Arriving at West Point around lunch time, after three busy days of touring around the Lake George Region, we hurried to the front desk, hoping the buses were not full for the one-hour tour that afternoon.
Yea! They had 4 slots left, starting in 30 minutes.
NO CREDIT, CASH ONLY
Digging out my credit card, they said they only take cash. What? They had to be kidding.
So far nearly all the historical sites we’ve visited in New York were cash only…pricey cash at that!
Wait a minute, don’t we have cash for all the toll roads coming up?
That almost covered the cost.
The kids and I dug into our wallets.
My daughter had $10, my son had a few dollars, and I had 4 quarters!
Then something was said about the 2 hour tour. Ooooo, how much is that?
Needing $2 more per person, we dug more and found more.
Only one last dollar was needed.
I found some coins, the kids found some coins…we were down to needing 2 pennies. Arrrgggg! Two pennies short!
The staff watched the entire episode in bewilderment and just shook their heads.
Don’t worry about it, they said. Eureka! My daughter found 2 more pennies!
We were booked, without debt, for a 2-hour tour at West Point!
After a quick lunch, we returned to speed through the museum. We had one hour before the bus tour started for the two-hour tour.
LOOKING FOR NAPOLEON
Seeing a poster, my son cried: Hey mom, they have Napoleon’s sword here! We’ve *got* to find it! Come on and don’t read anything, Mom! Just find that sword!
Was I hearing things correctly? The boy who did not enjoy learning about Napoleon now wants to see his sword?
My son scanned the map of the museum and said it had to be in the one wing that had small weapons.
W-o-w! They had everything we’ve ever studied about in Ancient and Medieval history.
I couldn’t believe I was so thrilled to see military equipment, but I have spent so much time teaching about this stuff over the years, as well as designing costumes around them, that I guess I’ve sort of invested myself in it.
Each corner I turned revealed another thrill!
Before, these items were pictures on a page, now they were real!
Every time I turned a corner I exclaimed, “W-o-w!”
When I stopped to read about clubs, I heard: Mom, stop reading!
Running from exhibit to exhibit to find the sword, I found lances. “W-o-w!”
“Mom, stop reading!” and on and on and on it went.
No Napoleon sword.
My daughter thought it might be in the downstairs big weapons gallery.
I guess she thought he was a major figure to put the sword down there.
Although willing to look, my son and I didn’t think it was down there.
This time we all read things.
I even found a display of grenades that answered my son’s question to the grenadier at Fort William Henry.
Grenades go back to the 13th century Asia and finally made it to Europe in the 17th century.
Okay, we had 30 minutes left…on to another gallery for the Napoleon sword! We had to conquer!
We ran upstairs to inventory the floor plan.
Let’s see…West Point stuff to the left…Napoleon’s sword couldn’t possibly be there!
History of Warfare gallery to the right…hmmmm, that could be it!
We turned a corner…”W-o-w!” Ancient Egyptian military artifacts! I never dreamed we’d ever see those. We are studying Ancient Egypt right now!
“W-o-w”…stuff from Assyria (that’s later this year).
“W-o-w!” Alexander the Great! He’s next winter!
Ancient Rome…”W-o-w!” That’s next spring!
“Mom! Stop reading!” Okay, okay, I turned another corner…
“W-o-w!” Knighthood!
“W-o-w!” The Battle of Crecy! Those are next year.
“M-o-m!!!”
DISCOVERING NAPOLEON
I turned around and there it was…the Napoleon sword and his pistols!
Why in the world would they be at West Point?
The answer was part of the display.
Charles de Gaulle, who led France during WWII, gave the sword and pistols to West Point graduate, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in appreciation for America’s help during the war!
My son spent quite a bit of time analyzing the display.
ANCIENT HISTORY RESEARCH
After that, we had about 15 minutes left so I told the kids to at least visit the Ancient history stuff, which we would start the following week.
I read them quickly and found lots of information for possible costumes.
