Ft. Drum Living History (13-15 Jun 08)

[Charles Heath]

Date(s): 13-15 June 2008
Event Name: Fort Drum Centennial Living History
Location: Fort Drum, NY (Watertown)
Description: Timeline Event (Military Through the Ages)
Hosts: Living History Guild & 122nd NYVI
Sponsor: US Army
Capacity: 30
Discussion Format: Direct Email
Contacts:
Chris Piering cpiering@twcny.rr.com and Doug Oakes oldsoldier51@yahoo.com
Impression(s): See below
Registration: See the POC's for more information and a registration form.
Post Website: http://www.drum.army.mil/sites/local/
Forum: None
Listservers: Columbia Rifles & 122nd NYVI
Preservation Component: TBA

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Fort Drum Centennial Celebration

July 13-15, 2008

Goal: Field a 30 man sized unit to present Civil War Infantry impressions as follows:

· 1 squad of 10 attired in early war gear with NYS jackets and civilian clothing portraying new recruits (35th NY)

· 1 squad of 10 attired in mid war gear representing seasoned soldiers (94th NY)

· 1 squad of 10 attired in frock coats and portray the Regulars.

· Each squad will have one sergeant and two corporals. NCO’s will be asked to wear all appropriate badges of rank including trouser stripes. This is a fixed garrison camp environment under the watchful eyes of the Regulars and uniforms will conform as closely as possible to established regulations.

· 2 Company Officers responsible for conducting inspections, drills and dress parades

· 1 Regular Officer responsible for narrating demonstrations and maintaining the camp schedule

· Field music of at least one drummer and bugler

· Inspecting Medical Officer

· Examples of tentage with Common, Wall, Shelter & Sibley if possible

· Camp kitchen operations

Activities:

Saturday AM

· 35th NY will initially portray new recruits arriving in civilian clothing, complete an enlistment physical (recreate method published in Hornellsville paper) and get issued their uniforms

· 94th NY will participate in sick call, camp police, knapsack inspection and demonstrate school of the soldier drill on Saturday morning for the public

· Regulars will conduct the mustering activities of the new recruits i.e., coordinating enlistment physicals, making out/signing of enlistment papers, conducting uniform issue and interpret individually in the camp area

· Camp interpretations- rations, clothing/equipment, firearms, tentage


Saturday PM

· Ordnance issue for 35th NY squads

· Manual of arms & demos in 9 times, fire by company, ranks and files by 94th NY & Regulars

· Company drill 35th & 94th NY

· Camp interpretations- rations,, clothing, equipment, firearms, tentage by Regulars squad

· Dress Parade all squads


Sunday AM

· Guard mount combined 35th & 94th NY squads commanded by the Regulars

· Camp interpretations all squads

· Skirmish drill all squads


Sunday PM

· Bayonet drill all squads

· Firing demos (if requested by Ft Drum)

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This was originally posted back in November-December 2007 timeframe, but at this late date, even I can't find the original thread.

[BillO'Dea]

What's not said in Mr. Heath's post is that this event is for the families of the 10th Mountain Division who have sacrificed so much in the last few years.

It is also being held on the Armys' Birthday, 233 years of service, Flag day. and the Centennial of Fort Drum

For myself I feel it is the most worth while event of the season and hope that it gets the support it deserves from the authentic community.

Bill O'Dea
Salt boiler mess /122nd NY

[chris piering]

I can only echo what Bill said.
Please give this serious consideration.
Chris

[BillO'Dea]

Museum chronicles Fort Drum history

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 7, 2007 7:08:36 EDT

FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Just about every soldier in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division can tell you it has been America’s busiest Army unit since its reactivation 22 years ago.

About how 10th Mountain Division troops are in the front lines fighting against al-Qaida insurgents in Iraq. And how the division routed the Taliban from the Shah-e-Kot mountains in Afghanistan during the early phases of the war on terror.

Most even know about the daring rescue of the ambushed Army Rangers from Mogadishu in 1993 — a feat chronicled in the best-selling book and movie, “Black Hawk Down.”

But few can detail the division’s exploits during World War II, and fewer still how the division was born as an alpine fighting force in the mountains of Colorado or why it now calls upstate New York its home.

Fort Drum’s new Heritage Center will provide those answers when it opens this month.

“Military history is one of the great educational and training tools for any military organization. The Heritage Center will end up becoming the focal point for that,” said Douglas Cubbison, a retired Army major and former cultural resources manager at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who is now the division’s historian.

Up until now, the legacy-rich division’s historical collection, at least part of it, was displayed nondescriptly in one of the wooden buildings left over from World War II when the post was known as Pine Camp.

