General George Henry Thomas asked General Daniel Butterfield, who traveled west with the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, to suggest an appropriate badge to represent the Union Army of the Cumberland's Fourteenth Army Corps. Butterfield said, "If I had command of the Fourteenth Corps, which stood firm as an oak at Chickamauga, I would give it the acorn for a badge in honor of its bravery." General Thomas replied, "That is what we will do, let it be the acorn." (National Park Service)
One of the oldest quarry districts in New England can be found in Westerly, where stone commonly known as Westerly White and Westerly Blue became the United States Bureau of Standards industry standard for fine grained granite suitable for monument carving due to its color and strength.
According to Mine and Quarry’s January 1913 issue:
The “White Statuary” grade [granite] is . . . used for all sorts of monumental purposes. . . . Owing to its fine grain it takes a very high polish, and at the same time is exceedingly strong. At the United States Arsenal at Watertown, Mass., in 1907, a compression test…showed a resistance of 39,750 pounds per square inch.
“Blue Westerly” [granite] is about 50 per cent less fine in texture than the white, but lends itself well to monuments. . . . It does not take so high a polish as the white, but the contrast in shades is equally good. A test on Westerly Blue shows an ultimate compression strength of 31,970 pounds per square inch.
The first quarry in Westerly to produce Westerly White and Blue granite was the Crumb Quarry, which began operations in 1834, followed in 1848, by the Smith Quarry. Orlando Smith had purchased land from Oliver Wells on what would come to be known as Quarry Hill.
Westerly granite lies in sheets up to twenty feet thick. In those early days quarrying was labor intensive as workers relied on picks, crowbars, hand drills, black powder and brute force. The key task of lifting the stones from the quarry was done by workers using teams of oxen, derricks and block and tackle pulleys. The stone was rough cut and often used for curbing, paving stones and building foundations.
At the posted coordinates, you will find a monument prominently featuring a very large acorn.
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LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:
1) Describe the grain (fine, medium or coarse) and color(s) of the granite of the acorn. Which of the four types of granite in the description would you say this is made of? Is the acorn polished or rough?
2) Describe the grain (fine, medium or coarse) and color(s) of the granite of the monument's base. Which of the four types of granite in the description would you say this is made of?
3) Please provide a photo of yourself or a personal item taken with the monument clearly shown in the image.
For those wishing to read more about the history of the Battle of Chickamauga, I recommend starting HERE.