USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 36
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During the summer of 1863 he was on duty at Memphis as a member of a general court-martial, and after the union of Fuller's Ohio Brigade with a por- tion of the troops that had been engaged in the Vicksburg campaign under Gen- cral Sherman, his company was employed in guarding railroads in Alabama and Tennessee.
in March, 1864, Fuller's Brigade moved down the Tennessee river opposite Decatur, Ala., then occupied by Confederate troops, and crossing the river just before dawn surprised and captured it. At this time Captain Pollock was acting Assistant Adjutant-General of Fuller's Brigade. Subsequently other troops assenibled at this point, and Brigadier-General John D. Stevenson assumed com- mand of the whole, to whose staff Captain Pollock was transferred as chief of outposts and pickets.
In the latter part of April a division was formed from the troops stationed at Decatur, and placed under the command of Brigadier-General James C. Veatch,
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of Indiana, and ordered to join General Sherman at Chattanooga. Captain Pol- lock was transferred to the staff of General Veatch in the same capacity which he had served with General Stevenson. On arriving at Chattanooga, this divis- ion became the Fourth Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, which, with the Second Division, was called the left wing of the Sixteenth Army Corps-com- manded by Gen. J. M. Dodge, of Iowa-forming a part of the Army of the Ten- nessee under command of General McPherson.
The Atlanta campaign began on the 5th of May, and ended with the battle of Janesborough, August 31st. Captain Pollock took part in all the battles and skirmishes of this campaign in which the Army of the Tennessee was engaged, among which were the battles of Resaca, New Hope Church, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, on July 22d and 28th, etc. At the battle of Atlanta he barely escaped the fate of General McPherson. Not more than ten minutes before the general was killed Captain Pollock was on the same spot, having, without knowing it, run into the Confederate line, but managed to get away, bringing with him a rebel prisoner. In the march of the army under General Sherman from Atlanta to the sea he was with it, and was present at the conflicts incident to the capture of Savannah, and accompanied the Army of the Tennessee in its movement by water from Savannah to Beaufort, S. C.
At this point he was relieved from his position on division staff, in order that he might take command of his regiment-the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry-which command he held until the arrival of Sherman's army at Goldsboro, N. C., in March, 1865. During this campaign he was engaged with the enemy while on foraging expeditions, and at rivers where the crossing of the army was opposed, especially at the Salkehatchie and Edisto. Columbia and Cheraw were occupied without much resistance.
At Galesboro, a major having reported for duty, Captain Pollock was assigned to the staff of Gen. Frank P. Blair, then in command of the Seventeenth Army Corps, in the capacity of Judge Advocate and Assistant Provost-Marshal. While there news was received of the fall of Richmond. The movement towards Raleigh in pursuit of Johnston began on April 10th, and on the 11th the sur- render of Lee was announced to the army. Soon after arriving at Raleigh Johnston surrendered to Sherman, and the "cruel war" was over. After remaining for some weeks in Washington and participating in the grand review, the Sixty-third Ohio proceeded to Camp Dennison, and was mustered out July 8, 1865.
Captain Pollock returned to his home in Erie, where he remained until Feb- ruary 23, 1866, when he was appointed by President Johnson a First Lieutenant in the Fourteenth Infantry, United States Army, and in September of the same year was transferred to the Twenty-third. His subsequent life is that of an officer on the frontier, undergoing arduous trials, subjected to constant changes ; at one time conducting recruits to distant stations, at another establishing military posts and often pursuing hostile Indians. In 1867-68, when General Crook was
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prosecuting the war against the Snake and Pi-Ute Indians, Lieutenant Pollock proceeded, under orders from him, to Fort Boise, Idaho, a distance of three hundred and fifty miles, for the purpose of procuring the services of friendly Indians in that vicinity to act as scouts. He started on his return on the 8th of January, 1868, with twenty-six Indians, two half-breed guides and interpreters, and four soldiers, all mounted, and a train of about thirty pack-mules. This march, which involved the crossing of Snake river and the Blue mountains, was performed in the middle of the severest winter that had been known for years. The slow progress caused by the ice in the river and the deep snow in the mountains, together with the intense cold of twenty-five or thirty degrees below zero, came very near resulting in the loss of the entire party from freezing and starvation. By dint of energy and perseverance, however, and the exercise of the greatest fortitude, he succeeded in bringing the party through without losing a man or an animal after a continuous struggle for existence of three weeks duration. The different members of the command soon recovered from their frost-bites and snow-blindness, and were all well again.
