Garden Horrors II: Birdbath of Blood

You may recall the time, just a couple months ago, when our pleasant, inoffensive patio garden became the Garden of Horrors and the IC had to rebuild our flowerbed to eliminate some sort of fulminating evil from underneath our azaleas.

I assumed, perhaps naively, that our lives would return to normal and there would be no further need of flowerbed exorcisms. Look at our totally boring patio. What could possibly happen here?

But wait...what's that, down by the doormat?

It...looks like a spatter of blood. Is that more on the table?

Hmm.

I noticed the blood, or whatever it is, this morning when I took the dogs outside. I reflected as we wandered around the neighborhood: what could have happened? Of course, there are plenty of outdoor cats, and one of them might have cornered and dispatched some unfortunate creature on the patio. I was happy enough with that explanation. The dogs and I returned home and I fixed myself some coffee.

I reflected on the nature of the deposits of mystery fluid. Were those drops of blood? Or was it really a spatter, as if drops were thrown from a particular direction? I went back outside.

Drops, certainly.

So, drops on the ground, a smear on the table. Not very much of it. I examined the bottom of our neighbors' balcony - the substance didn't appear to have dripped from there. There wasn't a trail of red fluid - just drops next to the table and the smear on the table. Could some tiny wild critter be injured on the patio? Hiding out there somewhere? I looked around.

I looked behind the shelves, under the shelves, in the bucket, in the unused flowerpots...and then I saw it...

In the birdbath.

Birdbath of blood.

4th of July and "Public Enemies": Fewer Fireworks than Expected

For about ten years, the 4th of July has been one of the most dreaded days of the year for me. Probably many sensitive pet owners feel the same way - all the fireworks terrify my pets, and there is little I can do to help them. The numbers of lost pets spike during the weeks surrounding the holiday, as terrified animals escape from their enclosures and try to get away from the noise. A search on Google news resulted in a familiar series of news stories detailing tips to prevent your pet from running away or doing himself (or herself) injury. Mostly the tips suggest locking them in a room where they can't hear the fireworks, which is often impossible.

I don't go to see fireworks, because that requires me to leave my trembling, inconsolably frightened dogs at home by themselves, which pretty much ruins the fun. Instead I stay home and wish it would just get over with, already, while Greta and Afreet remain velcroed to my person at all times.

Happily, this year, it was pretty mellow. On Friday, we went to a lovely cookout with friends, and there were no early fireworks! Annapolis has a big fireworks show over the bay on the 4th, but there were no neighborhood fireworks, and very little noise to speak of. The IC and I went to an early showing of "Public Enemies", and came home to two peacefully sleeping dogs who remained blissfully untraumatized by the few, faint booms that drifted our way from City Dock.


Now on to the rebels and outlaws. Like most other movies about Depression-era gangsters, Public Enemies posits that its central characters were almost unbearably romantic and dreamy. This film didn't totally ignore the wanton, stupid violence and waste of it all, but it diverted attention from it by focusing on the glamour and excitement (mostly excitement). John Dillinger looked like Johnny Depp and was really sort of a sweet guy, only a little shortsighted. The Feds were really ruthless and cruel people bent on destroying these fun-loving kids.


Don't get me wrong - I dig these stories, too. I also like pirates. I like iconoclasts and rebels and outlaws and highwaymen. I mostly liked the movie, especially the shootout at Little Bohemia, which was just amazing. I found myself wondering how Melvin Purvis could ever get excited about anything, ever again, after something like that. Epic.

Warning: Rambling Digression: Something I always think about when I watch gangster/bank robber/pirate/criminal movies is how there's a notion at the heart of criminality that somehow it's easier than getting a legitimate job. Or maybe that the payback is greater, even considering the higher risk. But Dillinger and gang (and the mob, and other gangsters) end up working just as hard as, if not harder than, us regular joes.

They have to obtain highly specialized equipment, find people to supply and repair their guns and cars and bombs, maintain multiple boltholes and safehouses, network, groom potential aiders and abetters, keep good relations with others in the criminal underworld, shop for presents for their girlfriends, plan and execute complicated bank heists, prison breaks, train robberies, and deal with the unchecked violence of their coworkers, all while on the lam from Johnny Law. It seems very stressful.

Anyway, back to the actual movie, it was slick and pretty and certain parts were terrific. But. For a movie about: John Dillinger!

