USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 41
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Charles L. Brace, who died in 1890, was one whose career brought credit to the home of his childhood. His father, J. P. Brace, a well known educator and writer, came here from Litch- field and for a time was editor of the Courant. The son was grad- uated at Yale in 1846. and went abroad to make special study of reformatory institutions and all practical charities. On his re- turn he founded institutions in New York, including the Chil- dren's Aid Society. He died in Switzerland.
XXXIV
WHEN THE "MAINE" WAS SUNK
CRITICAL PERIOD OF UNREST-SUDDEN CONCEPTION OF WIDER HORIZON AND EXPANSION-HARTFORD COUNTY REGIMENT'S CALL TO DUTY.
This running story of the last two decades of the nineteenth century, with portraits of men, best presents the general condi- tions with which the remarkable twentieth century was to open. The set-back to the country's "Silver Kings" and the re-establish- ment of a better monetary basis and at the same time the over- developing combines in industry and the wild financing of some of the railroads had added fuel to the flame of sectionalism rather than otherwise. Cartoonists in the daily press had come in to sting. Especially were they adding bitterness to political con- tests and, through the so-called "Hearst papers"-of which the New York Journal was then the only one of fame-were stirring to frenzy the more excitable element against the "bloated capi- talists"; the seeds were being sown industriously for the assassi- nation of President Mckinley. The cry was that the rich were getting richer and the poor poorer, and the Federal Senate in particular seemed to be regardless of what any possible grounds for such criticism might mean. Now the cry of the West was that New England, which with men and capital had done so much to build it up, was narrow-minded, selfish, provincial,-a cry that has not yet subsided. The South, while enjoying the benefits of northern capital, abominated the protective tariff and the talk of "infant industries;" its citizens were still sensitive, still dreaming of the old plantation days-still setting the example in hospitality especially for bodies like the First Regiment, C. N. G., the Gov- ernor's Foot Guard and the Putnam Phalanx, always messengers of good will when they went on their southern excursions.
Undoubtedly it was the period to try to capture the dollar so long elusive; undoubtedly there was jealousy and envy even in a community like that which we have been studying; therefore un- doubtedly it was a time, under a free government, when the lower
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FIRST INFANTRY, CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD, LEAVING HARTFORD TO MUSTER IN AS FIRST CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, FOR SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, MAY 4, 1898
Passing reviewing stand (left) at old State House. On right-first pillared building, the Phoenix National Bank; second pillared building, the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company
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passions could be aroused-a time when effort could be perhaps too eager and when the slower-moving could nourish disgust. For such a period in a nation's history, one is likely to get an exagger- ated notion if first he has not taken, here and there, a cross-section of an individual town to study, especially a town in an old agricul- tural region where industry, invention, art, the church and humanitarianism work together.
At best-it must not be forgotten in this analysis-there was little thought in the nation, in the county, about anything outside the United States. Practically the last acre of "home" soil had been taken up or was being put in reserve for some purpose inscrutible to the average man; the whirl was all within the old boundaries. There was, generally, only a mild interest in, let one say, what Spain was doing in Cuba. The newspapers had not adopted screaming headlines; one had to read unillumined columns to get the news; magazines and weeklies were still comparatively few, and special writers, well informed, were only beginning to coax the public appetite, much less create the hunger that characterizes the present day.
One morning, February 16, 1898, the Courant came from the press with a heavy two-column headline over a "double-leaded" dispatch that the pride of the new navy, the battleship Maine, had been blown up at 10 o'clock the previous evening in Havana harbor, with 800 officers and men aboard her. The first words of the commanding officer, Captain Sigsby, were: "Withhold judg- ment till we can investigate." Thousands of that morning's read- ers throughout the state hurled anathemas at the publishers; they had exploited a fake, for such a thing could not be, and when readers rushed for the New York papers that came in on the early train, there was not a line about this in them. Before later editions arrived, the Courant office was beset with indignant citi- zens who, as the old saying was, considered the Courant as next to their Bible.
The explosion which took such heavy toll was from the outside. And America for nearly a hundred years had given no thought to peril from the outside. The week's flurry over the publication of a stolen letter in a Cuban paper, in which the Spanish minister De Lome had criticised President Mckinley, had just subsided, with De Lome's resignation. The government had pressed its representations to a limit beyond which it was unthinkable that
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such a powerful nation would have to go. That was the judg- ment of most of those who had read the papers at all. Now the marching song of "Cuba Libre" was heard in the streets. America had entered upon an era of expansion, brief though it was to be.
