Notable Burials at Philadelphia's West Laurel Hill Cemetery-- Part 1 Road Trippin'

From Wikipedia.

This is a continuation of my Road Trippin' Through History that I started in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog last week.  I wrote about a Sgt. Richard Binder, USMC, who had received a Medal of Honor for service at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865.

When I Road Trip Through History, I start with a story and see where it takes me.  One of the things I like to do is find out if there are any folks of interest buried where the person is interred.  Sgt. Binder is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.  The cemetery is by Philadelphia, but actually in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and is affiliated with the larger Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Earlier today, I, posted about four Union soldiers who received Medals of Honor during the Civil War in my Running the Blockade blog.

There are a number of early baseball players buried there, but I am not familiar with any of their names.

ALEXANDER MILNE CALDER  ((1845-1923) Sculptor.  Designed the George Meade statue in Philadelphia along with the Benjamin Franklin statue atop the Philadelphia City Hall.

WILLIAM E. CARTER  (1875-1940)  Millionaire and survivor of the Titanic.

More to Come.  --Cooter

Ships on Which Charles Gridley Served

The ships Charles V. Gridley served upon ran the whole history of the U.S. Navy from 1860 (actually back to 1798) to 1898.  A lot of years.

The ships went from wooden to steel, sails to steam.

USS Constitution (USNA)

USS Oneida

USS Brooklyn  (This ship was at the Battle of Mobile Bay and the Battles of Fort Fisher.  Gridley served on it after the war.)

USS Kearsarge

USS Michigan  (1871)

USS Monongahela  (1873)

USS Trenton

USS Marion (his first actual command 1892)

USS Olympia

--Cooter

Charles V. Gridley-- Part 2: The Battle of Mobile Bay and Afterwards

"Steve" Gridley graduated in 1864 (moved up because of the war) in the bottom half of his class.  Some of his classmates would go on to be well-known during the Spanish-American War like  Robley Evans, who commanded the USS Iowa at the Battle of Santiago, and Charles Sigsbee, who was in command of the USS Maine at the time of her loss, and commanded  the USS St. Paul during the war itself.  (Both Evans and Sigsbee were at the Battle of Fort Fisher during the Civil War).

Gridley's first assignment was to the USS Oneida, which was part of Admiral David G. Farragut's blockading squadron.  It was at the Battle of Mobile Bay where Acting Ensign Gridley got his baptism of fire.  He would not experience another large action like this for thirty-four years, at the Battle of Manila Bay.

During the Battle of Mobile Bay, Gridley was [placed all the way forward on the USS Oneida, where he would watch the  the channel for mines and give steering directions to  Commander  J.R.M.  Mullany (the ship's commander).  During the battle, the Oneida had eight men killed and thirty wounded (including Mullany).

Though a shell hit the Oneida close to where Gridley was stationed, he was unscathed.  His commanding officer had this to write about his young ensign:  "The conduct of Acting Ensign  C.V. Gridley is beyond all praise.  he had charge of the master's division and assisted in conning the ship from the topgallant  forecastle."

When the war ended,  Gridley was  detailed to transport  a group of Confederate prisoners to Texas who had accepted the option of going into exile in Mexico.  On arriving, it was found the former Confederates would have no way of continuing south, as the bridges over the Rio Grande had been destroyed.  In spite of them having been former enemies, Gridley did not abandon his passengers.  He took it upon himself to transport them across to Mexico.

--Cooter

USS Maumee (AO-2)-- Part 1: First Navy Ship With Diesel Engines

From Wikipedia.

I wrote about William Tomb in the last post and he commanded the USS Maumee in World War I, a ship noted for refueling six U.S. destroyers on the sea while enroute for England after the U.S. entry into the war in 1917.

There was an earlier USS Maumee which was a gunboat in the Civil War that took part in the attacks on Fort Fisher.

The second USS Maumee was laid down as Fuel Ship No. 14 at Mare Island, California.  When the Navy's ship classifications were introduced in 1920, it became the AO-2.  The "O" standing for oiler.

It was the first surface ship in the Navy to be powered by diesel engines in 1919.  Supervising the engine installation and operation was Executive and Chief Engineering Officer, Lt. Chester W. Nimitz.  This would have been after it had refueled the destroyers in 1917.

It was commissioned in October 1916 and prior to the war, operated off the coast of Cuba.

--Cooter

Claude R. Pfaff-- Part 5: Summers At Carolina Beach, N.C.

Gerri Cohen (their daughter) remembers that as soon as her school was out the family would get on US Highway 421 in Winston-Salem and take it to Carolina Beach where they would stay all summer until just before school began in September.

