LAVERMIL-L Archives

Archiver > LAVERMIL > 2006-01 > 1138104987


From: "Eula" <>
Subject: Fw: Jackson Barracks
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 06:16:27 -0600


----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: Jackson Barracks


Jackson Barracks valuables damaged

Military post works to save collections

By SONYA KIMBRELL
Advocate staff writer
Published: Jan 23, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - From the outside, the buildings on the grounds of Jackson
Barracks look relatively unscathed even if empty of life. The interior of
the former Louisiana National Guard headquarters tells a different story.

Nestled along the Orleans-St. Bernard Parish line adjacent to the lower 9th
Ward, the Barracks were under 10 feet of water for days after Hurricane
Katrina.

Officials have estimated there was $40 million in damage to Jackson
Barracks. The headquarters have been moved to Camp Beauregard in Alexandria.

The grounds have been cleaned, but many of the buildings and residences
still are filled with destroyed, moldy furniture and equipment.

"Some of the residents have come back to clean out their houses, to see
what they can save," Sgt. Nick Stahl said.

One building is functioning on the barracks grounds, said Sgt. Carlos
Sanchez, and that's where those still assigned to Jackson
Barracks work.

"Right now about the only thing we're doing is tours," Sanchez said.

It could be five years before Jackson Barracks is fully operational,
Sanchez said. Right now, the focus is on clean-up and assessment of damage.

While the work on resurrecting Jackson Barracks as a military operations
center may be moving slowly, the work on saving its historical value has
already begun.

Jackson Barracks housed the Jackson Barracks Military Museum, which held an
extensive collection of military artifacts, weapons and memorabilia from
every U.S. war. The Jackson Barracks Library held letters and documentation
of the military history of the Civil War.

The barracks grounds include 100 acres that are one block wide at the
Mississippi River, but stretch 25 blocks toward the lake.
The oldest structures on the grounds were built in the 1830s. President
Andrew Jackson signed a bill in 1832 for the construction of a post in New
Orleans to house U.S. troops. The barracks served as the main supply and
troops center for nearby forts that guarded New Orleans against a naval
invasion.

Originally called New Orleans Barracks or U.S. Barracks, the barracks were
renamed in 1866 to honor Jackson.

Jackson Barracks was the embarkation post during the Mexican War, the
Spanish-American War and World War II. When Louisiana seceded the Union in
1861, the Louisiana militia took over Jackson Barracks and controlled it
until April 1862, when Admiral David Farragut took New Orleans back for the
Union. The barracks was a garrison for Union troops for the remainder of
the Civil War and into the Reconstruction period.

In the 20th century, the role of Jackson Barracks continued to evolve and
it was often used a training center. In the 1930s, there was extensive
renovation of the original barracks undertaken by the Works Progress
Administration and for a period the barracks was the site of the Selective
Service Conference.

It became the headquarters of the Louisiana National Guard after World War
II.

Stan Amerski, military museum curator, is busy every day with the
painstaking process of salvaging what can be saved of the museum's
collections.

"Some things will have to be let go," he said.

Amerski said estimates to restore the collections could easily top $1
million. Whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency
or the state will foot the bill isn't clear yet, he said.

"And that's not including the fate of the site itself. We don't know yet
what will be done with the buildings other than the powder magazine because
it's on the National Historic Register. It won't be torn down," he said.

Already there have been donations of money and time from individuals and
from other guard units, he said, such as the Illinois National Guard and
the 122nd Air Restoration.

Many artifacts survived, including cannons, machine guns and antique
aircraft, flags, weapons and uniforms.

A 28-star national flag and Gen. G.T. Beauregard's saddle have already
undergone some restoration.
Pointing to the saddle in the darkened magazine, Amerski described its
condition after days underwater and in an uncontrolled climate.

"It had developed a furry patina from mold," he said.

In restoring such an object, he said, the goal is not to take it to its
original state.

"You can make anything look like it just came off the shelf, but what good
is that?" he said.

The goal is to take the object back to the condition it was before it was
damaged.
Restoring damaged military uniforms requires a similar process, he said.

First, he said, they sort like items. Some were damaged from the acid-free
paper in which they were stored.

As with all the objects, he said, prioritizing the work is ongoing.

"Uniforms from the Spanish-American War and World War I aren't exactly
falling out of trees," he said.
With many of the items, restoration will be a three- to four-year process.
But it's not just that items themselves have been damaged or lost.

"We've lost the provenance of the objects. We have to try to piece together
how the items came to us. It's an archaeological puzzle," Amerski said.


- ------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .

______________________________
--------------------------------------------
My mailbox is spam-free with ChoiceMail, the leader in personal and corporate anti-spam solutions. Download your free copy of ChoiceMail from www.digiportal.com

This thread: