US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Eustis, VA)

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N 'Qgp 3 s s s s s s s s 2 5 5 s S s S 4 4 4 4 4 s 4 4 S s s 1 s s s s s 4 4 4 4 S 4 4 4 a 4 4 4 4 4 it Fort Eustis- O-D -Fort Eustis ABRAHAM EUSTIS 1 , . ' Abraham Eustis was born at Petersburg, Virginia, March 26, 1786, the son of Abraham Eustis, a merchant, elder brother of William Eustis of Massachusetts, Secretary of War in Madison's Cabinet, and Margaret CParkerj Eustis, sister of Chief Justice Parker of Massa- chusetts. He studied law under the latter and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1807, after having been graduated from Har- He received the honorary de- in 1806 from Bowdoin College, vard in 1804. gree of A.B. and his A.M. from Harvard in 1807. He died at Portland, command of As an officer Maine, June 27, 1843, while in the Sixth Military Department. of Artillery, he was regarded as one of the most efiicient of his day. General Eustis was austere in manner as well as in appearance, and a disciplinarian, strict but con- sistent, for he exacted duty from himself as well as those about him. Eustis was appointed from Massachusetts, May 3, 1808, to be a captain in the Regiment of United States Light Artillery, was appointed major, same regiment, March 15, 1810, was brevetted lieutenant colonel, September 10, 1813, for meritorious services, was appointed to the full rank of lieutenant colonel, May 8, 1822, at which time he was transferred to the 2nd United States Artillery, was transferred to the 4th United States Artillery, August 22, 1822, was brevetted colonel, September 10, 1823, for ten years faithful service in the same grade, was brevetted brigadier general, June 30, 1834, at which time he was trans- ferred to the 1st United States Artillery. Eustis especially distinguished' himself at the capture of York Know Torontol. He also served in the Black Hawk and Florida Wars. Designated to be the lieutenant colonel of the Artillery School upon its organization, Abraham Eustis was placed in command by the absence of Colonel Fenwick, and he served as the first Commandant at Fortress Monroe from March 31, 1824 to January 31, 1825. He was again in command from August 1, 1825, to November 12, 1828, and from October 13, 1831, to the close of the Artillery School in 1834. GENERAL ABRAHAM EUs'r1s 1786-1843 ' CFrom an old printf LAFAYETTE AT YORKTOWN Extraetf from the 'lOrder Book, Fort Nlonroe, IS24 A ,fflrtillery Corpf for Inftruetion V Hd Qrf. Fortreff lllonroe II oetr. I824 Order: No. 90. On Friday the Ijlll inrt the Battalion, Cwith the exception of Lomanf Compyl will talee up the line of mareh for Yorktown, to eooperate with the Volunteerf of Virginia in the reception of Gent. La Fayette, the only ruroioing .Major General of the War of the revolution, E5 the Guert ofthe nation. The Corpr will eneamp for afew dayr on the tame ground, where the Surrender ofthe Britith army under Cornwallif Jealed the Independence of our Country E5 will manouore in prefenee of the man, who eontributed ,ro largely to that gloriou: refult Efwhom the people of the United State: rtill delight to honor. If any further .rtimulut be wanting to tall forth our bert exertioru on thi: Oeeation, let it be remembered that we reprerent the flrmy of the Union: that our Conduct E5 department will be rigidly .rerutinized by our arroeiatet in arrnr, U' by a numerouf aftemblage ofthe beet elaffef of the Community E5 that the award of eenrure or applaufe will depend entirely on ourreloer. - One truxty mart from each Company will be releeted to remain in eharge ofthe Barraekr. The flirt. Qr. lllarter Capt. lVhiting will furnith the neeefrary meant of tranxportation by land for the Tentf E97 Ojicerb' Baggage, 29' by Water for prorririonr Ufor the jire work: prepared by Capt. Baker. Lieut. Me Intire will in addition to hir dutief at Ant Comg of Sub. act ay Regl Qr Illarter. By Order of Lt Col. Eurtit. f. R. Vinton, Lt 5.97 Adjt. Page One Hundred Sixteen r I I

