Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1909-07-30

8A an ancient stronghold but time has a
Xg8I7W not Slapped its strength. The old Q
E1SMaS43N smooth bores of other days have t
2&~SWkN given place to rifled ordnance, and a
the pine signal torch has dwinded b
- it's beams under the piercing rays
of the electric searchght The
fortress to-day is of the most formidable
guardians of the country's coast line.
The guns that look the para -
pet have a heavy modern interest, I$S-
and the mine fields in the water be- -
yond have their attraction in the very
mystery of their hidden strength, but I s5sMz
the strongest appeal at Fortress Mon Es%$$
roe is to be found in the reminders I W#Ss
of past which everywhere subordi- I We
mates the present. Is
An old schoolday friend second in MM
command at the Virginia fort gave Ms
the visitor pass which admitted him \ Nh
to the modern-gdn batteries, places I E#
that are guarded from the inquisitive MAJ ws
view OF persons unknown personally N
to the authorities. for the newspaper
stories of spies in the land are not
| foundationleSs. The big guns and W
/ their complicated mechanism with Inn
! their destructive possibilities, were tW1
new and strange, but gives them IAI
UP for the first day for the more po-. lNt
| tent allurements- trophies of war M
/ that Washington wrested from Corn
wallis; the classmates whose ports
now disused. look the seated AL n
moat, and the great live oaks that N
guard the parade ground, which lies
within the ramparts
Fortress Monroe has been re- RI
christened Fort Monroe by the mill So
tary authorities 1t is too beautiful a
place to make masculine designation
fitting, and no excess of gallantry is
needed to make the assertion. The stronghold
was constructed century ago. but it looks
if it had been lifted bodily from some mediae-
val European principally and planted here
the shore of the new world.
You walk for full mile the ramparts be-
fore a circuit of the post is ended. and below
you all the way lies the running in from
the sea. Masonry, pierced with portfolios and
l. rooted in deep with sand and sod, is the
|, teral of this bulwark of defense
e The live oaks that grow within the fortress
Y are green through the year. They older
e much older-than the masonry walls which
n hedge them in protectngly from the winter
A. sea blasts. Under a group of the oaks at the
d ocean side of the parade ground placed the
priceless relics of the revolution. They
n the old brazen smooth-bore cannon which
a CORVALLIS yielded up to Washington at York
y town. The British visitor to Fortress Monroe
is left in doubt to the identity of these
i'd bits of Anticipated ordnance. In bold relief
is just above the trunnions is inscribed the state
lie ment that the cannon were part of the fruits
III of the American victory over the troops of
r. King George
The French allies of the continentals must
have made merry the taking of one of
n. these field pieces. The name of the maker let
is into the knob of the cascabel shows that the
ut gun cast in France. Another inscription
H. shows that the English took it from the French
er ON a Canadian battlefield The Frenehmen
took the cannon, and with it revenge, the
field at Yorktown 1t probably was out OF
sheer generosity of spirit that the allies made
he claim to the cannon on the ground of prior
'nr ownership. They gave the trophy to Washing
SIX ton and it is in the safekeeping of the soldiers
of his country to-day.
There are 500 artillerymen at Fortress Mon.
roe and when the statement is made that
ore there is for their maneuvers as foot sol;
ian ders the drill parade plain better idea
A may be obtained of the extent of the field
ing within the fortress than could be conveyed by
mere figures. The barracks face the parade,
and thanking them are the officers quarters
lin oldfashioned frame structures OF the southern
led style, suggesting summer comfort. The com
fort has strength beyond the suggestion
,av however, for some of the suffering say
en- that the high rampant walls cut off all the sea
breeze in summer.
few of the bachelor officers and number
ure of corporals and sergeants are lodged in the
the old classmates of the fortress-a cool, If some
what cramped, quartering 1t was in one Of
veil these classmates that Jefferson Davis, presi
lies dent of the confederacy, confined for some
eek time after his capture 1t is the general belle
sun that the place where Davis imprisoned a
Fortress Monroe was dungeon The case
mate is occupied to-day by Junior officer o
artillery and he makes complaint of hard
g ship The mistake in jefferson Davis cas-
oil was in putting him in irons. Miles did !
tne under orders. and did it protesting II Lincoln
tue had not been assassinated Davis probably
49, never would nave been IN cnalns, ana MS Ill
lays prisonment would have been of the briefest
that M = ,,tb reaiizes this and some of the hitter
ness of the episode is said to be lost
ould
ing. Ihere are oo oiliceis y a. 49,,
tba the number appear the rolls officers
Iii the garrison. The rest students at tn
tht postgraduate artillery school, which the go
first erhhehe e onuuoes - IL ~, -
The officers have club which is quartered
place having no counterpart in Americ
The classmates of the ramparts of the fort al