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Title: A History of the Second Division Naval Militia Connecticut National Guard
Author: Bidwell, Daniel D.
Language: English
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A HISTORY
of the
SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA
CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD
_By_
DANIEL D. BIDWELL
Hartford, Conn.
1911
Copyrighted 1911
By
DANIEL D. BIDWELL
The Smith-Linsley Company
Hartford, Conn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dedicated
to
All Friends
of the
Naval Militia
Connecticut National Guard
SLIGHTLY ADAPTED
“Here’s to the land that gave us birth,
Here’s to her smiling skies,
Here’s to her Tars, the best on earth,
Here’s to the flag she flies.”
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
PAGE
Before the Launching 1890 to 1896 11
The Launching 1896 13
THE LOG
❦
Course 1, The Cincinnati 1896 16
Course 2, The Maine 1897 18
Course 3, The War 1898 21
Course 4, The Prairie 1899 25
“Dewey Day” September 30, 1899 26
Course 5, The Prairie Again 1900 32
Course 6, Camp Newton 1901 34
Course 7, The Panther 1902 38
Course 8, At Niantic 1903 42
Course 9, The Hartford 1904 46
Course 10, The Columbia 1905 51
Course 11, The Minneapolis 1906 55
Course 12, Again the Prairie 1907 58
Course 13, And Again the Prairie 1908 62
Course 14, The Machias 1909 65
Course 15, The Louisiana 1910 66
❦
(For the Future to Reveal)
Course 16, 1911
Course 17, 1912
Course 18, 1913
Course 19, 1914
Course 20, 1915
❦
Appendix A 68
Appendix B 70
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
❦
PAGE
Frontispiece—First Commanding Officer of the Division, Lieutenant
Felton Parker
Captain Louis F. Middlebrook 10
Division Boat Race in Boston Harbor 24
Lieutenant-Commander Lyman Root 26
Camp Parker 36
Boat Crew at Charles Island 41
Furling Sail on the U. S. S. Hartford 46
Lieutenant Howard J. Bloomer 49
Lieutenant-Commander Robert D. Chapin 53
Lieutenant Carroll C. Beach 56
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Charles L. Hogan 59
Ensign Frank H. Burns 65
Lieutenant William G. Hinckley 67
Tailpiece, Division Pin 76
JACOB’S LADDER
❦
Founding of the Division April 29, 1896
Duty on the U. S. S. Maine July 10–16, 1897
War Company Mustered In June 15, 1898
“Dewey Day” Parade September 30, 1899
First Battalion Field Day May 23, 1900
Salute to the New Century January 1, 1901
Personal Escort of President Roosevelt in Yale
Bi-Centennial Parade October 16, 1901
First Annual Indoor Meet February 21, 1902
Camp Parker Dedicated July 4, 1902
In Army and Navy Maneuvers, August 30 to September 6, 1902
Beat Champions in Eleven-Inning Game of Indoor
Baseball March 11, 1903
Duty at Camp Reynolds August 22–29, 1903
Re-stocking of the Library November 18, 1903
Elfrida in Hartford Waters June 19–25, 1904
On the U. S. S. Hartford September 6–13, 1904
Indoor Baseball Champions for Season 1904–1905
Hampton Roads August 1–6, 1907
In Bridge Parade October 8, 1908
Wall-Scaling Champions April 29, 1909
First Memorial Sunday June 13, 1909
Off Bermuda July 26–29, 1910
FIRST COMMANDING OFFICER
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT FELTON PARKER
]
FOREWORD
❦
That the Naval Division is worthy of a history in enduring form is
undeniable: that it is worthy of a historian of more philosophy and
patience is also undeniable. But if the principle is correct that “any
weather is better than none,” as Mark Twain, who once produced a
treatise on navigation which he called “Following the Equator,”
summarized his opinion of the elements, then it may be correct to allege
that this history is better than no attempt. From newspaper files which
have long lain in unhallowed dust, from scrap-books long undisturbed,
from orders and records and literature which has received no generic
name and from the lips of survivors of a glorious but ancient day the
historian has drawn the facts which follow. The research work has been
difficult and a task of no mean proportion, as well, and the work of
arrangement and assimilation has not been inconsiderable, and there is
reasonable excuse for any errors which may appear in the printed result.
For these the historian begs indulgence. He desires to add that the task
has been a pleasant one in spite of the difficulty and that his only
regret is that a history-more adequate is not the result.
In any case the trail has been blazed, or, to use a more appropriate
metaphor, the channel has been buoyed for him who is destined to produce
a suitable volume when the Second Division shall have arrived at its
twenty-fifth anniversary. That the command may continue to prosper and
that it may ever be as efficient and successful as in its most honorable
days is the earnest wish of its chronicler.
Thanks are expressed to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Charles L. Hogan and
Quartermaster Palmer (the division librarian) of the actives and to
Victor F. Morgan, historian of the Veteran Association, for aid given in
the collating of material for this little volume. Thanks are also given
to Captain Louis F. Middlebrook and Mr. Fred E. Bosworth.
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, June 28, 1911.
[Illustration:
CAPTAIN LOUIS F. MIDDLEBROOK
THE FOUNDER OF THE DIVISION
]
BEFORE THE LAUNCHING
❦
In the early nineties the so-called, and perhaps miscalled movement for
“Naval Reserves” came into Connecticut. In 1893 it gathered shape in New
Haven and on the petition of Edward G. Buckland and forty-four others.
General Edward E. Bradley of New Haven, adjutant-general under Governor
Luzon B. Morris, issued an order for the formation of the First
Division, Naval Militia, C. N. G. In November of that year a division
was organized, a month pregnant with meaning in the annals of the naval
establishment of Connecticut, for it marked the institution of a branch
destined to endure and to be a just cause of pride to the state of Hull,
Gideon Welles and Foote.
The formation of the First Division followed barely two years after that
of the First Naval Battalion in New York state. Massachusetts had
preceded the Empire State by more than fifteen months, and Rhode Island
by about a year, and when the command in New Haven organized, the states
which boasted naval militia organizations were Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, California,
Pennsylvania and Illinois. The total strength of the naval militia in
these states was about 2,100 officers and enlisted men.
It was in March, 1890, that the first command of the kind appeared in
Massachusetts, and in the following May that the Naval Battalion,
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, pioneer among “Naval Reserve”
organizations in the United States, was organized. From that germ has
grown a system which now includes naval militia bodies in twenty-three
states and has on the rosters between seven thousand and eight thousand
officers and enlisted men; and has recorded several times that number of
alumni who are in part trained for the country’s hour of need on salt
water.
Interesting stories about the First Division of New Haven came to the
ears of many lovers of salt water in Hartford. Stories they were of the
splendid success of that crack command, the good times which the fun
lovers of the company enjoyed, the good fellowship shown, the capacity
for hard technical work and the growing esteem in which it was held both
by the adjutant-general’s office and the Navy Department at Washington.
And so it was that a little knot of similar spirits in Hartford was
formed, men with fondness for yachting on the Sound or with patriotic
pride in the Navy who gravitated together after a nucleus had been
developed.
The proposition for a naval company was received with a diversity of
opinion. One military man of ripe experience raked it fore and aft in
print, but in after years he discovered the error of his range finder
and became a firm friend of the command in fair weather and foul. His
memory long remained green with the company.
❦
THE LAUNCHING
❦
It is recorded that most of the originators of this movement were
employees of the Pope Manufacturing Company or were members of the
Hartford Canoe Club, and that some were luminaries in a social body
known to fame as The Bachelors, but this last declaration is disputed.
It was on March 14, 1896, that an application to Governor O. Vincent
Coffin of Middletown, Commander-in-chief of the Connecticut National
Guard, for the establishing of another division was drafted. The paper
was guardedly circulated by Louis F. Middlebrook, then a member of the
Brigade Signal Corps, to whom in large measure the credit of the
subsequent birth of the command is due. On April 11 the application was
presented to His Excellency together with details as to the cost of
equipment, armory quarters and like matters. Just eighteen days later
the governor’s consent was signified in an order which Adjutant-General
Charles P. Graham issued for the formation of the Second Division, Naval
Battalion, Connecticut National Guard. That date is entered in the
division’s log as its natal day.
On the evening of May 12, Commander Edward V. Reynolds of the battalion
and officers from the division in New Haven materialized in the even
then ancient armory on Elm Street, never before that night used for any
naval object. A division was formed and officers were elected as
follows:
Lieutenant, Felton Parker.
Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Lyman B. Perkins.
Ensigns, Louis F. Middlebrook and Robert H. C. Kelton.
Mr. Parker was a graduate of Annapolis, who had left the Navy at the
reduction in 1882, and was at the time in the employ of the Pope
Manufacturing Company in the patent department. Mr. Perkins had
graduated in 1881 from Annapolis as a cadet engineer. He was a general
agent for the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.
Mr. Middlebrook was in the same company’s employ and possessed large
executive ability. Mr. Kelton was a mechanical engineer in the employ of
the Hartford Rubber Works. He had been a member of Division C of the
First Naval Battalion of Massachusetts.
The enlisted men were forty in number. Their names follow:
Alden, H. W.
Baxter, G. S.
Beale, G. W.
Bevins, V. L.
Bissell, H. G.
Bosworth, F. E.
Burnett, A. E.
Burnham, P. D.[1]
Caswell, L. S.
Cheney, T. S.[1]
Cochran, L. B.
Crowell, E. H.
Cuntz, H. F.
Fairfield, E. J.
Field, E. B.
Field, F. E.
Gilbert, E. R.
Harlow, M. P.
Heymann, H. B.
Hunt, B. A.
Ingalls, F. C.
Larkum, H. H.
Larkum, W. N.
Maxim, H. P.
Miller, G. P.
Miller, H. I.
Morgan, J. H.
Morrell, D. S.
Newell, J. L.
Northam, R. C.
Osgood, W. J.
Rice, C. D.
Root, Lyman
Stevens, H.
Walsh, J. G.
Wightman, A. H.
Williams, C. C.
Wilson, L. B.
Winslow, F. G.
Woodward, C. S.
Footnote 1:
Deceased.
The division was the armory’s baby and the sailor uniform and the sailor
drill were observed with the greatest of kindly interest; and, by the
way, that interest survives to this day.
By the middle of June the company was in fairish shape in regard to
uniform and equipment, but was shy of flat caps. On the evening of June
24 the first petty officers were appointed, the selections being awaited
with the keenest curiosity. The appointees were:
First Class—Boatswain’s Mate, Daniel S. Morrell; Gunner’s Mate, Louis B.
Wilson.
Second Class—Boatswain’s Mate, Edward H. Crowell; Gunner’s Mate, Walter
L. Meek; Quartermasters, Thomas S. Cheney and Edwin R. Gilbert.
Third Class—Gunner’s Mate, Charles D. Rice; Coxswains, Robert C.
Northam, Frank H. Peltier and Herman F. Cuntz, and Bugler Herbert G.
Bissell.
On the same June evening, orders were read to stand by for the
division’s first cruise. That duty was on the U. S. S. Cincinnati, a
protected cruiser.
