Sarah and General Braddock

Sarah often claims a certain nonchalant boredom with history because her Daddy is so avidly trying to teach her history, but sometimes it clicks. We went down to Old Town Alexandria today and discovered that at the Carlyle House reenactors were doing the meeting which took place there in April 1755 in which General Braddock met with the colonial governors before his expedition to the forks of the Ohio. (Okay, he didn't make it to the forks of the Ohio, but you know what I mean.)

Sarah watched the soldiers firing muskets on the lawn and looked over both the British soldiers and Virginia militia reenactors on the lawn. When we went inside Carlyle house we discovered that my old friend from college Ted Borek, whom I haven't seen since Sarah was a baby, and his wife Jamie were doing roles inside; they're avid historical interpreters and Ted was Robert Hunter Morris, the (Lieutenant) Governor of Pennsylvania. I had explained to Sarah that I knew him (she hadn't seen him since she was a toddler and wouldn't remember), but because he was playing a role he had to stay in character. But he was able to take a break, leaving Gen. Braddock at the table and talking to us for a bit.

Sarah enjoyed taking pictures of the soldiers and generally I think got a good idea of what was going on. We spoke to several of the characters but not to General Braddock. I think I'd have suggested he not take out any two-year magazine subscriptions.

Surely no one else who presided over a major disaster for the British Empire has so many things named after him as Edward Braddock. It's like instead of Trafalgar Square, you named it for Percival at Singapore or something. Locally we have Braddock Road, a Braddock High School, Lake Braddock, Braddock Heights in Maryland, and so on. I wonder what they'd have named for him if he'd won. (Actually Forbes and Bouquet, the folks who eventually did retake the forks, don't seem to have as much stuff named for them, though my experience in that part of Pennsylvania is limited and I suppose they're well remembered there. I know there's some Forbes stuff at least up around Greensburg, PA.) And you may say that Braddock died in battle, but then wouldn't it be better to remember Howe, who after all won at the Plains of Abraham while dying heroically. (But I know, that was in Canada someplace, and we Yanks don't do Canada. The victory at Quebec can't have had any influence on our history, right?)

Okay, enough rant. I belong more or less to the traditional interpretation of Braddock, namely that he was pretty much an incompetent, though I am aware there has been a sort of pro-Braddock resurgence in the last century or so. (A good bibliographical summary is in Paul E. Kopperman's Braddock at the Monogahela, one of the most detailed accounts of the campaign I know of.) I have no doubt that Braddock played by the rules, and did everything according to the book, but it was the wrong book. To use a modern term, the French and Indians (mostly Indians with French officers and a few French forces) were fighting asymmetrically against British regular tactics. The colonial militia weren't completely innocent because they weren't used to operating with British regulars, or with each other for that matter, but the whole thing was a big screwup and when a combined operation is a big screwup, the person responsible is the senior officer in command. In 18th century Europe, the howling wilds of Pennsylvania (claimed by Virginia I should note), or in modern war as well. Braddock had the command. Let's name a lake for him.

Anyway, enough of a rant about Braddock. He paid the price for his errors. Of course, so did the folks in the Shenandoah Valley and Western Pennsylvania. (I'll rant another time about how the historical marker at Narrow Passage in the Valley used to read "Last Indian Outrage" and now reads "Last Indian Attack" or something like that. I suppose it will eventually read "Last Indigenous Resistance against Occupation" or some such. No doubt deservedly (I think Indian casinos are a wonderful revenge, frankly), but it's still interesting to watch the PC progression.)

Anyhow Sarah soaked up some history whether she will admit it or not. (Occasionally I overhear her lecturing her friends about stuff she's learned, so it is sinking in, despite her claims of boredom.) And Sarah also got to pet a great dog at the Alexandria Visitors' Center where Tam stopped for a restroom. And then we went to the Torpedo Factory where she enjoyed assembling the broken plates in the Archaeology center. As I've noted before she really does enjoy archaeology and has even enjoyed a dig at St. Mary's City. Alexandria's little center is more like the kids' room at Mount Vernon in that they let you put broken pottery together, but she is good at it. Archaeologist is still one of her chosen professions, though she has decided to combine it with fashion designing, being a rock star, and a Mom. Hopefully the rock star part will finance the rest. I certainly can't.

Besides, this opens a door. She's heard of Braddock. She's seen a big guy in a red uniform with lots of gold frogging on it. That can get us to Fort Necessity, Braddock's grave, and the site of Braddock's defeat, and excuse a trip to Pittsburgh. If I finesse it right.

We were at Harper's Ferry a week or two ago. I tried to sneak the John Brown and Robert E. Lee and JEB Stuart and other stuff in among the scenery.

