Millard Fillmore - Forest Lawn Cemetery - Buffalo, New York

Forest Lawn Cemetery is an historic rural cemetery founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clarke.  It covers over 269 acres and over 152,000 are buried there including President Millard Fillmore.  Over the years we have tried to visit every presidential gravesite and President Fillmore was eluding us so here we were.

Since its inception, Forest Lawn has served as a cemetery, park, arboretum, crematory and outdoor museum.  

We found our way to Millard Fillmore to pay our respects.

Millard Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president in 1848 and succeeded to the presidency in July, 1850 upon the death of U.S. President Zachary Taylor and was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House.  Fillmore was instrumental in the passing of the Compromise of 1850, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.  He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election behind James Buchanan and John C. Fremont.

Plenty of family members were in the family plot, including both of his wives - Abigail Powers (m. 1826, died 1853) and Caroline McIntosh (m. 1858, died 1881).

These were the original head stones for President Fillmore and Caroline McIntosh Fillmore.

As we walked away we were scouring the cemetery web site to try to find other notable people interred there when we heard someone say "can I help you find something?"  Coincidentally, Laura was walking the cemetery as she prepared for a tour she was giving the following day.  And she was a WEALTH of information.  So based on our learnings, we set out to see some of the notables she told us about.

E.G. Spaulding was an American lawyer, banker, and Republican party politician.  He opposed slavery and supported the idea for the first U.S. currency not backed by gold or silver, thus helping to keep the Union's economy afloat during the Civil War.

Ely S. Parker was a Seneca Indian born in 1828 in Western New York.  Ely turned his attention to engineering and his work dealt largely with the construction and maintenance of canals.  He received an appointment to superintend the construction of a custom house and marine hospital in Galena, Illinois.  It was during this time that he became acquainted with Ulysses S. Grant.  By 1863, two years into the Civil War, Parker found himself on Grant's personal staff.  A year later he became Grant's military secretary and served at the General's side until Appomattox, where he copied the terms of surrender given to Robert E. Lee.

Red Jacket (1750-1830) was a Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan, based in Western New York.  On behalf of his nation, he negotiated with the new United States after the Revolutionary War, when the Seneca as British allies were forced to cede much land following the defeat of the British; he signed the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794.  He helped secure some Seneca territory in New York state, although most of his people had migrated to Canada for resettlement after the Paris Treaty.

The first sculpture of Seneca Indian chief Red Jacket was erected in 1851.  Red Jacket is depicted wearing the richly embroidered scarlet coat presented to him by a British officer, while on his chest is displayed the large silver peace medal awarded to him by President George Washington.

Across the road were some beautiful bells with, as it turns out, quite a history.

1865: Rev. John Timon ordered 28 bell carillon to enhance worship at St. Joseph Cathedral.  15 more bells were ordered shortly thereafter, bringing the total to 43.

1866: Bells are manufactured in Mans, France.

1867: Bishop Timon died never having heard the bells ring at the cathedral.

1869: The bells arrive in Buffalo, at the time they are the largest carillon in the United States and the third largest in the world.

1870: The bells are installed in St. Joseph Cathedral.  

Tolling was delayed.  The tower of St. Joseph Cathedral was not designed for a carillon.  The confined space made it difficult to hang the bells properly so the bells went unused.

1913: The diocese of Buffalo constructed a new cathedral.

1915: The St. Joseph Cathedral carillon was installed in the twin spires of St. Joseph "new" Cathedral.

Structural problems with the new cathedral quickly became evident as the cathedral spires could not support the weight of the carillon.

1922: The bells had to be removed from the spires and stored in the cathedral's basement where they sat for more than 50 years.  During this time in storage, all but eight of the bells were stolen from the cathedral's basement.

1975: A local scrap dealer purchased the eight remaining bells from the diocese.  Patricia Oishei Colby acquired the largest of the eight bells from the scrap dealer and donated it to Forest Lawn in memory of her father.  Since that time, it has tolled whenever a funeral procession enters the gates of Forest Lawn.

