Canadian Cross of Sacrifice Memorial

Canadian Cross of Sacrifice Memorial

On this bike ride I went back across the Potomac River to one of my favorite area places to go for long walks, Arlington National Cemetery.  And during that walk I visited the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice, which is located to the northwest of Memorial Amphitheater, across Memorial Drive (MAP).

I later learned that the memorial is comprised of the same Cross of Sacrifice which stands in every cemetery of the Commonwealth. This one commemorates the Americans who served in the Canadian Armed Forces in the First and the Second World War and the Korean War.  At that surprised me the most. I didn’t know that U.S. citizens served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

In 1925, Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King proposed a memorial to the U.S. citizens who volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force and lost their lives in World War I. More than 40,000 residents of the United States (including at least 35,000 U.S. citizens) enlisted in the CEF prior to U.S. entry into the war in April 1917.  And thousands more served in the CEF in World War II and the Korean War.

The memorial’s original inscription reads: “Erected by the government of Canada in honour of the citizens of the United States who served in the Canadian Army and gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918.”  Following World War II and the Korean War, similar inscriptions on other faces of the monument were added to honor Americans who served in the Canadian armed forces during those conflicts.

Battle of Bladensburg Marines Memorial

Battle of Bladensburg Marines Memorial

By the end of this long leisurely ride, or I should say the halfway point since I still needed to ride back to where I started, I found myself in Prince George’s County, Maryland.  As I rode around taking in the area, I came upon Fort Lincoln Cemetery, and realized I had been here before.  Located at 3401 Bladensburg Road in Colmar Manor, Maryland (MAP), I had previously discovered a number of historic sites on the cemetery grounds.  These sites include Historic Fort Lincoln and The Old Springhouse, as well as the nearby Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, located just outside of the cemetery.  With so many points of interest in the area, I decided to conduct some additional exploration and see what else I could find.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  

While riding around the expansive grounds within the cemetery, I saw what looked like a seating area behind the building with the mausoleum, which happens to be one of the grandest public mausoleums in the world.  It is very large, open to the public, and contains a beautiful garden.  So I decided to ride over to the seating are and take a break to relax.  But as I got there and upon closer inspection I found out that it was, in fact, a memorial rather than just a place to sit.  A stone marker at the entrance to the memorial reads, “This is the site of the Battle of Bladensburg. It was here that Commodore Barney and his marines were defeated in the War of 1812. The British moved on to burn the Capitol and White House.”  I quickly pulled up some information on my cellphone.  But naturally I was anxious to do more research and learn al about it later after I got home.  

I learned that the Battle of Bladensburg was part of what was known as the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812.  As an aside, I have always the name odd inasmuch as the War of 1812 was fought over a nearly three-year period.  Anyway, caused by British restrictions on U.S. trade and America’s desire to expand its territory, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the world, Great Britain.  

Although neither side had gained a clear advantage in the first two years of the war, that changed in the spring of 1814 when Britain was able to disentangle itself from fighting France in the Napoleonic Wars.  After Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile in April 1814, British forces in the war with America could now be replenished with thousands of veterans. These soldiers were different than the soldiers Americans had faced in Upper Canada; these men had fought against Napoleon and his Imperial Guard and wanted a quick end to this war against a young country.  

The Battle of Bladensburg was fought on August 24, 1814, and America lost.  And in large part due to the fortification of British forces with combat-experienced veterans, it was a significant loss for America.  The defeat of General William Henry Winder and the 6,500 American men he had at his disposal allowed British Army Officer Robert Ross and his 4,500 men to subsequently march into nearby D.C.

President James Madison and his cabinet had already fled the city at that point, with Dolly Madison and White House slave Paul Jennings famously saving critical relics of their new republic, among them a portrait of George Washington.  And it was a good thing that they did because the British promptly set fire to the city’s public buildings, including the presidential mansion (later to be rebuilt and renamed as The White House) and the U.S. Capitol Building over the following couple of days.  The loss at the Battle of Bladensburg to a smaller but superior fighting force and the subsequent destruction of these symbols of American democracy devastated the morale of both American servicemen and the the public, and almost lead to the complete military defeat of the young American nation.    