❦
COURSE ONE
❦
THE CINCINNATI
At 6:45 Saturday morning, July 11, the division to the number of
forty-six entrained for New Haven and by 8 o’clock was on board the
Cincinnati, as she lay off the breakwater. An hour later the cruiser
weighed anchor and headed down the Sound, landing the divisions of the
battalion on Gardiner’s Island, where they went into camp. Till late
Sunday evening it was hard work and plenty of it, but the mettle of the
division was shown in the test. Part of Sunday evening was spent in
“hustling ice,” as one member expressed it in a letter. Near by were
naval militiamen from Rhode Island and New York.
Monday morning found the division embarking for the Cincinnati, on which
instruction was given during the day in gun, fire and collision drills.
For the great majority of the men it was their first real experience in
work on a warship, and the novelty and excitement were fascinating. The
following day there was drill in pulling boats with the new coxswains on
their mettle.
A couple of days more of life in camp and on the Cincinnati with good
weather did much towards starting the men toward man-o’-war form, or so
some of them began to think. Tanned faces, pipes and plug tobacco came
into full evidence. For some it was, perhaps, a picnic in the open salt
air, but an outing in which discipline was strictly preserved and much
practical information was acquired.
Thursday morning reveille was sounded at Camp McAdoo at 5 o’clock and
simultaneously rain began to fall. After mess the battalion struck the
tents, turned to on camp gear and transferred nine boatloads from the
island to the Cincinnati. Most of the men were in water to their waists.
Between the fresh and the salt they were not incompletely drenched, but
their hearts were gay and when the boats were hove up they tailed on the
falls with a will.
In New Haven there was a short street parade and when, in the Meadow
Street Armory, the First Division boys saluted and cheered the Second,
the tour of duty was pronounced to be a glorious success. On the station
platform in Hartford on the arrival of the Second Division that evening
was a motley of fathers and mothers, kid brothers, best girls and other
landlubbers, all eager to welcome the home-faring tin tars. The men fell
in on the platform and gave this highly original cheer:
“Hi, ye-ke, hi! Ree, Ree, Ree!
Naval Battalion, C. N. G.
Second Division.”
This may sound at this distant day like a rather slender battle cry, but
the boys of the division ranked it with the “Brek-e-Ke-Kex” of the Yale
Gridiron.
The historian admits giving undue prominence to that tour of duty, but
begs indulgence on the ground that it was the division’s first service
on salt water.
❦
COURSE TWO
❦
THE MAINE
In a few months the division was carefully recruited and when the drill
season started it was little effort for jack o’ the dust to report a
tidy sum in the treasury. The division parlor was artistically
decorated. Along the frieze was painted a stretch of blue water of dipsy
hue on which was developed some of the most startling advances in
shipbuilding. A craft of the time of Hiero, a Roman galley, a Viking
ship, a French frigate of the sixteenth century, a warship of
Revolutionary days, one of the time of Hull and then the battleship
Indiana were pictured. In a way the series traced the development of sea
power.
The months of that drill season wore by pleasantly, the boys at work
mainly at infantry, for somehow in those days the real province of naval
militiamen was not clearly lined out, but with a bit of single-stick
work and some signalling, and when the end of the season arrived most of
the men were well acquainted with the work which had been laid out.
It was on the battleship Maine that the yearly lessons afloat were
learned. The battleship Texas had been assigned for the duty, but it
became necessary to dry dock her for repairs, and her sister ship took
her place. Ensign Louis F. Middlebrook with Boatswain’s Mate Crowell,
Quartermaster Wightman, Coxswains Osgood and Meek and Seamen Doran,
Mather, J. Morgan Wells, Gilbert and Baxter constituted the baggage
detail, which sailed from the steamboat landing at 7:30 on the morning
of Saturday, July 17, on the tug J. Warren Coulston for Fisher’s Island.
The detail pitched camp on rising ground in the rear of the Hotel
Munnatawket, not far from the site of the battalion’s camp some five
years later.
The Maine lay at anchor in Fisher’s Island Sound. The remainder of the
division went by rail to New Haven on the following Monday morning and
sailed for the island on the steamer Richard Law. The two divisions with
the engineer branch and the staff made the battalion nearly 140 strong.
Captain Sigsbee was in command of the ship, the same officer who was in
command when the tragedy in the harbor of Havana happened seven months
later. His face became familiar to most of our men, as did also that of
Lieutenant Wainwright, executive officer at the time of the explosion,
and when that tragedy came the horror had a personal as well as a
patriotic interest for many members of the Second Division, who
remembered by name and face many a man in the ship’s complement.
Most of the work was at Camp Long or in small boats, but not a little
was on the ship, where gun drill was among the most interesting of the
branches. A lecture on the Whitehead torpedo was a feature of the
curriculum.
One afternoon during the tour of duty on the Maine, the signal squads of
the First and the Second Divisions met in a contest for a trophy cup and
the squad from the Second won. The winning team included Quartermasters
Cheney and Wightman and Seamen Bosworth and V. Morgan.
It is interesting to hark back to the Maine days and to record that a
racing cutter crew was evolved and that it received some, if not much,
instruction and encouragement from men on the Maine. Out of the mist of
that week it is recorded that this crew was made up of these oarsmen:
First, Seaman Baxter; Second, Quartermaster Wightman; Third, Coxswain
Osgood; Fourth, Seaman Wells; Fifth, Gunner’s Mate Root; Sixth, Seaman
Havens; Seventh, Seaman Gilbert; Eighth, Boatswain’s Mate Morrell;
Ninth, Coxswain Northam; Tenth, Seaman Ingalls; Eleventh, Gunner’s Mate
Cuntz, and Twelfth, Seaman J. Morgan. Without experience the crew
contested with the crack twelve of the New Haven Division and was beaten
only by three-quarters of a boat length.
The Hartford Division returned on the tugs Coulston and Mabel, arriving
at the steamboat landing in the early evening.
❦
COURSE THREE
❦
THE WAR
Barely was the next drill season well inaugurated when the Maine sailed
for Havana, and then came the terrible disaster in which many of the
division’s shipmates were hurled into eternity, and next the preparation
for the approaching conflict with Spain. In April, the First Regiment
marched away, the division remaining eager for the coming call. Each
drill evening the men put heart, energy and sustained attention into the
work. Drills took place on the park in the presence of citizens who paid
their tributes of respect to the sailor blue. Each member was urged to
train physically, as well as to learn the drills. Seamanship, signalling
and such boat work as could be taught were the backbone of the
instruction.
Finally the call came and over ninety per cent. of the division
volunteered at roll call to enlist in the United States Navy for the
entire conflict. On June 6, the division paraded in heavy marching order
up Main Street and by Trumbull and Asylum Streets to the railroad
station, escorted by posts of the Grand Army and by veteran and active
military commands, and entrained for the State Military Rendezvous in
Niantic.
On June 15, Commander Field, U. S. N., mustered in the command
thenceforward known as the “war company.” Following are the names and
the ages with ratings obtained before the mustering out and with the
names of the ships on which each individual mainly served:
Henry S. Baldwin, G. M., 1st class, 24 Seminole
Arthur W. Barber, Landsman, 25 Minnesota
George S. Baxter, Coxswain, 22 Wyandotte
Robert C. Beers, Landsman, 26 Catskill
Howard Berry, Ordinary Seaman, 20 Wyandotte
Henry W. Bigelow, Seaman, 30 Minnesota
Herbert G. Bissell, Ordinary Seaman, 24 Minnesota
Fred G. Blakeslee, Seaman, 30 Minnesota
Fred E. Bosworth, Quartermaster, 23 Minnesota
Arthur L. Brewer, Seaman, 21 Minnesota
George Brinley, Seaman, 26 Wyandotte
John H. P. Brinley, Seaman, 23 Wyandotte
Henry R. Buck, Seaman, 22 East Boston
Joseph F. Burke, Landsman, 22 Wyandotte
Archibald L. Case, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Henry B. Case, Landsman, 19 Minnesota
Robert D. Chapin, Seaman, 22 Minnesota
Murray H. Coggeshall, Q. M., 1st Class, 25 Wyandotte
George F. Colby, Landsman, 21 Wyandotte
Arthur S. Cutting, Landsman, 20 Minnesota
Hermann F. Cuntz, Ensign Lr. S. N., 26 Sylvia
Stanley K. Dimock, Seaman, 20 Seminole
Edward J. Doran, Ship’s Apothecary, 24 Minnesota
Henry W. Drury, Seaman, 22 Minnesota
Francis E. Field, Seaman, 25 Minnesota
George C. Forrest, O. M., 3d Class, 29 Wyandotte
George Foster, Coal Passer, 23 Wyandotte
Paul Franke, Landsman, 24 Minnesota
Burton L. Gabrielle, Ordinary Seaman, 20 Minnesota
Christopher M. Gallup, Fireman, 22 East Boston
William A. Geer, Landsman, 27 Minnesota
Frank W. Gillette, Ordinary Seaman, 23 Wyandotte
William Goulet, Landsman, 22 Minnesota
James J. Hawley, Q. M., 2d Class, 27 Seminole
George A. Holcomb, Ord. Seaman, 22 Seminole
Richard J. Holmes, Ordinary Seaman, 25 Minnesota
Charles A. Huntington, Chief G. M., 25 Wyandotte
William M. Hurd, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Edward Q. Jackson, Ord. Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Lorenzo W. Kenyon, Seaman, 20 Minnesota
Frank R. Keyes, Chief Quartermaster, 21 Wyandotte
Frank E. Kowalsky, Coal Passer, 21 Seminole
Arthur P. LeFever, Landsman, 19 Minnesota
Michael C. Long, G. M., 2d Class, 28 Wyandotte
Oliver W. Malm, Seaman, 25 Minnesota
George R. Martin, Ord. Seaman, 19 Minnesota
Ralph W. McCreary, B. M., 1st Class, 22 Wyandotte
J. Ward McManus, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Louis F. Middlebrook, Ens’n, U. S. N., 32 Enquirer
Guy P. Miller, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Hugh I. Miller, Seaman, 25 Minnesota
James H. Morgan, Q. M., 1st Class, 23 Seminole
Victor F. Morgan, Seaman, 18 Minnesota
Shiras Morris, Coxswain, 23 Wyandotte
Linwood K. Moses, Landsman, 20 Minnesota
Carl C. Nielson, Wardroom Steward, 25 Seminole
Edward J. Noble, Ordinary Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Edwin T. Northam, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Robert C. Northam, G. M., 2d Class, 25 Minnesota
Harry Y. Nutter, Seaman, 26 Minnesota
Lauriston F. L. Pynchon, Seaman, 26 Minnesota
Judson B. Root, Ordinary Seaman, 22 Minnesota
Harrison Sanford, Ordinary Seaman, 21 Wyandotte
Charles C. Saunders, Seaman, 22 Minnesota
Felton Parker, Lieutenant, U. S. N., 38 Huntress
Lyman Root, Ensign, U. S. N., 29 Elfrida
Otto M. Schwerdtfeger, Landsman, 22 Minnesota
Albert W. Scoville, Jr., Seaman, 21 East Boston
Lester H. Scoville, Ordinary Seaman, 20 East Boston
William H. Scrivener, Seaman, 21 Minnesota
Frederic A. Seaver, Landsman, 34 Minnesota
Freeman P. Seymour, Ord. Seaman, 34 Minnesota
Forrest Shepherd, Seaman, 28 Wyandotte
Herbert E. Storrs, Seaman, 19 East Boston
Morton C. Talcott, Landsman, 20 Minnesota
George H. Tinkham, Landsman, 22 Wyandotte
William C. Tregoning, Seaman, 22 Seminole
John F. Twardoks, Landsman, 21 Minnesota
Jonathan K. Uhler, Seaman, 24 Minnesota
James D. Wells, Seaman, 23 Minnesota
Richard B. Wells, Coxswain, 29 Seminole
Alanson H. Wightman, Q. M., 1st Cl., 26 Seminole
George E. Wilcox, Ord. Seaman, 21 Minnesota
Louis B. Wilson, B. M., 1st Class, 26 Seminole
Frank L. Young, Cabin Steward, 19 Wyandotte
[Illustration:
DIVISION BOAT RACE IN BOSTON HARBOR
]
From Niantic the division went to the receiving ship Minnesota at the
Congress Street slip in the Charlestown Navy Yard. At one time and
another officers were detailed and men were drafted to vessels of the
“Mosquito fleet,” and these were scattered all the way down the coast to
Key West and the Havana Blockade, Ensign Cuntz on the Sylvia having the
good fortune to see the Morro.