Now, that's the life.  Beach bum for the summer.  I'd only get to do that for about a week and definitely not every summer.  Perhaps if we had continued living in North Carolina and had Hurricane Hazel not destroyed my grandparents' cottage on Carolina Beach's Southern Extension, I might have been able to do that as well.

Us Highway 421 goes right through Carolina Beach and ends at the "Rocks" by Fort Fisher, about four miles away.  I have taken  US-421 from its northern terminus in Michigan City, Indiana, all the way to the "Rocks."  Before I-40, it was the way to go from Winston-Salem (which it passes through) to Carolina Beach.

Carolina Beach, One of My Favorite Places in the World.  --CootBum

Marking the 11th Anniversary of This Blog

This is the 4417th post of this blog which I began in late 2007.  It grew out of my Down Da Road I Go blog when I noticed that so many posts there were about the thing in my life that really motivates me and that is ANYTHING HISTORY.

I have been interested in history ever since my dad took me to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and had to explain to me why we weren't on the North's side in the war since we lived in North Carolina and North America, which I had learned as a member of the second grade class in Raleigh.

That launched me on what became my employment for 33 years as a social studies teacher, and, of course, all seven of these blogs.

Got To get a Life.  --Cooter  (Cooter because that is not a real serious history thing.  I took the name from that guy on the "Dukes of Hazzard.")

Charles Dwight Sigsbee: the Maine's Commander

Well, I was wondering about Sigsbee's desk and bathtub as well as other objects.

From Wikipedia.

(1845-1923)  Noted pioneering oceanographer.

He was captain of the USS Maine when it exploded.

Appointed acting midshipman 16 July 1862 from the USNA.  During the Civil War, he served aboard the USS Monongahela, USS Wyoming and USS Shenandoah (not the Confederate cruiser of the same name). He was at the Battle of Mobile Bay and both battles of Fort Fisher.

He commanded the USS Kearsarge (which sank the famed CSS Alabama) and was on the European Station 1885-1886.

Sigsbee and his officers were exonerated by the court of inquiry after the Maine sank and later commanded the USS St. Paul in 1898 at the second battle of San Juan and the  Texas in 1900.

In 1905, he commanded the USS Brooklyn when it brought home the remains of naval hero and Father of the U.S. Navy John Paul Jones from France for internment at the USNA.

Retired from the Navy in 1909 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

--DaCoot

Fort Fisher Finally Became a N.C. State Historic Site

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the fall of Fort Fisher in 1865.

After the war, the fort was abandoned by the U.S. Army and allowed to fall into ruins, so much that after awhile it appeared to be nothing more than a group of sand dunes.

Veterans of the battle on both sides worked to have the Federal government make it a U.S. historic site like the Battle of Gettysburg, but nothing was ever accomplished.  Finally, in the late 1950s, through the efforts of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the fort was made a N.C. State Historic Site.

Serious preservation began at this time, though by then much of the fort was now under the Atlantic Ocean.

But, At Least We Still Have What Remains.

Coast Guard Ship Eagle

I wrote about this vessel earlier today in my Civil War blog, Saw the Elephant http://.sawtheelephant.com. As it went past Fort Fisher on the Cape Fear River, the fort fired a welcoming cannon from its 32-pounder at Sheppard Battery.

The August 6th Wilmington Star-News had an article about it by Amy Hotz. Currently, the ship is in the US Coast Guard and used to train Coast guard and other officer candidates and is based in New London, Connecticut.

It is a 295 foot long, square-rig tall ship, USCGC WIX327. The hull is .4 inch thick and has a raised forecastle and a quarterdeck with 3-inch teak over steel. Under full sail, it can make a top speed of 17 knots (20 mph). One striking feature of the ship is the gold eagle on its bow. It has three masts, the tallest of which is 150 feet high.

The reason I am placing this story here is because of its World War II and subsequent history.

It was built in 1936 in Hamburg, Germany and commissioned as Horst Wessel. Originally used as training vessel for German cadets. Adolph Hitler and Rudolph Hess were present at its launch. Horst Wessel was a Nazi party member killed by Communists.

During World War II, it had eight 20 mm machine guns mounted on it and is credited with shooting down 3 Soviet aircraft and one German. This last plane was determined to be an accident after it was found that the pilot had radioed in the wrong code for his battle group, but it certainly didn't help the man's blood pressure.

After the war, the United States received the Wessel in war reparations.

Interesting Story. --Cooter

A Night to Remember: The Sinking of the John D. Gill-- Part 2

The HMdb, Historical Marker Database had a Marker of the Week located in Southport, North Carolina. The article said that World War II markers in the US, other than memorials are rare because with few exceptions, the war didn't reach our shores.

