Historical interest stops on my vacation

[Randy Harris]

Just got back from my vacation to Fort Walton Florida. We took a day and went over to Pensacola to see some historical sites and get some pics while the monuments are still there....

On the way down we stopped in Montgomery and went to the first Confederate White House....

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This was the seat of Confederate Government until early summer of 1861.



In Pensacola we went to the Confederate Memorial in Lee Park.....


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A closer look.....

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This is the monument the mayor of Pensacola wants taken down.....

[Randy Harris]

And this pic is me at the marker that memorializes the capture of John Wesley Hardin by Texas Rangers and deputies of the Escambia County Sheriff's office .....

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I had looked all over Pensacola for where this happened when I was there in 2000 but I could not find anyone who knew where it happened......apparently in 2014 they put up a marker. Cool piece of history.....

[Papa]

The Texas version of this has Hardin, unable to clear his gun and seeing Armstrong with a 7 1/2 inch Colt SAA, exclaiming: "Texas, by God!"

A vicious old criminal turned peace officer named John "Uncle John" Selman shot Hardin in the back of the head in the Acme Saloon in El Paso. He was acquitted. If you run the facts as presented through the SI flowchart, you can see why.

[Randy Harris]

And this is a tiny part of the Revolutionary War era Fort George that protected Pensacola (the Capital of West Florida) .

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And from inside looking out....

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And the monument down the hill to the Spaniards who took the fort in the Battle of Pensacola from March to May of 1781.

[Randy Harris]

The Texas version of this has Hardin, unable to clear his gun and seeing Armstrong with a 7 1/2 inch Colt SA, exclaiming: "Texas, by God!"

A vicious old criminal turned peace officer named John "Uncle John" Selman shot Hardin in the back of the head in the Acme Saloon in El Paso. He was acquitted. If you run the facts as presented through the SI flowchart, you can see why.

And Selman would get what was coming to him when George Scarborough killed him in a "gunfight" 8 months later behind the Wigwam Saloon. Selman may or may not have been armed as no gun was found on him after the shooting....however a thief was arrested later who said they had stolen the gun in the aftermath ( we have talked about this!). Sometimes evidence walks off......(and sometimes it was never there to begin with...you be the judge). I just have a hard time seeing Selman going about unarmed.

Some folks said that the case against Selman for killing Hardin had been passed to a "higher court".....:wink:

[Papa]

Or not knowing his gun had been lifted. Should have carried appendix.

Or fought sober.

Great pix.

[Ted Demosthenes]

Great post and pics. Did you visit the Naval Aviation Museum? If not, put it in your next trip south. Huge collection of historic martial memorabilia from airplanes to weapons to a (full-service, pilot-tested and approved) Navy club bar from NAS Cubi Pt., Filipines.

[barnetmill]

Some of those sites may be new and I not recall some of them. I live in that area and need to look at them. I have not been paying much attention to all local news and may have missed something about the Lee memorial. I suspect it will come down some day and the city might erect a memorial to somebody that lynched in the sq. The city now days is more liberal than the county of Escambia. Nearby Mobile, AL is even more liberal.
The local bases have some things worth seeing, but they normally do not allow guns on the bases, or at least last time I heard.
NAS PCOLA has a huge air museum and there are other things elsewhere to see. Geronimo was kept for a while at fort pickens that is worth seeing.

[Randy Harris]

We also went to Ft Pickens....

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[Mike OTDP]

Great post and pics. Did you visit the Naval Aviation Museum? If not, put it in your next trip south. Huge collection of historic martial memorabilia from airplanes to weapons to a (full-service, pilot-tested and approved) Navy club bar from NAS Cubi Pt., Filipines.
+1. The ordnance museum at Eglin AFB is also worth visiting, but the Naval Aviation Museum is a Tier 1 facility.

[Randy Harris]

Great post and pics. Did you visit the Naval Aviation Museum? If not, put it in your next trip south. Huge collection of historic martial memorabilia from airplanes to weapons to a (full-service, pilot-tested and approved) Navy club bar from NAS Cubi Pt., Filipines.

Thanks. No we did not make it to that. Maybe next time. By the time we hit the places we hit and then walked around Fort Pickens in 100 degree weather we had a pretty full day.

[Gabriel Suarez]

Enjoy the history. History is what gives a nation its culture and identity. And history is the first thing attacked by those wanting to destroy a nation.

That modern communists want to remove these sites is a sign that we will have a hot war against communism in tjis country at some point.

