The Woods Still Stand Witness to Our History

Trail to Freestone Point

Photo: Ileana Johnson, May 2019

Leesylvania’s woods and hills met me with a lush green embrace of solitude and peace and the drifting fragrant smoke of the waterfront barbecue grills. The thick forest lies on a small peninsula overlooking the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers, rich with American history, fauna and flora.

Leesylvania is now a state park with a fishing pier and a picnic area much beloved by Central American residents and their families. The laughter of children bathing in the Potomac River echoes through the thick forest. Some of the mature trees giving us a welcoming cool shade grew first as tiny saplings in the Lee family garden.

The bumpy hill leads up to the Confederate gun battery, the gravesite where Henry Lee II and his wife Lucy Grymes were buried. Closer to the bottom of the hill are the chimney remains of the former home of the Fairfax family.  Henry Fairfax purchased the property from the Lee family in 1825 and lived there until 1910.

Fairfax home chimney  

The Freestone Point, named after the porous quarried rock, juts out over the Potomac River, overlooking the current park’s fishing pier. On rainy days, tree roots ooze out mud below, washed out by a sudden deluge.

Confederate guns were placed here during the Civil War. In the early years of the war, General Robert E. Lee ordered a blockade of the Potomac River in order to cut off the Union’s access to Washington DC. The 32-pound cannons positioned here were part of the blockade that lasted almost six months.

Freestone Point drawing (Park archives)

The well-preserved northernmost battery at Freestone Point was used as a decoy while more effective batteries were placed down river at Possum Point, Cockpit Point and Evansport.

When in September 1861 Freestone Point was fired upon, Sgt. Walter Curry of the Washington Mounted Artillery of Hampton’s Legion wrote in his diary, “… as soon as the eleventh shot was fired, our Guns opened on the Lincolnite men of war which were floating majestically on the Broad Potomac.” The Confederates closed the commercial traffic on the Potomac by December. The blockade did not end until March 9, 1862.  (Leesylvania State Park Archives)

Close to the cemetery there are traces of the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad tracks that used to carry necessary supplies to run a large estate growing corn and tobacco.

No trace remains today of the Lee’s ancestral home. Henry Lee II raised eight children here with his wife Lucy Grymes, including Light-Horse Harry Lee—Revolutionary War colonel, Virginia Governor, and father of Robert E. Lee. The Lees have left their imprint in the history of these lands and in the names of our modern landmarks.

Richard Lee, the original immigrant from England, was so determined to succeed in the New World that he became, in less than twenty years, an affluent fur trader, a colonel in the Virginia military, and a planter with prosperous land holdings and slaves. He owned fifteen thousand acres of land, more than any other man in the colony of Virginia. He was the colony’s attorney general and a member of the House of Burgesses.

In his old age, the “original Immigrant” returned to England, but his heirs were to come back to northern Virginia upon his death. Subsequently, generations of Lees made their homes and fortunes in Virginia after 1664.

Henry Lee II received from Henry Lee’s will in 1746 all his plantations and land in Prince William County at Freestone Point and at Neapsco (now called Neabsco, Doeg Indian for Point of Rocks) and Powell’s Creek.

The tobacco growing on the plantation was so lucrative that it was shipped to London from the wharf in Dumfries, three miles down from Freestone Point. Dumfries was the commercial hub in Prince William County. Today it remains the oldest incorporated small town in Virginia.

Henry II married in 1753 a “lowland beauty” named Lucy Grymes who is said to have been so popular with men of marrying age, she even became the object of marital aspirations of a young boy named George Washington.

Henry II cleared the land in Prince William County and built a new estate, Leesylvania (Lee’s Woods) the same year he married Lucy.  Modest by standards set by other plantations in the colony of Virginia, Leesylvania was built of brick on a stone foundation, with “double-tiered porticos wrapped around the front and rear of the building,” with twin chimneys, “two and half stories tall.” The home burned in 1797 and there is no image left of it.

Henry Lee was “the first citizen of Prince William County” in his capacity as its attorney general and militia commander. Washington asked him in 1755 to provide 100 men on horseback from Prince William County and bread provisions to “assist in the protection of our Frontiers.”