Baby Face Nelson! Pretty Boy Floyd! Bank Heists! the Capone gang! the FBI task force sent to dispatch them! in Chicago! with Fast Cars! Tommy Guns!


Shootouts! Prison Breaks! Danger! J. Edgar Hoover! Public Enemy Number 1!


with Johnny Depp! and Christian Bale! It was kind of...low key. Not in an "artfully understated" way, but more of a "meh" way.

Speaking of Pig Point

We actually were speaking of Pig Point on the Patuxent - it's where the Chesapeake Flotilla was scuttled. Anyway, apparently it's also one of the most amazing Native American sites in Maryland. I've cut-and-pasted the article below, but go here for the article "in situ" at the Balmer Sun. They have pictures.

Digging for evidence of Maryland's Indian heritage
Patuxent River site could be among state's most important

By Frank Roylance

Baltimore Sun reporter

July 2, 2009
Quantcast

Anne Arundel County archaeologists have uncovered an Algonquian Indian camp on a bluff above a lush bend in the Patuxent River, a find that includes the oldest human structure ever detected in Maryland.

Artifacts show that the campsite - in a location favored by native people for hundreds of years for its bounty of fish, shellfish and game - was in use two centuries and more before Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe.

The dig has uncovered traces of oval Algonquian wigwams; rare tools of stone, bone and antler; fragments of a highly decorated pot; an intact paint pot; and a broken gorget, a dark stone polished and drilled for use as personal decoration.

"It is clearly the most important prehistoric site in the county, and if it keeps going like this we'll be in the running for the most important prehistoric site in the state," said county archaeologist Al Luckenbach.

Carbon 14 dating on charcoal from a hearth found outside the outline of the wigwam suggests that the site was occupied between 1290 and 1300, making it the oldest dwelling ever discovered in the state, Luckenbach said. Outlines of other dwellings at the site might be older.

Dennis Curry, an archaeologist with the Maryland Historical Trust, calls the Pig Point site "spectacular."

"Finding what certainly look like house patterns up there is astonishing," he said.

Unusual sandy soil at Pig Point has preserved tools that usually would be lost after centuries in the ground, including an arrowhead carved from deer antler, deer-bone needles and awls. There are plant remains, including carbonized nuts and seeds that provide a rare look at the broad spectrum of the Native American diet of the period.

Luckenbach was enthusiastic about the elaborate geometric designs found on fragments of a football-size ceramic pot he's been reassembling.

Prehistoric sites in Maryland more typically turn up pottery shards with simple decoration, much of it made by pressing twisted cords into the soft clay.

With this pot, though, the archaeologists sense that they have turned up the 700-year-old work of an artist. The complex pattern of triangles and intersecting lines pressed into the clay while it was soft extend from the pot's rim to its base.

"This is beyond decoration; this is art," Luckenbach said. "Nobody's seen anything like it. All of us were blown away. ... The pottery gives us a rare glimpse of what they were capable of."

Curry called the decoration unique. He said the fancy pot, along with an intact paint pot and the wealth of other rare tools and artifacts, and their abundance at the site, suggest that Pig Point might have been a distribution point for trade among far-flung Indian groups.

"There's something going on at this site that's a little more than a little habitation site," he said. "I've not had a site pique my interest this quickly in quite a while."

The county's archaeologists were alerted to the Pig Point site last year while Luckenbach and his crews were digging on the site of a 17th-century house at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater. A contractor doing unrelated work on the property showed an interest in the archaeology and mentioned that he had found Indian artifacts for years on his property at Bristol Landing.

The contractor, who asked not to be named or quoted directly, said he'd found many arrowheads and much broken pottery. He knew it should be excavated by professionals and finally persuaded Luckenbach to take a look.

After initial shovel tests last year, Luckenbach returned with his crew and student interns in April, and they've been digging there weekly ever since.

The dig is co-funded by the Anne Arundel Trust for Preservation and the Maryland Historical Trust.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold said Luckenbach and his staff "are to be commended for the enthusiasm they bring to their job ... and the educational opportunities they provide for young people."

Leopold, who recalled finding arrowheads and Indian pottery in New Mexico as a teenager, visited Pig Point recently for a closer look.

"I just find it exciting to find tangible evidence of former cultures and learn how they lived, and to learn from those cultures," he said.