Of course, following precedent, the nation was wholly unpre- pared for war, except that the sailors did know considerable about gunnery, thanks to the persistence of Theodore Roosevelt, assist- ant secretary of the navy. Soldiers were few, equipment was scanty. Lessons taught by previous wars and the Indian cam- paigns had been forgotten the day after. In certain of the states, as in Connecticut, a national guard had been brought to fair state of efficiency while in others the chief object had been unique cos- tuming, balls and convivial excursions. The efforts of leading guardsmen to have the government take hold and build up a uni- form and dependable "second line of defense" was not to appeal to Congress till some years later.
Connecticut had two good regiments of ten companies each, and two medium regiments, a light battery and the beginnings of a naval militia, organized two years previously; also a signal corps. The regular establishment called for twelve companies to a regiment, in three battalions. Throughout the country, there was lack of uniformity in many other particulars. State troops, in which the Government had no interest whatever, further than making observations, could be called out by the President only for defensive duty, and then for a period not to exceed three months. Nationally there had been little advance beyond the con- ditions of 1812, but many of the states had gone forward, inde- pendently and peculiarly. And among these brief riot duty had been the main thought; consequently there had been no discrim- ination against men with families dependent upon them, nor yet against those who physically could not endure extensive field service. And it was upon such organizations-not by right to take because of having helped train, but purely as volunteers for a brief period, precisely as Washington had to get his-President Mckinley must now depend to eke out his little body of regular soldiers. There was grievous maladministration in that short war, as naturally as in any of its predecessors.
In all, the President called for 200,000 such volunteers, on a hastily devised plan by which they should come in as organized at home, having been granted furloughs from their states for two
COL. CHARLES L. BURDETT
Commander First Connecticut Volunteer Infan- try in Spanish-American War; acting brigade commander. Killed in a fire in New York, 1902
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years. At the first call, for one infantry regiment and artillery, April 28, the First and Second regiments were ready, with maxi- mum strength. Col. Charles L. Burdett of the First, being the ranking colonel of the brigade, the Hartford County regiment was chosen by Governor Cooke in a competition which was vigor- ous. As time was taken by Adjt .- Gen. George Haven to put the state camp ground at Niantic in good condition, the troops did not report there till May 4. The regiment's departure from Hart- ford, escorted by the Grand Army posts, the Foot Guard, and the Putnam Phalanx, through the most crowded streets Hartford ever had seen, was made a memorable occasion. The Common Council adopted patriotic resolutions and voted $500 for band instruments for the regiment. Cheney Brothers of South Man- chester gave each volunteer from their employ-as nearly all the members of Company G were-an insurance policy for $2,000; Colonel Pope gave his men policies for $1,000, and all the local concerns held positions open to the men against their return within reasonable time.
When physical examinations made it necessary to recruit 20 per cent more, and when on May 25 came the second call for ex- pansion to twelve companies of 106 men each, difficulty was encountered. The Danbury company of the Fourth Regiment and a company raised in Meriden were assigned to the First, but still many recruits were needed. A large proportion of the men in the old regiment were skilled artisans and mechanics; those who were single remained with the colors; those who had de- pendents were freely excused. To fill the quota it was necessary to take many men with no training. Many were eager to improve the opportunity, but here as around the country it was found at this critical moment that men whose judgment had been respected were intimating to possible recruits that, in a cause like this- not very imperative, it was just as well to let the "other fellow" leave his position if he had any and shoulder the gun. The rosters of the twelve companies reveal the presence of many members of the oldest families and also of many of foreign birth or descent; in one company a number of the men could speak English with difficulty. Dewey's victory at Manila seemed to promise an early ending of the war. Outside of the National Guard, enthusiasm was more or less superficial; the lack of preparedness and the painful inefficiency of the Government's military system were
41-VOL. 1
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depressing. It is well that history record the facts that proper comparison may be made with 1917.
