Another exciting weekend in new orleans

this weekend started especially well with naval culture and history divisional training at the world war 2 museum. the museum is free in uniform, so 12 of my sailors (i have 32) most of them were at schools or havent reported to new orleans yet. it was a good time, the museum is well designed and i think my sailors really enjoyed it. that or they're good at humouring their division officer. after that, i got nathalie from the airport and we met up with the JOs at coop's place, a cajun restaurant on decatur street and then went to cafe du monde. because some of us love it, and some of us hadnt been before. you know you're gettin old when you cant eat 2 orders alone in a sitting anymore. then we went and walked around a little bit, the washington artillery monument and the moon walk (named for moon landrieu not the moon) saturday we slept in, and then made our way down royal street exploring the antique stores on our way to the street car down st charles avenue to audubon zoo. apparently, the street car is exact change only... we didnt have it, so we got some, but it was hot, so we decided to make our way back down towards my apartment. so we walked back through the quarter to the presybetere and their exhibit: 100 years of zulu. one of the mardi gras krewes. it was a neat exhibit all about mardi gras in new orleans, acadia, and beyond. nathalie liked it because of the similarities between carnival in rio and mardi gras here in new orleans.

another day walking in the quarter

This morning, i woke up and went for breakfast and a walk. there are a lot of pretty houses on esplanade. so, i walked from my place there down the street to decatur and walked along the french market on decatur street. stopped into aunt sally's for some free samples of pralines. love those. the best i had was in san antonio at mi tierra. then continued on to cafe du monde for some beignets. after that we walked up to the washington artillery monument. it overlooks jackson square and is one of my favourite places in the city. the washington artillery were a militia artillery unit composed of new orlean's elite. they fought in the mexican-ameircan war and in the war between the states... the unit lives on as the 141st Field Artillery Regiment. after that, we walked through jackson square down part of royal street... i'm looking for a certain antique shop that sells swords... i'm thinkin, it might actually be on chartres right now. or out of business... then we walked up to bourbon street past lafitte's blakcsmith shop, which is really dark inside at night, and a major stop on the ghost and voodoo tours... then walked back to my place.

new orleans bei nacht

thursday and saturday night we explored the city at night a little bit. thursday night, we went and ate at coop's place on decatur, which was a cool place. a lot of character, and then walked over to cafe du monde to eat some beignets, i love beignets. theyre great. then saturday night, i had the JOs over for dinner, and then we walked down bourbon street. the first place we stopped was Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. then we walked down the street some more and went into some other place... they had a fire fountain, but it wasnt pat o'briens... then, we walked back down bourbon street to my place and i went to sleep. it was fun.

je suis arrivé à la New Orléans

thursday night i arrived at my condo in fauberg marigny in new orleans. its my fourth time to the city, and i'll be living on shore for 2 months, and then, we will move onto our ship, and live there for 3 months, and then sail away back to norfolk from whence to new york city for the ship's commissioning. yesterday, i went over to hang out with the JOs at one of their pools and then grilled out at one of the other guys apartments. today, me and disbo wandered around the french quarter. ate some praline samples at aunt sallys and then took some pictures around the city and went to the cabildo, the louisiana state history museum, which had some pretty cool things in it. lots of portraits of prominent louisianans and a deathmask of napoleone buonaparte. after the museum we walked around and looked at some of the stores along royal street... one of which was an art gallery with paintings for like 8,000 dollars... one of the things we saw on royal street was the cornstalk fence... apparently there are two of them in new orleans... i really don't get it. i dont see what the big deal is with a fence that looks like corn fields... new orleans is no nebraska.