“It was built as a temporary building. It’s gotten crowded and cramped. We were so constrained there we could barely handle a small family if they wanted to visit. Now we can bring in a tour bus,” Cubbison said.

The new 3,000-square-foot museum is located in part of a former enlisted man’s club. The renovated club also has a gift shop and houses the newly opened USO center and cafe.

“There are soldiers serving now that have no concept of the history of the division,” said Kent Bolke, the museum’s curator. “We don’t want that story to be forgotten.”

Educating soldiers is the center’s primary mission, but it’s also intended to be a link to the surrounding civilian community. The free museum will be open to the public.

Strategic importance
Athough it may seem remote and removed in today’s contemporary world, Fort Drum is located in an area that has held strategic importance through history. For American Indians, it held key trading and hunting trails; for colonial European powers, the area was vital to control of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes.

Nearby Sackets Harbor was one of young America’s most important military installations during the War of 1812. After the war, the Army built Madison Barracks there, serving as an outpost and one of its principal training centers — Gen. Ulysses S. Grant trained there — until it was closed in 1947.

In 1906, Madison Barracks needed a summer training area and designated Pine Plains near Watertown for the task. Over time, Pine Plains became Camp Hughes, and then Pine Camp and then Camp Drum — after the World War I-era First Army commander, Gen. Hugh A. Drum.

The museum is divided into four sections to tell its stories.

The first focuses on the area’s Indian history through the French and Indian War and War of 1812; the second examines Fort Drum’s precursors; the third depicts the division’s history during World War II; and the fourth details the division’s deployments since its reactivation in 1985 — Hurricane Andrew, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo among them.

The last section includes weapons captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are living history there as we’re fighting,” said Sgt. Bill Wortman, who was helping the museum get organized while home recovering from a leg wound suffered in Afghanistan.

“When you see our achievements in this context [the museum], you realize you are part of something bigger. For me, I feel I have a stronger bond to the division’s past after being here,” said Wortman, of Prineville, Ore.

The museum also will bring in division veterans for interactive programs and host expert speakers for round-table discussions of military topics.

The original 10th Mountain Division was created in 1943 at Camp Hale in Colorado as a light infantry division to fight in cold weather and high-altitude terrain. Soldiers trained on skis and snowshoes and slept outside without tents. Many 10th Mountain Division soldiers became pioneers in the recreational ski industry.

On display
One part of the museum is an exhibit called Granddad’s Attic. The display is designed to give both soldiers and other visitors an idea about what to do when an old Army item is found.

“We want people to understand what it is they have, what they can do to protect it, and where they might be able to take it,” Bolke said. “Often these items are not only important to the family, but to the culture of the U.S. Army and America as a whole.”

Another display highlights the early career of Bill Mauldin, who trained at Pine Camp during World War II with the 45th Infantry Division and later went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes as one of the most popular and influential cartoonists of the 20th century.

The division first made its mark on American military history during World War II at the battle of Riva Ridge in northern Italy. In that battle, 10th Mountain Division soldiers scaled a sheer 1,500-foot cliff under cover of darkness to rout the Nazis and help liberate Italy.

One of Fort Drum’s most hallowed artifacts, though, will not be on display: The Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to Pfc. John Magrath, the only Medal of Honor winner in the division’s history.

Magrath won the medal at Mount Belvedere during the Italian offensive when he saved his unit by charging a German machine gun nest, killing three Germans, wounding seven and taking several more as prisoners. He died later that day helping fallen comrades.

Magrath’s medal is on display in the post gymnasium that bears his name.

An outdoor exhibit will display more than a dozen pieces of large military equipment, including a Sherman tank. Meanwhile, a memorial path is being built from the museum to nearby Hays Hall, the division’s headquarters. Eventually, all the individual unit memorials now spread around post will be located there.

Bill O'Dea
Salt Boiler mess / 122nd NY

[markj]

My son, Mike, is a 74-Delta (BN Chem Warfare NCO) in HHC, 2/14, 2nd BCT, at Ft. Drum. I'll let him know about this event so he can check it out. I recently spent several days visiting my son and checked out the Ft. Drum Heritage Center. Neat little place, with a nice collection of U.S., as well as captured enemy, arms and equipment.

Yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[Charles Heath]

Originally Posted by BillO'Dea

What's not said in Mr. Heath's post is that this event is for the families of the 10th Mountain Division who have sacrificed so much in the last few years.

"Sticky,"

You are absolutely correct. To quote Chris and Cubby, respectively, from a couple of their previous emails:

"IMO, this is an event that really gives something back to the
military that is today risking life and limb to serve our nation.
We need about twenty more men with a good impression to do this right.
I know gas prices are high and summer is short, but this is the real
deal folks.