Ultimately, the War of 1812 ended in a draw on the battlefield, and the peace treaty reflected this. The Treaty of Ghent was signed in modern-day Belgium on December 24, 1814, and went into effect on February 17, 1815, after both sides had ratified it.  And while Britain effectively won the War of 1812 by successfully defending its North American colonies, America also succeeded in not only maintaining it’s independence but expanding both U.S. trade and its territory as the country grew westward.  

So who was the Commodore Barney mentioned on the inscription at the memorial?  Joshua Barney was an American Navy officer who served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War who later achieved the rank of commodore in the United States Navy.  During his service in the War of 1812 he commanded the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, a fleet of gunboats tasked with defending Chesapeake Bay.  Concerned that Barney’s flotilla could fall into British hands, Secretary of the Navy John Paul Jones ordered Barney to take the flotilla as far up the Patuxent River as possible, to Queen Anne, and scuttle it if the British appeared.  Leaving his barges with a skeleton crew to handle any destruction of the craft, Barney took the majority of his men to join the American Army commanded by General  Winder where they participated in the Battle of Bladensburg.  

Subsequent to narrowly avoiding capture prior to the battle, President James Madison personally directed the Marines led by Barney, making the Battle of Bladensburg one of only two instances of a sitting president exercised direct battlefield authority as Commander-in-Chief.  The other was when George Washington personally crushed the Whiskey Rebellion.

Commodore Barney was severely wounded during the Battle of Bladensburg, receiving a bullet deep in his thigh that could never be removed.  He later on December 10, 1818, from complications related to the wound. His remains rest in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

I find it unusual that a memorial was built about what was a disastrous defeat for the United States.  But considering the dedication and bravery of men like Commodore Barney and the marines and other men who fought in that war, I think a memorial to them is fitting despite the loss at the Battle of Bladensburg.   

    
[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

NOTE:  The historic marker (see photo above) reads:  “This is the site of the Battle of Bladensburg which took place in the War of 1812.  Joshua Barney and his 500 marines were greatly outnumbered by the British expeditionary force of 4,500 trained regulars. The battle raged for four hours but eventually the overpowering numerical odds won out for the British who went on to burn the Capitol and the White House. On this location, Commodore Barney was wounded and taken prisoner. This memorial is in honor of Commodore Joshua Barney who made the supreme sacrifice in defense of his country and to his detachment of marines for their distinguished display of valor and gallantry.”  

NOTE:  The Battle of Bladensburg Marines Memorial is different than the more famous Battle of Bladensburg Memorial, which is located at the battlefield, that has been preserved under the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation, and is located in Waterfront Park, down the street  between the Bladensburg Peace Cross and the George Washington House (two places I plan to ride to someday soon), at 4601 Annapolis Road in Bladensburg.  

The Daughters of the American Revolution Memorial Garden and Tribute Monument

Memorial Garden Fountain

Patriotically located at 1776 on D Street in northwest D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood (MAP), The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution building is headquarters to a non-profit service organization of women who directly trace their lineage to a soldier or other person involved in the United States’ efforts towards independence.  The headquarters buildings also house:  The DAR Museum, that contains over 30,000 historical relics;  The DAR Library, that includes a collection of genealogical and historical publications for the use of staff genealogists verifying application papers for the organization, and; DAR Constitution Hall, a is a concert hall to house its annual convention of membership delegations.  Founded in 1890, the organization currently has over 185,000 current members in the United States and other countries.

The DAR raises funds a number of historic preservation and patriotic endeavors. For example, they began a practice of installing markers at the graves of Revolutionary War veterans to indicate their service, and adding small flags at their gravesites each Memorial Day. Other activities included commissioning and installing monuments to battles and other sites related to the American Revolution. In addition to installing markers and monuments, DAR chapters have purchased, preserved, and operated historic houses and other sites associated with the war. The DAR also recognizes women patriots’ contributions as well as those of soldiers.

