Luckiest or Unluckiest?



Yamaguchi

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, 29, was on a business trip for his employer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. After three long months away from his wife and children, he was finally heading home on that warm summer Monday morning. He and two co-workers arrived at the train station early that morning and were waiting when Yamaguchi discovered he had left in the office his hanko, an official stamp used in place of his signature on business documents. Fortunately, there was still enough time to make a quick trip back into the city to retrieve this important tool. He was stepping off of a tram when an unimaginably bright light went off. The date was August 6, 1945, and an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, had just dropped a 13-kiloton uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Yamaguchi was less than 2 miles from the explosion.

Hiroshima after the bomb

The bomb temporarily blinded him, destroyed his eardrums, and left him with serious burns on the left side of his body. It had killed more than 70,000 other people. Several hours later, in spite of his wounds, Yamaguchi walked back to the station where his two co-workers had also survived. They managed to find a bomb shelter which they spent the night in. The next day, with Yamaguchi swaddled in bandages, they began their journey home. It took two days.

After arriving back home, a doctor put a salve on his wounds and changed the bandages which covered the upper part of his body. The next day, Yamaguchi reported to work. He was in the office explaining what had happened in Hiroshima to his boss when once again, a bright light hit just like before. The U.S. B-29 bomber Bock’s Car had dropped the atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Yamaguchi’s home city of Nagasaki. Just as before, he was less than 2 miles from the epicenter.

Amazingly, Yamaguchi survived once again. His bandages were mostly blown off and his wounds were covered in dirt, but he suffered no additional bodily trauma. He was unable to get his wounds properly cleaned and re-bandaged and for over a week he suffered from a high fever due to infections. It would take several years for him to recover enough that he no longer had to wear bandages, but he had survived. The bombing of Nagasaki had killed over 73,800 others.

After the war, Yamaguchi served as a translator for the American forces and then became a school teacher before eventually going back to work for Mitsubishi. For twice surviving an atomic bomb, he was given a small monthly compensation from the Japanese government, free medical checkups and a free funeral. In the final years of his life, he wrote a memoir and appeared in the 2006 documentary “Twice Bombed, Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

More than 144,000 people died from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as surviving both explosions, passed away on January 4, 2010, over 64 years later.
 

Jenny Lind & Father's Day

Down this road the Mother of Father's Day
was born.



The first official Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, but a tiny, almost forgotten little town in Arkansas had a hand in this holiday. Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, known as the “Mother of Father’s Day” was born in Jenny Lind on February 18, 1882, to a Civil War veteran and his wife, the daughter of a farmer. When she was 5 years old, the family moved to Spokane where Sonora resided until her death in 1978.

Not many houses remain in Jenny Lind today and 
of those remaining, many look like this one.

After her mother’s early death in 1898, 16-year-old Sonora helped her father raise her 6 younger brothers. She began petitioning to make Father’s Day a nationally recognized holiday in 1909. After listening to a church sermon about Mother’s Day, she suggested to the YMCA and Spokane Ministerial Association the establishment of an equal holiday to honor fathers. Thirteen days later, on June 19, 1910, the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane.

The old Jenny Lind school.

For over 20 years the holiday evoked mixed emotions. Congress refused President Woodrow Wilson’s desire to make the holiday official for fear it would become too commercialized. The holiday was not recognized as an annually observed holiday until 1971 when President Richard Nixon officially designated Father’s Day as the 3^rdSunday of every June.
 

D.C. Trip - The End



President Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre

The last two days of our grand Washington, D.C. trip were interesting, but rather uneventful. We paid a visit to Ford's Theatre http://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm) where on the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd were watching the play, "Our American Cousin" when John Wilkes Booth shot him in the head. The president was carried across the street to a boarding house, but in spite of the best efforts of the doctors, he died 9 hours later. The theatre box where Lincoln was shot has been kept just as it was that fateful night (except for being blocked off from entry by a sheet of Plexiglas), including the flags draped across the front. When Booth jumped from the box to the stage, he caught his left spur on one of these flags causing him to land wrong and breaking his leg.

The theatre is smaller than I thought it would be. The Park Ranger who led the tour and gave the historical account was very knowledgeable and friendly. I sat in my seat as he gave his speech and I looked up at the President's Box only about 30 feet away, trying to imagine what it was like that night; to feel the confusion as the shot rang out and then to see a man jump from the box onto the stage. After the ranger had answered all questions from the 25 or so people on the tour, he led us upstairs to the box where it happened.