Henry Lee III monument

Lucy and Henry Lee lost their first child, a daughter. A year later, in 1756, another child was born of their union, Henry Lee III, a son who eventually became the famous Light Horse Harry (1756-1818). A statue at the foot of the rocky hill commemorates the revolutionary war hero and father of General Robert E. Lee.

View of the Occoquan River from the forested bluff

Photo: Ileana Johnson

Henry Lee III grew up riding horses, raising ponies, fencing, and practicing his marksmanship. Influential Virginians were frequent visitors at Lee’s Woods, dining and lodging there, including George Washington on his frequent trips from Mount Vernon estate to Fredericksburg and Williamsburg. (Ryan Cole, Light-Horse Harry Lee, The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero, 2019)

Henry Lee III was a cavalry commander (1776-1781), was awarded Congressional Medal in 1779, member of the Continental Congress (1786-1788), governor of Virginia (1791-1794), and member of the U.S. Congress (1799-1801).

Walking through the dense forest trails, I am in awe as my steps retrace the long-gone steps of so many famous American men and women who blazed this path through history, instrumental in the shaping of our country today.

Field of Dreams in Leesylvania State Park

Photo: Ileana Johnson

The Hessian Powder Magazine

On the Carlisle Barracks grounds in Pennsylvania, a non-descript rectangular stone building was witness to so much of our early American history.  The entrance is in the middle, a heavy and simple wooden door with rusted thick latches. It is now a self-guided museum which opens at daylight and closes at sun-down. It was captivating to step inside and to visit alone the former prison cells and powder storage magazine, now a museum which describes the rich history that surrounds the area.

The Carlisle post was purchased by the federal government in 1801 from the heirs of William Penn for $662.20.  The property had been rented previously.

In 1803 Meriwether Lewis was helped by eight recruits from the Carlisle Barracks in his preparation to explore the Missouri River. These recruits were sent by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cushing to help transport supplies and a keelboat from Pittsburgh to St. Louis. When the job was done, the recruits traveled down the Mississippi River and reported to Fort Adams, MS.

 

After a big fire destroyed most of the buildings in 1806, the post was rebuilt as a recruit depot. Even the Navy was authorized to use it. In 1828, the post began training cavalry troops. By 1846, the Carlisle Barracks became the principal cavalry and light artillery training depot for the U.S. Army.

Jail Cells

 

Cavalry School brothers were split and had to take sides as the war broke out between North and South.  Few thought that Confederate soldiers would venture out this far north.  But they did. In June of 1863 Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army moved north into Maryland and Pennsylvania, moving along the Cumberland Valley towards Harrisburg, Pa.

 

Interestingly, a former soldier who served in 1840 at the Carlisle Barracks, Lt. Richard S. Ewell, 1^st Dragoons, returned to Carlisle in 1863 as Confederate Lieutenant General where he headquartered and staged the area for an attack on Harrisburg. But Gen. Lee ordered him to rendezvous south of South Mountain and he left Carlisle on June 30, 1863.

 

Carlisle Barracks was almost burned to the ground by the shelling of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his Confederate cavalry when U.S. Brigadier General William E. Smith division, who was in possession of Carlisle, refused to surrender. One hundred and thirty-four rounds of ammunition also destroyed the city’s gas works (July 1, 1863).

Ironically, before the Civil War, Carlisle Barracks had been commanded by Stuart’s father-in-law, Gen. Phillip St. George Cooke. The post became smoldering ruins, however, by the end of the Civil War Carlisle Barracks had been rebuilt.

Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army was supported by a growing depot which had been built in 1777 during the American War of Independence from the British government. This Hessian Powder Magazine is the building in which I was standing.  This magazine, far away from the reach of British ships, stored gunpowder, cannon shot and small arms.

It is not documented as such but tradition claims that Hessian soldiers, who were interned at Carlisle after their capture by Washington’s Army during the Battle of Trenton in 1776, had built the powder magazine. It is the second oldest building on post after the 1760 Wilson-Henderson Mill on Route 11.

This building served many functions since its construction. The covered gallery, the chimneys and roof ventilators of the 18^th century have long been removed. According to the archives, the iron doors were added in the mid-19^th century when the building was used as the Hessian Guard House.

