Famous Military Figures Graves
Paul Revere. Revolutionary War Patriot, Silversmith. He is best remembered for alerting the Colonial militia of the approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on the night of April 18, 1775, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
Chris Kyle. Military Figure, Author. He is best remembered for his autobiographical book “American Sniper,” a New York Times bestseller that described his military career as a US Navy SEAL sniper.
William Stewart Simkins. It is believed the 16 year-old Pvt. Simkins fired the first shot of the Civil War. While serving under General J.E. Jackson, he heard the Federal gunboat “Star of the West” creep into the harbor at Fort Sumpter, SC in April 1861. He awakened his comrades and fired the first shot. Professor of Law at the University of Texas, 1899-1929. Author of many textbooks.
Oliver Hazard Perry. War of 1812 United States Naval Officer. He was the naval hero of the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, at the age of 13 he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman. In 1812 he was given the rank of Commodore and placed in command of the forces on Lake Erie after war broke out with England. No ships were in existence there, so he had to build a fleet, a very difficult as iron, cannon, anchors, ropes and supplies had to be carried a long distance to the site near Erie, Pennsylvania. Perry and his men successfully completed six vessels by July 1813, which were joined by others from Buffalo. On September 10, 1813 this American fleet fought a British squadron off the island of Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Perry was aboard his flagship “USS Lawrence”, however, this vessel took heavy British fire. Carrying his Battleflag emblazoned with the words, “Don’t give up the ship”, he abandoned the heavily damaged “Lawrence” and by small boat transferred to the nearby “USS Niagara” and sailed her into the British battle line. His cannon fire from the “Niagara” compelled a British surrender. Perry reboarded the heavily damaged “Lawrence” and received the British surrender on her deck and penned the famous words, “We have met the enemy and they are ours”. He was the first in history to defeat an entire British squadron and successfully bring back every ship to his base. In 1819 he was sent to Venezuela on a diplomatic mission during which he contacted yellow fever and died at sea near Trinidad on his 34th birthday. He was buried at Port of Spain, Trinidad with full military honors. In 1826, his remains were moved to Newport, Rhode for burial. Many sites and towns across America are named for the Admiral, however none as immense and stunning as the Perry National Monument in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, which commemorates his victory during the war of 1812. The 352 foot Doric column edifice with an observation deck is also the burial place for some of the men, both American and British who perished in the battle of Lake Erie. Six different United States Navy ships have been named for him, including the guided missile frigate “USS Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7)”, which was the lead ship in its class.
Thomas Paine. American Revolutionary War Patriot. He was born in Thetford, England the son of a corset maker. Adulthood found him with many trades, master of none. He met Benjamin Franklin, who convinced him to emigrate to America in 1774, where he became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine and anonymously published his pamphlet Common Sense; in language of the common man urging immediate separation from England. He joined the army in 1776 and wrote a series of 16 papers called the Crisis papers (which began with the famous phrase, “These are the times that try men’s souls”). They bolstered the morale of Washington’s army. He also took part in the movement that produced in Pennsylvania the era’s most democratic state constitution. 1787 found him back in Europe involving himself in the French Revolution defending the movement. Charged with treason by the government of his native England, he fled to France where he was made an honorary citizen and became a delegate to a convention which drafted the constitution of the French Republic. He promptly wrote another paper entitled “The Age of Reason”, which was interpreted in America as atheistic and immoral. Upon return to his farm in New Rochelle, New York (277 acres which was awarded to him in 1784 by the State of New York) he was ostracized from the community and abuse was heaped upon him. He retreated to Manhattan, where he died, childless, scorned and impoverished. His body was returned to his farm for burial with barely a handful of mourners in attendance. One was the coffin maker seeking payment. The odyssey and mystery of his missing remains began some ten years later. The grave was dug up by a William Cobbett with the intention of taking the remains to England for reburial thus saving it from daily abuse and vandalism. One theory claims it was lost on its journey. Another claims Cobbett kept the remains in an attic trunk and upon his death, his son began auctioning off the bones. People from around the world have come up with skeletal parts. A minister in England claims he has Paine’s skull and right hand, an English woman insists she has his jawbone. Others claim to have buttons constructed from the bones. The Thomas Paine Museum states it has the brain stem buried in a secret location on the property. One true fact: Paine artifacts are on display at either the museum or the adjacent Thomas Paine cottage, which was his residence from 1803 to 1806 located and maintained by the Huguenot and New Rochelle Historical Association, New Rochelle, New York.