The regiment was mustered in May 17 and 18, after days of almost continuous snow and rain. The whereabouts of Cervera's fleet being unknown, panic seized dwellers along the Atlantic coast. The regiment was broken up for duty from Maine to Long Island. Capt. Andrew G. Hammond, a Hartford man, graduate of West Point and captain in the Eighth United States Cavalry, was made lieutenant-colonel in place of Henry S. Redfield, who was compelled to resign because of physical disability. The com- panies were dispatched as follows: C to Fort Constitution, New Hampshire; F and K to Fort Preble, Portland, Me .; E and I to Plum Island; B to Gull Island; the remaining companies and headquarters to Fort Knox, Bucksport, Me. (on June 10), where, on July 4, Alderman Hansling and Councilman Countryman, on behalf of the Hartford Common Council, presented a stand of silk colors. The hardships of making camps in rough places, without proper tools and with tents that were rotten, were lightened by the jokes that were heard over the fact that there was not a round of ammunition in New England except what Lieutenant-Colonel Redfield had bought with the pay that had been given him, nor a fortification worthy of the name. Foundations for fortifications were being dug at Plum and Gull islands. Prof. W. Lispenard Robb of Trinity College, electrical expert of the Hartford Electric Light Company, had been called by the Government in charge of submarine defense in the Sound and to supervise the laying of signal wires.
Though Washington knew there would be no need of it, Colonel Burdett resorted to every means to have the regiment reassembled and removed to a point nearer Cuba. In this he was finally successful and the regiment went to Camp Alger, near Washington, July 18-1,362 officers and men, assigned to the First Division, Second Army Corps. An early trip to Porto Rico was counted upon, but vainly. Bad sanitary conditions com- pelled removal of camp to Dunn Loring, Camp Alger, on higher ground, but with only one pump for the regiment and for the Third Virginia, soon joined by the other regiments of the First Division. There was only one small stream for bathing. Heat was unmerciful, tents small and few, and many slept in the old cornfield furrows. The very day, August 2, that Colonel Burdett
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BRIGADIER GENERAL EDWARD SCHULZE
Fifty-four years in federal and state military service. Private, U. S. A., 1867; held successive commissions in C. N. G. to Brigadier General by special act of Legislature in 1907; retired in 1921
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was assuming command of the Second Brigade, in compliance with orders, the War Department was ordering new formations (the First in the Fifth Brigade), to go with General Wade to Porto Rico. Before the expedition could be prepared, or on August 12, the protocol was signed and there was to be no more fighting.
The excitement abating, even rugged constitutions yielded to the general attack of typhoid fever. In a few days hospitals were so overcrowded that Connecticut victims were sent to the Hart- ford Hospital. Late in August it came the turn of the regiment to prepare for muster out. Because of the prevalence of typhoid, a thirty days' furlough was ordered and then the command was sent to Niantic for change of climate. After a thirty days' leave, it was mustered out at Hartford and New Britain October 31, demoralized by the fever, for which many men were being nursed in the Hartford and New Britain hospitals.
The tour of Federal duty ended, the regiment, with numbers reduced to peace footing, was returned to the National Guard. As the state was unable to uniform and equip it, there were no drills till the following May. On the 18th of that month, a field day was held in Colt's Meadows, with a parade in the afternoon and the presentation of the colors to Governor P. C. Lounsbury to be placed in Battle-Flag Corridor.
Colonel Burdett resigned in November, with a strong tinge of reproach in his letter to the regiment for the way the command had been treated by the Government, and was succeeded by Maj. Edward Schulze. Colonel Schulze served with such efficiency that on his retirement in 1907 he was given the rank of brigadier- general by special act of the Legislature. Col. John Hickey of South Manchester, who had seen service in the Philippines after the Spanish war, succeeded him. Colonel Burdett, who lost his life in a hotel fire in New York in 1902, was at one time a partner of Congressman Simonds and afterwards had his own office, deal- ing mostly in patent law. He was active in politics and served in the Common Council. He joined the National Guard (Com- pany K) in 1880 and was made engineer and signal officer of the brigade in 1883 and colonel in 1892, succeeding Charles B. Erichson of New Britain. Also he was one of the most prom- inent wheelmen of the state. He was born in Nantucket, Mass., in 1848.
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General Schulze came to this country from Germany at an early age and served in the United States Army on the plains, after which he made his home in Hartford, as a carpenter and builder, later supervisor of that line of work at the Capitol. Joining Company A of the First in 1872, he served continu- ously until his complete retirement in 1921. After his retire- ment from the colonelcy, he continued as inspector-general, then as assistant adjutant-general. In the World war he was General Burpee's chief of staff, and at his retirement he was again assist- ant adjutant-general. The length of record of military service is said to be unexcelled in the United States.
