Tag Archives: US presidents

The Smoke at Dawn

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Chattanooga’s manhole covers

My first thought regarding Chattanooga, when I started planning this trip, was the Civil War battle that occurred there that some would argue was the death knell for the Confederacy. A year or so ago I read a biography of Ulysses Grant (a distant ancestor, I’ve since learned), and the Civil War battles in the western theater became more than just names of remote places. I began to understand the significance of Grant’s victories, not just in terms of land acquisition and enemy soldiers killed and captured, but also of gaining strategic control of the Mississippi River, closing off supply lines to the Confederacy, etc. It was an eye-opener.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

To better understand the battle in Chattanooga, and read it from a different author’s perspective, I chose Jeff Shaara’s The Smoke at Dawn. You may have heard of The Killer Angels, an historical fiction about the Battle of Gettysburg written by his father, Michael Shaara. It was made into a movie, Gettysburg, in 1993. It’s safe to say that that movie forever changed how I viewed the study of history. It transformed vague names in a textbook into people who once lived and breathed, loved and hated, and felt so compelled to preserve the way of life they valued that they went to war for it, sometimes against their own dearest friends and family members. It made history personal for me.

Chickamauga

After Michael Shaara’s death, his son Jeff wrote over a dozen novels about the Civil War. The books are based on extensive research into the politics of the times, the battles, and the men who orchestrated and fought them. For additional readability, Shaara added undocumented–but credible–dialog; hence his books are considered historical fiction.

Civil War memorial on Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga

So, back to Chattanooga…as we approached the city I started scanning the horizon for Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, key geographical features in the evolution of the battle. When we went downtown for dinner that night, I looked again and was horribly confused. I kept looking for the mountain and the ridge across the Tennessee River from the city, but they were behind me. And then my nephew explained that after the war, they moved the city from the north side of the river to the south. I had so closely studied Shaara’s maps that I struggled with the orientation of the “new” Chattanooga the whole time we were there.

amazing views of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River from Lookout Mountain

When exploring the Battle of Chattanooga in situ, it’s best to start at Chickamauga, Georgia, just ten miles away. The Battle of Chickamauga happened just prior to that at Chattanooga, and the National Park Service has created one park to commemorate both battles. There wasn’t much to see about Chattanooga at the park, aside from an excellent movie in the visitor center that linked the two battles. After touring the park, we drove up Lookout Mountain. Point Park, on the mountaintop overlooking the city, is little more than a scenic overlook with very little information on the battle. I would have loved to see some informational plaques pointing out strategic landmarks of the battle. Ah, well, I’ve got vivid images in my head, thanks to the gift of a wonderful writer.

Geek alert!

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elevation changes between the Great Lakes

Only two full days in the Niagara area, and the best-weather day will be at the Falls. What to do on the other?

A question came up in the car on our drive from Toronto to St. Catharines, Ontario, where we are staying in the Niagara region: If the Great Lakes Waterway connects the five Great Lakes, allowing navigation from the westernmost lake, Superior, to the easternmost lake, Ontario, and on through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic Ocean, how do ships bypass the falls on the Niagara River? The Niagara is the natural connection between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. [Is it just us, or do other people have conversations like this in the car? A friend just shakes her head when I tell her these things and admonishes, “This is what happens when engineers intermarry.”]

ship entering Lock 3

Marcus had read that there is a manmade canal across the Niagara isthmus that was built to handle maritime traffic. I checked the road map. Sure enough: The Welland Canal connects the two lakes.

Why had I never heard of this canal? With its eight locks, it descends the Niagara escarpment from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario—100 meters* overall. It is the greatest elevation change between any two adjacent Great Lakes. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a canal that drops 100 meters over 43 kilometers in length. How is that possible? Guess where we’re going on our extra day? 

