Tuesday, June 13, 1899. The Battle of Zapote River

The hard fought Battle of Zapote River occured this day seeing the U.S. Army prevail against much larger numbers from the First Philippine Republic, due to superior arms and training, and Naval support.

The loss in the second-biggest engagement of the Philippine Insurrection caused the Philippine forces to resort to guerilla war thereafter.

Cpt. William H. Sage won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in the battle.

With 9 men volunteered to hold an advanced position and held it against a terrific fire of the enemy estimated at 1,000 strong. Taking a rifle from a wounded man, and cartridges from the belts of others, Capt. Sage himself killed 5 of the enemy.

Sage would go on to serve in the Border War in Mexico and rose to the rank of major general during World War One. After the war, he commanded Ft. D. A. Russell in Wyoming, where he became fatally ill.  He died in 1922 at age 63, just one month away from retirement. 

Douglas MacArthur entered the U.S. Military Academy.

Last prior edition:

Friday, June 11, 1899. Pope Leo XIII concecrates the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Catholic, Christianity, religion

October 17, 1919 Airborne visitors to Casper and more crashes.

Mishaps continued to take a toll on aviators and their planes participating in the 1919 Air Derby.  Included in the mishaps were a directional one, that took an airplane all the way to Casper.

At the time, Casper's air strip was near Evansville.  Portions of it can still be seen there, but you have to know what you are looking at in order to appreciate what it was.

With the ongoing toll on American military aircraft its quite frankly surprising that the race continued, but perhaps at this point it would have been embarrassing to stop it.  Even with that, however, the airplane mania continued, as the flying school mom item gives evidence of.

One of the features of the aircraft in question is their short engine life.  No doubt more than one engine was replaced on more than one craft during the race.

In other news, it looked at the time as if the Reds were about to fall in Russia.

In the U.S., some worried about homegrown Reds.

New York Herald Cartoon, "To Make America Safe For Democracy", October 17, 1919

August 8, 1919. Making Cheyenne.

The 1919 transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy entered Wyoming on this day in 1919.

The convoy east of Cheyenne.

Governor Carey was on the road as well, meeting the convoy at Hillsdale, a small Wyoming town that is now a shadow of its former self.  From there they proceeded on to Cheyenne, where Ft. D. A. Russell somewhat ironically provided a cavalry escort through Cheyenne and onto the post.

They were treated to a rodeo at Frontier Park and the town's businesses closed at 4:00 p.m. for the festivities.

Elsewhere, the Third Afghan War came to an end when the warring parties signed the Ango-Afghan Treaty of 1919. The war had been short and fought for limited purposes. The result was the establishment of the current Afghan border and the end of British subsidies to Afghanistan.

In the wreck of the Austrian Empire, the First Hungarian Republic dissolved.  As confusing as the names may be, it was replaced by the Hungarian Republic, a more conservative government.

August 4, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy goes nowhere at all, Romanians take Budapest.

For its entire journey, the Motor Transport Convoy had taken Sunday off.  It didn't due that for Sunday, August 3.

That may be because its progress had been cut in half by muddy roads.  At any rate, things caught up with it on Monday, August 4, when it was forced to take the day off due to mechanical problems that had to be addressed.

A Cheyenne newspaper noted the convoy on the front page for the first time due to the delay.

Cheyenne reported the delay was due to the need of a gasket for a Model B Liberty truck, which it also noted as being nonexistent at Ft. D. A. Russel and, moreover, being a mystery. But the convoy's diary make sit plain that the cause of the delay was more than that.

An Army that was advancing was that of Romania's, which entered Budapest.

Romania Army, wearing French Adrian helmets, entering Budapest in 1919.

People like to cynically cite the phrase about World War One being the war to end war, and then cite to World War Two, but World War One's fighting didn't even stop on November 11, 1918, like people like to imagine.  All sorts of ancillary wars sprung up or kept on.

Romanian cavalry in Budapest.  Romanian cavalry was very good.

