Lunette

Lunette. How Strata Shaped Strategy: The Hupp's Hill Civil War/Karst Interpretive Walking Trail. , Civil War troops could rapidly construct sophisticated earthworks, especially when they were targeted by vastly superior numbers of enemy forces. A well-designated earthwork could more readily absorb a projectile and was therefore more effective against artillery fire than was a masonry fortification which tended to shatter when struck., The artillery emplacement facing you, termed a lunette because if its half-moon shape, was originally built muzzle-high in order to discharge the cannon across the top of the lunette while still protecting the belly of the gun from enemy fire. This lunette, originally constructed after hupp's Hill had been deforested for colonial settlement, was totally swallowed up by secretary forest growth after the war. Careful removal of brush, briars, vines, and other foliage in 2002 revealed this almost perfectly preserved earthwork., Native American Use of Local Trees. Indians equipped with stone tools fully utilized 680+ indigenous species of American trees as sources of food (nuts), medicines, dyes, fuel, canoes, dwellings, bowls, paddles, boxes, clothing, masks, religious images, totems, handles, and tools. Several species are marked on this interpretive trail., Catalpa comes from the Muskogee Creek word katalpa, meaning "head with wings." Catalpa is nicknamed "Indian cigar" and "Indian bead tree" for its pendulous, slender, cylindrical, foot-long seed capsule. Two species of catalpa grow 100 feet fall and produce white flowers with yellow stripes and purple-brown spots., Hickory comes from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccor, meaning "food prepared from pounded nuts." Hickory trees produce plentiful nuts that Eastern Indians pounded and boiled into "hickory milk" that was blended into stews and bread. Seventeen species of hickory also produced hardwood that was ideal for making bows., Cedar wood was used for bows and teepee poles, branches for combs, split roots for the foundation of woven baskets, and boughs for cot mattresses. The conifer was burnt 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, which Indians smoked to induce dreams, to show respect for a visitor, and to cure illnesses. . This historical marker was erected by Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation. It is in Strasburg in Shenandoah County Virginia