In Case You're Wondering About Patrick Gass' Journal-- Part 1

From Manuellisaparty.com.

Here are some excerpts from the journal of Patrick Gass.

AUGUST 15, 1804

Captain Lewis went with a party of twelve men to fish and took 709 fish, 167 of them large pike.  The fish here are generally pike, cat,  sun perch and other common fish.  What we caught were taken with trails or brush nets.

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AUGUST 19, 1804

This day sergeant (Charles) Floyd became very sick and remained so all night.  He was seized with a complaint somewhat like a violent cholick.

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AUGUST 20, 1804.

Sergeant Floyd continued very ill.  We embarked early and proceeded,  having a fair wind and fine weather, till 2 o'clock, when we landed for dinner.  here sergeant Floyd died, notwithstanding every possible effort was made by the commanding officers and other persons, to save his life.

To Be Continued Next Post.  --Brock-Perry

Fort Worth's Namesake-- Part 4: His Death and All Those Namesakes

Ten forts were planned  between Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande River and the Trinity River, though only seven were built, including Forts Graham, Duncan and Lincoln.

In the spring of 1849, as William Worth's career continued to ascend,  San Antonio was struck by a deadly cholera epidemic.  Worth contracted the disease and died at the age of 55.  General William Harney then ordered the last fort , near the Trinity River, be named in honor of the fallen hero, Fort Worth.

Worth  was later buried in a tomb in what is now Worth Square in New York City, where a street is also named for him.

Several other cities and counties across the nation are also named for him.  Lake Worth, a small suburb next to Fort Worth, Texas, is also named for the general.  It now has a population of 5,000.

William Worth's most famous  namesake, Fort Worth, is now the fifth largest city in Texas with more than 900,000 residents.

--Brock-Perry

Craney Island, Virginia-- Part 2: Quarantine Station, Fuel Depot and That Big War of 1812 Battle

 After the Civil War, the island belonged to several owners, including the city of Norfolk which used it as a place of confinement in the 1900s due to the many contagious diseases that occurred there.  Many suffering from small pox and yellow fever were quarantined there.

In the 1920s, the U.S. Shipping Board took over the island and built 18 huge fuel oil storage tanks.  Later, the board leased the island to a molasses company (hopefully they didn't use the fuel tanks to store the molasses.)

In the 1940s, ownership of the island passed to the U.S. Navy and a huge expansion took place due to the increased war demand for fuel, oil and gas.

Today, the island is overseen  by the Navy, which runs the fuel depot and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But, the biggest military action took place at this island during the War of 1812.  It was the scene of the bloody June 22, 1813, Battle of Craney Island.

--Brock-Perry

USS Vixen (1803)-- Part 4: Capture and Sinking

The Vixen continued patrolling  the Atlantic Coast until the outbreak of the War of 1812, at which time she sailed along the southern coast under Master Commandant Christopher Gadsden, Jr., and after his death on 28 August 1812, under Lt. George Washington Reed, youngest son of General Joseph Reed.

During one of her war cruises in the West Indies, the Vixen encountered the 32-gun British frigate HMS Southampton, under command of Captain James Lucas Yeo.  The Southampton then chased, intercepted and captured the Vixen on 22 November 1812.

Yeo described the Vixen as a brig armed with twelve 19-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder guns.  The Vixen had been at sea for about five weeks at the time, but had not captured anything.

Both vessels were wrecked five days later Conception Island in the Bahamas.  All of the crews and officers survived, but Lt. Reed, however, died later of yellow fever in Jamaica before he could be exchanged.

The Story of a Ship.  --Brock-Perry

Deaths of 9-11 First Responders Continue to Rise

Tom Frey now lives in Florida and is one of the many 9-11 First Responders with serious illnesses brought on by exposure to the dust, smoke and chemicals at Ground Zero.  A battle with Hodgkins lymphoma, tied to his 9-11 exposure, included multiple rounds of chemotherapy.  That treatment led to a secondary diagnosis:  pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable scarring of the lungs that can be have many causes and is one of the latest diseases to be correlated with Ground Zero exposure.

On 9-11, Frey remembers looking up to see gray ash falling like soft rain and realizing that he and other cops were wearing only paper masks:  "I said, 'This is not going to be good down the road.' "

When he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2016, his doctor told him "that the chemo drugs had started a fire in my lungs with some of the debris from the Trade Center, and he said there was nothing they could do for me."

Though Frey had long thought of himself as invincible --  "I figured, hey, all those hot dogs I ate from the street vendors, I must be immune to everything," he jokes --  he is part of the growing toll of victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Alexander J. Williams-- Part 5: Mortally Wounded Saving the Lives of His Men

Alexander Williams' had been on the lowlands of the Delaware River for a year (Fort Mifflin) and during that time he had contracted a dangerous fever yet he was so anxious to  share in the honors and perils of campaigning of 1814, and even though a convalescent, he applied and was accepted into the Niagara Army.

He joined just in time to take part in the defense of Fort Erie.  Here, his abilities were so conspicuous that he was selected for the important command of the old work before the assault was made on it.