[Forklift]

It's funny, I have a lot of those same pictures! We have some friends that live in Pensacola, and we visit them fairly regularly, being from Kansas City, the sun and surf is all the excuse I need!

[Ted Demosthenes]

Enjoy the history. History is what gives a nation its culture and identity. And history is the first thing attacked by those wanting to destroy a nation.

That modern communists want to remove these sites is a sign that we will have a hot war against communism in tjis country at some point.

The attack is intensifying; the denying, deleting, rewriting, and removal of history is daily pablum from the virtue-signaling useful idiots of propaganda press.

[Randy Harris]

Enjoy the history. History is what gives a nation its culture and identity. And history is the first thing attacked by those wanting to destroy a nation.

That modern communists want to remove these sites is a sign that we will have a hot war against communism in tjis country at some point.

The removal of historical monuments here is no different than what ISIS did destroying historical sites in the middle east.

[Vlad the Impaler]

We also went to Ft Pickens....

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There is a lake in Bay County named Court Martial Lake. Right near there is where Jackson hung Arbuthnot and Ambrister.

[barnetmill]

There is a lake in Bay County named Court Martial Lake. Right near there is where Jackson hung Arbuthnot and Ambrister.
I was not aware of the history. Sounds like something that Jackson would do.


The Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident occurred in 1818 during the First Seminole War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Seminole_War). American General Andrew Jackson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson) invaded Spanish Florida (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Florida) and captured and executed Alexander George Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister, two British subjects charged with aiding Seminole (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole) and Creek Indians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_Indians) against the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States). Arbuthnot and Ambrister were tried and executed in modern Bay County, Florida (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_County,_Florida), near what continues to be called Court Martial Lake. Jackson's actions triggered short-lived protests from the British and Spanish governments and an investigation by the United States Congress (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress). Congressional reports found fault with Jackson's handling of the trial and execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, but Congress chose not to censure the popular general.
Robert Chrystie Ambrister (1797–1818) was a British subject and a native of Nassau in the Bahamas. Ambrister was the youngest son of Bahamian native James Jacob Ambrister [1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-1) (1762-1834), who was then a lieutenant colonel in the colonial militia of the Bahamas. Son Robert had served in the Royal Navy as a volunteer and as a midshipman between 1809 and 1813, when he returned to the Bahamas. During 1814-1815, he served in Spanish Florida as an auxiliary 2nd lieutenant of the British Corps of Colonial Marines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps_of_Colonial_Marines), commanded by Brevet Major Edward Nicolls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Nicolls) of the Royal Marines.[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-2)[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-3) Discharged from the military in Nassau in 1815,[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-4)[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-5) the former Marine lieutenant returned to Spanish Florida in 1817 with his fellow former Marine, Brevet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet_(military)) Captain George Woodbine (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Woodbine&action=edit&redlink=1), and the Scottish soldier of fortune Gregor MacGregor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor).[6] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-6)
Alexander (George) Arbuthnot (born in Montrose, Scotland, in 1748) was an older man, a Scottish merchant, translator, and diplomatic go-between, on occasion, who had been present in Florida since 1803.[7] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-7) Jackson's execution of Arbuthnot, Ambrister, and at least two prominent Creek-Seminole leaders (Josiah Francis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Francis_(Hillis_Hadjo)) and Hoemotchernucho) was perceived, both in Great Britain and elsewhere, as an act of barbarity violating the conventions of warfare.[8] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident#cite_note-8)

[Vlad the Impaler]

I went there several years ago. It was a pain in the ass to find because the locals didn't know very much. Had to call up the local historical society and they were able to give pretty good directions.

[barnetmill]

I went there several years ago. It was a pain in the ass to find because the locals didn't know very much. Had to call up the local historical society and they were able to give pretty good directions.
Probably close to 99% of the white residents do not have ancestry dating back to the early 19th century. Obviously some native americans do and maybe more of the blacks than whites have ancestors dating to that time. I have only met one person that did. One of his ancestors fought in those Seminole wars and received a substantial amount of land for his service. It was only with coming of the railroads and later of the military that most people showed up for.

[barnetmill]

This fellow is the go to local expert on pensacola history: John H. Appleyard (b. 1922 (http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/1922)) is an advertising executive, author and civic leader who founded the Appleyard Agency (http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Appleyard_Agency) in 1959 (http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/1959) and whose prolific writings focus on Pensacola's history.