Update: I realize that in a previous post I never explained why Sarah moved worms. It seemed important at the time, but all I can recall now is that they needed moving. I hope that clears that up.

Jamestown Again

Dig at Jamestown Fort, originally uploaded by michaelcollinsdunn.

Earlier this summer on a trip to Richmond we stopped on the way back to see Jamestown Settlement, the State of Virginia-run reconstruction of Jamestown, an Indian village, and the three ships that came over. We didn't have time on that trip to stop at the original site, now called Historic Jamestowne, run by the National Park Service and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Both sites had had remakes for the 400th anniversary this year (the Queen's visit and all that), a huge new museum at Jamestown Settlement and a new visitor center at Historic Jamestowne, along with the new archaeology museum (the "Archaearium") which had opened just before we were down here last summer.

As I explained elsewhere, I'm a bit of a Jamestown buff, and blogged earlier about the 400th and some personal connections. I wanted to see the new visitor's center but also catch up on the dig itself, where they're excavating the original 1607 fort, originally thought lost under the James.

We got to see the new stuff, but the heat was considerable and the Jamestown settlement was, of course, founded in a swamp. Sarah melted down quickly and I wasn't far behind. I do recommend both the new Visitor's Center and the Archaearium, and as always, I recommend that anyone visiting Jamestown do both the federal and state sites: one is for the archaeology and original site, the other a superb reconstruction and interpretaiton. You should see both.

Tam and I both prefer both Jamestown sites to Williamsburg, and they cost less, too.

I'll blog more on the day later. It was too hot to do too much outside, so we ate lunch (there is a Williamsburg MacDonalds), and retreated to a movie.

Sarah the Archaeologist

Today was our second day at the St. Mary's City Archaeology weekend. See the previous posts, particularly this one, for links and more information on what we were doing and where we were staying. And just below you'll find documentation of one really big caterpillar.

Sarah has been saying for quite some time now that she wants to be an archaeologist. At first I tended to think that this came mainly from the highly realistic view of archaeology she derived from Scooby-Doo, in which archaeologists always seem to be discovering enormous jewels, the mummy of Cleopatra (or some such). This as opposed to most Americans' views of archaeology, derived from those highly realistic documentaries about Indiana Jones and the lost whatever. Having actually spent some time with archaeologists in Egypt and Israel, and even done a little history for one dig about 25 years ago (and Tam actually having worked a dig in Nebraska years ago), we have sought to give her a more realistic view of what archaeologists do. That's the point where most people say, whoa, you mean instead of finding the lost diamond of the forbidden idol's eye, or the Ark of the Covenant, or the mummy with the curse, I have to scrape gravel with a toothbrush all day looking for pieces of old brick? Then plot it on a grid and weigh it and measure it and photograph it?

Amazingly, and I really am amazed, Sarah has weathered the realities of archaeology and actually seems to understand the real value (and tedium) of the field. At the Kids' discovery room at Mount Vernon, not just once but every time she goes there, she sits down with broken pottery and slowly tapes it together (with pieces missing), just like a colonial archaeologist really must. She's watched the dig in the old fort at Jamestown and seen archaeologists sifting the dirt carefully there, but this hands-on day at St. Mary's City was the first time she really got to get her own hands dirty. Though she wanted to dig with shovels, we explained that that is a highly specialized thing and you need special training to know exactly how much to take into the shovel at a time, but she was allowed, both yesterday and today, to break up dirt in the sifters, and show the archaeology students each thing that might be something. She found several pieces of coal, looked at brick found by others, and found what the student thought was pottery and put in the tagged bag for further study. Even though yesterday was in the 90s and she faded early, she wanted to go back today.

Then, today as well, we took the once-a-year tour offered of the archaeology labs at St. Mary's City. (For those who came in late or didn't click on yesterday's links, St. Mary's City was the first capital of Maryland, founded in 1634 by Jesuits and the Calverts. It was eventually abandoned, and has been gradually re-excavated and reconstructed in part in recent decades. It's located here). The chief conservator was very tourist-friendly and they showed us how they handled the artifacts. Sarah and one slightly older boy were the only two kids on our small (12 or 13 people) tour. When they got to the lab, both headed straight to the magnifier which had an arrowhead (or in archae-speak, "projectile point") under it. Since she loves to draw, I showed her how carefully the archaeologists draw their finds. Then we all sat at a table while the chief conservator showed us artifacts. A sword pommel, a slave's or prisoner's shackle, a piece of Delft ware with a date on it, and other interesting stuff. Tonight, I asked her what she liked best: the digging, which she kept going back to? No, she said the lab tour. And what did she like best about that? The artifacts, she said.

I am not making this up. She said, "The artifacts." I doubt if, at seven, I even knew the word "artifact." (I know the Brits prefer "artefact," but then they can't even pronounce "schedule" correctly.) I'm pretty sure I hadn't visited a real archaeological dig before I got to Egypt in my mid-20s. (Well, if you're going to learn something new, start at the source.)

