The Washington times., 1933-05-27

Today marks the beginning of
June Week, big event in the lives
of the graduating class of Mid
shipmen of the United States
Naval Academy.
June Week will end Thursday
with graduating exercises in Dahl
gren Hall, bringing to an end a
four-year grind for the class of
'33, and causing proud parents,
sisters and sweethearts to swell
with pride as their particular
'boy" steps up to receive his
sheepSkin and into the shoes Of
an officer in Uncle Sans econ
omy-ridden Navy.
The peggy Stewart"
The Academy stands on hal
lowed ground, close by the Capitol
of Maryland, where some of the
most stirring scenes in American
history have been enacted. And,
to the young men embarking on
a career afloat, there is a deep
significance about the ground on
which they trod daily for four
long years.
On what is now a level space
between Bancroft Hall and the
harbor was once Windmill Point,
on which Anthony Stewart was
forced to ground his brig, the
Peggy Stewart" named for his
daughter, and burn it and its cargo
of tax-ridden tea. 1t followed the
Boston Tea Party by short time
and was the first overt act of the
Maryland colonists against the
King.
Washingtonians, motoring to
witness the June Week activities,
in using the Defense Highway,
marked on the maps as 'U. S.
So" also are traversing historic
ground.
Now a Sad Ruin
Starting from downtown Wash
1ngton and going out New York
Avenue to the Bladensburg Road,
the excursionists pass under the
hill that once held the Patterson
mansion, a famous home in its
day, but now crumbled into the
red clay through which the new
section of New York Avenue has
been cut. The mansion stood on
the high hill that formed one
side of the cul-de-sac in which
police held the Hunger Marchers
last autumn.
Turning left into Bladensburg
Road, the party is on road that
is modern in it's paving and
lighting, but is older than the
city of Washington.
It was a thriving road in the
days when Alexandria, George
town and Bladensburg were world
ports and the City of Washing
ton a mud swamp, not even plot
ted on the maps of engineers
charged with laying out the new
Nations Capital.
Through Ship Hulk
About four miles from the
White House and in the COM
munity called Colmar Manor. the
traveller crosses bridge over the
Eastern Branch, stream now
silted up and incapable of float
ing more than row boats at that
point. In its hey day, before the
Revolution and for a short time
after, the Eastern Branch at
Bladensburg was a port of call
and home port for ships plying
the seven seas.
Men who worked on the new
concrete bridge over which thou
sands of aut m bills is glide
smoothly every day, tell of driv-
ing piling for the structure
through the rotting timbers of
an old ship. Historians say it
was the hulk of a British frigate,
beached there during the War of
1872.
1t was at Bladensburg that the
British under Ross and Cock
burn routed a larger force of
Americans under General Win
der, a lawyer, who was long on
law and short on military ability.
A Mad, Mad Scene
In addition to the handicap
of inefficient officers, the Amer
leans were further hindered by
the confusion caused by Presi-
dent Madison, Secretary of State
Monroe and other members of
the Cabinet, all of whom under
took to help by galloping aim
lessly around and issuing contra
dictory orders. The burning of
Washington followed.
Close by the bridge, on the