Since my son often chooses military heroes for school costumes, I dug out my pen to furiously scribble notes about the progression of military armament.
CADET CHAPEL
Established in 1778, West Point is the oldest continually operated fort in American history.
First, we visited the Cadet Chapel, full of gothic architecture and stained-glass windows.
OLD CADET CHAPEL
Then we went to the Old Cadet Chapel built in 1836.
On the wall are plaques with the names of the major generals who served in the American Revolution.
At the top is General Washington.
When I asked about Lafayette, the tour guide said she didn’t think he was commemorated on a plaque because he wasn’t American.
I was thinking, why not, because Lafayette was granted American citizenship for what he did for our country.
I wanted to stay and search but we had to move on.
This is the “no name” plaque for the turncoat who once commanded West Point after the victorious Battle of Saratoga.
Becoming a spy for the British, he turned over plans of West Point to British Major John Andre.
Meanwhile, Generals Washington and Lafayette were on their way to Benedict Arnold’s home before continuing to West Point.
Before they arrived, a message arrived for Benedict Arnold that not only was General Washington arriving, but Major Andre had been captured! Uh oh!
Benedict Arnold left on the Hudson River to meet up with a British boat, completely turning himself over to the British side.
CEMETERY
At the cemetery, we heard many fascinating stories, some of the people we had learned about.
The stones at the top of the various graves are a Jewish custom.
The tour guide took us to this one because my son requested it.
This is the grave of Marty Maher, an Irish immigrant who became like a father to the cadets.
His heart-warming story is told in the Tyrone Power movie, The Long Gray Line.
I suggested to the kids that we each put a stone on top of the grave…
PARATROOPERS
We also saw the paratroopers jump out of a plane.
They were practicing bringing in the game ball for the next football game.
There were many signs that said, “Beat Navy!” and the tour guide tried to get us to get revved up to yell, “Beat Navy!”
We also saw trophy park, where the honors of war were displayed.
FORTIFICATIONS AT WEST POINT DURING AMERICAN REVOLUTION
A boom and a chain was strung across the Hudson River during the American Revolution, to prevent the British from advancing.
See, we’re back to that infamous waterway thing again!
The tour guidebook in the gift shop has a great explanation of the process with a diagram.
Here you only see 13 links, to represent the original 13 colonies. The rest was melted down for armament.
This man represented in this statue, General Thaddeus Kosciuszko from Poland, was responsible for making West Point impregnable.
His statue overlooks the part of the Hudson where the chain and boom were laid. (see header photo)
He had trained as an engineer in both Warsaw and Paris before the war.
Because of how well his engineering skills fortified West Point in the American Revolution, it became known as the American Gibraltar.
Kosciuszko also suggested to General Washington that West Point should become a military academy.
This became reality when President Thomas Jefferson signed the papers to make it happen.
WE WANT TO RETURN
My son kept insisting that we had to come back to see the rest of the museum.
I also want to do the bus tour of Fort Putnam.
There is a picture of it in the tour guidebook and it’s in a more impressive location than everything else we saw! That tour is only during the summer.
We do plan to return to see all the stuff we missed!
For more photos, check my Flickr set.
COMMENTS
I came across your blog on your visit to West Point when I was looking for a picture of “Benedict Arnold’s Leg” monument at Saratoga Battlefield. I want to say that it was very descriptive and enjoyable. It reminded me of the trips that our family took when I was a young boy and those that we took with our sons when they were younger. Kids never want to go anywhere until they do it and then look back on the experience years later, wishing that they could do it again.
From the beginning of your story, I could tell that you were a teacher by your writing style, My mother taught elementary school for 40 years and every trip we took, she would take pictures and obtain free literature to take back and enrich the horizons of her students. She has written two books, one about our family history and one about an ancestor who served in the American Revolution. The later book got me interested in Ancestry.
I graduated from West Point in 1973 and while a lot has changed cosmetically, your blog painted the highlights that I remember. Thank you for sharing!!! – Mike, June 11, 2016, email
