The U.S.S. Olympia: Once the Pride of the Navy Now an Endangered Ship!

USS OLYMPIA (C 6)

There's a common fact about America that sticks out like a nipple in cold weather, and that fact is that America loves old ships. Specifically ones that served in the navy, have big guns that go boom, or ones that carry airplanes. How could one not be at least awe-inspired by seeing an old navy ship? And how could one not want to save and preserve these old ships so that future generations could enjoy them? Take the USS Midway in San Diego, California. Surely an aircraft carrier that launched crucial air strikes against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces during the Vietnam War is worthy of being saved for future generations. Or what about the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii? That battleship was host to the surrender of Japan on September 2nd, 1945. That fact alone renders it a museum ship permanently. How bout the USS Laffey in Charleston, South Carolina? That destroyer that survived 6 Kamikaze hits in World War II. I'd say that's grounds for preservation. And who could forget the USS Constitution in Boston, Massachusetts? That venerable ass-kicking frigate from the War of 1812 made British sailors crap their pants because of it's seemingly indestructible "iron sides"*. I'd say a ship that made the British navy nervous and gave Americans hope during a difficult war is worthy of being preserved. Now, one of the reasons this blog is in existence is to shed light on forgotten conflicts that involved Americans. World War II and Vietnam don't really fall into the "forgotten" category in my opinion, though this does NOT mean they are any less important to American history. And thanks to dedicated veterans of these conflicts and loads of support from American society today, these conflicts won't be forgotten. The War of 1812 is surely one of those wars that gets swept under the proverbial rug, but thanks to authors, preservation of battlefields, and a dedicated group of reenactors (myself included in this group), this war will be remembered. There is one very popular city that remembers the War of 1812 everyday, and that city is Boston. The USS Constitution exposes thousands of tourists each year to a war not highlighted by Hollywood or popular culture. But because of the Constitution, Those thousands of tourists won't forget the war it fought in. And the same type of mentality exists for the USS Olympia. Olympia never launched F-4 Phantom fighters off of it's deck to give Charlie** a taste of napalm, nor did it host the surrender of one of the most powerful empires in the world. And it certainly didn't sail out and blast cannonballs through bowls of figgy pudding on British warships. Hell, the Olympia doesn't even have sails. Olympia is a veteran of the Spanish American War, yet another forgotten conflict that Americans fought and died in. I first read about the Olympia in an issue of Military History magazine, and about how she is in danger of being scrapped. Angered by this, I had to do more research on her. And guess what I found out? Olympia is an awesome looking ship, there's no doubt about it. If a Carnival cruise ship and a navy warship were able to procreate, Olympia would be it's offspring. With it's hull painted white and it's gold painted superstructure, a person gets a taste of what turn of the twentieth century opulence was really like. I decided to go on phillyseaport.org's page for the Olympia to find out some more information about this boat. It turns out that Olympia is an old gal, not as old as the Constitution, but much older than the Midway. She was launched in 1892 in San Francisco, California. Yep, San Fran. Home of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the hippie subculture. Probably a good thing the Olympia wasn't docked back in her home port after her retirement...she'd look pretty goofy in tie dye!
somehow this just wouldn't look good on the Olympia



OLYMPIA'S BEGINNINGS

Olympia was designated as a cruiser, not as big as a Battleship but she didn't have to be. She's three hundred and forty-four feet long, and fifty-three feet at her widest point, or "beam" as it's called by nautical folk. Her displacement (mass) is five thousand eight hundred and seventy tons, and her top speed was twenty two knots- which equates to twenty five miles per hour...which isn't that fast by today's standards, but what she lacked in speed she made up for in firepower. According to the Spanish American War centennial website, she carried four eight-inch guns, two in each turret, ten five inch guns, fourteen six pound guns, six one pound guns, two machine guns manufactured by Colt, a "field piece" or cannon on a land carriage for landing parties, and six torpedo tubes. And don't let those inches and pounds designations make you think this thing is carrying a wide assortment of BB guns. Oh no. An eight inch gun means it fired a shell eight inches in diameter, weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. Imagine, getting hit with one of those would be like getting hit by an obese middle school student! Lay off the fries, kid!!

