Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 39

1 A AAMAjMuS spooxxoooooooo CXDOOOOOOOOOXCOOOOOOC gjfleral general Miendan Closes shenaiMtoah alley lo loniederates Editor's Note: It was a green i ern heartland. Washington, Balti DAILY PRESS, Newport News, Sept 2, 1962 3D was in the midst of it, shouting to his men. "Run, boys, run! more, Philadelphia, the vital transportation lines athwart the unless the Shenandoah Valley was removed from the war for good. Ulysses S. Grant, commander-in-chief of the Union armies, ha 1 Don't wait to form! Don't let Face the other they had left their left flank un- Valley's northern outlet all were juicy targets.

A Union army at a cloua Dejected soldiers saw em stop!" The Yankees finally anchored. True enougn, tnere was lathered of swirling dust, the seen this clearly, but the generals had a commander who would fight tempting to use the Valley as an invasion corridor. however a seemingly impassaDie ravine outside that flank, but Early had Rienzi and the shouting figure, he sent to the Valley were not all the way, and they cheered him to the echo. and the effect was electric. "Sheri would end up nowhere in particu dan! Sheridan!" they yelled.

nothing to lose by trying a des perate gamble. CATCH FEDERALS NAPPING lar, tor it led awav from Tiich- Early retreated to the southern up to the challenge. Matters cme to a head in June, 1864, when the Sheridan was back, and every end of the Valley, and Sheridan I. mond and other Confederate targets, not toward them. On the night of Oct.

18. Early thing would be all right now- called off the pursuit. Union army there was ignomin ously chased out by Jubal Early As the Union army withdrew, Equally important, the Valley served as a rich granary for Rob ordered a sizable piece of army into the ravine, his men left canteens and packs behind it scorched the land. A bitter Early's little army, about 15.000 fighting general whom Lee had ert E. Lee's Confederate Armv of Confederate saw "great columns of smoke whirh almost shut out land filed off silently.

At dawn Northern Virginia. As the war 1 sent north to see what mischief he could make on the Union's vulnerable flank. the sun bv dav the red clare they came charging into the rea: entered its final, agonizing year. ana loveiy vaney, till Sheridan's forces were ordered to burn it to. total waste.

Union sympathizers saw their harvests go up in smoke, but the devastation closed the Shenandoah Val-" ley forever to the Confederates An associate, editor of can Heritage tells the story of the vital Valley campaign. By STEPHEN W. SEARS Virginia's Shenandoah Valley is one of the loveliest spots in America, a land of sparkling rivers and fat cattle and golden wheat-fields nestled between blue-shadowed mountains. During much of the Civil War armies advanced or retreated through this land, leaving little trace of their passages until the autumn of 1864. It was geography that made the Valley strategically important.

A Confederate army entering its southern end, and holding the gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east, could march virtually unseen toward the North Sheridan took his time, realigning his troops, seeing that ammu- nition was replenished and everyone was back in line. When someone mentioned Early, he snapped, "I'll give him the worst he ever had And that was precisely what happened. His men drove forward, confident of victory, and simply of bonfires which crackled mock-, of the Union left flank, yelling like demons. The half awake Early's little army, about 15.00 The Best From -I y4 Yankees fled, leaving their weap 4 ons behind; Early's men over strong, darted out of the Vrlley and marched on Washington itself. "The "Rebels are upon us!" ran an artillery battery, turned overwhelmed Early's outnumbered cried excitable Secretary of the the guns around, and fired them ingly in the night air and: little children, voiceless and tear- less in their pitiable terror." Sheridan put his army in camp at Cedar Creek, near Winchester, and hurried off to Washington to attend a strategy conference.

But Jubal Early was still game. He moved northward through the ruins, faced with a critical de Navy Gideon Welles, and Union into the milling mass. By nine o'clock or so the Federals had officers combed the city for troops American Heritage been driven back four miles. to man the defenses. Militiamen, recuperating soldiers, and "a mild-mannered set" of clerks filed About that time, 15 miles from the battlefield, Phil Sheridan and Lee's army was locked in mortal combat with the Army of the Potomacin the trenches of Peters into the trenches.

They were not his escort were making their leis Confederate Colonel John S. IMosley's Rangers, officially the 43rd Virginia Cavalry, are shown returning from an attack on Sheridan's military supply train near Berry ville, Va. much of a match for Early's lean i i n. Sheridan's destruction made it impossible to stay where he was, for there was no food burg. Lee might be worn down veterans, but just in time the Confederates.