The headquarters and company commanders of the First Con- necticut Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish war were:
Colonel, Charles L. Burdett; lieutenant-colonel, Andrew G. Hammond; majors, John Hickey (South Manchester), Edward Schulze; adjutant, Jonathan M. Wainwright; quartermaster, Arthur H. Bronson; battalion adjutants, Patrick J. Cosgrove, Frank E. Johnson; surgeon, Thomas F. Rockwell (Rockville) ; assistant surgeons, Richard S. Griswold (killed later in the Philippines), John B. McCook; chaplain, Henry H. Kelsey. Capt. Charles W. Burpee, retired, as volunteer aid, acted as instructor of the guard during the period in Niantic.
Captains of companies: A, James C. Bailey; B, John F. Moran; C, Martin Laubscher (Rockville) ; D, Sidney M. Leonard (New Britain) ; E, Abraham L. Hauerwas (New Britain) ; F, Charles W. Newton; G, Joel M. Nichols (South Manchester) ; H, William E. Mahoney; I, Charles H. Moore (New Britain) ; K, Herbert H. Saunders; L, Charles B. Bowen ( Meriden) ; M, Vin- cent M. King (Danbury).
Albert P. Day of Hartford did excellent work at Niantic as commissary-general on the governor's staff.
The First Division and Engineer Division (New Haven) and the Second Division (Hartford) of the Naval Battalion assem- bled at Niantic June 6 and 108 enlisted men were taken into the service. All the officers received commissions in the navy, one of them with rank higher than in the militia. The men were assigned to the U. S. S. Minnesota at Boston till mustered out in October. Of the Hartford officers, Lieut. Felton Parker was de- tailed with Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. Day of New Haven to go with the men; Lieut. (J. G.) Herman F. Cuntz and Ensigns
(Coartesy 43d Div. A. S.)
BRIGADIER GENERAL GEORGE M. COLE Enlisted in National Guard in 1884; Lieutenant Colonel Fourth U. S. V. Infantry in Spanish-American War; Adjutant General of the state since 1901
st.
UNVEILING SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR MEMORIAL, BUSHNELL PARK, HARTFORD, MAY 22, 1927
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Louis F. Middlebrook and Lyman Root were detailed respectively to the Sylvia, the Enquirer (and the monitor Jason), the Elfrida (and the Rainbow). Quartermaster Walter H. Allen as cadet served on the Dolphin.
Officers of the National Guard in volunteer service, at large, were: Col. Lucien F. Burpee (Second Regiment), later a resi- dent of Hartford, on staffs successively of Major-General Miles in Porto Rico, Major-General Wilson in organizing the Army of Occupation of Cuba, honorably mentioned for distinguished service in Cuba; Lieut .- Col. George M. Cole (Third Regiment), later a resident of Hartford, lieutenant-colonel Fourth U. S. V. I. (Immunes) in Cuba; Capt. William C. Dwight, major and pay- master, U. S. V .; Maj. John Hickey, South Manchester, captain U. S. V. I., Philippines, to 1901; Assistant Surgeon R. S. Gris- wold, assistant surgeon Twenty-sixth U. S. V. I., in the Philip- pines, major surgeon 1901, killed in action 1901; Capt. Howard A. Giddings (Brigade Signal Corps), captain U. S. Volunteer Signal Corps, acting chief signal corps officer, Seventh Army Corps; Lieut. Philip E. Fairfield (Brigade Signal Corps), ser- geant-major Signal Corps Battalion, Seventh Army Corps, died at Jacksonville, Fla .; Corp. Theodore Gruener, First Regiment, Company K, second lieutenant Forty-sixth U. S. V. I. in the Philippines.
One of the noblest types of the volunteer soldier was Ward Cheney of South Manchester, who went out as a private in Com- pany G of South Manchester, passed examinations and became a lieutenant in the regulars and was first lieutenant and acting adjutant of the Twenty-sixth, U. S. A., when he was killed in the Philippines in 1901. He had graduated with high honors at Yale in 1896 and had a brilliant career before him when he enlisted in the ranks.
First Lieut. Walter G. Penfield of East Berlin was also in the regulars. Maj. James B. Houston of Thompsonville was in the Paymaster's Department, and John K. Bissland of Enfield was paymaster's clerk in that department. A number of the county men served in army or navy in the campaigning after the war, and several were in the expedition to put down the Boxer uprising in China.
In the navy were Rear Admiral Francis M. Bunce, who had served since 1862, and Lieut .- Commander Harry S. Knapp of
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Hartford and Lieut. Roger Welles, Jr., of Berlin. Robert W. Huntington of Hartford, serving since 1861, was colonel of marines. William Sheffield Cowles of Farmington was com- mander-naval aide to the President at the close of the war. In the army Col. James B. Burbank was serving. He was born in 1838, son of David Burbank of Hartford. Late in the Civil war, in which he was adjutant of the Twentieth Connecticut and re- ceived brevet of major for bravery at Gettysburg, he went into the regular artillery. In 1904 he was promoted to be brigadier- general.
