Our caravan has ended and we are continuing through the South on our own. On our way along a scenic byway in Alabama, we saw signs for the Tuskegee Institute. We learned that it is undergoing renovation but that the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field is open. We wandered through Hanger 1 reading displays and listening to recorded personal accounts of the history of this one and only black Army Air Corps training facility. Piper Cub and a Stearman used in training were on display. Both are still in flying condition.
A friendly ranger let us have a sneak peak at Hanger 2 which will open later this year expanding this story important story and including more information on the social obstacles and impact their training had on integrating the military and ultimately on desegregation. The primary exhibit is this Red Tail P51.
We then continued on to a beautiful campground in Atlanta. The next morning we went to the Atlanta Cyclorama (the only other remaining Cyclorama is at Gettysburg). We learned about the train battle between the Texas and the General. Union soldiers hijacked the General aiming to destroy supply and communication lines. They were ultimately stopped by the Texas, the Confederated locomotive.
Some of the Union soldiers were hung, some imprisoned and some escaped. All but one, a civilian, were the first to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The tour started with a brief movie on the Atlanta Campaign led by Union General W. T. Sherman. Then we went upstairs where we turned a slow 360 to watch the painting on a linen screen the length of a football field. As each scene of the battle moved in front of us, a narrator explained who was shown and what was happening. We saw the efforts of the Confederacy in their losing battle to defend Atlanta from Sherman’s army. Painted on the screen and created as a diorama are the fighting, the wounded, the dying.
Our informed and amusing guide, “Abe Jr.,” gave background about the Cyclorama. This remarkable production was commissioned by Union General John Logan as “Logan’s Great Battle” for his campaign for vice-presidency after the war. It was created by a German artist from Wisconsin and his staff. Logan died days before its completion and the Cyclorama went on tour with the circus. Eventually it was acquired by the City of Atlanta and given a permanent home. We learned such tidbits as that the five men who helped in making the figures in the diorama put their own faces on all 130 soldiers. Also, after Clark Gable saw the Cyclorama, he suggested it would be better if his face were used and so it was, on a dead soldier. No photos are allowed of the show but Abe did allow his picture to be taken with Anna Lee.
Next we drove to the Oakland Cemetery. There we visited the Confederate, Jewish and African-American sections.
The obelisk is a monument 3900 Confederate soldiers.
and the lion to 3000 unknown soldiers.
Margaret Mitchell Marsh is buried here
as is Martha Lumpkin Compton for whom Marthasville was named. In 1845 the town’s name was changed to Atlanta. Several prominent African-American leaders of Atlanta are also buried in the cemetery, but no longer in a segregated section.
We visited the MLK Memorial but were too late to see the exhibits in the Center.
We are staying in a most lovely campground, Stone Mountain, located in the suburbs of Atlanta. Our neighbors are a turtle and a mother duck with her brood. Out our front window is the lake. It is wonderful to be in such a gorgeous setting yet so close to the things we like to do.
The famous feature of Stone Mountain is the Gustav Borlund carving of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson.
No comments:
Post a Comment