USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 2 > Part 10
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PRESCRIPTIONS AND MULES
order was " respectfully transmitted to the commanding officer of Company D for compliance." The swarthy cook, with his cook's enlistment paper, clothing and descriptive list, was quickly despatched to corps headquarters in compliance with the order received. Enough said ! No further communications were re- ecived, but simply an extract from a general order issuing from corps headquarters, that " cook ---- of Company D, First Penn- sylvania Volunteers, is hereby discharged by favor and without travel pay." But notwithstanding this cruel order, the generous men of Company D took up a " camp town " and paid his way home.
Even the medical department became permeated with the patriotic desire to conform strictly to the literal interpretation of the " A. R." One afternoon, after a hard and fatiguing drill in the hot sun, a soldier feeling ill applied to one of the officers of the medical department for relief. "Don't you know that 'sick call' is at 7 A.M. ? " the surgeon said; and the poor fellow dragged himself away to his camp to wait for 7 o'clock the next morning to arrive. Promptly at the hour he stands in line for his turn at the hospital tent. At last the surgeon asks him a few questions as to how he feels, and turning to the steward directs, "Give him some C. and S." (calomel and soda, I presume). " We're all out of C. and S .. " came the reply of the steward. " Then give him whatever you've got the most of." The hospital steward, according to army regulation obedience, took from his chest two pills, giving them to our sick friend with the direction, " Here's two pills. Take one three times a day."
The mules were a source of interest and amusement at all times. They were strong, active. southwestern mules, not tamed down to the quiet industries of a peaceful camp. Each regiment was required to take care of its own mules in a corral. enclosed by army wagons and ropes. It was not an infrequent scene, by day, to see a four-mule team galloping at breakneck speed toward the woods, after dumping its driver out in negotiating a sharp turn or over rough ground. The army wagon would be left at the edge of the woods with fragments of harness here and there and the mules hasten on to the inner fastne-ses of the forests.
At night one of the most frequent calls by the sentinels on post was. " Corporal of the Guard No. - , two mules loose!"
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT. N. G. P.
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or as the case might be. The mules had not found it too difficult to escape from the corral, either by slipping through the rope -. or, if necessary, even climbing over the bodies of the army wagon- in their insistent desire to " take to the woods." The regimental quartermaster was charged personally by " Uncle Sam " with cach of these mules at about $122 per capita, and their frequent escape, with the additional loss of two or three by disease, required the tedious and cumbersome inquiry by a " Board of Survey " to " fix responsibility " before the quartermaster could be relieved of his burden in this respect. But the First Pennsylvania had a resourceful quartermaster. At Chickamauga all mules looked alike, with nothing to indicate who or whose they were, except the well-known " U. S." branded on the flank. Besides employing a competent detail of " mule hunters " to bring in sufficient estrays to avoid Government "red tape " and tedions " Boards of Sur- vey," the vigilant quartermaster obtained permission to brand our mules on the hoofs, " 1 Pa." It was a great saving of time. anxiety, and trouble. How many mules in that camp were branded on the hoof " 1 Pa." history will never record. Suffice it to say, no more boards of survey were required. The regiment always had enough mules, and higher headquarters and other commands were daily reporting to ns the capture of some of "our" escaped mules, branded " 1 Pa." on their hoofs.
The foregoing narrative is, in brief, the part the First Regi- ment took in the Spanish-American War, and it was in no way a small or mean part. General Brooke, our corps commander. in addressing some of the officers before his departure for Porto Rico, remarked that the victories in the field and the final cou- quering of the foe depended just as much upon the strength and discipline of the regiments ready to take the field as upon those who were actually before the enemy.
