Robert Pohl worked for many years as a computer programmer but recovered from that and became a full time stay-at-home dad. With his son now in school, he has expanded his horizons and become a self-taught historian. He has written books about his house as well as Emancipation in the District of Columbia. You can reach Robert at Robert[at]thehillishome.com
I have spent the last couple of weeks looking at the USS Monitor, and its connection to Capitol Hill. The question therefore arises: What connection does the Monitor’s famous adversary, the Merrimack, a.k.a. the CSS Virginia, have? Turns out, I found one– well, two. But we’ll start with the first one today. Charles C. Meads […]
Last week, I wrote about the USS Monitor’s visit to Washington Navy Yard and the furor it created when it arrived. Today, we will look at the complete chaos that ensued once it was open to the public. While some people had been able to visit the Monitor immediately after its arrival at the Washington […]
I have previously mentioned in passing the great Civil War ironclad USS Monitor and its (sometimes quite tenuous connections) to the Washington Navy Yard. What I never got around to writing about was the Monitor’s appearance in person at the Navy Yard. After the Monitor’s famous battle against the CSS Virginia (and less famous Battle […]
At 8:45 AM on Friday, May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sat down at a telegraph key set up in the Supreme Court room in the Capitol, just around the corner from where he had done his test just a little over a year earlier. He pressed the key briefly. Forty-four miles away, a dot appeared […]