1987: The seven remaining bells from the original St. Joseph's 43 bells from the carillon were donated to Forest Lawn by the Lancaster Steel Service Company.  They were placed in storage as opportunities for their eventual use were explored.

2020: The bells were removed from storage at Forest Lawn and restored.  The St. Joseph Carillon at Forest Lawn was constructed and dedicated.  At last the bells tolled.  

It's funny when you look at something in front of you and have no idea where it came from and what had to be done for it to get there.  This was an interesting story about what it took to get these bells to this spot at this time.

As we stood there and as if on queue, the bells started to toll.  What a beautiful sound!

Antietam & Harpers Ferry

Today's visit involved four states in one day.  We left the RV Park in Pennsylvania and made the drive into Maryland to visit Antietam Battlefield.

We stopped at the temporary Visitor's Center (the permanent center is closed for refurbishing) and watched the movie to give us an overview of the battlefield.

We decided that before we started on the Auto Tour, we'd take a walk down the street to Dunker Church.

The Battle of Antietam, fought September 17, 1862, was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the nation.  Dunker Church ranks as one of the most famous churches in American military history.  This historic structure began as a humble country house of worship constructed by local Dunker farmers in 1852.  It was Samuel Mumma, owner of the nearby farm that bears his name, who donated land in 1851 for the Dunkers to build their church.  In its early history, the congregation consisted of about six farm families from the local area.

During the battle, the church was the focal point of a number of Union attacks against the Confederate left flank.  Most reports by commanders of both sides, including Union General Hooker and Confederate Stonewall Jackson, make references to the church.

At the end of the battle the Confederates used the church as a temporary medical aid station.  One account states that after the battle the Union Army used the Dunker Church as an embalming station.  One tradition persists that Lincoln may have visited the site during his visit to the Army of the Potomac in October, 1862.

The church was heavily battle scarred with hundreds of marks from bullets in its white washed walls.  Likewise, artillery had rendered serious damage to the roof and walls.  By 1864 the church was repaired, rededicated and regular services were held there until the turn of the century.

The interior is not elaborate today.

We climbed in the truck and started the Auto tour.  One of the first stops was The Cornfield.

The Cornfield

As Union soldiers stepped out of the Cornfield at dawn on September 17, 1862, Confederate troops unleashed a barrage of rifle fire.  The single, bloodiest day in American History had begun in earnest.  For the next four hours the Cornfield was the center of activity as Federal soldiers clashed with Lee's men.  The Cornfield changed hands again and again as both sides attacked and counterattacked.

The only deliberate destruction of property during the battle was the burning of the Mumma Farm.  Confederate soldiers were ordered to burn these structures to prevent their use by Union sharpshooters.  Fortunately, Samuel Mumma and his family had fled to safety before the battle.  The Mumma family rebuilt the home in 1863.

Mumma Farm

After the war, the Federal Government compensated residents for damage caused by Union soldiers.  However, since this farm was burned by Confederates, the Mummas received no compensation.  Starting in 1870 the family deeded interest in this burial ground to local families.  Neighbors who suffered from war and came together to rebuild their community, now rest together in this peaceful place.

The Sunken Road served as a breastwork for the Confederate center.  For about three hours, 2200 Confederates, later reinforced by additional troops, held off the attacks of a combined Union force numbering nearly 10,000.  Just after noon, the thin gray line collapsed and fell back several hundred yards.  The Union attackers had suffered too many casualties to pursue their advantage.  Seeing the dead in the road an observer wrote, "They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps with cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails.  Words are inadequate to portray the scene".  At the end, it was said that blood flowed like a river inside it, giving it the name "Bloody Lane".

Sunken Road/Bloody Lane

Sunken Road/Bloody Lane

At the end of the road was a tower where you could climb to the top to see the views of the battlefields.  

I stayed at the bottom while Ron climbed to the top.  There he met an intern, Sam.

