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A Civil (War) Christmas
Dec. 10th, 2011 11:59 pmSpent the afternoon poking around a collection of stone tunnels and decaying 1880s houses and it was fantastic.
Historic Fort Wayne is the kind of landmark that people know about, and kids visit on field trips, and apart from that it's just kind of there. That's a shame, because it's a pretty amazing place... if somewhat decrepit. But this is Detroit, so "amazing" and "decrepit" both are part of the territory. I visited there for the first time today to enjoy a Civil War Christmas, provided with extreme love and attention to detail by a cadre of volunteers. This included a guided tour of the Star Fort, which was a state-of-the-art design when it was built in the 1840s. Vaulted ceilings, a dry moat, trick doors designed to trap the axes of invaders... darn near impenetrable, at least until rifled cannon came into use. Lovely view of Canada, too. Then we went into the barracks to hang out with the "ghosts" of the 19th Infantry as they celebrated Christmas. It was one of the most engaging performances I've witnessed from a reenactment group; the "ghosts" were just going about their business, with the officers reading poems and enjoying their wine (lots of wine!) and the enlisted men moping around their bunks[*], playing cats' cradle, and writing letters home. Then we dropped in on the Commandant's family in their gorgeously restored home and declined offers of fruitcake from the mistress of the house. Then it was off to the guard shack to check out the jail cells and chat with some Confederate prisoners, who were "enjoying" a Christmas supper of parched corn and hardtack. My head is overflowing with period-appropriate details right now.
This was all great, but many of the other former officers' houses are rotting where they stand-- no windows, damaged roofs-- and the fort hospital got so bad it had to be demolished two years ago. As with so many other things in Detroit, there's a passionate but small core of people who are, in the face of public indifference and lack of money, doing their best to stave off the inevitable.
But as we left, we were treated to moonrise over the fort walls, and we climbed those walls to look out across Downtown Detroit and Canada, with the lights of the bridge spanning the gap. To the west, the fires of Zug Island burned blue, and the refineries and steel mills shimmered gold. It was a good day.
* Note to historically-inclined writers; regulation bunks of that era were "double bunks" in which two men would have to "spoon" to converse body heat. Fireplaces are a pretty poor way to heat a large, long, room.
Historic Fort Wayne is the kind of landmark that people know about, and kids visit on field trips, and apart from that it's just kind of there. That's a shame, because it's a pretty amazing place... if somewhat decrepit. But this is Detroit, so "amazing" and "decrepit" both are part of the territory. I visited there for the first time today to enjoy a Civil War Christmas, provided with extreme love and attention to detail by a cadre of volunteers. This included a guided tour of the Star Fort, which was a state-of-the-art design when it was built in the 1840s. Vaulted ceilings, a dry moat, trick doors designed to trap the axes of invaders... darn near impenetrable, at least until rifled cannon came into use. Lovely view of Canada, too. Then we went into the barracks to hang out with the "ghosts" of the 19th Infantry as they celebrated Christmas. It was one of the most engaging performances I've witnessed from a reenactment group; the "ghosts" were just going about their business, with the officers reading poems and enjoying their wine (lots of wine!) and the enlisted men moping around their bunks[*], playing cats' cradle, and writing letters home. Then we dropped in on the Commandant's family in their gorgeously restored home and declined offers of fruitcake from the mistress of the house. Then it was off to the guard shack to check out the jail cells and chat with some Confederate prisoners, who were "enjoying" a Christmas supper of parched corn and hardtack. My head is overflowing with period-appropriate details right now.
This was all great, but many of the other former officers' houses are rotting where they stand-- no windows, damaged roofs-- and the fort hospital got so bad it had to be demolished two years ago. As with so many other things in Detroit, there's a passionate but small core of people who are, in the face of public indifference and lack of money, doing their best to stave off the inevitable.
But as we left, we were treated to moonrise over the fort walls, and we climbed those walls to look out across Downtown Detroit and Canada, with the lights of the bridge spanning the gap. To the west, the fires of Zug Island burned blue, and the refineries and steel mills shimmered gold. It was a good day.
* Note to historically-inclined writers; regulation bunks of that era were "double bunks" in which two men would have to "spoon" to converse body heat. Fireplaces are a pretty poor way to heat a large, long, room.
