Springfield in the Spanish American War

PREFACE

In the Spanish-American war of 1898, Springfield rose to the occasion as she did in 1776 and 1861 and sent her youngest and best and bravest sons to the front. It was her sons who fought and fell at El Caney, the one battle of modern times where infantry, practically unsupported by artillery, captured a well fortified town and it was her sons who were in the lead in drawing the attacking lines so tightly about the city of Santiago that its surrender had to follow. It was her sons also who, on the high seas, on a fast auxiliary cruiser, did faithful service as a portion of the navy and had the satisfaction of doing their share in remembering the Maine by sinking a Spanish transport and a gun boat. Her sons fell on the battlefield and died in the camps and hospitals after enduring as soldiers, the hardships and toils of one of the shortest yet most important and bloodiest campaigns in history and of the honors of that war, Springfield claims a goodly share for herself.

In the near future a monument, the funds for which have been contributed from near and far, will be erected in Springfield to the memory of the officers and men of the Second Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry, U. S. Volunteers who fell or died in the Spanish war. On that monument, whatever form it may take, will be inscribed the names of Bowen, Harry and Paul Vesper, Bearse, Noone, Piper, Boone, Jones, Richmond, Packard, Kelly, Moody, Burnham, Malone, Burke, Little, Stetson, Creley, Lyons and Morehouse. But their names have long before this been permanently inscribed on the hearts of their comrades and in no place are they more secure. They died for the flag, the highest honor possible to an American citizen. This volume is written in the attempt to portray as clearly as memory serves what these men and their comrades did in the war with Spain. While not actually a history, the intention has been to show as clearly as possible the people of Springfield what it was their sons and brothers and friends in her four organizations at the front went through in their short campaign.

CHAPTER I

WHICH IS PRELIMINARY TO THOSE WHICH FOLLOW IT

WITHIN the few years preceding the fateful one of 1898 a decided impetus had been given the military spirit in Springfield by the stationing of two additional companies of the state militia in this city. To the already organized companies, G and B of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, had been added K company, the company of that name in Amherst having been disbanded and its letter transferred to Springfield. The organization in this city of a company of the state naval brigade and the building of a handsome and commodious state armory helped to place the militia of Springfield on a higher level in the public interest and regard than had previously been the case.

Springfield has always been rich in military tradition. Her earliest sons helped fight the Indians who disputed the right of the first settlers to the lands they roamed over in the fertile Connecticut valley; they had served in the Colonial wars and Springfield blood was shed in the Revolutionary war. Soon after this war Springfield was the scene of one of the episodes of Shay's rebellion. In the Civil war she sent her full quota and more of her young men to serve under the flag and after the war the ranks of her militia companies were always kept filled with her best young men. Undoubtedly the presence here of a United States military post and the famous Springfield arsenal has done much to aid in keeping up the military spirit.

For long years, reaching back to a time before the rebel guns opened fire on Fort Sumter, Springfield's one military company was the City guard, which after being attached to several of the state militia organizations became under the final reorganization of the state troops B company of the Second regiment of infantry, M. V. M. In 1868 a number of the veterans of the Civil war organized the Peabody guard which was attached to the Second regiment as G company. Both these companies were always composed of good material and maintained a high place in the state militia, not only for excellence in drill but in discipline and marksmanship. The location of regimental headquarters here several years ago aided in making military interest more rife than for some years.

With four companies of militia instead of two, with headquarters and a fine new armory in place of the more or less unsatisfactory quarters previously occupied and with public feeling more united in their support than it had been for years the militia of Springfield felt they had entered upon a new period and it was one, which though they did not then realize it, was to soon test the courage and soldierly qualities of many of the officers and men of the Springfield militia. But with this then unknown the spirit of soldierly pride and loyalty to their organizations led officers and men to constant striving to be at the top or as near the top as possible, of the militia of the state in all things soldierly. In drill, in discipline, in knowledge of guard duty, in marksmanship and in all the other details that go to make up a good soldier there was assiduous practice and to the furtherance of that end many of the ceremonial features of military life, to which great importance had previously been attached, were discarded as far as possible. This was thoroughly in line with the policy of the state military authorities and its value was to be proven sooner than was anticipated.

It did not take a very far seeing mind to realize in the fall of 1897 and the first two months of 1898 that matters with regard to the policy of the United States in the affairs of Cuba might soon produce a crisis so acute that the military power of the Republic would have to be called upon. Certainly it was realized by the militiamen and the progress of events from the beginning of 1898 to the night of the destruction of the Maine was by none more closely watched than by the men who gathered in the company rooms in the armory each night.

