College Park, MD - Changing of the Guard

After we visited Ford’s Theater, we headed on over to Arlington National Cemetery. Close to Arlington is the Pentagon Memorial for the 184 who died on 9/11/2001 at 9:37 am. The individual memorials are arranged in a time line from the youngest, Dana Falkenberg who was 3 to John D. Yamnicky who was 71. Each individual memorial is a cantilevered bench, a lighted pool of flowing water and the name of each victim. See the benches facing the Pentagon - those are for those who died in the Pentagon. The benches of those who were on the plane face the direction of the plane’s approach. The trees are Cape Myrtle and they will grow tall enough to shade the entire memorial.

As we were walking around the monument, there was a group of teens also walking around. All were quiet in reverence to those who had died.

We then took off for Arlington National Cemetery where, at the top of the hill, is Arlington House, Robert E. Lee’s home which is furnished with the original pieces that were here when Lee was. Here is the room where Lee proposed to his future wife.

Here is a picture of Lee - obviously when he was younger. We all think of Lee with grey hair and with the world on his shoulders. but - nope - he was not born with grey hair. Here he is a dashing young officer with his life ahead of him.

The house was originally built by George Washington Parke Custis who was raised by George Washington from his childhood. He revered Washington and kept a lot of the furniture and paintings and china from the Washington’s when he inherited it all. He had Washington’s campaign tent from the Revolutionary War, the china that George and Martha used and many other pieces. When Lee left for Richmond to accept his commission with the confederate army and Mrs. Lee fled because the Union occupied Arlington Heights to defend the capitol, Mrs. Lee gave the keys to the mansion to her most trusted slave, Selina Gray, who then became the caretaker of all the Washington treasures. When items began to disappear, she went to the commanding officer who then moved many of the items to Washington DC. Without her watchful eyes, we wouldn’t have many artifacts from George and Martha Washington.

Today the National Park Service maintains the home as a memorial to Robert E. Lee as a great general and as a great example of reconciliation after the Civil War.

Finally we walked over to Arlington Cemetery to pay our respects to all those buried there. When the Civil War casualties began to outpace the growth of other cemeteries in the DC area, Arlington National Cemetery was established on the Lee land. Ultimately, the Lee family was compensated and the cemetery remained in government hands. Today, the cemetery is the final resting place for 400,000 active-duty military and their families.

We also stopped at President Kennedy’s eternal flame and at Robert Kennedy’s grave. There were quite a few groups of Junior High kids in the cemetery at this time. To them President Kennedy must be ancient history. To me, it happened when I was a Senior in high school. I was in Physics, the last class of the day when the intercom came on with some news from the radio. What’s going on? we all asked. No introduction, just the radio broadcast. Then it hit us - President Kennedy had been shot and was on his way to the hospital. We were dismissed, went home, and I don’t know of a TV in America that was off that weekend.

Washington’s one of those towns that has so much going at any one time that you never know what you’ll see - just by chance. Today, just by chance we got to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier right after the changing of the guard so thought we’d just have to wait a bit. We watched the young man on guard march up and down for a bit and then he disappeared into his guard house. Huh? I thought they were always out marching 24-7-365. Nope, he went into the guard house and out of sight. Then a Sergeant marched in and in back of us, up the steps a group of youngsters with another guard appeared. The Sergeant told us that there was a wreath laying and would we please put our hands over our hearts when he said: ‘Present Arms’. Then the youngsters walked down the steps with their wreath, handed it to the Sergeant who put it on a stand, stepped back and the bugler played ‘Taps.’ Shivers up and down my spine, tears forming in my eyes. WOW. Note all the WWII soldiers in red in the background. They are in town for the WWII flyover on Friday.

Then, there was a second wreath laying. How could we be so lucky to arrive just at the moment when all this was about to happen? And, then, when that was over, the regular guard came out of his guard house, and began his solemn march back and forth. Then it was time for the changing of the guard. It is quite a stylized ritual and executed to perfection - every time.

On the way back to the Campground on the bus, we met a group of 7 also returning to the campground representing 4 generations: a great-grandmother in a wheelchair, her daughter in a wheelchair with her husband, their son and daughter-in-law with their 2-yr old child and another male who I never really saw. They are making a 3 week trip from Texas to NY to Montreal and back in a C-style RV with 3 beds. They don’t like to make reservations in advance because you know what might happen and just call RV parks as they draw near. Yes, they are a bit crowded but they are having lots of fun. ‘We like to fly by the seat of our pants.’ the father of the 2-yr old said. What an interesting group. They had just spent their second day in town and were a bit tired but still smiling and laughing about their adventure.

Marvelous day.

'It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.'

