USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 2 > Part 28
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General Chaffee, in the course of his remarks at the dinner. said that the Army was working hard every day in order that when the time comes it would be perfect. "In 1898," he said, " we had the finest army in the world. small as it was. To-day we are striving to make our enlarged army just as good as was that small army of those days." In concluding, he complimented the officers and men of the regiment on the showing made in the parade and ceremony of the afternoon.
Captain John P. Green was. at its conclusion. thanked by motion for the " rich historieal essay " he read to the Corps on " The Russian-Japanese War," on the occasion of the October quarterly meeting in 1904.
Brig .- Gen. William M. Wherry. U. S. A., retired, at the meeting of the Corps on April 14. 1905, delivered an address. which deeply interested his audience, on the " War with Spain as Seen at Santiago." Gen. Chambers MeKibbin, of the Army, then retired, one of his auditors, who had commanded troops at this engagement. on General Wherry's right, followed briefly.
At the October meeting of the same year, Comrade William B. Smith presented to the Corps the one hundred and odd volimes of the War Department's publication. "War of the Rebellion Records of the Union and Confederate Armies."
At this same meeting, Mr. Charles W. Alexander, assisted by the regimental bugler, "Sounding Boots and Saddle," and with such other assistance as enabled him to introduce such acting as the part required. delivered an address incident to the allegorical suggestion of the charge of the " Lone Soldier" at the " Bloody Angle."
On April 13. 1906, Comrade John A. Wiedersheim read an interesting paper, describing in detail the ceremonies incident to the raising of the flag over Independence Hall, by President-elect Abraham Lincoln. on the morning of February 22, 1861. This ceremony had a further appreciative remembrance with the Corps,
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when it was recalled that Col. Peter C. Ellmaker was the chief marshal of the proces-ion on that occasion.
At the October meeting of 1906, Maj. Henry J. Crump. a company commandant in the Veteran Corps, late assistant adju- tant-general of the First Brigade. National Guard of Peunsyl- vania, and also quartermaster of Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry. United State Volunteers, read a very interesting paper on the " Active Experience of a Regimental Quartermaster During the Spanish-American War."
Governor Edwin S. Stuart was the special guest of the Veteran Corps at the commemorative anniversary dinner, celebrating the forty-six years of regimental growth, that the evening of Friday. April 19, 1907. brought especially to remembrance. The Governor - was accompanied by Lieutenant Governor Robert S. Murphy. Lieut .- Col. Fred. Taylor Pusey, his aide-de-camp, and Archibald Miller, his private secretary.
Colonel Wiedersheim introduced the Governor in well-selected phrase :
All of the Governors of Pennsylvania since the War of the Rebellion have either been participants in that war, have been members of the G. A. R .. or have been connected with the military organizations in some way. Gov- ernor Stuart is an honorary associate of the Veteran Corps of the First Regiment and is ready to respond at any time the Commonwealth is in danger. We welcome him here to night not only as our Governor and com- rade, but as our commander-in-chief.
After the cheering had subsided, Governor Stuart said, in part :
I don't know of any obligation and better duty one can perform for his State than to be a member of the National Guard. He is a defender of the State and leaves his business to defend the majesty and supremacy of the law. The First Regiment is made up of the flower of the citizenship of the city of Philadelphia. We must impress upon all the necessity of obeying the laws. Not only does the power of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, but the Commander-in-Chief as well, stand ready to uphold the supremacy and majesty of the law.
The speech of Lieutenant-Governor Robert S. Murphy was one of those forceful gems of rhetoric and eloquence for which he has ever been so famous.
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At the October meeting of 1907, the Corps signified its appre- ciation and acknowledged its recognition in a suitable minute expressive and in detail of the high soldierly attainments that had won for Brig .- Gen. Wendell P. Bowman " his recent well-deserved promotion."
TESTIMONIAL VASE, PRESENTED BY THE VETERAN CORPS TO COMMANDER THEO. E. WIEDERSHEIM, APRIL 19, 190%.
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Col. J. Lewis Good at the same time was congratulated, after his thirty-six years of service " marked by soldierly qualifications, loyalty and devotion, upon his accession to the Coloneley of his own regiment."
