The Colorado statesman., 1922-03-04


be abandoned. Some of them will
be turned over to the National Guard
of the different states for training
purposes, and 1t is possible that others
may be sold to the highest bidder.
Washington is hoping that the old
part of historic Fortress Monroe,
Va, will not be lost to the serv-
ice and to the people. Washington
ians in large numbers go to the old
fort for recreation purposes. 1t is
an appealing old place, full of Amerl-
can reminders of high patriotic i'm
port. OF course the newer part of
the Monroe post will be given over,
for 1t is one of the defenses which in
part has the safety of several Amerl-
can cities in its keeping.
The strongest appeal at Fortress
Monroe is to be found in the remind
ers of the past which everywhere sub
ordinates the present. The potent al
lurements are the trophies of war that
Washington wrested from CORVALLIS,
the casemates whose ports, now dis
used, look over the seated moat, and
the great live oaks that guard the pa
rade ground which lies within the
ramparts.
Fortress Monroe has been re-chris-
tened Fort Monroe by the military au-
thorities. 1t is too beautiful a place
TO make masculine designation fitting,
and no excess of gallantry is needed
to make the assertion. The strong
hold was constructed a century ago,
but it looks as If it had been lifted
bodily from some medieval European
principality and planted here on the
shore of the new world.
Old Live Oaks In the Fortress.
The live oaks that grow within the
fortress are green throughout the year.
They are older-much older-than the
masonry walls which hedge them in
protectingly from the winter sea
blasts. Under a group of the oaks
at the ocean side of the parade ground
, are placed priceless war relics of the
Revolution. They are the old brazen
smooth-bore cannon which CORVALLIS
yielded up to Washington at York
town. The British visitor to Fortress
Monroe is left in no doubt as to the
identity of these bits of antiquated
ordnance. In bold relief just above
the trunnions is inscribed the state
ment that the cannon were a part of
the fruits of the American victory over
the troops of King George.
The French allies of the conti-
nentals must have made merry over
the taking of one of these field pieces.
1 - f,.s- Al,
knob of the cascabel shows that the
gun was cast in France. Another in
scrlption shows that the English took
1t from the French on a Canadian bat
tlefield. The Frenchmen took the can
non, and with it revenge, on the field
at Yorktown.
There are many artillerymen at
Fortress Monroe, and when the state
ment is made that there is room for
their maneuvers as foot soldiers on
the drill parade plain a better idea
may be obtained of the extent of the
field within the fortress than could
be conveyed by mere figures.
Barracks and Officers Club.
The barracks face the parade, and
| f1anking them are the officers quar-
| tiers, old-fashioned frame structures
of the southern style, suggesting sum-
mer comfort. The comfort has no
strength beyond the suggestion, how
ever, for some of the suffering ones
say that the high rampant walls cut
off all the sea breeze and that in
summer 1t is for the inclosed ones to
suffer.
The officers have club which is
quartered in a place having no coun-
terpart In America. The casemates
of the ramparts of the fort are con-
nected by arched passageways, form
ing a long stone-encased gallery. A
generous section of this battlement in
terror has been pre-empted for the
lighter side of army life.
In every casemate is an embrasure
through which in the war days the
face of cannon looked out over the
moat. The embrasures are useless
for war purposes today, and they per-
form the peaceful office of letting in
the light. The cannon of this mod
ern time frown over the parapets
above to disappear, after the firing, be-
hind the breastworks of earth and
stone
The classmates of the officers club
are not destitute of weapons, though
1t is true that the arms gathered with
in the club rooms are more Anticipated
and less effective than were the old
cannon whose places they have
usurped. There are trophies here
from many battlehelds- bows,
spears and arrows of the Sioux, the
Kiowa and the Apache; the bolo OF
the Moro; the ancient Chinese field
pieces taken at Tientsin, and the mod
ern but now disused Mausers from the
field of Santiago.