Again, as at Winchester, Federal cavalry turned a defeat into a rout, slashing into and behind the Rebels, upsetting wagons and artillery, and taking prisoners by the hundreds. By nightfall the Federals were back in their original campground at Cedar Creek, and Eariy's little army was utterly defeated. The Shenandoah Valley what was left of it was closed forever to tre Confederacy. (Copyright by American Heritage Magazine, 1962) but he could not be starved out tough VI Corps came hurrying up traffic jam developed along the or forage to support his army fact that the residents of the urely way back to the Cedar Creek camp. Hearing the distant rumble of firing, Sheridan dashed off at a gallop.

Soon he came upon the first backwash cf defeat. His swarthy face dark with rage, from the Petersburg lines. On July 12 there was a brisk skirmish. President Lincoln, who had. to send so many men into narrow road, and the attack was Rather than retreat he chose to all of six hours late.

By that feJ had two time Early was ready. The canny favor: An attack was the last the cauldron of war, came out he galloped on. To every knot of retreating soldiers he waved his Southerner spotted a vulnerable thing in the world the Federals Shenandoah Valley were mostly pro-Union or at least neutral. They were Dunkers and Mennon-ites and Quakers or people cf similar faith and background, hard working and above all peaceful. Blue-clad soldiers with torches were ordered to burn hay ricks and corncribs and mills and barns.

NORTH RAVAGES VALLEY expected, and in their confidence hat and shouted, "Turn back: gap in the attacking ranks. Throw ing in a quick counterattack, he stalled the whole offensive. This was the sort of thing tnat had been happening to the mis managed Union armies in the eastern theater for years, but It was an unpleasant task, and a Pennsylvania cavalryman wrote that "the grief of the inhabitants, as they saw their harvest dis Phil Sheridan was made of stern er stuff than his predecessors. He galloped from one end of the to see it for himself, and nearly fell victim to Southern sharpshooters. Then Early, seeing himself outmatched, slipped back into th Valley.

Clearly something had to be done, and Grant put a man in charge who was expert at getting things done. Major General Philip Sheridan was the sort of soldier who often rises to the top in the heat of war, a harsh, unyielding man, all fire and dash. His orders were clear to destroy both Early and the Shenandoah Vallev. SIMPLY STATED Grant stated it simply and terribly: Union' troops were to "eat out Virginia clear and clean as far as they go, so that crows appearing in flame and smoke, and their stock being driven off, battlefield to the other, swearing mightily and straightening out the mess. In late afternoon he pushed was a sad sight." It was now mid-September, and his entire army forward in great five-mile-wide crescent that Grant came up from Petersburg to meet with Sheridan.

The two men talked things over in the overlapped the thin gray line and broke it. Two cavalry divisions middle of a dusty field: a grizzled charged like a thunderbolt into the retreating Confederate column sergeant watched and complained of Grant: "I hate to see that old cuss around there's sure to and shattered them. TIDY VICTORY be a big fight on hand." flying over it for the balance of Sheridan had a tidy victory to his credit at Winchester, but he The sergeant was right. Cn Sept. 19 Sheridan led his Army did not stop to admire it.

Three of the Shenandoah into battle with Early's smaller force not far from the season will have to carry their provender with them." Sheridan took some six weeks to shake down his new command, christened the Army of tha Shen-doah. In the process he Dogan to lay waste the northern end of the Valley. There was irony in the days later Early tried to maks a stand at a place called Fisher's Hill. Once more the Federals the town of Winchester. Shen dan's intent was to strike quickly.

During Sheridan's devastation of the Shenandoah Valley, his charging Yankees fatally Mounded Confederate Major General Stephen Ramseur, Drawing shows him toppling from the saddle in the battle of Cedar Creek. Ordered to destroy the rich granary of the Shenandoah, Federal General Phil Sheridan complied and here is cheered by his troops as he rides by on his fast black horse, 'Rienzi'. (Western Reserve Historical society photos). broke through and sent their en But orders were bungled some emy streaming back. Sheridan where along the way, a monstrous Woman Graduate Naval Architect Enjoyed Illustrious Career At Local Shipyard the University of California at extra class in English, to her dis difficult and thorny the course, i piece of iron work that Miss Weld Berkeley.