After different expeditions, such as carrying despatches to General Halleck, and conducting recruits to Camp Warner from San Francisco through a country infested with hostile Indians, Lieutenant Pollock was ordered on general recruit- ing service in the fall of 1868. In compliance with this order he proceeded via the Isthmus of Panama to New York, where he reported, and was ordered on duty at the depot at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, and upon his arrival there was appointed Adjutant of the department.
The act of Congress reducing the infantry arm of the service from forty-five to twenty-five regiments went into effect March 3, 1869. This required the con- solidation of regiments, and surplus officers were to be placed on a supernumerary list. It being understood that the places of those officers who were absent from their regiments would be filled by assignments from the supernumerary list, Lieutenant l'ollock asked to be relieved from the recruiting detail, and to be permitted to return to his regiment. Accordingly, he was ordered to join a detachment of recruits that was being sent from New York to San Francisco. This was the first body of troops that ever crossed the continent on the Pacific Railroad. They left New York on May 20th, and arrived at San Francisco on June 20th, having stopped at Omaha several days en route. Lieutenant Pollock proceeded thence to Fort Vancouver, and delivered over his detachment. From there he joined his company at Camp Warren.
In December, 1869, he was appointed Regimental Adjutant and ordered to Portland, Oregon, which was regimental headquarters. In November and December, 1870, he was absent several weeks in Alaska, having been ordered to Sitka on duty as a member of a general court-martial. In January, 1871, the headquarters of the regiment were moved to Fort Vancouver, and in February, 1872, the entire regiment was transported from Oregon to Arizona. They pro- ceeded by steamer from Portland to San Francisco, thence by steamer to Fort
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Yuma, via the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. Lieutenant Pollock, in charge of the non-commissioned staff and band, proceeded up the Colorado river to Ehrensburg, and thence by wagon to Prestcott, a distance of about one hun- dred and seventy miles, and there reported to General Crook in command of the regiment and department.
In the fall of 1872 Lieutenant Pollock was again ordered on recruiting service, to report to the superintendent in New York city. In obedience to the order he had proceeded on his way as far as San Francisco, when he was informed at division headquarters that he had been promoted Captain, and in consequence the order sending him on recruiting service was revoked by telegraph from Washington. He then obtained a six months' leave of absence, and visited his home in Pennsylvania. At the expiration of his leave he returned to Camp McDowell, assuming command of Company "C" and the post, the command consisting of Company "C," Twenty-third Infantry, and Troop " E," Fifth Cav- alry. He retained command of the fort until July, 1874, when the regiment was transferred from the Department of Arizona to the Department of the Platte, with headquarters at Omaha Barracks. Captain Pollock, with his company, arrived at Omaha Barracks on September 4, 1874. He remained in command of his company at this post until May, 1876, when he was ordered to Sidney Barracks, on the Union Pacific Railroad, about one hundred miles east of Cheyenne. He remained in command there, the garrison consisting of his own company and Company "I," until November, during which time, in addition to other duties, he had charge of forwarding supplies to the troops in the field under command of General Crook, who was pursuing the hostile Sioux.
