Museum entrance is directly behind Rees
Rees - entrance to
museum
Rock from Remagen Bridge abutment
with plaque showing bridge, Rhine River,
and 9th Engr crest.
Remagen bridge
abutment stone
- plaque on reverse side
Zoom with your browser to read plaque.
9th Engineer
Battalion (Combat) plaque
Engineer Regimental Hall
Each Engineer unit is represented by such a plaque
Note the omission of the 9th EB(C) attachment to 540th Engineer Group during the 1960's!
Bailey Bridge model
Single-Single to Triple-Triple
Neat!
There is a full-size bridge (few panels long) also in the exhibit.
The Bailey Bridge is still being used!
Officer dress uniform Epaulettes from the Mexican War era.
Would have looked neat on Blues!
Section of Berlin
Wall
(including graffiti)
The Engineer Castle
(from plaque at Engineer Museum)
Castles and fortifications have been associated together for centuries. Castles, or elements of castles, have appeared on crests of families whose members have laid siege to or built and defended castles. Some of the earliest fortifications built in America have been referred to as “Castles, such as Castle Williams on Governors Island in New York.
Because engineers have had the mission of building and breaching fortifications for more than a thousand years, the castle has had a particular association with the engineers. In the early drawings of coastal fortifications in America, there is a shield marked “U.S. Engineer Department” with a castle emblem on the shield. An element of fortifications is found on the unique button work by Engineers since 1812.
The oldest official association of the castle with the Corps of Engineers is a recommendation made by the Chief of Engineers in 1830 to use the turreted castle as an emblem on the uniform of the Corps of Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. This was only natural as the Military Academy was under the supervision and direction of the Chief of Engineers at that time.
In 1840, a regulation defining the elements of Army uniforms specifically directed the wear of a silver castle on the epaulettes, forage caps, and belt plates of Engineer officers. A similar regulation in 1851 continued this with the change that the castle be surrounded by a gold embroidered wreath of laurel and palm. Enlisted personnel wore the same castle, but one made of gold metal. In 1921, the Army directed that the castles of both officer and enlisted personnel be gold in color.
The castle is the ideal symbol of the Engineers. It represents the centuries old association of the engineers with the construction of fortifications and defensive positions and their destruction by breaching and assault. The castle also, therefore, represents the engineers in both offensive and defensive operations.