As I was riding past the DAR Headquarters on this bike ride, I decided to stop and explore the grounds. And on the grounds I was able to enjoy a number of memorials and monuments. Among them was the DAR Memorial Garden located on the north side of the main building. The garden features a gated entryway leading to a stone plaza, a number of annual and perennial plantings, as well as benches on which to sit and enjoy the beautiful setting. The Memorial Garden also features the beautiful Mississippi blue-tiled fountain, as a lasting tribute to honor the service, sacrifice and accomplishment of those who comprised the organization throughout its history.

Also in the Memorial Garden is a granite monument, known as The Daughters Tribute, which was placed there in honor of the sacrifice and dedication of the nearly one million women who have sustained the Society and its mission of service. The inscription on the monument reads, “To the women whose patriotic devotion has sustained the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, This Daughter’s Tribute Garden rededicated to honor every member in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the NSDAR, October 11, 2015, Lynn Forney Young, NSDAR President General 2013 – 2016.”  The Daughters Tribute also includes an electronic database, accessed via the National Society’s Digital Donor Wall, which allows for the honoring of DAR members.

Springtime in D.C. is a good time to visit gardens.  And I highly encourage anyone desiring to make a visit to enjoy the city’s springtime beauty to plan and make a list of the gardens that shouldn’t be missed, such as The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden and The the Enid A. Haupt Garden – two of my favorites.  And of course, The United States Botanic Garden.  And now, I recommend The Daughters of the American Revolution Tribute Garden be added to that list.

Daughters Tribute Monument

     
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

Matthew Alexander Henson Memorial

Matthew Alexander Henson Memorial

Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is best known for claiming to be the first expedition to reach the geographic North Pole.  But why mention Perry?  After all, the memorial I visited on this bike ride is dedicated to Matthew Alexander Henson.  Henson, also an American explorer, accompanied Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic, including the famous 1908-1909 expedition that claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909.  The expedition party consisted of Perry, Henson and four Inuit assistants.  And Henson said he was the first individual of their expedition party to reach the pole.

Henson was born in Nanjemoy, Charles County, Maryland, on August 8, 1866, to sharecropper parents who were free Black Americans before the Civil War.  He spent most of his early life here in D.C., but left school at the age of twelve when both of his parents died.  He then went to work as a cabin boy on a merchant ship, having been fascinated by stories of the sea.  He learned to to read, write and navigate while working on the ship.  But at the age of 18 he returned to D.C. and worked as a salesclerk at a hat shop. It was there that he met a customer named Robert Peary, who in 1887 hired him as a personal valet.

Their first Arctic expedition together was in 1891–92. Henson served as a navigator and craftsman, and was known as Peary’s “first man”. But it was during their 1908–09 expedition to Greenland, that Peary and Henson, along with four Inuit assistants, claimed to have been the first to reach the geographic North Pole.  In interviews, Henson identified as the first member of the party to reach the pole.

Henson achieved a level of fame from his participation in the expedition, and in 1912 he published a memoir entitled “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole”.  As he approached old age, his exploits received renewed attention, including being received at the White House by Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Eighty years later, and decades after Henson’s death, a research paper by an English explorer named Wally Herbert claimed that their expedition records were unreliable, and indicated a that the men could have fallen 30–60 miles short of the pole due to navigational errors.  Nonetheless, Peary and Henson and the expedition has remained famous as one of the great explorations of history.

Henson died on March 9, 1955, at the age of 88, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.  He was survived by his second wife Lucy Ross Henson. After her death in 1968, she was buried with him. But in 1988, both their bodies were moved and reintered during a commemoration ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.  And that is where I rode on this bike ride to see his memorial.