He then received orders to proceed with his command to Fort Fetterman and report to General Crook, Department commander. He proceeded by rail with the two companies to Medicine Bow, where Colonel Dodge, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, assumed command, and they marched from there to Fort Fet- terman. Here what was known as the Powder Run expedition was organized. The infantry, composed of nine companies and four companies of the Fourth Artillery, were united under the command of Lieut .- Col. R. I. Dodge, and the eleven companies of cavalry were under the command of Colonel and Brevet Briga- dier-General Mackenzie in person. The expedition proceeded to Crazy Woman's Fork of the Powder river, via the cantonment Reno. From this point a camp of Northern Cheyennes was located, consisting of about one hundred and thirty lodges, in the foot hills of the Big Horn mountains. General Mackenzie, with his cavalry, succeeded in surprising the camp, capturing and destroying every- thing that it contained, including large quantities of meat, buffalo robes and ammunition. Mackenzie's loss was only about twenty-five killed and wounded. That of the savages was much greater. They fled to the mountains in a destitute condition, and, as the mercury was about fifty below zero and snow in the moun- tains was quite deep, they suffered intensely until they reached the camps of their Sioux allies. The expedition did considerable marching, but no more
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fighting, finally returning to Fort Fetterman, and thence via Fort Laramie to Fort D. A. Russel, where it was disbanded. As a result of the campaign, the Northern Cheyennes shortly afterwards came in and surrendered, and Crazy Horse, the Sioux chief, did the same, and the war was thus ended. The cam- paign was made in the coldest winter weather. The troops were constantly on the march, and in tents when the mercury was freezing and the animals were perishing from the cold.
While the operations mentioned above were in progress, an order was issued transferring the Twenty-third Infantry to the Department of Missouri with head- quarters at Fort Leavenworth, to which place the companies that were engaged in the expedition repaired in January, 1877. Captain Pollock proceeded to Sid- ney and Omaha, however, for the purpose of closing up some business left unfinished at the opening of the campaign, and did not arrive at Fort Leaven- worth until the latter part of February.
In July of this year the railroad riots became so formidable that the President ordered eight companies of the Twenty-third, under command of Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, then its colonel, to St. Louis for the purpose of protecting Government property in that vicinity. This included Captain Pollock with his company, " C." After remaining there for two or three weeks, and the necessity for their presence having passed, they were returned to their respective stations.
In obedience to orders from the general commanding the department, Captain Pollock left Fort Leavenworth on the 21st of July, 1878, and proceeded with his company to Fort Hayes, Kansas, and there took station. In the fall of that year the Northern Cheyennes, who, after their surrender, had been located by the military authorities in the Indian Territory, near Fort Reno, became dissatisfied and broke loose from the authority of their Indian agent, and attempted to return to their old home in the North. During their progress through Kansas they committed many outrages, stealing horses and murdering the inhabitants. Cap- tain Pollock's company was ordered from Fort Hayes in conjunction with other troops, to proceed to a point on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, where it was hoped that they might be intercepted in their attempt to eross to the northward. Not- withstanding the watchfulness of the troops, the Indians succeeded in erossing the railroad unobstructed. After long and fatiguing forced marches on their trail in pursuit, and when they had passed into the Department of the Platte, and were being pursued by fresh troops, Captain Pollock returned to Fort Hayes.
In the winter of 1879 the Twenty-third was transferred from Kansas to the Indian Territory. This was for the purpose of having more troops on hand in ease of another attempt on the part of the Indians to break out as the Cheyennes had done. Four of the companies were left at Fort Supply, and the remaining six, including Captain Pollock's, marched to a point on the North Fork of the Canadian river near Sheridan's Roost, and there went into eamp on March 6th. They proceeded at once to build a cantonment, which was accomplished by August, and the troops rendered comparatively comfortable.
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On November 18th Captain Pollock obtained six months' leave of absence, and visited his wife's home in Alameda, Cal. Just prior to the expiration of this leave, five companies, Captain Pollock's among the rest, were ordered from the cantonment to Colorado for the purpose of keeping quiet the Ute Indians in the vicinity of Los Pinos Ageney, who had been restless, and restore confidence to the settlers. Captain Pollock returned to the cantonment and made immediate arrangements to join his company, which he did by rail and stage, reaching their destination June 3, 1880, within an hour of the arrival of the command, which had marched a large portion of the way. The troops remained during the sum- mer eneamped along the banks of the Uncompahgre river.