A six pound gun means that the shell that's fired through it weighs, yes you guessed it, six pounds. So in retrospect, the Olympia was armed to the teeth and ready for whatever was thrown her way. She's a hungry lass, too. She consumed coal at a rate of six hundred and thirty three pounds PER MINUTE while traveling at her top speed. And with all those guns to be fired and all that coal to be shoveled, she needed a pretty good sized crew to keep her going. Three hundred and ninety-six enlisted men and thirty-three officers saw to it that Olympia was in a constant state of readiness and awesomeness.

OLYMPIA GOES TO WAR...AND KICKS ASS.

Lets flash forward a few years in time. Six years after Olympia is launched, she finds herself steaming towards the Philippines. She's been painted gray, and she's under the command of Commodore George Dewey, who has received orders via telegraph from President McKinley to get his ships ready. McKinley ordered Dewey to travel to the Philippines and "capture or destroy" the ships of the Spanish fleet at Manila. At Dawn on May 1st, 1898, Olympia led five other ships into Manila Bay, and opened fire on a Spanish fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Passarón. Here we see Dewey and his men in action on board the Olympia. GO USA! WOOHOO!











BANG!!! BOOM!!! KA-POW!!! KA-oh you get the idea.


Viva España?? No! GO AMERICA!!!

At first glance, it would appear that the Spanish fleet would have had the upper hand. They had shore batteries, plus one extra ship than the Americans. Now as school children, we're all taught at an early age that the Spanish kicked some serious ass throughout history. Guys like Coronado and Cortez were the epitome of macho men, and not the kind the Village People sung about, either. Not only did the Spanish have tough dudes, but they had a lot of money back in the day and had a ton of colonial possessions. But the Spanish waiting for the American fleet that morning in Manila Bay were at a disadvantage. All the ships in the Spanish fleet were next to obsolete. Take the Castilla for example. Here's a pretty bad ass looking ship, right? Wrong. Not only was it's hull made completely out of WOOD, but her screw shaft was inoperable because Spanish mechanics had to stop a leak around the shaft with CONCRETE. Yep. You heard me. Now when you throw a ship like that in with a whole bunch of other ships of mediocre condition...you've got yourself a fleet that isn't going to do a whole hell of a lot to stop an opposing fleet made up of steel warships that work really well. It'd be like taking a whole bunch of piece 'o' shit cars from a demolition derby and having them race against NASCAR cars on a NASCAR track. Those shitboxes won't even make it through the first lap! And that's what happened to the Spanish. Their technological setbacks led to their demise, And the Olympia was right there to gain a decisive victory for the United States.
Not the best cars in the world...but I've seen and driven worse...


OLYMPIA TODAY

Olympia served in the First World War as well, before she was decommissioned in 1922. But her actions at Manila Bay that day in 1898 are what she is most remembered for. So if this ship kicked so much ass, why the hell is it in danger of being scrapped? Well, the U.S. navy conducted studies of Olympia's hull, and said that she is in danger of sinking right where she is docked, which is in Philadelphia. It's going to take a lot to fix her up, but again, think about what was said earlier in this entry. Would you want to see the Constitution sunk? How bout the Missouri? the Midway? What I'm trying to say is this: Every preserved ship out there is preserved for a reason. This ship meant something to our nation once. She and her crew were heroes, who gave future generations something to look up to. She STILL means something to America today, let's not let her go to waste. Olympia has sat on the Delaware River for decades now. She's a beautiful ship, and tons of tourists board her every year to step back in time and see what life was like for sailors at the turn of the century. Time is quickly running out for this jewel of history. The Philly Seaport museum will cease tours on November 22nd 2010- that's in little over a month. Olympia will probably go to a scrapyard somewhere next year if funds aren't raised to save her. I know there's gotta be people out there who want to see this ship get refurbished so she can remain a monument to one of the proudest moments in American history. There's a link here to the USS Olympia's website , where you can donate funds to help keep Olympia afloat. I'm not asking you to donate your life savings, even if you donate two bucks, that's at least something. Don't just sit there and selfishly hoard your money. Don't make up the excuse that you have "bills to pay", cause donating two dollars isn't going to kill you or make you broke. I bet if you go out to your car right now you'll find two dollars in change in your seat cushions! So come on what are you waiting for! Do it! SAVE THE OLYMPIA! SAVE HISTORY!!!