Sam

They spent some time talking and it turned out that Sam and Brady (Gettysburg Cemetery) go to school together at Gettysburg College.  We're finding that the world of interns is pretty small.

He got some good photos from the top.

Sunken Road

I waited patiently down below.  In the hot sun.  

About 500 Confederate soldiers held the area overlooking a bridge over Antietam Creek for three hours.  Burnside's command finally captured the bridge and crossed the creek, which forced the Confederates back toward Sharpsburg.  The bridge is now known as Burnside's Bridge.

Known at the time of the battle as Rohrbach or Lower Bridge, this crossing over Antietam Creek was built in 1836 to connect Sharpsburg to Rohresville, the next town to the south.  It was actively used for traffic until 1966 when a bypass enabled the bridge to be restored to its 1862 appearance.

The Union soldiers are still patrolling.

Across the bridge is a witness tree.

The park sign in front of the tree reads:  "As a young tree, the Burnside Sycamore witnessed the battle of Antietam.  It still stands more than one hundred fifty years later and remains a favorite landmark for park visitors.  You can help preserve and protect this living relic by appreciating it from afar.  The fence here is to keep foot traffic from the base of the tree.  This will help reduce soil compaction and stream bank erosion that threatens the health of the Burnside Sycamore.  Let's do our part to preserve this tree for future generations".

The bridge and river aren't all about history.  These people were having fun floating down the river as they headed towards the bridge.

Then our journey took us through Virginia to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia (that's four states).  

Harpers Ferry National Park is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in West Virginia (formerly the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to the Civil War) and is more than just one date or individual but many people and events that influenced the course of our history.  Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Stonewall Jackson, John Brown, Merriwether Lewis, and Frederick Douglas are just a few of the individuals who left a mark on Harpers Ferry.

In 1859, abolitionist John Brown attacked Harpers Ferry hoping to inspire a revolt against slavery.  Brown wanted the arsenal's weapons to arm recruits.  Brown's band quickly seized the armory and rifle works but the invaders were immediately surrounded, first by local militia, and then by Colonel Robert E. Lee who commanded the U.S. troops in the area.  When Brown refused to surrender, Federal troops charged with bayonets and it was all over in less than 36 hours.

Musket and pike from John Brown's raid, seen at Gettysburg Museum

Brown's raid came to a bloody end but his actions helped propel the nation into the Civil War.  When fighting broke out in 1861, retreating US troops burned both arsenal buildings to keep the weapons from falling into Confederate's hands.  There were originally 100,000 weapons in the two arsenal buildings during John Brown's raid but 85,000 of them were distributed to the Confederate states from 1859 to the beginning of the Civil War by orders of the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, who was a Southern sympathizer.  When the Civil War began, Confederate troops planned to seize the remaining 15,000 weapons from the arsenal buildings but the Union army destroyed them before they could arrive.

Foundation of one of the original arsenal buildings

John Brown's Fort was originally constructed in 1848 for use as a guard and fire engine house.  The building achieved fame when it was John Brown's refuge during his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.  It is the only surviving building of the Armory; all others were destroyed during the Civil War.

The building quickly became a tourist attraction and the words John Brown's Fort - a new name - were painted over the three doors to attract tourists.  It has been moved four times, and for most of its history was preserved on the Harpers Ferry campus of Storer College, until it was moved back to near its+ original location by the National Park Service.

John Brown's Fort

The Commonwealth of Virginia executed Brown on December 2, 1859.

There were soldiers nearby.

The area around the rivers is beautiful.  

Actually, this is where three National Trails meet.

Harpers Ferry sits in about the middle of the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail that goes from Maine to Georgia.

If you hike the trail, you'll climb these stairs in Harpers Ferry.

We avoided the steps as we walked through town.

This was an interesting store.

You could go through the store and stop at different sections where candy was placed according to the year it was popular.