The Corps, also. as further evidence of the Veteran Corps' appreciation of the faithful and efficient services of Colonel Good in the active command and as a member of the Corps, presented to him, through Col. Theo. E. Wiedersheim. a handsome gold watch and chain.
The forty-seventh anniversary of the regiment fell upon Sun- day, April 19, 1908. Its commemoration on Saturday, the 1Sth. was remembered for its parade of the Veteran Corps and the regiment in a steady downpour, which, from the newspaper com- ment, seems " to have won for them the plaudits of admiring thousands." If the Corps, in its outdoor anniversary parade, won from the public such appreciative applause. the distinctive feature of its indoor anniversary banquet bestirred for its commandant a demonstration so heartfelt and enthusiastie that it for a time would not down. The occasion was made the opportunity to present to Col. Theodore E. Wiedersheim, on behalf of the Corps. a massive silver punch bowl or flower stand, seventeen inches high, sixteen inches wide, pedestal of ebony, thoughtful in design, artis- · tic in proportions, military in its appointments, ornate in sug- gestion, as a substantial expression of appreciation and recognition of his many years of intelligent, zealous service to the Corps. towards the better securing of its stability, worth, and usefulness.
The inscription is engraved on the base :
Presented to Colonel Theodore E. Wieder-heim, by his comrades of the Veteran Corps, First Regiment. N. G. P., on its Forty-seventh Anniversary. April 19th, 1908, in recognition of the friendships he has formed, the cease- less vigilance he has manifested. and the high results he has attained during his fifteen years of continuous service as Commander.
At the fall meeting, October 16, 1905. Comrade J. Campbell Gilmore read a paper on the subject of " National Defence," fol- lowed by practical illustrations, with the aid of maps and plans, explanatory of how the military problem of to-day is studied and solved.
Prominent as a United States Senator, conspicuous as a Major- General of the National Guard. the Hon. Chas. Dick, Ohio's junior Senator, was the Corps' special guest at its forty-ninth anniversary
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dinner, April 19, 1910. Senator Dick was the framer, promoter, and zealous advocate of the Act of Congress that, passing through its gradual reconstructive processes, had, on January 1, 1910, ultimately made the National Guard of the United States prac- tically a Division of the Regular Army. He was therefore nor only a law giver, but a law receiver. As a Senator he gave the law to the Guard for its government and regulation, as a major- general of the Guard he received the law for obedience and execution.
The opening paragraphs exhibit the trend of his studious. thoughtful, and scholarly address, the whole of which was an instructive, exhaustive, and statesmanlike exposition of his subject.
The time has come when a National Guardsman of any State in the Union can greet his fellow guardsman from another State as comrade, because since the beginning of the year we are all serving one cause. We are now well on our way to maintain and have in readiness the ariny that a nation as big and as prosperous as ours demands. One of the things that we have to look back upon has been the wretched unpreparedness in which this country found itself when trouble came.
Men were brought from the field, the bank, the store, the factory, to fight for their rights or to defend their possessions, who were not trained in warfare. All the greater credit to them that they did so well. But I am a firm believer in a sufficient and efficient armament as our surest guarantee of peace. Wars have come to this and other nations unawares, and when the hour arrives that our sacred possession of independence is attacked or our commercial progression is threatened we should have trained recruits, not the raw recruits we have heretofore sent forth to meet the enemy.
The idea of a large standing army in this country is not kindly accepted tradition, and sentiments are all against it, and it is perhaps as well so long as we can maintain such a fighting force as is represented by our National Guard under the new rule. One thing that this and every nation must bear in mind, and that is that it takes about as long to train a qualified soldier as it does to build a battleship.
Comrade Martin Nixon Miller, formerly an assistant engineer on the Civic Staff of Col. George W. Goethalls, United States Army, at the quarterly meeting of October 7, 1910, held the close attention of the Corps for the evening, with his lecture, " A Trip Across Panama : Life and Conditions on the Canal Zone." The official government slides, loaned for the occasion, to Comrade Miller, by the Isthmian Canal Commission, added to the artistic effect of the lecture, and materially increased its instructive value.