The memorial at his gravesite features an inset bronze plaque commemorating the North Pole discovery.  At the top sits a large bas-relief bust of Henson in Arctic gear.  Immediately below, an inscription describes his part in reaching the North Pole. And globes of the world, tilted with the Pole in view, sit at either side.  The central image, which was based on a photograph that Peary took at the Pole on April 6, 1909, shows Henson flanked by the four Inuit assistants with the U.S. flag flying behind them atop a mound of ice. The bottom panel on the memorial depicts dogsleds and dramatic ice floes, suggestive of the struggle that Henson, Peary and the Inuit sustained over many years to achieve their goal.  And on the opposite side, an inscription quotes Henson’s book, “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.” It reads, “The lure of the Arctic is tugging at my heart. To me the trail is calling! The old trail. The trail that is always new.”

    
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

NOTE:  The monument in the background of the photo at the top is dedicated to Peary.  I will go back to visit it and write about him at some point in the future.

The African American Civil War Memorial

The African American Civil War Memorial

During this bike ride I visited The African American Civil War Memorial, which is located at the corner of Vermont Avenue, 10th Street and U Street (MAP), near the eastern entrance to the U Street Metro station, in northwest D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood. I couldn’t help but think that it might be better located elsewhere, such as near the National Mall, so that it might get more visitors. But the memorial is appropriately located in Shaw inasmuch as the neighborhood was named after Robert Gould Shaw, the colonel in charge of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment during the Civil War. The 54th saw extensive service in the Union Army during the war, and was the second African American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, organized in the northern states.

The African American Civil War Memorial commemorates the service of 209,145 African American soldiers and sailors who comprised the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and fought for the Union in the Civil War. Several thousand African American men were also enlisted to fight for the Confederacy, but they could not begin to balance out the number who fought for the Union. And they are not commemorated by the memorial.

The memorial was developed by the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum and was commissioned by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1993 and completed in 1997. It was dedicated in July of 1998 and transferred to the National Park Service in October of 2004.

The memorial, designed by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, Kentucky, consists of a park-like granite plaza, a bronze sculpture known as The Spirit of Freedom as the centerpiece, and a series of curved walls partially surrounding it.  The two-sided sculpture is nine feet tall and depicts three life-size Union Army soldiers and one Union Navy sailor on the front. On the rear are figures depicting the parents, wives and children of the African American soldiers who went off to war.  The Spirit of Freedom’s face is watching over all of them.  On the plaza’s highest wall is inscribed this Frederick Douglas quote: “Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even die free than to live slaves.”  The shorter panel walls are inscribed with the 209,145 names of the African American men who served for the Union in the war.  Approximately 68,000 of these men died in the war, and 35 earned the Medal of Honor for their valor in battle. By the end of the war, these African Americans made up ten percent of the entire Union Army.

As I was sitting at the memorial contemplating what life must have been like at that time for the men the memorial commemorates, many of whom were newly-freed slaves, I imagined that they most likely faced not only particular viciousness from the opposing army, but even ridicule and discrimination from within their own.  But despite this, they helped win the war and subsequently changed history.

    

         

    
[Click on the photos above to view the full size versions]

NOTE:  After the memorial was dedicated it was soon joined by The African American Civil War Museum, located across the street at 1925 Vermont Avenue (MAP).

George Washington High School World War II Memorial

George Washington High School World War II Memorial

On this leisurely bike ride I was riding Julius, my orange Recycled Recumbent named after the eponymous Orange Julius drink most often available in shopping malls throughout the world.  I was riding in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, near the VéloCity Bike Cooperative where I bought Julius.  And as I was riding past a school I saw an obelisk, smaller but similar to The Washington Monument, located in front of the building just off of the south wing near the parking lot.  Naturally I was curious.  So I stopped to find out more about it.

It turned out that the now-closed school was the former George Washington High School, located at 1005 Mount Vernon Avenue (MAP) in Alexandria.  And the obelisk is a memorial to the students from that school who were killed during World War II.  I imagine the shape of the memorial was a nod to the school’s namesake and the D.C. memorial honoring him.  And header description on the memorial reads, “Dedicated to the memory of those of our boys who served in World War II and did not come back.”  And below that it is inscribed “Erected by the graduating classes of 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947.”