COURSE FOUR
❦
THE PRAIRIE
Following the excitement of the war summer came a reaction. The
membership dropped nearly to the danger point. For a time it was a long
and hard beat to windward, a trying fight with wind, wave and tide. Like
every command from Connecticut which served in the war with Spain, the
division found many of its best members returning to civilian ranks, and
that to replace them either numerically or in quality required time and
activity. But new blood—or what might be called a saline infusion—came,
and before the snows melted the division had weathered the worst.
It was the Prairie which was the division’s floating home on the cruise
taken in the following August. On the 16th the battalion sailed from New
Haven harbor. Two days later the ship was off Gloucester, home of daring
fishermen, and the next day she was in Bar Harbor. On the 21st she put
out to sea. She passed outside Nantucket Shoals Lightship and
opportunity was given to the men for target practice with great guns at
sea, after sub-caliber coming full service charges. On their return
members of the division spun exciting yarns concerning diluted
saltpeter, embalmed horsehide, hammock ladders and raids on the
officers’ refrigerator.
It is to be chronicled that thirteen states were represented in naval
militia cruises on the Prairie in 1899 and that Connecticut took third
rank among them; also that the Hartford division won first place among
the three divisions from Connecticut, Bridgeport having organized the
Third Division.
“DEWEY DAY”
❦
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER LYMAN ROOT
]
Probably the most memorable occasion in the history of the command was
September 30, 1899, “Dewey Day,” the day of the giant procession in New
York City in honor of the fine old hero of Manila Bay. When the
organizations to represent this state were selected, it was the Naval
Battalion which headed the list of honor. The First Regiment was not
upon the list, but with honorable patriotism officers of the regiment
who had served in Camp Alger requested of Lieutenant Lyman Root,
Lieutenant Parker’s successor, permission to wear the sailor blue and
carry Springfields in the division ranks. Men who had served in distant
years in the wooden navy and men who had fought under Dyer in Manila Bay
and Wainwright in the combat with the Furor and the Pluton and had
returned to Hartford, also asked and received the same permission.
With four officers and 112 men the division swung out from the armory on
the evening of the 29th and amid red fire and with a band blaring at the
front paraded to the railroad station, envied by infantrymen who could
not obtain opportunity to march in the mammoth procession. At 11 o’clock
the company marched into the Second Regiment Armory in New Haven,
stacked arms and was dismissed for a midnight lunch, at which the men
stowed away steaming coffee and ham sandwiches and received strict
orders not to leave the building. Then they made living pillows of one
another and slumbered innocently on benches in the gallery till some
wee, sma’ hour or other in the morning, when the Second Regiment crashed
out with “Onward Christian Soldiers,” and summoned them back to the
world of consciousness and sin. At 3 o’clock they fell in and marched
out into a hospitable rain punctuated by milkmen and policemen.
Three-quarters of an hour later they boarded the side-wheeler
Shinnecock. At 4 o’clock the steamer got under way and the men began to
look forward to a night of rest. One man slept on his arm under a table
in the dining saloon piled six feet high with camp chairs. Another was
lost to the world under the break of the pilot house. Still another
slept on unbaled hay for the field officers of the Second Regiment. Some
slumbered in gangways and some on the paddle boxes. The mathematical
boys of the division demonstrated the problem that it was possible to
sleep anywhere in space.
Somewhere in the head of the Sound the Shinnecock fell on an evil time.
A bushing on a feathering paddle blade in the starboard wheel misbehaved
and a bar buckled and for three hours she drifted while engineers made
repairs. Finally an emergency landing was made in a convenient coal yard
in Port Morris and the battalion trotted at double time for two miles
over Harlem cobblestones, arriving just in time to fall in ahead of
General Oliver O. Howard and the Grand Army Division.
During the march the men had a coveted opportunity to view the one-armed
corps commander at close range. Much of the time the old hero was
obliged to ride with his bridle rein in his teeth and with his chapeau
in his hand in response to the frantic waves of applause which greeted
him. The occupants of the closely packed stands along the line of march
rose in wildly cheering masses as they caught sight of the grizzled
veteran and the men of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Down Riverside Drive and for four miles in the heart of the city the
battalion marched with fixed bayonets. It paraded between solid masses
of cheering citizens and almost solid walls of flags and decorations. At
every halt the men were refreshed with fruit, coffee or drinkables,
sandwiches and salads or cigars, and presented with flowers and
souvenirs. At one halt on aristocratic Fifth Avenue a shower of silk
college sofa cushions came down from window seats and a Princeton
cushion was impaled on the historian’s bayonet.
At the conclusion of the parade many of the division repaired to
restaurants near Madison Square and Union Square. Dozens of them found,
when they stepped to the cashiers’ coops to liquidate, that unknown
civilians had obtained their checks and paid the bills. A man in a
sailor uniform in New York City that September afternoon found it no
easy task to spend money. Nothing was too good for the bluejackets.
It is to be recorded that Lieutenant Cuntz, Gunner’s Mate Huntington,
Coxswain Chapin and Seamen Noble and Nutter preceded the battalion to
New York. When the Shinnecock failed to appear, they annexed three stray
regulars from the U. S. S. Texas, and assumed an advanced place in the
column. In one of the spectators’ stands certain individuals conceived
the notion that the eight were Hobson and the Merrimac survivors. In a
few moments the word was passed over the stand and the crowd was on its
feet in a wild burst of applause.
While Dewey Day experiences were still being talked over, arrangements
were quietly made for a presentation to the first commanding officer,
Mr. Parker, who was lured to Turnerbund Hall to receive from the command
a gold watch with chain and fob, the chain in the semblance of a
stud-link ship’s cable and the fob a division pin mounted on a locket.
More of the tang of salt air and of the romance of the ocean came one
evening in the next drill season when the division mustered in the
parlor to listen to a talk by Professor Henry Ferguson of Trinity
College, an honorary member, who told a thrilling tale of shipwreck in
the mid-Pacific. Professor Ferguson recited the story of the Hornet, a
clipper which sailed from New York in 1866 for San Francisco. When the
ship was several hundred miles off the Galapagos fire obliged the crew
to take to the three boats, which were provisioned for ten days. It was
decided to head for the north, to keep in the track of San Francisco
vessels. Merchantmen in those days adhered to Maury’s sailing directions
and it was reasoned that chances would be better in the sea highway than
in attempting to reach land. By day the heat was nearly intolerable.
Nights were treacherous as they induced squalls of the vindictively
sudden nature peculiar to those Equatorial waters. Day after day wore by
with an unbroken horizon. Finally the boats crawled up into the trade
winds. It was decided to separate the boats to increase the chance of
finding aid. For twenty-five days the sailors had fought wind, sun, and
water and now they were in danger of fighting starvation, the ten days’
provisions, which had been distributed into one-third allowances, being
nearly exhausted. The remaining provisions were in turn re-divided, but
were gone in a fortnight. The men surviving sought nourishment in the
chewing of leather and moist clothing. On the point of utter exhaustion
they made a landfall, which proved to be Hawaii, and were rescued by a
crew from a coasting station. They had spent forty-three days in an open
boat and had traveled nearly three thousand miles.
More of the romance of the sea came to the division when the story of a
“war member,” William Hurd, and the schooner Intrepid was told. Less
than a month after Professor Ferguson’s lecture, Hurd cleared in New
York with his little auxiliary as a trader to carry trinkets, tin
jewelry, Yankee notions, canned soups, linens and whatnot to Baranquila
and to acquire cocoanuts and rubber on the Mosquito Coast and islands
nearby. His auxiliary was sixty-one feet on the water line and eighteen
feet beam and thirty-five gross tonnage, or twenty-eight net. She had a
powerful gasoline motor. After she cleared, Colombian insurrectionists
captured Baranquila and Hurd’s friends in the division began to wonder
what would happen to their former shipmate if an insurrecto officer
ranged alongside with more of an appetite for grindstones, canned soups
and tin jewelry than for international law. But Hurd was able to take
care of himself. He prospered as a trader, made a bushel of money, spent
it and finally returned.
At the annual banquet of 1900, Admiral Bunce, U.S.N., retired, was a
guest and in his speech pointed out that foreign intelligence officers
knew full well that seven-tenths of the arms and ammunition made for the
government came from Connecticut. In response to a toast another
speaker, Francis B. Allen, said:
“It was one of your honorary members, our distinguished Admiral
Bunce, who, while in command of the North Atlantic Squadron just
prior to the Spanish War, brought not only the fleet but each
individual ship to such a degree of excellence in squadron
evolutions and gun drills that he enabled his successors to acquit
themselves so creditably that Sunday morning outside Santiago Bay
when Cervera’s squadron tried to escape that the result afforded us
the greatest Fourth of July celebration since Vicksburg
surrendered.”
A month later Ensign Middlebrook launched the Veteran Association down
well-greased ways, and on May 23 the battalion had its first field day,
assembling at Savin Rock. It was reserved for Gunner’s Mate Chapin to
make known to Hartford a new method of celebrating the Fourth of July.
He navigated a picked gun crew at the close of the midwatch from the
armory to the City Hall and at sunrise pumped out a salute of twenty-one
shots from the lean throat of a Hotchkiss one-pounder. Irate sleepers
admitted that Chapin’s method was convincing. They were justly incensed
when he marched the crew under the Asylum Street bridge and fired a like
salute, and still more so when he took it to the Park Terrace and
discharged a fourteen-shot salute. Chapin proposed to fire a salute in
Wethersfield, but ammunition ran low.
