USA > Kansas > The fighting Twentieth. History and official souvenir of the Twentieth Kansas Regiment > Part 2
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Nov, 2-Grand reception at Topeka by the people of Kansas.
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History of the "Fighting Twentieth."
Something of the Achievements of the Kansas Volunteers during the Eighteen Months of Army Service.
D URING the thirty-eight years she has belonged to the sisterhood of states, Kansas has never been half so proud of any- thing as she is of the "Fighting Twentieth" regiment. When soldiers were needed to defend the flag the sons of Kansas volunteered. They have fought the good fight, they have kept the faith, and they return conquerors and more than conquerors. They have been put to the test of flood and sword and fire, and the test establishes 100 per cent. of patriotism and valor. No warriors in this or.any age have displayed greater daring in battle, and no soldiery returning to the walks of civil life are entitled to greater honors in peace.
So much has been written of the Twentieth Kansas regiment, and so much is yet to be written, that a record of its achieve- ments in a volume of this size must needs be inadequate. Eight months in the trenches, on the firing line and leading charges over swamps and through jungles on the other side of the globe is not a story to be told in a few lines. It has been fruitful in experience, rich in adventure, pathetic in hardships, and cruel in disease and death. But no discomfort has daunted the ardor of those sturdy Kansas boys, and no peril has restrained them. It is a matter of record that the only trouble the Kansans have caused their superior officers has arisen through the tendency to get too far in advance of the others. They were first in war; let it be written also that they are first in peace and first in the hearts of the people of Kansas.
There has never been anything of the tin soldier about the Twentieth. It has never been arrayed in gaudy togs with gilt braid, tinsel, and plumes. It has never gone forth to sham battle for the edification of a grand-stand. Its fighting has been real fighting, and hardships began with the day of enlistment. There was a downpour of dreary rain almost every day during the stay at Camp Leedy, in the Topeka fair-grounds. The soldiers were wretchedly equipped in tents, blankets, clothing, provisions, and other essentials to camp comfort. When they enlisted most of the young men came in their poorest clothing, for they expected a grateful government to furnish them with uniforms forthwith. When they reached San Francisco the red tape of the War Depart- ment had not been sufficiently untangled to vouchsafe uniforms to the regiment. It is fortunate that the coat does not make the man, for the Twentieth, when it arrived at San Francisco, certainly did not offer the outward appearance of an ideal soldiery. Regiments on all sides were more fortunately equipped, and the Kansas boys who have since won fame and glory were then objects
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17
AALTEN
CAMP SCENE IN SAN FRANCISCO.
of ridicule and jest. The daily newspapers of San Francisco referred to them facetiously as the "Kansas scarecrows," and reporters wrote "humorous" pieces about them. This sentiment, to some extent, was imparted to the commanding officers of the camp, and the Jayhawkers were contemptuously assigned to space on the sand lots.
Such treatment as they received at San Francisco, and in a lesser degree at Topeka, would have disheartened a less sturdy regiment. Their pride and their temper were sorely tested, but they accepted all the jibes and abuse with equanimity, and de- voted their whole time to becoming good soldiers. During the tedious days of waiting at the Presidio they were drilled and dis- ciplined. The officers studied manuals and tactics and made themselves proficient in the military code, while the privates, like Tommy Atkins, were taught "how to walk and where to put his feet," and other more essential items in transforming the citizen into the soldier. The Kansans worked hard, behaved themselves, and attended strictly to their own business. After five months of this treatment the Kansas volunteers were, to all intents and purposes, regulars. There was no more "fit" regiment in the service.
The Twentieth was the first regiment ever mustered into government service from Kansas that did not have one man in it who signed his name with "his mark." The cross did not appear on the muster-rolls. Proof of the material composing the Twentieth Kansas was given in the six months the regiment spent in America, as all trials and tribulations were faced by the soldier, as he has since faced Filipino bullets, with patient, silent courage, with self-sacrificing, unboastful heroism of the true American brand. In justice to those who were slow to appreciate the Twentieth Kansas until it had fought its way to fame, it should be said that the splendid and elaborate ovations which the boys are receiving wherever they go may be accepted as ample atonement for the neglect of eighteen months ago.
