00:08 - We have just opened a new exhibit entitled

00:10 - in powdered purpose here in the

00:12 - Hessian powder magazine

00:14 - my name is Ken hickman i am the department chair

00:16 - for education and exhibits at USAHEC.

00:21 - A powder magazine is especially constructed structure for housing gunpowder

00:26 - know the gunpowder would have been kept in barrels of various sizes.

00:30 - the building needs to be constructed in a very

00:32 - particular way obviously gunpowder is an explosive.

00:36 - the building is built to be exceptionally strong structurally as well as heaven

00:41 - forbid a spark get in the building and the powder ignite

00:45 - the force of the explosion would be directed upwards instead of outwards

00:49 - you are reducing the potential damage that can be caused

00:56 - Building has just been restored

00:58 - with a new exhibit that talks about both.

01:01 - The role the

01:02 - building played in the American revolution as well as the evolution of Carlisle

01:06 - barracks which is one of our nation's oldest military posts.

01:10 - One of the great things about having the

01:12 - u s army war college here at Carlisle barracks is

01:15 - we are able to train our latest strategic leaders.

01:19 - At one of our oldest posts in one that houses

01:21 - the army's preeminent archives at USAHEC.

01:25 - Where

01:25 - we're able to provide

01:27 - the war college students with a historical perspective

01:31 - engage in expanding historical mindedness

01:35 - and showing how.

01:36 - The army's history

01:38 - through the last two and a half centuries

01:39 - can be applied to modern strategic problems.

01:43 - This is the

01:46 - first the exhibit within

01:48 - the magazine tells the history of Carlisle barracks.

01:52 - My name is Jack leighow

01:54 - i am a curator at the united states army heritage and education center

01:58 - and then here's the the

02:00 - basically the earliest.

02:03 - History of

02:05 - the powder magazine

02:07 - and

02:08 - this is going back to the revolutionary war.

02:11 - What we did is

02:13 - A close look at the primary

02:16 - historical

02:17 - documents

02:18 - and by primary mean those created.

02:21 - In the eighteenth century.

02:23 - While the powder magazine was here during the revolutionary war.

02:26 - The new exhibit

02:27 - it talks not just about the building itself it's construction and archaeological

02:32 - survey that was conducted but also traces the entire history of Carlisle barracks

02:36 - from its earliest days in 1757 during the French and Indian war

02:40 - up into the modern day

02:42 - and in 2024

02:46 - We did a ground penetrating radar survey

02:49 - and then in may

02:51 - of that year 2024

02:54 - An archaeological.

02:56 - dig

02:56 - occurred outside

02:58 - outside

02:59 - and at the same time we had architects

03:02 - from the national park service

03:05 - doing the documentation measuring everything

03:07 - and so forth.

03:09 - It goes through the entire history of

03:11 - of what this building was through the years up until.

03:15 - Actually up until nineteen.

03:18 - Think 1947-48 it became the museum.

03:22 - It's been

03:23 - that ever since then.

03:24 - This post has been a critical part of armies infrastructure for

03:29 - two and a half centuries

03:31 - at both in the military capacity but particularly in an educational capacity.

03:38 - Move into this section we're into.

03:41 - The nineteenth century.

03:43 - The transition.

03:46 - So there's a little bit

03:48 - more here on the.

03:50 - On the early history of Carlisle.

03:53 - But then we we get into.

03:57 - The cavalry school

03:58 - that was here.

03:59 - The official transfer to the government.

04:03 - And we have images here.

04:06 - Of the place during the cavalry school period.

04:11 - During the civil war.

04:14 - Confederates were here twice.

04:19 - Once in real early July.

04:23 - General Ewell

04:25 - Encamped here

04:27 - but the the

04:28 - the union troops

04:29 - left town.

04:32 - But Ewell got called

04:33 - called by Lee to go get down to Gettysburg

04:36 - and so he left

04:38 - and then Jeb Stuart came in but the

04:40 - the union troops have come back

04:42 - and they won't surrender the town so he burned it.

04:46 - Burned the post

04:47 - this building suffered damage to the roof but that was all.

04:57 - One of the stories that we do tell in this exhibit is that Hessian really is a

05:00 - blanket term for any German soldier mercenary that fought with the British the

05:05 - Hessians were really only a small part of the German contingent

05:09 - the Hessian connection we have a little bit written about the Hessians.

05:13 - Basically the the British army.

05:16 - Was not a large force.

05:18 - They had a big Navy but the

05:20 - the army

05:21 - didn't

05:22 - have a big army

05:24 - they often reach to the German states

05:26 - because they provided well trained

05:29 - disciplined

05:30 - troops.

05:31 - Not all of them

05:33 - were from Hesse-Kassel

05:36 - But that name just stuck with all of them

05:39 - and we do have a great map

05:40 - that shows everywhere in Germany these troops came from

05:44 - this is a part of Pennsylvania that had a high German colonial population.

05:49 - My mother-in-law's family can trace itself

05:51 - to a prisoner

05:53 - from brunswick taken at saratoga who.

05:56 - Elected to settle up around Lebanon

05:58 - particularly Frystown

06:00 - I think a lot of folks particularly in central Pennsylvania who have those roots.