We need not here refer to those who may have perhaps faltered in their duties in little ways, and who were subject to the rigorous discipline of the service therefor. May the records of those petty derelictions ever be forgotten and never referred to. The First Regiment Infantry of Pennsylvania Volunteers was indeed a body of brave. loval, patriotic, steadfast men. ever true to the regimental motto " Paratus." 1
1 See Appendix for Muster Roll.
CHAPTER XI
1898-1905-PEACE JUBILEE PARADE-REORGANIZATION-DEDICA- TIONS-GRANT MONUMENT. FAIRMOUNT PARK-HARTRANET STATUE, HARRISBURG-PITTSBURGH ESCORT TENTH PENNSYL- VANIA VOLUNTEERS ON RETURN FROM PHILIPPINES-ADMIRAL, DEWEY'S RETURN AND RECEPTION, NEW YORK-COMPANIES I. AND M TRANSFERRED FROM NINETEENTHI -- THREE BATTALIONS ESTABLISHED -- ANNIVERSARIES, ENCAMPMENTS. INSPECTIONS, RIFLE PRACTICE-MEHARD WINS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP CUP; FOULKE, WIMBLEDON CUP, WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-INAUGURA- TION PRESIDENT M'KINLEY-HIS DEATHI-LIBERTY BELL ESCORT, CHARLESTON. S. C., EXPOSITION -- INDUSTRIAL DISTURB- ANCES, HAZELTON, 1902-U. S. INSPECTION UNDER MILITARY EFFICIENCY ACT-ARMORY FUND-NEW MAGAZINE RIFLE
There is something highly paradoxical in the modern man's relation to war. Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history. and the record of a peaceful transition to the present time sub- stituted for that of its marches and battles, and probably hardly a handful of cecentries would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, are the most ideal part of what we now own together-a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be wiling in cold blood to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition. In modern eyes, precious though wars may be, they must not be waged solely for the sake of the ideal harvest. Only when foreed upon one, only when an enemy's injustice leaves us no alterna- tive. is a war now thought permissible .- (" The Moral Equivalent of War," by William James ) .
It has never been seriously alleged that the United States ever waged an unjust or aggressive war. Whatever cotemporancous doubt may have prevailed against the righteousness of our Mexican invasion, for the annexation of the State of Texas, that doubt has certainly been removed by the developments of after-years. If the acquisition of the State of Texas had for its primary intent a strengthening of the slave power, its consummation had scarce a realization before that same slave power disappeared with the universal freedom won by the sword and prolaimed by the Constitution and the law. If this same independent State of
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Texas joined a union of other alleged independent sovereign States, reserving to herself the right to withdraw from that union without the consent of all the others, then, too, that pernicious error was with slavery blotted out at Appomattox.
What is now the philosopher's deduction, " only when forced upon one, only when an enemy's injustice leaves us no alternative. is a war now thought permissible," not only is now, but always has been, not a deduction simply, but a rule of action by the United States of America. This fact, conceded and admitted by annals, archives, and history. is garnished and illuminated by the nation's generosity in strengthening and assuring her title by conquest by a handsome money payment for every holdling and possession she has won by the sword. Whatever islands of the sea are hers, whatever lands she holds on continent or main that she took as her hosts advanced to conquest and domain, she bought for value and paid for in gold, and for which she now by good and sufficient deeds, treaties, and assuranees in the law has title in fee simple, absolutely and forever.
With all wars, whatever their extent, follows the aftermath of a militia inertia, nor was the Spanish-American War an ex- ception. There is need, too, that this militia and the spirit and manhood which it inculcates should be ever heroically and per- sistently maintained. One of the strongest of the anti-militarist party, but one who does not believe " that peace either ought to be or will be permanent on this globe unless the States pa- cifically organized preserve some of the elements of army dis- cipline," a man no less eminent in scholarship than was William James, said in his brochure. " The Moral Equivalent of War." previously quoted from :
We must make new energies and hardihoods continue the manliness to which the military mind so faithfully clings. Martial virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedience to command, inu-t still remain the rock upon which states are built. unless, indeed, we wish for dangerous reactions against commonwealths fit only for contempt, and liable to invite attack whenever a centre of crystallization for military-minded enterprise gets formed any- where in their neighborhood.
