USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 43
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The state of Missouri had never been very liberal in her appropriations for her national guard. During the administration of Gov. D. R. Francis several years previous to this, the Missouri state militia had been re-organ- ized into a single brigade, consisting, however, of four regiments and bat- tery of light artillery. These constituted the national guard of Missouri. The battery and First Infantry were organizations composed of St. Louis men exclusively. The Third Infantry was from Kansas City and Jackson county. The Fourth Infantry was from St. Joseph and vicinity, while the Second Infantry (our regiment) was composed of men from central and southwest Missouri.
.At this time the Second was known to be the largest and most efficient organization of the Missouri national guard. It was commanded by Col. W. K. Caffee. of Carthage, a very efficient officer and one who took great pride in his regiment. The cities of Butler. Clinton, Carthage. Joplin, Lamar, Jefferson City, Nevada. Pierce City, Sedalia and Springfield each had one company in the Second Regiment. These companies had all been recruited to full strength, and when the call came for volunteers were ready to move.
Springfield's company was known as "Company K." and was commanded
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by Capt. A. B. Diggins, who had previously been lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, but had resigned that position in order to take command of Com- pany K, and keep that company in the regiment. Wesley Benedict, now a well-known business man of Catoosa, Oklahoma, was first lieutenant. The second lieutenant was Harry D. Durst, now a prominent lawyer of Spring- field. Company K was a clean, efficient organization, well disciplined, and very popular in the regiment. It was fully equipped at this time and ready to move.
NATIONAL GUARD REQUIREMENTS.
The volunteer call required ,all national guard regiments who were to come into the United States service to contain twelve companies. None of the Missouri regiments at that time had more than ten companies, and it was only the Second Regiment who had that many. As a consequence, all regi- mental commanders were required to fill their regiments to twelve companies. Colonel Caffee required two more companies for the Second Missouri and decided that the two should come from Sedalia and Springfield. It was because of this that Springfield was able to contribute two companies to that regiment.
Although I had been one of the commissioned officers at its organization several years before, at this time I was not a member of the national guard. My former connection with the regiment was the reason why Colonel Caffee offered me command of a new company provided one could be organized im- mediately. The telegram from Colonel Caffee asking me to act came to me on the afternoon of May 3, 1898. Upon my telegraphic acceptance of the honor immediately afterwards, I was given authority from Jefferson City. Captain Diggins was appointed to muster into the state service the new com- pany as soon as I had completed the organization. The company would be known as "Company M." I was able to organize the company within twenty-four hours. I was selected as its captain, while George H. Town- send, a former captain in the old Fifth Missouri, was selected as first lieu- tenant. The selection of a second lieutenant was deferred until after our establishment in camp at Jefferson Barracks. Neither officers nor men had uniforms and looked like anything but soldiers. Our appearance caused some frivolous person to name the company "McAfee's Guerrillas," a name which lasted long enough to afford the basis of a most amusing incident later on, which will be related in its turn.
Company M was organized one day and departed the next. I have heard of no similar instance of quick work, yet the matter was not so difficult as it might appear, and the fact reflects the temper of the times rather than any creditable performance of the organizer. It was much more difficult to keep men out of the new company than to take them in. Captain Diggins
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had been compelled to turn away a hundred or more applicants seeking to join Company K, and these, of course, sought to enlist in the new company. Twenty men from Texas county telegraphed me on the night of the 3rd to save places for them. These men, or the most of them, headed by W. E. Barton, now a prominent attorney at Houston, walked from Houston to Cabool, a distance of twenty miles, in the night time, in order to get to Spring- field. There were two hundred and seventy-eight applications for enlist- ment, and out of this number was selected the eighty-four men required.
May 4th, the day the company was organized, and while enlistment was going on, the telegraphic order came for Missouri troops to move to Jefferson Barracks. B. E. Meyer, manager of the Busch interests in Springfield, was running an ice plant. The steam whistle was set going and for an hour blew a steady blast. That was recognized as the war signal and all was excitement. Everybody wanted to help, and all did help who could. B. E. Meyer turned over for the use of the new company a building of ample floor space for drill purposes. It was in this hall that the two officers were elected and the company mustered in as a national guard company of the Second Regiment.