Romania and Hungary had gone to war on November 13, 1918, just two days after the Armistice on the Western front, and the war came to a conclusion on this day in 1919.  The war had really begun in earnest, however, after a period of armistice, in April when Romania determined to strike against the Communist Hungarian government of Kun, and he determined to strike first.  The preemptive strike was a failure and Kun's government became a failure, falling under opposition on August 2.  Romania had the backing of the Allies and occupied Hungary for a time, withdrawing in 1920.

On this day a Jersey cow by the name of Oxford Mesembryanthemum sold in the east for the price of $15,000, an absolutely phenomenal price in the money of the time.

Also making money was a film entitled, Easy To Make Money, which was released on this day in 1919.

1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery, mustered out of service and discharged at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Wyoming and Colorado National Guardsmen of the 1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery, those being the Wyoming and Colorado Guardsmen assigned to the 148th, were mustered out of service and discharged on this date in 1919.  The were civilians once again.

The 148th Field Artillery musters out of service at Camp Mills, New York.

On this date the 148th Field Artillery mustered out of service at Camp Mills, New York.

That brought to an end the Great War service of the 148th, but it did not mean that the Guardsmen who were in the unit were now civilians. Rather, they were released from service with the unit and sent on to their home states for discharge or to military establishments near their home states.  In the case of Wyoming National Guardsmen, that meant a trip to Ft. D. A. Russell at Cheyenne.  Colorado Guardsmen in the unit likewise were discharged at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Their service was nearly over, however, as that wouldn't take long.  With that discharge they came to the end of three years of service, with a brief interruption, at least in the case of men who had first been activated for border service in the Punitive Expedition.

The 148th Field Artillery would come back into existence on  September 16, 1940 as part of the build up prior to World War Two.  It would serve in the Pacific during World War Two and would go on to serve, as part of the Oregon National Guard, in the Korean War.  It was one of the National Guard units that saw service during the Vietnam War.  It's currently party of the Idaho National Guard.

Camp Mills no longer exists.  It was located in what is now Garden City, New York, a community on Long Island.

Bells of Balangiga to depart

Gen. Jacob Smith inspects the ruins of Balangiga a few weeks after the battle there.

The Bells of Balangiga, war trophies from the Spanish American War, are going back to the Philippines, according to a government press release.

The bells have long been a matter of contention between the United States and the Philippines.  The 9th Infantry, which took the bells, maintained that it was ambushed in the locality, where it was garrisoned, and the bells symbolized its defense of itself from a surprise treacherous attack.  The Philippines have asserted the battle represented an uprising of the indigenous population against occupation and that the conclusion of the battle featured the killing of villagers without justification.  Both versions of the event may be correct in that it was a surprise attack on a unit stationed in the town and, by that point in the war, 1901, it had begun to take on a gruesome character at times.

Whatever the case may be, the bells, from three Catholic Churches, have long been sought to be returned.  Two of the bells are at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, which which the 9th Infantry had later been stationed at when it was Ft. D. A. Russell, and a third has been kept in Alaska.  It would appear that they're now going to go back to the churches from which they came in the Philippines, almost certainly accompanied by at least some vocal protestations from Wyoming's representation in Congress, I suspect.  As the current Wyoming connection with the 9th Infantry, let alone the Philippine Insurrection, is pretty think, it's unlikely that the average Wyomingite, however, will care much.  Indeed, while it caused its own controversy, a former head of a veteran's position in the state came out for returning the bells the last time this controversy rolled around a few years ago.

Huns Retreat. Lonely Hearts at D. A. Russell. Doggerel in the Oil Patch. The news of August 10, 1918.

All the news fit to print, and then some.

On this Saturday morning in sunny Wyoming, 1918, readers around the state were reading of the huge change in fortunes for the Allies, who were now advancing rapidly towards the German frontier.  But other news crowded and shoved onto the front pages of the state's various newspapers as well.

In Casper, Casperites were greeted with the news that the local Home Guard was going to complete the issuance of rifles.