Comrade Miller disclosed an anecdotal and humorous bit of history with which the general reader does not seem to have yet had a familiar acquaintance. Severing the two Americas for a
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waterway was not. it appears, an original conception of either the Frenchman or American. Charles V, the great emperor, whose "capacious and decisive judgment had directed the affairs of one-half of Europe." I not content that the hindrance of a narrow strip of land should confine the operations of his galleons to the waters of a single sea, when the waters of another, just a little way beyond, beckoned them to further captures on the main and con- quests on the shore, directed his engineers to cut a channel through the obstruction, that his ships might find a passage from the one sea to the other. The engineers set about their task with con- fidence, intent upon its accomplishment, but Charles V had gone, and his successor had come, before compelled, at last, to concede it, they reluctantly reported their failure.
Unwilling to admit conclusively that their profession had not yet reached out far enough in its scientific acquisitions to grasp so stupendous an undertaking, and being persuaded, possibly, that they might trifle with religion and thus impose upon the credulity of a court and a people always willing to accept unreservedly the iminutability of a Divine command, submitted that the interven- tion of such a command had prevented the execution of that of their Royal Master, and quoted from Matthew, xiv. 6, a passage of Seripture which. if read disconnectedly, it might be facetiously said fully sustained them: "What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder."
The Corps testified its appreciation of Comrade Miller's clear, comprehensive, and exhaustive deliverance. not only in a number of speeches that followed in endorsement and recognition of its merits, but in the hearty unanimity with which it voted its thanks.
The respective promotions of Brig .- Gen. Wendell P. Bowman to be the major-general and division commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and Col. J. Lewis Good to be a brigadier- general, were recognized by the Veteran Corps at the quarterly meetings which immediately succeeded the advancement of each, by appropriate resolutions of congratulations and appreciation of their capabilities and service that had so worthily won them their well- deserved promotion.
The military legislation of 1911 advances the officer on the retired list with an honorable war service to the "next highest grade."
1 Robertson's Charles V.
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The announcements from time to time made from the Adjutant- General's Office of the officers entitled to this increased rank in- clude Col. R. Dale Benson, Col. Theodore E. Wiedersheim, and Col. Sylvester Bonnaffon, Jr., to be Brigadier-General of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, retired.
The Veteran Corps took the initiative-the Board of Officers in full accord and by resolution requesting the Veteran Corps to assume charge, pledging the support of the active command-in preparation for the commemoration of the all-important semi- centenary some two years previous to its happening. In the avowed success that followed, preliminaries need but cursory re- view. Interest centres in the event itself. A failure demands details, that censure may be justly apportioned; not so a success. where there is no one to censure and where all rejoice alike.
As the celebration was designed as commemorative especially of the regiment's fiftieth anniversary, it was promptly conceded that that day should be exclusively its own. Whatever was to be done independently by the Corps was to be set apart for some other day. Hence it was that the Veteran Corps' anniversary dinner. though intended, too, to be specially commemorative as a semi- centenary event, was fixed for the 1Stli, that the regiment might. as it did, arrange for an anniversary dinner of its own, and as a whole, on the night of the 19th.
A General Committee on detail, development, and execution was named from the two organizations, and Col. Sylvester Bon- naffon, Jr., selected as the temporary chairman; Col. Theodore E. Wiedersheim followed as the permanent chairman, and upon Col. Wiedersheim, as if it were by a process of natural selection. also fell the chairmanship of the Veteran Corps' Committee, and of the Executive Committee beside. On this Executive Com- mittee with him were: Sylvester Bonnaffon, Jr .. Vice-chairman ; J. Campbell Gilmore, Secretary: James Hogan, Paymaster; Win. W. Allen, R. Dale Benson, Henry J. Crump, J. Lewis Good. James W. Latta, John P. Nicholson, Wm. B. Smith, J. A. Wiedersheim, A. L. Williams.
After numerous projects had been discussed, considered, and disposed of, a member adopted of burdensome detail in their execution, notably the dinner and parade, two great schemes for preservation of the past and perpetuation for the future that fell exclusively to the lot of the Veteran Corps was the one the con-
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struction of a bronze statue of the soldier of 1861 to stand for the regiment for all time upon the new Parkway City Hall Plaza, or some other location of equal prominence, and the other the preparation and publication of the fifty years of history that the regiment would complete on its anniversary day of 1911.