FAREWELL RECEPTION.
There had been a constant rain all day and the new company without uniforms presented a bedraggled appearance, but notwithstanding that we were asked to attend a farewell reception and ball that had been arranged for Company K at the Metropolitan Hotel before it was known there would be another company to go. A liberal purse was subscribed by the citizens and equally divided between the two companies, while ten barrels of apples were contributed to us by B. E. Meyer. This constituted the travel rations of Company M until we should reach Jefferson Barracks next day. The two companies took a special train at the old north side Frisco depot that night, Company M marching from the south side in a driving rain. As the train left the depot, every locomotive in the railroad yard whistled a long and loud salute. these were soon joined by the railroad shops and other whistles in the town until the noise was deafening. No more hearty or sincere God- speed was ever given departing soldiers.
Our train took us through to Jefferson Barracks, where all was in con- fusion. My company had neither uniforms, tents, rations or arms. The first thing was to secure tents and this we were able to do through the untir- ing efforts of Emmett Newton, who had been made our commissary and quartermaster sergeant. We drew several large extra tents, anticipating the need of them in case of sickness, and the wisdom of that was soon to be made manifest. The next essential was blankets; these we procured in the city of St. Louis from one of the large stores. Requisitions for rations were hastily
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made and honored so that with the exception of uniforms and arms my com- pany was fairly well possessed of all necessities. All of this was saved to Company K, as that company was well equipped in all things before leaving home, but Company I, of Sedalia, like Company MI, had to provide itself at Jefferson Barracks in a similar way.
All Missouri troops had mobilized at Jefferson Barracks within a few days. In addition, several troops and companies of the regular United States army were there. Regimental camps were established and then began the routine and discipline of army life so irksome to the soldier fresh from civilian ranks. We were required to drill many hours each day, and fur- nished details of men for whatever purpose brigade headquarters required. If any soldier expected a life of ease, he was most grievously disappointed.
After a week's drill, all companies were prepared for the muster into the United States service. Rigid physical examinations were had, and the pre- scribed standards rigidly observed. . My company lost several men from physical defects disclosed by the examination, but their places were filled from the crowds that thronged the barracks clamoring to go to war. It was just previous to this that my second lieutenant was elected. A spirited contest was on between W. E. Barton and Jere D. Cravens with- the result that Cravens was elected. The roster of both Company K and Company M on the day they entered the United States service at Jefferson Barracks follows :
Company K-Captain, A. B. Diggins; first lieutenant, Wesley Benedict; second lieutenant, Harry D. Durst; first -sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, sergeants, corporals, musicians, artificer.
Company M -- Captain, E. C. McAfee ; first lieutenant, George H. Town- send; second lieutenant, Jere D. Cravens; first sergeant, Guy D. Skinner ; quarterinaster sergeant, Emmet Newton; sergeants, B. M. Massey, Charles Rush, Ralph McElhaney, Charles B. McAfee, Jr. ; corporals, James Stewart, Everett Thompson, Joseph Harris, Henry C. Young, Alfred E. Meyer, Will- iam E. Barton; musicians, Almond R. Blair, William H. Howard ; artificer, William H. Harmon.
Before following the story of the two Springfield companies of the Sec- ond Missouri, I will advert to other Greene county soldiers who joined other regiments.
The Fifth Missouri was recruited from the "left overs" at Jefferson Barracks. and several Greene county men enlisted with it. I am unable to procure their names. The Sixth Missouri was next recruited and also con- tained soldiers from this county. The Third United States Volunteer Engineers was a regiment recruited largely from Missourians. That was an excellent regiment and contained a number of young men from Springfield and vicinity. Among these were Joseph Fisher, now prominent in Spring-
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field, W. E. Baker, Louis Allman, Fred Hayes, Walter Opdyche and others, whose present whereabouts I do not know.
