Thanks Douglas, this is a very interesting site. If I really need anything translated, I'll just call my old college buddy. His name is Banaszak. After Mike and I visited that wonderful Georgia fort that was bombarded from Tybee Island, GA, we called him and got some interesting information on Count Pulaski, the Revolutionary War hero for whom that fort was named.
From subdjoe today:
“I browsed through their gallery and remembered a question I've been meaning to ask.
Did the Wiard have a shrouded front sight? I've been curious about that for a while. The photos that I have seen seem to show it, but I can't be sure.”
The Wiard sure did have a shrouded front sight, and in the large version of that well-known photo taken of the scoundrel, Daniel Sickles standing next to one beside the Potomac River, you can clearly see it. The photo was taken in Washington after he almost caused a disaster at the Battle of Gettysburg. Luckily for him, he had a couple friends in high places, so he avoided a Courts-Martial Conviction and he also avoided being charged and prosecuted for murder after he gunned down Francis Scott Key’s son after he couldn’t take his wife from him. He was a Union General, a scoundrel and probably the most vain man in Lincoln’s Army. See how many images you find of him in Google Images; yikes! I don’t think he could pass up a single opportunity to have a portrait made.
Mike and Tracy
The scoundrel, Sickles, two Wiard rifles and the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
