One of the world's most complete military uniform collections can be seen at the Quartermaster Museum at Fort Lee.   The uniforms date from the 1700s to the present and include boots, helmets and all kinds of special gear such as fearsome looking gas masks and padded dog-training suits.

Many well-known military leaders are remembered.  The museum has General George S. Patton's 1944 jeep with its "steamboat trombones" or air horns and General Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1940 mess jacket and his "pinks and greens" dress uniform.  Amid the many presidential banners used by Taft, Wilson, Harding, Truman and both Roosevelts is the original 50-star flag presented to President Eisenhower.

The museum reveals the diverse functions of the Army Quartermaster Corps which range from providing housing, food, clothing and transportation to arranging funerals.  You'll learn how much the rations of the U.S. soldier, now considered the best in the world, have changed from the fire cakes and water that were standard fare at Valley Forge.

The Corps also quarters and equips animals used by the military.  There's a delightful old recruitment poster that tells potential soldiers, "Join the Cavalry and Have a Courageous Friend....The Horse is Man's Noblest Companion."  The era of the horse soldier is illustrated by a display on the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, whose Black ranks were known as the "Buffalo Soldiers."  You'll also see a reconstructed saddler's workshop and a blacksmith shop.

In the military funeral exhibit, look for the elaborate black caisson used in the funeral of General George Pickett in 1875 and Jefferson Davis on May 31, 1893.  There is also the architect's original model for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery.  A somber black drum used in the funeral cortege of John F. Kennedy causes many a visitor to stop and stand solemnly before it.