James Otis. Revolutionary War Patriot. He coined the phrase “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” Quick witted and very eloquent in his attitude, he opposed the use of “writs of assistance”, a generalized search warrant that British customs officers used to search the homes and warehouses of colonial merchants looking for untaxed (i.e. smuggled) trade goods. These writs of assistance were extremely unpopular in the American colonies, and James Otis quickly drew an audience with his legal attacks on these acts. In 1764, while holding the crown office of Advocate General of Massachusetts, he was called upon to defend the writs of assistance in court, to which he promptly resigned his office (losing a very good salary) and took up the cause of defending several Boston merchants, whose warehouses and homes had been searched. In court, he made a five hour legal presentation, which went beyond the immediate legal question, and addressed the question of constitutional relationships between the colonies and the crown, questioning if Americans were bound to give obedience to laws that they had no share in making. John Adams, a lawyer and ardent patriot who was present in the courtroom, later wrote that on that day, “the child Independence was born.” In May 1761, James Otis was chosen representative in the Massachusetts general assembly, where he opposed spending money for items that the governor wanted, but that the Massachusetts citizens opposed. He defended the rights of the citizen in a pamphlet “The Rights of the Colonies Vindicated” (1764), in which he argued that the rights of the colonial legislature were as sacred as the rights of British Parliament. In 1765, he attacked the infamous Stamp Act, which generated many demands from the crown, declaring in a fiery speech “Let Great Britain rescind her measures, or the colonies are lost to her forever.” In the summer of 1769, while in a Boston coffee-house, he was attacked by a British commissioner of customs, aided by several British officers, and received a severe beating on the head (from a cane or a sword, depending upon the account), from which he never recovered.
Presley Neville O’Bannon. United States Marine Corps Officer. He most remembered for being the first man to plant the American Flag on a foreign soil, which was done on April 27, 1805 during the Barbary Wars. Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, he was named for his cousin, who had been an American officer in the Revolutionary War, served as the aide-de-camp to General Marquis de Lafayette and married to the daughter of General Daniel Morgan. In 1805, Tripoli (now Libya) and the Barbary Coast “pirates” had raided shipping in the Mediterranean Seas for years, exacting tribute in return for not attacking ships of a given nation, or seizing ships and sailors and selling them into slavery. Before American Independence, American ships had enjoyed the protection of the British Navy, but after independence, America was forced to pay tribute to avoid pirates (it was determined that it was less costly to pay the tribute then to respond with military action). In 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusat Karamanli, demanded additional tribute, and when refused, he declared war against the United States. The United States proposed to depose of Yusat, replacing him with his brother, Hamet. Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon, Marine officer assigned to the “USS Argus”, took seven marines and marched with Hamet and 500 of his men from Alexandria, Egypt to Derna, Tripoli, a distance of over 600 miles, arriving on April 25, 1805. When O’Bannon demanded Yusat to surrender, Yusat replied “My head or years.” O’Bannon led a daring frontal assault on the harbor fort, raising the American Flag over the fort after two hours of hard fighting. This was the first time the Stars and Stripes had been raised on foreign soil. The fall of the fort disenchanted Yusat’s soldiers and they fled Derna, only to return in a fierce counter-attack, which O’Bannon and his men successfully fought off. He continued to serve in the Marine Corps, being promoted to Captain, until March 6, 1807, when he resigned and moved to Kentucky, where he later served in the Kentucky State Legislature. Today, he is remembered by the words “to the shores of Tripoli” being a part of the Marine Corps Official Song, and his Mameluke sword, presented to him by Hamet, has become a standard for Marine Officers since 1825.