UPDATE: As of November of this year, the Philly Seaport Museum announced that it had acquired funds to make "interim repairs", and has chosen to keep the USS Olympia open to the public on a limited basis while repairs take place. Doesn't sound like the Olympia is completely out of the woods yet, but it's a start!


* "Old Ironsides" was the nickname given to the Constitution, because her live oak hull was virtually impregnable to British cannon fire.
** "Charlie" was a slang term given to communist forces like the Viet Cong in Vietnam.

Fort Niagara: Awesome Place in an Awesome State.

BACKGROUND (like that red font? cool huh.) Do you remember in the Austin Powers movie "Goldmember" when Goldmember declared that painting people's wieners in gold paint was "kind of his thing?" Well the War of 1812 is kind of my thing. And what's really nice about my "thing" is that it's not some kind of strange perverse activity, unlike Goldmember's. Since this is my first blog entry, I figured I'd share a little bit about the first historic site I ever remember going to: Fort Niagara. My first trip to this bitchin' bastion was when I was about four years old. I still remember going there with my family on a cloudy, rainy spring day and just being enamored by the size of the place. Fifteen years later I went back at age nineteen, when my interest in the War of 1812 was just starting to come to fruition. The place was just as awe-inspiring then as it had been when I was a tantrum-throwing toddler.

SO, WHERE THE HELL IS THIS PLACE AND HOW DO I GET THERE?-------------------------------------------> Maybe some of you have been there, maybe some of you have heard it, and maybe some of you have no clue what it is, or where it is. If you live in the Rochester, New York area like I do, Fort Niagara is extremely easy to get to. So easy, that a trashy Jersey Shore kid can find it. And let's face it, they couldn't find their spray tan place if it was right in front of them. Just get on the Lake Ontario State Parkway, and head west. Take it to the end. Route eighteen picks up where the Parkway leaves off. Jump on route eighteen, and head west. Keep driving until you see the onramp for the Robert Moses State Parkway. Take the Rob Moses west, until you see the exit for Fort Niagara. It's that easy.

FORT NIAGARA'S BEGINNINGS
Fort Niagara is a kick-ass place. You don't have to be a history geek like me to appreciate it's awesomeness. Now even though it's located in the good ol' United States of America (or 'Meri-kah', as it's pronounced by rednecks, hillbillies and trailer trash), the first temporary fortifications built on the site were done so by the French in 1679. Yep, the French. Get over it. In 1726, the French built permanent buildings on the site, one of which is the awesome French Castle. These permanent buildings and ramparts became known as Fort Niagara. Fitting name, considering the fort sits at the mouth of the Niagara River. To the right is a picture of the French Castle I took when I was at the fort a few years ago.
But as history shows us, Forts are not immune to sieges, and the soldiers who man said forts are not immune to shot, shell, muskets and bayonets. In 1759, the British Army took the fort after a nineteen-day siege during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Sorry Jean-Luc. Your days in North America are numbered.

The outbreak of Pontiac's War in 1763 scared the shit out of the British colonies. British forts in the Midwest were being torched, and their garrisons slaughtered. Fort Niagara escaped this fate, and was used as a rallying point for British and colonial regiments. These units headed west from the fort, and took back Detroit and other posts that had fallen to the Native Americans. During the American Revolution, the fort became; what can best be described in layman's terms, a gigantic frat house for American loyalists wishing to escape from their patriot neighbors. If you lived west of Albany or north of western Pennsylvania and you liked King George, Fort Niagara would have been the place for you. Not only did loyalists congregate at the fort, but they also raised loyalist regiments there and raided the countryside with the help of the Iroquois. One of these regiments was the famous (or infamous) "Butler's Rangers". The painting to the right shows what these rangers looked like. Formed by John Butler, the rangers were feared by those wishing to live under the yoke of a new nation. The author of this blog is actually descended from some of the dudes that served with this unit, but that's another story.