The enlisted men furloughed for thirty days from Septem- ber 17, 1598, the First Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry. United State Volunteers, finally mustered out and paid in full October 26,
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1898, it nevertheless so far retained its identity, that with Col. J. Lewis Good in command, on the next day, Thursday, October 27, it participated in the ecremonies attending the Peace Jubilee celebration in Philadelphia, that being the day set apart for the procession of the land and naval forces of the United States, the Pennsylvania volunteers, the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and the Grand Army of the Republic, and their review by the President of the United States. Brig-Gen. Willis J. Hulings, United States Volunteers, was specially assigned to command the division of Pennsylvania volunteers composed of the Penn- sylvania regiments that had recently or were about to be musterrd out of the United States service as volunteers in the Spanish- American War. The First Regiment Infantry, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was assigned to Col. D. Brainard Case's brigade of this division. The procession was commanded by the then Major- General, afterward Lieutenant-General, Nelson A. Miles, com- mander of the United States army. Two of the former colonels of the First Regiment were on duty with General Miles on this occasion, Gen. James W. Latta as his chief of staff and Col. Theodore E. Wiedersheim as assistant adjutant-general.
Of this procession the Philadelphia Record spoke editorially the next day as follows :
THE GREAT MILITARY PARADE
Under favoring skies, through miles of gayly decorated streets and between densely crowded lines of enthusiastic and applauding spectators. nearly twenty-five thousand of the flower of the regular and volunteer troops of the Federal Army enforced upon the vast Peace Jubilee throng yesterday the true meaning and significance of this great celebration. These were fighting men, not holiday squadrons gathered for mere empty show. To- gether with ten times their number they stood ready to repel assault by the foe or to carry destruction to the gates of a foreign enemy. Their warlike mission has been swiftly accomplished. and it is in token of the return of peace that the tramp of marching thousands of armed men echoed all day yesterday through Philadelphia's broad highways.
With the habit of military discipline thoroughly established among the parading thousands. and the solicitous care of the marshals to avoid undue delays, there was scarcely a possibility of any hitch in the programme. As a matter of recorded fact the vast body of troops was handled as easily and as promptly a- though it had been but a regiment on review.
So perfect had been the arrangements in effect that the elaborate machinery of organization was nowhere in evidence, and the rhythmic swing
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of the vast columns seemed as though inspired by some mysterious auto- matie force. Never was a great parade in this country more skilfully organized nor more successfully brought to a conclusion.
And so with its part in this Jubilee pageant most creditably performed: the patriotic contribution of itself as a whole to the military war needs of the country appreciably recognized by people, press, and the authorities; the niche reserved for it in 'historic annals filled with a story of a soldier's duty faithfully, honorably, and capably discharged, the First Regiment Infantry passed off the stage as a regiment of United States Volunteers to become again, with the profit and advantage that had come to it from its training in the field for war, the First Regiment Infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania.
The State was not tardy in announcing its seheme for re- organization and recuperation, and while directing that organiza- tions should retain their designations and resume their places. gave thought also to the preservation of the continuity of the individual term of enlistment. necessarily interrupted by a United States enlistment, transfer, or otherwise, unless the soldier should too long tarry with his acquiescence. General Orders, No. 35, of November 1s, 1898, Headquarters National Guard of Penn- sylvania, prescribed that commissioned officers whose commissions had not expired or been vacated by resignation or otherwise dur- ing their absence in the service of the United States, should at the expiration of thirty days from their muster ont of that ser- vice, return to duty in the National Guard with the same rank they had held at the time of their entry into the United States service. Enlisted men who on their enlistment in the United States service, were honorably discharged from the National Guard service, were given opportunity to re-enlist in the State service, their National Guard service to be considered continuous. if such re-enlistment oceurred within sixty days from their muster out of the United States service. Enlisted men who had not entered the United States service, but who had practically been off duty because of the absence of their companies, were to report for duty to their commanding officers. Men retransferred from newly organized companies of the National Guard to which they had transferred, were alike with others who had been off duty to be credited with continuons service.
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REORGANIZATION
This order, republished from First Regiment Headquarters, November 29, 1995, was at once put into practical operation. and the re-muster and reorganization of the several companies of the regiment reported as complete on the following dates: Company K. January 3. 1599; Company H, January 11, 1899: Company I, January 19. 1899; Company D. January 13, 1899: Company C, January 19, 1899; Company B, January 21, 1599; Company F, January 23. 1899: Company E, January 24, 1899: Company G, January 24. 1899; Company , January 27, 1899: Field and Staff, January 24. 1899.
