A Slain President is Honored – Lincoln in Springfield

PRESIDENT JOHNSON CLOSES THE GOVERNMENT

The body of Abraham Lincoln, slain president of the United States reached Springfield,  Illinois by train.  On 04 MAY, 1865 he was laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery.  This was after the  1,500-mile trip passing through 180 cities along the way that began on 21 APR 1865 in Washington, DC.

President Andrew Johnson issued an order to close down the United States government to honor the slain president.

THE WAR DEPARTMENT CLOSES –

MINUTE GUNS ORDERED

The War Department also issued an order to close on that day.  Also, at Washington Arsenal, minute guns would be fired from noon until sunset to honor the slain president.

These orders appeared in the 04 MAY 1865 issue of the Washington Star newspaper.  The excerpt is below:

National Salute Fired

The 21-gun salute was adopted as the standard salute for royalty in 1808. The United States fired a “national salute,” on special occasions and during times of mourning, of one gun for each state in the union until 1841, when the salute was standardized at 21 guns.

OVER 200 HISTORICAL IMAGES, MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS

The book, Images of America – Fort Lesley J. McNair contains over two hundred historical photographs, images, and illustrations. They chronicle the two hundred plus years of history among the acres of this US Army Post.

The book “Images of America – Fort Lesley J McNair”  is “a walk down memory lane” as one reader called it after he turned the last page.  Go beyond the website and read more of the history with your own copy – BUY THE BOOK offers the opportunity to get either a personalized & autographed copy from the author or purchase the book from one of the major resellers.

Walt Whitman – O Captain My Captain

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on 14 APR 1865 at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.  Some call him the last casualty of the US Civil War.  In response to the death of the President,  Walt Whitman, America’s Poet, wrote a poem that was a tribute to Lincoln and his efforts to see the country through the war.

Leaves of Grass

(Leather-bound Classics)

NOTE TO READER: (1865) A poem by Walt Whitman about a captain who dies just as his ship has reached the end of a stormy and dangerous voyage. The captain represents Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated just as the Civil War was ending. The poem is classified as an elegy or mourning poem and was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States.

The Lincoln Assassination  Conspirators Hanged

Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator

First Woman Hanged by the Federal Government

The Lincoln Conspirators Hanged…

After weeks of listening to the testimony of hundreds of “witnesses,” the military commission’s came to a consensus and the orders were carried out. On July 7, 1865, four conspirators – Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt – were hanged by the neck at Federal Penitentiary at Washington Arsenal in Washington D.C.  The remaining conspirators: Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler received other sentences or were later freed when President Andrew Johnson pardoned them.  John Surratt, the son of Mary Surratt who had become a fugitive and first went to Canada then to Europe then Africa was later captured and tried, but got set free on a technicality.

The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators:

Their Confinement and Execution,

as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft

Lincoln Conspirators

 Gallows Constructed in the Courtyard

While the trial was being held preparations were made for the outcome with gallows built in the courtyard of the penitentiary to carry out the sentence of the military commission. The actual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, already dead, was buried temporarily within the penitentiary grounds.

Conspirators on-Scaffold

The Lincoln conspirators hanged at the gallows…

The Lincoln conspirators were hanged at the gallows…

When they were dead, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt’s bodies were then placed in coffins and buried temporarily in shallow graves near the gallows.  Within days the gallows were removed and later the entire penitentiary was also dismantled save for one part of the building that stands until today,  Grant Hall, where the trial took place. After the rest of the buildings came down,  the bricks were then used for the walls (and other projects within the fort) that now surround Fort Lesley J. McNair.

Mary Surratt:

The Life of the Alleged Lincoln Conspirator

Who Became the First Woman Executed by the U.S. Government

John Surratt’s Flight for Freedom

Considered to be the last of the conspirators, John Surratt, Mary’s son fled the United States then onto Canada and to Europe.  He thus avoided the fate of the other conspirators, who were hanged. He served briefly as a Pontifical (“Papal”) Zouave but was recognized and arrested. He escaped to Egypt but was eventually arrested and extradited. By the time of his trial, the statute of limitations had expired on most of the potential charges which meant that he was never convicted of anything.