So far, the dig has focused on two areas of the front yard of a rental home on the property. As they stripped away the topsoil at the first location, the team of diggers began to notice a line of "post molds," dark stains in the subsoil where wooden posts had been inserted and later decayed. The stains soon began to trace out an oval, 20 feet long by 15 feet wide.

The Algonquians, Luckenbach said, built their dwellings by cutting saplings, jamming them into the ground in an oval pattern, and then bending the tops together to form the skeleton of a lodge. They would be strapped together and covered with matting to keep out the weather, making a home for 10 to 12 people.

Archaeologists have found traces of other Native American dwellings in Maryland. One in Cumberland was dated to around 1500. Two in Montgomery County were dated to the late 1300s, Luckenbach said.

But the carbon 14 dating on charcoal from the Pig Point site placed it a century earlier.

Other oval patterns in the pit are even deeper, suggesting occupations over several centuries. Some Middle Woodland pottery fragments found there date to between 200 and 900, Luckenbach said. And a few serrated arrowheads date to the Archaic period, perhaps 8,000 years ago, indicating that people have been attracted to the spot for thousands of years.

And why not? Food remains found in a second excavation at the site confirm that Pig Point provided its residents a bountiful sustenance.

The bluff stands about 50 feet above a lazy bend in the Patuxent River. The surrounding wetlands would have provided tuckahoe, a wetland plant whose roots, after hours of cooking, could be dried and ground to make bread or soup.

Among the food waste that archaeologists and their summer interns found are the bones of fish, turtles and deer; the shells of freshwater clams; and traces of hickory nuts, grape seeds, acorns and corn.

Luckenbach said the work at Pig Point will continue. "Until we stop finding buildings, and ceramic pots from Mars, we're not going to stop," he said.

Curry said the importance of the site would argue for its preservation beyond this season's dig. Future expansion of the excavations and improved technology might someday extract more knowledge from the site than is now possible, he said.

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun

Obviously, the state of Maryland is responding to my call to step up our archaeological game. Let's check in with Bill Kelso and see if he's throwing down his trowel in frustration.


Hmm. It appears we still have work to do.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Have you heard of this? It is seriously fun!

My personal favorites from the 2009 winners:

She walked into my office on legs as long as one of those long-legged birds that you see in Florida - the pink ones, not the white ones - except that she was standing on both of them, not just one of them, like those birds, the pink ones, and she wasn't wearing pink, but I knew right away that she was trouble, which those birds usually aren't.

and

As she slowly drove up the long, winding driveway, Lady Alicia peeked out the window of her shiny blue Mercedes and spied Rodrigo the new gardener standing on a grassy mound with his long black hair flowing in the wind, his brown eyes piercing into her very soul, and his white shirt open to the waist, revealing his beautifully rippling muscular chest, and she thought to herself, "I must tell that lazy idiot to trim the hedges by the gate."

and

On a lovely day during one of the finest Indian summers anyone could remember--a season the Germans call "old wives' summer," obviously never having had Native Americans to name things after, but plenty of old wives, and "Indian summer" in German would refer to the natives of India in any case, which would make even less sense than the current naming system--on such a day, however named, John Baxter fell in the creek and drowned.

Animal News - Tulsa Edition

Baby raccoons rescued from vending machine by Skunk Whisperer. Click here!

The Chesapeake Flotilla Project

Be sure to check out the first post in this series, below, which explains all about the history of the Chesapeake Flotilla.

There was an attempt to salvage the Chesapeake Flotilla shortly after the war ended. 22 of 32 cannon were recovered as well as anchors, rope, cable, shot, and small arms, but most of the vessels and their stores remained buried in the silts of the Patuxent River.

In 1978, the Calvert Marine Museum and Nautical Archaeological Associates, Inc. undertook a limited magnetometer survey of the area as part of the Patuxent River Submerged Cultural Resources Survey. Many wrecks were identified. Here's an example of what these magnetometer scans looked like:


This one was examined in 1979 and partially excavated in 1980. Since one of the first items recovered from the vicinity of the sunken vessel was a small turtle shell, the vessel was nicknamed "Turtle Shell Wreck".

A month-long effort was planned to archaeologically excavate and survey a small but representative section of the Turtle Shell Wreck. A large, shallow-draft floating operations platform was assembled at Patuxent River Park to permit the excavation of a test pit to determine the lie of the wreck, its relative condition, and the depth below the river bottom sediments in which it lay. The wreck was buried beneath several feet of silt, but eventually its depth was determined and the archaeologists constructed a small cofferdam to facilitate further excavation. Once the survey was underway, they realized that the ship was remarkably well-preserved. The reports I've read all say "90% intact", but I don't really understand what that means - how can a ship that was set aflame, exploded and sunk 200 years ago be "90% intact"? And how do they know?