❦
COURSE FIVE
❦
THE PRAIRIE AGAIN
That summer’s cruise was on the Prairie and led to Penobscot Bay. The
division sent in a whaleboat crew to race against one from the First
Division on that water, and its crew defeated that from the Elm City by
a quarter of a length, one of the New Haven officers marveling at this
result and asserting that it was a mystery of the deep. It also captured
two other boat races.
Later in the summer camping parties spent week-ends in Paradise, the
narrow strip between Bodkin Rock and the river a short distance below
Middletown. The division’s steamboat and the pulling boats which had
come a season or two before were in popular favor. They gave silent
lessons to the boys in boat engine work and in the stowing of dunnage,
thereby adding variety to the oarsmen’s drill of the early spring.
December 22, Lieutenant Parker died at his home in South Lancaster,
Mass. mourned by all who knew him. A patriotic officer, a loyal friend,
he had won the affection of the command.
One minute prior to midnight December 31, two gun crews unlimbered in
the rear of the City Hall and on the dot of midnight, the opening of the
new century, Gunner’s Mate Chapin fired the first shot in a salute of
twenty-one guns, a welcome to the newborn heir of time.
Century No. Twenty’s first gift to the division was an indoor baseball
team. The sport was new to the armory and it jumped (or slid) into
instant favor. The first game was with a team from Company A and to the
astonishment of everybody and most of all themselves the sailors won, by
a score of 17 to 12. They contended with a hurricane of batting in the
second inning and dragged anchor, but they weathered the storm and won
with an inning to spare. One of the division advocated a diamond of this
kind:
Home plate on the forecastle near the foremast, for baseline the
starboard foremast shrouds and for first base the foretop; along main
topmast stay to second base, the main top-masthead; down main topmast
rigging to third base, the main top; then down the mainstay and on to
the point of beginning. None of the other teams would play on that
diamond.
In a sham battle held in the armory in Governor McLean’s honor the
division had a conspicuous part and in the spring the battalion had its
field day in the South Meadow. Governor McLean had appointed Mr.
Middlebrook to be naval aide on his staff, with the rank of captain, the
highest rank which any member has obtained in the Connecticut naval
militia, later naval-aides having the rank of lieutenant-commanders.
❦
COURSE SIX
❦
TO CAMP NEWTON
The third anniversary of the mustering in of the battalion at Niantic
was observed by an outing at Woodmont, followed by a week-end cruise on
the Elfrida, the converted yacht once owned by W. Seward Webb and
purchased by the government at the breaking out of the war with Spain.
At a banquet in the Pembroke Hotel at Woodmont, General Edward E.
Bradley, adjutant-general when the First Division organized, and Senator
Joseph R. Hawley were speakers.
Master-at-Arms Murphy trained a volunteer racing cutter crew at
intervals in the course of the summer, bitterly lamenting that he never
had the same men two evenings running. Still he had men who were fairly
proficient when the battalion had its annual tour of duty, at Camp
Newton on Fisher’s Island. Tent life was varied by considerable work in
pulling boats. It was expected that a cutter race would be rowed between
the Hartford racing crew and a crew picked from the New Haven and
Bridgeport Division, but the latter did not materialize. That spectators
might not be disappointed, two crews were selected from the Hartford
oarsmen, Lieutenant Lyman Root acting as coxswain for one and Assistant
Surgeon Carroll C. Beach for the other. Mr. Root’s crew was inspired by
the presence of Dick, the division’s mascot, a corpulent bulldog with a
blue flat cap cocked rakishly over one ear. With one hand on the tiller
and the other on the dog’s collar, Mr. Root incited his crew and won by
a half-length in a course of half a mile.
For most of the six days rain came down in buckets. The camp work was a
practical lesson to the men of the division. That they returned healthy,
well disciplined, and contented, as well as much more familiar with duty
either afloat or ashore, demonstrated the learning capacity of the men
and the value of the camp.
On the return the Elfrida cast off, outside Saybrook Light, a tow
consisting of the steam whaleboat and the division’s cutter, its barge
and its pulling whaleboat. The “whaler” with the pulling boat in tow
started up the river, but a squall descended and gave work to all hands.
The crews landed in Essex in torrents, and after making the boats snug
for the night, turned in at a sail loft near the landing.
In the autumn the division sustained another severe affliction in the
death of its first honorary member, a firm friend in fair weather and
foul, Admiral Francis M. Bunce, an officer whom it had been a rare
privilege to honor. A veteran of the Civil War, a seasoned sailor, a
loyal Hartford man who took pride in his townspeople, the Admiral had
richly merited the division’s high esteem. His strong, yet kindly face
the men missed and mourned.
In the autumn an order came for a parade in New Haven, and when the
personal escort for President Roosevelt was selected, it was found to be
the Naval Battalion; and when the parade started it was found that the
senior division, the Second, was next to the President’s carriage.
Wall-scaling had a conspicuous part in the drill of the winter, and in
the spring small boat work and volunteer work on the Elfrida, the
battalion’s practice vessel, were attractions for those most interested
in the command. The Elfrida played her part well in the duty of the
spring field day of 1902, when the battalion rendezvoused in Bridgeport.
[Illustration:
CAMP PARKER
]
In June of that year a proposition to establish a summer camp took shape
and at a meeting a subscription paper was opened and $200 was pledged in
about fifteen minutes. A site was selected on the east bank of the river
in South Glastonbury and nearly opposite Two Piers. Volunteers cleared
the land of brush, assisted in driving a well, hauled lumber and
materials up the steep ascent of 115 feet, aided the carpenters, and
helped to furnish and arrange camp. They sought and obtained practical
experience in cooking and camp life. It was decided to name the camp
after the first commander of the division; and to this day the building
is known as Camp Parker. The spot was formally dedicated July 4th with
speeches and an open-air dinner, at which the building committee in due
and ancient form turned the institution over to the division. The house
was equipped with hammocks and many a rooky has there learned how to
pass a sailor’s night. Many a pleasant Sunday afternoon in midsummer has
lured men of the division to the cool piazza with its noble view for
many miles in three directions, south, west and north.
❦
COURSE SEVEN
❦
THE PANTHER
In some respects the yearly cruise which started several weeks later was
among the most memorable adventures of the division; and when some of
the old hands are spinning yarns about what they did when they were
young, they like to hark back to the “sham war” and a certain hike
across Montauk Point. The most extensive land and sea maneuvers in many
years were arranged in Washington for a force of several thousand of the
army and for practically all of the fine North Atlantic squadron of that
year, of which Admiral Higginson, the captain of the Massachusetts in
the Spanish war, was in command.
It was on the auxiliary cruiser Panther that the battalion served. The
division boarded the ship in New London harbor. In the course of the
service the Panther steamed as far east as Menemsha Bight and as far
west as New London, the object of the maneuvers being to test in a
practical way the defenses of the eastern entrance of Long Island Sound.
At sundown of a Saturday the most powerful fleet to that time assembled
in those waters was riding to anchor in the bight, awaiting the passage
of the hours before midnight ’ere beginning maneuvers against the string
of forts and signal stations scattered all the way from Woods Hole
around to Montauk. As night shut down, the signal lamps began their
Ardois work. At midnight hoarse orders came from the Panther’s bridge
and the rattle of the steam winch and the heavy clank of the cable in
the hawse pipe announced that the ship was getting under way.
Sunday found the ship off Block Island and Monday evening found her
heading north. Just as the watch off duty was beginning to snore
peacefully, the bugle sounded the call for general quarters. In a moment
the gun deck lights were switched on and ladders and hatches were choked
with men piling to their stations. Masters-at-arms were unceremoniously
rousting out rookies from their hammocks. In barely more time that it
has taken to write this paragraph the guns were cast loose, ammunition
was provided and the big naval bulldog was in fighting trim.
One afternoon the battalion had boat drill. Cutters were lowered and
with boat guns working and the landing party armed with rifles there was
a pretty bit of excitement. A day later the heavy guns belched at a
signal station ashore, which crumbled to theoretic dust. Then the naval
militiamen were mustered at division quarters and a day’s ration was
issued to each man, a two-pound tin of canned beef to each pair of men
and five or ten hard tack (or ship biscuit) to each man and a canteen
full of water or coffee, as the man elected. The call came for arm and
away boats. With a Colt automatic in the bow of each cutter the party
landed, going into extended order, while a detail took possession of the
telegraph and the telephone station.
The long line of blue swarmed over a strip of sand and a bit of swale to
a knoll. Then began two hours’ hard work. Through wire grass and sand
grass, through bushes and brush, across swamp and swale, by farmhouses
and barns, alongside lily ponds, the bending blue line advanced,
officers pointing the way with swords and squad leaders attempting to
keep the files at eight pace intervals.
Following an advance of four miles in such manner the “enemy” was
located behind the crest of a steep and high hill. The order for a
charge was given and with a yell the men sprinted forward under a heavy
shower of fireworks. Ensign Northam was the first up San Juan Hill and
it was reported that the historian was the last to reach the summit.
At this juncture the heavens opened and rain came down in buckets. After
a quarter of an hour in the downpour the battalion started on the return
of four miles. The hike was at route step. At the beach the oarsmen had
a stiff pull against wind and tide in boats loaded to the gunwales. But
the young salts were in fine spirits and when the order came to “shift
to anything dry” it was received as a joke.
The chief boatswain’s mate of the Panther was C. K. Claussen, the
Claussen who accompanied Hobson on the Merrimac and was confined in the
Spanish prison near Santiago.
At the end of the week, when the Panther left the squadron, her course
lay between the Olympia, Dewey’s flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay,
and the Brooklyn, Schley’s in the capture of Cervera. To each was given
a salute with the bugle and the lining of the rail. The Brooklyn’s band
rendered a patriotic air.
In the following fall the division took up target practice in real
earnest and at a special shoot in the South Meadow Chief Gunner’s Mate
Herbert E. Wiley won the first place. Barely was this function over when
it was decided to produce a comic opera and “The Mikado” was selected.
This was presented in Parsons’, so well that critics agreed that the
division could sing as correctly as it could sail.
In the winter the division tried its fortune again at indoor baseball,
with varying results. On one occasion it played an exciting game with
Company A, won the game, lost it and won it again, just clearing a lee
shore by a score of 19 to 18. On another it defeated the champions of
the armory in an eleven-inning contest.
The second annual indoor meet demonstrated that the series had arrived
to stay, a fact which each February proves again.
To extend its activities the division sent a picked gun crew on an
inland cruise to New Britain to give an exhibition drill.
[Illustration:
BOAT CREW AT CHARLES ISLAND
]
The field day was spent at Charles Island. To still further extend its
activities the division crossed afoot from the island at low tide to the
mainland.
❦
COURSE EIGHT
❦
AT NIANTIC
Amphibious is the word to apply to the division’s tour of duty that
summer. The steam whaleboat, by this time christened “Tillie Hadley,” by
her fireman, Gunner’s Mate Arnold, started down the river August 21,
1903, with the three pulling boats in tow, carrying nearly a quarter of
the division. The following day the remainder boarded the Elfrida in New
Haven harbor, and she with the First Division’s small boats in tow
steamed to Crescent Bay. A detail from each division spent eight days
afloat and the rest divided their time between Camp Reynolds at the
state military rendezvous at Niantic and boat drills in Crescent Bay.
