IMG_2443I’m sorry for the lack of posts this past week. It was the first full week of classes at my school. I have also been trying to get an article finished. As of now it stands at 1500 words. I’d like to get an 1000 written over the weekend and then another 1500 over the course of the coming week. The work is enjoyable but it does leave one drained. The piece s about Hermann Hagedorn and the creation of the Roosevelt Memorial Association. I really hope this gets published. The German-American Hagedorn met Roosevelt during the presidential campaign of 1916. It was that period between the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 and America’s involvement in the Great War in April 1917. Hagedorn was a first generation American whose parents had both been born in Germany before coming to New York City independently of one another. There is so much to go on.

IMG_2434The remainder of the weekend on Governors Island should be nice, with great weather and much to do. The West Point Fife and Drum Corps are on the island today. If you come out to Governors Island, today or any time, make sure to look at the buildings, which stand there silently containing the stories of what once took place in them. These images are of the post hospital on the northwestern part of the island directly behind Castle Williams. Robert Lee Bullard, who commanded the First Infantry Division and later the Third Corps and Second Army during the First World War, died here in September 1947. He was a West Point graduate in 1885 before serving as a young officer with Nelson Miles and Leonard Wood in the campaign that captured Geronimo.

So many generations of soldiers passed through Governors Island, which will happen at a military post that stands from 1821 to 1966. I find it fascinating how these generations overlap. Counting today you have four more Sundays before the season ends to get out and see for yourself.

[Correction, everyone: The West Point Fife & Drum Corps will be here next weekend, September 12 and 13. From where I am sitting I can see New York Harbor through the window as I type this. It’s a great day to be outdoors.]