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Congrerr to take care of her own wounded as they would not permit him to do so and ordered hot shot fired into her until she was a mass of fiames. It was this beacon which lighted the Monitor into Hampton Roads that night about nine o'clock as she slipped in from New York, unnoticed by the Confederates, and anchored by the side of the .Minnffota. The Morzitor' had been ordered sent to Washington, but in View of the alarming events of the day, Captain Nfarston of the Roanoke, senior oflicer present, disobeyed his orders and had her remain in Hampton Roads. As night came on, the .Merrirnac abandoned her watch over the .Minnfroto and with- drew behind Sewell's Point on the Norfolk side to wait for higher tide the next day. March 8, 1862, had gone down as a red letter day in the world's naval history, but Sunday morn- ing was to be even more memorable. The arrival of the Moriitor' was not known to the Confederates. It was, of course, known that the ship was being built and this was the reason for haste in rushing the Mer'- riniac into battle without even a trial trip. Had Buchanan known that the Monitor was ready to meet him, he would have had solid shot for his rifled guns and a new iron beak to replace that lost in the Cumberland. As the Merrirnac approached about eight o'clock on Sunday, March 9, to complete the destruction ofthe Union lieet, a queer looking object which has so often been compared to a cheese box on a rafti' came up valiantly from behind the .Minnerotcz'.f stern and fired the first shot in the first battle between iron-clads. Her huge antagonist returned the salutation in kind and the famous battle was on. At the very beginning of the engagement, the Mer-r'iniac, drawing twenty-three feet of water, had run aground and the Monitor continued to encircle and pump shot into her. The sixteen furnaces of the .Merrirnac belched forth smoke as everything burnable was piled on to lighten the draught. Finally she succeeded in getting away and landing a 100 pound shot on the pilot house of the .Monitor which knocked Captain VVorden senseless. Lieut- enant Green took command of the .Monitor and during the confusion that took place when Captain 'Worden was wounded, the .Monitor withdrew to shoal Water. On advice of the pilot who knew the tides the M.er'rirnac also withdrew, after waiting some time for the .Monitor to appear again and left for the Navy Yard at Portsmouth. As far as the two vessels were concerned the battle was a drawn one. For more than four hours they had hammered at each other without any considerable damage to either side. The powder charges for the two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, firing round shot weighing 168 pounds, of the Monitor were limited officially to fifteen pounds. Thirty and even fifty pounds were afterward used with safety, and this invites speculation as to what might have happened if she had fought with a free hand and had her commander known the vulner- ability of the Merr'inioc'r submerged decks then well above water from the fuel consumed. The careers of these iron monsters of the sea were strangely alike. In their famous battle they were commanded by the second officers, Lieut. Jones taking the place of Captain Buchanan wounded the day before, and Lieut. Green being in command of the .Monitor during most of her fight. Their first battle, too, was their last, for although the .Monitor was used at Drewry's Bluff, her guns could not be elevated and she was useless. Both met violent destruction. The Confederate position around Norfolk being no longer ten- able, the Merrinioc was run aground and burned by her commander, Tatnall, just south of Craney Island on the night of lV1ay 10, 1862. She was too unwieldy to be taken up' the James and was unsuited for the ocean. December 30, 1862, the .Monitor sank off Hatteras with four ofiicers and twelve men aboard while being towed by the Rhode Irlnnd to Beaufort. . The .Merrirnar was reconstructed after plans of John L. Porter of Portsmouth from the United States frigate of the same name which had been burned on the evacuation of the Gosport Know Norfolkj Navy Yard by the Union forces. She was rechristened the Virginia, although the name was seldom used even by the Confederates, and she carried ten guns. Her reconstruction cost fl1'3172,523. John Ericcson, the inventor of the screw propeller, designed the Monitor and so named her because he said she would prove a warn- ing to the leaders of the Southern Rebellion',. She mounted two Dahlgren guns and cost 3rB275,000. ' Fort Eustis- O-D -Fort Eustis , Page One Hundred Fzftfmz X

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Hd Qrr. Camp Fayette Plain: of York 20111 Orzr. I524 Fort Eustis- O-D -Fort Eustis Artillery Corpf for I7ZJ'f7'ZlL'Z l.0IL Orclfrf No. 93. General La Fayette' liar cxprwfed to tlw Lim! Col Coming. hir zlellglzl al the ,inf appearance of the Battalion yexzerday. The Sfcrftary of War har Jignzffd hif mzlirz' ap- prolmtion of the Corpf U liar dl7'6'ClL'dl1'lHl ilbe made lenown to the Ojicerf, Non C017l'l7ll.U lAO71l'd Ojlofrf illuxi- rianr 29' prifoarfr tlza! their fondue! if appmranff generally 55 individually, during llze paradef U Rfoifwf of yn'- Zerday. haw' done honor to llzemrclcfff and to the drniy. The Corjnf will return io Fortran lllonroe under the command of illaj Fanning and will C077l'l7ZE7ZC'L' il: marrlz at Noon. By Order of Lt. Col. liunif f. R. Vinton, Ll E5 fldjz. FORT EUSTIS WVhen, early in 1918, it became necessary to select a site for targets for heavy mobile and railway artillery practice and a training station for troops to be sent overseas, a board under Major John Mathers, after an exhaustive search in a radius of thirty miles of Fort Monroe, unanimously decided that Mulberry Island and the adjacent land proved an ideal location because of railroad facilities and the broad expanse of the James River which made possible the safe firing of long ranges. The limitation of the site to within thirty miles of Fort lXfIonroe was necessary to bring it close to the theoretical schools of instruction of the Coast Artillery. Official approval was given for the new camp, March 19, 1918,and it was named Camp Abraham Eustis in honor of the first Commandant of the Coast Artillery. ' The camp site was so desirable that it argued for permanency and the War Depart- ment finally bought the entire island. 'Work of construction was started in April, 1918, and continued until 1919. As many trees as possible were preserved, even building lines being altered to save some striking specimen. As a result Eustis is today a shady place and lacks the sun-baked expanse of the usual wartime camp. Camp Eustis, including the Balloon Observers School, both in Warwick County, Virginia, and Camp Wallace, of 115.3 acres in James City County, cost the government 5H512,162,143.48. By September 27, 1922, the entire 34th Infantry had arrived at Camp Abraham Eustis. Mulberry Island takes its name from the trees first planted in 1614 and made com- pulsory by statute in 1621. Silk culture flourished briefly, but the increasing cultivation of tobacco brought about its ruin. At Mulberry Island was saved the first permanent English settlement in America when the discouraged Jamestown colonists returning to England were met at Land's End by Captain Edward Brewster, June 8, 1610, with sup- plies from home, and ordered back to Jamestown. The main camp site is to the north of this island, such only at extreme tides. With its 7,983.30 acres included within IVIulberry Island, the camp site proper and the Balloon Observers School, Fort Eustis is the largest military reservation in the Third Corps Area and one of the largest in the United States. WELcoME 1 ,.:..,.. .W . , , Page One Hurzzlrenl Sewizim' 71 :YA 1 . 4 . YY .W V- 41- n'YVVn - Y VVVVninl'uYuVqY1VsY4YnY-'nYn'Nn's'n1'nYuYsVnVsVnYA ' U I g r if