The second call for volunteers came in June. It had been learned that negro soldiers could best resist the ravages of the Cuban climate, and authority was given to enlist regiments of negroes under the name of "immunes." The regimental staff and captains of companies were white, but all lieutenants and soldiers were negroes. Commissions to officers of "immune" regiments were issued direct by President Mckinley.
Jesse J. Mayes, then a St. Louis reporter on the Globe Democrat, but a native of Greene county, secured a captain's commission in one of the im- mune regiments and recruited his company at Springfield. His lieutenants were Thomas Campbell, a negro mail carrier, and Joe Armstrong, a former negro member of the Springfield police force. I cannot give the names of the Greene county negroes composing Mayes company. Captain Mayes later secured a lieutenant's commission in the regular United States army and served in the Philippines. I understand that he now holds the rank of captain.
OFF FOR CHICKAMAUGA.
Chickamauga Park, a reserve on the state line between Georgia and Tennessee and but a few miles from Chattanooga, had been selected as a general mobilization camp for the volunteer army. As soon as regiments were taken into the United States service, they were sent to Chickamauga. Ours was the first regiment to leave Jefferson Barracks. We required three special trains, each composed of twelve coaches and a sleeper. In addition there was a baggage train. \ peculiar combination of numbers in connec- tion with our departure from Jefferson Barracks struck terror to the hearts of the superstitious. We were scheduled to reach Chickamauga on May 13th; it required thirteen trains to move the regiment; there were thirteen cars in each train: in our train the engine was numbered four hundred and thirteen, and there were thirteen officers in our sleeper. As we stood in the St. Louis ('nion station and were discussing this remarkable aggregation of thirteens, a newspaper boy boarded the car. Inquiry revealed that he was thirteen years old! This proved too much for Lieutenant Aloe, our battalion adjutant. He contrived to be left that evening, but followed the next day with another reginient. It is a fact worthy of note that our train went through safely, while Aloe's train was wrecked.
Our route was through Indianapolis, thence south through Cincinnati and Covington to Chattanooga. At every town and city through which we passed we were accorded the usual salutes of steam whistles, etc. As our train crossed the Ohio river into Kentucky, we were first made mindful of the loyalty of the southern people. At Covington all troop trains were
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halted beside long lines of tables piled with sandwiches and coffee, and pre- sided over by hundreds of pretty girls. Soldiers were disembarked, fed, and made to feel the hospitable spirit for which the south is noted. I will say here, that our regiment was henceforth quartered among the southern people, and the same spirit was universally manifested.
The railroad station where our troops were finally disembarked was Lytle, Georgia. Ours was among the first regiments to arrive at the park. At that time the town consisted of a depot, postoffice, blacksmith shop and two or three stores. Work had begun on a quartermaster depot platform, but aside from that and a few officers' tents scattered about there was but little to indicate a mobilization camp.
Our regiment was marched about three or four miles within the park and assigned to our place. The country was rocky and rough and much re- sembled the Ozark hills in Stone county. Our camping place was on the slope of a hill covered with forest trees where the ground was so rocky that it was next to impossible to drive a tent-pin. The weather was bad; recent rains had made it muddy wherever there was enough soil. Our lines were established and details for guard duty immediately formed. Meanwhile the soldiers pitched their tents and made preparation for a permanent camp. It was here that the real hardships of army life began.
I do not know who was responsible for selecting sites for the various regimental camps, but as subsequent events proved, it was a sad mistake to establish the camps in the shade of the forests. We all had made "wet camps" and in the forest shade the sun could not reach us to keep us dry. This of itself was a sufficient cause for sickness, but added to the change of climate, diet and water to which all were subjected, it resulted in an early filling up of regimental hospitals which otherwise would have been prevented.
From the time of our arrival the park filled rapidly with regimental camps. Our regiment was assigned to the Third Brigade of the Third Divi- sion of the First Army Corps. Our division was commanded by General Sanger and our brigade by General Andrews. The nine regiments of our division were stationed in regimental camps in convenient proximity to divi- sion headquarters. Elsewhere in the park were stationed other divisions of other corps together with cavalry regiments and batteries of artillery of both the regular and volunteer service. By the end of May upwards of eighty thousand soldiers were there and each regiment fitting itself for the front.
