Fort Fisher's Beat the Heat Lecture Series Now Over, But Hopefully Will Be Back Next Year

It can get mighty hot during the summer on Pleasure Island (Federal Point) but you can beat that heat by going inside at the fort, sitting in air conditioned comfort and learning something in the fort's summer "Beat the Heat" series.  Most of the lectures are about the Civil War and especially local history, but they can be about anything historical.

These were the the topics and speakers for this last year:

JUNE 15--  The 1781 Wilmington Campaign--  Rick Morrison

JUNE 22--  Feeding Lee's Army Through the Port  of Wilmington--  Michael C. Hardy

JUNE 29--  Imprisonment, Trial and Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators--  Mark Grim

JULY 6--  Silent Sentinels--  John Winecoff

--Old B-Runner

This Weekend At the Fort July 5-6: Fort Fisher's Junior Reserves and State Military Memorials

Every weekend during the summer, Fort Fisher has two events, one on Friday for the kids, called Junior Reserves and a lecture on Saturday.

This weekend:

FRIDAY, JULY 5  10 am to 2 pm

"A Soldier's Life"  A  kid-friendly family activity that examines the life of a Civil War soldier.  Participants will learn about garrison life, camp life, military drills and handling a replica musket.

SATURDAY, JULY 6   2 PM

John Winecoff of  the North Carolina Military History Society, has spent years documenting military memorials in all 100 counties of the state.

Both events are free and funded by the Friends of Fort Fisher and the towns of Kure and Carolina Beach.

Check It Out.  --Old B-Runner

Tomb's Monument to the Men of the David

From HMdb  "Confederate Torpedo Boat David"

I am fairly sure that James H. Tomb had this monument built.  Also, that his grave as well as that of his wife and young child are located by this monument.

Inscription:

TOMB
In Memory of my
shipmates of the
CONFEDERATE
TORPEDO BOAT DAVID

Charleston, S.C. Oct. 5 , 1863
Lieut. W.T. Glassell,  C.S.N.
Pilot W.J. Cannon,  C.S.N.
Fireman  Jas. Sullivan, C.S.N.
Chief Engineer
James Hamilton Tomb

Erected 1905
The date is the one in which the David launched its unsuccessful attack on the USS New Ironsides.

Located near the entrance of Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville, Florida.

"Beat the Heat" At Fort Fisher: Colonial Resistance to the Stamp Act and Silent Sentinels

The next two Saturdays, the annual "Beat the Heat" lecture will continue June 30 and July 7 at 2 p.m. at the Fort Fisher State Historic Site in Kure Beach, North Carolina.

JUNE 30:

THE ROOTS OF COLONIAL RESISTANCE TO THE STAMP ACT AND THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION

Parliament's Stamp Act of 1765 focused colonial resistance to Great Britain's attempts to impose new taxes on the colonies without the consent of colonial legislatures.

The rise of colonial resistance was also based on fiscal policy leading to an attempt to arrest British officials in Brunswick Town (across the Cape Fear River a little north of Fort Fisher) and placed Royal Governor Tryon under a short house arrest.

The lecture will be given by Fort Fisher interpreter, Rick Morrison, a retired U.S. Navy captain.


JULY 7:

"THE SILENT SENTINELS"

We pass them all the time.  They dot North Carolina's roads, parks and cemeteries.  John Winecoff, of the North Carolina Military History Society, has spent years documenting all the military memorials in the state's 100 counties.

They are silent witnesses to the sacrifices of our men and women in over 243 years of our country's history.

And, the Lectures Take Place in Air-Conditioned Comfort, Just the Thing for These Hot Summer Days.  --Old B-Runner

Fort Fisher Confederate Memorial Day Service, April 28, 2018

From Friends of Fort Fisher.

The Fort Fisher Chapter 2325 United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Friends of Fort Fisher held a service at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 28 at the UDC Confederate monument at Battle Acre at Fort Fisher.

The ocean front memorial service will feature a uniformed color guard and the main speaker will be Commander David Everett, USNR, currently the commander of the JROTC at John T. Hoggand High School in Wilmington.

He will speak about "Duty Is The Sublimest Word In The English Language."  This is a quote from Robert E. Lee.

Wreaths will be laid at the base of the monument in honor of the fallen sons of the South by the area UDC chapters, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Friends of Fort Fisher

The public is welcome and refreshments will be served afterwards.

--Old B-Runer

Someone Vandalized Boston's Famous Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

From the February 21, 2017, Mass Live.

His sword on the memorial was snapped off and found on the ground.  The friends of Public Garden have a "stockpile" of similar swords , though.

The memorial was created by Augustus Saint-Geaudens and unveiled in 1897 after almost 14 years of work.  A patented plaster version of the memorial is on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

And, the memorial has been vandalized before.  In 2015, a Charleston man ripped off the sword in a similar manner.  In 2012, a woman threw yellow paint at it according to the Boston Globe.

It Is a Sad Thing When Memorials and Statues Get Vandalized.  --Old B-Runner

New Confederate Marker Unveiled At Fort Fisher

From the May 2, 2017 91.3 WHQR News by Vince Winkel.

Confederate  Memorial Day in a state holiday in North Carolina and observed on May 10.  Six other Southern states also observe it.  A new interpretive marker was dedicated by the Confederate Monument on Battle Acre.

During the Saturday ceremony the Christian hymn "How Firm a Foundation" was sung.  This was Robert E. Lee's favorite hymn and sung at his funeral.

Dozens off descendants of Confederate soldiers were at Battle Acre for the ceremony.

The Confederate monument was built by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and dedicated June 2, 1932.

Sadly, however, in these days of all this Confederate statue desecration, how long will it be before one of those folks will have their feelings offended and demand it be taken down?

--Old B-Runner

Memorial Day 2017: William Graham Hood

This 2017 Memorial Day  I will post in all blogs about it today and tomorrow.

William Graham Hood, served in the U.S. Army in World War I.  He never went overseas, though.

He was my grandfather.

Key West Preserves Its Confederate Memorials

From the August 25, 2015, WLRN Miami/South Florida "Key West Preserves Memorials to Confederate and Union armies" by Nancy Klingener.

This is refreshing news what with all the effort to remove and ban Confederate memorials elsewhere these days.  Finally a city doing the right thing.

The nation's southern-most city is restoring its memorials to both sides.  One is a white pavilion in Bayview Park erected by the UDC in 1924.  There is also a monument about 140 yards away dedicated to soldiers from two New York regiments stationed in Key West and who died of diseases like yellow fever.

Another part of Bayview Park has a memorial to blacks who joined the Union Army in Key West.

Thanks to fast thinking by a Union officer who had his men occupy the still unfinished Fort Zachary Taylor when Florida seceded,  Key West remained in Union hands throughout the war.

Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory, whose name is on the famed Mallory Square, was a Key West native.

Downtown near the harbor, the Key West Navy Club put up an obelisk in 1866 dedicated to Union soldiers and sailors who died in Key West during the war.  The low, cast-iron fence surrounding it bears the name of its builder, J.V. Harris, a Confederate veteran.

--Old B-Runner

George Davis Statue Dedicated in Wilmington in 1911

From the April 19, 2011, Wilmington (NC) Star-News Looking Back Column.

On April 21, 1911, the unveiling and formal dedication of the statue of the Honorable George Davis, attorney general of the Confederacy took place. The statue was a gift from the local group of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The ceremony was preceded by a parade of civic, military and allied Confederate organizations from the city which went from the Wilmington Light Artillery Armory to the site (where it remains today).

Davis died in 1896 and is buried in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery.

Honoring the Past. --Old B-Runner