Port Hudson

after the fall of memphis and new orleans, the confederates controlled a stretch of river between vicksburg and port hudson, a small place about 20 miles north of baton rouge. concurrent with the siege of vicksburg, the yankees moved to invest port hudson, and so gain control of the entire river. the struggle for port hudson lasted slightly longer than the struggle for vicksburg, 5,000 confederates from alabama, mississippi, arkansas, and louisiana held off 30,000 yankees until they ran out of food and ammunition. the earthworks at port hudson are supposed to be the best preserved from the civil war. which, ones like fort desperate (pictured) is in pretty good condition, one can identify the moat full of water and the earthen mound of a wall. today, trees grow out of it, and the union zig-zagging sappers trenches are hard to see, however, the brush there was being cleared by two people while i was there. the port hudson fortifications on display did not include any river front property or any of the river batteries... the battle did display the 1st Louisiana Native Guards in the first use of coloured soldiers during the war. the 1st Louisiana N.G. was a regiment that had already existed prior to the war as a free black and mulatto militia in new orleans. ever since new orleans had been a spanish territory, new orleans had maintained a company of coloured infantry amongst the militia companies of the city to protect new orleans from foreign invasion. the 1st LA N.G. took heavy casualties during their failed assault of the Confederate works. However, their heroics led to the creation of other regiments such as the 54th Massachussetts, who also gained renown for their heavy casualties in their failed attack on Battery Wagner in South Carolina. The park today is quiet, and overgrown by dense Louisiana undergrowth. I kept hearing birds, bull frogs, and alligators make their sounds while i was attacked by mosquitos and flies. the wasps, bees, yellow jackets, mud daubers, and hornets all thought it enjoyable to fly around near me to see if i would freak out. it was pretty cool to be out in nature again. all this entertainment for 2 dollars!

on the natchez trace

the natchez trace is a scenic highway that runs from natchez to nashville. in the old days before steamboats riverboats would make their way to natchez drop off their cargos from the upper reaches of the ohio and mississippi rivers and then walk overland back to nashville and beyond. i caught the last leg from somewhere outside port gibson, ms to natchez, something like 30 miles of scenic high way. the entire road is a national park with small exhibits along the way, i stopped at mount locust, a completely unplanned stop at an old inn on the natchez path and later became a plantation. it was nice to stop and look at something like that, it reminded me of the old davy crockett movies and being a kid, it was cool to be out there. the old trail is also there next to the modern high way, its more of a hiking trail, and people still hike it today.

Vicksburg

on my way to new orleans, i stopped by the vicksburg battlefield. it was pretty cool, it is a huge amount of territory covered by the park. it is also the 3rd most monumented battlefield. every yankee unit marked their position with a big stone monument, and each state with soldiers engaged at the siege placed a large monument. the actual battle was a siege, so there were trenches, earth works, and things like that. so, 160something years later the battlefield just looks like a hilly park. which makes it harder to figure out what was going on. my favourite exhibit at the battlefield was the USS Cairo, which was the first warship to be sank by an electrically detonated mine. there is a rough outline of the skeleton of the ship including several pieces of iron armour to give the look of the ship when it was in service, but it also displays much of the original wood that the ship was constructed of. one of the best monuments was my texas monument dedicated to the texans at the battle, and on the site where waul's texas legion repulsed a yankee attack on some alabama and arkansas troops. the yankees won at vicksburg, but not because they breached the lines and made it into the confederate fortifications, they only won, because the confederates were unable to continue the struggle when they ran out of food and ammunition. i think, if i would have had a battlefield tour guide, i would have understood the positions a lot more, as it was, it was basically going and looking at a lot of hilly terrain covered with monuments and cannons.

cowpens national battlefield

Cowpens was a revolutionary war battle that helped lead to the victory at yorktown. it was fought in january,1781, somewhere spartanburg, sc and charlotte, nc. The British were led by Banastre Tarleton the Americans by Daniel Morgan. 600 American Continentals, 200 Cavalry, and about 1000 militia fought about 1400 British Regulars. Before the battle began, Morgan went around the campfires telling the militia he only asked three shots from them, then they should retire. On the day of battle, Morgan organized his army into three lines each separated by 150 yards. the first line was composed of 150 sharpshooters from georgia and north carolina. the second line was composed of Picken's Militia, mostly from the Carolinas... the third line was composed of Continental Line Regiments from Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, these men had been trained at valley forge by Von Steuben and were some of the best the Americans had, when properly led. the british advanced on the american line, the first line fired their volleys and retired, then the second line fired their three volleys and retired. blah blah blah, battle battle, british cavalry charge countered by american cavalry charge... british infantry continue to advance. american militia reform, american cavalry reform, double envelopment of british line. and then, the final thing about cowpens, a captain from a maryland line regiment polevaulted over one of the british cannons on his spontoon to capture it...

