The final defense of the castle fell to a handful of young military cadets. They faced, and eventually fell to the battle-hardened veterans of General Winfield Scott’s invading US Army.
Though they are lauded on canvas and in life-size bronze I could not help but notice that the extensive battle damage that the walls of their bastion suffered during their final hours had been patched.
I found one hole but it was easy to see where thousands of others had been filled. Since it was of different materials than the original limestone it aged to a different color.
Visible as light and dark spots against the stone (which on the inside is uniform in color) you can see what a brutal assault took place.
It’s not my National Monument but I feel that those holes were paid for with the blood and lives of those young men.
In Berlin, London, Gettysburg, the Alamo, and dozens of other places that suffered in wars the blemishes have been left in place as a reminder of the Hell that is war. Invariably, I found those places very moving.