On April 20, 1898, when this government delivered its ultimatum to Spain and it was known that war would be inevitable, the average Kansas youth began to have a faint conception of what war meant. His father had been a fighter before him and his stories of the civil war had served to pass the time around many a winter's fire, but it took the condition immediately following the issuance of the ultimatum to Spain to bring the son to a realization of what the father had seen. The days immediately fol- lowing the cabling of the ultimatum to Spain were filled with lively times in Kansas. The farmers drove to the nearest town to hear the latest news and the young men filled the county-seats in the hope of getting a chance to offer their services to the govern- ment for the conflict which they knew must ensue. On April 22, Governor John W. Leedy announced that he would appoint Fred. Funston to be colonel of the first regiment raised by Kansas. This appointment met with general approval in Kansas, as Funston was known to have a better knowledge of Cuba and the Cubans than any man in Kansas. It was then expected that the fighting would largely be confined to that island. Fred. Funston had but recently returned from Cuba, where he had enlisted in the Cuban army as a private and risen to the position of chief of artillery of General Garcia's army.
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TA ZAZNA
TWENTIETH KANSAS AT THE PRESIDIO GATE.
On April 23, President Mckinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers, and on April 26 Governor Leedy issued a proclamation calling for three regiments of volunteers and naming the recruiting stations in the state. Then arose a controversy between Gov- ernor Leedy and Secretary of War Alger as to where the regiments should be mustered into the federal service. The government favored Leavenworth and Governor Leedy was determined that it should be Topeka, for the reason, he said, "I want them here where I can look after them and see what they want." Secretary Alger finally permitted the troops to be mustered in at Topeka.
On April 30, the day before the battle of Manila, the first company marched out to Camp Leedy, south of Topeka. This was company A of the Twentieth Kansas, which had been organized in Topeka on April 29. The day was wet and chilly. The com- pany reached camp at about nine o'clock in the morning and the tents for the ninety men who composed it were pitched at noon. The afternoon was devoted to pitching the tents for the Kansas City, Kan., company, B, which arrived before supper time. For the next two weeks companies were arriving at Camp Leedy on almost every train. Tents were pitched, ditches dug, and the con- dition of the soldiers made as comfortable as possible. Officers who had left the farm, the school-room and the printing-office but two weeks before spent their time qualifying themselves to teach the duties of a soldier to the privates.
As the crowd of recruits began to form into regiments, the subject of the numbering of the regiments came up for discussion. The old soldiers of the state asked that the first regiment be numbered the Twentieth, because Kansas had mustered nineteen regiments during the civil war. Out of deference to their wishes, Funston's regiment was numbered the Twentieth. Colonel Funston returned from Washington on May 11. He had been called before the Board of Strategy to give information of the to- pography of Cuba. When he returned, the companies which were to compose his regiment were announced. They were the com- panies recruited in Topeka (A), Kansas City (B), Leavenworth (C), Pittsburg (D), Leroy (E), Fort Scott (F), Independence (G), Lawrence (H), Paola (I), Osawatomie (K), Abilene (L), and Salina (M).
By this time the War Department had practically decided that the Twentieth regiment should go to the Philippines, and Colonel Funston was eager to start. On May 11 the colonel received a telegram calling him to Tampa for service on the staff of General Miles. After securing permission from Governor Leedy to turn the command of the regiment over to Lieut .- Col. E. C. Little, Funston set out for Tampa. The Twentieth regiment spent sixteen days in Camp Leedy, and of that time there were but two days when it was not raining. The soldiers were very poorly equipped in the way of blankets, shoes, and clothing. Their condition was pitiable, and would have been disheartening to a less hardy body of men. The regiment was officially mustered into the United States service May 13. It then seemed likely that the regiment would be relieved of its miserable condition. The government, however, gave no relief. The men of the Twentieth Kansas did not complain, however. Far from advertising any feeling of injustice, it was only wrung from them by the most tactful questioning.
On May 16, at daylight, the regiment broke camp and loaded the tents and other equipment on wagons to be hauled to the
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GENERAL MERRIAM REVIEWING THE KANSAS REGIMENT.
train. Orders had been received for the regiment to go immediately to San Francisco and from there to the Philippines. Owing to a disagreement between the commissary departments of the Twentieth and Twenty-first regiments, the Twentieth, with all its other troubles, started to San Francisco with barely enough travel rations to last it on the trip. The regiment boarded the Union Pacific train at three o'clock in the afternoon and started for San Francisco. It arrived there May 20 and spent the next five months at the Pacific coast rendezvous.