*Note: We’re in Canada now, so I’m using metric units. If Jimmy Carter had had his way, the US would be using the metric system today, just like our neighbors to the north and almost everyone else everywhere. As it is, we are one of only three countries in the world that insist on using “traditional” units, the other two being Burma and Liberia. Seriously? [Sorry. Rant over.]

front gate of the lock holding back water

 

back gate closing behind ship

It turns out that the Welland Canal is the town line between St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, so we didn’t have to drive far. We arrived at Lock 3 just as a ship was pulling in from the Lake Erie side. And it just barely fit! We stayed to watch the whole process, until the ship was on its way at the lower level to Lock 2 an hour and a half later.

maneuvering out of the lock at the lower level

After checking out the Welland Canal Museum, which is very conveniently located at Lock 3 and very well curated, we drove up the Niagara escarpment to Locks 4, 5, and 6. This is the steepest part of the grade, and the three locks–one right after another–climb the escarpment like watery steps. 

Locks 4, 5, and 6 (courtesy of Google Earth)

Kudos to the engineers who built all four of the Welland Canals, from the original canal with its 40 manual locks in 1829 to the current canal utilizing eight hydraulic locks in 1932.

From the Vanderbilt estate

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view of the Hudson River from the Vanderbilt estate

As with most trips we take, we ran out of time to see everything we wanted to see in Hyde Park. My intention with extended travel is to see an area so thoroughly that I can happily cross it off my bucket list, satisfied that I have seen it all, and focus future travel on other adventures. In actuality, we rarely see a place as thoroughly as we’d like. I make an exhaustive list, we prioritize as we go, but you never know just how it’s going to flow. And sometimes we want to return to a place we’ve explored because we’ve seen enough to have fallen in love with it. So the plan may not work the way I intended, but there’s a certain serendipity to it that we’ve come to love.

the Catskill Mountains in the distance

My deepest regret in Hyde Park is not giving Eleanor her due. Little was said about her on our guided tour of Springwood, Franklin’s home. And even though her papers and other memorabilia are stored in the Presidential Library, you really have to search to find her in the museum exhibits. 

The day we hiked to her cottage, Val-Kill, on the Eleanor Roosevelt National Heritage Site, we didn’t stay for the tour. For one thing, we were focused on completing our hike up to the top of the hill, to Top Cottage, and back down again before the day grew too warm. But also, there was an administrative meeting of all tour guides for the Roosevelt properties that morning and a backlog of tourists waiting to tour both Val-Kill and Top Cottages. Somehow I thought that we would catch up with Eleanor later, but sadly our time in Hyde Park evaporated.

The same goes with the Vanderbilt estate, which is located just south of the B&B where we stayed. It was so close, we thought we could stop in any time. We barely managed a drive-through of the property at dusk on our last day in town. While we rarely tour houses just to ogle at the opulence, the mansion does look architecturely stunning from several vantage points along the river. I was intrigued, and I’m sure we could have learned something about the prolific Vanderbilt family.

So we will bid adieu to Hyde Park and continue on our journey up the Hudson. Maybe one day we’ll return and pay Eleanor a nice, long visit. I believe her story is worth hearing.

Hike to Val-Kill and Top Cottages

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the trail to Val-Kill and Top Cottages

There’s a very cool hike through the woods from the Roosevelt family home of Springwood to Val-Kill Cottage, where Eleanor Roosevelt chose to live, and then farther up the hill to Top Cottage, where Franklin intended to live after leaving the presidency. Both cottages were on the vast Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, both small by Springwood standards (especially Top Cottage), both entirely independent of the other, and both the source of great comfort and isolation to their residents.

Let’s back up a bit. Why did Eleanor choose to live at Val-Kill, when Franklin was living at Springwood? We’ve all heard the rumors of their supposed infidelities. I won’t comment on them because I know nothing about them, but according to our park-ranger guide, Eleanor never felt at home at Springwood while Franklin’s mother, Sara, was alive. (She passed away in 1941.) Springwood was always her mother-in-law’s home. She and two friends had originally developed the Val-Kill property as an industrial site where locals could learn handicraft skills. It became Eleanor’s getaway when she was in Hyde Park with her husband, but became her full-time residence after his death in 1945 when she had the factory converted into her home. She lived there until her death in 1962.