One of the earlier provisions for betterment announced under the reorganization. but repeating what had always been a dis- tinguishing feature of the regimental curriculum, was a recon- struction of the Regimental Examining Board for the examination of candidates for non-commissioned officers, with Captain Thos. H. P. Todd, First Lieutenants Charles P. Hunt, Charles F. Hess, Thomas B. Thomas. Second Lieutenant Augustus D. Whitney as members. An injunction that had been before imposed was again announced: " No recommendations for promotion will be favor- ably reported upon by the Board of Examination unless the appli- cant shows a thorough knowledge of his duties and passes a satis- factory examination."
There were numerous changes among the commissioned officers. following the muster out of the regiment as an organization of United States Volunteers and its re-muster as a regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard: Major and Surgeon Lawrence S. Smith, first appointed Assistant Surgeon April 11, 1893; Sur- geon July 16, 1595: died while in the field as Surgeon First Pennsylvania Volunteers. August 17, 1895. Surgeon William Guy Bryan Harland, who had been Assistant Surgeon since July 14, 1904, and was with the regiment in its war service, succec.led him, " serving out commission " until he resigned November 15, 1000. Captain Artemas W. Deane, of Company D, resigned De cember 17, 1898. Captain Deane, beginning with his company as a private on September 5. 1581, passing through both grades of non-commissioned officer and the two lieutenancies, made captain June 5, 1891, had at the time of his resignation seen seventeen years of continuous service. He commanded this company through the Spanish-American War and had had repeated honor-
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P. 1893
able mention for the record he made with the rifle. Captain John A. Osborn, who had been a soldier in Company D since June 15, 1590, its first sergeant through the war, and its first lieutenant since January 27, 1899, was on November 10, 1599. elected to fill the vacant captaincy. Captain Eugene J. Kensil, in command of Company IL previously, and in the field from May 11, 1898. to June 11, 1898, on that date resigned and was made major of the newly organized Nineteenth Regiment of the National Guard, and when that regiment was discontinued he re- turned to the First Regiment and on February 8, 1899, was again made captain of Company H. Captain Walter E. Torr of Com- pany K, private September 3, 1851, elected captain from the ranks November 22, 1892, re-elected November 20, 1897, through the Spanish-American War, seventeen years in continuous ser- vice, resigned December 17, 1898. His first lieutenant, Charles F. Hess, in service-the war a part of it-with the First Regiment since September 7, 1877, succeeded to the captaincy January 14, 1899.
First Lieutenant Henry Earnest Pearson, of Company F, died December 22, 1898. " after a lingering illness contracted in the line of duty in the late war with Spain." His manly virtues and military accomplishments were appropriately noticed in a regi- mental General Order, the commissioned officers attended liis funeral in a body and the usual badge of mourning was directed to be worn for the prescribed period.
Captain Louis F. Stees, of Company C, private Company C. May S, 1890; corporal March 21, 1892; first lieutenant June 22. 1893; captain June 27, 1895, in command of the company through the war with Spain, resigned January 6, 1599. Then the captaincy seemed to meet by both election and succession, with a peculiar fitness. in the person of First Lieutenant Charles C. Allen. A private from August 4, 1802: second lieutenant June 27, 1895; first lieutenant July 18, 1897; in Company C, First Regiment: first lieutenant, First Regiment. Pennsylvania Volunteers. May 11. 1898. to October 26, 1995; First Lientenant Allen was on February 23. 1599. elected to the captainey of Company C. ITis soldierly instinct, stimulated and encouraged by what he had learned from and experienced in his service in the First Regiment. had induced him to seek a wider field of military
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CHANGES IN PERSONNEL
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usefulness, as indicated by General Order No. 4, Current Series, July 25, 1899, Headquarters First Regiment, as follows:
On account of the absence of Captain Charles C. Allen, of Company C, in the United States Volunteer Army, First Lieutenant Augustus D. Whitney will hereby assume command of said company until further orders.