When the Carlisle Barracks were used as a cavalry school, the magazine building was used a guard house. From 1879 to 1918, the building was used by the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a detention center for students. In the early 20^th century, the building was used as storage and in 1948 was converted back to a close approximation of its former appearance. It now houses a museum.

It is highly unusual that powder magazines such as this one survived because generally gun powder was stored in earthen cellars or in highly enforced buildings in which the roof could minimize the blast effect but the rock walls would stand. Vaulted brick ceilings, traversed entrances, ventilation shafts and lightning rods were added to the architecture of buildings in order to enhance their safety. Exposed metal was avoided in order to moderate sparks and copper, wood, and leather were used while handling gunpowder.

To 18^th century Americans, a “Hessian” was a generic term given to all six German-speaking states that had sent troops to serve the British government in compliance to treaty obligations. Professional mercenaries of sorts, “Hessians” were unforgiving fighters who took no prisoners and were greatly feared by the Continental Army soldiers.  The few soldiers, who were captured after the Battle of Trenton, were sent to Carlisle and used as free labor.

According to the museum archives, on the night of December 25, 1776, Washington’s army crossed the Delaware River by boats since it had not frozen over as he had hoped, and surprised the Hessians who were quartered in Trenton. On January 3, 1777 his army also defeated the British forces in Princeton, causing both the Hessians and the British to retreat into the interior of New Jersey.

A “Hessian” soldier of the Fusilier Regiment von Lossburg at the Battle of Trenton was equipped with a brass helmet plate with a lion cipher of his fusilier regiment and armed with a standard Prussian pattern flintlock musket and brass hilted short sword.

In 1903 when the post housed the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the football team invented the hidden ball play in a college game against Harvard.

In 1920 when the post housed the Medical Field Service School, Major John P. Fletcher invented the first complete sterile bandage for individual soldiers. It was called the Carlisle Bandage.

In 1918 General Hospital No. 31 was established in Carlisle Barracks as a pioneering rehab center, treating over 4,000 soldiers in WWI.

In another first, in order to evacuate the wounded, a trial for the auto-gyro was executed in 1935 at the Carlisle Medical Field Service School as the first vertical take-off associated with the Army.

The list of schools located on the post is quite long:

-         Artillery School  (1777)

-         School of Cavalry Practice  (1838)

-         Mounted Light Artillery  (1838)

-         Indian Industrial School  (1879)

-         Medical School  (1920)

-         School of Government of Occupied Areas  (1946)

-         Adjutant General School  (1946)

-         Armed Forces Information Schools  (1946)

-         Chaplain School  (1947)

-         Military Police School  (1947)

-         Army Security Agency School  (1949)

-         U.S. Army War College  (1951)

-         U.S. Army Military History Research Collection  (1967)

-         U.S. Army Military History Institute  (1977)

The Indian School envisioned by Richard Pratt trained Native American youth in industry, trades, and farming. Besides academics, students learned blacksmithing, metalworking, carpentry, and printing. Girls learned cooking, sewing, embroidery, and other forms of stitching.

Some of the best athletes and teams in the nation were instructed by Glenn S. “Pop” Warner:  William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, Charles “Chief” Bender; Louis Tewanima of the Hopi tribe earned trophies in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics and Jim Thorpe was named All American football halfback in 1911 and 1912 and won the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. The Associated Press named Thorpe the greatest athlete of the first 50 years of the 20^th century.

The athletic field and the cemetery are a testimony to 39 years of existence of the Indian School. Students like Happy Lucy who passed away while studying are buried here.

Captain Johann Ewald, commander of a company of Hessian riflemen, who fought against the American Army of the Revolution had this to say:

“Concerning the American army, one should not think that it can be compared to a motley crowd of farmers. The so-called Continental regiments are under good discipline and drill in the English style as well as the English themselves…  This army consists of handsome… well-built men whose appearance suffers very much indeed from a lack of clothing, hats, and shoes. For I have seen many soldiers of this army without shoes, with tattered breeches and uniforms patched with all sorts of colored cloths, without neckband and only the lid of a hat, who marched and stood their guard as proudly as the best uniformed soldier in the world, despite the raw weather and hard rain… Indeed, very many stood quite proudly under arms without shoes and stockings. Although I shuddered at the distress of these men, it filled me with awe for them. Who would have thought a hundred years ago that out of this multitude of rabble would arise a people who could defy kings and enter into a close alliance with crowned heads?”