THE JAY TREATY OR: HOW ENGLAND LEARNED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF AMERICA AND EMBRACE CANADA
So when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, England lost all it's forts along the American side of the Great Lakes to the newly formed country of the United States. You'd think that the British would have just packed up their stuff and left like an ex girlfriend who you came to a mutual understanding with after realizing you two could not be together. But Britain was not that type of girl, oh no. Britain was the type of ex girlfriend that just couldn't let go, and would steal your Sex Pistols hoodie, your autographed picture of Bobby Orr and most importantly... your Misfits LP's, in hopes that you would take her back!
So with Britain being in an extreme case of break-up denial, control of all the forts on the American side of the border remained under the jurisdiction of the British army. Perhaps the British were hoping we would take them back! But seriously, the real reason Britain did this was to protect Loyalist settlements that were being established on the Canadian side of the border. I guess they thought the United States was going to push into Canada and into the west to take control of new and exotic lands...OH WAIT. That was already happening. Again, that's another story.
Fort Niagara was one of these fortifications on the American side of the Niagara River that was still held by the British, that is until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1794. This treaty made Britain give up the American forts still manned by British soldiers. Now if only there could be a treaty signed to get your Misfits LP's back.
So in 1796, Fort Niagara was formally given up to the United States. It was time to par-tay! WOOO HOOOO!!
haha it'd be great if that were the result of an American occupation of the fort, but in all seriousness, it was a time to work hard. Towns like Lewiston, Black Rock and Buffalo were being built up along the Niagara River and people were flocking to them to start new lives.


MOVING ON.....

Anyways, Fort Niagara became the watchdog for all these new places like Buffalo. If the British ever came across the Niagara again in time of war, Fort Niagara's garrison would be the first to fight against the redcoats and would be responsible for the lives of American citizens on the eastern bank of the Niagara River. They even built Military Road (now NYS Route 265) which stretches from Lewiston to Buffalo to move troops up and down the frontier.
Sounds pretty awesome right? Sounds pretty safe, right? Wrong. Ever tried working one of those two-handled saws you see lumberjacks using in the old black and white movies? Try using one by yourself. It's a bitch, I know. You might even cut yourself. I know. Get a shot for tetanus. The United States Army, in a sense, was a big two-handled saw with only one operator. Fort Niagara could hold up to 1,000 men. But before 1812 only 100 men were behind it's walls doing ALL the work. There's that two-handled saw mentality.
With only a smattering of troops doing the job of a thousand, suddenly you don't feel so safe anymore, especially if the British come across the river en masse. And if you only have one-hundred men hanging out at this place...maintenance becomes a problem. Those nice stone buildings and earthen walls that serve as a defense? They'll start crumbling like blue cheese. And that's exactly what happened. The garrison at Fort Niagara should have been getting paid overtime. Not only were they protecting America from attack, but they were part-time construction workers.

1812: THE WAR THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS BECAUSE SPIELBERG HASN'T MADE A MOVIE ABOUT IT YET.

Remember that crazy psycho ex-girlfriend we were talking about earlier? You know, England? Well things never were the same between England and the United States after the Revolution, and in 1812 a war broke out! On June 18th, 1812, The United States declared war on Great Britain. The British navy had been impressing (stealing) American sailors from merchant ships in international waters and were putting them to work on board British warships. America was pissed about that, but one wrong move deserves another. There were members of the Twelfth U.S. Congress called War Hawks. These guys were like something out of Rush Limbaugh's wet dreams. These War Hawks, well, favored war with Great Britain, as the name suggests. But these War Hawks had a fever. And the only prescription for this fever was more land! Land that Indian tribes lived on. And said Indian tribes were trading with the British and Canadians in Canada for guns to protect themselves with!
<---Henry Clay...War Hawk, and creepy eye guy.



For the Brits, going to war with it's former colonies wasn't the best thing to have happen to them, but it wasn't the worst. For a decade or so before the War of 1812 broke out, the Brits had been fighting Napoleon and his smelly yet powerful armies throughout Europe. War was nothing new to the British. And it was also nothing new to British commanders in North America like Generals Isaac Brock and Robert Ross, both seasoned veterans of the war in Europe. In contrast, the Americans who would be fighting in this war were of a new generation. Many were too young when the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was happening to gain experience from it. And with the exception of a few sporadic battles against Indian tribes in the old northwest, the majority of American commanders had never faced an army like the British before on an open field.


