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Description of Pictures: The West Point Museum dates back to 1854. It has some interesting artifacts and recreations divided into six galleries: "Large Weapons" (artillery pieces, tanks, cannons), "Small Weapons" (hand-held weaponry), "West Point" (uniforms and artifacts related to major people here), "History of Warfare" (which goes a long way back and includes Napoleon's sword and pistols), "History of the US Army" (including engineering work on the Panama Canal, Buffalo Soldiers, etc), and "American Wars" (documenting each of the major wars our country's been involved in.
Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
WPTMUS_031006_03.JPG: This painting is James Walker's "Gettysburg--The First Day."
WPTMUS_031006_09.JPG: General Winfield Scott, the American general who won in the Spanish-American War.
WPTMUS_031006_23.JPG: Sign: Robert E Lee (1807-1870) By Ernest Lipsen, 1931. Oil on canvas.
Born and raised in Virginia and a son of the Revolutionary War hero "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, Robert Edward Lee graduated from West Point in 1829. From 1852 to 1855, he served as Superintendent. During his administration, the curriculum was expanded and, in 1854, the West Point Museum was opened to the public. Basing this portrait on an 1852-55 photograph, Ernest L Ipsen depicted Lee as he would have appeared as Superintendent.
WPTMUS_031006_39.JPG: This was seized during World War II
WPTMUS_031006_60.JPG: "Davy Crockett" US M388 Supercaliber Atomic Projectile. US M28 Light System Delivery.
For a time in the early portions of the Cold War, military planners anticipated that atomic weapons might be used in large scale conflicts of the future. Both the Soviet Union and the United States worked on the tactical use of atomic weapons made possible by the miniaturization of nuclear components. In 1950, a 280mm atomic cannon was developed in the United States, as were later close support weapons such as the Honest John and Davy Crockett.
Named for the famous Tennessee frontiersman, US Congressman and martyr of the Alamo, the Davy Crockett consists of a 279mm atomic projectile fired from a 120mm recoilless gun. A fixed-round charge of propellant and a separate piston, could launch the approximately 1 kiloton-yield projectile to a range of 2,000 meters.
By the late 1960's, the limitations of the Davy Crockett were recognized, and it was withdrawn from the military arsenal.
WPTMUS_031006_79.JPG: This long sign on the right is interesting. It was labeled:
Chart of the relative importance of the weapons of land warfare on the battlefields of the world. "Weapons change but man who uses them changes not at all." General George S Patton Jr.
It shows a timeline of various weapons. Presuming I'm reading it correctly ... Back in 400 BC, it shows weapons including: sling, bow and arrow, javelin and throwing spear, spear, axe and club, sword, and dagger.
Around Christ's time, Macedonians adopt long infantry pikes and cavalry lances.
Around 100 AD, three changes: machines for throwing missiles (e.g. catapults) start coming around, the Roman short sword and javelin conquer the western world, and the javelin gives the Roman legion fire power.
Around 500 AD, the stirrup is invented. Around then, the horse archer dominates Asia.
Around 900 AD, the battle axe and mace can't penetrate armor.
Around 1100 AD, cavalry with the lance rules the European battlefield and the crossbow is perfected.
Around 1300 AD, gunpowder comes in. Also, the English long bow comes into play.
Around 1500 AD, the pike gradually disappears. The sword becomes the symbol of command.
Around 1700 AD, artillery starts to come into play. It is the age of the infantry musket.
Around 1900 AD, the internal combustion engine comes in.
In the 1900's, you have missiles, bombs, grenades, machine guns, rifle and submachine guns, pistols.
As the century progresses, you have nuclear weapons and chemical agents.
WPTMUS_031006_85.JPG: This painting depicts the charge up the hills south of Chattanooga
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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