There were 52 questions though ranching was far from shipbuilding, she thought it might be interesting. gust and resentment. Julia was Realistic Life Raft Exercise had done to show them. When at M. I.

T. Lydia was so busy she This she did and was graduated with honors. The same professor (Editor's Note: The following article on the late Miss Lydia Weld has been written for the Daily Press by Miss Cerinda W. Evans, librarian Emeritus of The Mariners Museum,) educated as a kindergarten of which she answered 48 correctly. "Why shift to airplane de paid little attention to fine clothes, WORK ON THE RANCH Several buildings were erected teacher and went with General Wool to Cuba where she helped signing? she was asked.

It has been 24 years since I worked in and when required to attend some fashionable function, would turn on the ranch: a dwelling for her to organize the school system, after which she returned home and who had opposed her later sent in her name to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recommending membership which was granted. BEGAN AT M.I.T. self, a bunk house for the work Shows Airline Preparedness shipbuilding, she protested. No trouble at all," said the Profes men, and a guest house. Large to her twin sister who would graciously rent her an evening was married to John Huntington.

sor, and gave her a card to sections were planted in alfalla The Bryn Mawr examination gown for the occasion. Moore Shipyard in Oakland in the waters off famed Waikiki papers showed Lydia to be such Lydia remained at Newport and grain, and orchards set out. Soon a large flock of sheep ap While living arrangements and M.I.T. accepted the Bryn Mawr examination papers, and Lydia News until World War I was over transportation were very trying a fine mathematician that some boys suggested, "You are so good peared led by a large goat and Lydia never gave up. She was a sheep dog.

Two electric pumps began work in the fall of 1899 She covered the full course, black-smithing included, with an addl at math, why don you try M. I. "Well, why not?" brought water from the subter employed as a senior draftsman, the only graduate engineer there. She had developed an almost chronic bronchial cough which alarmed her friends and her brother, Dr. George Weld, an Episcopal clergyman living in ranean lake into two large pools (Editor's Note Only four times in over a decade have there been commercial plane ditchings in the Pacific.

All the same, the Coast Guard and the airlines believe in preparedness. That's why hundreds of pilots and crew members go through a realistic exercise of making ends meet adrift.) By CLAUDE BURGETT thought Rose. When she applied The Yard built 15 naval vessels tional course in locomotive design. When it was learned that from which pipes carried the wat to the Institute for admission. from a concealed compartment.

Sponges are distributed and you, suddenly realize there's water in the bottom. Is there a leak? You can't seem to get the unsteady bottom dry. There's nothing in sight but the deep, blue Pacific. Your world suddenly is only a few feet of rubber filled with air and faces that are squeezed in too close. It's only a drill but this fact isn't too consoling.

The feeling of and 25 C-2 freighters. Some of: er to irrigate the crops. These she was accompanied by her Santa Barbara. He had pur the freighters were named for pools, surrounded by trees and mother who bitterly opposed the By CERINDA W. EVANS In an area held to be almost exclusively masculine, one of the most illustrious and industrious employes of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of yesteryear was a female graduate naval architect and marine engineer.

Miss Lydia Weld, who worked at the Shipyard both before and during World War recently died in San Francisco after an extraordinarilly interesting and varied career. this remarkable young woman arrived at the Newport News yard, she was placed in charge of the Tracing Department, and given a variety of other jobs as her ability became known. She was required to do some inspection and gave amusing accounts of going down into famous old mansions in Virginia. chased about 600 acres of land in Antelope Valley bordering on shrubbery in time, became rei- idea. The professor whom they Carter Hall, for instance and use for migrant wild ducks; Beach.

Airline crews are taken far to sea on a Coast Guard cutter. They're placed in a 20-man raft with a pilot and a Coast Guard instructor aboard, and set adrift. Within three hours, these men and women learn how to signal for help with flares, send a "may-day" radio signal, stay afloat in the open sea, protect themselves from the burning sun, distill fresh water from the salty brine or use a sea anchor to balance the raft and keep it from spinning ii the current. Chances are that this knowledge will never be used. Coast Guard records show only four Pacific ditchings of commer Mohave Desert in Los Angeles County, where subterranean lakes hunters of course were attracted HONOLULU (AP) First you the wealthy Miss Weld was doing blacksmithing work, the newspaper reporters parked on the front doorstep awaiting an interview, but the modest Lydia escaped through the back.

