Category Archives: History

LANDS OF THE WILD, WILD EAST – MAGIC OF EAST GREENLAND

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Icebergs, fjords, white wilderness of the east coasts of Greenland - Kangertittivatsiaq is the large fjord stretching inwards above the large island.
Icebergs, fjords, white wilderness of the east coasts of Greenland – Kangertittivatsiaq is the large fjord stretching inwards above the large island.

1000 Places to See Before You Die includes only one entry for the Autonomous Territory of Greenland – Disko Bay.  Nowhere is East Greenland mentioned. Author Patricia Schultz only gives the Faeroe Islands one entry as well while Iceland merits two.  The mother country, Denmark, gets ten.  But as she said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune when she was out promoting her 2019 update of her book; 1000 places, can you really find that many spots?  Her reply, “How can I narrow it down to just 1,000?”

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DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

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Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

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DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

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Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

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A WALK IN THE TREES – THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER RIM

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View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.

We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

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TACTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR – WARFARE MOVES BEYOND NAPOLEON

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The Army of the Potomac gathering for its Grand Review in Washington, D.C. at the end of the war – columns and lines all on display. Drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly.

Walking out onto a Civil War battlefield, one can become bogged down by maps and monuments – regimental, State, and others.  Most of the major battlefields lie preserved within the National Park Service today, though there are a few important exceptions – Perryville, Resaca, Atlanta, Bentonville, are some of those not within the federal system. And how and why did the actions occur on those battlefields. Here, we dive a bit into the actual tactics used during the Civil War. 

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LARCH MOUNTAIN TRAIL – RIVER TO VOLCANIC CRATER AMIDST MAGIC OF THE GORGE

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View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain Trail.

Look out to the east from Portland and your attention draws to the snows and glaciers of Mt. Hood.  But search a bit to the left and you can notice another bulky mountain with a notch on its northern rim.  This is Larch Mountain one of three shield volcanoes sitting in a line of volcanic vents making up the Boring Lava Field range stretching from Mount Sylvania on the southwest edge of Portland all the way east past Larch Mountain to Beacon Rock standing near Bonneville Dam, almost thirty miles apart in a straight line. 

Larch Mountain sits on the western end of the canyon of the Columbia River Gorge rising just over 4,000 feet above the river running about three straight miles to the north of its peak.  Coming from the east along the river, Larch Mountain is the last significant Cascade peak on the Oregon side of the Gorge before the mountains begin to ease topographically into the northern end of the Willamette Valley.

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KENNESAW MOUNTAIN – A MORNING DASH IN GEORGIA

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Cannon sits in an emplacement atop Big Kennesaw Mountain.
Cannon sits in an emplacement atop Big Kennesaw Mountain.

Kennesaw Mountain saw the third time during the American Civil War in which William T. Sherman employed a direct assault upon entrenched Confederate positions.  The attack failed as much as his previous two attempts.  All through the Atlanta campaign, Sherman had gotten around the Confederate positions set out by Joseph E. Johnston through flanking maneuvers.  Sherman wrote to Washington, “The whole country is one vast fort, and Johnston must have at least 50 miles (80 km) of connected trenches with abatis and finished batteries. We gain ground daily, fighting all the time. … Our lines are now in close contact and the fighting incessant, with a good deal of artillery. As fast as we gain one position the enemy has another all ready. … Kennesaw … is the key to the whole country.”  For the key, Sherman decided to open it with a direct frontal assault.

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HOOKER AT CHANCELLORSVILLE – CONCUSSIVE AMENDMENT TO THE CIVIL WAR

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Major General Joseph Hooker, Commander of the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville.

Joseph Hooker, the commander of the Federal Army of the Potomac, stated before the battle of Chancellorsville, “I have the finest army on the planet. I have the finest army the sun ever shone on. … If the enemy does not run, God help them. May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.”  Such braggadocio did not go well with Hooker’s Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee.  Lee kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and was not at all amused by what he read.

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JAMES NESMITH, JOSEPH HOOKER – A UNIQUE MIX TOGETHER FOR THE UNION

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James Nesmith from Centennial History of Oregon.
James Nesmith senator and congressman for Oregon friend of General Hooker – Centennial History of Oregon.
Major General Joseph Hooker - photograph by Matthew Brady.
Major General Joseph Hooker – photograph by Matthew Brady.

The union of Oregon Senator James Nesmith and California-Massachusetts rancher-soldier Joseph Hooker worked at high levels within the Federal attempts to quell the rebellion of 1861-1865.  The two men were not necessarily meant for each other.  However, life has twists and turns.  The same turns that brought Hooker into the doghouse with such Federal luminaries as Henry Halleck, William T. Sherman, and Winfield Scott brought Hooker into the light with Nesmith, Edward Baker and most conspicuously, Abraham Lincoln.

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RESACA – FLANKING THE DEVIL OUT OF HELL, PHASE ONE

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James Walker's painting of the Battle of Resaca from the viewpoint of General Butterfield's perspective.
James Walker’s painting of the Battle of Resaca from the viewpoint of General Butterfield’s perspective.

Of the many battles of the American Civil War, Resaca remains one of those little-known today.  The battle accounted for the second highest casualty number during the entire Atlanta Campaign – May-September 1864.  The 5,500 number, only surpassed by the Battle of Atlanta – 20 July, rated significantly higher than Kennesaw Mountain, the only Federally protected site of the entire campaign.  Resaca was the only time in the entire campaign, also, where the full complement of Federal and Confederate units faced off and took part in the fighting during the campaign.

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