At Cheyenne's Ft. D. A. Russell readers learned that a lonely soldier was seeking a girl measuring 5 to 5.5 feet who was not a drunkard.  The publishing suitor noted that he measured 5 feet 4.5 inches high and had well to do parents, and was seeking a Cheyenne girl to marry.

A less chivalrous character in Virginia testified at trial that he wouldn't serve in the war even if the Turks landed on our shores and carried our women off to bondage.  My goodness.

In grimmer news, a medical officer who was formerly stationed at Ft. D. A. Russell was found dead in San Antonio, shot in the head.

Wyoming Oil World, a newspaper rather obviously dedicated to the petroleum industry, found itself moved to verse on this day in 1918, although not very good verse.  The subject was the dread Powder River, Let'r Buck war cry of Wyomingites.

The Cheyenne State Leader for February 16, 1918. Revolution in Mexico and Victory Pies

The Leader was correct, a new revolution had broken out in Mexico even as the contesting forces of Zapata and Villa continued their struggle against Carranza.

As the Mexican culture site puts it:

On February 16, 1918, soldiers loyal to the governor of the state of Guerrero, General Silvestre Mariscal, arrested Santiago Tlatelolco in the military prison, who took up arms to try to free his leader. Nearly 300 men who were under the command of Mariscal and had accompanied him to the Federal District took up arms in the Escuela de Tiro de San Lázaro, where they were quartered.

They were immediately repulsed by the law and order forces, under the command of General Miguel Madrigal, who defeated them and forced them to flee. Some escaped towards Peñón. Others, toward Tlalpan, where they tried to join the Zapatista armed forces that devastated the southern region of the Federal District.

So things really weren't settled south of the bordern.

North of the border restrictions on wheat were resulting in Victory Pies in restaurants.

Victory pies?

Well, what those apparently entailed is substituting out 1/3 of the flour substance for something other than wheat. 

Dancer turned aviator Vernon Castle was reported killed in an aviation accident in Texas.

Things were getting unsettled in Austria, which appeared to be teetering towards bowing out of the war.  Close to home, the war looked like it was bringing the Medical corps or cavalry back to Cheyenne. Cavalry had certainly had a presence there previously..

The Wyoming Tribune for April 9, 1917. And now Austria. And youth training camp cancelled.

It looked like the United States would be at war with Austria, as well as Germany, soon.  And the news hit about Cuba being at war with Germany.

A training camp for boys at Ft. Russell had been cancelled. . . training for new recruits for the Army was the reason.

The Sunday State Leader for April 8, 1917: Join the Guard, but not the Navy?

The shape of a national Army was beginning to take place in the first days of the wary.  The US would conscript, although there was opposition to it, and the Army was going to be huge.

Americans were joining the National Guard, lining up, as they had in prior wars, to go with their state units rather than the Federal Army.  With conscription that would soon change, but here we see the evolution of the Army.  Joining state units had long been the wartime norm.  It still was, but that was going to change in short order, although conscription had been a feature of the Civil War as well.

Men (and of course now women as well) weren't joining the Navy in the same numbers.  But, as it'd turn out, the role of the U.S. Navy would not be as vast as some had thought.

And Ft. D. A. Russell was going to be busy.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 30, 1917: Guardsmen mobilzing at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Ft. D. A. Russell was being used for Guard mobilization this time.  It hadn't been a year prior for the Punitive Expedition.

The Laramie Daily Boomerang for March 29, 1917. Laramie's Guardsmen ordered to Ft. D. A. Russell as, maybe, the Kaiser makes a peace move?

The Medical Company of the Wyoming National Guard, based in Laramie, was ordered to Ft. D. A. Russell outside of Cheyenne. At the same time, the Laramie paper was hoping against hope that entry into the war might not be necessary.  Who could blame them?

The Connor Hotel, by the way, still stands in Laramie, although I don't think it's a hotel anymore.

The Laramie Daily Boomerang for March 27, 1917. Laramie's troops not yet ordered to Ft. Russell.

