the night of October 16th, 1859, Brown leads 18 followers, both black and white, in an attack on the United States arsenal, an action that immediately makes him both an anarchist and a rebel to the United States government, as well as against the state of Virginia. Initially the raid goes very well, and Brown takes over the armory, arsenal, and B&O railroad bridge with very little resistance. In this process, where he captures the two firewardens on duty in the arsenal, as well as taking dozens of hostages from the people of the town and the surrounding area, including Colonel Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of General George Washington.

This is as far as Brown gets without a hitch however, as the people of the town are severely ticked off, instead of cowed in fear by Brown's raiders who have come in the middle of the night with torches and firearms. The next morning, the towns people begin to drive Brown's men from their positions throughout the arsenal, armory, and the town. By afternoon and evening of the 17th,  Brown and his men are pinned down in the armory firehouse at the south eastern corner of the armory, and the day ends with a draw between Brown's men and the angry towns people who have been reinforced by Virginia state militia.

By the morning of the 18th, the position is hopeless for Brown, especially as the angry mob and Virginia militia have now been reinforced  by 90 United States Marines from the Washington D.C. Navy yard, under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, who is accompanied by J.E.B. Stewart, of the United States Cavalry.

Arriving on the scene, Colonel Lee demands the surrender of the firehouse, which is refused by John Brown. Within minutes, a storming party is formed of Marines, and the final attack is made on the engine house. Liutenant Israel Greene is the first through the door of the engine house, followed by Privates Russel, Quinn, and Ruppert. Greene and Russel make it through the door and into the back of the engine house safely, but Quinn is killed in the door and Ruppert  is shot through the jaw just outside the door. These to USMC casualties are what makes the Harpers Ferry engine house an official USMC battlefield, on the same level of importance as Iwo Jima.

The final battle is over in three minutes, and the raid is finished without one slave freed or one firearm stolen. I have to chuckle at the fact that the entire raid lasted 36 hours, but the marines fought the final battle and ended it in 3 minutes.

That  is the story of John Brown, in a shortened version. This is only one of the stories I will be telling while I am here. I hope that I will learn to tell it well, and to do honor to the memories of those who died for the freedom of an entire race of men. It is a tremendous responsibility, as well as a huge honor. I only hope that I am up to the task.