The statue in front of the Union League, unveiled as the column passed, on the occasion of the semi-centenary anniversary parade, the creation of the eminent sculptor. H. K. Bush-Brown, bears its own best testimony of a problem of pose and action of a foot soldier in bronze, demonstrated to a solution. Col. John P. Nicholson, Chairman, and his committee, Colonels R. Dale Benson, Sylvester Bonnaffon, Jr., and J. Campbell Gilmore, with Major Henry J. Crump and James Hogan, deserve especial mention.
There was no suspension of energies in fear of a depleted exchequer, with confidence in the management that means would be at all times in waiting. Every undertaking was zealously pressed to a successful completion. When unanimous consent is freely given, as it undoubtedly is here, distinction is never in- vidious. It is safe, therefore. to specialize and without impairing a decorous propriety one may, on this occasion at least. be permitted to praise or speak well of another. That there would have been a commemorative demonstration in celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary of the organization of the First Regiment comporting with its dignity is not to be questioned, but it is alike unquestion- able that, but for the substantial support from business and financial circles secured through the aid and influence of Colonels R. Dale Benson and Theo. E. Wiedersheim and the confidence imposed in them by the men of business and finance, these leading features of perpetuity and preservation would have been neces- sarily omitted.
The Union League Building. in course of reconstruction, its Assembly Hall, upon which the Veteran Corps had seemingly, through the League's courtesy. hold a sort of prescriptive right for its anniversary celebrations, was consequently out of service. In- vestigr tion clearly demonstrated that for a dinner of such pro- portions and appointments as the pretentious preparations in progress indicated it was to be the province of this one to main- tain. the one and only suitable place for it in size, adornments,
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
elegance, and impressiveness was the Academy of Music. The few occasions on which the building, since its dedionion in the late fifties, had been set apart for such a purpose were of them- selves sufficient to make cach occasion an over-memorable event in the city's chronology.
Savo for its intellectual features, its anvedotal and Innnorous incidents, that deserve to survive, its occasional ereation or revival of events of import or moment, the dinner in history is usually briefly disposed of. The Veteran Corps' dinner, however, com- memorative of the regiment's semi-centenary, summing up an historie period, rounding an epoch, characteristic in iteelf in the place where held, in the men and women who, as participants or spectators, gave it their countenance and lont it their presence. together with the many suggestive inducements that foster its remembrance, make it deserving of a preservative place in the annals of the Corps.
Though the event has scarce reached sufficient maturity to entitle it to historie treatment, yet that treatment seems to have already been freely accorded in the contemporaneous story so effectively told in the columns of the Public Ledger of Wednesday. April 19, 1911. Of a descriptive foree persuasive, convineing. attractive, its reproduction here, in part, will be a helpful con- tribution.
The Veteran Corps of the First Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania. celebrated its 50th anniversary with a dinner last night in the auditorium of the Academy of Music.
In all the martial spirit engendered by the occasion there was ono episode which evinced the respect of warriors for one whose years have endowed her with a wealth of majestic memories. This was when the hundreds of men seated about the long tables and the vast audioner in the boxes, balcons and galleries rose as one and. turning toward the right-hand proscenium box. the one known as that of the Prince of Wales, did heartfelt homage to Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull. the oldest daughter of the regiment present.
Mrs. Turnbull is 90 years old, but she rose with the dignity of a quen and, waving a small American flag, looked down upon the faces of those upraised. until the moment grew too tense, tears tilled her eyes and two glistened upon those cheeks upon which Time's furrows appeared merely as smiles drifted from their moorings.
Then the men of war sang lustily, " AAuld Lang Syne."
Mrs. Turnbull is the mother of Major Charles S. Turnbull. senior surgeon of the First Regiment. She is the daughter of Colonel Charles Somers Sinith. the first captain of Company A, the first company of the First Regiment ani organized 50 years ago last night, and the regiment's third Colond. It w .- Colonel Theo. E. Wiedersheim, toastmaster of the night, who in a tender
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A DISTINGUISHED GATHERING
-perch called attention to Mrs. Turnbull's presence before the formal speech- making began. With Mrs. Turnbull were her daughter-in-law, Major Turn- bull's wife, and their daughter, Mrs. Hamilton D. South, whose husband is an officer of the U. S. Marine Corps.