It was but a short time after our arrival at this place that my company was fully equipped. New uniforms, army regulation blankets and clothing supplanted the civilian toggery of Company M, and the company was armed. The regiment underwent a rigid inspection by regular army officers assigned to such duty, and was reported ready to go to the front. This news was hailed with delight, and the Second regiment was proud. Orders to move
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were hourly expected, but alas, little we knew the forces that guided our destinies. Fate decreed that we were never to leave our native shores.
Much conjecture was indulged in as to why our regiment-one that had attained a high mark after rigid inspection-was not selected to go to Cuba, but it was not until afterward that the truth was known. The Second Mis- souri was denied its rights because its colonel, two years before. had an- nounced himself a Free-silver Republican! This fact will be testified to by the Missouri members of Congress at that time, and by United States Senator Cockrell. then chairman of an important senate committee. In the place of our regiment was sent the Seventy-first New York, whose colonel had no such . handicap, but whose conduct before Santiago brought the blush of shame to all who knew of it.
EPIDEMIC OF TYPIIOID.
About the first of June an epidemic of typhoid fever prostrated thousands of soldiers. This was caused principally by flies. Sanitary regulations had been neglected in the great hurry of perfecting the regiments and the division hospitals were inadequate to the great demands upon them. Our regiment was far more fortunate than others; our hospital was in charge of Doctor Crawford, of Sedalia, ably assisted by Lieutenant Rutherford and Captain as assistant surgeons. Dr. R. M. Cowan, now a practicing phy- sician of Springfield, was one of the two hospital stewards. It was the policy of our regiment to keep its sick either in quarters or in the regimental hos- pital, thus avoiding sending them to the division hospital among strangers. At one time my company had fifty-six men on the sick list, nineteen of them having typhoid fever. It is gratifying to remember that none of these suc- cumbed. Later I lost one man, Ora Van Geison, who enlisted from Barry county. Company K also lost William Walker, of Springfield, a dutiful soldier whose death cast a gloom over both companies.
Much has been written of the neglect of soldiers at Chickamauga by the United States government. Much blame was attached where it was not deserved; but it is easily understood where the facts are known. The call for troops called to Chickamauga thousands of volunteers from the various walks of life. They were unfamiliar with army life and knew not what to expect. En route to the camp they were provided with so-called "travel- rations" consisting of hardtack and bacon. This was their introduction to army diet, and they thought themselves restricted to that throughout the term of enlistment.
From ham, eggs, cakes, coffee, ice cream and pie to hardtack and bacon is a severe drop and the soldier's first letter to his mother, sister or sweet- heart proclaimed that he was starving. As a result each mother, sister or sweetheart immediately sent to the soldier a box of grub usually consisting
:
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of a ham, a cooked chicken, a cake and like food. These consignments came, but in the confusion at Lytle, were not delivered until long after. The soldier receiving such food invariably took it to his tent to eat at irregular times, and the result can be imagined. I saw not less than fifty wagon loads of such consignments at Lytle station at one time.
Fortunately I had foreseen this, and when such packages reached my company, I promptly confiscated them and turned them over to the quarter- master. This high-handed procedure on my part nearly caused a revolt in Company M, but when it was understood that each soldier could have his home grub, but at meal time only, there was no further trouble. The practice of sending food to soldiers was confined to the first week or two, after which it ceased altogether; but while it lasted it was the source of much sickness and distress.
The Second Missouri was well officered with men who knew their rights, and had no difficulty in procuring subsistent stores. It is true, however, that many regiments suffered for lack of sufficient food, but that was because of the ignorance of the volunteer officers. This was notably true of Eastern regiments, whose officers, as a rule, came from large cities. They seemed helpless. The government supplid the camp with the best food known. Train loads of fresh beef, packed in ice, came daily from Chicago packing houses. Potatoes, cabbage, coffee, sugar, fresh milk, butter, and bread fresh baked on the ground was furnished. Never was an army better supplied. Yet, because of the inexperience, over-caution and timidity of of- ficers, it was a long time before some regiments were properly fed. The gov- ernment deserves no censure for a lack of food at Chickamauga.