I have no idea if Sarah will become an archaeologist. I became neither a cowboy nor a fireman despite a certain commitment at various times. But she does seem to realize that it isn't all Indiana Jones meets Scooby-Doo.

She's also impressed that I know a little bit in this area. She avidly watched the recent, much hyped, Discovery Channel special on Egypt's Queen Hatshepsut, despite being a little "creeped out" (her words) by pictures of the mummy.. Like most Discovery Channel or History Channel programs on Egypt, Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist for the Pyramids Plateau and a self-promoter of the first order, was much in evidence. I mentioned to Sarah that some 25 years ago, when I was living in Egypt and Zahi was just starting out, I knew him slightly through mutual friends who (like Hawass) had gone to the University of Chicago. This impressed her no end; I'm still getting questions about it. (Why is he on TV all the time and I'm not?) Dad knows someone on TV. (Sure, I know most of the Middle East talking heads on CNN, and am sometimes one myself, but that doesn't count. This guy's on the Discovery Channel!) I haven't seen Zahi Hawass in a quarter century and I'm not sure he ever knew my name, but I get brownie points anyway.

During the tour today she kept telling people I could recite the Greek alphabet, and asking me to do it. I can, with a little prodding, still remember it in proper order I think, but Greek is not one of my languages and I keep telling her I actually speak quite good Arabic (even weirder alphabet) and a bit of mediocre Hebrew (yet another alphabet), so why she keeps asking for Greek I'm not sure, but I did hear her tell the other kid on the tour that "one of the letters is named pi." Maybe that's it.

I'm not sure where this is going: I doubt if your average academic archaeologist started this way, though I may be wrong, and I rather suspect Heinrich Schliemann did.

For those invited to our Flickr and YouTube family sites, both stills and videos of the dig are online.

Really Big Caterpillar

Really Big Caterpillar, originally uploaded by michaelcollinsdunn.

This is the really big caterpillar we saw today. We were at St.Mary's City for the second day of Archaeology Weekend (see separate postings), when one of the reenactor/living history people called out to Sarah, "You want to see something really weird?" This huge, maybe five or more inches long, caterpillar was crossing the path. We think it's a tobacco hornworm, but it's bigger than any anybody had seen. The living history people (that's why the guy holding it is in colonial outfit) didn't know what it was. Sarah has a stuffed tobacco hornworm (she has every stuffed animal imaginable, even caterpillars) so we were fairly confident' we'd seen smaller ones at the colonial farm in Accokeek, Maryland, which recreates a colonial tobacco plantation. This is a gigantic one if that's what it is though. Most of the Internet postings I've found say they get up to 75-85mm (maybe 2.5-3.5 inches) and the largest estimate I found was four inches; this one is at least five I think: look at the man's hands in the picture; he was a big guy. The Internet did say they drop to the ground and burrow when they are ready to go from larve to pupa; maybe that's what this guy was planning before we all started gawking. Now the video:

Archaeology Weekend

We're on a weekend overnight trip. Old St. Mary's City, Maryland (located here) is having a Tidewater Archaeology Weekend, and Sarah, who wants to be an archaeologist, thought it would be fun. Unfortunately today was around 90, so digging in dirt has its disadvantages. It was quite hot, I was the only one who bothered to pack a hat, and so not only did we cut the digging short but I spent $22 each for hats for Tam and Sarah. We retreated to the hotel we're staying at in Lexington Park, Md (next to Patuxent River Naval Air Station, nearest place with hotels near St. Mary's City) to cool down. Tomorrow we go back to tour the archaeology labs (the tours were booked for today but we got in on tomorrow's) and if the weather's not so hot maybe we'll do some more. Mainly Sarah found a few pieces of coal in the dirt she sifted.

This area of southern Maryland along the lower Patuxent and the Bay is the earliest-settled part of Maryland and is close enough to home to get down here quickly. Besides Pax River, which has a small naval aviation museum, there's Solomon's Island, where there's a marine science center Sarah likes (and ice cream on the boardwalk), Point Lookout (where the Potomac meets the bay: site of a Civil War prison (Union prison, for Confederate prisoners) and today of a state park with beaches.) The Civil War Buffs among you may recall the lines from "I'm a Good Ole Rebel:"

I followed Ole Marse Robert
For Four Years Nigh About
Got wounded in three places
And starved at P'int Lookout...

Today would have been more successful, though, without the heat and with hats. Meanwhile Sarah got in some good pool time -- she's getting more confident about swimming, though she still wants a tube or a life vest while paddling around.

A few pictures at Flickr; hopefully we'll get more tomorrow.