Sam Houston. Texas Republic Army General, Texas Republic President, Tennessee Governor, Texas Governor. He is best remembered as the General who defeated the Mexicans to win Texas independence. Born in Virginia in 1793, his family moved to Tennessee when he was 13 years old and lived in a frontier settlement, where Houston worked as a clerk in a trader’s store. When he was 15, he ran away from home and lived with the Cherokee Indians in eastern Tennessee, where the Indians adopted him and taught him much of their ways. After three years with the Indians, he returned home and opened up a country school. When war broke out between the settlers and the Creek Indians, he enlisted in Andrew Jackson’s Army, and was severely wounded in battle. In 1818, he left the Army to set up a law practice in Lebanon, Tennessee, where in 1823, he was elected to Congress. Four years later, he was elected as Governor of Tennessee. In 1829, his wife left him, and he resigned as Governor, to move to Texas intending to become a trader and merchant. When revolution broke out between the Texas settlers and the Mexican government under its military dictator, General Antonio de Santa Anna, he helped form a militia, and was quickly selected to head its Army. After a series of battles, he finally won the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836, captured General Santa Anna, and forced the Mexicans to give Texas their independence. In October 1836, he was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas, and served two terms, from 1836 to 1838, and from 1841 to 1844. In 1845, he worked to have Texas admitted to the United States, and from 1846 to 1859, he served as US Senator from Texas. Opposing any break from the Union, he ran for governor of Texas on an anti-secession platform and won, however, in 1861, the Texas congress voted to join South Carolina and the other southern states in leaving the Union, despite Governor Houston’s opposition. The Confederates then removed Houston as governor, and he retired to private life in Huntsville, Texas, where he died in 1863. The city of Houston, Texas, is named in his honor, as is an Army fort in San Antonio, Texas.
SGT Alvin York. World War I Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. Born in Pall Mall Tennessee, the third of 11 children, as a youth he became an expert marksman in the back woods around Pall Mall. In 1917 he received a draft notice to fight in the war, to which he wrote on the back of the notice ‘dont want to fight’ and sent it back to the local draft board. The board rejected his refusal to fight and he was sent off to basic training. After basic training he was assigned to the 82nd Division where they fought numerous battles and were then tasked with supporting the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On October 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin York and sixteen other soldiers under the command of Sergeant Bernard Early were dispatched before sunrise to take command of the Decauville railroad behind Hill 223 in the Chatel-Chehery sector of the Meuse-Argonne sector. The seventeen men, due to a misreading of their map (which was in French not English) mistakenly wound up behind enemy lines. A fire fight ensued and several of his comrades were hit including Sergeant Early. Alvin York then performed a feat of heroism that would earn him the Medal of Honor. His citation reads: After his platoon had suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading 7 men, he charged with great daring a machinegun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machinegun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns. After returning from the war York became a staunch pacifist. With war becoming more likely again in Europe, Alvin began pleading with people to avoid war at all costs. But when World War Two broke out, Alvin attempted to reenlist in the infantry but age prevented him from doing so. Instead, he signed up with the Signal Corps and traveled the country on bond tours, recruitment drives, and camp inspections. In 1941 a stirring movie of his life and times entitled “Sergeant York” starring Gary Cooper was released, which went on to win 2 Academy Awards. Alvin York died on September 2, 1964 and was buried with full military honors in the Wolf River cemetery. His funeral was attended by Governor Frank G. Clement and General Matthew Ridgway as President Lyndon B. Johnson’s official representative.
Barbara Rainey. Aviatrix. The US’s first woman Naval Aviator. A Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve, she became he first woman naval aviator. Born Barbara Allen at Bethesda, Maryland, the daughter of a career Naval Officer, she became an outstanding athlete at Long Beach City College, California, and later at Whittier College. In 1970, she enlisted in the United States Navy, and was immediately sent to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, where she was commissioned an Ensign in December 1970. Seeking a greater challenge, she applied for aviation training, and at her graduation from flight school at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas, on February 22, 1974, she became the first female aviator in United States Navy history. She married John C. Rainey, who she had met in flight school, and in November 1977, resigned her Regular Navy commission when she became pregnant with her first daughter. Remaining active in the Navy Reserve, and while pregnant with their second daughter, she qualified to fly the DC-6. When the Navy experienced a shortage of flight instructors in 1981, she accepted a recall to active duty as a flight instructor, and was stationed at Whiting Field Naval Air Station to Squadron VT-3. On July 13, 1982, she and a student, Ensign Donald Bruce Knowlton, were killed in the crash of a T-34C Turbo-Mentor trainer aircraft while practicing touch and go landings at Middleton Field, near Evergreen, Alabama. Neither flyer had time to bail out of the dual-seat aircraft and both were killed on impact.