The government furnished wood for fuel. A lanky Georgian had the contract, and, with a score of wagons, delivered wood at each regiment, for which he took a receipt. I think he expressed the situation tritely when he declared to me something like this: "I'm mighty glad to get around to a Missouri camp. A Missourian knows a cord of wood as far as he can see it, but these d- New Yorkers want to count every stick!"
Our regiment was surrounded by Eastern regiments, principally from New York, Pennsylvania and the New England states. These soldiers looked upon the Missouri regiment with much curiosity. My company had been nicknamed "McAfee's guerrillas," from the fact that at first we were not in uniform; the name stuck, and caused questions to be asked by our Eastern neighbors. My men conceived the idea of gaining notoriety out of it.
Private Yandell, of Webster county, was our company cut-up, and began to pose as a son of Jesse James. It soon began to be noised about that a son of the notorious Missouri bandit was a member of my company. Sunday was visiting day, and I noticed that my company was honored with throngs of eastern soldiers each Sunday afternoon. I soon learned the joke,
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and it was indeed an amusing sight. Yandell would stand in a conspicuous place, and seemingly took no notice of the gaping crowds. Visitors were always warned that Jesse James son was very sensitive, and wouldn't meet strangers. This was at about the time of the kodak craze, and it was our regular Sunday treat to see Yandell snapped by kodaks seeming to be uncon- scious of it. I have no doubt that many an Eastern home now cherishes Yandell's picture as a son of Jesse James.
In June all companies were recruited to a strength of one hundred and six men each. Capt. A. B. Diggins was selected to return to Missouri to recruit soldiers for our battalion. Thus many soldiers joined us later who were unable to do so at first.
A SUMMER OF HARDSHIPS.
The months of June and July were months of hard life for us all. We were required to drill five hours each day, and to keep up details for various labor purposes. Our camp was moved from the woods to an open plain, and this resulted in a great shortening of the sick list. Regimental and brigade drills were frequent, and we had several reviews. We had one re- view which required all the troops in the Park. I think there was upwards of seventy thousand troops, infantry, cavalry and artillery. On that occasion Company M bore the colors of the regiment.
By the middle of July we all knew the fighting in Cuba was over, and we all wanted out. With nothing ahead in the fighting line it seemed foolish to retain soldiers, yet it was done. Regimental officers sent a special emissary to Washington to secure our musterout, but General Sanger refused con- sent. Then came applications for discharge, and many soldiers were able to secure discharges from Washington, while others succeeded in securing transfers to other regiments under order for garrison duty in Cuba. At length our regiment was ordered to hold itself in readiness to go to Mat- anzas, which gave us something to hope for.
At about this time I secured a leave of absence and went to New York, where I immediately took sick at the St. Denis Hotel. I sent for a doctor, who proved to be Doctor Harrison, who had been a surgeon in the Confeder- ate army. Doctor Harrison had himself been at Chickamauga during the War of the Rebellion, and pronounced my case to be miasmic or malarial fever. I remained at the St. Denis nearly three weeks, the doctor visit- ing me every day, sometimes twice a day. Familiar with New York customs, I began to feel nervous about the size of the doctor's bill yet to come.
When I was able to walk about I visited the doctor's office to settle up; I was wearing the regulation blue uniform at the time. With fear and trembling. I asked the doctor what I owed. In substance he replied : "Young
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man, I put in four years killing men who wore that uniform, but I have lived to be glad that some survived. To minister to a wearer of it after all these years is an experience too gratifying to charge for. You owe me nothing. I am only too glad to contribute something to the flag."
I mention this circumstance to show the temper of the people of New York at that time. It is true that on street cars conductors refused to take fare. The hotel cut its rate in half voluntarily. I selected a hat in a hat store, but no pay would be received for it. It was the universal custom to pay deference to soldiers. For once the proverbial chilliness of New York- ers was missing, the only time, by the way, I have ever noted it.
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