The boat work was popular, so much so that in a few days most of the
oarsmen were approaching man-o’-war form.
At the end of the duty a storm came along which gave work to militia,
the seafaring population and landlubbers. In the New York _Herald_ of
the next day it was printed: “Old seafaring men down that way say that
they never saw the Sound rougher than it was that night.” A sailboat was
washed ashore at White Beach, two small sailing vessels dragged anchor
near Niantic, a sloop was wrecked to the southwest of the Crescent Beach
landing and a large three-masted schooner dragged anchor.
The Elfrida steamed out of the bay as the storm was breaking, on her way
to Sandy Hook and the yacht races with Governor Chamberlain on board.
The sou’wester rose into a gale. Seas broke high over the weather rail
to fly across the engine room skylight. The officers on the bridge and
the quartermaster on watch were soon soaked to the skin in spite of
oilskins and pea coats. It was a fierce night and the brave little ship
had a nervy tussle with the gale. At 3 o’clock in the morning the
Elfrida put into Huntington Bay and dropped anchor, finding that five
large steamers were there riding out the night, among them the Tremont
of the Joy Line, and the Shinnecock. Stormbound sailing craft were also
in the bay.
Soon after the hook went down it was found to be dragging, then the ship
was taken farther inshore and both starboard and port anchors were let
drop, with a good length of cable.
Later a distress sign was sighted on a yacht out in the open water. A
volunteer boat crew pulled out and found the vessel to be the schooner
Rosina, from New Haven, owned by an amateur who had a sailing master,
three women and a cook on board. The owner seasick, the sailing master
called the cook for a moment to the wheel, while he stepped down into
the cabin for a chart. The cook lost his head and, while in the wind,
the schooner’s main-topmast snapped and her fore-topsail carried away.
The rescuing boat crew found the women hysterical and with life
preservers adjusted. The men from the Elfrida cleared away the wreckage.
Early in the fall the division entertained members of H Company, Naval
Brigade, M. V. M., of Springfield, at Camp Parker with an old-time shore
clambake. The camp had become increasingly popular and for a number of
years nearly every Saturday or Sunday afternoon in midsummer attracted
division men to the place, and in “whites” the boys kept busy making
things snug in the galley or policing the grounds or taking a spin in a
pulling boat below.
November 18 brought an extraordinary spectacle—a book bee. At our bell
in the first watch, Librarian Palmer and Jack-o’-the-Shelf McDonald
broke out their accessioning system and the smoking lamp was lighted.
The books given made a startling list. Tolstoy’s “Resurrection” was
found sandwiched between “Alice in Wonderland” and a volume of
Lighthouse Reports. General Miles, Kipling, Morgan Robertson and
Roosevelt were popular authors. This is history, not romance. An
entertainment followed the book bee. Clog dancing on the foc’s’le head,
nautical songs, selections on cordage and dead eyes by a banjo quintet
and a sword dance by Coxswain Watson made up the backbone of the
evening. It was seven bells when the rejoicing ceased and the
merrymakers heaved out of the armory, all on soundings and under easy
canvas, except the supposed contributor of “Resurrection,” who scudded
away under a double-reefed fore-topsail.
The indoor meet of the next February sustained the division’s
reputation. By this time the annual mid-winter tourney had become known
all over Connecticut. The referees in the series have included such
gentlemen as President Luther of Trinity College and Former
Lieutenant-Governor Lake.
A month later the division was entertained by H Company of Springfield
in the Highland Hotel in that city, where the company was observing its
eleventh anniversary.
In June (June 19, 1904) the Elfrida came over Saybrook Bar with
Lieutenant Lyman Root in command. She was navigated up the river by
members of the division and came to anchor opposite the foot of Ferry
Street. Three days later, a brilliant reception was given on board her
to Governor Chamberlain. She was dressed fore and aft and from water’s
edge to water’s edge. In the illumination 248 Japanese lanterns were
included. Many military officers were present in full dress uniform.
The following morning the division paraded to the foot of Ferry Street,
embarking and escorting the governor and Former Governor Morgan G.
Bulkeley, an honorary member of the division, to East Haddam, there to
attend the dedication of a monument to Major-General Joseph Spencer of
Revolutionary War fame.
Three days later a hard-working and loyal graduate of the division,
Ensign William G. Hinckley, assistant engineer, received his commission
as lieutenant and chief engineer. Efficient, loyal and popular, Mr.
Hinckley received numerous congratulations of his well-earned promotion.
The range of the division’s energy is proved when it is chronicled that
July 27, the clubhouse committee carried out a moonlight sail down the
river. It was considerately promulgated in the committee’s circular:
“State exact number of ladies you intend bringing. Chaperons will be in
attendance.”
❦
COURSE NINE
❦
THE HARTFORD
[Illustration:
FURLING SAIL ON THE U. S. S. HARTFORD
]
The yearly cruise of 1904 was on Farragut langsyne flagship, the
Hartford, relic of the battle of Mobile Bay. It was as interesting as
any which the division has ever taken, barring, perhaps, that on the
Panther. When station billets were issued even the old hands volleyed
questions at their running mates of the regular crew. Here is the start
of a typical station billet:
Form No. 10.—Bur. Navigation.
Watch No. 126 U. S. S. Hartford.
Name, Rate, Cox.
Div. 2d. Gun, No. 8, 5–inch.
Armed boat, 3d cutter. Running boat, 3d cutter. Abandon ship,
3d cutter.
Fire quarters, close ports, No. 8 5–inch gun.
That was easy enough, even for a rooky. But what do you know about this?
EVOLUTION.
Loosing sail.
Furling sail.
Up and down topgallant and royal yards.
Up and down topgallant masts.
Making sail and getting underway.
Tacking and wearing.
Reef topsails.
Shorten sail and come to anchor.
STATIONS AND DUTIES.
Loose topgallant sail.
Furl topgallant sail.
Topmast crosstrees to rig upper topgallant yardarm, etc.
Topmast crosstrees, reeve and unreeve mast rope, fid and
unfid, etc.
Loose topgallant sail, then on deck to halliards.
Overhaul foresheet and shorten in, man maintop bowlines,
main and fore tacks.
Man topsail bunt lines, then halliards.
Let go topgallant halliards, man topsail clew lines, veer
and stopper cables.
It was a novelty to nearly all of the division, bringing back the old
days of heave and haul. The regulars were husky men with legs like
barrels and arms like blacksmiths’, nearly every one raw material for a
football player or anchor of a tug-of-war team. Bosn’s mates were
weather-beaten salts with faces like teakwood, seamed by the suns and
snows of the seven seas, tanned tar-mequicks with chests like hair
mattresses. One barnacle in the port watch had a voice as rasping as a
nutmeg grater. You might have imagined that he was born in Lat. 2,
North, Long. 2, West, and that he learned to creep on the lee side of
the foc’s’le. When he shrilled out a pipe with a chaser like the growl
of distant thunder a nippous rooky from the Tenth Ward asked in blank
amazement:
“What in heaven did that fellow say?”
“One man from each part of the ship coal the first steamer,” was the
reply.
Some of the best boat work which the division has ever done was
performed on this cruise. This is true not only in the line of
oarsmanship, but also in the securing of boats for sea and for port.
The duty took the division up Sound to Huntington Bay, then east to
Gardiner’s Bay, thence over to New London and finally back to New Haven
harbor. The men had a welcome convenience in the line of large lockers.
They took much interest in the apprentices, frolicsome little fellows
then from the training station who had school each morning at a mess
table on the starboard side of the gun deck near a frowning five-inch
gun with its glittering brass and its oiled steel.
The boys were poring over their books and papers in very much the same
way that lads in the seventh and eighth grades in the Second North or
the West Middle schools are poring (perhaps more so), over arithmetic.
In the instruction of the class the chaplain was using some of the books
which citizens of Hartford gave to the ship’s library in 1899 at the
suggestion of Admiral Bunce.
Most important among the events of the early part of the ensuing drill
season was the election of Lieutenant Lyman Root to be navigator of the
battalion to succeed Lieutenant Robert E. L. Hutchinson, promoted to be
lieutenant-commander and in turn succeeding Lieutenant-Commander Frank
S. Cornwell, promoted to be commander of the battalion, _vice_ Commander
Averill, retired. In his capacity as chief of the division, Mr. Root had
shown exceptional versatility, having been successful in the social and
athletic lines, as well as in drill and discipline. At the next drill
evening he took formal farewell of the division which he had so long and
so ably and so considerately commanded, giving generously of his best
energy and most faithful loyalty. He had taken the helm when the command
was little better than a wreck, had nursed it back to health and
prosperity and made it the finest military company in all Hartford. In
fair weather and foul weather, in joy and sorrow, on soundings and off
soundings, his steadying hand had been at the wheel and had time and
again brought the division safe into port. Strong and clear purpose,
affection for the command and for salt water,—these were our chief’s
dominant traits. The ability to read character was another quality. But
of these three characteristics his affection for the division stood ever
foremost.
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT HOWARD J. BLOOMER
]
Captain Howard J. Bloomer came over from the infantry to act as next
lieutenant of the division, not the least of the prerogatives being the
privilege of presiding as toastmaster at the yearly banquet. On the menu
card was a huitrain re-rigged from Coxswain John Kendrick Bangs so as to
read:
Oh, Navy Plug, Ottoman, Alonzo,
Puritan Boy, Especial, H. Clay,
Invincible, Rosedale, Alphonso,
Soby’s Best, German Lovers, El Rey,
Elegantes, Re-ina, Selectos,
Oh, Two-For, Madura, Grandé,
Shoe Pegs, Oscuro, Perfectos—
You drive all my sorrows away.
A floral bell nearly as large as the foretop was lifted and revealed an
elegant silver loving cup presented to Mr. Root as testimony to their
high esteem. A little later followed the elevation of Mr. Root to the
rank of lieutenant-commander of the battalion.
❦
COURSE TEN
❦
THE COLUMBIA
Sail drill was the feature of the cruise on the Hartford in 1904 and in
the following year drill in small boats was the feature. On the training
ship the boats usually hung outside the rail, but on the cruiser the
boats were frequently kept inside the rail. With the ship’s four funnels
and her multitudinous skylights and deckhouses her superstructure was
unsuitable for “setting up.”
A series of tug-of-war pulls enlivened the trip. The New Haven division
won from Bridgeport and Hartford from New Haven. Thus it was for the
Hartford team to pull the ship’s team. This contest came and to the
astonishment of all, the Hartford men won. And so it was that when the
division returned half of the lads were hoarse.
Bugler L. Wayne Adams was in high feather during the trip. He had
memorized the calls and sounded them accurately. By virtue of his high
office he was excused from previous service as messman; for much of the
cruise he was a man of elegant leisure. On his return to Wethersfield,
residents of Jordan Lane and the Nail Keg Club at Hanmer’s grocery heard
many a fine yarn, spun in Wayne’s best style.