When it was known definitely that the long anticipated call to arms could not be much longer delayed the local militia was never in finer fettle. The ranks of every company were filled and soldierly enthusiasm ran high. New arms, not comparable of course with those of the regular army but better than any previous militia armament, had been issued and the equipments and uniforms were in good and serviceable condition. Applications for enlistment were so numerous that had there been eight companies instead of four their ranks could have easily been filled up.

It was on the 29th of April, 1898, that the call for troops came to Springfield. On the 23d President McKinley had issued the first call for troops and six days later Gov. Wolcott designated Col. E. P. Clark of the Second as one of the six commanding officers to raise a regiment of volunteers for the United States service. It was provided that members of the militia were to be given the preference in enlistments to the volunteer regiments, the residue being made up by enlistment of other citizens. The Second was ordered to report at the state camp ground at South Framingham on May 3 for muster into the United States service. April 29th fell on Friday and May 3 on Tuesday of the following week so that there was not any too much time in which to enlist men for the companies and get everything in readiness for service. But what time there was on hand was so well utilized that promptly at the hour ordered on the morning of May 3d the three Springfield companies were at the armory with full ranks and fully equipped, all the state property and equipage not needed packed up and ready for shipment to the state arsenal.

Every officer of the three companies and fully 70 per cent. of the men who had been in their ranks in the militia service was on hand. Capt. John J. Leonard of G, a veteran in the militia, was at the head of his company and with him his two lieutenants, T. A. Sweeney and E. J. Leyden. Capt. Henry McDonald of B company, a veteran both of the regular army and the militia, and his lieutenants, William L. Young and Harry J. Vesper were on hand promptly and so was Capt. W. S. Warriner and Lieutenants P. C. Powers and Harry H. Parkhurst of K company. All three companies were proud of their officers and they had every reason to be.

And here a little digression. No effort of any kind was made to transfer as absolute unities the companies of militia into companies of United States Volunteers. It can truthfully be said that no man was asked to go to South Framingham by the officers. On the contrary Col. Clark and the company officers were all careful to impress upon the men of the militia that their volunteering into the service of the United States was purely a voluntary and personal matter with them. There were dozens of instances in which the officers realized that the sacrifice was such as some of their men should not make. There were men with families dependent upon them or so otherwise circumstanced that it was best for them not to go and these men were talked to candidly and kindly and dissuaded from putting their names on the enlistment rolls. It was a volunteer movement purely and simply and the Second was in the highest sense of the word a volunteer regiment.

Long before the orders for mobilization at South Framingham were issued preparations had been made to the end that Massachusetts might be ready to respond to the first call for troops from the national government. Early in April Gov. Wolcott had constituted some of the officers of the state militia as his advisory board in matters relating to the part Massachusetts would take in the war. On April 20, Col. Clark of the Second and some of his field and staff officers were called to Boston in consultation with the governor and on the 24th Gov. Wolcott in his capacity of commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the state issued an order calling upon the militia to hold themselves in readiness for duty within 24 hours.

CHAPTER II

WHICH TELLS ABOUT THE CALLING OUT OF H COMPANY, NAVAL BRIGADE

MEANWHILE, and while the infantry were getting in readiness, Springfield had already sent some of her sons on duty. The naval arm of the service was in a far more advanced state of preparation than was the army and it was the general opinion that of necessity the war would be one in which the navy would take the most prominent part, leaving but little for the land forces to do except garrison duty. Springfield had taken great pride in her company of the Massachusetts naval brigade since its organization and expected great things of it in the event of its being called upon for duty.

On April 2 came the first intimation that Springfield was to be called upon for men. Although war had not been declared and strenuous efforts were being made to head it off by the peace-at-any-price men, the navy department had set about getting into commission all the vessels that it could. At the League Island navy yard, Philadelphia, there lay a number of the old time monitors, some of them having been moored there since shortly after the close of the civil war, and it was decided to put them into condition for harbor defense purposes. Two were to be assigned to Boston harbor and on April 2 came orders to Lieut. J. K. Dexter, the commander of H company naval brigade, to proceed to the League Island yard as an officer of one of the monitors. Lieut. Dexter left that night and remained on duty at the yard until April 16, when he returned to bring down the detail of his company which was to form part of the crew of the single turreted monitor Lehigh. It was not until April 17th that the Lehigh detail left for the Philadelphia navy yard although there had been many rumors as to when the men would go and the quarters of the company at the state armory were filled every night with the men and their friends. On the 16th Lieut. Dexter returned unexpectedly from Philadelphia and at once set about getting his detail together. It was on Sunday, but with the aid of the alarm list system, the telephone and special messengers the men were soon notified and assembled at the armory. The detail as finally made up was: Lieut. Jenness K. Dexter; Chief Boatswain's Mate, Frank H. Bowen; Boatswain's Mates, Robert T. Whitehouse, A. T. Wright; Gunner's Mate, F. W. Baum; Coxswain, W. S. Johnson; Acting Coxswain, S. L. Ruden; Quartermaster, W. A. Sabin; and Seamen Paul H. Lathrop, R. H. B. Warburton, W. F. Bright, R. P. King, A. Mellor, A. N. Luce, and L. E. Ladd. The detail marched to the union station at about 8.30 and took the 9 o'clock train for New York, receiving an ovation as it passed through Main street and again at the station as the train pulled out.