The archaeological team excavated a small portion of the wreck and then replaced the silt to preserve the remaining portion of the site. A bunch of awesome artifacts were discovered in an excellent state of preservation, thanks to the oxygen-free environment beneath the river mud in which they had been immersed.

What did they find? Medical instruments, apothecary items, medicine bottles (some with medicines still inside), dishes, mixing spatulas, dishware, water jugs, a sandstone "camboose" or deck stove, eating utensils, and even a tin-plated grog cup with the initials "CW" engraved upon it. A "Paul Revere"-style lantern, complete with its wick, was recovered from the ship's intact stowage compartments. An empty munitions box was found upside-down in the hold. Musket flints and cannonballs, a small swivel gun arm, a gunner's pick, a ship's leather pump valve, carpentry tools, marine equipment, and navigational gear, an oarsman's bench, and a companion ladder were also among the scores of items recovered.

The only good artifact photo I could find was the lantern:

But here are a few terrible scans from a Calvert Country Life article (1980):



How do they know that this is the Scorpion?

Good question. It appears to have been a sloop-rigged battery, which the Scorpion was, and the cup engraved with the intials "C.W." is believed to have belonged to the Scorpion's cook, Caesar Wentworth, since he was, remarkably, the only one of Barney's flotillamen to bear those initials.

The ship also appears to be located at the head of a long line of wreckage - which matches Cockburn's description of the Scorpion at the head of the flotilla.

Not much to go on - but it's sufficient to whet the interest of a bunch of archaeologists. It doesn't hurt that Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley, is a War of 1812 reenactor. And that the War of 1812 was pretty much the last time (maybe the only time?) the city of Baltimore covered itself with glory. And it's almost the bicentennial of the war.

Barney's Chesapeake Flotilla

I've been working on several Bladensburg projects this summer, and recently visited the Mount Calvert Archaeological Park, along the Patuxent River. Mount Calvert is located near Pig Point, where Commodore Joshua Barney ordered his flotilla to be scuttled and burned to avoid capture by invading British forces. There is a little interpretive sign at Mount Calvert that describes this event, and shows the progress of the invaders all the way to the Battle of Bladensburg. I always find it interesting to see how familiar places were considered tactically in the past. It really changes the way you think about the landscape if you try to plan a war in it.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with the War of 1812 more generally, there are lots of books on the subject, and since it is a pretty well-known major event, the Wikipedia page may offer relatively accurate information. For visualization, I suggest you invoke "Master and Commander", except Russell Crowe is Joshua Barney (to whom I shall introduce you shortly).

Here is my very short intro to the War of 1812: England was at war with France, and started a blockade to keep other countries from trading with the French. The US and France were friends (they had supported our independence, and we were a long way from being a superpower at the time), so the blockade was a significant problem for the States. The British navy was also engaged in a ruthless campaign of impressment - meaning they captured vessels and impressed the crew into service in the British navy. That was understandably an unhappy circumstance for American sailors.

The British were also supporting Native American uprisings along the western frontier, and there were a handful of other conflicts that ultimately led to open hostilities between the Americans and the British.

Although the British were slow to bring the battle to the Atlantic coast, when they finally arrived, it was fierce.

The Admiralty initially appointed Admiral Sir John B. Warren to command efforts against North America, but Warren was sort of a lazy whiner. The Atlantic coast of North America is a lot of territory to cover, and they didn't have enough ships, and Warren was evidently an uninspired commander. Here he is:


The Brits replaced him with Rear Admiral George Cockburn (pronounced Co'burn). Cockburn came to the Chesapeake Bay in March 1813, and began a devastating six-month rampage in the Chesapeake, from Norfolk (VA) to Havre de Grace (MD). I expect the British felt that was a bit more like it. Here's Cockburn, looking vigorous:


The U.S. Navy Department just didn't have enough ships to engage the enemy in battles on the open seas. They couldn't even muster the force to defend the coast, perhaps because of a shortsighted naval policy, originating in Jefferson’s administration, which focused on gunboats instead of larger vessels. During the spring of 1813, Secretary of the Navy William Jones relied on “a cheap, prompt and efficient temporary force” composed of a gunboat and four leased schooners. This small force proved ineffective against the British fleet. Duh.