In the process of researching information about this monument, the George Washington High School Alumni Association was able to learn the dates of death for certain of the deceased, and subsequently it was found that the order of their names on the monument matched the order of their death.  Based on that finding, it is reasonable to believe that all the names on the monument are listed in the order of the date of death.

Similar to the inscriptions on The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the remaining inscriptions on the memorial list the names of the fallen soldiers. They read:

(west side)
Robert Rumshin • Herbert Joseph Petrello • Benjamin J. Vos, Jr. • George William Rutledge • John B. Myers • Elmer R. Bartlett • Elwin Irving Brawner, Jr. • Charles E. Woodruff • Charles Thomas Scott • Charles Alvin Dunn • Archie Baynes Norford • Douglas R. Drake • Israel Kleinman • Clifford Henry Wayland • J.D. Gill • Robert Hatfield • George Francis DuFrane, Jr. • William Francis Deeton • Eugene A. Barry • David Lester Gillett • Alphus Eugene Arthur • Charles Herbert Grimm • Ossie F. Snellings • Stewart Delaney Saffelle • Samuel Hobart Fleming, Jr.

(east side)
Raymond Carlyle Wood • Hirst Mayes • Edward Ralph Barclay • Harlan Eugene Amandus • James Sinclair MacLean, Jr. • Robert B. Gills, Jr. • Earl N. Tutt • Joseph Anthony Tutt • Joseph Anthony Tull • John Duvall May • Richard McGowan • Robert Dunn McIlwaine • Robert Phillip Brawner • Joseph Leonard Goodrich • Lyman Stephen Schlesser • Winfred Amos Pearson • Edmund Hunt Roberts, Jr. • Donald G. Covey • Samuel Haslett Meeks • Dabney M. Cruikshank • Ralph W. Fleming • Frank Dudley Cahill • Milton Rand Norton, Jr. • Carlin G. King • Joseph M. Gay Jr.

In all, 48 young men from Alexandria’s George Washington High School gave their lives in military service during World War II.  I say young men because during World War II, when a high school student received his draft notice, he had to leave school.  There were no deferments for students.  So some of these men never even finished high school.  These facts combined show what a sacrifice this unique memorial commemorates, both on an individual level and for the community of Alexandria.

Operation Eagle Claw

Operation Eagle Claw Memorial

I remember the fall of 1979.  I was a senior in high school.  And it was an eventful time.  Some of the events seemed more significant at the time than they would be in the long run, such as when the Pittsburgh Pirates  defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.  It was before the Washington Nationals existed.  So the Orioles were as close to a local team as we had. 

Other events from that time became ingrained in my memory because of how they affected me on a personal level, such as when several fans of The Who were killed at a concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.  A combination of “festival” (unassigned) seating and too few entrances being opened resulted in eleven kids being trampled to death when the crowd surged forward trying to enter the concert.  Those kids were all approximately my age, and I remember thinking that it could have been me.

Still other events were even more significant in nature and would have rippling effects on history.  One of those events would come to be known as the “Iran hostage crisis.”  It started on November 4th, 40 years ago today, when hundreds of Iranian Islamic fundamentalists who supported the Iranian Revolution under the Ayatollah Khomeini, mostly students, took over the United States Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, demanding that the U.S. send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.  or days nothing was known of the hostages’ condition until their captors finally released all female and black hostages. Later, one other man was released for medical reasons, leaving 53 Americans captives.

By spring of the following year the situation had reached a standstill.  All diplomatic attempts to secure their release had failed.  So President Jimmy Carter authorized a secret joint-services military operation on April 25, 1980, to rescue the hostages.  The plan, known as Operation Eagle Claw (Operation Tabas in Iran), called for a rendezvous of helicopters and cargo planes at a remote desert site in Iran, known as Desert One, before attempting the actually rescue of the hostages. However, the mission was aborted when two of the aircraft collided.  The ensuing explosion and fire claimed the lives of eight American service personnel.  They included three Marines:  Sergeant John D. Harvey, Corporal George N. Holmes Jr., Staff Sergeant Dewey Johnson; and five Air Force personnel:  Major Richard L. Bakke, Major Harold L. Lewis Jr., Technical Sergeant Joel C. Mayo, Captain Lyn D. McIntosh, and Captain Charles T. McMillan.  Their bodies could not be recovered before the surviving aircraft had to abandon the desert staging area. Shortly thereafter the eight bodies were returned to the United States. 