There is a very small little hallway you have to walk through just before entry. The hallway prevented more than 2 people from being in it at the same time because it was so narrow. Everyone in the crowd was being patient and respectful of each other and waiting their turn to enter the little hall & see the site. Almost everyone. During the ranger's talk, there had been 2 kids, brother & sister of about 10 & 12 years of age, who kept talking and then got up and started running around, making noise and punching each other's arms. The parents, who spoke a foreign language which I couldn't place but think was European, did nothing. And now, just before it came our turn to enter the hallway, these 2 brats came running past everyone in line and tried to jump in front of us, almost knocking over Youngest-daughter in their rush. I don't think so, dunderheads; that's not going to happen. I quickly reached out and grabbed both of them by their shirt collars and gently, but firmly pulled them back, told them to knock it off, get back in line and wait their turn. I don't know if they understood my words, but they certainly understood my tone and did as I told them. Momma-woman thought I was about to start a fight with their parents, but I turned and looked at them standing in line a couple of people behind us - they both looked away and didn't say a word. They were cowed by their own children who weren't even teenagers yet so they wouldn't have the wherewithal to confront a grown man, especially when they know he only did what they should have done themselves. Just because you have figured out how to have sex doesn't mean you should be a parent.

After we finished the tour in Ford's Theatre, we went across the street to the boarding house where President Lincoln died. It was kind of weird looking at the actual bed where he passed away. I wondered if there was a presidential ghost hanging around. Again, I was surprised at how small the hallways and rooms are. We didn't stay long as there was really only a sitting room where Mary spent her time and the bedroom where Lincoln died. This wasn't a great, wonderful, amazing thing to do. The whole thing was rather somber and respectful and pretty much one of those things I'm glad Youngest-daughter got to see, but I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing and been none the worse for it.

Mt. Vernon

We also visited Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate. (http://www.mountvernon.org/) Overlooking the Potomac River, the 50-acres grounds are beautiful. The house was big and nicely appointed, but if I lived there, I'd be sitting in my rocker on the back porch every chance I got! For me, even though it included over a dozen buildings and 500+ original artifacts, this tour wasn't as interesting as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate (http://1dustytrack.blogspot.com/2012/01/dc-road-trip-day-third.html). Still, it was pretty cool to walk where the father of our country did, to actually walk in his footsteps and to see the same things he did.

Great Falls National Park

One of the last places we went was Great Falls National Park http://www.nps.gov/grfa/index.htm), the park Youngest-daughter wrote her essay on for one of her classes. An 800-acre park just 15 miles from downtown D.C., the site to see is where the Potomac River rushes through the narrow Mather Gorge and crashes over falls and large rocks. The noise is incredible and you can literally feel the power of the water. There is no swimming here! If you have a bit of extra time, you certainly could do worse than visiting this interesting park.

Our last night in D.C., Momma-woman took Youngest-daughter ice-skating at an outside rink while I rested my tired legs and when they returned, we packed most of our bags, took down the paper snow flakes and other Christmas decorations we had adorned our hotel room with, and hit the beds rather early. After quick showers and breakfast the following morning, we threw the last of our luggage in the back of the faithful Honda Odyssey and pointed her toward home. We had planned to drive about 10 or so hours and stop somewhere for the night, but early that evening, we ran into some pretty heavy rain; heavy enough that we didn't really want to stop and unpack stuff from the car in it. We weren't all that tired yet as we had done a good job during the day switching drivers and taking naps. Youngest-daughter was good as the my-fi enabled Internet connection to download her TV shows which she had missed seeing while we were gone. It kept raining and we kept driving until finally we were only 3 hours from home. I said, "Either we pull over for the night now, or we go for it." Momma-woman replied, "Let's stop for coffee and then go for it." So that's what we did.

We arrived home at 1:30 in the morning; dark-30. We pulled into the garage, left the luggage in the car and made our way in. I'm always relieved to see the house still standing and our stuff still in it upon our return from a trip. We were tired and felt a little funny walking because we had been driving/riding in the car for so long, but we were home. A good trip is having a place good to go to and a place good to return to. We soon crawled into our own comforting beds and fell asleep to the sounds of the rain.

D.C.Trip - Day 3 Monticello

Hotel window view in Charlottsville

Day 3 was a Sunday. We slept late since we were not all that far from D.C. now. At least the girls slept late. As usual, I was up relatively early, but after taking my morning shower, I went down to the lobby and had several cups of coffee and read some of Stephen King’s new book 11/22/63 on my iPad.

About 8:30, I headed back up to the room to get the girls out of bed. To me, more sleep than about 6 hours is a waste of time, but I obviously am of the minority opinion in my family. While waiting for them to finish getting ready, I took a picture looking out of our hotel room window to add to my collection. One of these days I’ll publish a book – My Hotel Windows – A Compilation of the Most Boring, Tedious Views Imaginable.

Going thru Charlottsville to Monticello

After breakfast, we headed a short distance to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. I have to be honest, it was not my idea to stop here. Momma-woman has long found Mr. Jefferson to be a fascinating person and has wanted to come here for years, so since it is her vacation too, we put it on the itinerary. Turns out, the dude was pretty cool and I’m glad we went.

