Lunette

Civil War troops could rapidly construct sophisticated earthworks, especially when facing vastly superior enemy numbers. A well-designed earthwork could absorb projectiles more readily and was more effective against artillery fire than masonry fortifications, which tended to shatter when struck. The artillery emplacement here, a half-moon-shaped lunette, was originally built muzzle-high so cannon could fire across its top while the belly of the gun remained protected from enemy fire. After Hupp's Hill had been deforested for colonial settlement, this lunette was constructed, then after the war it was swallowed by secondary forest growth until careful clearing in 2002 revealed an almost perfectly preserved earthwork. Local trees also had many Native American uses. Indians equipped with stone tools made use of more than 680 indigenous American tree species for food, medicines, dyes, fuel, canoes, dwellings, bowls, paddles, boxes, clothing, masks, religious images, totems, handles, and tools. Catalpa, from the Muskogee Creek word katalpa meaning "head with wings," was nicknamed "Indian cigar" and "Indian bead tree" for its long seed capsules, and two species grow 100 feet tall and produce white flowers with yellow stripes and purple-brown spots. Hickory, from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccor meaning "food prepared from pounded nuts," provided plentiful nuts that Eastern Indians pounded and boiled into hickory milk for stews and bread, and its hardwood was ideal for making bows. Cedar wood was used for bows and teepee poles, its branches for combs, its split roots for woven basket foundations, and its boughs for cot mattresses; it was also burned on the altar of the Sacred Woman during the Sun Dance, and the sacred Thunderbird was said to nest in mountain cedars. Red ash was used in California to make pipes that Indians smoked to induce dreams, show respect for a visitor, and cure illnesses.

Strasburg, Virginia · United States