A later graduate of the Institute said that sometimes when boys taking tht blacksmithing course did such photographs of the buildings were sent to Miss Weld from the Mariners Museum Library at New consulted opposed it too, but laughlingly assured Mrs. Weld not to worry, the manual labor part of the training was so strenuous sit so rigid that your body be half of the land had been rented and "No Hunting" signs dis-, played. One persistant hunter. to a rancher, leaving a good-sized ranch of 300 acres or more port News. Miss Weld would have comes part of the raft.

You have the uneasy feeling that if anyone moves the rubber boat will flip her daughter undoubtedly would helplessness manages to seep in however, shot a duck, and Miss Weld had him arrested, which shot cost him $25.00. photographs framed and present He pursuaded Rose to come West quit under the strain. Hearing them to their respective ships with the water. "Don't worry about that. All this, Rose Weld then and there over.

the instructor would where the climate was dryer and poor work, which pleased both the shipyard There were twelve dogs on the Then you get the feel of the resolved to make good however I take from a cupboard a fine1 run this ranch. She took the job; ranch of various sizes and breeds. these damned things leak a little. Some just splashes over the side. sea and relax a little.

Someone and the ship officials. Occasionally, Miss Weld would go on a digs out emergency equipment They were not allowed outside the grounds unaccompanied, so AH right! We re going to show dark holds with a lighted candle Miss Weld would take them tor wanted to die with my boots you what equipment this raft enr-ries. It's the same type that we carry on our planes. "Let's hope you never need this information. But, if you ever do cial aircraft in more than 10 years.

This record is amazing when the number of transpacific flights is considered. on. And she passed on a few minutes later at the age of 84 years. After a short i at the a run across the desert nearly every day. When the pickup truck was brought to the gate, the.

dogs would gather around, tails waving joyously, eager anticipation on every face. But when there was a business trip in view, Miss Weld would shake her head and say, your life and the lives of everyone trial trip of one of the freighters. After World War II. Lydia Weld returned to her home in Carmel, and again entered the life of the community. She joined the League of Women Voters and became its president.

She entered wholeheartedly into the Right to Work cam-! paign. She attended meetings of the M. I. T. alumni and naval eorferences at San Francisco.

At one such conference she was drawn into a rather warm discus- There are between 12,000 and 15,000 a conservative estimate-commercial and military flights across the Pacific each year. What would happen should one little chapel of the home, the body was cremated as she had requested, and the ashes sent to the Forest Lawn Cemetery near No dogs today." Such disap boston for burial in the family of the giant commercial jets be pointment! Tails would drop, light die out of eyes, and they would plot, the services in charge of her nephew, the Rev. Edric A. Weld. The interment was made (no electricity), and scrambling around trying to find the tops of boilers.

Skirts were ankle length and there were no pants or slacks in those days! Miss Weld took keen interest in all work going on in the yard and formed many warm friendships, coaching one young draftsman in higher mathematics which enabled him to obtain a better position. When making an address at a M. I. T. graduation, the president of the Newport News Shipyard referred to Miss Weld as the Institute's first woman graduate in engineering and spoke with admiration of her work in his shipyard.

Miss Weld regarded Newport News as her home and took a cart in the community activities. move off dejectedly to lie down forced to ditch at sea is anybody's guess. Capt. George D. Synon, fteaJ of the 14th Coast Guard District search and rescue program, says nobody can tell with assurance.

on January 27. 1962. in the shade. An interesting dem-jsion, and upon leaving the hall onstration of Miss Weld's ability i she overheard an admiral say to to train animals in the raft with you will depend on a cool head. You've got to know and you get just one chance to be wrong.

So pay attention!" The man shouting instructions is a civilian airline pilot. The r-jft is filled with his crew and military men who do work identical to theirs. He is one of hundreds of pilots who participate in the Coast Guard's search and rescue training program. Each year, hundreds of pilots, aviators, stewardesses, airline executives and military men are set adrift in small yellow rafts left alone with the seas. Twice each year the Coast Guard holds these realistic drills his companion, "Boy, that old girl knew what she was talking COMMUNITY LIFE Characteristically, she entered! just exactly what will happen into the life of the community.

when a jet engine hits the water. One never has so far. "But, sometime, somewhere, She was made president of the "So be my passing! My task accomplished and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing. Let me be gathered to the quiet west. The sundown splendid and serene, Death." Antelope Valley Joint Unified High somebody is going to put one of School and became a director about!" She was an ardent stamp collector and accumulated a fine and interesting collection.