But, there is a marker here for a Filipino mess boy and others who died in the 1942 sinking of a US Merchant Marine tanker off Fort Fisher and the Cape Fear River by a German U-boat.

The marker is dedicated to the memory of Catalino Tingzon who was on the tanker SS John D. Gill which was torpedoed and sunk off the Cape Fear by the U-158, March 12, 1942. The citizens of Southport cared for the survivors.

This article got me to researching more into the sinking.

More to Come. --Cooter

Fall of Fort Fisher Today

I don't usually do entries about the Civil War as I have another blog just on that: http://sawtheelephant.blogspot.com, but it was this battle that got me interested in the Civil War, and from there, history, so it had a really big impact on my life considering that I taught social studies for 33 years.

The fall of Fort Fisher on this date back in 1865, sealed the port of Wilmington and with that, the South's last connection with the outside world. Lee surrendered less than three months later.

Until recently, not much was written about it, but at least four books have now been published on the subject.

It was kind of like my introduction to Route 66 back in 2002. From there, I expanded to the Lincoln Highway and all other historical roads.

Doing That HISTORY Thing. --Cooter

Sad Story From Waco, Texas

The April 27th Waco Tribune reports that hundreds or thousands of Wacoans are buried in the portion of the old First street Cemetery that was SUPPOSEDLY cleared for the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum 40 years ago.

Descendants are obviously not happy. More than 160 remains have been discovered in the recent expansion at Fort Fisher. A cemetery relocation company removed the gravestones, but left the graves.

An archaeological team is exhuming bodies which will be reburied elsewhere.

NOTABLE WACOANS

Some notables that are among the missing. Samuel Forsgard, Waco's first Swedish immigrant and well-known confectioner and Civil War veteran.

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson's great, great, great grandfather Shedrick Willis, a blacksmith and former slave. He was a two-term Waco City Councilman and mayor pro-tim.

Also in the cemetery somewhere is the father of the founder of Dr. Pepper. Confederate veteran H. C. Lazenby moved to Waco in 1866. His son, Robert Sherman Lazenby, produced Circle A Ginger Ale in 1884 and introduced Dr. Pepper in 1886.

I Bet the Relocation Company Got Paid Lots of Money Not to Do Their Job. Wonder If They'd Have Done Differently if One of Their Ancestors Was Buried There. --RoadDog

Wilmington, NC in World War II

The Wilmington, NC, Star News reports that on Tuesday, Feb. 19th, author Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., will give a talk on the impact of WWII on southeastern North Carolina at 7 pm at the Southport Community Building.

Every branch of the armed forces had bases in the Wilmington area:

Army Air Force-- Wilmington Airport (Bluethenthal Field)
Army-- Camp Davis, Fort Fisher
Navy-- Fort Caswell
Coast Guard-- Fort Caswell and Wrightsville Beach
Marine Corps-- Camp Legeune

Also, the Wilmington area housed German POWs.

The Wilmington Shipyard launched 234 cargo ships  (N.C. Shipbuilding Co.)
The Port of Wilmington shipped and received large amounts of war materials.
The population of Wilmington doubled with the influx of military personnel, war workers, and their families.

Wilber D. Jones, Jr, has written 16 books.

Looks like am interesting talk. Wilmington also has a tour you can take of WWII sites.

Too Often, US WWII Sites are Overlooked. --Cooter

This is What Made Me a History Nut

Today marks the 143rd anniversary of the end of a Civil War battle that got me interested in history.

The First Battle of Fort Fisher, NC, took place on Christmas Eve and Day 1864. The first battle featured one of the biggest naval bombardments ever until the Second Battle of Fort Fisher took place 19 days later. The first battle ended as a Confederate victory. The port of Wilmington, NC, remained open as a destination for blockade runners carrying in the desperately needed supplies to Lee's army.

My dad took me to the fort when I was in second grade and told me it was fought between the north and the south. I figured we were on the north's side since we lived in North Carolina and North America. My dad patiently explained the situation to me.

After that, I read everything I could get my hands on about the Civil War. Then, three years later, we had the centennial of the war, and I was hopelessly hooked. I even decided to become a history teacher because of it. I taught geography and history for 33 years in Round Lake, Illinois.

I must admit that I have somewhat become disinterested in the war, but since I started my Civil War blog, "Saw the Elephant." I've reinvigorated my interest.

http://sawtheelephant.blogspot.com.

Funny How Something Can Have an Impact on Your Whole Life. --Cooter