FIVE MONTHS IN SAN FRANCISCO.
For more than five months, from May 20 to October 27, the Twentieth was kept at San Francisco. Its stay at the Presidio is best described in an article from the pen of William A. Snow, in the Kansas City Star of October 11. It was written by Mr. Snow two days before his death. A portion of it follows:
Had not the men who compose the Twentieth Kansas regi- ment been subjected to a few peculiar, not to say distressing, circumstances before their departure for the Philippines they could not appreciate to the full the triumph of their return. It is only through struggle that a Kansan finally attains the stars. He would spurn to achieve glory other than by the es- tablished route laid down in the motto of his state.
It is probable that the Kansans remember their march of a year ago, May 20, 1898. The men had paid no attention to costume then. They had come westward to fight and they cared not how they looked. San Francisco was to them only a temporary stopping place, and they were not on exhibition. Only four of the entire twelve companies had about them any suggestion of the army blue. There was a wonderful variety of travel-stained and wrinkled civilian clothes, with nothing to distinguish officers from privates. Light-colored canvas cartridge belts were buckled around faded cutaway coats, about peculiar sack coats, and over ancient cloth of many hues. Grimy, unshaven faces completed the suggestion of a
hasty departure from home and a rough-and-ready willingness to appear " any old way " pending the coming of the government outfits for which the plainsmen could not wait in their eager- ness to be at the front. They tumbled out of their cars at the Oakland mole like shipwrecked seamen cast upon a friendly shore. Lined up by companies they responded to roll-call and took orders from men who stood apart so that their rank might be distinct in the motley array of rifle bearers.
The Kansans were a rich find for the newspaper men. Writers for the San Francisco papers had been dealing in he- roics for so long that their store was well-nigh exhausted. They welcomed the Kansas men as fit subjects for burlesque, and treated them accordingly. They called them the "dudes from the plains," but, withal, they recognized them as men who would not flinch in the face of danger. And now the eager space grabber forget the truth !
" Many of these men from the prairie never saw a respect- able mountain until they crossed the Rockies," said the San Francisco Chronicle, "and were never in sight or smell of tide -
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0 OF I LAHT
AALTON & ROSE, K.G.
GROUP OF FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS, BEFORE LEAVING SAN FRANCISCO.
water before. The belated Kansans slept at Sixteenth street station Friday night. When they went to sleep the waters of the bay were lapping the rocks of the embankment. When they awoke the tide was out and there was a wide expanse of mud. The commanding officer called to a sentry :
"'Hello! Where's all that water that was out there last night ?'
"Darned if I know,' responded the equally puzzled sentry.
"Another lad from the plains has never seen a lemon. Upon receiving one at the ferry he declined to eat it and said he was ' going to send it to the folks.' Every one noted that the Kan- sans have their hats fastened to their heads with elastics, hav- ing come from the land where the strong wind blows. Several of their companies, lacking uniforms, wear the homespun and overalls of the farm, nondescript hats, and some of them are wearing Connemara caps pulled down over their ears in typ- ical cyclone fashion. Only the cartridge belts, with the 'U. S.' on the buckles, and the guns in their unaccustomed fingers proclaim them as belonging to Uncle Sam.
"Most of the Kansans are the newest recruits, and the drill- ing of them will require limitless patience. They are blondes, chiefly, with brown skins and light hair, the one burnd by the sun, the other bleached. Their eyes have a far-away look, as of men who remember the grasshopper, the army-worm, and other things that make living tough in Kansas. The high cheek bones tell of the Scandinavian blood that is in them. They do not look the sort of men to be afraid. There are whole companies of them who do not know the meaning of a single command. They have the record on the way out of looting
everything that came their way. They played the grasshop- per role they know so well, and ate up everything on their line of march.
"One company was slow in the line, and the captain re- marked: 'All set, boys? Well, come along.' And with this informal command the company moved off at a dog trot.
"Several of the men complained of sore feet, and from under the edge of one tent appeared a pair of huge understandings, guiltless of shoes or stockings. The owner was washing them in the rain."