The failed rescue operation resulted in some rather undesirable consequences. Firstly, the hostages were scattered across Iran, to make another rescue mission impossible. Also, the US government received heavy criticism from governments around the world for making such blunders in a very critical situation. As a matter of fact, experts and President Carter himself believe that the failure of Operation Eagle Claw was a major reason he lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan.

Only 20 minutes before Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President on January 20, 1981, Iran finally released the hostages.  They were held for 444 days, making it the longest hostage crisis in recorded history.  

On this lunchtime bike ride I visited a monument dedicated to the memory of the gallant servicemen, who died in the valiant effort to rescue the American hostages.  It is located in Arlington National Cemetery, near the Memorial Amphitheater.  The monument consists of a white stone marker that bears a bronze plaque listing the names and ranks of the three Marines and the five airmen killed in Operation Eagle Claw.

NOTE:  Although it was a failed mission and its widespread failure would be a moment of profound humiliation for the United States, the operation has since become known as the “most successful failed mission in history.”  Many tactics and procedures were first used and developed by the military personnel of Operation Eagle Claw, including blacked out landings, landing on unprepared runways, multi-aircraft air field seizure, clandestine insertion of small helicopters and many other procedures, some of which are still classified to this day.

USS Serpens Monument

USS Serpens Monument

During this lunch break I rode to and spent some time in Arlington National Cemetery (MAP). Because bike riding is not permitted in the cemetery, I parked my bike at one of the bike racks provided at the visitors center, and then went for a long walk in the cemetery.  During my walk, I happened upon a stone marker that stood out because of its size and shape. Upon examination, I found out that it is a memorial to the men of a U.S. Coast Guard ship named the USS Serpens (AK-97).

As I would later learn, the USS Serpens was a 14,250-ton cargo ship that was laid down in March of 1943, before being transferred to the U.S. Navy the following month for service during World War II.  She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, and served for almost three years, until the night of January 29, 1945, when disaster struck.

Late on that fateful January evening, Serpens was anchored off Lunga Beach, a promontory on the northern coast of Guadalcanal in the British Solomon Islands. The ship’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Perry L. Stinson, and seven others, one officer and six enlisted men, were ashore. The remaining crewmen were loading depth charges into her holds when Serpens exploded. After the explosion, only the bow of the ship was visible. The rest had disintegrated, and the bow sank soon afterward.  One hundred ninety-six Coast Guard crewmen, 57 Army stevedores, and a Public Health Service physician named Dr. Harry M. Levin, were killed in the explosion, and a soldier ashore was killed by shrapnel. Only two of those on board, Seamen First Class Kelsie K. Kemp and George S. Kennedy, who had been in the boatswain’s locker, survived.  The catastrophe was the single greatest disaster suffered by the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.

In July 1947, the Coast Guard still thought an enemy attack had caused the blast. However, by June 10, 1949, it was determined not to have been the result of enemy action.

At first report the incident in July 1947, attributed to explosion to enemy action.  But a court of inquiry later determined that the cause of the explosion could not be established from the remaining evidence.  By 1949 the Navy noted that the loss was not due to enemy action but due to an “accident intrinsic to the loading process.”

The available remains of those killed were originally buried at the Army, Navy and Marine Cemetery in Guadalcanal with full military honors and religious services. They were later repatriated under the program for the return of World War II dead,  in 1949.  The mass recommittal of the unidentified dead took place in section 34 at MacArthur Circle. The remains were placed in 52 caskets and buried in 28 graves near the intersection of Jesup and Grant Drives. It is the largest group burial to at Arlington National Cemetery.  An additional two grave sites were reserved for the octagonal monument inscribed with all of their names, which I saw on this ride.

