Anyone who has visited Huntsville knows how important Wernher von Braun and his German rocket team are to the town’s residents. Even a casual observer will notice that von Braun’s iconic name and image are featured on or in multiple public institutions, such as the airport, the civic center, multiple buildings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and on Redstone Arsenal, and least surprisingly, the United States Space & Rocket Center.
“Where are we drifting?” asked Thomas Fearn on the eve of the Civil War, “and at what point shall we land? God grant that it may end as well with us, as with the great many too.” Fearn was not an overly religious man, but he had reasons for invoking this small prayer. The Huntsville resident was seventy-two years old and not in good health; his career as a medical doctor had long passed, so too had his work as a cotton merchant, public works champion, and institution builder. What was left—his family, his farms, and his slaves— would soon be under siege from advancing Union forces. |
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