"Spend a few days doing an event that actually may educate family and
friends of modern military, make few folks smile and have a good time
in the interim."

"

"I want to let everybody know how much I'm looking forward to this
event, and how much myself and the leadership of Fort Drum and the
10th Mountain Division appreciate your contributing your time and
skills to making this event a success."

Some of the folks reading this thread may not recognize Cubby's name at first, but anyone of us who has had the opportunity to lose money at Faro, Uchre, Chuck-A-Luck, or any of the other period games of chance at the White Star Saloon have enjoyed he and his bride's handiwork. Yes, they were set up at the most recent Winter 1864 event, and the world famous White Star Lemonade a la Death March is highly recommended.

While reading through the Saturday evening script this morning, I was struck by some of the passages in the narrative, and without posting the entire document on the forum, these snippets about the history of the place from before, during, and after "our time," were darned interesting:

"As the gigantic glaciers melted the surface of North America rose, creating the rivers and mountains and shape that we are familiar with today. Groups of Hunter Gatherers crossed an ice bridge from Siberia, and began to spread out throughout North America. Several thousand years ago the first Paleo-Indians reached Northern New York. The area was rich in animal life, and crossed by numerous waterways that offered pathways for trade and commerce, and they shortly established permanent settlements in the North Country. There are sites of large Native American villages within less than a mile of us, on the land that is today Fort Drum. These Native Americans would eventually become the Iroquois Confederation, in this area consisting of the Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk nations."

"In 1749 the first Europeans to permanently live in the North Country were French missionaries, who established Fort de la Présentation at the site of modern Ogdensburg, where the Oswegatchie River joined the St. Lawrence River. By the time of the Seven Years War in 1755, Fort de la Présentation had become a military post, garrisoned by members of the French Marines. Unlike the US Marines with which we are familiar today, the French Marines were French soldiers specifically organized into individual companies, and intended to garrison French overseas colonies."

"The French were forced to yield Fort de la Presentation to the King of England in 1760, when a large English army marched up the St. Lawrence River valley. The British maintained a garrison at Ogdensburg, which they re-named Fort Oswegatchie, from 1760 until 1796.

The British garrison in 1780 consisted of the 34th Light Infantry, actually survivors of Captain Alexander Fraser’s Company of Select Marksmen who had survived the Saratoga Campaign of 1777, and was commanded by Captain Alexander Fraser. Throughout the American Revolution the British garrison of Fort Oswegatchie launched raids, with Native American allies, against American settlements in the Mohawk Valley.

These British Rangers worked closely with the Native Americans, much as modern Special Forces work with indigenous forces. As a result, their traditional Light Infantry uniforms have been heavily modified. Some soldiers wear Indian Moccasins, and wool or leather leggings to protect their legs when moving through the woods. Their hats have been cut down to enable them to march through forests faster and easier, and they have greatly reduced the amount of equipment that they are carrying."

"Following eventual American victory in 1783, the Americans occupied Fort Oswegatchie from the British in 1796. By 1812, American settlers had begun moving into the North Country, following the waterways that were the Native American’s original paths of travel and commerce. But in 1812, war clouds again gathered over the North Country.

This time, Lake Ontario would be the center of warfare, and armies and navies would be assembled by both British and Americans, invading each other’s nations and attempting to conquer new territories for the two growing nations of Canada and the United States. In the North Country, the center of conflict would be Sackets Harbor. American supplies moved from the Mohawk Valley up Lake Ontario and the Black River to Sackets Harbor. An American military hospital and arsenal was established in Watertown. The British attacked Sackets Harbor in 1812 and 1813, and the Americans launched a successful assault upon Fort York (now Toronto) in 1813 from Sackets Harbor."

"Because of the strategic importance of Sackets Harbor, the U.S. Army formally established Madison Barracks in 1816 to defend the US Navy installation located there. Previous to the American Civil War, a young West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, Lieutenant Ulysses Simpson Grant, was twice assigned to Madison Barracks. "

"During the American Civil War, Madison Barracks initially dispatched several regular Army units to the war, and then served as a training base for the numerous New York volunteer regiments that were locally raised. A typical regiment from the North Country is the 60th New York Volunteer Infantry, from St. Lawrence County. Enlisted in the fall of 1861, this regiment fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg with the Army of the Potomac; and was then transferred to the western theater where they fought at Lookout Mountain and Ringgold Gap, throughout the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, marched from Atlanta to Savannah with Sherman, and then marched through the Carolinas to end the war, having marched over 3,000 miles in four years. They were one of the 300 fighting regiments of the Union Army."

