HMDB Civil War Marker Updates

Just a few odds and ends to mention:

• Created a new “virtual tour by markers” for Fredericksburg – Sunken Road and Marye’s Heights (Map). More of Fredericksburg in the future. Many of the markers in the park are currently posted, but not grouped.
• A growing number of markers from Georgia with Civil War themes. At least three active contributors to HMDB are adding markers related to the battles around Atlanta and Decatur.
• Another contributor has added a score of markers from Charles City County, Virginia which have a common theme – references to the passing of the Army of the Potomac in 1864. The county is well known for its surviving antebellum homes and structures.
• Finally, I’ve finished posting the East Cavalry Battlefield markers (map), with the exception of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry monument (Now including the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument).
• The map of Civil War related content added to the database since July 14 covers from Key West, Florida to Texas to Iowa to New Jersey.  Pretty good geographic mix, if I do say so.

Lastly, a non-Civil War marker note. Recently a marker to Major Thomas D. Howie, from South Carolina, was added. Howie was killed in action during the Normandy campaign in World War II while leading his battalion toward a town called St. Lo. His last words were, “See you in St. Lo.”  Doesn’t sound very noteworthy, but in June-July 1944, St. Lo was one of several points that had to be taken in order to make the big breakout. Remember from Saving Private Ryan, as Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) spoke with Captain Hamill (Ted Danson):

Captain Hamill: You got to take Caen so you can take Saint Lo.
Captain Miller: You’ve got to take Saint Lo to take Valognes.
Captain Hamill: Valognes you got Cherbourg.
Captain Miller: Cherbourg you got Paris.
Captain Hamill: Paris you got Berlin.
Captain Miller: And then that big boat home.

For me, the definitive account of St. Lo is Glover S. John’s The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo.  John was a battalion commander during the operations, and wrote a vivid account of the operations.  I picked the book up at the Fort Benning bookstore sometime early on in my Army career.  Of all the “professional reading” I did as a young Lieutenant, none impressed me more than John’s book.  John’s writing helped me understand the fog of war from a personal perspective, and what I as a leader had to consider when operating under that haze.  The book also illustrated quite well the attachment a commander makes to his men as well as the love-hate relation that invariably  develops between a line officer and the staff officers.

At any rate, a little snippet of my personal history.  But the main reason I mention Major Howie is the original marker entry was backed up by an entry of a monument for Howie in France:  Thomas D. Howie.  It is the first entry from France in the database.  Brings back some memories of my abbreviated tours of the World War II battle sites in Europe.  I do hope more monuments and markers from “across the pond” find their way into the database, particularly those for World War I and II.