William Dawes, Jr. Revolutionary War Figure. He grew up in Boston and became a tanner while he was active in the Boston Militia. On the night of April 18, 1775 it was his task, along with Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott, to warn the colonists that the British were going to launch an offensive on the countryside. On the way to Concord the three ran into a British road block. Splitting up and fleeing, Revere was captured and later released, Dawes was thrown from his horse and had to walk back to Lexington. Prescott rode on to Concord. The warnings of the trio allowed the local militias to garner their forces and achieve the first victory in the Revolutionary War. During the remainder of the war he served as a quartermaster in central Massachusetts.
Audie Murphy. World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. Arguably the most famous American field combat soldier to emerge from World War II, he served in Europe in the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant of Company B, 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division. He was awarded the CMOH for his bravery near Holtzwihr, France, on January 26, 1945. His Citation reads: “2nd Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2nd Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2nd Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2nd Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2nd Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2nd Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective”. His Medal was issued on August 9, 1945. His war-time efforts won him promotions up to Major, US Army. At the time of his discharge he was the most decorated American soldier of the War, garnering 27 different medals (5 each from France and Belgium). In addition to the Medal of Honor, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, The Legion of Merit, The Purple Heart, the Silver Star with First Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Star with First Oak Leaf Cluster, as well as numerous Campaign Medals. After the war he found a measure of stardom as a motion picture actor, and played himself in “To Hell and Back” in 1955, which detailed his exploits. He also starred in the critically acclaimed 1951 movie version of author Stephen Crane’s “Red Badge of Courage”. In all, he appeared in 47 films, most of them either Westerns or War movies. Despite his acclaim, his experiences in World War II haunted him for his life, and he was plagued by depression and insomnia, as well as financial troubles. His status as being the “Most Decorated Soldier” from World War II never brought him any happiness, and he often commented that so many others soldiers should have gotten medals, but never did, because they gave their lives in the War. He died in a plane crash in Virginia after completing his last film “A Time for Dying”. Buried with full military honors in a section near the Tomb of the Unknowns, his grave attracted so many visitors that a special walkway was built. When all the Medal of Honor recipients buried in Arlington had their headstones replaced with the now-standard Gold Leaf inlayed Medal of Honor marker, his family requested his be kept plain and inconspicuous, in accordance with his wishes. In the year 2000 the United States Postal Service honored him on a Postage Stamp.
MAJ Elwood Thomas “Woody” Driver. World War II Army Aviator. Renowned Tuskegee Airman and Federal Government official. Driver, a native of Trenton, New Jersey, earned his bachelors’ degree from the New Jersey State College in 1942. He later earned a masters’ degree in safety from New York University. Driver was comissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in October of 1942 and served as a combat pilot and flight leader with the 99th Fighter Squadron. He was officially credited with 1 combat victory over a German Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft on February 5, 1944. He also had one “probable” victory as well. By the end of the Second World War, Driver had completed 123 combat missions. After retiring from the Air Force following a 20-year career, Driver served for 5 years as the Chief, System Safety Engineering, for North American Aviation. He was then hired by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He was the NTSB’s Associate Administrator for Rule Making from 1967 to 1978. He then accepted a Presidential appointment, serving as the Vice Chairman of the NTSB from 1978 to 1981. His last government position was with NASA Headquarters as the Director of the Aircraft Management Office in Washington DC from 1986-1990. Driver is buried in a place of honor, in front of General Daniel J. “Chappie” James, Jr.