During the summer what was known as the Ute commission, under the chair- manship of Hon. George Manypenny, of Ohio, which had been organized for the purpose of negotiating for the relinquishment of the Indian title in Colorado, and the removal of the Indians to Utah and elsewhere, arrived at Los Pinos Agency, and, when it became necessary for them to visit the Southern Utes, Captain Pol- lock's company was detailed to be their escort. He left Los Pinos Agency with the commission, having four six-horse wagons loaded with forage, rations and camp equipage, and two four-mule light wagons. They crossed the San Juan range at an altitude of twelve thousand feet to Silverton, encountering great hazard of losing the wagons, owing to the difficulty of preventing them from running off the beaten track along the edge of the mountains, which was narrow and crooked, into the canon hundreds of feet below. Their progress was tedious, laborious and dangerous, but the passage was finally accomplished in safety. From Silverton the route was down the Animas river to Animas City, thence across the Florida river to the agency situated on the Pine river, which they reached August 15th. From here the commission, accompanied by Captain Polloek, made a reconnoissance in search of a suitable place in which to locate the Utes after their removal, and, after following the La Platte to its confluence with the San Juan river, returned to the agency. Having completed negotiations with the Indians, the commission was escorted to Alamosa, and upon arriving at that place Captain Pollock separated from them and returned with his company and transportation by another route to the cantonment, located during his absence on the Uncompahgre river, about four miles below the Los Pinos Agency. He reached Klein's ranch on the Cimmaron river, about twenty-two miles from the cantonment, the day following the killing of Johnson, a Ute Indian, son of one of the prominent chiefs (Chavanaux), by a freighter named Jackson, who was subsequently forcibly taken by the Indians from the civilian escort, who were conveying him to Gunnison City for trial, and killed. This resulted in the most intense excitement among the white population, and open war between the whites and Indians became imminent. The report of the affair made by Captain Pol- lock to the War Department, showing it to have been a wanton murder on the part of Jackson, and that his fate was nothing more than a case of lynching, which was published in the papers throughout the country, no doubt had the effect of
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quieting the excitement and preventing an outbreak. After arriving at the can- tonment, the construction of which had been commenced, he assisted in its com- pletion, and with his company formed part of the garrison until October, 1881. During this time he was Superintendent and Chief Operator of the telegraph line which had been constructed by the troops to Gunnison City, receiving and trans- mitting all the messages passing between Generals Pope and Mackenzie relating to the final arrangements for conveying the Utes from Colorado to Utah, which, though a delicate affair, was successfully and peaceably accomplished.
In the fall of 1881 his regiment was ordered to the District of New Mexico, Captain Pollock with his company going to Fort Bliss, about a mile above El Paso, on the Rio Grande, where he remained performing regular garrison duty until June 1, 1884, with the exception of four months spent in California, on leave, in the summer of 1883. In June, 1884, the regiment was transferred to the Department of the East, and occupied the posts at Fort Porter, Buffalo; Fort Brady, Sault-ste-Marie, and Fort Mackinac. Captain Pollock's company was stationed at Fort Porter, where it still remains.
Captain Pollock is a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, of the military order of the Loyal Legion, and of the United States Military Service Institution. He has been twice married, and has three children, a son by his first marriage (Henry Burt Pollock, now a clerk in the Exchange National Bank of Little Rock, Ark.), and two daughters by the second marriage-Josephine Wallace, born December 29, 1876, at Omaha Barracks, Nebraska, and Winnie May, born May 3, 1879, at Alameda, Cal. His first wife was Ellen Thomas, of Buffalo, N. Y., and his present wife, Sarah A. (Thompson) Black, is a daughter of R. R. Thompson, Esq., of Portland, Oregon.
COM. GEO. W. MELVILLE, U. S. N.
COM. GEORGE WALLACE MELVILLE.
C OMMODORE GEORGE W. MELVILLE, the eminent Arctic explorer and now Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Naval Department of the United States, is of noble Scottish lineage, and inherits the remarkable endurance that characterizes him from a long line of Caledonian ancestry. lle was born in the city of New York, January 10, 1841, and his early life differed but little from that of other boys of his age and opportunities. Ilis education was ac- quired at the public schools and completed at the school of the Christian Brothers and the Polytechnique School of Brooklyn. He left school about the age of sixteen and shortly after began work in the machine shops of James Binns in East Brooklyn, L. I.