Occasionally she would fly East to visit her relatives in New England and her friends in Newport News. ENTERED HOME In 1958, she entered the Protes .55 I fillip W- I She became a communicant of them down. When this happens, we hope that the crew has gotten something from these piston ditchings," Synon said. in the Los Angeles Farm Bureau and a member of most of the committees. Attached to the picture molding in her office were more than 200 ribbons, mostly tant Episcopal Home in San Fran St.

Paul's Episcopal Church and a teacher in the Church School. She was fond of tennis and played an excellent game, and was often seen at baseball games. When the war started, however, with the work of war committees and blue, won at various exhibits of'cisco. She liked it there because grain hay, fruit, wool, poultry of the climate and the large and other animals. Rarely did a -membership of interesting women from different parts of the conn vexing problem arise in the.

Bu reau that she was not consulted try. The Home is so situated as to have a clear view of the In 1933, after Dr. Weld's death the shipyard, little time was left for recreation. But whenever a fire alarm sounded, be it in the middle of the night, Miss Weld and the ranch was sold, Lydia Golden Gate and, with field glasses, Lydia enjoyed watching went to Carmel to a house she was up and away, to the amuse had built while on the ranch for the ships as' they came through Her interest in baseball continued ment of her tnenas. DISTINGUISHING COLORS and she attended many of the Lydia Weld and a twin sister, Julia, were born on March ll.

games. When the 100th anniversary of the founding of M.I.T. just such an event, a most convenient and attractive dwelling with the Pacific Ocean washing up against the back yard. Miss Weld thought she had permanently retired, and as at other places, joined in the activities of the community. She became a mem- 1877, to a well known and weal thy Boston family.

When babies was celebrated in 1961, banquets were held by the alumni in dif ferent parts of the country connected by telephone hook-up to distinguish them apart, a rose colored ribbon was tied about the wrist of one, and a violet colored ribbon on the wrist of the other. ber of the Stamp Club, and agreed, When the San Francisco group with others in objecting to a paved: announced that Miss Weld was road between the town and thejsittmg at the table with them. and ever after they were Rose and Violet to their relatives and close friends. When not travelling they all with one accord burst into their Stein Song. She made occasional visits to Carmel where she continued to cast her vote, and to her relatives in Santa Bar bara.

he family spent the winters in the South and the summers in their home on Cape Cod. Occasionally, a part of the summer was spent in a houseboat on the James River, and sometimes the little nirls would be invited in at ocean, and in sidewalks along the too narrow streets. The citizens did not, want this artists' town to become so modern. And then Pearl Harbor struck! "I must get back to work," she said. She became a ground observer at Cypress Point standing watch on a 40 foot tower on the 4:00 to 8:00 a.m.

shift. She learned that Stanford University was giving a refresher course in engineering and sent in her papers A serious heart condition developed in the fall of 1961, and she was confined to her room the old mansion, Berkeley, for most of the time. She insisted on luncheon. The education of the twins was joining in the New Year festiv als, however, soon re in charge of governesses until tired to her room and sent for the house nurse. Her indomitable sent to a finishing school to prepare for college.

Lydia took the examination for Bryn Mawr and NAVAL ARCHITECT AND MARINE ENGINEER The late Miss Lydia Weld who was employed by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. before and during World War I was considered by the writer of this article as the most remarkable woman she ever knew. Few members of Miss Weld's sex have elected to follow the profession of shipbuilding and marine engineering. (Photo courtesy The Mariners Museum) spirit was shown at the last for for admission. She was refused: "This course is too elementary, you would be wasting your time." AIR FLOATERS Adrift at sea, a civilian airline pilot sets off a smoke flare from a crowded inflated rubber raft somewhere in the Pacific off Honolulu, Hawaii.

In the boat are airline crewmen and military men who do similar work. They are taking part in realistic drills conducted every year by the Coast Guard in its search and rescue training program. as the nurse was about to re showed great aptitude for mathe' Then she decided to take the move her shoes, she said, "No matics, but her spelling was so course in airplane designing at leave them alone, I always said poor she was required to take an.