Three times on the morning of August 15, 1814, he had repulsed the enemy.  As the fourth attack was being made, he perceived  a lighted port fire in front of the enemy, enabling them to direct  their fire with great precision.  Instantly, he sprang forward and cut it off with his sword, and in this act, fell mortally wounded.

He sacrificed his life to save those of his men.

--Brock-Perry

George Croghan, Tragic Hero of Fort Stephenson-- Part 2: Mexican War

When Andrew Jackson became president, he appointed George Croghan as inspector general of the army, which post he held from 1829 to his death twenty years later.  He was much respected but drank very heavily.  His wife got a legal separation from him to keep him from selling her possessions.  But Jackson continued to support Croghan.

In 1846, at the age of  54, George Croghan was called to serve on the staff of General Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War.  Taylor had grown up next door to Croghan in Louisville at Locust Grove.

While in Mexico, like many soldiers, George Croghan got dysentery  and his weight dropped from 168 to 145 pounds.

At the Battle of Monterrey, the soldiers of a Tennessee regiment recalled Croghan riding ahead of them at the enemy, with his gray hair tossing in the wind and yelling:  "Men of Tennessee, your fathers conquered with Jackson at New Orleans-- Follow Me!"

He was never able to shake his illness and died at New Orleans on January 8, 1849, the 35th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans.

--Brock-Perry

French Mills, New York

French Mills was the site of a saw mill which started making clothes in 1795.  It was sold to Abel french in 1800 and became a tavern.

U.S. forces retreated here after the Battle of Crysler's Farm.

Over 200 soldiers died here during the winter of 1813-1814, one of them being Robert Lucas.

French Mills is now the town of Fort Covington, New York.

--Brock-Perry

West Point Class of 1806: Robert Lucas-- Part 3

In late January 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong ordered Wilkinson to detach a division of 2,000 men to Sackets Harbor and to fall back with his main body of troops to Plattsburgh, New York, on Lake Champlain.  The sick and wounded were to be moved to Burlington, Vermont.

Robert Lucas was one of those sick men, but he didn't make it to Burlington as he died February 4, 1814, at French Mills, New York, at the age of 26.

--Brock-Perry

West Point Class of 1806: Robert Lucas-- Part 2: Winter Quarters at French Mills, NY

Continued from March 3, 2016, post.

After the British victory at Crysler's Farm 11 November 1813, the defeated American army under Major general James Wilkinson went into winter quarters at French Mills, New York, by the Canadian border.

The Americans arrived at French Mills with few supplies and, because of the poor state of roads, lack of transport and draught animals and the inefficiency of the Quartermaster General's Department, it was impossible to supply his army.

Sickness increased until there were no less than 450 sick men in the hospital at Malone, New York and many more in French Mills.

--Brock-Perry

Ohio's Nathaniel Massie-- Part 2: A Military Career

From "Nathaniel Massie, a Pioneer of Ohio" by David Meade Massie.

Nathaniel Massie was commissioned by President Adams as colonel of militia in the Northwest Territory.  Under Ohio's new state constitution he was elected first major general of the Second Division of Ohio Militia.

The militia in the state was extremely important to the American settlers because the Indians were still in the area and were constantly stirred up by the British to get their land back.  He held that post until he resigned in 1810.

In the Spring of 1813, the British and their Indian allies besieged General Harrison at Fort Meigs in Ohio. Massie was getting old, but rose to the occasion and organized fellow citizens of Paint Creek and marched from there to Chillicothe.  By the time they got to Franklinville, they numbered about 500 and Nathaniel Massie, with his experience, was elected their commander.

When they reached Upper Sanduskey, they received word that the Indians and British had returned to Canada so they turned back.

Nathaniel Massie died November 13, 1813, at his home of pneumonia "or rather the treatment, which was then prescribed for that disease--profuse bleeding."

--Brock-Perry

Exterior Work on Fort Gratiot Hospital Nearly Completed-- Part 2

Baker College of Port Huron, Michigan, has given $10,000 to the project as they are building student housing on what was once the Fort Gratiot Military Reservation.  Overall, the project had raised $41,000 and it is expected another $10-12,000 will be needed to complete it.

The fort was built in 1814 and engineered by Charles Gratiot.  After it was abandoned by the Army for awhile, it was reopened during the Winnebago War of 1827 and it also experienced the start of the cholera epidemic of 1832.

Several officers who later achieved fame during the Civil War were posted there over the years leading to the war.  Probably the most famous was Army of the Potomac commander George Gordon Meade, the victor at the Battle of Gettysburg.

--Brock-Perry

Death From Disease in the War of 1812

From the Dec. 4, 2012, WBFO NPR, Buffalo, NY "War of 1812: Part II- Death and Disease" by Rick Kellman.

More than 20,000 died during the war, some 15,000 from disease. At the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, 600 British and American soldiers are buried in the 1812 plot. Only 16 are known to be from New York.

During the war there was a small U.S. Army hospital on the grounds. The winter of 1812 brought death to what would become Buffalo's Delaware Park where the dead were eventually buried The ground was so frozen that the caskets were only partially buried.

In the spring of 1813, Dr. Daniel Chapin dug them up and buried them in a mass grave on his property.

--Brock-Perry