But this didn't stop America from doing what it wanted to do. On July 12th, 1812, U.S. troops invaded Canada from across the Detroit River. But the British were not about to let the Americans just walk all over Canada. A few days later on July 16th, British, Canadian and Native American forces surprised the American garrison at Fort Mackinac in Northern Michigan Territory (now known as the state of Michigan, obviously), and took over the fort. The fun didn't last on the Detroit River either. After he found out Fort Mackinac had been taken, American General William Hull ordered American forces to withdraw to the American side of the river so they could defend against any attack made by the British or their Indian allies. But British General Isaac Brock didn't have to do much work at all to get Hull to surrender both the fort and the city of Detroit to him on August 16th.

The surrendering of forts didn't stop in Michigan Territory. An American garrison at Fort Dearborn (where Chicago is now) in Illinois Territory was ambushed by Potawatomi Indians, who killed or captured the Americans. October 13th 1812 saw the Americans invading Canada again at the Battle of Queenston Heights, the first major battle of the war. But, in keeping suit with all the bad shit going on, the American forces were beaten back across the river, leaving well over 900 of their troops to be captured by the British. 1812 was turning out to be not so great a year for the American army. They were doing almost as bad as the Buffalo Bills do every year. Seriously, I do feel sorry for the Bills, and the whole city of Buffalo for that matter. They don't seem to have good luck there in that city, as we'll soon discover later.

Winter of 1813 was no picnic either. the Second Battle of Frenchtown, Michigan ended in a massacre of American forces by Indians allied with the Brits. It was looking as though America really had no chance of winning land battles against the U.K. However, the U.S. Navy was kicking ass for the most part on the high seas though, but that's another entry.

AMERICA WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE YANKS

When the spring of 1813 came around, things definately changed for the United States, and they came on strong and knocked the British on their crumpet-eating asses...at least for a little while. April 27th, 1813 saw one of the first army/navy co operations in the history of the United States, as a U.S. Naval squadron under Commodore Isaac Chauncey and a 1700-man army led by Major General Henry Dearborn attacked the town and fort at York, Upper Canada on Lake Ontario. The Battle of York was a victory for the United States, although they paid heavily in lives for it, including Zebulon Pike, the guy who got a mountain named after him. If the painting above looks familiar, that's because York later became the city of Toronto. Wow look at that! You just learned something.

The U.S. was not done on it's whirlwind tour of victories after the Battle of York. I mean you don't stop kicking ass when you've just begun. On May 27th, 1813, U.S. troops splashed ashore on the south shore of Lake Ontario and Attacked Fort George. America won another awesome battle at this fort, which is across the river from Fort Niagara. By taking this fort, America established a foothold in the Niagara peninsula for men and materiel that would be coming into the territory.

Two days later, America held it's ground against the British at Sackets Harbor, New York, and forced an invasion force to run back to Kingston, Upper Canada with it's tail between it's legs! Even with the U.S. naval squadron at the west end of Lake Ontario, American soldiers, sailors, marines and militia were able to fend off the British raid that was hell-bent on destroying the only U.S. navy shipyard on the lake! There were other very notable victories too, Such as the siege of Fort Meigs, Ohio, the Battle of Lake Erie, The Battle of Craney Island, Virginia, and the Battle of the Thames, Upper Canada.....but to do a separate paragraph about each of them would cause me to write a lot more, something that I don't feel like doing when I have to do laundry and make lunch. So I promise you, there will be other entries about these victories. You honestly think I'd leave em' out?

AMERICA WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE BRITS.
There are three American defeats of 1813 I want to discuss, because they play right into the story of Fort Niagara's eventual capture. After the battles of Stoney Creek (June 5-6th) and Beaver Dams (June 24th) in Upper Canada, it became apparent to the American forces at Fort George that the British were starting to get REALLY pissed that Uncle Sam was messing around in Canada. And this wasn't like Hugh Grant getting slightly annoyed in one of those shit romantic comedies he so often stars in, this was like full on, Mel Gibson-style rage. The Americans staying at Fort George never made any serious attempt to battle the British after Stoney Creek and Beaver Dams. For the most part, the Americans stayed behind the fort's walls, and only ventured out for the occasional skirmish. After an American attempt to march on Montreal was thwarted at the Battle of Crysler's Farm (November 11th, 1813), The British were feeling pretty good while The United States was beginning to settle in to a pretty uneasy winter. After withdrawing from Fort George, General George McClure of the New York militia (and commander of all military forces at Fort George) left Fort George, and then burned the town of Newark (now known as Niagara-on-the-Lake), leaving 400 Canadians homeless. The Canadians, The British, and the Native Americans loyal to the British had had enough.