He was but a few months past twenty when the Rebellion broke out, and within ninety days thereafter he was enrolled in the service of his country and began thenceforward to exhibit those sterling qualities of physical and moral heroism, constancy and endurance that distinguished him even amongst hosts of brave, constant, self-denying patriots. On the 29th of July, 1861, he was appointed Third Assistant Engineer in the United States Navy. Thenceforth Engineer Melville's life was an eventful one. He served throughout the war of the Rebellion in the North and South Atlantic Blockading Squadrons, and also in Wilkes' Flying Squadron. He was on duty on the Brazilian coast and took part in the capture of the rebel steamer " Florida " in the harbor of Bahai.
When the war was over, the army disbanded, and the hastily extemporized vessels of the navy diverted again into merchant service, the young engineer chose to remain in the service of the United States. He served successively in the West Indies, Brazil and the East India stations and at the various United States Navy Yards upon important Government duty during the first few years of peace. But his nature was that of an explorer and his restless disposition found no charm in ease. The project of searching for the previous expeditions that had sailed for the Polar seas, though so full of danger and so little promis- ing any substantial results, possessed a charm for his hardy, adventurous spirit that gave him no peace until he found himself actually shipped for the frozen zone. He made three voyages in all to the Arctic regions, including the famous Polaris Search Expedition in the "Tigress;" the Jeannette Exploring Expedi- tion, sent out by James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, and the Greely Relief Expedition in the " Thetis," sent out by the United States Govern- ment to relieve Lieutenant Greely. His exploits on these expeditions have been recorded in histories, and need but a brief mention here.
In the Jeannette Exploring Expedition, Engineer-in-Chief Melville commanded the famous whale boat and accomplished the feat of bringing his whole crew out alive. He was the first officer of the expedition to unfurl the expeditionary
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flug, which he did on Henrietta Island, whither he had led a detachment to take possession of the newly discovered land in the name of the United States.
He led the party that discovered the bodies of Lieutenant DeLong and his ill-starred companions. It was under his charge that the rites of Christian burial were performed over these martyrs to science and humanity where perpetual winter had embalmed them with its Lerneal breath. They were, how- ever, subsequently exhumed by orders of the United States Government and their remains brought to their homes, where they were laid to rest with impressive ceremonies amid the dust of their kin. In searching for the other boat's crew he fought his perilous and painful way, mile by mile, through the rigors of perpetual winter and floating archipelagoes of ice along the Arctic coast for over five hundred miles, surviving the privations that had been fatal to so many, and persevered until his search was rewarded by the recovery of all the records of the "Jeannette " expedition. He penetrated to the mouth of the Lena river in his search, and contributed to the geography of the world a new and important chart of that region.
In the Greely Relief Expedition he served as Chief Engineer aboard the " Thetis," the flagship of the Arctic fleet, and it was to his knowledge of the wants of such expeditions that the most important adjunct to success-the fitting out and furnishing of the fleet-owed its completeness and proficiency, and which more than anything else enabled it to succeed where others as brave and hardy had failed. The provisions, the clothing and the equipment for retreat as well as for advance into the domain of winter were all selected under his supervision and direction.
Engineer-in-Chief Melville has been a resident of Philadelphia for twenty-five years, where he is highly esteemed. Ile is as modest and unostentatious in deportment as his career demonstrates him to be brave and enduring in the discharge of perilous duties.
He has risen from grade to grade in his profession, passing through all the stages of promotion. In March, ISSI, he was commissioned Chief Engineer in the United States Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and is at the present time Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy and Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Naval Department with the rank of Commodore, having been so commissioned on August 9, 1887.
As an instance of his ability to accomplish unusual feats and his capacity for extraordinary effort we may mention the fact that in the summer of 1887 he performed an unprecedented piece of work. In less than six weeks he prepared the general designs for the machinery of five different vessels of the new navy, though when he began his task expert engineers said he was attempting an im- possibility. The plans were for the "San Francisco," two nineteen-knot vessels and two gun-boats.
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