The first thing I learned other than the home is located in a breathtakingly beautiful location is that it is on the United Nations World Heritage List of 936 internationally significant sites, along with places like the Great Wall of China, Mesa Verde and the Tower of London. The 2^nd thing I learned from the tour guide was that the man was a genius. In addition to authoring the Declaration of Independence and his time in public office as president, vice-president, member of the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, and Minister of Trade with France, he was also a noted philosopher and historian, successful planter, inventor, and the founder of the University of Virginia. He owned 2 estates, including the 5,000 acre Monticello, and had about 200 slaves to help him. At any given time, about 100 of his 200 slaves were under the age of 16; and it is accepted that some of those young slaves were fathered by him after his wife died.

Entrance to Monticello

In his fifty-six years at Monticello he always kept himself very busy. He would start his day at first light, reportedly getting out of bed as soon as he could read the hands of the obelisk clock that he designed. This clock was marked by clangs from a Chinese gong placed on the roof. The gong was powered by the clock located in the entrance hall. The mechanism was controlled by fifty pound cannonball weights that would descend slowly throughout the week, passing the days of the week marked on the wall as they descended and then falling through holes in the floor by Friday, spending the next two days falling further into the cellar.

Some of his other inventions include a dumbwaiter; a writing machine that enabled him to make exact copies of letters as he was writing them; Venetian blinds he used to regulate sunlight in his greenhouses; a moldboard for a plow; and his achromatic telescope.

Monticello

When he was not busy building, designing or inventing, Thomas Jefferson spent many hours writing one of his more than 20,000 letters, or reading from one of his more than seven thousand books in his library. His library contained books in seven languages, two of which were Latin and Greek, languages he had mastered. When he worked at his desk, he would have no less than twenty books at a time in which to refer.

One of his great pleasures was his vegetable garden. Among the vegetables in the large garden was the English pea, his favorite vegetable. He grew fifteen types of the English pea, and he happily noted in his Garden Book when “peas come to table.” By staggering the planting of peas, Jefferson was able to eat them fresh from the garden from the middle of May to the middle of July. Aside from personal preference, Jefferson might have taken special note of his English peas because of an annual neighborhood contest to see which farmer could bring to table the first peas of spring. The winner would host the other contestants in a dinner that included the peas. Though Jefferson’s mountaintop garden, with its southern exposure to warmth and light, should have provided an advantage, the contest was almost always won by a neighbor named George Divers. As Jefferson’s grandson recalled: “A wealthy neighbor [Divers], without children, and fond of horticulture, generally triumphed. My grandfather on one occasion had them first, but when his family reminded him that it was his right to invite the company, he replied, ‘No, say nothing about it, it will be more agreeable to our friend Mr. Divers to think that he never fails.’”

Rear of Monticello

President Jefferson spent forty years designing Monticello, building it, tearing it apart, redesigning it, and finally putting it all back together. He loved the house and its’ property, and knew the name of every tree planted on its grounds. And if one of his trees died, he knew it. He used his own kilns to bake the more than half-million bricks he used in the various stages of its construction.
While serving as Minister to France, he filled almost a hundred crates with furniture and various works of art for the many rooms at Monticello. While in France he would collect fruit trees and bring them with him on the long boat trip home.

I love finding out about people who think outside-the-box when it comes to thinking up a simple solution to a problem and when you see the solution, you think, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” For example, he had cattle on his plantation, but did not want fences to break up the vista of his mountaintop home. His solution? Rather than putting something up, he went down. He dug long, slender ditches in the earth, just wide and deep enough that the cattle would not cross over them, but they posed no obstacle to a man. In addition to serving as an invisible fence, the ditches also served as irrigation ditches which funneled rain-water into holding ponds! 
 
The tour was interesting and informative. Thomas Jefferson was indeed a most interesting man and his home is still beautiful and very functional. It seems he hated wasted space and what he considered a waste was unique. Unfortunately, taking pictures is not allowed inside Monticello so I guess you’ll just have to go see for yourself the bed in the wall, the octagon room and the hidden doors, panels and holes in the floors that he created to reduce that hated wasted space.

Michie Tavern where we had a good,
but expensive lunch.

After the tour, we headed down the road 1/2 mile and had a late lunch at Michie Tavern, an historic tavern and store first opened in 1784. The atmosphere is authentic, rustic 18th century with servers in period costume, but the food is more of a modern southern-style – fried chicken, pulled pork barbecue, baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, beets, cornbread and biscuits. We shared a bowl of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate syrup for dessert. At $16.75 per adult and $10.95 for the girl child, plus $5 for the ice cream, I thought the prices were a bit expensive for a lunch. After taxes and tip, the bill was over $60, but the food was pretty darn good and it made the momma-woman happy so money well spent!

Eating the last of the ice cream.