06:05 - Can come here and find maybe a little bit of a family connection

06:09 - back to those ancestors.

06:14 - Over the last year and a half USAHEC has worked with both the national park

06:17 - service and juniata college to conduct extensive

06:20 - historical research on the history of the building

06:23 - as well as conducted an archaeological survey

06:26 - it's confirmed various

06:29 - architectural facets of the structure itself.

06:32 - What that found was that this is in fact the powder

06:36 - magazine that was built during the American revolution

06:39 - and utilized Hessian POWs taken at the battle of Trenton

06:43 - as part of its construction.

06:49 - The barracks has hosted a variety of schools.

06:52 - Through the centuries the cavalry school prior to the civil war.

06:56 - The Carlyle Indian industrial school which was

06:58 - administered by the department of interior not the army

07:02 - in the late nineteenth century

07:04 - and then a variety of medical schools public affairs schools

07:07 - and in 1951 it became the home of the us army war college.

07:12 - Carlisle itself.

07:14 - Gets organized in 1751

07:17 - first military post 1757 the British outposts.

07:23 - A few years later.

07:24 - Revolutionary war

07:26 - starts

07:27 - and the continental congress.

07:31 - Thought that well you know since there was

07:33 - already a fort and stuff here Carlisle would be a good place.

07:37 - But when the folks got here they realized the fort

07:40 - was not

07:42 - there anymore.

07:43 - I think it had been taken apart and the parts

07:46 - used elsewhere

07:47 - so they had to build everything here

07:49 - beginning in march of 1777 they started to build a big.

07:55 - Complex here

07:57 - the public works at Carlisle.

08:00 - Or the Carlisle arsenal

08:01 - or

08:02 - aka

08:03 - Washingtonburg

08:05 - had a nickname

08:06 - some

08:06 - people called it

08:08 - and

08:09 - that was

08:10 - they built

08:11 - buildings they built workshops the made their own tools

08:15 - they built wagons they.

08:17 - Finished cannons they built canon carriages they built traveling forges.

08:24 - Shoes, they made shoes.

08:26 - Anything you imagine plus food

08:29 - and all this.

08:30 - Within a year they had a

08:33 - really large supply and

08:35 - Carlisle was one of the places supplying the troops at valley forge

08:38 - in the winter of the three sevens.

08:41 - 1777

08:44 - In 1879

08:47 - The

08:47 - army transfer

08:48 - Carlisle barracks to the department of interior to the Bureau of Indian affairs

08:53 - to establish the Carlisle Indian industrial school. That school

08:57 - brought

08:58 - native American children from the west

09:01 - to be educated here in Carlisle.

09:04 - That school lasted until

09:06 - world war one.

09:07 - Was

09:08 - particularly noted for a number of

09:10 - star athletes that participated in its athletic program most notably Jim Thorpe

09:15 - the story of the Carlisle industrial school is a critical part of

09:20 - this facilities past.

09:22 - It's

09:23 - obviously not an army story

09:26 - but

09:27 - we felt it's important to include

09:29 - it in the exhibit because it is part of the art of the barracks history.

09:34 - During world war one

09:36 - interior transferred the post back to the army.

09:39 - At which point a

09:41 - hospital was established here for

09:43 - casualties coming back from France.

09:46 - In that period in the nineteen twenties

09:48 - the medical service field school

09:50 - was established here

09:52 - and interestingly enough.

09:55 - Some of the

09:56 - vocational training.

09:59 - Materials

10:00 - that were used to train the native American students.

10:04 - Were used to rehabilitate wounded veterans from world war one

10:07 - but the Carlisle bandage.

10:10 - Was developed

10:11 - here at and part of the medical service field school.

10:16 - If this was a museum that is meant for for the general

10:19 - public as well as the folks here at Carlisle barracks.

10:24 - we welcome everyone to come out and explore this chapter of our nation's past

10:29 - because it is on post here Carlisle barracks visitors

10:32 - simply need to check in at the main gate they can

10:35 - go into the visitors center

10:37 - you simply need to provide ID.

10:39 - and they will be given access to the post

10:42 - as well as directions

10:44 - on how to get to the magazine

10:45 - one of the.

10:47 - What they call golden threads of the war college where they're

10:50 - training the next batch of strategic senior leaders.

10:54 - Is called

10:55 - historical mindedness

10:58 - And so.

11:00 - You need to understand the past and where you have been

11:03 - so you can chart the path to where you're going

11:06 - and so we hope they get

11:09 - that out of there in fact that is.

11:11 - That is one of the again one of the key things that the war college

11:15 - is trying to instill in their students and this

11:17 - this helps

11:19 - the hessian powder magazine is one of the oldest buildings in the army inventory it

11:23 - is a direct connection to our nation's founding

11:26 - to the earliest days of the American republic

11:29 - and

11:30 - the need to support the army

11:32 - when it was working to fight for

11:34 - independence

11:35 - as we approach

11:36 - america two fifty if this is a place you can come

11:40 - to literally walk in the footsteps of those

11:43 - who helped gain independence two hundred and fifty years ago.