Interesting tour today through West Point, about 20 miles from our campground - well, that’s one of the reasons we chose this campground. Our guide is married to a West Point Military History instructor and this is their second tour of duty here. She was a history major and has taught history so West Point is a perfect fit for them. She started when the bus driver turned on the key and kept up a steady round of stories about the buildings we saw and the people who were at West Point until we got back to where we started.
Many of the people on our tour were Japanese and did not speak English. They had an interpreter but the guide spoke so fast that I’m not sure that much got translated. On the other hand, any slower and the tour wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was. They probably need a Japanese tour guide. Both Gary and I wondered why the Japanese tourists were at West Point. If I had a few weeks in a foreign country, I don’t think that I would choose their military college to tour. But, I guess they were interested.
But, back to our tour. We got to see Michie Stadium, note the ‘BEAT NAVY’ sign at the end of the stadium. I guess the sign isn’t working - they’ve lost the last few games.
Then we got to the Cadet Chapel. Beautiful building and built out of the ‘West Point’ stone - to match all the other buildings. I wish I could take credit for this photo but mine would have had lots of construction around the top so I took this from the USMA website. But the inside is as beautiful as the outside. Wonderful stained glass windows.
Huge organ, metal pipes lining the walls. I would love to hear the organ played.
From Trophy Point is the million dollar view up the Hudson.
Which brings up the question: why was West Point built here? The Hudson is straight up from New York City until the S-shaped curve around this point of land - which is on the West side of the river. Hey - it’s West Point. At one point during the Revolutionary War, a huge chain was strung across the river to prevent the British from coming up the river and splitting New England from the rest of the states. Here are a few of the links of the chain.
The chain was 600 yards long and each link weighed 114 lbs. - the total chain weighed 65 tons. They were floated down the river to West Point on logs. But, it wasn’t the British that were the threat to West Point - it was the Superintendent, an American General who thought he should be appreciated more, promoted more and paid more. Being a decorated general and a good friend of Washington, he asked to command the fort at West Point because he had already contacted the British to turn the Point over to them. Oh, yeah, his wife was a British Loyalist.
He got the plans, turned them over to his British contact, Major Andre who got caught on the way to the British with the plans. The General found out, skedaddled to the British and fought for them for the rest of the war. AT the end, he moved to Great Britain where he thought he should be appreciated more, promoted more and paid more. Of course, the British didn’t trust him - he was a traitor. Guessed it? Sure enough - Benedict Arnold who died penniless.
They are building a new dormitory named for Benjamin Davis, the first African American graduate.
For the 4 years he was at West Point, he was ’shunned’ meaning that:
he ate alone
he lived alone
he walked alone
he studied alone
no one talked to him for 4 years unless it was absolutely necessary. He graduated 35th out of 213 and went on to a distinguished career. West Point is trying to make it up to him by naming the dorm after him.
There was a statue of General McArthur whose mother, Pinky, followed him to West Point and got a room across the street with a view of his room - for 4 years. If his light was on too late, she complained that he was not getting enough sleep. If it went out too early, she wondered what he was doing. When he became the Superintendent of WP and was unmarried, she came with him to be his hostess for dinners. The original helicopter mom.
Patton’s statue originally faced the library. He took 5 years to finish instead of 4 and gave the excuse that he ‘couldn’t find the library for the 5 years.’ So his statue faced the library. When the new library was built, strangely, they faced his statue out - ironically, he has never seen the new library.
Eisenhower was a member of the ‘Century Club’ because he walked 100 hours of punishment for his hi-jinks. But - he turned out OK.
So, when cadets graduate they toss their hats up - how do they get their own hat back? They don’t. Those are cadet hats and they don’t need them any more. After the graduation ceremony, the kids in the audience get to come onto the field to get the hats.
Good tour and we enjoyed it.
Now over to the museum which is very good: lots of information, lots of mementos - reminding all of us who has served our country. Pretty cool museum with lots of memorabilia. The museum had 4 sections: the history of warfare, American wars, West Point in American wars and - I have forgotten the 4th. Being a World History teacher, I was quite intrigued by the intricate models of turning-point battles in World History.
Hers’s one where the Romans attacked a fort (in the background). Not only did the Romans build an elaborate platform higher than the height of the fort walls so they could fire down upon it, they also build elaborate ramps up to the fort so they could attack from them. Caesar is on the white horse in the foreground. All of their models were this elaborate. Our tour guide told us that her husband was a teacher of wartime strategy at West Point and he studied these models and so did his students.
Here is the uniform that Grant wore at Appomattox and the sash that Lee wore.
They had items from other countries and times also. Here is a set of Hitler’s pistols.
A very complete museum and excellently organized.
We left so we could spend some time in the West Point cemetery where we saw the graves of: General Butterfield who commanded a division in the Civil War. He was so afraid of being buried alive that this mausoleum had a light and a buzzer to signal the caretaker.
We like this one.
Here’s the grave of Margaret ‘Molly’ Corbin who took her wounded husband’s place at the the cannon at the Battle of Fort Washington in Manhattan in 1776.
Very interesting visit to West Point. A friend of ours who had toured this area told me that she had never thought of touring West Point but then she said that we probably never thought of taking the wine tour of the area. She has me there. She was right - we didn’t even think of taking a wine tour. But we sure enjoyed the West Point tour.
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