But for all of the Kansans' lack of uniform and drill they were cheered again and again as they marched up Market street on their way to Camp Merritt. It was after reaching camp that an incident occurred that first gratified and later wounded the pride of Lieutenant Colonel Little, who was then in command, Colonel Funston, being in Tampa, Fla. A woman reporter visited camp and was "shown around " by the ex-consul to Cairo. She returned to the office and wrote a "roast." The lieutenant colonel was very wroth at what he termed a violation of military etiquette. He threatened to ex- clude the reporter from the Kansas lines, and soon Little's warfare with the newspapers became a byword.
After this the public learned of all the queer points in which the Jayhawkers excelled. The Kansas camp came to be visited by the idle and the curious as if it were a menagerie of unique specimens. The Kansas boys were quick to " catch on," and the crowd looking for strange sights never failed to find a plenty of them. One Kansan attracted great attention by the curious manner in which he ate broth with his fingers.
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Wwwgets
LAST PARADE OF THE KANSANS BEFORE LEAVING SAN FRANCISCO.
A sorry-looking volunteer, in a suit of many seasons, when asked who his tailor was, replied, that they "didn't have none of them things in Kansas." All of these curious observations and many more were duly printed, and the gentler folk of the city began to send missionaries to the Kansas camp. Besides the missionaries came another class which the plainsmen greeted with acclamations. Pretty young women with kind hearts and baskets of good things under their arms made daily visits along the Kansas line, passing fruit and dainties over the fence to hungry soldier lads. Indeed, the constant banqueting made the camp look like one great picnic ground. Then sub- scriptions were taken up among the good people of San Fran- cisco, and great boxes of suitings, shoes and stockings arrived in camp. All the suits were not of the same material and pattern, however, and though they served to keep out the cold better than the rags which were now discarded, they still gave to the Kansas troops a motley appearance. About this time we find carefully noted in the San Francisco press that at the suggestion of Mrs. Spear, wife of the collector of the port, Lieutenant Colonel Little had engaged the services of two military tailors, "so that the Kansas boys might present the natty appearance of their brother volunteers."
Soon afterwards the first instalment of government sup- plies arrived. There was much red-tape attending the distri- bution of government supplies, but Lieutenant Colonel Little would have none of that. "Here, you fellows, you need these things; just break open the boxes and help yourselves," was his generous command.
And right gleefully the soldiers looted the boxes, some of
them carrying off several pairs of shoes and several suits of clothes of various sizes, while others got nothing at all.
On Decoration Day San Francisco arranged a great parade, and all the regiments in Camp Merritt were to participate. The Kansans, however, were overlooked in the invitation, pre- sumably on account of their unsoldier-like appearance. This was "the most unkindest cut of all" to the patriotic Kansas volunteers. They made no complaint, however, but quietly held a service of their own.
The arrival of General King found the regiment in a de- plorable condition. The Kansas hoys did not know the com- manding officer of the brigade. General King was somewhat surprised and shocked, therefore, on his appearance on the Kansas line to find the sentries perched on fence rails whit- tling, unconscious of the presence of a superior officer. The general looked at them in astonished silence, expecting them to come out of their dream and salute, but never a salute got he. Out of all patience, he ranged them in a row and made them salute him for an hour. But this was not the worst; he found many of the officers lacking in military etiquette, and he also took a turn at giving them instruction, ranging them in a line in front of the Kansas camp.
The old Bay district was soon found inadaptable for a mili- tary camp, and one after another the regiments of volunteers were removed to the Presidio, but it did not seem to concern the military hoard what became of Kansas, and the Twentieth was left to the sand-and slime and unsanitary surroundings of Camp Merritt. Any sort of treatment seemed good enough for Kansas, and the sick-hearted volunteers saw themselves
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1
BREAKING CAMP AT THE PRESIDIO TO BOARD THE TRANSPORT.
