Woke to temps in the low 20's - this is just wrong!
I stopped at the Visitor Center to watch two movies - one is about the civil war prison and the other is about Prisoners of all wars, with a lot of interviews with WWII, Korea and Vietnam vets, including John McCain. I then visited the museum that had artifacts from prisoners of all US wars. The first thing they emphasized was that humane treatment of prisoners is a relatively new concept and that the definition of prisoner of war is complicated. For example, to be considered a prisoner of war, one has to be in the military, therefore embassy non-military personnel held hostage are not prisoners of war). Spies also are not prisoners of war, so when Nathan Hale was caught by the British, he was carrying hidden papers from George Washington, and was hanged as a spy. Of course, prisoners of war have routinely not been treated humanely regardless of the various Geneva convention agreements. The museum highlighted revolting events like the Bataan Death March and at first I was depressed and could only see the horrors, but then I began to see that it was trying to also point out the heroism and brotherhood that existed among the prisoners that kept their morale up and enabled many of them to survive.
I used their cd to do the auto tour through the Andersonville civil war prison site (officially Camp Sumter). It was a 16 acre (later expanded to 26 acre) hilly field with a small stream running through the center that served as the only source of water for the entire camp and a 7' stockade fence around it. Built to house about 10,000 men, within one year, it held 33,000 when the north refused to continue to swap prisoners because the Confederates were enslaving the black prisoners of war. There were no buildings and the men made shelters from the cold and rain from any scraps of material they had brought or could find. Of the 45,000 that went into the gates in the 1 1/2 years it was open, almost 13,000 died of disease and starvation. The commander of the prison was hanged after the war. Although Andersonville is probably the best known civil war prison, there were others both in the north and south that had similar death rates - including the one in...wait for it.....Elmira!
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| A 7' Stockade fence surrounded the camp |
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| A view of the Camp from the opposite end with the stream in the middle |
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| This shows where the stockade fence was. The inside white stakes show where there was a simple split rail fence that was called the "Deadline" beyond which prisoners were shot by the guards atop the stockade |
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| A recreation of the types of shelters the men built for themselves |
I then visited the cemetery which is still an active veteran cemetery. During the civil war, graves were marked with a stake and a number. Fortunately, a prisoner who worked at the hospital copied down the names and numbers of the deceased so that he and Clara Barton were able to get the graves identified by name.
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| Entrance to Cemetery |
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| New Jersey Monument |
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| Had to add the New York Monument for Jack |
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| A monument for the WW II Stalag 17 Prison |
So much cruelty and death -- how can we continue to do this to each other?
I spent all morning and then drove a few hours to Montgomery, Alabama. Jack and I had been here a few years ago and had seen the civil war and civil rights sites. Today, I wanted to stop by the only museum dedicated to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He has always been one of my favorite authors (This Side of Paradise, Great Gatsby, Last Tycoon, etc.) and their real life was more melodramatic than any of those. The museum had artifacts from both of their lives. He and Zelda both grew up in privleged homes and their engagement was on again/off again depending on whether and when his first novel was getting published. It eventually was published to rave reviews and they were married a month later. They epitomized the roaring 20's with constant partying, drinking, and traveling as they tried to live the elite bohemian lifestyle of the times. Zelda was eventually institutionalized for life, probably bi-polar disorder although they called it schizophrenia at the time. Her sister also suffered mental issues and her brother committed suicide. F. Scott Fitzgerald spent enormous sums of money on her care and boarding schools for their only child at the same time his new novel, The Great Gatsby, was panned by critics and he resorted to writing short stories for magazines and finally writing screenplays for Hollywood to stay financially viable. He died of a heart attack at 42 years of age, a literary failure. His daughter is given enormous credit for maintaining his reputation and having a paperback edition of his books sent to the troops in WWII. The troops came home, raving about the books, and so F. Scott Fitzgerald became a best-selling author once again in death.
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| His "Thoughtbook" from College Days at Princton |
Stopped for the night at an Army Corps of Engineers park on Woodruff Lake just outside Montgomery that had electric hookups as it is forecast to be very cold again tonight.