The old rifle range in the South Meadow was discontinued, owing to the
increased range and power of the rifles just introduced into the
Connecticut National Guard. In consequence the division’s fall target
practice was conducted over the range in South Manchester. Acting as a
marker, Landsman Hill was hit by a deflected bullet, which was found
later in his shoe. Hill was taken to the Hartford Hospital.
Following the indoor meet, given successfully, of course, the division
began to prepare to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The banquet was
held in the Hartford Club. In the blue uniform the men of the division
attending mustered for entry into the dining room, to the strains of a
march. A dismounted signal gun of old-time size from the Dauntless
rested at the center of the head table, flanked by two silver cups,
trophies won by athletic teams from the division. Knife bayonets of the
new kind rested on the cups. Two stacks of rifles afforded resting-place
for the division’s colors.
The menu cards contained the following:
“_Such a deal of skimble, skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith._”
HENRY IV.
“_A page where men
May read strange matters._”
MACBETH.
X Home Port Routine X
Call All Hands
[Illustration]
Heave Anchor to Short Stay Serve Grog Stand by for a Blow
Up and Down
Port Marine Growth Bleached Starboard
Hot Suds Served Forward on Turtle Deck
Bony Walks the Plank to the Wake
Dutch Sea Apples Sliced Irish Torpedoes
Cascarets
“Damn the Torpedoes! Go Ahead”
Sea Cow off Madeira
Spud Chippies Burnside Bullets
[Sidenote: Bumboat Along Side, Sir]
Lyman Root Punch
Fruit Scouse
Vesuvius Ice “Up all——”
Pass to Leeward
Roquefort and Club
Black Jack
[Illustration]
“Divine in hookas, glorious in pipe.
When tipped in amber, mellow, rich, and ripe
Like other charmers, wooing the caress
Most dazzlingly when daring In full dress,
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far
Thy naked beauties—Give me a cigar!”
Boatswain’s Mate BYRON, “The Island,” II.
Two hours were passed “Off Yarnland.” Governor Roberts brought the
division men to their feet when he told them that he intended to order
out the battalion when the presentation took place of the silver service
voted by the General Assembly for the new battleship Connecticut.
Senator Bulkeley told the familiar and always stirring story of Admiral
Bunce’s splendid work in taking a monitor around Cape Horn.
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER ROBERT D. CHAPIN
]
In the early spring Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Robert D. Chapin succeeded
to the command of the division. In the nine years he had been in the
division he had ascended the ladder, round by round, as seaman,
coxswain, gunner’s mate, second and first class, and boatswain’s mate,
first class. He had served on about every brand of standing committee
which the organization had utilized. Later he was appointed naval aide
with the rank of lieutenant-commander.
Again in the early summer a racing crew was essayed, with Boatswain’s
Mate Hogan in charge of the training, the course extending from an
imaginary line off the old pumping station below Riverside Park to a
point off the East Hartford bank about a quarter of a mile above the
railroad bridge. Training was punctuated by swims and dives from a
spring plank in the meadow bank a short distance from the bridge.
❦
COURSE ELEVEN
❦
THE MINNEAPOLIS
Mr. Chapin’s cruise was on the Minneapolis, sister ship to the Columbia,
and it started on August 25, 1906, from New Haven harbor. The ship
steamed down the Sound and by Race Rock Light and anchored off Block
Island in the evening with the port anchor, in seventeen fathoms, sixty
fathoms of chain out. A protected cruiser, the Minneapolis did not rate
a band, but she carried one till the Dolphin came along and commandeered
the musicians. The next day the ship steamed out to sea for a hundred
miles and then after a diversity of courses came to anchor in Menemsha
Bight. Target practice, while the Minneapolis was steaming at a rate of
ten knots, made one afternoon’s work. In it the division’s team struck
hard times, but in the signal contest later the division redeemed
itself, Quartermaster Palmer being an easy first among the signal force
of the battalion in the Ardois branch and Quartermaster Ferris making an
especially fine showing with the semaphore work. The division has for
several years been strong in the signal branch.
When Governor Woodruff chose a naval aide it was Mr. Chapin who was
selected for that high honor, and when the next commanding officer of
the Second was nominated, Dr. Beach moved up to a lieutenant’s stripes.
Beginning in the ranks Dr. Beach went upon the staff as assistant
surgeon and then back to the Second as ensign.
For a number of years the division had combined with other commands in
the Elm Street Armory to attend an annual military service in a Hartford
church, but in the following December it decided to attend a separate or
sailors’ service, and the church of the Rev. Dr. Main was selected. It
is a question why this was chosen, but a legend has it that the choice
was on account of the nautical hint in the pastor’s name and that in the
denomination, the Baptist. In a sermon on intelligent patriotism Dr.
Main interspersed a number of sailorlike yarns to illustrate several
points. He told the story about Nelson’s disregard of Parker’s signal at
the battle of Copenhagen; and that of John Paul Jones’s answer in the
fight with the Serapis.
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT CARROLL C. BEACH
]
One of the most loyal and faithful members the division ever included
had enlisted a short time before in the United States Navy, Seaman John
J. A. Connor, and was now on the battleship Connecticut on the always
memorable trip around the world, bombarding friends with welcome post
cards.
The eleventh anniversary banquet was enjoyed in the Hotel Garde in
conjunction with Admiral Bunce Section, Navy League of the United
States. Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich told about his personal interest in
the Naval Militia, an adjunct necessary to the Navy, as he declared, and
Corporation Counsel Arthur L. Shipman talked as an attorney to the
gathering, telling about the influence of the navy in Guam and Samoa,
where the Navy was still administering the government.
❦
COURSE TWELVE
❦
AGAIN THE PRAIRIE
Space has been economized for the chronicling of the next cruise, a trip
on our old friend the Prairie to Hampton Roads. For several seasons the
naval militiamen had prospered with running mates from the regulars, but
for a reason to be made evident in the next sentence the pair-off system
was not pursued this time. The Prairie had a skeleton crew of 145 and
the battalion numbered about fifty above those figures. The start for
the run down the coast was made by way of Montauk Point, rounding which
the Prairie put her helm over for the first long leg on a course of S.
58 degrees W. Early in the evening the wind began rising and old hands
watched the rookies for symptoms of internal disturbance. The journey
down was a welcome innovation and the passing of Five-Fathom Bank
Lightship and of Winter Quarter Lightship were events. When the Cape
Charles Lightship came abeam the Prairie went on various courses until
she dropped anchor off the Chamberlin Hotel at Old Point Comfort. During
a part of the run soundings were made by the Thompson sounding machine,
a method that had been studied in former cruises, but with less interest
than on this. The Jamestown ter-centenary was in progress that summer
and liberty to an unusual extent was allowed to the battalion. One
afternoon about fifty members of the division visited the Connecticut
building at the exposition. Most of them signed their names in the
register, Boatswain’s Mate Perkins at first directing the writing class
and, when he tired, another petty officer relieving him. It was with joy
nearly equal to signing the pay roll that the sailors affixed their
signatures. Manager Curtis greeted the men with a graceful courtesy
rivalled only by Commissioner Barber’s graceful urbanity. Maps of the
exposition grounds were served out. By using these and keeping the lead
going and working their jaw tackle, the men made shift to reach proper
destinations.
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) CHARLES L. HOGAN
]
The same afternoon the men gravitated to a military carnival on the
parade. An impression prevailed in the division that the division’s
tug-of-war team could have outpulled the team which won in the carnival.
In years gone by cruise clubs had been launched, for instance the
Ham-Bone Club at Fort Wright and the Fore-Top on the Hartford. In
Jamestown the Kimona Club was organized with Lieutenant Hinckley at its
head. It consisted of a president, a vice-president, a secretary and a
chancellor of the exchequer, with an understudy for each.
On another afternoon Commissioner Barber made his return call. He
witnessed hammock and dunnage bag inspection, a “ceremony” which our men
loved as cordially as the devil loves holy water. He saw, also,
Underwood typewriters in the paymaster’s office and rejoiced at the use
of a Hartford product.
In the fall information came that the Elfrida was to leave Connecticut
waters and that the unarmored gunboat Machias was to take her place as
the battalion’s practice ship. The new ship was built in Bath, Me., in
1892. She is of steel, has two masts. Her length is 204 feet, her beam
32 feet, her mean draft 12 feet, her displacement 1,777 tons, her net
tonnage 398, her speed 15½ knots and her horse power 1,484. She has
accommodations for nine officers and about 132 men, or about six times
as many men as the Elfrida could sleep.
A Christmas tree in the division parlor brought joy to all hands and
astonishment to not a few. It was accompanied by an innocuous punch of
pink tea caliber, followed by Mother Carey sandwiches, saltpeter and
frozen rating badges (Neapolitan ice cream). Skylights were closed, all
glims were doused and current was turned on for small electric lamps in
a hemlock, which had been decorated with marlinspikes, rope yarns, and
cornucopias. Lieutenant (Junior Grade) James A. Evans, rigged gaily as
Santa Claus, served out gifts from the break of the quarter deck,
assisted by Boatswain’s Mates Perkins and Wyllie and Gunner’s Mate
Dickerman. Mr. Hinckley received a miniature Tillie Hadley. Mr. Hogan
was presented with a milk wagon. To Seaman Barnes was given a rake.
Gunner’s Mate Dickerman, who held the championship of the fleet at the
deck game of bowling, was helped to a children’s set of tenpins.
Quartermaster Palmer, impressario of the Banzai orchestra, drew an
accordion. A village character in the company received an allowance of
jaw tackle. A certain apprentice seaman was the recipient of a “hammock
ladder,” which dates back to the berth deck of Father Noah’s Ark.
March 17, 1908, an order was issued from the adjutant-general’s office
marking the passing of the “battalion.” The official title of the force
was changed to Naval Militia, Connecticut National Guard. Ratings were
officially prescribed, those of the first class in the division being
the following: Master-at-arms, boatswain’s mate, gunner’s mate,
machinist’s mate and water-tender.
May 21 the Tillie Hadley was taken to Saybrook and exchanged for the
First Division’s steam cutter. Later the Tillie went to the New York
Navy Yard. The departure of the old steam whaleboat marked the passing
of one of the company’s time-honored institutions. The boat’s successor
is variously known as the Hallie Tidley and the Merry Widow.
The observance of a division memorial day began this year, actives and
veterans assembling at noon, May 30th, for a service, and parading in
the afternoon as part of the escort to the Grand Army of the Republic.
In midsummer a movement came to reorganize the Veteran Association. A
meeting was held July 24th and the project advanced at a second meeting
held a week later, when the matter of participating in the approaching
dedication of Hartford Bridge was discussed. Former Ensign Fred E.
Bosworth was chief oiler of the machinery.
❦
COURSE THIRTEEN
❦
AND AGAIN THE PRAIRIE
Once more it was on the Prairie that the company cruised. It was the
fourth time, once to Bar Harbor, once to Penobscot Bay, and once to
Hampton Roads. So often has the ship been the company’s floating home,
that long-service members are more familiar with her than with any other
ship in the Navy, unless it be the Machias.
With the company were men from naval militia in New York City and
Brooklyn, congenial companions, with more of naval wardrobe than the
Second Division showed. The cruise was mostly in the Sound. The ship was
engaged in squadron maneuvers.