Captain Allen's resignation, previously tendered, was shortly afterward accepted. Ile had been appointed July 5, 1599, first lieutenant Twenty-eighth Regiment, United States Volunteers, serving with it through its full two-years' term in the warfare in the Philippine Islands. Honorably mustered out June 30, 1901, he was transferred to the permanent establishment, where on February 2, 1901, he had been appointed to a second lieuten- aney in the Thirtieth United States Infantry. His promotion followed to a first lieutenancy May 28, 1902. Lieutenant Allen's special adaptability has caused his frequent selection for the performance of many delicate and responsible duties, notably on the staff of a number of general officers of prominence. Son of a worthy sire, Captain Allen strongly reflects the soldierly ca- pacity and sterling manhood of his noted father, Col. Wmn. W. Allen, whose efficiency through all the fifty years of the First Regiment's military life has ever been helpful in maintaining its high repute.
Captain Augustus D. Whitney was made the captain of Company C by election. September 21. 1899. Hle afterward resigned to accept his adjutancy, his commission as such issued after the increase of rank, preserving his rank to date from his first commission as a first lieutenant, February 23, 1899. Cap- tain Henry Nuss. Jr., who began his military service as a private in Company E. First Regiment, as far back as August 13, 1878, was elected captain of Company C, February S, 1900.
Captain Clarence H. Staley, Company A, private July 14, 1SS8; corporal January 16, 1893: sergeant March 20, 1893; first lieutenant February 28. 1896; captain June 11, 1897; through Spanish-American War; resigned January 17, 1899. Captain Isaac Price Ewing succeeded him on August 18. 1599. and resigned February 9, 1900. First Lieutenant William C. Knox, Company A, from April 12, 1889; private, corporal, sergeant, first lieutenant, was on July 20, 1900. elected captain.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
vice Price, resigned, where he remained until June 6, 1901, when he was " honorably di-charged."
Captain William Brod, Company F, resigned July 24, 1599, after a faithful servier, with scarce an appreciable break, from September 26, 1STS. He was succeeded by Second Lieutenant Wright I. F. Haggard, September 25, 1559. The commission of Captain George von der Lindt, of Company G. after an hon- orable service of twenty years from July 1, 1879, as private. corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, expired by limitation June 19, 1899. He was succeeded July 11, 1899, by First Lieu- tenant George B. Zane, Jr. Second Lieutenant Townsend Whelen. of Company D, resigned May 3, 1900, to accept a commission in the United States Army, where, becoming so distinguished as a marksman as to win a nation-wide repute, it is well that he should have a note of remembrance in the history of the regiment that afforded him his first opportunity to make of himself the soldier he has.
The commission of Captain James Muldoon, of Company E. expired by limitation January 23. 1599, and, declining a further re-election, he was placed on the retired list. A military career. with a span of two score years and ten. covering wars domestic and foreign, riots, tumults, camps, pageants, parades, was not permitted to close without the official recognition it so justly deserved. First Lieutenant Charles P. Hunt, who had been with the company and regiment from October 4, 1878, was on June 13, 1899, elected to succeed him.
HEADQUARTERS FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY. FIRST BRIGADE. N. G. P ..
Philadelphia, January 24, 1899.
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 3.
The announcement is hereby officially made that the commission of Captain James Muldoon, Company E. expired on January 23, 1892, and having declined a re-election. his active career as an officer is thus terminated.
The remarkable and unprecedented career and record of Captain James Muldoon as a soldier justifies this notice on his retirement from active service.
Entering the service of his country, January 5. 1846, as a private soldier in Company G, United States Volunteers, in the war with Mexico. he served with distinction, receiving honorable mention in order for bravery at .Cherubusco, Buena Vista, Molino del Rey, and Contreras, and fell seriously wounded in the assault upon the fortress at Chapultepec. September 13, 1816. This wound, thus received in his country's service more than half a century ago, disabled him from further active service in the campaigns in Mexico.
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A SPLENDID RECORD
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and from which he has always suffered and will ever suffer to the end of his carthly career, with the heroism and fortitude of a true soldier.
In the war for the Union, notwithstanding his crippled condition. he was among the first to enlist in this regiment on April 19, Isol, and from that memorable day down to the expiration of his last commission, on the 23rd instant, he has been in continuous service, participating in all of the campaigns of this regiment. in ' ar and in riot service, nover missing a tour of duty whenever the command was ordered ont for service. He served one year as duty sergeant : one year as first sergeant; six years as first licu- tenant and thirty year- as captain of his company.
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