Michigan Civil War Blog

Early shopping

The day after Black Friday, it's past time to have your Christmas list circulating amongst your family. For some items, however, you have to take matters into your own hands.

Like with this book: It's "From Bull Run to Appomattox: Michigan's Role in the Civil War", by Phil Mason and Paul Pentecost. Had never heard of it until coming across a reference recently; went online and, sure as you can spell Appomattox, just a few bucks later it became mine. It contains 16 articles published in various newspapers back in the day, that being before 1961 when this 60-some page booklet was published. The Frederick Williams book has become the classic, though the subject is in need of a fresh and more comprehensive treatment.

But, since that's another topic, suffice that it's great to have another work on "Michigan's Role" in the home library. Now, back to that list...

Deserved retirement, finally

Being a hockey fan, most particularly the Detroit Red Wings, I have an interest in this story: NHL. The great Bobby Orr had his Oshawa Generals jersey retired this week. Brought back some memories...

I was a teenager, the Wings weren't all that great, so tickets were fairly easy to get. My buddies and I went down to see the Wings take on the perennial doormat Boston Bruins. Our real interest, though, was in seeing a rookie defenseman named Orr.

One of us had a subscription to the Hockey News, where we'd read stories about the NHL, the minor leagues (AHL), and minor hockey (OHL). There were some articles about this Orr kid, who was predicted to be a star. We were very curious. In those days, at the Olympia, the dressing room doors faced into the corridor/concourse that ran around the stands, so the ushers had to hold back a lane for the players to walk from room to ice and back. We stood there along the rope, or whatever they used then, either before the game or during an intermission -- don't recall, but the Bruins were in uniform. Then came Orr in the bunch: a pimply faced, buzz-cut kid with a face like one of ours, for, after all, he was at 18 but a few years older than us. His appearance was underwhelming, but even then we knew it wasn't all about that.

The Wings won that game, for Orr was not yet the dominant force he'd soon become. It was an exciting moment for us, nonetheless. Watching him later on the TV do amazing things and regularly spank the Wings and every other team, winning the Cup in '70 just three years after our encounter, would renew that memory.

So, how it is that it took the Oshawa folks so long to retire his Generals jersey? Way overdue, but better late than never, so kudos.

What's this got to do with Civil War history and Michigan? Besides the obvious connection to this author's long-distant adolescence? Somewhat of a stretch, but it reminds me of deserved honors that have gone unpaid to at least one Michigander who fought for the Union.

And that will, it is intended, one day be rectified.

Time to be thankful

As the day gets closer, one's thoughts turn more and more to appreciation, and a list begins to form. For you, it might be a conventional list: home, family, job. For another, it might be unconventional: caramel; a day without pain; words. For me, this year, it's somewhere in the middle.

I'm grateful to be alive, healthy, with family/friends I wouldn't trade for all the TARP money available. Pretty conventional.

But here's part of the list of the abnormal...

Grateful to live in Michigan, the most beautiful State in the Union (Michigan in Pics) , bloodied and bruised by tectonic forces beyond its control and leaders who failed it utterly, but still getting up every day, rolling up the sleeves, and going to work for a better future, somehow, some way.

Grateful to live in the Detroit area, betrayed by a corrupt mayor, blighted by poverty and decay, yet brilliant last Friday nite in Campus Martius, the glorious Civil War site, as the holiday celebrations got underway (the Park).

Grateful to have had two Union soldiers as forebears, whose sister married my great-grandfather, whose son got a job on the railroad in Detroit, and whose son was born in Detroit and came back to his hometown after WW2 to be father to this author.

Grateful to be a fan of the greatest NHL team of the past dozen years (Wings).

Grateful for the rebirth of the Book Cadillac Hotel (BCH), the rescue of Fishtown (FPS), the flourishing of Mackinac Island (#6), the likely prospect of a NPS historic park in SE MI (River Raisin).

So, boiling this down to its essence like TurkeyDay stock: simply grateful to be a Michigander, in these turbulent times, for "difficulty is the excuse history never accepts" (E.R. Murrow).

Truth to power

He's in the minority party in the US House of Representatives. He's in the minority because he's from the good-ole Rust Belt, where we are gas-guzzlers unconcerned about the environment, unlike those who are more enlightened on the right, left, and underneath coasts. He's in the minority because he dared expose the ignorance of those who last week said it's OK to let Michigan twist slowly in the wind while letting Wall Street and Rodeo Drive and Interstate 10 rule.

He's Thaddeus McCotter, and he did Michigan proud with an amazing tour-de-force of extemporaneous straight-record-setting to the point where his committee chair responded with sputters and blurps and squeaks. Here's the video of his remarks: McCotter

He's my Congressman, and I'm glad I voted for him. He exemplified leadership here, more of which we badly need.

Sculptor's legacy

Anyone ever hear of Edward Clark Potter? Seems he was a sculptor who worked from around 1883 into the first two decades of the 20th century. As with so much history, his story appears to have faded with the passing of the years.