The Last Lincoln Conspirator:

John Surratt’s Flight from the Gallows

We Need Engineers

General Lesley J. McNair:

Unsung Architect of the U. S. Army

(Modern War Studies (Hardcover))

ABOUT THE BOOK:

George C. Marshall once called him “the brains of the army.” And yet General Lesley J. McNair (1883-1944), a man so instrumental to America’s military preparedness and Army modernization, remains little known today, his papers purportedly lost, destroyed by his wife in her grief at his death in Normandy. This book, the product of an abiding interest and painstaking research, restores the general Army Magazine calls one of “Marshall’s forgotten men” to his rightful place in American military history. Because McNair contributed so substantially to America’s war preparedness, this first complete account of his extensive and varied career also leads to a reevaluation of U.S. Army effectiveness during WWII.

Born halfway between the Civil War and the dawn of the twentieth century, Lesley McNair–“Whitey” by his classmates for his blond hair–graduated 11th of 124 in West Point’s class of 1904 and rose slowly through the ranks like all officers in the early twentieth century. He was 31 when World War I erupted, 34 and a junior officer when American troops prepared to join the fight. It was during this time, and in the interwar period that followed the end of World War I, that McNair’s considerable influence on Army doctrine and training, equipment development, unit organization, and combined arms fighting methods developed. By looking at the whole of McNair’s career–not just his service in WWII as chief of staff, General Headquarters, 1940-1942, and then as commander, Army Ground Forces, 1942-1944–Calhoun reassesses the evolution and extent of that influence during the war, as well as McNair’s, and the Army’s, wartime performance. This in-depth study tracks the significantly positive impact of McNair’s efforts in several critical areas: advanced officer education; modernization, military innovation, and technological development; the field-testing of doctrine; streamlining and pooling of assets for necessary efficiency; arduous and realistic combat training; combined arms tactics; and an increasingly mechanized and mobile force.

Because McNair served primarily in staff roles throughout his career and did not command combat formations during WWII, his contribution has never received the attention given to more public–and publicized–military exploits. In its detail and scope, this first full military biography reveals the unique and valuable perspective McNair’s generalship offers for the serious student of military history and leadership.

The Engineers and Washington Barracks

It was in 1901 when the engineers left Willetts Point for their new home at Washington Barracks in Washington DC.  That marked a complete revamping of the acreage of what was Washington Arsenal and Penitentiary during the Civil War.  The building included housing for officers and NCOs but most prominently the iconic Roosevelt Hall that was designed by McKim Mead & White the noted architects from New York.

Army War College – Roosevelt Hall

Here Comes World War I

World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. It wasn’t until 1918 that the United States got involved in the war. The United States initially remained neutral, though even while neutral it became an important supplier of war materiel to the Allies. Eventually, after the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the declaration by Germany that its navy would resume unrestricted attacks on neutral shipping, and the revelation that Germany was trying to incite Mexico to initiate war against the United States, the U.S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces did not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American Expeditionary Force ultimately reached some two million troops.

We Need Engineers

The involvement of the United States meant several things to the situation, primarily the building/rebuilding o the infrastructure in France… railroads, communications, roadways, camps, storage buildings, and ENGINEERS!

Recruitment began with an engineer poster like the ones below that were used to bring the talent to Washington Barracks,

The success of the engineer poster campaign helped to modernize the infrastructure in France while providing the Army a great supply of engineers.

OVER 200 HISTORICAL IMAGES, MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS

The book, Images of America – Fort Lesley J. McNair contains over two hundred historical photographs, images, and illustrations that chronicle the two hundred plus years of history among the acres of this US Army Post.

The book “Images of America – Fort Lesley J McNair”  is “a walk down memory lane” as one reader called it after he turned the last page.  Go beyond