A flotilla of six torpedo boats accompanied the squadron, as did also
four submarines. Boats of this kind were in 1908 comparatively new to
many in the company, and when Ensign Hogan found an opportunity to make
a descent in a submarine he embraced it.
Back in Hartford the men grew busy in preparing for the Bridge
Dedication, the most important festivity which the city has ever
conducted, to which the command voted to invite its old nautical guest,
H Company of Springfield, down.
The dedication opened October 6 with the firing of a salute, by the
division, of course. In the evening the division paraded in a historical
pageant, the men representing men-o’-wars men of the conflict of 1812.
The battalion paraded in the giant military procession of October 8 as a
landing party, marching in white hats, and being among the warmest
favorites in the long column. In the afternoon it banqueted in the Y. M.
C. A. with H Company men, for whom the division’s poet laureate had
evolved a lyric, of which the following is a specimen verse:
“When dinner’s o’er, we then will go, then will go, then will go,
When dinner’s o’er, we then will go, to East Hartford’s sandy shore.”
While the company was beating up Pearl Street, an automobilist rammed
the hospital apprentice, an incident which developed an aftermath in the
superior court when with a former Philippine soldier, Sergeant Benedict
Holden, as attorney and counselor and proctor in admiralty, McIntyre got
a verdict. In his argument Sergeant Holden commended the division as a
patriotic command in which the city might well take pride.
ANOTHER CHRISTMAS TREE
Jan’y 4, 1909—Fourth Day Out.
Lat. 41° 49′ N. Long. 71° 36′ W. Bar., rising; Wind, E. S. E.;
Atmos., Smoky. All hands happy. Thus ends this Day.—[Extract from
the Division’s Log.]
At eight bells in the second dog watch all hands were piped to the
fo’c’sle. On the forecastle-head two screen cloths were rigged on a
sliding gunther brace. Being drawn, these disclosed Master-at-Arms
Perkins in the capacity of Neptune disguised as Santa Claus. By the heel
of the bowsprit were the crosstrees, which had been sent down and rigged
with rope yarns and stores from the canteen. Around the tree and along
both rails packages were stowed facing inboard, made fast with marlin
and manila. Pipes, matches and tobacco were served out and the smoking
lamp was lighted. Then gifts were passed out. Dr. Beach received a box
of pills, Coxswain Burns a masthead light, Master-at-Arms Perkins twin
dolls, one young Benedict a toy baby carriage, and Watertender Lewis a
slice bar. Gifts wise and otherwise were passed till the supply was
exhausted.
Skylarking such as this varied the serious work of the drill season.
Although the membership of the command from time to time changed to some
extent, the majority of the men had been in the division for years and
were fairly proficient in seamanship as well as in the ordinary armory
routine, and it must not be imagined that their fun interfered with
their nautical work.
The diversity of the fun is proved when allusion is made to a game
between the division’s new basketball team and the Boston Bloomer
Girls’. It was chronicled that not a member of the girls’ team lost a
backcomb or displaced a “rat,” although their hair was coiled like the
flemished-down end of the Elfrida’s topping lift.
The indoor meet was the last held in the old armory. It was as
creditable as any in the long and popular series and went as smoothly as
desired.
June 13 was observed as Memorial Sunday, the first which the division
formally kept. The company reported at the armory to act as escort to
the veteran company in a parade to Spring Grove Cemetery.
❦
COURSE FOURTEEN
❦
THE MACHIAS
So near is the history drawing to the present that merely a bare outline
is given here of the next two years. The cruise of the summer of 1909
was on the Machias and took the division to quaint old Provincetown. The
Pilgrims’ Tower and the swimming linger in the men’s memory.
[Illustration:
ENSIGN FRANK H. BURNS
]
Members of the company enjoyed three days’ duty at the Hudson-Fulton
celebration in New York City. In December the company transferred to the
new state armory and the indoor meet drew nearly three thousand
spectators.
COURSE FIFTEEN
❦
THE LOUISIANA
The cruise of 1910 was on the battleship Louisiana and it carried the
division around the Island of Bermuda. April 29 the division’s
crackerjack wall-scaling team won the world’s championship, in the
Twenty-third Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, N. Y., over three competing
teams.
THE FOURTH DIVISION
NAVAL MILITIA CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD
Soon after the forming of the First Division an engineer force was
outlined and then established and this in time became known as an
engineer division. The organizing of the Second Division had its
influence on the so-called engineer division. In time the branch as a
separate organization seemed to lapse, although its importance was
increasing.
In January, 1908, an artificer division was called for, in an order from
the adjutant-general’s office, to have a maximum enlisted strength of
forty, and Chief Engineer William G. Hinckley was placed in command.
Commander Cornwell directed Mr. Hinckley and Assistant Engineer Osborne
A. Day to enlist and organize the division. Warrant Machinists Noble,
Rathgeber and Larkin of the staff were to report to Mr. Hinckley for
duty. Mr. Noble was a Second Division alumnus. February 4 Mr. Hinckley
submitted the rates. Corinth L. LaRock of Hartford was early appointed a
chief machinist’s mate.
[Illustration:
LIEUTENANT WILLIAM G. HINCKLEY
]
A. J. German and Walter B. Gordon of Hartford have also served in the
artificer or engineer division, the former becoming a warrant machinist
and the latter a chief machinist’s mate.
❦
APPENDIX A
❦
NECROLOGY
Lieutenant FELTON PARKER
Charter member. First commander.
Spanish War Veteran. Annapolis,
1882. Member first Greeley relief
expedition on the “Yantic.”
Died December 22, 1900, of fall
from his horse. Buried in South
Lancaster, Mass.
Quartermaster (Second Class) THOMAS S. CHENEY
Charter member.
Died February 8, 1898, of
appendicitis. Buried in South
Manchester, Conn.
Coxswain PHILIP D. BURNHAM
Charter member.
Died May 19, 1903, of tuberculosis.
Buried in Spring Grove Cemetery,
Hartford, Conn.
Seaman GEORGE BISCHOFF
Athlete.
Died 1904. Buried in Woodlawn
Cemetery, New York City.
Seaman GEORGE F. COLBY
Spanish War Veteran.
Died May 17, 1903, of pneumonia.
Buried in Mt. Pocono, Pa.
Seaman EDWARD J. DORAN
Spanish War Veteran.
Died July 3, 1910, of appendicitis.
Buried in New Britain, Conn.
Seaman WILLIAM A. GEER
Spanish War Veteran.
Died 1910. Buried in
Middlefield, Conn.
Seaman JAMES HAWLEY
Spanish War Veteran. Assistant
sculptor of Corning fountain.
Died December 11, 1899. Buried in
New York.
Seaman WILLIAM M. HURD
Spanish War Veteran.
Died 1909 of tropical fever. Buried
in Middle Haddam, Conn.
Seaman ROMIE B. KUEHNS
Died April 7, 1911, of pneumonia.
Buried in New York.
Seaman ALFRED H. SAUNDERS
Buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery,
Hartford, Conn.
Seaman LOUIE P. STRONG
Died May 30, 1911, of tuberculosis.
Buried in Old North Cemetery,
Hartford, Conn.
❦
APPENDIX B
❦
LIST OF MEMBERS SINCE ORGANIZATION
The following is a list of members since the organization of the
division, compiled from rosters and roll books and various records, and
is believed to be substantially accurate:
A
Alden, H. W. 1896
Allen, C. D. 1900
Alexander, L. P. 1900
Appley, 1900
Abbe, R. L. 1901
Adams, L. W. 1902
Arnold, F. W. 1903
Alling, M. D. 1904
Amos, W. H. 1905
Ashwell, H. B. 1906
Andrews, D. H. 1907
Austin, H. E. 1911
B
Bosworth, F. E. 1896
Burnett, A. E. 1896
Bissell, H. G. 1896
Burnham, P. D. 1896
Bailey, C. L. 1896
Baxter, G. S. 1896
Beal, G. W. 1896
Bevins, V. L. 1896
Bigelow, H. W. 1896
Berry, H. 1898
Baldwin, H. S. 1898
Beamish, J. F. 1898
Brewer, A. L. 1897
Brewer, A. R. 1897
Brewer, E. J. 1897
Bletcher, F. O. 1897
Brinley, G. 1897
Brinley, J. G. W. 1897
Blakeslee, F. G. 1897
Buck, H. R. 1897
Beers, R. C. 1897
Burke, J. F. 1897
Barber, A. W. 1898
Buck, J. S. 1899
Burnett, H. E. 1899
Brooks, H. D. 1899
Bragg, F. L. 1899
Bidwell, D. D. 1899
Bonner, J. A. 1900
Brooks, C. M. 1900
Burke, C. E. 1900
Bannon, J. E. 1900
Barlow, F. J. 1900
Bland, A. L. 1900
Bush, J. S. 1900
Beach, Carroll C. 1901
Barnes, C. S., Jr. 1902
Bischoff, G. 1903
Blair, G. E. 1902
Barnes, H. E. 1902
Bassett, E. E. 1902
Beckley, H. C. 1904
Bryant, H. C. 1904
Beach, O. L. 1905
Bourn, K. C. 1905
Bloomer, H. J. 1905
Burns, F. H. 1905
Burns, W. F., Jr. 1906
Burr, H. R. 1906
Brown, H. E. 1907
Banning, B. J. 1908
Barnes, E. L. 1910
Brennan, A. J. 1910
Burke, T. F. 1910
C
Cochran, L. B. 1896
Crowell, E. H. 1896
Cheney, T. S. 1896
Caswell, L. S. 1896
Chapman, J. W. 1896
Case, A. L. 1896
Cuntz, H. F. 1896
Chapin, R. D. 1897
Caswell, C. H. 1897
Case, H. B. 1898
Cutting, A. S. 1898
Coggeshall, M. H. 1898
Colby, G. F. 1898
Case, H. A. 1899
Chaffee, D. G. 1899
Clinch, E. E. 1899
Cadman, G. B. 1900
Carney, J. B. 1900
Coe, C. S. 1900
Crowley, A. J. 1900
Camp, H. P. 1900
Cotter, W. J. 1900
Currier, H. D. 1900
Cunningham, J. W. M. 1901
Cooney, F. J. 1901
Connors, J. J. A. 1902
Carroll, L. J. 1902
Caverly, H. T. 1902
Cooley, J. W. 1902
Cadman, R. M. 1904
Calder, W. P. 1904
Chappell, F. N. 1904
Casey, E. J. 1904
Cotter, W. B. 1905
Carter, J. S. 1906
Case, R. W. 1906
Comstock, J. C. 1906
Case, H. E. 1907
Case, R. U. 1907
Coburn, F. A. 1908
Craig, J. 1908
Covel, R. F. 1910
D
Duff, R. R. 1896
Doran, E. J. 1896
Dimock, S. K. 1897
Drury, H. W. 1898
Dimock, I. 1898
Dix, L. R. 1899
De Lucco, J. 1900
Dickenson, L. R. 1900
Driver, J. F. 1900
Devine, W. W. 1901
Doebler, T. J. 1901
Downes, W. G. 1901
Dermont, W. 1902
Dungan, L. E. 1902
Dickerman, C. W. 1902
Dalton, H. A. 1903
Day, H. A. 1903
Diamond, J. E. 1903
Diehl, G. 1904
Duffy, F. L. 1904
Dunn, L. G. 1904
Devine, L. H. 1905
Duane, W. J. 1906
Duffin, J. B. 1908
Devine, A. H. 1910
Dagle, H., Jr. 1911
E
Evans, H. M. 1901
Entress, W. W. 1904
Evans, J. A. 1904
Eichelman, W. 1907
Elsdon, P. 1909
F
Field, E. B. 1896
Field, F. E. 1896
Filley, W. J. 1896
Franke, P. 1898
Freeman, S. G. 1898
Forest, G. C.