A DISTINGUISHED GATHERING
The dinner was one of the largest and, in so far as the military element of its guests was concerned. one of the most distinguished ever held in Phila- delphia. A dinner had not been held on the floored-over auditorium of the Academy since the time when the University of Pennsylvania was host to Grover Cleveland, then serving his second term as President of the United States, this having been the largest dining event in the history of the time- honored building at Broad and Locust Streets.
On the stage space, in which the table of the speakers was placed, there were banks and terraces of palms, azaleas, bay and boxwood trees, amid which gleamed many electric lights. Above the centre, emblazoned in light, was the regiment's insignia and flanking it on either side were shields bearing the dates 1861-1911.
Most of the diners were in full dress uniform, and among those of blue with their trappings of gold could be seen the more ornate regalia of the First City Troop. It was a superlatively brilliant sight and not alone on the dining floor, but above in the parquet circle, the balcony and even the first gallery, where were assembled a host of beautifully gowned women, who came in later in the evening to enjoy the speech making.
When the host of uniformed men had marched in from the corridors and had taken their places at the seven long tables, their heads were bowed while an invocation was said by the Rev. Dr. Floyd W. Tomkins, reetor of Holy Trinity Church. Then from behind the banks of palms the martial bugles sounded, and three veterans raised the Stars and Stripes aloft. For this ceremony the band played the national anthem amid cheering. but a few moments later, when the diners again arose and again with bowed heads drank a silent toast to their departed comrades, the muffled musical instru- ments sighed the beautiful opening strains of the Chopin funeral march.
JEST AND STORY ABOUND
Then song and wartime jest and story began to go round, the band played such melodies as the soldiers of the 60's loved, and which proved themselves as well known after 50 years. There was many a time when the entire assemblage, diners and spectators alike. joined lustily in the choruses. the while waving silken flags, with which everyone had been presented. Enthusi- asm was never more contagious. Of the genuine Old Guard of the Regiment, William W. Allen, Samuel Bell, Alexander C. Fergusson, James W. Latta, William A. Wiedersheim and Alexander P. Colesberry attended, with the exception of the last named, who is at present in mourning.
The souvenir of the occasion was of exceptional elaboration and beauty. It was a white vellum-bound booklet. on the cover of which was embossed in colors the insignia of the corps. The frontispiece was a reproduction of the statue by Bush-Brown, "The Spirit of G1," which will be unveiled to-day before the Union League, and on another page were reproductions of elippings from the PUBLIC LEDGER of April 17, 18 and 20, 1861, referring to the corps.
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The other pages, all of them gems of the printer,' art. contained information of interest to the organization's members and song- which were sung at the festivity.
Thackeray, something of the line of thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson that " a chair at the tavern table was a seat on the throne of human felicity," found huge enjoyment in a well-satisfied appetite. Ho relates this incident of himself. Charlotte Brontë. who held him in high esteem, on one occasion was opposite him at table, both guests, where the host delighted to entertain sumptu- ously. "I confess it." said Thackeray, "with humiliation that I saw her admiration for me gradually disappear as everything went into my mouth and nothing came out of it, and as I took my fifth potato, she folded her arms, leaned across the table, and with tear-filled eyes, breathed imploringly, ' Oh! Mr. Thackerar, don't.' "
The guests were still thrifty in anecdote, badinage was abun- dant, conversation did not lag, the music still charmed, but gallery and balcony. having seen all there was to see, were waiting to hear all there was to hear: beside the time had come to pass from substance where everything had gone into the mouth to sentiment where something should come out of it. Colonel Wiedersheim. that the precious memories awakened by the presence and reception of Mrs. Turnbull might not be permitted to vanish, proceeded with his own felicitous opening address, supplementing it with the ready speech with which he, in turn, introduced the other speakers who followed him. Gen. James W. Latta, on the " Surviving ex- Colonels "; C. Stuart Patterson, Esq., the Quartermaster of the Veteran Corps, on " The Sokliers of the Union ": Rev. Wilson R. Stearly on "Some Types of Heroism"; Maj .- Gen. C. Bow Dougherty, Commanding the Division, National Guard of Penu- sylvania ; Col. John P. Nicholson, Recorder of the Military Order of the Loval Legion of the United States: Brig .- Gen. Thomas J. Stewart. the Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff, of Pennsylvania. and H. K. Bush-Brown, the sculptor. These speeches, important out of the volume of incident that this epochal occasion had brought forth, will be found in the Appendix.
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