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assigned to dirty camping places, which other more-favored regiments and newer to the service had spurned. The Twen- tieth Kansas was among the last of the regiments to be as- signed to the high ground at the Presidio. It is little wonder that the Kansas soldiers became reckless and " ran the guards" every night, and did penance, toiling at their drill in the filled sand of the old Bay district every day. To add to their misery measles broke out in camp and became epidemic. On June 17 the first deaths occurred-Orville H. Knight, of Fort Scott, pneumonia, and Albert Fergus, Yates Center, spinal meningi- tis. It was on this same day that the arrival of Col. Freder- ick Funston brought good cheer to the drooping spirits of the men. Just a week after the colonel's arrival Brigadier Gen- eral King said: "It may interest the public to know that the Twentieth Kansas regiment is improving every day under its new commander, Colonel Funston. Every morning now he is going to take his men out on the hills for extended order drills and target practice."
The Kansans were consumed with anxiety to be at the front and worked at drill with feverish energy. It was gener-
ally understood that Kansas would go on the third expeditiou, but this departed without the men from the Sunflower state. With the coming of every transport the Kansans expected to be assigned, but as transport after transport sailed with its quota of fighting men, as regiment after regiment that had come to San Francisco long after the Twentieth departed for the scene of action, the Kansans came almost to lose hope of reaching the Philippines. At last, after five months of wait- ing, the regiment was assigned to the Indiana and the New- port, sailing October 27 and November 8, respectively. The Kansans, who had been among the first to reach the place of mobilization, were the last to go. But the departure was none the less gay on that account, for the Jayhawkers, after all their woes, were to see active service at last.
But now that the world has the record of the fighting Twentieth Kansas, there is nothing too good for the boys on their return. San Francisco is anxious to make amends for burlesque and caricature which were so freely offered to Fun- ston's men a year ago. No regiment received a warmer greet- ing than did the Twentieth Kansas.
The long-delayed order from the War Department assigning the Twentieth Kansas to service in the Philippines was received with demonstrations of delight. The regiment was in prime condition, and the assignment appealed to the adventuresome spirit of the Jayhawkers. On October 27 the second and third battalions broke camp and boarded the transport Indiana. The first battalion did not sail until November 1. The voyage across the Pacific ocean was not particularly noteworthy. Some seasickness there was, but the Kansas boys bore up under it with the same measure of fortitude that they had displayed on previous occasions, and which they manifested at every subsequent engagement in Luzon. The transports stopped four days at Honolulu, and the patriotic Americans of the islands were lavish in the hospitality shown the young Kansans. The few days passed at Honolulu are one of the brightest pages in the regiment's book of remembrance.
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KANSAS SOLDIERS ON BOARD TRANSPORT, BOUND FOR MANILA.
THE TWENTIETH IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
Like Dewey, the transport Indiana arrived at Manila bay early in the morning, on December 1, having on board the second and third battalions of the Twentieth. The first battalion, on the transport Newport, arrived six days later. The regiment dis- embarked without much delay, and went into quarters in a large building formerly used as a tobacco warehouse. On January 23 they moved from the old warehouse quarters to the camp ground formerly occupied by the Wyoming troops. During the next eleven days they were hourly in expectation of orders to go to the front to defend the city of Manila against the threatened attack of the insurgents. The order came on February 4, and the Kansans were assigned to an important position north of Manila. On - this day occurred the opening engagement between the American troops and the insurgents. It was little more than a ekirmish, but it was sufficient to show what manner of men the Twentieth Kansas men were. There was not an officer or a private but appeared to delight in battle. It was the test, and no "yellow " was found. From this time on the regiment was given little rest.
It was about this time that the "Kansas scarecrows" became known as the "fighting Twentieth." The Jayhawkers appar- ently took to fighting like a duck takes to water. The trouble was always to keep the Kansans back-they went ahead too fast, and fleet were those who kept up. It used to be that when the Spaniards were fighting the insurgents they would go out in the jungle, light their cigarettes, exchange a dozen shots, retreat, and spend the next three weeks talking about it. This was the Spaniard's idea of a "campaign." The Kansans introduced a different kind of campaign. The scriptural injunction, "pray without ceasing," they adapted to "fight without ceasing." A regiment that swam rivers as easily as it dashed across the open was an innovation to the natives. A regiment that scaled trestles, and went into battle giving the Kansas university yell, "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, K. U.," was something appalling to the "little brown brothers," who were accustomed to nothing fiercer than Spanish warfare, accompanied by Spanish marksmanship and Spanish cigarettes.
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