Foster, G. 1898
Ferguson, H. D. 1899
Foley, T. W. 1901
Flanigan, G. W. 1902
Ferris, M. A. 1903
Flanigan, W. H. 1903
Flynn, R. J. 1904
Fletcher, A. R. 1905
Flynn, H. T. 1905
Flynn, W. J. 1906
Fagan, J. M. 1907
Fournier, O. J. 1907
Fagan, F. C. 1909
Flynn, G. T. 1911
G
Gaines, D. A. 1896
Gilbert, E. R. 1896
Goodrich, R. M. 1896
Gabrielle, B. L. 1897
Gallup, C. M. 1898
Geer, W. A. 1898
Grundshaw, E. J. 1896
Goodridge, T. W. 1897
Gordon, F. G. 1897
Gillette, F. W. 1898
Goulet, W. 1898
Gragan, H. T. 1902
Gilmore, A. B. 1902
Gillmore, G. P. 1902
Goltra, W. J. 1902
Griswold, H. S. 1902
Gesner, C. M. 1903
Grant. A. A. 1903
Grover, O. F. 1903
Geckler, G. C. 1904
Grover, C. D. 1904
Geissler, C. G. 1905
Gilligan, W. 1906
Gleason, C. A. 1906
Gilde, A. E. 1907
Gilbert, A. L. 1909
Garrity, F. E. 1911
Gormeley, W. E. 1911
Gustafson, E. 1911
H
Harlow, M. P. 1896
Hascall, S. H. 1896
Havens, S. H. 1896
Hawley, J. J. 1898
Heymann, H. B. 1896
Hinckley, W. G. 1898
Holmes, R. J. 1896
Holcombe, G. A. 1898
Hunt, B. A. 1898
Huntley, S. A. 1898
Hurd, W. N. 1898
Huntington, C. A. 1898
Hale, C. F. 1899
Hart, C. W. 1899
Heimer, E. Paul 1899
Hogan, C. L. 1899
Hawkins, W. E. 1900
Harding, A. W. 1900
Higbie, W. W. 1900
Hollister, R. 1902
Hedlund, E. V. 1903
Hynes, D. N. 1903
Hill, G. 1904
House, W. E. 1904
Humphreys, J. F. 1904
Harrington, R. J. 1906
Hunter, D. C. 1906
Halloway, H. H. 1906
Hinckley, G. W. 1907
Horn, A. A. 1907
Howden, G. A. 1907
Hart, F. S. 1909
Hepburn, J. E. 1910
Howard, L. A. 1910
Hunter, W. 1910
I
Ingalls, F. C. 1896
Ingraham, E. R. 1903
Ingraham, C. H. 1909
J
Jackson, E. Q. 1898
Judson, D. R. 1900
Joslyn, L. J. 1908
Jamieson, H. H. 1908
K
Kelton, R. H. C. 1896
Keys, F. R. 1896
Kohn, E. J. 1897
Kenyon, L. W. 1897
Kowalsky, F. E. 1898
Kenyon, I. R. 1900
Kelley, M. F. 1902
Kress, L. 1903
Kane, T. R. 1903
Koenig, O., Jr. 1904
Kirbell, E. 1905
Kimberly, R. A. 1907
Kuehns, R. B. 1908
Kavanaugh, T. J. 1910
L
Larkum, H. H. 1896
Larkum, W. N. 1896
Le Fever, A. P. 1898
Long, M. C. 1898
Lockwood, N. L. 1900
Langrish, E. J., Jr. 1900
Liebert, E. T. 1900
Lycett, F. W. 1901
Leclair, M. J. 1902
Lawler, E. R. 1903
Lewis, H. M. 1904
Livingston, W. R. 1904
Lesnick, F. G. 1904
Lewis, W. S. 1905
Lewis, F. C. 1906
Lewis, W. D. 1906
Lathrop, B. S. 1906
Loveland, F., Jr. 1907
Lilley, F. S. 1908
Lambe, G. M. 1909
Lyman, J. E. 1909
Lampson, H. E. 1910
Lange, W. A. 1910
Lutolf, H. W. 1910
M
Middlebrook, L. F. 1896
Meek, W. L. 1896
Morrell, D. J. 1896
Malm, O. W. 1896
Maxim, H. P. 1896
McCreary, R. M. 1896
McManus, J. W. 1896
Miller, G. P. 1896
Miller, H. I. 1896
Morgan, J. H. 1896
Morris, S. 1898
Martin, G. R. 1898
Mather, F. M. 1897
Morgan, V. F. 1897
Moses, L. K. 1898
Magnel, A. E. 1899
Mohr, F. L. 1899
Miller, F. B. 1900
Maslen, G. S. 1901
McClunie, F. B. 1904
Mandigo, W. G. 1900
Murphy, M. J. 1901
McDonald, C. H. 1902
Merriman, H. E. 1902
Marsden, F. L. 1903
Meyrs, C. E. 1903
Marcy, M. H. 1903
McCaw, J. O. 1903
Morris, R. 1905
Moss, A. 1905
Meyer, W. H. 1904
Malloy, E. J. 1904
McIntyre, J. 1905
Marley, J. W. 1905
Mahoney, J. J. 1905
Marsden, L. E. 1907
McIntyre, F. E. 1907
McAlpine, K. J. 1907
McDonald, R. H. 1907
Maude, G. H. 1908
Moriarty, J. J. 1908
Madden, E. F. 1909
McGee, J. F. 1909
Mulligan, A. J. 1910
Morgan, S. N. 1911
N
Northam, R. C. 1896
Newell, J. H. 1896
Nutter, H. Y. 1896
Northam, E. T. 1898
Noble, E. J. 1898
Neilson, C. C. 1898
Norton, F. C. 1899
Nooney, E. DeW. 1903
Nuttall, W. H. 1903
Nichols, G. A. 1908
O
Osgood, W. J. 1896
Oaks, E. A., Jr. 1897
Owens, T. S. J. 1900
O’Brien, T. 1904
O’Laughlin, H. 1909
P
Parker, F. 1896
Perkins, L. B. 1896
Peltier, F. H. 1896
Phillips, T. V. C. 1897
Pierce, F. A. 1897
Pychon, L. F. L. 1898
Pierson, W. W. 1900
Palmer, R. C. 1900
Perkins, A. L. 1902
Perkins, F. A. 1904
Pitney, L. A. 1905
Pairman, J. R., Jr. 1908
Pollock, J. F. 1909
Pitney, J. H. 1910
R
Rice, C. D. 1896
Root, L. 1896
Relyea, C. A. 1897
Ripley, W. C. 1898
Root, J. B. 1898
Reed, G. R. 1898
Roberts, E. L. 1900
Roberts, W. C. 1903
Reed, E. F. 1902
Relyea, C. F. 1904
Roberts, J. J. 1905
Rathburn, C. E., Jr. 1905
Root, E. J. 1903
Ring, F. E. 1904
Reisel, G L. 1904
Ritchie, J. H. 1905
Rancor, R. S. 1906
Reeves, W. A. 1907
Ramagge, A. H. 1908
Roberts, K. E. 1910
Richard, J. S. 1910
S
Schriviner, W. H.
Seymour, F. P.
Stevens, H.
Saunders, C. C. 1898
Seaver, F. A.
Schwerdtfeger, O. M. 1898
Scoville, A. W. 1897
Scoville, L. H. 1897
Storrs, H. E. 1897
Sheperd, F. F. 1898
Sanford, H. 1898
Schwirz, M. H. 1899
Sparks, L. W. 1900
Scoville, P. D. 1900
Saunders, A. H. 1899
Sparks, C. H. 1899
Scanlon, E. M.
Sweeney, F.
Steele, C. W. 1900
Standish, H. A. 1900
Standish, F. A. 1900
Smith, F. E. 1901
Strong, L. P. 1901
Shea, C. D. 1902
Squires, G. T. 1903
Schneider, H. 1904
Storrs, H. H. 1904
Scofield, H. M. 1905
Sadler, L. 1907
Southergill, C. R. 1906
Smythe, A. F. 1906
Stitt, D. F. 1906
Sargeant, E. L. 1907
Smith, T. H. 1907
Shea, E. F. 1909
Slate, H. C. 1909
Smith, H. 1908
Storey, A. N., Jr. 1909
Smith, W. G. 1911
Smith, F. H. 1911
T
Tyler, C. M. 1901
Tucker, P. E. 1902
Thompson, C. W. 1902
Trude, A. T. 1902
Trimble, J. F. 1903
Talcott, M. C. 1898
Tregoning, W. C. 1897
Twardoks, J. F. 1898
Tinkham, G. H. 1898
Tobey, E. C. 1900
Tolhurst, W. C. 1904
Thurber, L. A. 1904
Tefft, L. W. 1905
Treat, H. L. 1905
Tansey, J. J. 1906
Thompson, P. G. 1907
Tobin, M. 1909
Thompson, H. A. 1909
Tuverson, H. S. 1910
U
Uhler, J. K. 1898
V
Vaile, E. B. 1902
Vanas, A. 1907
Victor, G. 1909
Vosburgh, R. D. 1910
W
Wilson, L. B. 1896
Walsh, J. G. 1896
Wightman, A. H. 1896
Williams, C. C. 1896
Winslow, F. G. 1896
Woodward, C. S. 1896
Woodbridge, H. K. 1897
Wilcox, G. E. 1897
Welles, T. D. 1898
Welles, R. B. 1898
Willard, W. L., Jr. 1900
Watson, J. 1900
Wilson, W. W. 1899
Williams, R. H. 1899
Way, H. P. 1899
Warner, E. W. 1899
Woodford, B. C. 1901
Wiley, H. A. 1901
Wyllie, R. B. 1904
Wakeman, W. M., Jr. 1905
Watson, A. B. 1906
Woodward, B. P. 1906
Walters, A. C. 1906
Wells, H. L. 1907
Whiting, C. H. 1910
Warner, B. C. 1909
Welles, J. D. 1898
W——, R. B. 1897
Y
Young. F. L. 1898
Yorgensen, P. L. L. 1899
Young, J. B., Jr. 1899
[Illustration:
DIVISION PIN
]
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Added header CONTENTS to the Table of Contents.
2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
3. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
5. Replaced the two acorns on a single stem image with ❦ in the text
version.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A History of the Second Division Naval Militia Connecticut National Guard" ***
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