On the same day Lieut. (junior grade) Henry S. Crossman, who was in command of the company during the absence of Lieut. Dexter, received orders from Capt. Weeks of the naval brigade to hold himself in readiness to proceed to the Brooklyn navy yard and there report to Admiral Bunce, commanding the yard, as watch officer of the auxiliary cruiser Prairie to which the Massachusetts naval brigade was to be assigned. Lieut. (junior grade) W. O. Cohn was ordered to be in readiness to proceed to Boston and report for duty on the U. S. S. Minnesota, Ensign W. S. Barr was ordered to be in readiness to go to the Brooklyn navy yard as one of the watch officers of the Prairie and Ensign Fred T. Ley was ordered to the same ship as watch officer and Captain's clerk.

On April 22d these orders were changed, Lieut. Cohn and Ensign Barr being ordered to report for duty on board the monitor Lehigh on her arrival in Boston harbor.

On April 23d, Lieut. Crossman received orders to proceed with the remaining men of H company to the Brooklyn navy yard there to go on board the Prairie as part of her crew during the war. These orders were received on the morning of the 23d and as soon as it became known about the city that the men were to go, the war time scenes of 1861 were re-enacted. It was at first planned to have the company take an early evening train but as Lieut. Crossman found they could go just as well on the early morning train from Boston he decided to take that, thus giving the men more time in which to settle up their affairs and get everything in readiness for leaving.

Information about the Prairie had already been pretty well disseminated about the city. It was known that she was formerly the fast steamer, El Sud, of the Morgan line and was capable of doing excellent duty as one of Uncle Sam's auxiliary cruisers. At the time she was in the Brooklyn navy yard being changed over from a passenger and freight vessel to a war ship and the job was requiring longer time than had been anticipated.

The quarters of H company and the state armory were the busiest places in Springfield that afternoon and evening. The "jackies" were getting their dunnage rolls and equipment together and relatives and friends were on hand to say farewell and see their "boys" off. Owing to the time at which the company had orders to leave the armory, 1.30 A. M., it was hardly expected there would be much of a crowd on hand to give the command a suitable farewell but this was a mistake. Long before the hour at which the company was to leave the streets leading to the union station were crowded and more enthusiasm was shown than had been the case in Springfield for many a day. It was at 1.30 o'clock in the morning of the 24th that the company, fully armed, equipped, in the regulation uniform of the jackies of the navy left the armory and marched through Main street to the union station to take the 2.20 train for New York, special cars for the company having been attached to the train. In spite of the lateness of the hour Springfield's citizens and the relatives, friends of the company were determined not to let the command leave the city without some demonstration. All night long up to the time for leaving the armory the building was filled with the relatives, friends of the members as well as those who while not bound to them by any intimate ties yet wished by their presence to show appreciation of the spirit which had prompted the young men to answer their country's call, even though it involved sacrifices hard indeed to make.

From midnight until the hour for departure Main street was well filled with a waiting crowd and when the company marched from its armory, swinging into Main street, a cheer went up which was continuous until the train had borne the company out of sight of the assembled thousands. Rockets and colored fire lent brilliancy to the march and as the station was neared the denser grew the crowd until it was with difficulty a way was cleared for the company. Thousands, men and women, had gathered at the station and it was a scene worthy the pencil of a great artist, that farewell as the men marched up and boarded the cars with military precision. There were cheers and good wishes, personal farewells and tears, all commingling in one mass of sound that the station space had never heard before. But as the engine bell rang and the train began to move with slowly increasing swiftness out of the station all sounds merged into mighty cheers, which rose thunderously from the thousands of people. In that uproar of cheers were submerged for the time the sobs of a few whose near and dear ones were on the train.

So Springfield sent her first contingent to serve under the old flag in the war against Spain.

CHAPTER III

HOW G, B AND K COMPANIES WENT TO SOUTH FRAMINGHAM

WHILE the naval militiamen of Springfield were being sent off to their places of duty amid the cheers of the people plans for the mobilization of the land forces of the state were going on apace. The call of President McKinley for troops was issued on April 23 and six days later on April 29, Col. Embury P. Clark of the Second Regiment of Infantry, M. V. M., was designated by Gov. Wolcott to raise a regiment of volunteers to answer the President's call as one of the four volunteer infantry regiments assigned to Massachusetts. On the same day Col. Clark was ordered to have his regiment report for duty at the state camp ground, South Framingham, at noon of May 3d, he being also ordered to assume command of the camp formed there by the four volunteer regiments.