By the time we arrived in Washington, D.C., it was dark and I was surprised to find that even though it was a Sunday evening, the traffic was very heavy. Where are all of these people going on a Sunday night? Of course, with cars doing about 80 MPH all around us and us not knowing where the heck exactly we were going, even with the GPS, we managed to not make a right turn across 2 lanes of whizzing traffic within about 20 yards after entering on the left side of the freeway (who the heck designed that one?!) and soon found ourselves in an area we didn’t feel comfortable being in. We pulled off to the side of the road for a minute to get our bearings and to let the GPS recover from too many “recalculating” tries and soon we were back on the correct path to our destination, the Holiday Inn in downtown Washington.

After a harrowing 45 minutes of driving in that traffic at night, we were very happy to finally get to the hotel. Once again, the front desk folks were nice and efficient; the lobby was clean and functional. We got checked in, retrieved a luggage cart and started unpacking the car. We stacked luggage on that cart until it looked like a pyramid. We let momma-woman drive the car to the underground parking while Youngest-daughter and I took the pyramid cart up to the room.

I started pulling that over-loaded cart across the lobby and it felt like it weighed about 500 pounds! After I pulled until I thought I would pass out, I kindly requested Youngest-daughter to make herself useful why don’t you and push! We finally made it to the room and I felt like some sadistic Nazi man-hater had been working me out with weights for the last hour. With sweat dripping down my face, I began taking bags off of the cart and bags, suitcases, and boxes started falling down around me. The room was rather small and tight quarters and when a girl’s heavy bag fell on my foot, I retrieved my 1 suitcase and my laptop bag, put it on the floor by the in-room desk, and piled all of the girl’s stuff on one bed. It seemed to be piled half way to the ceiling. I don’t know where we are going to put all of this stuff.

I asked Youngest-daughter to please take the now empty luggage cart back down to the lobby. She tugged on it, but it didn’t go. That caught my attention. She looked down and said, “Oh, the little brake thingy is on. I forgot I pushed it down when we were loading it at the car. Sorry, Dad.” It’s a very good thing I love that little girl so much.

Tomorrow we get to see D.C. in the daylight. I’m pretty excited about it. First stop, a tour of the Library of Congress. It’s close enough to walk there, which makes me a happy camper since I won’t have to drive in the morning rush hour traffic. And I’m anxious to see the view from our hotel room window in the morning. I'm hoping it won’t be as boring as it appears to be in the dark.
 

D.C. Trip - Day 2 Appomattox

The morning of Day 2, I awoke early, took my shower, turned on the lights and woke up the girls at 6:45, packed my stuff and hauled it down to the car, pleaded with the girls to get out of bed ‘cause “we’re burning daylight,” grabbed my iPad and found my way down to the hotel lobby for a cup of coffee and the free breakfast.

We left at 8:30. That’s not a misprint – 8:30! A new world record time for us to leave! I told the girls how much I loved them just then, got out a calendar to mark the date for the new record leaving time, stopped at a gas station to feed the Honda, and off we went for a new day’s adventure.

Appomattox Court House.

We decided to take a small detour on our way to D.C. to see Appomattox Court House. The momma-woman can take Civil War stuff or leave it, but being a native-born Texan with ancestors who fought and died during that terrible time, I’m a bit of a nut about it. She knows and is an understanding and very patient spouse so she was OK with the side-trip.

In the words of Charles Kuralt – thanks to the interstate highway system, it is possible to go from coast to coast without seeing anything. Having spent the whole first day of our trip seeing nothing on I-40, we hooked up with I-81 not far outside of Knoxville and I prepared myself for more hours of boring driving. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find it actually rather pretty and interesting due to the terrain – very large hills, plenty of trees, and interesting architecture of the houses we passed. Momma-woman stayed awake most of the time and we enjoyed several nice conversations along the way. Even Youngest-daughter put aside her Nook, looked at the countryside, asked a few questions and took part in several conversations. It was turning out to be a very good day indeed!

The McLean House where the
surrender took place.

We jumped off the interstate in Roanoke and took Hwy 460 east. It’s a 4-lane road, smooth, and again, because of the interesting terrain, was rather enjoyable to drive. We stopped for lunch in Lynchburg and finally made it to the Appomattox National Historic Park at about 3:30 – pretty good timing since the park closes at 5:00 and the last Ranger guided tour starts at 4:00.

It’s a very interesting park and the Rangers were, as usual, very friendly, interesting, and informative. We received basically personal attention from everyone because other than one other guy, we were the only visitors. We visited the houses, the stores, the jail, and the courthouse of the Appomattox Courthouse community; we walked the dirt roads where General Robert E. Lee, General Ulysses S. Grant, their men and all of the other civil war soldiers walked; and we visited the McLean house where the actual surrender took place on April 9, 1865. To stand there, especially in the actual parlor of the house where such an historical event took place, was humbling. The Ranger lady was very good. She led us to the spot, told the story, filled in some interesting details, then just stood back and let us stand there in silence, actually feeling the history, the smells of the house, trying to picture the surrender ceremony, trying to comprehend the weight of the decision on General Lee’s shoulders knowing that after 4 years of such hard struggles, of so much suffering and death, he was about to change the course of history by signing his name to a piece of paper saying, “We will lay down our guns, we will fight no more, we will change our way of life. It’s over.”


