Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Walking and Learning --- Day 8/350

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 5 miles

Pershing Square, El Presidio de San Francisco

Pursuing her current interest in history, revived from college major days, Ciwt took a closer look today at Pershing Square on the Main Post of the Presidio.  The flagpole marks the site of General 'Black Jack' Pershing's house while he was briefly Commander of the Presidio in 1913-15.  It commemorates General Pershing's highly distinquished and much decorated career as well, sadly, as the house fire that claimed the lives of his wife and three of his children while Pershing was in Texas pursuing Mexican revolutionary 'Pancho Villa.'

The flagpole is  flanked on either side by cannon. The name of one, El Birgen de Barbaned, wraps around the barrel, and when Ciwt returned home she found it was forged in Lima, Peru, and, along with five other Spanish cannons in the Presidio, is among the oldest artillery in North America.

El Brigen de Barbaned

Insignia
dated 1693










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