Burdett Camp, No. 4, United Spanish War Veterans, organ- ized in 1902, was to keep alive the memories of that distressful summer, and in May, 1927, one of the most beautiful memorials in New England was to be placed in Bushnell Park near the Capitol. A city commission, with an appropriation of $25,000, had the matter in charge. Evelyn B. Longman Batchelder of Windsor was the sculptor. An exceptionally forceful and grace- ful bronze figure, the "Spirit of Hartford," wings extended, stands on the prow of a vessel suggestive of the marine victories, which rests upon a marble semicircular base on which are sculp- tured appropriate figures. The address on that occasion was by Dr. Orestes Ferrera y Marin, the Cuban ambassador. President Archibald A. Welch of the park board presided. The unveiling was by Mrs. Nathaniel G. Valentine, wife of the war captain of Company K, who recently had died.
XXXV
PHYSICAL FORCES OF NEW CENTURY
LEADERS IN DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL POWER AND DEVICES- TRANSFORMATIONS WROUGHT-INSURANCE AND ITS CAPABLE MEN.
Throughout the nation, the quick subsidence of the patriotic flame of '98 was due to sundry reasons which do not greatly con- cern the Hartford County entity, where through it all there had been a more even keel. One reason, however, there was in com- mon. The scientific and industrial items at the century's close were coming together at what we see now was an astonishing rate to make the opening of the new century even a greater epoch than was dreamed of by those whose trumpets blared and bells rang in the first hours of it. The war had been an interruption to the gathering of mighty forces of progress which could not be delayed for a discussion of the aftermath. Dewey's achievement was relegated, except for history, and the money refunded for the noble arch to be erected in his memory in New York; Bryan's recrudescence brought forth another "sound-money" demonstra- tion, but his real attack this time was upon "imperial expansion," which was something to become less and less a subject of conversa- tion in Congress and by the fireside as time wore on; the impulse was for internal expansion in the new ways hitherto not con- ceived of. One happy effect of the unpreparedness and the volun- teer system of the war was the demonstration of a truly united North and South, an effect most encouraging to internal expansion.
The horseless era already ushered in, the new century was to witness the full dawn of electrical power, the mightiest of all the forces of material progress. And thanks largely to Austin C. Dunham, this city was to continue one of the foremost in the progress, one which demonstrated possibilities of its own concep- tion and one to which scientists turned for experimentation with their conceptions.
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This narrative has touched upon items in the early develop- ment, cherished a few years later because of their primitiveness. Mr. Dunham had been referred to by his associates in bank and industrial directorates as a dreamer and had smiled, as though conscious of what he should see with his own eyes. It was as though he beheld not only the transformation of night into day and of limited shops into constantly expanding factories, but also the scores of shops that inventive geniuses would create to meet the many individual requirements of the new power. As Presi- dent Angell of Yale summarizes it from the layman's standpoint, "The story of electricity in modern life is a romance unequalled in history."
Mr. Dunham (1833-1917), born in South Coventry in 1833, son of Austin Dunham, who was interested in the cotton business and who brought his family here in 1835, eventually building the homestead on Prospect Street which was torn down in 1911 to make way for the Morgan Memorial, was a profound student of economics and public affairs. On his mother's side he was descended from Judge Jesse Root, who figures so prominently in the history of the late eighteenth century. With his father in the cotton business, he continued till the dissolution of the concern and also was in the wool business. When he bought the electric light company it was a bankrupt concern and wise men shook their heads. William Wallace of Ansonia had built the first dynamo in this country in 1875 and had made the first arc light. Attempts by the local company to utilize the ideas which were the subject of ridicule were unsuccessful when in 1881 Mr. Dun- ham turned his mind to it, a charter was obtained and $20,000 was subscribed by such eminent citizens as Morgan G. Bulkeley, Leverett Brainard, George S. Gilman, H. P. Frost, C. B. Erwin and Henry Stanley of New Britain, Burdett Loomis, H. C. Judd, J. H. Root and Sylvester C. Dunham. They had faith in Mr. Dunham and made him president of the company, an office he was to hold for thirty remarkable years. In 1883 the capital of the company was increased to $80,000. It was six years after that before commercial lighting was added to street lighting.
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