This reminded me so much of my dad.  He had a typewriter from his college days which he used until the day he died.  Man could he type fast on that thing!

The White Hall Tavern has quite a history in the town.

And with that it was time to leave.  After all, we had to travel through four states to get back!

Gettysburg - Day 2

The following day we went back to Gettysburg since our visit had been cut short with the rain storm and we still had more to see.  

We went back to the Visitor's Center before it got too crowded so we could look through the book store.  We parked in a different area so we got a whole new viewpoint as we went in.

This was interesting.

Back to the truck so we could start the auto tour.  With the National Park Service app (if you're going to a National Park, I suggest you download this app) it actually will give you audio snippets from each stop.

Remember General John Reynolds, the commander of the Union first corps, who was the first to arrive in Gettysburg to help General Buford's cavalry?  After his arrival he was shot in the head by a Confederate sniper and died on the first day of fighting.  This occurred on Seminary Ridge, named because the Seminary building is on the ridge.  

Seminary Building

This is the area where General Reynolds was shot and a monument has been erected to honor him.

General John Reynolds

This is the area where General Buford first made contact with the first Confederates coming over the hill from Cashtown.

And a statue to memorialize General Buford.

A really nice monument remembering the North Carolina soldiers.

And because I'm slightly partial to the South Carolina soldiers (RIP, William J. Brooks), I wanted to remember the monument honoring them.

The battlefield covers about 6,000 acres and there are monuments, statues, and memorials EVERYWHERE - and I do mean EVERYWHERE.  They are all in beautiful condition and it looks like their maintenance program is working well.

As we were standing here, a van drove up and parked behind us and out of the van came a group of tourists.

They travelled in a van?

We took a detour to visit the Eisenhower farmhouse.  This was the farm of General and 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  It is adjacent to the Gettysburg battlefield and served as a weekend retreat and a meeting place for world leaders.  With its peaceful setting and view of South Mountain, it was a respite from Washington, DC and a backdrop for efforts to reduce Cold War tensions.  The farm at Gettysburg was the only home that the President and his wife ever owned.

We knew that the house was closed the day we were there but the Park Ranger encouraged us to visit the grounds and walk around.  It actually worked well because there was only one other couple there which made it easy to walk freely.

We walked around to the back of the house.

These bells are interesting.  The first is called the "Frisco Bell" on the northern end of the patio.  It was presented by Clark Hungerford of the Frisco Railroad and was originally used on a steam locomotive operated by the St. Louis/San Francisco Railroad Company.  It is inscribed with both the railroad's emblem as well as the seal of the President of the United States.

The bell at the southern end of the patio was a gift from Arthur K. Atkinson, president of the Wabash Railroad Company.  The bells inscription reads "To D.E. from Art".

As my dad would have said, I can just visualize Ike relaxing while he putted.

There is a beautiful garden - I wonder if the president liked to also putter in the garden?

For my family and those who have followed my genealogy blog, you might recognize this bench that was similar to one that was a main stay on our porch as we were growing up.

Even though the farm wasn't all that far from Washington D.C., it was handy to have a helicopter landing pad so that he could get there quickly.

And then it was back to the Civil War.

We moved on to Little Round Top which was a strategic position for the Union Army on the second day of the battle.  

The night between the first and second day battles, the Union Army formed its forces into the shape of a fish hook that ran from Cemetery and Culp's Hill down the length of the hook towards Little Round Top that was the end of the Union line.  It is a well-known historical event that Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine were given the important duty of protecting the Union extreme left.  If the Confederates had outflanked the Union Army at this position, they could have, essentially, rolled up the entire Union Army along Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top.

The monument to the 20th Maine is in honor of the individuals that participated in that unit.

The Union defenses used this stone wall for protection from the Confederate fire.

It was quite a view from the top of Little Round Top.  