Madison Barracks continued to support the Spanish American War and Philippines Insurrection, with Officers Training camps established at Madison Barracks, and deploying soldiers from Madison Barracks overseas to both conflicts. By the turn of the century, the US Army was in the process of the most significant modernization in the history of the institution. The Army was now armed with bolt action, magazine fed rifles; fired machine guns; moved using automobiles and trucks instead of horses; and communicated using telephones and telegraph. The result was that the parade grounds at Madison Barracks that were perfectly adequate for the flintlock muskets and lineal tactics of 1816, could no longer support the training of soldiers at Madison Barracks. Colonel Philip Reade, Commander of Madison Barracks, began searching for a new training location. With the cooperation and assistance of the Northern New York community, he found it north of the Black River in a sparsely settled area locally known as “Pine Plains.” The first training was performed here by the New York National Guard, in the vicinity of the modern South Post, in August 1907 at Camp Hughes. That training was a great success, and in June 1908 the son of US Grant, Brigadier General Frederic Dent Grant, returned to Pine Plains with 16,000 regular and National Guard soldiers. In 1909 the US Army formally established Pine Camp Military Reservation. Since the summer of 1907, soldiers have trained every year at Pine Camp/Fort Drum, and the US Army has trained annually here since 1908.

With the outbreak of World War I, Madison Barracks and Pine Camp again supported Officer Candidate Schools and training camps. The doughboy of World War I appeared much the same as the soldiers who had trained at the first Pine Camp in 1908.

Throughout the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, Pine Camp continued to serve as one of the US Army’s major training installations. The 1935 Maneuvers held at Pine Camp included 35,000 soldiers; and were the largest peacetime maneuvers ever held by the US Army through 1940. In 1940, the US Army began a staggering expansion, recognizing that US involvement in World War II then underway in Europe was all but inevitable. Pine Camp was one of the locations selected by the US Arm for a division cantonment. Beginning in the fall of 1940, this division cantonment was constructed at Fort Drum, and the installation size was expanded to the modern 110,000 acres.

On April 15, 1941 the 4th Armored Division was formally activated at Pine Camp, and the division performed all of its early training here. To your right and left, you will see some of the armored vehicles operated by this division. They were followed by the 5th Armored Division, and then by the famous 45th Infantry Division of the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona National Guard. The 45th Infantry Division was assigned here from November 1942 to March 1943 for winter training. They certainly saw that, for the winter of 1942-1943 was particularly hard, and the division in fact never saw the ground here. Included among their numbers was the famous soldier artist Bill Mauldin.

In 1951 Pine Camp became Camp Drum; and in 1974 Camp Drum finally became a permanent US Army installation, Fort Drum. In February 1985, the 10th Mountain Division was formally re-activated at Fort Drum.

Without tossing out any more spoilers, needless to say the Saturday evening portion of the program continues substantially from there, but as the saying goes, "if you don't go, then you don't know."

Timeline events cover a heck of a lot of ground, and it is nice to see how the CW era fits into all of this as a piece of the puzzle, rather than a stand-alone element. Plus, this event has the covented Conan Paw Stamp of Approval.

A registration form in MS-Word Format is attached.

[ChrisM(armyguy)]

ahh if i wasnt living on the west coast!!! Good old Fort Lewis. Figures that Drum would decide to do something like this after i PCSed.



chris mattingly

[Charles Heath]

Chris,

You could always hook up with Silas out that way, and enjoy the company of CHAPS.

If you get a chance, please drop by the WW1 cemetery deep in the woods on main post and see if the darn thing is still being maintained in good fashion. Also, the Fort Lewis museum has some good artifacts, including a frock that may have significance to a certain general killed at Chantilly. Keep your head down if you go into the "Trey Club" on North Fort -- if it still exists.

Prawns good. Tillamook cheese good. Dungeness good. Geoduck chewy.

[ChrisM(armyguy)]

the cemetary is still well maintained, we run past it every other day. didnt see the frock coat there but will look again next time. and didnt know pickett was an agitator in the imfamous pig war episode....



chris mattingly

[BillO'Dea]

The event was fun and worth while, getting to meet the living historians from other eras is always a treat, We had great weather. A 10th Mountain Division soldier was loaned a uniform and he got to do Yankee. Met a recent recruit to the CR's who fell in with us also who works at Ft Drum. We ended up with 13 in the ranks, The White Star was in full swing, This was one time i was glad "The Indian" was at a event as his impression was great and based on reality. Getting to talk to the Army families who passed through was a treat too as was the Ft Drum Dining hall cheap buffet

Here are the pictures Randy Elliot and I took http://www.rugglesrag.com/ftDrum.htm

Bill O'Dea
Salt Boilers Mess / 122NY