Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I'm on a moat ...

OK, so I should've posted this last week. I'm a little late, since we went the weekend before last, but the experience was too cool not to share.

K and I visited a museum on an Army post nearby. It's something we'd been wanting to do for a while now, and we finally got around to it.

The Casemate Museum shows the history of Fort Monroe, which is quite a historic place. It was fortified in 1609, and it's been an active post since 1823. It was once home to Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allan Poe, and Jefferson Davis was actually imprisoned there for two years.

The post actually has a moat, and the museum resides on it.





























There were two bikes thrown into the moat!


















The room where Jefferson Davis was imprisoned. They hung this huge Union flag in his room as a sort of poke at him, since he was president of the Confederacy.












































K was impressed with how large the cannon rounds were ...


























... especially when compared to how small the soldiers were.

The writing on this display says, "The average size of soldiers manning guns, like those you see here, was only 5'8" tall and 143 1/2 lbs. in weight. Compare yourself." Our friend standing beside this display is about 6'4".


























Robert E. Lee's former home is right across from the museum.

















Unfortunately, this post is set to close in 2011. I really hope whoever gets control of it takes care to maintain it. The rest of the post is just as charming and historic as the places we explored on the moat.

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