Touching America’s History This page intentionally left blank Touching America’s History ✯ ✯ ✯ From the Pequot War through World War II Meredith Mason Brown Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404–3797 USA iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 © 2013 by Meredith Mason Brown All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Meredith Mason, [date]- Touching America’s history : from the Pequot War through World War II / Meredith Mason Brown. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-00833-6 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00844-2 (eb) 1. United States— Antiquities. 2. United States—History. 3. Material culture—United States. I. Title. E159.5.B76 2013 973--dc23 2012033294 1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13 To my family—including several forebears whom, as I met them working on this book, I came to know, like, and esteem This page intentionally left blank contents List of Illustrations and Maps, ix Acknowledgments, xi Prologue: History through Things You Can Touch, 1 1. Axe Head, Adze Head: The Pequot War, 5 2. A Compass, a Rifle, and the Opening of the West, 20 3. Yr Most Obt Servt, G. Washington: The Constitutional Convention, 44 4. Daguerreotype and Sword: Seminole and Mexican Wars, 54 5. Shavings from a Scaffold: The Hanging of John Brown, 80 6. Diaries from Indian Country, Civil War Back Home, 96 7. Travels of an English Pistol, 125 8. A Killing in the Philippines, 150 9. An Award from General Pershing, 177 10. The Czar of Halfaday Creek and Hitler’s Toilet Bowl, 196 Afterword: The Shaping of America, 225 Notes, 229 Bibliography, 253 Index, 263 This page intentionally left blank illustr ations and maps Fig. 1.1 Stone axe and adze head, 6 Fig. 1.2 Colonists’ attack on the Pequot village, 12 Fig. 2.1a and b Hand compass of William Preston, 21 Fig. 2.2 Rifle owned by John Floyd, 22 Fig. 2.3 Other eighteenth-century surveying instruments, 31 Fig. 3.1 “Washington at the Constitutional Convention.” Painting by Junius Brutus Stearns, 45 Fig. 4.1 Daguerreotype of Colonel Richard B. Screven (1808–1853), 55 Fig. 4.2 Sword and scabbard of Colonel Richard B. Screven, 56 Fig. 4.3 “Osceola, the Black Drink, a Warrior of Great Distinction.” Portrait by George Catlin, 1838, 65 Fig. 5.1 Shavings from the scaffold on which John Brown was hanged, 81 Fig. 5.2 Execution of John Brown, 95 Fig. 6.1 Opening page of the 1862 diary of John Mason Brown, 97 Fig. 6.2 Catlinite (pipestone) pipes that belonged to John Mason Brown, 105 Fig. 6.3 Last page from the 1862 diary of John Mason Brown, 117 Fig. 6.4 Major John Mason Brown, 10th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, 120 Fig. 7.1 Deane Adams and the Deane 5 shot .44/.450 caliber double- action percussion revolver, 126 Fig. 7.2 “General William Preston.” Portrait by H. Niemeier, 147 Fig. 8.1 Preston Brown as a lieutenant, 157 Fig. 8.2 William Howard Taft on a water buffalo, 167 Fig. 9.1 General Preston Brown, 178 Fig. 10.1 Spine and cover of The Czar of Halfaday Creek, 197 Fig. 10.2 General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 201 Fig. 10.3 “Freight Yard on the Sand,” 213 Fig. 10.4 The Berghof (Hitler’s mountain retreat) after the Allied bombing on April 25, 1945, 223 Fig. 10.5 Piece of Hitler’s toilet bowl, taken from the Berghof in May, 1945, 224