Ranger giving tour in the cold.

If you would like to read what I think is a really interesting story about Wilmer McLean and the surrender ceremony, please see one of my other entries here: Wilmer McLean.

We left the park at 5:15 and headed back east toward Lynchburg where we caught Hwy 29 before reaching the town and headed north. I’m sure Hwy 29 would be a joy to drive during the daylight hours as it is mostly just 2 lanes with almost continuous curves through hill, valley and dale, but I’m afraid my night vision isn’t as good as it once was and the sun had already gone to bed. With all of the blind, dark curves and only a memory of yellow and white lines left to hint at guidance, I decided it would be best for younger, sharper-eyed Momma-woman to take the wheel. It was OK because I’m such a good co-pilot. I will often offer calm, helpful guidance. When a car slows down in front of us, I calmly slam my foot into the floorboard and say “Slow down!” Helpful mumbles of “Watch out!” and “Do you see that car slowing down up ahead?!” and “You’re taking this curve too fast!” and “We’re all going to die!!” are somewhat common. It’s beyond me why she doesn’t seem to appreciate my help.

Daughter in the old
Appomattox jail.

After a couple of hours which seemed longer, we safely reached Charlottesville and found a Hampton Inn located next to a nice shopping center. This time we only removed from the car the bags we would need rather than everything, including the kitchen sink which I was pretty sure the girls had also packed. We were able to walk to a Chili’s right around the corner for supper. Not much to say about that – it was Chili’s – decent food at a decent price, but not something to gush over. Once again, the hotel was nice, the front desk staff friendly and welcoming, the beds were fine. And like the previous night, we relaxed for a while, and soon found ourselves in bed and asleep before the clock struck 11:00. We’ll be in D.C. tomorrow!

Wilmer McLean, Man of Fate

Wilmer McLean was born on May 3, 1814 in Manassas, Virginia. As a teenager, he enlisted in the Virginia Militia and retired in 1854 after obtaining the rank of Major. He purchased a plantation at Manassas Junction along Bull Run and began to make many needed repairs and enhancements to the property where he lived with his wife and children. He became a part-time farmer and full-time merchant, mostly buying and selling sugar. He worked hard and became successful in his business. With his income from farming, selling sugar, and a modest retirement from the Virginia Militia, a nice and loving family and a comfortable place to live, life was good. He probably would have lived out his life in relative obscurity, but history came knocking on his front door in 1861 and his name was destined to be recorded as the only man on whose front porch a war started and in whose parlor a war ended.

The bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter near Charleston, Virginia on April 12 – 13, 1861 is known as the start of the American Civil War, but that’s not exactly true. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On December 26, 1860, under cover of darkness, U.S. Major Robert Anderson moved his small command from the indefensible Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island to Fort Sumter, a substantial fortress controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor. An attempt by U.S. President James Buchanan to reinforce and resupply Anderson, using the unarmed merchant ship Star of the West, failed when it was fired on by shore batteries on January 9, 1861. These were the actual first shots of the war. South Carolina authorities then seized all Federal property in the Charleston area, except for Fort Sumter which was placed under siege.

The road into Appomattox Court House

The first crisis for the newly elected president, Abe Lincoln, was Fort Sumter. He notified the governor of South Carolina that he was sending re-supply ships to the fort. In response, South Carolina demanded the evacuation of what it considered to be state’s property. Their demand was refused. Delegations from the south were then sent to Washington, D.C. and offered to pay for the Federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. President Lincoln however, rejected any negotiations with the Confederate agents because he did not consider the Confederacy a legitimate nation and making any treaty with it would be seen as recognition of it as a sovereign government. After several additional negotiations failed, at 3:20am on April 12, a southern delegation rowed a small boat over to the fort and a handwritten note was given to Major Anderson. It stated, “Sir: by authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time.” Anderson escorted the officers back to their boat, shook hands with each one, and said “If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next.”

At 4:30am, bombardment of the fort from shore batteries began. The fort returned fire, but after 34 hours, even though there had been no loss of life on either side, Major Anderson raised a white flag of surrender and agreed to evacuate. Ironically, during the surrender ceremonies, the Union gunners fired off a cannon salute to the U.S. flag and one of the cannons exploded and killed 2 men. Private Daniel Hough was killed instantly, becoming the first casualty of the Civil War and Private Edward Gallway was mortally wounded, dying a few days later. Following the battle, Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion resulted in four more states also declaring their secession and joining the Confederacy.