The American Patriots stood against the mighty English empire, one of the greatest military powers of all time, spanning the world.  With little prior military experience and learning their craft on the drill field and in battle, the Americans won.

Today the U.S. Army War College produces “graduates who are skilled critical thinkers tasked with solving complex problems in the global application of land power.”

“The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College conducts and publishes national security and strategic research and analysis which serve to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.” One recent wargame looked at three critical outcomes of the Syrian conflict. (Museum Archives)

At the time of its founding in 1751, the tiny village of Carlisle, Pa, located on the banks of the Letort Creek in the Cumberland Valley was the county seat of Cumberland County, the westernmost county in Pa. The small township of Carlisle has been at the cross roads of American history. Carlisle Barracks played a significant role in the training of the American soldier.

A Trip to the National Firearms Museum

Charlton Heston as "Will Penny"
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

The National Firearms Museum is located in one of the richest and more liberal places in the country, Fairfax, Virginia. The Freedom’s Doorway of the museum is graced by a quote from Charlton Heston, “The doorway to freedom is framed by the muskets that stood between a vision of liberty and absolute anarchy at a place called Concord Bridge.”

Among the 14 galleries, the Robert E. Peterson Gallery is the largest in the museum. The weapons donated to the NRA’s museum represent just a fraction of his vast collection. The Southern Californian represents the quintessential American who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II and built a publishing empire of 32 monthly periodicals such as Motor Trend, Guns and Ammo, Petersen’s Hunting, Handguns and Rifle Shooter.

An avid hunter, Peterson tracked game on every continent. He “was credited with being the first person to ever take a polar bear with a .44 Magnum handgun.” He was Commissioner of Shooting Sports at the XXIII Olympiad in 1984, held in Los Angeles, California.

Peterson’s donated collection includes the Gatlin gun, British guns, personal firearms, Italian Masters, American classics, Colts, German arms, European arms, and a Jewel box. An experimental rifle, a Mauser action Falcon test rifle, formerly owned by Elmer Keith, a Montana cowboy who became famous as a big game hunter, is also part of the collection.

Big Game hunting rifles
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

The gunsmiths of Europe created functional arms as well as elaborately decorated firearms for the rich, indicating their social status through special metal and wood inlays, damascening, gold and silver encrustations, engraving and etching, chiseling, goldschmeltz, guilding, silvering, bluing, and browning.

German and Swiss immigrants who settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, brought with them a short rifle called the Jaeger (hunter) to use for sport and hunting in the heavy woods that resembled their homelands. It was the same octagon-barreled rifle used by Hawkeye, the hero of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans.  This rifle was later lengthened to 40 inches and called either the Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle even though it was manufactured in every colony from around 1700s to right before the Civil War.

Eli Whitney of New Haven, Connecticut, already famous for his invention of the cotton gin, received in 1798 a government contract for 10,000 muskets to supplement those made at national armories. Whitney’s ingenuity turned a rather complex manufacturing process into a series of simple operations, thus revolutionizing manufacturing in America.

Showcased are gun maker and inventor Ethan Allen of Bellington, Massachusetts, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson (Smith & Wesson) of Massachusetts, who left a large list of arms-design and revolver patents in their long careers, John H. Hall of Portland, Maine, who patented the breechloading rifle in 1811 utilized in rifles and carbines between 1823-1853, and Eliphalet Remington, Jr., who created a handmade flintlock rifle in Ilion, New York. Although Remington the father was not an inventor, he utilized ideas and inventions developed by others and acquired them. His large scale government contract in 1845 of 5,000 Mississippi rifles established the Remington name as the arms-maker in America.

Sharpshooters like Annie Oakley from Ohio, her husband Frank E. Butler, whom she defeated by one point, are famous for accuracy with rifles, pistols, and shotguns.

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Cinematography brought the American Western to the general public with the Rough Riders departing for Cuba in 1898, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the Great Train Robbery, Cisco Kid, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Shane, and the Unforgiven.

A larger-than-life bronze statue of Charlton Heston in his beloved Western role of “Will Penny” (1968) pays homage to the National Rifle Association President Heston.