A nice view of Devil's Den.  This boulder-strewn hill was formed with Little Round Top (to the east-northeast) and Big Round Top (southwest) and used as artillery and infantry (i.e. sharpshooters) on the second day of the battle.  The feature acquired its name prior to the 1863 battle.  Throughout the 19th century, local residents believed that the crevices between the boulders were home to a large snake.  The size of the snake varied between accounts, but reports ranged from 8 feet to as large as 15 feet.  The snake became known as "The Devil" and thus the area he was believed to inhabit became known as "The Devil's Den".

Since the downpour yesterday prevented us from poking around the historic downtown area, we moved on.  After all, it was lunch time!

And next door was a very interesting building with a lot of history.

The home of Gettysburg attorney David Wills was the center of the immense clean-up process after the battle and where President Lincoln put the finishing touches on his Gettysburg Address, the speech that transformed Gettysburg from a place of death and devastation to the symbol of our nation's "new birth of freedom".  

Just outside the house is a life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln greeting a modern-day visitor holding a copy of the Gettysburg Address.  The bronze statue, called the "Return Visit" is the work of noted sculptor J. Seward Johnson, Jr.  The scene depicts Lincoln pointing to the Wills House, apparently explaining where he completed the Address on the might of November 18, 1863.  

Last stop of the day was the cemetery.

Originally called Soldier's National Cemetery, President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the cemetery's consecration on November 19, 1863.  The cemetery contains about 3,500 interments from the Civil War, including the graves of 979 unknowns.  It also has sections for veterans of the Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1917-1918) and other wars, along with graves of the veterans' spouses and children.  The total number of interments is more than 6,000.

We got to the cemetery just as the intern, Brady, was ready to start his tour so we joined him.

The graves are arranged in a wide semi-circle that radiate of from the Soldiers' National Monument which marks the center of the cemetery.

Soldiers' National Monument

The cemetery design was created by William Saunders, a famed "landscape gardener".  The burials are organized around state sections, divided into an inner ring (for smaller states) and outer ring (for larger states).  The position of each lot, and indeed of each interment, is relatively of equal importance.  The evenness and equality of the gravestones, where men of differing rank and position rest side-by-side, contrasts sharply with the jumbling diversity visible next door in the Evergreen Cemetery.

As usual, Ron asked if there were any witness trees in the cemetery and Brady pointed to this.

Apparently, due to disease the only remaining witness tree was recently cut down.

Brady told us about three separate soldiers who served in the Iron Brigade, AKA the black hats.  The stories were very different but the one who stood out to me was Peter L. Foust, the only one of the three who is not buried in the "unknown" section of the cemetery.

Peter Foust enlisted for the Union as a Private in Company C, 19th Indiana Infantry.  He was mustered into service on August 9, 1862 and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.  He was survived by his wife, Sarah, 4 year old daughter, Elizabeth, and eight month old son, Peter.

We talked about the cannons that were displayed throughout the cemetery and battlefield.  In most cases, the tube of the cannon is original.

Brady showed us how it was documented where and when each cannon was made.  I don't remember what each of the markings mean but Brady was able to tell us.

And then it was time to focus on the Gettysburg Address.

President Lincoln was asked to deliver a message at the dedication of the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery on November 19, 1863.  The featured speaker for the occasion was Edward Everett, a former dean of Harvard University and one of the most famous orators of the time.  He spoke for two hours.  Lincoln then delivered his message; it took two minutes.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its brevity, since the speech was delivered it has come to be recognized as one of the most powerful statements in the English language and, in fact, one of the most important expressions of freedom and liberty in any language.  Everett afterward wrote to Lincoln that "I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes".

This memorial is often thought to be located at the spot where Lincoln gave his address.  

But, in fact, this is not the spot.  

Modern research has found that the true spot, according to research backed by the National Park Service, lies along the crest of a hill just outside the gates of the cemetery on the grounds of an older cemetery, Evergreen Cemetery at the spot of the Blue Star Memorial.

Blue Star Marker and Blue Star Memorial By Way, Gettysburg Garden Club

Phew, that was two long days but I learned so much with one more historical day to come.