The first large-scale battle of the war occurred beginning on July 18, 1861; the First Battle of Bull Run. Confederate troops were stationed along Bull Run to guard against a Union incursion from Washington, D.C. Many regiments were camped on the McLean plantation along the rail line and Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard was using McLean’s house as his headquarters. Union troops arrived in the area and attacked the Confederates just before noon. Mrs. McLean was preparing lunch for the general when the battle began. When the firing started, General Beauregard rushed out of the house, mounted his horse and raced to the front lines. Right after he left, the Federals began shelling the McLean house. One of the first shots sent a cannonball falling directly down the chimney and straight into the large pot of stew cooking on the fire. The ball exploded in the pot, resulting in no casualties, but the stew was splattered all over the room and the McLean family.

Appomattox Court House was locked 
on the day of surrender.

As the battle progressed, wounded were brought to the large barn Wilmer had built beside the McLean home. Soon though, the Union gunners began shelling the barn and the wounded had to be quickly evacuated. After the battle, Beauregard commented bitterly on the enemy treatment of the McLean barn, saying that it was “surmounted by the usual yellow hospital flag. I hope, for the sake of past associations, that it was ignorantly mistaken for a Confederate flag.”

A few days later, when the battle was over, Wilmer McLean, in an effort to protect his family from a recurrence of their near miss with death, packed up and moved 120 miles south to a small farm he purchased in isolated Virginia in the village of Appomattox Court House. Leaving was a smart thing to do as at least 2 more battles were fought on his plantation lands.

General Lee rode down this road on his 
way to McLean's house.

The McLean family lived in relative peace in their new 2-story red brick home for the next 3 years. But in early April, 1865, the war found them again. The main Confederate force, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee was in retreat from Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. The Rebels were short on ammunition, weak from lack of food, few had proper clothing for the cold weather, there were almost no tents for shelter and many were barefoot and sick. In full retreat down a road near the McLean house, they ran into a small Yankee cavalry force guarding their one path of escape. When the Southern forces quickly swept aside this small force, it seemed they were on the way to escaping the clutches of the enemy. The men rejoiced and quickly started down the road, but suddenly, just a few hundred yards ahead, the main Yankee force crested a hill, blocking their path. General Lee called a meeting of his officers. Most wanted to continue the fight with either a charge straight into the teeth of the Union army or to break up into small groups who would try to make their way through the Union lines and continue to fight later in guerilla actions. But Lee knew this would only delay the inevitable and lead to more bloodshed and suffering for his men. With his officers and men around him, most of them in tears, he sent an emissary to General Grant offering to surrender his army.

General Grant and party rode down this 
road on their way to McLean's house.

General Lee also sent Colonel Charles Marshall over the hill to the settlement of Appomattox Court House to secure a proper place for the generals to meet. With the cessation of that morning’s battle, Wilmer McLean came out and was walking down a street of the community trying to figure out if the fighting would engulf his farm. Young officer Marshall in a tattered gray uniform hailed him, asking for a place where General Lee might meet with General Grant. The courthouse was an obvious choice, but it was locked and the person with the keys could not be found. McLean then showed the officer an unoccupied, unfurnished, unheated brick building in the center of the village and left him there. As he was walking up to the front porch of his home, Colonel Marshall ran up to him and asked, “Isn’t there some other place?” “Well,” McLean answered, “I supposed you could use my parlor.”

A short time later, Wilmer McLean stood on the front porch of his two-story brick house awaiting the arrival of General Lee. Shortly after noon, General Lee, accompanied by Colonel Marshall, arrived on horseback. Wilmer extended his greetings to the two Confederate officers and invited them into his parlor. And there, on April 9, 1865, they awaited the arrival of the other guests.
At about 1:30pm, a group of Union officers arrived on horseback. Among those were Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General P. H. Sheridan, Major General E. O. C. Ord, Major General Wesley Merritt, Major General George Armstrong Custer, and Captain Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln.

The McLean house where the surrender and 
end of the Civil War took place.

General Grant and several of the Union officers entered the parlor where General Lee was waiting. For the next 90 minutes, the generals discussed and came to agreement on the terms of surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. For all practical purposes, the long, bloody war ended right there in Wilmer McLean’s parlor.

Once the ceremony was over, members of the Army of the Potomac began taking the tables, chairs, and other furnishings in the house – anything that was not tied down – as souvenirs. Some handed the protesting McLean family money as they made off with their property. Major Ord gave Wilmer $40 for the table Lee had used to sign the surrender document. Major General Sheridan got the table on which Grant had drafted the document for a $20 gold piece. Sheridan then asked George Armstrong Custer to carry it away on his horse. Few of their possessions were left by the time the soldiers were gone.

The McLean parlor - Lee sat at the table with 
the white top; Grant at the table on the right.