He studied under Daniel Chester French, the genius who designed the statue in the Lincoln Memorial in DC. He also gained the admiration of Saint-Gaudens, made famous by Civil War commemorative commissions including the Shaw memorial on Boston Commons. Pretty good company. New Yorkers know his work from the two lions guarding the steps to the Main Branch of the NYC Library. He also assisted French with several pieces for the Columbian Exposition. In the main reading room of the Library of Congress are 16 statues by the greatest sculptors of their day; Robert Fulton is by Potter.

Does Potter have a Michigan connection? Only two, it appears. But these two are among the most iconic of Civil War sculptures in the State:    

Potter deserves more, for he gave Michigan much.

Sacrifice

It's been a tough week, but we need to remember that times have been as tough or tougher in the past.

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words and helps puts things into perspective.

 

The sinkable Montrose

Warning: this post has nothing to do with the Civil War. It just happens to be an outgrowth of the past posts relying on a Detroit News web feature of significant events and places in Detroit.

Turns out that the last time a major ship sinking occurred in the River was 1962: Detroit News.

I remember it well. My father took me (and probably my brother) down to the river to see the ship laying on its side down by the Ambassador Bridge. It was a stunning scene; I had never imagined to see anything other than a rowboat, and here was, to this little guy, a huge ship half underwater. I can remember it was even towards dusk when we were there, for I can visualize the way the sunlight was on the bridge above the wreck. It was amazing.

As anyone can see, I'm reminiscing in an attempt to duck for today the issues going on with Michigan down in the Nation's capital. As my parents instructed me, if you can't say something nice ...

Sail on

Times are tough in the Great Lake State. Really tough. And they're as tough on the GLS down in the National capital, where members of Congress are asserting that CEO arrogance and shibboleths are grounds to deny 3 million jobs a bridge loan to avoid bankruptcy.

Footnote, for the curious: many of those jobs are in other states.

Speaking of which. One simple way for Michigan to get its due is returning 100 cents on the federal dollar instead of $.94 (most recent data I've seen). Federal money going out could simply be invested back in equal proportion. This has other benefits, for Mr. Shelby could stand true in denouncing an auto "bail-out" and tell constituents that Alabama no longer will accept a subsidy from taxpayers in Michigan and other states, no longer take $1.63 for every dollar contributed. Truly, then, y'all "can dare defend your rights" and not burden others'. Maryland, which receives $11,972 per capita, can ship some of that via the C&O rail tracks up to the Mitten State, which gets $6,410 per head. With 10 million of us here, every Grover Cleveland would equal $10,000,000,000. That's $10B, folks. So, friends there and in Virginia, those in sister states, just reallocate us 2.5 GC's per capita; we don't want the entire disparity levelized; we'll just take some of our money back and take on the risk of the Big 3 failing by ourselves. You won't have a worry about it 't'all.

Ah, but such logic likely couldn't be met on its own ground. So, compelled to turn to poetry for consolation, great Longfellow, sing to us of the best of our Union, and of this Ship of Michigan, buffeted by gales of November, struggling to make port as the federal lighthouse keeper shuts off the Fresnel, for it is only the Master on whom we Michiganders can truly depend...

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
’Tis of the wave and not the rock;
’Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!

Fort Wayne update

I had no more than uploaded y'day's post when, in checking the daily papers, this detailed story appeared on the News frontpage:

Fort Wayne under siege

Volunteers fight years of neglect, lack of money to save historic Detroit site

Oralandar Brand-Williams

DETROIT -- Tom Berlucchi remembers the first time he visited Historic Fort Wayne. It was 1969: The buildings glistened with fresh paint, the grounds were perfectly manicured and the old star-shaped fort stood proud.

Today, it's a different story. Passers-by could be excused for deeming the 88-acre fort an abandoned eyesore.

But the 44-building campus remains a gem to Berlucchi -- a window into the nation and city's military past that has survived despite decades of neglect. He's made it his mission to reclaim the fort from ruin, putting in thousands of hours of sweat on restoration work.

"I remember Fort Wayne in its prime ... when it was gorgeous," said Berlucchi of Troy, as a saw hummed in the background.

Berlucchi, who is chairman of the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition and president of the Advisory Council for Historic Fort Wayne, and his group of 300 other volunteers, may offer the last hope of saving Fort Wayne. The city is expected to seek a tax in February to pay for improvements, but it could face a tough sell because of the economy and voters' memories of other, tax-subsidized plans to preserve the campus.

Just about every weekend, Berlucchi and a group of about 20 volunteers and their families come from as far away as Lapeer County to mow expansive lawns, fix plumbing and paint ancient window frames. They hope to return it to some semblance of its onetime glory. At worst, they're forestalling further blight at the complex along the Detroit River.

They say they do it for "love of country" and to save a huge piece of history that is barely hanging on. Grass peeks through the run-down roofs of infantry housing. The wood frame of the old white commanding officer's home is decaying. Nature threatens to claim even more of the famous fort on Jefferson near Livernois Street on the city's southwest side.