    
[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

The Oscar S. Straus Memorial

The Oscar S. Straus Memorial

The Oscar S. Straus Memorial is located just two blocks south of The White House, in the Federal Triangle on 14th Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution Avenue, in front of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (MAP), and was the destination of this lunchtime bike ride.

The memorial commemorates the accomplishments of the first Jew to be a member of the cabinet of a U.S. president, having served as Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909.  He also served under Presidents William Howard Taft, William McKinley, and Grover Cleveland, and was offered a cabinet position by Theodore Roosevelt.

Oscar Solomon Straus was born on December 23, 1850, in Otterberg, Rhenish Bavaria, now in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (now Germany).  At the age of two he immigrated with his mother and siblings to the United States, joining their father, Lazarus, who had emigrated in 1852.  The family settled in Talbotton, Georgia.  At the close of the Civil War in 1865, Straus’s family moved to New York City, where he graduated from Columbia College in 1871 and Columbia Law School in 1873.  In 1882, Strauss married Sarah Lavanburg, and they had three children: Mildred Straus Schafer (born the following year), Aline Straus Hockstader (born in 1889), and Roger Williams Straus (born in 1891).

Straus first served as United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire from 1887 to 1889, and then again from 1898 to 1899. In January of 1902, he was named a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to fill the place left vacant by the death of ex-President Benjamin Harrison. Then in December of 1906, Straus became the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Roosevelt. This position also placed him in charge of the United States Bureau of Immigration.  Straus left the Commerce Department in 1909 when William Howard Taft became president and became U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire until 1910.  In 1912, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor of New York on the Progressive and Independence League tickets. And in 1915, he became chairman of the public service commission of New York State.

The memorial fountain was designed by Adolph Alexander Weinman, and funded with a public subscription beginning in 1929.  It was dedicated on October 26, 1947, by President Harry S. Truman. It was disassembled and placed in storage in 1991 during the construction of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. After the building was completed, the fountain was reinstalled with all original materials. It was rededicated on October 26, 1998.

In the center of the memorial is the massive fountain with the inscription “statesman, author, diplomat.”  To the sides are two statues.  The one to the left is one entitled Justice, which depicts a woman representing “Justice,” with her arm resting on the Ten Commandments.   It is intended to symbolize the religious freedom which allowed a Jew to serve in such a position of authority.  The inscription on this statue reads, “Our Liberty of Worship is not a Concession nor a Privilege but an Inherent Right.”   To the right of the fountain is the statue entitled Reason.  It depicts a partially draped male figure and a child holding a purse, key, and hammer, symbolizing the capital and labor efforts put forth by Straus throughout his career.

Straus died on September 3, 1910, and is buried at Beth El Cemetery in Ridgewood, New York.  For more on his life and career, you can read his memoirs, entitled  “Under Four Administrations,” which he wrote and published in 1922.  

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

Harvard Field Hospital Unit Memorial

Harvard Field Hospital Unit Memorial

On this ride I discovered this small, of-the-beaten path memorial on the grounds behind the American National Red Cross Headquarters building (MAP), in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.  The simplicity of the memorial naturally directs visitors to the plaque on top, which tells the story of the memorial.

Inscription:

This plaque acknowledges the public spirit of Harvard University and the dedication of the staff of the American Red Cross – Harvard Field Hospital Unit, who provided and staffed a pre-fabricated hospital sent to Salisbury, England, in the summer of 1941 to deal with the potential outbreak of communicable diseases.

In particular, homage is paid to the following – Reported missing and presumed lost’ on the voyage to Britain:
Ruth Breckenridge – Housemother
Nancie M. Prett, R.N.
Phylis L. Evans, R.N.
Phylis L. Evans, R.N.
Dorothea L. Koehn, R.N.
Dorothy C. Morse, R.N.

In July 1942 the hospital was transferred to the United States Army. Following the war, the facility reverted to the British Ministry of Health and was the site of the Common Cold Research Unit. It finally closed in 1990.

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]