Five days later, on April 14, 1865, exactly 4 years to the day after he lowered it, Major General Robert Anderson, having survived the war, returned to Fort Sumter and raised the flag he had surrendered.
 

Wilmer and his family sold their Appomattox house in 1867 and returned to their Manassas plantation. They later moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he worked for the Internal Revenue Service. Wilmer McLean, who has gone down in history through a quirk of fate, died in Alexandria on June 5, 1882. His grave continues to be visited by the curious.

The Civil War Comes To Van Buren





Historic Downtown Van Buren is full 
of small stores now.

Arkansas' 19th largest city is Van Buren. Unless you are from Van Buren, or perhaps Sherwood, the state's 18th largest city, or Cabot, number 20, you probably didn't know that. And now that I've got the educational piece of this blog entry out of the way, I'll get on to more interesting stuff about Van Buren.

First settled in 1818 and known as Phillips Landing (Phillips being the last name of brothers who established a lumber yard in the area), the town acquired a post office and changed its name to Van Buren (after the Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren) in 1831. The town was incorporated on Christmas Eve, 1842. Almost exactly 20 years later, downtown Van Buren became the site of a rather strange Civil War battle.

Many of the buildings survive from the 1800's.

Three weeks before the Battle of Van Buren was fought, The Confederates suffered a loss in the battle of Prairie Grove, north of the town. Outnumbered 2 - 1, demoralized by the lack of adequate equipment, food, medicine, and clothes and having not been paid in many months, the Rebels retreated to the northern outskirts of Van Buren. Many of the men were without shoes and a large number had to sleep under makeshift lean-to's constructed of sticks in the woods due to a severe lack of tents. Winter weather set in and with the lack of proper shelter, warm clothing, medicine, and not enough food, almost half of the 4,000 troops soon fell ill. When the weather cleared enough for travel, over 7,000 Federals traversed a mountain pass over the Ozarks and ran into a small detachment of Texas cavalry. The Texans put up a fight, but were soon overwhelmed. The surviving few retreated toward the rest of the Confederate troops in the town, but those men were in no condition to put up an effective defense and the fighting withdrawal soon became a full-on retreat right down Main Street.

The battle raged straight down Main Street.

What made this battle unusual is that in the majority of fights in other towns, the citizens were warned beforehand by one side or the other or they were aware of a battle that was coming their way hours or even days before it got there. The Battle of Van Buren happened so quickly that the citizens were caught completely by surprise. As the troops rode and ran through town, shooting at each other and engaging in mortal hand-to-hand combat, civilian men were caught sitting on benches trading news in front of stores, women in their bonnets were caught shopping and children stopped playing in the streets to stare at the fighting soldiers. Amazingly, not one civilian was seriously hurt during the running fight through the town.

The Confederates made their way to the river where they jumped on board a ferry and a number of steam boats. The Yankees got to the river as the last few boats were starting to pull away from the pier. The Rebels set 2 of the boats on fire to keep them from being captured. One boat was stranded on a sand bar and when musket fire and artillery disabled another one, exactly 100 southern troops were captured.

Over 500 Confederate soldiers are 
buried in Fairview Cemetery.

A 2-hour cannon duel commenced when from a hill in Fairview Cemetery, Union cannons fired across the river at the Confederates who had made it safely across and the southerners who brought up their own cannon, fired about 100 shells at the Yanks. Only 1 Northern soldier was killed and five were wounded in the shelling, but a number of houses around the cemetery were damaged, a civilian was killed and several more wounded. As night fell, the Yanks gathered up their wounded and dead and both sides withdrew from the battle. Left to repair itself and bury the Confederate dead was a now stunned and very quiet Van Buren.

Over 500 Southern soldiers are buried in a large corner of Fairview Cemetery. In a sad statement to the way of that awful war, over 400 of the headstones are marked simply, "Unknown Confederate Soldier."


Piece Of Arkansas In Washington

The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., when it was completed in 1888, was the tallest structure in the world at just over 555 feet 5 1/8 inches tall. It lost that title to the Eiffel Tower the very next year. It is still the world's tallest stone structure, the tallest obelisk, and taller than any other structure in D.C. It's been in the news lately due to the damage it suffered during the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the Washington area on August 23, 2011.

The monument was designed by Robert Mills and construction started in 1848. However, it was not completed until 1884, 30 years after his death. If you look close, you can see a slight difference in color of the marble starting at about 150 feet up because construction was stopped for a number of years due to the Civil War and a lack of funds.

While short on funds, somebody unknown to history, came up with the wonderful idea of soliciting blocks of marble from the different states and other sources. In all, 188 stones were shipped from around the world and used in building the monument. One state that contributed a large block was Arkansas. The block was used inside the monument and it can still be seen and easily recognized as you go up the stairs. How do you recognize it? Well, it has "Arkansas" carved in big, block letters on it!

Stone marker on the hill marks the spot.