                         George Washington

College Park, MD - 'He Now Belongs to the Ages'

We arrived at Ford’s Theater at 9:00 this morning only to find this - a humongous line to get into the theater for the 9:20 Ranger presentation. OH, shucks. What are kids doing up this early in the morning? But, we got our tickets and went to the back of the line, right after the Yuma, AZ kids who were in DC for the week. Actually, it was a theater and held a lot of people so we still got good seats. The Ranger then launched into his presentation about Lincoln’s assassination.

It’s amazing how many times ‘just by chance’ plays an important part in history. As the Ranger was talking about Lincoln’s assassination, he was really reciting a list of ‘just by chance’ events that led up to the assassination. (By the way, I have no idea why the stage in the background is tilted - it must have been for the next presentation.)

        Just by chance Lincoln wrote to Ford telling him that he would like to attend the theater that night with General Grant and Ford not only announced that Lincoln would be there that evening but also prepared the theater with bunting and other flags to decorate the Presidential box.

        Just by chance Booth stopped by the theater that morning to pick up his mail and noticed the extensive preparations for Lincoln’s attendance at the theater that evening and knew he had his opportunity.

        Just by chance, Booth knew the theater well and all the passageways and doors to get where he wanted to be at the right moment.

        Just by chance, Grant did not accompany Lincoln to the theater as planned and his military escort was not outside the booth ready to protect him.

        Just by chance, Booth knew the play ‘My American Cousin’ well and knew just when the audience would be completely wrapped up in the play, when the heaviest laugh line would come and thus the best moment to assassinate Lincoln.

        Just by chance Booth happened to be one of Lincoln’s favorite actors so, when he walked up to Lincoln’s booth in the theater, no one gave it a second thought.

        Just by chance, Booth knew the play ‘My American Cousin’ well and knew just when the audience would be completely wrapped up in the play, when the heaviest laugh line would come and thus the best moment to assassinate Lincoln.

But all that merely begs the question: would Booth have found another opportunity to assassinate Lincoln? Probably. He was determined.

I don’t want to repeat the whole story but there were some facets that I hadn’t heard before. Firstly, Mrs Lincoln attended none of the funerals, she was in too much grief. Her sons did attend. Poor woman, her husband was assassinated sitting beside her, 3 of her 4 sons died during her lifetime and she was estranged from her one remaining son.

As Booth was escaping to Virginia, he expected a hero’s welcome but most were reluctant to help him. He eventually had to hide in a barn where he was found by his pursuers and shot.

When Booth shot Lincoln, Maj. Henry Reed Rathbone, who was Lincoln’s guest in his box, tried to wrap his arms around Booth to hold him but Booth slashed at him with his knife, wounding him. He always thought he should have done more to save Lincoln. Finally, it got the better of him, he killed his wife, turned a knife on himself, was declared insane and died in an asylum in Hanover, Germany.

A tragedy all around. After the Ranger talk we looked across the street at the humongous line of teens 

and decided it was a perfect time to get a second cup of coffee at Au Bon Pain. Oh, and maybe one of their pastries. We sat out side and realized that we were across the street from the J Edgar Hoover FBI building. O-o-oh the security was tight. We saw this well-trained sniffing dog doing his job and doing it thoroughly. He did not leave that vehicle until he was done.

Ah, coffee done and the line was very thin so we walked over to the Petersen House where Lincoln was taken after he was shot. This is the first floor bedroom that they put him in.

It was obvious that he was not going to survive so the doctors were just trying to keep him comfortable though he never regained consciousness. Notice that Mary Lincoln is not in the picture - she was actually in the next room. 

He was too tall for the bed so they had to stretch him diagonally across the bed. They had quite a collection of Lincoln memorabilia from Mrs. Lincoln’s stained dress to Lincoln’s black top hat to the derringer that Booth used to the top coat Lincoln had worn to the theater that night. It was the custom in the mid 1800’s when someone died to cut a small bit of the cloth off of the dead person’s clothing to give to someone else as a souvenir and thus most of the left sleeve was gone.

When his funeral train wound its way from Washington DC to Illinois where he was to be buried, it passed through many towns where local funerals were held for him. Note the population of Columbus, OH and the number of people who attended the funeral - in this case 5 times more attended the funeral than lived in the town.

Here’s a set of keys that Booth had with him. No one had ever found out what any of the keys was for.

On the way out was a display trying to show the number of books written about Lincoln. There are over 15,000 but this display could only hold 1/3 of these. It was a 3-story display at that.

We then hopped on the Metro and headed on over to Arlington National Cemetery to pay our respects to all those who have given their lives so that I could live mine here in the US.

‘Now he belongs to the Ages.’

        Edwin Stanton, Sec’y of War under Lincoln