Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005260413
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: WALTER MUIR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
My parents took me as a 10-year-old to see the parade as it marched through the Civil War Victory Arch in Brooklyn, N.Y. The arch was similar in design to the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris. To me, it was a spectacular show seeing the infantry marching smartly with shouldered arms. The Zouave Regiment was particularly colorful.
The horse-drawn field guns and caissons, and mounted cavalry in formation complete with horse-drawn ambulances and field kitchens, fascinated me. At the end of the parade came automobiles with the disabled Union veterans.
This event did not receive much publicity, as newspapers were preoccupied with the news of the European War. However, it made an indelible impression on me and aroused my interest to learn all I could about the Civil War.
In 1930, I came to Virginia for the first time as an engineer for Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. The project was the construction of a plant at Hopewell for the Atmospheric Nitrogen Corp. The process was a German invention of taking nitrogen out of the air to make nitrates: in war, gunpowder and in peace, fertilizer.
Hopewell was an uninhabited site on the James River. Stone & Webster personnel had to board with families in nearby Colonial Heights and Petersburg. As a result, we learned firsthand about the horrors of the siege of Petersburg during the final days of the Civil War.
In the years following, my wife and I traveled to Virginia many times, visiting Civil War battlefields and other historic sites. Finally, we came to live permanently in Virginia when my General Electric Industry Control Department in Schenectady, N.Y., moved to Salem in 1955. Thus we had the opportunity to attend the impressive ceremonies at Appomattox Courthouse in 1965, marking the 100th anniversary of Gen. Lee's surrender that ended the American Civil War.
by CNB