GEN Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. US Air Force General. He is best remembered as being the first African-American to reach the rank of 4-Star General in the US Armed Forces, as the Commander-in-Chief of North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) and Air Force Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM) at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The youngest of 17 children, his father was a laborer and his mother was a teacher who conducted a school for African-American youths in the backyard of their home. After graduating from Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida in 1937, he attended the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama where he received his nickname “Chappie” and graduated in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education. He was a rated command pilot and among his military decorations and award include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Presidential Unit Citation. He was widely known for his speeches on Americanism and patriotism, for which he was editorialized in numerous national and international publications and excerpts from some of the speeches have been read into the Congressional Record. He was awarded the George Washington Freedom Foundation Medal in 1967 and 1968 and received the Arnold Air Society Eugene M. Zuckert Award in 1970 for outstanding contributions to Air Force professionalism.
John Paul Jones. Revolutionary War Continental Navy Officer. The Revolutionary War was fought on sea as well as on land. The fledgling Continental Navy was even more ragtag then the Colonies counterpart the army. Although he was a Scott, not an American, John Paul Jones was the first naval hero. He first stalked British ships around the Colonies and then took the war direct to Britain with command of the sloop Ranger. He sailed to France and upon sailing into Quiberon Bay, France, Jones and Admiral La Motte Piquet exchanged gun salutes…the first time the flag of the new nation was recognized by a foreign government. He proceeded to terrorize the coastal population of Scotland and England by making daring raids ashore and destroying many British vessels. He was born at Arbigland Estate located in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland to a father who was the caretaker. He was the fourth child of John Paul and Jean MacDuff whose family numbered seven children. At age 13, he was apprenticed to a sea merchant and placed aboard the brig Friendship to learn the art of seamanship. At 21, he received his first command, the brig John. After several successful years as a merchant skipper in the West Indies, John Paul emigrated to the Colonies. He added “Jones” to his name. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, he cast his lot with the colonist receiving a commission in the Continental Navy, given command of the sloop USS Providence which he used to destroy the British fisheries in Nova Scotia while capturing 16 British ships. He is forever remembered in American Naval lore as Captain of the Bon Homme Richard a derelict ship given to him by the French King which he refitted. During a raiding party along the English coast, Captain Jones encountered a much larger British ship, the Serapis. The battle fought by moonlight lasted more than three hours. The Bon Homme Richard appeared to the British commander to be finished. He called out to Jones, “Are you ready to surrender?” The answer, now known to every school child in America, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Still the battle continued until the British ship hoisted the surrender flag. The Bon Homme Richard so badly damaged, that Jones had to transfer his men to the Serapis. As they watched, the Bon Homme Richard sank beneath the waves. Jones returned to America and Congress passed a vote of thanks to him. He was to be given command of the America which was still under construction and destined to be the largest ship in the American navy but this was denied him. He spent the remaining years of the war advising on the establishment of the navy and the training of naval officers. The Revolutionary War won, Thomas Jefferson advised Jones to accept an offer from Empress Catherine II of Russia to serve in the Russian Navy. He took part in one naval campaign against the Turks. Russian naval officers plotted against him hindering his efforts until his recall to St. Petersburg where Jones was relegated to service with no duties. Naval officers continued to plot against him fearing the foreigner as a rival. Frustrated, he resigned after a year of service. In ill health, Jones settled in Paris residing in a room at 52 Rue de Tournon. A grateful America appointed him U.S. Consul to Algiers but pneumonia took his life at age forty five before the commission arrived. His body was placed in a lead coffin filled with preservatives and buried in the Protestant Cemetery near the Hospital St. Louis which overtime became forgotten, recycled and used by squatters who constructed shacks over the property. John Paul Jones remains were lost. Legacy…Two Naval vessels have been named for John Paul Jones. The first was commissioned in 1954, decommissioned and sunk as a target ship. Its replacement, USS John Paul Jones, a Aegis Class destroyer plies the seas of the Middle East rigged with Tomahawk missiles and is a formidable force for the Navy. He shares a three-cent commemorative stamp with fellow Continental naval officer John Berry which was issued in 1936. The modest John Paul Jones birth cottage in Scotland is preserved and is maintained as a museum. It was roofless and a ruin but through efforts of the US Navy, it became a museum in 1993. Today…The small two room cottage is owned by a Trust which operates the facility located on the grounds of Arbigland Estate. It houses a collection of objects, pictures and documents relevant to the life of John Paul Jones. A nearby building houses many historic displays and features a gift shop. A century after his death, President Teddy Roosevelt launched an intensive search to find his body. In 1905, it was rediscovered and amid great ceremony brought back to America aboard the USS Brooklyn accompanied by three other cruisers. Seven battleships met them off the American coast and as a single column sailed into Chesapeake Bay. The escorting battleships fired a 15 gun salute as the Brooklyn sailed on to Annapolis. The coffin rest on trestles in Bancroft Hall at the Naval Academy for seven years before finally being interred in a magnificent marble sarcophagus below the chapel, modeled after the tomb of Napoleon. A naval midshipman stands at attention beside the sarcophagus on days when the tomb is opened to the public.