Really, William Jones? A gunboat and four schooners? Five ships against the British Navy? Props to them for sheer blustery optimism. Or for a brave show in the face of certain failure.

Luckily, many of the residents of the Chesapeake neighborhood had been coping with British depredations in the Chesapeake since the Revolutionary War.

One of these experienced men, Joshua Barney, came out of retirement with a dramatic proposition for the Secretary of the Navy. Barney recommended the construction of a number of lightly armed, shallow draft barges or galleys that could be either sailed or rowed. These would be faster and more maneuverable than the larger and more heavily laden British vessels. His plan relied on swift attacks and rapid escapes that utilized his smaller, lighter craft to full advantage.

He received approval to begin construction in August, 1813 and on May 24, 1814, promoted to Commodore, Barney commanded the Chesapeake Flotilla against a British force vastly superior in both numbers and weapons. I imagine him grumbling a lot about how if you want something done right, you just have to do it yourself.


The Scorpion, a sloop-rigged floating battery which could also be propelled by oars, was probably built under contract for the United States Navy in 1812 for service during the war with England. On 18 February 1814, Scorpion reported for duty at Baltimore in the Chesapeake Flotilla and became the Commodore's flagship. Barney left Baltimore with a fleet of 18 vessels and a convoy of merchant ships he planned to escort to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. A brief engagement with the British on June 1 (the Battle of Cedar Point), forced Barney to withdraw into the Patuxent River with the merchant convoy.

Within a week, the British received reinforcements and Barney retreated to the shallows of St. Leonard's Creek. Attempts to draw Barney out resulted in skirmishes over June 8-10, which became known collectively as the First Battle of St. Leonard's. To escape, Barney launched a pre-dawn attack from two directions—from the bluffs above the mouth of the creek as well as by water—and succeeded in slipping between the British vessels and the bluff, thereby moving the Flotilla further up the Patuxent River. Some of Barney's sketches of battle plans for the fight are kept at the National Archives.


Preparatory to the escape effort, he scuttled two gunboats in a cove of the creek. The two boats were slow, awkward, and difficult to sail; they could not hold both men and cargo, and kept neither dry. In short, they were liabilities that Barney could ill afford. He also left several merchantmen behind, scuttled to avoid capture.


Several relatively conservative plans that might have saved some of the ships and their cargo and guns were considered, then scrapped due to the extreme exigency of the situation. Ultimately, Barney received orders to retreat upriver above Pig Point, and to scuttle the entire fleet of both military and merchant craft the moment the British were sighted.

He was then to march overland to defend Washington. On the morning of August 22, 1814, the British rounded Pig Point and saw the Flotilla stretching for three miles upriver. In rapid succession, 16 of the 17 vessels were set afire and sunk; one was captured when the fire failed to take hold.

Here's an eyewitness account from Admiral George Cockburn:

As we opened the reach above Pig Point I plainly discovered Commodore Barney's broad Pendant in the headmost Vessel, a large Sloop, and the remainder of the Flotilla extending in a long line astern of her. Our boats now advanced towards them as rapidly as possible, but on nearing them we observed the Sloop bearing the Broad Pendant to be on fire, and she very soon afterwards blew up. I now saw clearly that they were all abandoned and on fire with trains to their magazines, and out of the seventeen vessels which composed this formidable and so much vaunted Flotilla sixteen were in quick succession blown to atoms, and the seventeenth, in which the fire had not taken, were captured ... I found here lying above the Flotilla under its protection thirteen merchant schooners, some of which not being worth bringing away I caused to be burnt...

Barney and his flotillamen joined the American forces in time for the Battle of Bladensburg. The battle was a complete rout. The American troops, except for Barney and his men, turned and fled, earning the battle the nickname "The Bladensburg Races." Barney was wounded and captured after hours of hand-to-hand combat with cutlasses and pikes. There were also guns. Barney took a musket ball in the leg, and complications from the wound eventually killed him, four years later.

When the British officers met him, they commented that they knew it had to have been him and his men who held their ground, since they were the only ones who had given them any fight at all. The British pardoned and returned Barney to his men. Everyone likes a person who can make even losing look cool. In short, this guy was a bad-ass.

NEXT: The Chesapeake Flotilla Project