US Displinary Barracks- Fort Leavenworth

some links about the USDB and cemetary

http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CSI/faq.asp#2o

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/25/german_pows_buried_prison/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Disciplinary_Barracks

There is a new USDB but it's off the driving tour. The Cemetary is fasinating,over 200 people are buried there whose bodies were never claimed by family. The graves are pointed in North/South direction as opposed to the National Cemetary were the graves are pointed in East/West seeing the rising and setting sun. It does not take a complex internet search to see what they did to earn a stay in the barracks.

The last row is prehaps the most interesting one, 14 German POWs.They have their own row and interesting were the only graves decorated this week after Memorial Day. The flowers as shown in the pictures are Red,Yellow and Black, the colors of the German flag.

So ends the visit to Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth

To continue the journey through Leavenworth.

A brief history of the Fort from Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Leavenworth

It had been a long time since I've been on a Military base and it is it's own little city. Coming in the gate to the right was the commissary which looks like a box store ,big parking lot and Commissary spelled out in big letters on the side of the building. First to get in you got to have ID and the driver needs insurance. We had to get out of the car, step away from the car and open the trunk ,hood and all the door. It was no big deal, took but a few minutes and the reason is obvious.

The bluff overlook the river is beautiful (shown in the Lewis and Clark entry). There is a Musuem with the carriage used by Lincoln when he visited the area. The book store had a wide variety of stuff,I came away with a coffee mug, a couple of books about ghosts who enhabit the fort and a postcard of the Federal Prison that is next door.

There is a driving tour available which hits 16 spots ranging from the parade ground,driving by the Command and General Staff College, the National Cemetary and the old US Displiary Barracks and the Buffalo Solider Monument. I know the Buffalo Solider story first from the song by Bob Marley. The second group was formed at the fort.

When we went to the Monument we saw a group of bikers, must have been over a hundred from the Buffalo Solider Motorcycle club also visiting the Monument.

Leavenworth-The city

Leavenworth honors a favorite daughter Melissa Etheridge, the Grammy and Academy Award winning musician and gay rights activist. She Rocks.

We ate lunch downtown at Dusty Roads BBQ, It's downtown and has a wonderful decor, award winning BBQ ribbons on the wall, plenty of bottles for sale, a combination of wooden picnic tables and round metal tables and no A/C but thats ok, the tea comes with free refills. The BBQ was very good by the way.

To the left is the Fred Harvey house. Last summer I became enchanted with the story of the Harvey Houses that excited in almost every railroad stop on the AT&SF. They are trying to turn the house into a Musuem but as always it's so hard to raise funds for such a worthy cause.

The Carroll House is a Victorian Manison that serves at the County Musuem as well.

Lincoln and Lewis and Clark

The first couple of photos concern Lewis and Clark. The Corp of Discovery passed by in July of 1804 heading west. We will let the journals speak for themselves:

http://www.lewisandclarktrail.com/section1/kansascities/history1.htm

Then we move to Lincoln, the Brochure of "A Driving Tour of Abraham Lincoln's 1859 visit to Kansas tells us,Lincoln spent 8 days in Kansas from November 30-December 7,1859.He spoke in Leavenworth,Elwood,Troy,Doniphan and Atchison. Pictures above are of the steps he spoke from and the Carriage he used ,which is housed at the Musuem at Fort Leavenworth. Two months after his visit to bleeding Kansas he gave the Cooper Union speech is credited with launching his Presidential Campaign. The rest is history.