Israel Putnam. Revolutionary War Continental Major General. He was not a great military leader nor a great leader of the people but was the epitome of spirit, courage and sacrifice shown by average men who helped America succeed in Colonial times and gain its independence. Many of his exploits are mythical and barely believable. He was born on his father’s farm in an area which today is Danvers, Massachusetts, the tenth of eleven children. The little education he received was from a little local country school. Married at twenty and was soon a large land owner in the area between the villages of Pomfret and Brooklyn in Connecticut which became known as the ‘Putnam Farm.’ Industrious Israel Putnam soon had a farm bristling with fruit trees with herds of sheep and goats. During the French and Indian War, Putnam offered his services and was given the rank of captain becoming a member of a Ranger band where he served as a scout with great distinction. Returning to his Connecticut farm and while plowing, a messenger came with the news of the British attack. Putnam left his plow, rushing off to join the Americans in the fight for Independence. During ensuring battles, he was a hero at Bunker Hill. However; Washington blamed him for losses when in command on Long Island for responding too late to orders. In a subsequent battle, he suffered a stroke and his military life was over. He spent the last years of his life on his farm in Connecticut dying some eleven years later of acute inflammatory disease. After a religious funeral mingled with military honors and a eulogy delivered by a personal friend, he was interred in the Brooklyn cemetery. The tomb was three feet high, constructed of brick and across the top a marble slab with a lengthy epitaph by Rev Timothy Dwight who became the President of Yale. In 1888, General Putnam’s remains were removed and reburied under a new bronze equestrian statue in Brooklyn, Connecticut. The original epitaph was emblazoned upon the new monument. The original grave stone is under glass and can be seen in the north alcove of the Connecticut State Capital in Hartford. Epilogue: Some of the stories told about Israel. These are but a few excerpts from my primary New England school reader- Upon his first visit to Boston, he thrashed a lad bigger and older than himself for sneering at the rustic style of his homespun garments; His father sent him to drive home a young bull recently purchased. The bull resisted and Putnam put on a pair of spurs, jumped out from behind a tree, jumped upon its back and rode the animal home. Then we have the sheep and goat story – A wolf was wantonly destroying the animals of farmers in the region. Putnam tracked the wolf to a rocky cave. Many ways were attempted to dislodge the predator. Then Israel crawled into the cave, tethered to a rope, his only light was a birch-bark torch. The wolf glared at him out of the darkness and growled menacelly. He was drawn out hurriedly severely cut and bruised. Loading his musket, he went in again and shot the wolf. After being drawn out, he went in a third time and emerged dragging the creature by the ears-And a final: During the French and Indian War, Putnam was captured by a band of Indians, bound to a tree with twigs and branches place about him. The red men danced around and began to yell and scream while setting fire to the brushwood. Amazingly, a French officer rushed in, cut the ropes saving him from a fiery death.
Cornelia Clark Fort. Aviation Pioneer. Cornelia Fort was the daughter of a prominent East Nashville doctor. Her father made her brothers swear that they would never fly, but he overlooked Cornelia. She first soloed on April 27, 1940, and received her pilot’s license on June 19, 1940 and her instructors rating March 10, 1941. Cornelia was Nashville’s first woman flight instructor. Cornelia was giving a flying lesson over Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941 and witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. She was the second woman to join the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). She was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty while serving in the WASP unit. Cornelia was killed while ferrying a BT-13A when it collided with another plane over Texas. Cornelia Fort Airport in Nashville was named in her honor in 1945