Photos from the Point

I thought that I would put up a few of the photos from The Living History Day at Fort Point.

The National Park Service hosted the day and the fort was garrisoned by several American Civil War reenacting groups that are based out of northern California.

I had a really great time during the event. The National Park Service allowed the reenacting groups to stay inside Fort Point for an overnight, something that has not happened in a long time. I however was unable to stay for the night. Hopefully there will be another chance to attend this event for a overnight next year.

A view of the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge's southern support structure from inside the fort.

I even got to meet the 26th President.

I will put up some more photos in the next couple of days.

Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln

Mr Lincoln bicentennial is coming up in a another couple of weeks. He was born on February 12, 1809. I thought it was a interesting little side note after hearing that President Obama had used the Lincoln Bible to swear his oath on.

Another former President had done something special for Mr. Lincoln's birthday when the birthday centennial had come up in 1909. Former President Theodore Roosevelt had the United States Treasury design a new Penny, which was made for this special date. It is still the design we use today, well at least until it gets changed for his bicentennial.

I wonder if President Obama will do something to remember the bicentennial, seeing as he and Mr. Roosevelt were both admirers of Lincoln.

New Penny

Mr. Lincoln

"President's own"

So with the coming inauguration of our next president, I thought I would share an interesting side note to The Commander And Chief's military. The "President's Own" is The United States Marine Corp Band, that is exclusively designate to preform for the presidents.

They are going on their third century in this role, established by an Act of Congress in 1798, the Marine Band is America’s oldest professional musical organization. The other intresting thing is that the members of the Marine Corp Band are only musicians and because of their speical skills needed to preform their mission, have no other assignment within The United States Marine Corp. The title the "President's Own" was earned from President Thomas Jefferson.

There have been many famous musicians that were member's of the "President's Own", John Phillp Sousa being but one that I know off hand. My hats off to them, can't wait to see them perform during the inauguration.

"President's Own" website

"Nuts"

Harry William Osborne Kinnard II died January 5th, 2009 at the age of 93.

So what is his importance in history? He is that man that suggested to Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe during the siege of the Belgian town of Bastogne to tell the German Army commander "Nuts".

This was in response to the request of the German Army for the American forces to surrender, as they had been surrounded by the advanced of the German forces during what would be later called "The Battle of The Bulge".

Thank you sir for your service to this country, may you rest in peace

News Article

Fort Point

There is an event coming up at the end of the month that I am looking forward to going to. It's at Fort Point, the only Civil War era fort that was never fired upon in anger. It's construction between 1853 and 1861. The event will be staffed by Civil War living history buffs, who will be manning the fort.

The event will be January 31st 10 am-5 pm and February 1st 10 am-2 pm.

If you are in the area please stop by, you will be glad you did.

All in good time..

The fine people at the U.S. Postal Service were kinda enough to drop off my Waltham pocket watch this afternoon. On close inspection of the finely crafted time instrument and looking around the Internet, I was able to determine that the inner working were made between 1887-1888. 

The case on the other hand was made by Fathy Ore Sliver Co. Pat. 19th February 1884. So that leads me to believe that the inter working were replaced at some point by the previous owner, which to my understanding was a common practice during the 19th century.

The company that I purchased it through had bought the watch from an estate sale, so there was no guarantee that the watch would even work. I was pleasantly surprised when I carefully turned the stem of the main spring and the watch started to tick. Mind you I didn't do much more winding as I wasn't sure of the condition of the inter workings. 

Now, off to a fine privateer of chronometers, for a little tinkering of the time piece.