The Medical detachment of the Wyoming National Guard was expecting orders to return to Ft. D. A. Russell, where they'd been only a couple of weeks ago, but they hadn't yet received them.

In other news, a big air force was being planned and the new Russian government was being reported as "very popular".

The Wyoming Tribune for March 20, 1917. Colorado Cavalry at Ft. Russell. Lack of coat lethal?

Wyoming was contemplating adding cavalry to its National Guard, but Colorado had it. 

Colorado cavalrymen were disembarking at Ft. D. A. Russell.  They were demobilizing late in comparison to the Wyoming National Guard.

And one Wyoming National Guardsmen wouldn't be called back up for World War One.  He'd died of pneumonia. 

Pvt. Charles Schmidt of Company B, Lander Wyoming, had become ill after having to turn in his overcoat at Ft. D. A. Russell.  Apparently a lot of men were sick, and that likely explains the delay we recently read about in discharging from active service the men from Laramie, who made up the medical company.

March in Wyoming is cold and these papers have had stories of a cold spell being in the works in this time frame.  It seems a lot of men were sick and frankly viruses going through troops is a pretty common thing in military units.  Overcoats were an item of equipment, not a uniform item, which may sound odd to readers who have no military experience, but that's exactly how field jackets were viewed when my father served in the Air Force during the Korean War and how they were viewed when I was in the National Guard in the 1980s.  The National Guard had denied that it was taking the coats from the men when the story broke, but obviously there was some truth to the story for some units.

Would an overcoat have kept Pvt. Schmidt alive?  It sure couldn't have hurt.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 11, 1917: Laramie planning welcome for its Guardsmen

Laramie's troops were still delayed in Cheyenne, but Laramie was planning a big welcome for them when they returned.  Otherwise, Ft. D. A. Russell's contingent of Guardsmen were leaving for all points.

The Laramie Boomerang for March 10, 1917: Laramie's troops retained in Cheyenne

The Laramie Boomerang was reporting that Laramie's Guardsmen had been unexpectedly detained in Cheyenne. 

There could be several reasons that this decision came about. For one thing, Laramie's unit was a medical detachment, not too surprisingly as the location of the University of Wyoming in Laramie gave the unit an educated population to draw from.  So perhaps it was kept at Ft. Russell until the other troops had cleared in case medical needs popped up.

Additionally, these troops were only traveling 50 miles, as oppose to the long distances being traveled by other Wyoming troops.  There may not have been available transportation space, in which case retaining the troops going back to Laramie would have made sense.

And finally, as many of these men were students, they didn't have much to go back to.  It was too late in the semester for the many students to return to school, and a lot of them probably were leaving right from Laramie on to their actual homes, or were competing for what little work there was in Laramie.

At any rate, while the rest of the Guardsmen were leaving Cheyenne, they stayed an extra couple of days.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 7, 1917: Mustering Out

Mustering out was going quickly.  This Wednesday paper was reporting that Wyoming National Guardsmen would be mustered out by Saturday. 

What that would have meant, in this context, is that they were spending all day cleaning equipment and inventorying it.  After that, they'd be released from full time duty and returned to their local units.  What occurred to the men who had never actually been in those units, and that was quite a few men, I don't know.

The Cheyenne Leader for March 6, 1917: Deming's approval of Wyoming's troops

Wyomingites were cheered that Deming New Mexico appreciated the qualities of their National Guardsmen.

Meanwhile, a big party had occurred for the returned Colorado and  Wyoming Guardsmen in  Cheyenne.

And the Leader claimed that Americans were solidly behind Wilson's policy of "armed neutrality".

The Sunday State Leader for March 4, 1917: Wyoming Guard back in Wyoming.

The Wyoming National Guard was back in Cheyenne to demobilize just as the Leader was reporting that Ft. D. A. Russell could mobilize 50,000 men there in the event of war.  Something just doesn't quite add up with that.

Zimmerman admitted his note, in other news.  And the nation was set for the second inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, which was set for the following day.