Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1909-07-14


It's beams under the piercing rays
or the electric searchlight The
iortress today is one Of the most formidable
guardians of the countrys coast line
The guns that look over the para
pet nave heavy modern interest
ana the mine fields In the water be-
yond have their attraction I'm the very
mystery or their hidden strength but I o..
the strongest appeal at Fortress Mon vlE
rue IL 10 De found In the reminders vlV
Oh past which everywhere subord!- HVv
mates the present hI
An old school-day friend second in LII
command at the Virginia fort. gave nv
the visitor pass which admitted him
10 the moderngun batteries places NJ
l,ia' are guarded from the inquistive
Wow Oh persons unknown personally III
10 'ne authorities, for the newspaper
stories OF spies in the land are not
ioundationless. The big guns and
shelr complicated mechanism with iii
their destructive possibilities wore IL
ne" ana strange. but one gives them IL
up ior the hrst day for the more DO
.ent aiurements-the trophies of war
that washington wrested from Corn
"aiiis; the classmates whose ports.
now d1sused, look over the sea fed IL
moat and the great live oaks that N
guard the parade ground which ,io
Wlthln the ramparts
fortress Monroe has been 70 ,l-
ehiistened Fort Monroe by the mill -
'ary authorities. 1t is too beautiful a -
Pace 10 make masculine designation
httlng, and no excess of galIantrv is
needed to make the assertion Tho STRONGHOLD
was constructed century ago but II looks as
III IL mad been lifted bodily from some madiao
val european principality and planted here nm
the shore of the new world
1ou walk for full mile on the ramparts be-
1ore circuit OF the post is ended and below
you all the way lies the moat running in from
the sea Masonry, pierced with portfolios and
rooted in deep with sand and sod is tho ,,
terial of this bulwark of defense
Inc live oaks that grow within the fortress
are green through the year. They are older
much older-than the masonry walls which
hedge them In protectingly from the winter
sea olasts' Under group of the oaks at the
ocean SIDE or the parade ground are placed the
PRICELESS war relics of the revolution They
are the old brazen smooth-bore cannon which
Cornwalils yielded up to Washington at York
town The British visitor to Fortress Monroe
is lett In no doubt to the identity of these
bits OF antiquated ordnance In bold relief
just ABOVE the trunnions is inscribed the state
ment that the cannon a part of the fruits
or the American victory over the troops of
King George
The French allies of the contnentals must
nave made merlJ over the taking of one of
these field pieces. The name of the maker LET
into the knob of the cascabel shows that the
gun was cast in France Another inscription
shows that the English took it from the French
on Canadian battlefield. The Frenchmen
TOOK the cannon, and with it revenge on the
heid at yorktown. 1t probably was out of
sheer generosity of spirit that the allies made
no claim to the cannon on the ground of prior
ownership They gave the trophy to Washing
toh' and IL Is In the safekeeping of the soldiers
of his country to-day.
roe, and when the statement is made that
there is room for their maneuvers as foot SOL
diers on the drill parade plain better idea
may be obtained of the extent of the field
within the fortress than could be conveyed nv
mere figures. The barracks face the parade
and thanking them the officers quarters
oldfashioned frame structures of the southern
style, suggesting summer comfort Tie com.
Tort has no strength beyond the suggestion
however, for some Of the suffering ones saw
that the high rampant walls cut off all the sea
breeze in summer
few of the bachelor officers and a number
OF corporals and sergeants are lodged I'm the
old classmates Of the fortress-a cool ~ some
what cramped, quartering. II was I'm one Of
these classmates that Jefferson Davis nreei
dent OF the confederacy, was confined for some
time after his capture. It is the general belief
that the place where Davis was imprisoned at
Fortress Monroe "A dungeon The case.
mate is occupied to-day by a Junior officer OF
artillery, and he makes no complaint of hard.
ship. The mistake in Jefferson Davis case
was in putting him in irons Miles did u
under orders, and did it protesting II Lincoln
had not been assassinated Davis probably
never would have been in chains. and his i'm.
prisonHSent would have been of the briefest
The south realizes this, and some of the bitter.
ness of the episode is said to be lost
There are 80 officers Of artillery stationed
A. Fortress Monroe. Fewer than one-ffth OF
the number appear on the rolls as officers OF
the garrison. The rest are students at the
postgraduate artillery school, which the gov.
eminent conducts at the fortress for the
younger commissioned men OF the service
The officers have a club which is quartered in
place having no counterpart in America.
The classmates Of the ramparts OF the fort are