THE CAPTURE OF FORT NIAGARA: WHY DOING VOICE IMPERSONATIONS CAN GET YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT...EVEN A STRATEGIC PIECE OF LAND THAT CONTROLS ALL BOAT TRAFFIC ON A RIVER.


Ok. So the only illustrations I found depicting the fall of Fort Niagara on the night of December 19th, 1813 are in a book I have....so once I can get my scanner up and running I shall post the most awesome portrait depicting said night. But who needs pictures...right? Just imagine yourself inside Fort Niagara. The year is 1813. You're a solider in the United States Army. It's colder than a pimp's heart outside, and you woke up out of a sound sleep to go take a leak. As you're doing your business behind the wall of a building, you hear some commotion going on at the side gate. You start to think to yourself, "Christ! It's four in the morning! Who could that be?" As the screaming gets louder, you look up over your shoulder and see a swarm of British soldiers carrying torches and muskets. You start hearing gunshots coming from the buildings around you. Your fellow soldiers, your friends, are firing down at the invaders, who have stormed the fort using only their bayonets, are quick on their feet. Soon, you find yourself surrounded by a bunch of guys in red coats screaming "Don't move, Yank!" Congratulations! You're now a prisoner of war, buddy. According to correspondence obtained from British officers, the detachment of troops that crossed the Niagara River that cold night came upon a tavern in Youngstown where American army officers were playing a game of cards. After bayoneting some of them, they obtained the password to get into the fort, and when they got to the gate of the fort and were challenged by an American guard....they said they were "from Youngstown" in an American accent. There ya go. Because the guy disguised his voice, the sentry let him and all his English friends in. The British then took the fort, which they held till 1815, and they took the fort's massive flag, which was returned in the 1990's and is now on display in a special room in the fort. Here's a video I found on Youtube about the fall of Fort Niagara on the night of December 19th, 1813, for all you pussies who can't use your imaginations, the segment about the attack starts 1:26 into the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6cP-7NgM4
Remember how I said I was going to talk about Buffalo again? Well, on December 30th, 1813, the British put Buffalo to the torch. Why were they able to do this? Because they had knocked out Fort Niagara. Though the militia and regular army troops stationed in Buffalo did put up some resistance, it was because of our favorite fort being taken over that Buffalo got destroyed.

THE FORT TODAY

After the War of 1812, the fort served as an active military post until 1963*. Veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War were trained here, after the army built a "new" fort, which was nothing like the ramparts and redoubts of the old fort. The new fort consisted of modern buildings, some of which still stand today on the site. So why was this fort so important in shaping American history?? Because until 1825 when the Erie Canal was built, that fort controlled the ONLY waterway that would get you or your cargo to the other Great Lakes, and to the rest of the country. Fort Niagara controlled the Niagara River like a crazy obsessive chick controls her boyfriend. Transporting goods via water was believe it or not the quickest and often safest way to go. So you can thank Fort Niagara for guarding one of the most important waterways in North America. Because if some of the earliest settlers had to travel by land, who knows? Indians, Bears, or any number of things could have ended their trip real fast.

Old Fort Niagara still stands, having been occupied by three different nations, as a monument to early American history. If you want to learn more about Fort Niagara, go visit it! You'll be glad you did.**




*Though the U.S. Army withdrew from the post in 1963, there is still an active U.S. Coast Guard station right next to the old fort. This makes the location the oldest occupied military post still in existence in New York State.
** Information for this blog was obtained from Old Fort Niagara's website, oldfortniagara.org. Just in case someone out there thinks I made all this stuff up off the top of my head.

The first in what will be numerous blogs about history!!!