UNTIAS GOLD 2

one of the coolest parts of UNITAS GOLD was working with the foreign navies. destroyer squadron 40 was embarked on board Mesa Verde (LPD-19), that meant that there were like 50 or 60 extra officers on board, and us junior officers were sent to our an enlisted berthing... ten junior officers in a berthing for 40, we had plenty of space. we even had several foreign officers living with us, 3 ecuadorians and a dominican. so that was good, we got to meet and live with them. in addition to the JOs living with us, we got to tour foreign ships. the foreign ships were beautiful. all our partner-nations maintained lovely ships. the hospitality of our friends and allies was wonderful. i drank whiskey with the canadian JOs and department heads, i drank port with the captain and XO of the new german frigate Sachsen, and i drank johnny walker black with the brasilian commodore, brasilian captain, and a staff officer who i'd made friends with when he was on board Mesa Verde. I got invited to eat with the mexican officers when i was visited their ship, but i was stupid and said no thank you. in retrospect, i should have joined them, it smelled delicious.

st augustine

so, while we were in mayport for unitas, destroyer squadron 40 and the local navy league organized buses to take the sailors around the area, they went to jackonsville, they went to the mall, they went to st augustine. i hadnt been to st augustine since 7th grade, so, i had to go back... and hey, free bus ride. the focal point of st augustine, the oldest city in america is the castillo de san marcos. a spanish fort built out of local limestone. the stone was really good because as a type of limestone it absorbed cannonballs instead of splintering and killing the soldiers defending the fort. the fort had a fun interplay with the british in georgia. the two sides were almost constantly fighting each other. the rest of old town st augustine is an interesting combination of architecture... it reminded me of st george, bermuda, new orleans, and san juan, puerto rico... which would make sense because its an old spanish city...

UNITAS GOLD

excerpts from report: On 19 April, 2009, MVD arrived in MAYPORT, FL. MVD spent 3 days in Mayport, FL conducting strategic liaison operations with foreign naval forces. CANADA, CHILE, COLOMBIA, BRASIL, GERMANY, MEXICO, and PERU all sent warships to participate. ARGENTINA, the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, and ECUADOR sent staff officers to participate. MVD was flagship for DESRON 40. As DESRON 40’s flagship, we were able to see the organized chaos that is DESRON underway. MVD conducted two mock UNREPS and one actual UNREP. One mock UNREP was with FGS FRANKFURT AM MAIN. The other mock UNREP was an opposed UNREP. After our experiences on PON and FTM, with an actual UNREP opposed by USS COLE, this opposed UNREP was fairly underwhelming. The next day MVD unrepped with USNS Arctic. One of the special events at UNITAS GOLD was a SINKEX. Ship and aircraft borne missiles along with gunfire sank the ex-Connelly

yorktown

nathalie came to visit, and friday the weather had been glorious... likewise, saturday morning the weather had been 75-80 and sunny. so, we decided to go to see yorktown. because, it's an hour away, and i havent been there since high school. while i was at ocs, i read a book about yorktown and the lead up to the campaign, so, i sort of forced nathalie into going to visit it... luckily, she's a good sport. she's also a better planner than me, because a cold front rolled through and the temperature dropped 20 degrees, and the wind got up to 25-30mph... and the clouds and rain rolled in... nathalie actually brought a jacket, i was in shorts and a polo shirt so, we went to the battlefield, and its actually, pretty small. the british works, the american grand battery, and redoubts 9 and 10 are in less than a square mile... it really shows you how close they would get during sieges. basically, the americans dug in, and approached the british lines, to complete their grand battery within like 500 yards of the british lines they had to capture redoubts 9 and 10. redoubt 9 is the funny looing hill with sharpened stakes sticking out of it.