A stone mason named Peter Beller moved to Arkansas from Alabama in 1833. In 1834,he and three brothers with the last name of Harp dug a 4' X 3' X 2' hunk of marble out of a hill beside Arkansas Highway 7. The stone was hauled on a sledge by a team of twenty oxen sixty miles across the Ozark and Boston Mountains to the Arkansas River. It was sent by barge to New Orleans, then by sail to the Potomac Basin and on to the monument.

Around 1840, Peter acquired the land  and built a mill at the site. Although never officially named, Beller's Mill prospered and grew until the civil war, when the men were pressed into service and their families fled to larger towns to escape attacks by bushwhackers, scalawags and other assorted ne'er do wells.

Inscription on the marker.

In 1870 a man named Willcockson set up another mill there, and a town grew which bore his name. Mineral waters and healing springs contributed to the town's prosperity. Advances in medicine in the 20th century reduced the flow of visitors, and the town faded. Albert Raney and Sons bought the land, changed the town's name to Marble Falls, and diverted the cold mountain spring water into a trout hatchery, which they operated for over 20 years. In the late 1960's, a group of Harrison businessmen bought the trout farm and built an amusement park around it. The theme park was based on characters and locations invented and popularized by Al Capp in his daily comic strip "Li'l Abner." To promote the park, the name of the town was changed again, to "Dogpatch."

If you didn't know, you would never know 
as you drive by.

So where exactly did this Washington Monument chunk of marble come from? Right across the road from the now closed Dogpatch Amusement Park. Other than a small stone marker with a plaque on it, the hill looks just like all the other hills in this area. In fact, if you don't stop to see the marker, you'll drive right past and never know that a piece of this hill is part of an American icon.




Postcard From Historic Washington, Arkansas

The famous 1874 Washington Courthouse is now
the visitor center.

Established on George Washington's birthday in 1824, Washington, Arkansas is today a quiet, peaceful, tree-shaded town, a state park, and probably America's premier historic village. More than 30 restored historic structures, including examples of Southern Greek Revival and Federal architecture, Gothic Revival, Italianate, and those of hand-hewn timber framing or brace-frame cottage construction, stand as a tribute to life in Washington from 1824 to 1900. You can tour the public buildings and homes; see wonderful collections of antiques, guns and knives; visit with the guides in period attire; ride the surrey around town and step back to a more genteel  period in history. There was a time, however, when Washington was a bustling, thriving city and for almost 3 years during the Civil War, the state capitol of Arkansas.

Black's forge where the 1st Bowie knife was
made for Jim Bowie.

Located in Hempstead County, Washington was established as the first county seat. It was located on the famous Southwest Trail (the earliest road across the state) and, due to its closeness to the then Mexican border, was a stopover for pioneers traveling west to Texas. Davy Crockett, Sam Houston and Jim Bowie stopped in Washington on their way to die in defense of the Alamo. Legend say's Houston planned parts of the revolt strategy in a tavern in Washington during 1834. James Black, a talented blacksmith in the town, was commissioned by Jim Bowie to create the original Bowie Knife in 1831. It was this knife he became famous for and died wielding at the Alamo.

Planted in 1839, this magnolia tree has seen
a lot of history.

The town was also the rendezvous point for volunteers to be mustered in to fight in the Mexican War in 1846.  By 1860, the booming town could boast of 17 lawyers, 16 doctors, 15 carpenters, 15 merchants, nine blacksmiths, nine teachers, six printers, 3 hotel owners, 3 carriage makers, and 1 fortune teller. But the town experienced its period of greatest importance during the Civil War. The state capitol in Little Rock fell to the Union Army in September 1863. Governor Harris Flanagin moved the state government to Washington and established offices in the Hempstead County Courthouse. Hempstead County provided its fair share of troops for the Confederacy and the town became a refugee center. In April, 1864, the battle of Prairie D'Ane was fought about 20 miles to the east of the town and the wounded were cared for in Washington.

Unfortunately for the residents, the coming of the railroad era and the establishment of the new town of Hope along the rail line which had bypassed Washington started the town on a path of decline. In 1875, a fire destroyed much of the business district. It was rebuilt, but another fire in 1883 destroyed most of the remaining old businesses in town. Hope was becoming the new shipping and trading center for Hempstead County and Washington residents began to move away. By 1900, only 374 persons were living in town. Repeated attempts to move the county seat to Hope finally succeeded in 1939 further hastening Washington's decline.

Archeological dig - notice the cannon balls
they found?

The town became a state park in 1973 and many of the old structures have been restored by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation. For the last 20 years, archeological fieldwork has been conducted in the town and over 200,000 artifacts have been recovered and preserved. There are still 138 permanent residents who call Washington home.

Located on Highway 278 just nine miles from Hope (from I-30, take exit 30), the park is open year round from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

Well preserved Washington pioneer cemetery.