On receipt of these orders Col. Clark immediately notified his field and staff and company officers and from that time on everything at the state armory was done with a snap and a jump. Only a few days remained before May 3d, for that day fell on Tuesday, and it was Friday afternoon when the orders were received. Under the call the company strength for infantry was fixed at three officers and 74 enlisted men, but had it been 174 instead of 74 there would have been but little trouble in filling up the ranks. More men were anxious to enlist than there were places for and a hard problem for the company officers to face was that of discouraging and rejecting applicants for enlistment most of whom pleaded for the privilege as strongly as a ward politician does for a paying office. On an average about 75 per cent. of the men in the militia companies enlisted in the volunteers and it is only just to state that a good number of those who did not were "talked" out of it by their officers who realized, perhaps better than the men themselves, that going to the front meant more sacrifices than men with dependent families or relatives should be called upon to make.

Meantime all was hurry and bustle at the state armory but order soon came out of all the apparent chaos and early on the morning of Tuesday, May 3d the local field and staff officers of the regiment and G, B and K companies, thus formed in the order of seniority of their captains, stood in the big drill shed, in full marching uniform with knapsacks packed and overcoats rolled up on them looking soldierly, and ready for whatever duty might call them to do.

It was a dismal morning in more than one way. A drizzling rain fell at intervals and there was gloom in many hearts among the crowds of people lining Main street and the union station and its approaches. Though not a shot had yet been fired in actual conflict between the United States and Spain on land and Dewey's great victory at Manila had been won without the loss of a single American life, yet the people were beginning to understand that the grim realities of war might be brought home to them and this thought had its influence in repressing any too enthusiastic demonstration.

But there was a demonstration, nevertheless. Outside the armory were hundreds of spectators, including relatives and friends of the boys and awaiting them were the members of E. K. Wilcox post, G. A. R., the veteran corps of G company and some veterans of B company, all headed by the Second Regiment band to act as escort for the companies as far as the union station.

Shortly after 8 o'clock the troops left the armory and headed by the escort marched through Main street and around Court square to city hall, where the column was reviewed by Mayor H. S. Dickinson and the city government. Thousands of people were massed here and there was some cheering. The fire department boys at headquarters on Pynchon street saluted the troops with a small cannon and on the rest of the way up Main street to the station there was some cheering but not any too much.

At the corner of Main and Lyman streets the escort halted and formed in line. As the companies marched by the old soldiers of the civil war gave us three cheers, in which the militia veterans joined. The remainder of the march to the station was through a close packed crowd of men, women and children. There was some cheering, but as the soldier boys began to file into the waiting cars of the special train sobs and tears broke out from many of the women and as the train pulled out a few moments after 9 o'clock tears were more in evidence than cheers. As one of the boys put it, "They sent the naval boys off with cheers and kept the tears for us."

This feeling was augmented by the enthusiasm with which the people of Worcester sent their three companies off. When our train pulled into the Worcester depot we found the building jammed with people, some perched upon the tops of standing engines and cars and the Worcester companies were so surrounded with people it was at first hard to tell where they were. When our special stopped and the Worcester men began to board it a volume of cheers went up that was almost enough to take the roof off the building. Everyone was cheering apparently and those who were not were so few in number that it was impossible to distinguish them.

After leaving Springfield there were small crowds at every station between there and Worcester and though the train did not stop there was much cheering and waving of hats. This was repeated during the run from Worcester to South Framingham.

It was shortly before noon when we reached South Framingham and marched to the camp ground amid the cheers of the townspeople. Reaching there the companies were dismissed to quarters and dinner, which the company caterers had ready for us, we not going on government rations until some days later. A majority of the boys had been in camp at South Framingham before but this was different. A state militia encampment is one thing and a camp of United States volunteers is another. The old familiar wall tents were there but without the customary big blue chests in which were always stored much that was good in the way of refreshment for tired and thirsty militiamen. There was a trifle of added sharpness to the commands of officers and non-commissioned officers and there were various other little things which combined to show us that we were on the way to be the "real things" instead of "tin soldiers" as we had been dubbed in our militia days.

"Physical examination of recruits" was the rock on which the desires of many of us to get at the hated Spaniards were to split and the rock began to show itself that very afternoon when A of Worcester was ordered over to brigade headquarters for examination. Before the shades of evening fell thirteen of its men had been rejected by the examining surgeons and as bad news always spreads through a camp with greater rapidity than good, many of us were wondering whether we would meet the same fate or not within the next few days.