Cindy, waiting for her hot dog at Top Cottage

Top Cottage, or Hill-Top Cottage to be precise, was designed by Franklin, an amateur architect, and built during his second term in office. It was his retreat from the world, but they–both he and Eleanor–used it for family picnics and entertaining guests as well. In 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Britain attended the famous “hot-dog summit” at the cottage. (The King’s Speech, anyone?) It was Roosevelt’s desire that the king and queen see how the American commoner lived–and what he or she ate. Note: The queen ate her hot dog with a fork and knife. The king enjoyed eating his by hand!

furry friend in the forest

So, back to the hike. The woods were beautiful. We had them almost to ourselves on a Wednesday morning. The hike to Val-Kill was mostly level–piece of cake! The hike to Top Cottage from Val-Kill was a pretty rugged climb up muddy paths cut through the leaves by heavy rains a few days before.

Here are some of the guys we met along the way.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

 

A very long rat snake. We never saw his head, but his body went on forever as he slithered into this rotted log.

FDR

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Eleanor and Franklin greeted us at Springwood, his family home in Hyde Park

Our first day of sightseeing on the Grand Niagara Tour: We headed up the Hudson River Valley to Hyde Park, New York. I’ve always wanted to visit the home and presidential library of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I didn’t know much about the Roosevelts, but I’d heard enough to be intrigued. Now, after spending two days in their midst, I want to know more. I’m researching biographies. Any recommendations?

FDR was born and raised at the family home of Springwood, and didn’t leave until his fourteenth year to attend boarding school in Massachusetts. At eighteen he attended Harvard, and four years later law school at Columbia. He didn’t take to law school and left to study law on his own. He passed the bar exam on his first attempt. Not bad for being self-taught!

Springwood

There’s so much more to his life and all that he accomplished for his state and country. Most remarkably, he accomplished what Herbert Hoover could not: He rescued this country from the Great Depression. His ideas were radical, as they needed to be, and he started putting them into place within a few months of taking office.

After two successful terms as president, America, on the brink of world war, voted him in to a third term of office. At the end of his third term, and this time actively in the midst of war, America elected him to an unprecedented fourth term. Sadly, he died as he, Churchill, and Stalin were laying the groundwork for a post-war world, just months before the war ended. Yet his legacy for peace lives on, predominantly in his dream of the United Nations.

I didn’t realize the FDR Presidential Library was not only the first presidential library, a concept that Roosevelt came up with himself as a quiet place to work while in Hyde Park, but also the only one ever used by a president while still in office. It’s a repository chock-full of papers (both his and Eleanor’s), memorabilia, and artwork. I loved seeing all the little animals on the desk he used in the Oval Office. It reminds me of my own!

I thought I would have no interest in a temporary exhibit called War Art, motivational posters from World War Two. I passed through the display, vaguely glancing at the walls. My pace slowed, however, as the message began to hit home: Americans were called upon to make incredible sacrifices during the war. Not just rationing and victory gardens, but also collecting scrap metals, rubber from tires, glass, clothing and rags (and we thought we invented recycling!); working extra hours and improving efficiencies in the work place to cover the Americans who were fighting overseas; volunteering for everything from scrap collection to rolling bandages; being mum about the war effort to avoid spreading information that could help the enemy; and so much more. Buying war bonds was especially important. Just imagine the daunting challenge of funding a global war right after the Great Depression! If it hadn’t been for Roosevelt’s New Deal, this country wouldn’t have had the infrastructure to get through a world war.

When they elected him president, many Americans did not realize FDR was paralyzed from the waist down. He was never photographed in his wheelchair and only publicly mentioned his disability once, in the last year of his life.

Being a spectator during the wars America has been involved in over the past 50+ years is nothing like supporting a massive world-war effort on a daily basis for almost four years. The Greatest Generation? You bet! We could all learn a lesson on sacrifice, honor, and integrity.