On display are small guns imported during the Civil War from England, Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, France, and Belgium. Their quality varied from useless to excellent. A shortage of revolver and carbines was experienced by the Union Army despite Colt, Remington, and Smith & Wesson manufacturing them at record levels.  

The displayed ten-barreled .45-70 Colt Gatling gun from the Robert E. Petersen estate was used in John Wayne’s 1967 movie The War Wagon and in the 1976 Clint Eastwood film, The Outlaw Josey Wales.



Roosevelt's office
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Rifles and other memorabilia are displayed celebrating our 26^th President, Theodore Roosevelt, author of 40 books, 150,000 personal letters, thousands of magazine articles, New York assemblyman, rancher, Civil Service Commissioner, President of the NYC Police Commission, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of the 1^st USV Cavalry, Vice President of the United States of America, recipient of the Medal of Honor and Nobel Peace Prize, father of six children, and an NRA Life Member. He sent the following note to the NRA:

“I am so heartily interested in the success of the National Rifle Association of America and its work done in cooperation with the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice that I take pleasure in sending you herewith my check for $25 for life membership therein.”

According to the Museum Archives, “His firearm collection was perhaps the largest ever assembled by any president of the United States. He was known for insisting upon exacting standards for his guns, and favored Winchesters and Colts. He also treasured a pinfire shotgun that was a gift from his father.”

He inspired the famous Teddy Bear by refusing to shoot a motherless bear cub during a grizzly bear hunt. This gesture became a political symbol for his compassion and for his presidency. President Roosevelt advocated for a balance between conservation and sport even though he embarked on a year-long African safari in 1909.

President Roosevelt's personal effects
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

His Brooks Brothers khaki canvas tunic, his Stetson hat, and his cavalry officer sword are displayed in a case adjacent to his three valuable rifles and his office/library and other weapons. The National Firearm Museum was selected by the National Park Service to temporarily house Roosevelt priceless artifacts.

The home where they raised six children, Sagamore Hill, built in 1885, has undergone $16 million in renovations since 2011. Roosevelt told his wife Edith, “I wonder if you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill.” It was the place where Roosevelt died in his sleep at the age of 60.

Four of his six children had distinguished military careers:  Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1887-1944) who perished in Normandy, France on July 12, was an avid hunter who took expeditions in the Himalayas and Nepal with his brother Kermit; Major Kermit Roosevelt (1889-1943) who died at Ft. Richardson, Alaska; 1^st Lt. Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918), an accomplished pilot (his father was the first President to fly in an airplane) who was shot down over the Western front on July 14 and is buried at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, next to this brother Ted; and Lt. Colonel Archibald B. Roosevelt (1894-1979) who served in the 1^st Division of the U.S. Army during World War I and in the 41^st Division in the Pacific during World War II and was severely wounded in both wars.

A memorial to the police officer, Walter Weaver, killed in the 9-11 Al Qaeda terrorist attack in New York includes his photo, pistol, and badges, Shield #2784, Emergency Service Squad 3.

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

A typical child’s room display includes toy pistols, pea shooters, cork poppers, and rifles which became popular in the 1850s and remained so until the 1960s. The Daisy air gun was selling 1.5 million a year in 1960.

The confiscated guns and wanted posters of various bank robbers and FBI suspects such as Dillinger and Lester M. Gillis, and posters of ten most wanted fugitives such as Juan Garcia-Abrego and Usama Bin Laden are displayed.

Guns for hunting small game and big game are also exhibited in large cases.

There are numerous cases of Hollywood posters, costumes, and guns used in famous movies that promoted violence, war, and killing. The famous and hypocritical actors who made millions from these movies speak against guns and against the right to bear arms while hiring armed bodyguards for personal protection.

In case you wonder why a museum would dedicate 14 galleries, 85 exhibit cases, and 2,000 guns to glorify the act of war, of aggression, of killing animals for sport or food, consider the fact that firearms have a unique place in American history.

As Charlton Heston said in a speech in September 1997, “There can be no free speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to protest, no freedom to worship your god, no freedom to speak your mind, no freedom from fear, no freedom for your children and for theirs, for anybody, anywhere, without the Second Amendment freedom to fight for it.”

Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015