Funds don't cover costs

The fort exists on a $310,000 annual operating budget from the city's Department of Parks & Recreation, which oversees Historic Fort Wayne. That barely covers the $298,000 it costs to pay utilities and water, said Alicia Minter, deputy director of the department. The city is expected to seek $1 million from voters in February for more repairs at the fort as part of a multimillion-dollar bond proposal.

The cost of renovating the fort: about $50 million, according to a master plan approved by the Detroit City Council in 2003. The plan also calls for the fort to be used for family events such as picnics and family reunions.

The February tax is expected to be included in a $263 million bond request for capital projects to be spent over the next four to five years, for everything from $30 million for fire stations to $9 million for Belle Isle renovations. That tax is estimated to cost an owner of a $67,000 home $53 the first year and $31 a year for the remaining debt years.

At Historic Fort Wayne, the money would fix roofs on officers' quarters and repair the visitors' center.

Political observer Eric Foster, the director of political strategy for Urban Consulting Group, said the bond proposal faces a tough sell. And $1 million for Fort Wayne won't go far, he added.

"Given the general concerns of how the city is spending dollars there are a lot of questions on how the city is spending the money it receives," Foster said. "It's got a poor chance of passing."

"The city needs a strategic plan for Fort Wayne. Giving it a million dollars without a plan is like throwing a bucket of water on a raging fire."

Most plans unrealized

Officially, at least, the city has plenty of plans. Over the years, organizers have discussed holding concerts and other activities such as powwows on the grounds. Most have gone nowhere. A master plan calls for $35 million to $50 million in investments over the next five to 10 years, but its prospects could be murky because of the economy.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said Fort Wayne's master plan must be re-evaluated because of the "depression" in Michigan and Detroit.

"Everything is up for review," Cockrel said.

Many Wayne County voters thought they were saving the fort in 1996 when they approved a tax that was supposed to send $4.75 million to Fort Wayne.

Some of that money went to parks elsewhere in the county, and Fort Wayne didn't see a dime until eight years later, when county and city officials approved $2 million to install heating and air conditioning systems.

Centuries of memories

The fort gets about 70,000 visitors a year, including Boy Scout troops and war re-enactors. The Tuskegee Airmen have a museum on the grounds of the fort that was built in the 1840s to protect the United States against an invasion that never came. Recommissioned as an infantry battalion, it served as an induction center for Michigan troops preparing for conflicts from the Civil War to Vietnam -- and housed prisoners of war from Italy during both world wars.

For thousands of Michigan armed forces members, the fort was one of the last places they saw families before heading off to war. The Army abandoned it in 1971, four years after it provided shelter during the city riots.

"Fort Wayne is a linchpin of the history of the city," said Ed Vitez, 61, a Brighton resident who volunteers as a docent at the fort for events such as Civil War Days and field trips.

"This is our heritage, our history. Shame on us if we don't save it."

Phillip Smith, the director of the Vietnam Veterans of America state council of Michigan said the fort holds a lot of memories for him and he hopes the preservation work of Berlucchi and others pays off.

"The museum is great. It should be restored," Smith said. "The whole Fort Wayne should be restored. It's long overdue."

Smith credited the late former Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young, a Tuskegee Airmen, for doing what he could to keep the fort.

"The other mayors let it fall by the wayside," he said.

Minter said the city is committed to saving the historic fort and will make every effort to do so.

"Any of the properties we have are treated as a jewel," Minter said.

"We are trying to allocate for some improvements. They might not be viewed from the outside."

Berlucchi is also planning to petition the state to get a green and gold historical marker placed at Historic Fort Wayne.

"This is something the state of Michigan definitely needs to save," Berlucchi said.

Fortifying

A second in posts arising out of the Detroit News online library about Michigan/Detroit history.

In February 1999, the News ran a story about the tragic condition that had befallen one of Detroit's most historic sites. Built before the Civil War, a mustering station and training facility during that War, Fort Wayne served as a key component in Michigan's participation to help save the Union. You would have never known it so in '99: News.

But...

I recently enjoyed learning much more about a group named the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition: HFWC. It got started just a year or so after the News story, when an individual who is now a key Coalition member went by to see the Fort that he had enjoyed visiting so much as a youth with his family. Reaction? Sobbed all the way home during his drive back. Yet, instead of just accepting the grim reality of a place no one seemed to care about, he decided to do something. Starting with a handful of like-minded crazies, with roots in the reenactor community, the Coalition has grown to some 300 members and just held its election for 2009 officers, showing its continuing vitality.

A visit to the Fort these days still reveals a lot of issues. It also inspires. The enlisted men's barracks inside the starfort has seen a lot of improvement, as have several outbuildings. The place is pretty tidy; it's not overgrown or looking like it's lost to nature, like it did in 2001.

The Coalition has some great ideas and plans. As we approach the Sesquicentennial, one can hope that, by the time 2011 rolls around, the Fort will be an even more hospitable place for visitors/tourists/students of history. The place, after all, is absolutely priceless.