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History and cherished traditions... a solid foundation for a worthwhile life.
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 15 May 2013 at 10:15 PM
All the white flag in the color party is the New Market color. This is what the corps carried in the battle. In addition to the cadet infantry battalion there was also a two gun section of six pounder napoleons. They are described as having done "great execution" as part of the supporting CSA artillery. those two guns are in place today at the foot of Stonewall's statue on the VMI parade along with two others that did not go to New Market. the four guns have their names cast in the bronze. "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," so named "because they spoke a powerful language." The battle sreamer in the PPT is grey over blue. US Army units with Civil War honors have similar streamers but they are blue over grey unless they are NG units with Confederate lineage. In that case, they also are grey over blue. An example would be the 116th Infantry Regiment which is the old Stonewall Brigade. The embroidered wreath is "the victor's laurels." Major (later senator) Du Pont sent two of his sons to VMI despite the fact that by his account he barely escaped capture. pl
Posted by: w. patrick Lang | 16 May 2013 at 11:25 AM
That's a powerful photograph.
I'm a westerner, my Dad's family settled in the Wisconsin Territory before the CW and then began moving west to finally end up in Montana,but I've always been interested in the history of Virginia.
Maybe because my lifetime best friend and his family were from there and he also attended VMI, a place I had childhood dreams of going to.
Posted by: John Minnerath | 16 May 2013 at 11:43 AM
John Minnerath
you would have fit right in. We might have been classmates. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 16 May 2013 at 12:04 PM
Thanks Pat.
Posted by: John Minnerath | 16 May 2013 at 01:33 PM
Pat, I did not identify myself as the photographer of this picture, which I took yesterday at the ceremony. The Color Guard had just completed their movement from the Parade Ground (I hate that it has become the Parade Deck!) onto Letcher Avenue where they has just marched through the Limit Gates.
Posted by: Hank Foresman | 16 May 2013 at 03:28 PM
A wonderful commemorative PL and thanks for all your hard work in preparing it.
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 16 May 2013 at 04:14 PM
Hank
The troops look very good in your photo. At one point I was commander of the color party as regimental sergeant major. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 16 May 2013 at 06:07 PM
国の為 重き努を 果し得で 矢弾尽き果て 散るぞ悲しき
仇討たで 野辺には朽ちじ 吾は又 七度生れて 矛を執らむぞ
醜草の島に蔓る 其の時の 皇国の行手 一途に思ふ
栗林 忠道
Unable to complete this heavy task for our country
Arrows and bullets all spent, so sad we fall.
But unless I smite the enemy,
My body cannot rot in the field.
Yea, I shall be born again seven times
And grasp the halberd in my hand.
When ugly weeds cover this island,
My sole thought shall be the Imperial Land.
Kuribayashi Tadamichi
Posted by: YT | 17 May 2013 at 03:29 AM
A proud heritage. Sir, what do you make of the plaid sash on the homespun uniform? Thanks for the clear and concise slide show; very informative.
Posted by: DH | 17 May 2013 at 01:14 PM
That was pretty cool.
TTG labas, even as I reflexively twitch at you observation - birth order sorta thing - as I visit here for the first time in bit, I feel the truth of your words, in this sense.
Perfesser Colonel Pat and all the rest of you have taught me of the Beauty of the Soldier and their culture - never mind the political causes and consequences of war (aside from prayers for our side's win & the dead)
Where I got to, Beauty is second only to Nature in my cosmology. There's a lot of it here, in you all of you, the fruits of, part of, the causes of your soldierly history and traditions. The latter used to be Greek to me, can't say I'm joining any church soon, but you have revealed to me things I could not see let alone respect unaided.
Good things. Beautiful things and men. Except Babak's old view on executing drug addicts.
I'd salute but I'm a civvy, Good Day to you all, Gentlemen.
Posted by: Charles I | 20 May 2013 at 11:56 AM
Wonderful presentation. Thank you.
Posted by: Bill H | 15 May 2019 at 09:36 AM
I am not the creator of the slide show. There are a few inaccuracies in it; Scott Shipp was Commandant of Cadets, not Superintendent. The flags hanging in JM Hall are those of the states then in the Union when VMI was created, not those of the Confederate States.
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 May 2019 at 09:41 AM
And, the Valley Pike was not a dirt road in 1864. It was Macadamized.
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 May 2019 at 09:45 AM
It is a blanket.
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 May 2019 at 07:04 PM
Pat Lang,
The slide show reminded me of the re-enactment of the firing on the Star of the West in January of 1961. The cadet corps marched from The Citadel to the battery and R company in uniforms of 1861 fired at a schooner entering Charleston Harbor.
The regimental colors have 8 battle streamers and 1 institutional streamer (CSA) for battles and engagements in which the battalion of cadets fought as a unit during the lengthy siege of Charleston.
The regimental band, which used to play a rousing "Dixie" when marching off the parade ground hasn't done so for at least 15 years. Such is the power of incessant propaganda.
Finally, a very good account of life at The V.M.I. during the war can be found in "The End of an Era", John S. Wise , 1899 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. He was the youngest son of Governor and Brig. Gen.(CSA) Henry Wise and entered the Institute in 1863.
WPFIII
"
Posted by: William Fitzgerald | 16 May 2019 at 10:39 AM
William Fitzgerald
The two schools should remember their shared glory. The VMI corps participated in several expeditions to round up federal raiders in SW Virginia BEFORE New Market. For some reason buried in our collective psyche we choose to remember New Market. Perhaps the dead cadets buried around Ezekiel's statue at school have something to do with that. The memory of the 55% of our alumni who died in the war has also somehow faded.
Posted by: turcopolier | 16 May 2019 at 02:52 PM