So this is my very first attempt at writing a blog, and I gotta say I feel pretty awesome about writing it. You know blogging used to be reserved for just the very left and very right wings of the political spectrum. Yes folks, blogging was once the vechicle in which god-fearing, money loving, Log Cabin Republicans and hygenically-challenged, communistic, hippie Democrats used to further propagate their toy dog loving/pot smoking beliefs.
















.....And then there are people like me, who don't try to push beliefs or weird theories on people. I just throw up random facts, and my opinions about said facts. I'm a history buff, specifically military history, even more specifically, American military history. Everything from the Revolution to today's current conflicts interests me. I especially like studying all the obscure and oddball wars that EVERYONE forgets....specifically the Barbary Wars, the War of 1812 and the Korean conflict.



Why do I like all this stuff so much? Well it's all easily explained. When I was a kid, my dad used to have all these old books about history. Being the small nerdling that I was, I got totally into these books about the Civil War and World War II. And speaking of World War II, my grandfather who until very recently used to live right across the street from me, is a veteran. So everyday after school I would say to myself "fuck this math homework, I'm going to talk to grandpa about airplanes." Grandpa was a mechanic in the U.S. Army Air Force back in the 40's. He worked on P-39 Airacobras....sweet-ass aircraft that could rip German, Italian and Japanese ground forces new assholes with their 37mm cannon. Grandpa saw most of the world during his military days, starting out on the beaches of Morocco and ending up in the hills of China when everything was all said and done. Naturally, his stories were more interesting than any game of basketball or football being played by the kids on my street. My father took me to everything history-related, from airshows with vintage World War II aircraft to Civil War reenactments. I always thought as a kid how awesome it would be to reenact, especially the part about camping out on the battlefields! My dad, being a geneology nut, also found out that I had numerous ancestors who fought in the Civil War. They were all Northerners, all from New York and Pennsylvania, and all of them kicked some serious hillbilly ass, except for one who ended up joining up two weeks before the war ended. Lucky son of a bitch.
As a teenager, punk rock was my life. Every day I would come home from school and either practice playing guitar with my band, or throw a Misfits vinyl on the record player and just jam out. Even though my hair was dyed turquoise and my jeans ripped, I never lost interest in history. I was probably the only kid who could play "Story of my Life" by Social Distortion on my guitar AND name all the senior Union Army generals in the Civil War. After I graduated high school I went on to community college, and it was while in school that I got interested in the War of 1812. My first book on the subject was called "Lords of the Lake" by Robert Malcomson, which dealt specifically with the battles that took place on Lake Ontario- only a three minute drive down the road from me. I guess what fascinated me about this war was that it happend so close to where I live, and that I only had to drive fifteen minutes in either direction to get to a site where some kind of invasion by Royal Marines or skirmish had happened. If I go two hours west, I wind up at Fort Niagara, which saw a ton of fighting during the war, and which will be my next topic in my next blog...providing I can work out all the bugs with this one.



So here I am now, at age twenty-three, looking back at what got me interested in history. This summer I will be reenacting the War of 1812 with MacKay's company of the 77th New York State Militia, a local reenacting group from Caledonia. It's been a boyhood dream of mine to reenact, and I'd like to think in some small way I'm keeping the history of that war alive so that future generations might get interested in it. And that's really why I am writing this blog. I intend to visit as many historic sites as I can, take pictures, and post them up here and provide a brief history of the joint I visited as well as it's significance. I especially plan on visiting as many War of 1812 sites as possible, and I hope to find out a lot more information about the rest of America's forgotten wars. No veteran, no matter what war they fought in, should EVER be forgot. People fought and died in these wars to preserve our country. I mean, if you call yourself a true blue American who really cares about this country, you'd know about all the tiny wars that this country fought so you could live the way you live today. Think about that the next time you take your freedoms for granted.

This summer, there may be a lot of historic sites that will not be accessable in New York State. Thank's to Albany's sheer stupidity, the state has decided that it may close down 50 parks here in order to make up for the deficit. Well I am sure I'm not the only one who thinks that there are other things that Albany can cut rather than our state parks! I am going to do my utmost to visit these places before they potentially close. So I'll keep you folks posted on what goes on and where I go. Hopefully I'll have something up on here about Fort Niagara in a few days. -Brian