Ohio History Journal

OHIO IN THE SPANISH AND PHILIPPINE WAR.

 

 

THOMAS M. ANDERSON.

Few can fulfill Pliny's motto: "To do what deserves to be

written. To write what deserves to be read."

Great generals are nearly always able administrators, and

have often proved themselves great statesmen. The ability to

command and to administer go together, but few military com-

manders have wielded equally well the sword and pen. Julius

Caesar, "The foremost man of all the world," was at once a great

orator, author and warrior. Grant, a great soldier, wrote an un-

pretentious memoir of his life, which may survive as long as

Caesar's Commentaries. Sherman was a great soldier and elo-

quent talker. Napoleon, the greatest military genius, was a poor

writer, but a great administrator. But a combination of brilliant

intellectual faculties is not always united with the gift of ex-

pression.

Yet even an ordinary soldier may "narrate a plain unvarn-

ished tale," and when he can do justice to comrades living or

dead, he should try to write what deserves to be read on their

account.

At the outbreak of the Spanish War, Wm. McKinley, an

Ohio soldier, was President of the United States, and Com-

mander-in-Chief of our army and navy. Another Ohio soldier

was Adjutant General of the Army. As it has always happened

to us, we were unprepared for war, and the burden of prepara-

tion and organization fell upon these two men. Ohio did not

seem to play so conspicuous a part in our war with Spain, and

its corrollary the Philippine Insurrection as in the Civil War.

The contest did not last long enough, nor was it severe enough

to test the mettle of our soldiers or the ability of our officers,

yet the promptness with which our forces were gotten to the

front was remarkable, and reflected great credit on the two men

upon whom the responsibility rested.

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552       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

In appointing general officers, the President selected among

the first, Generals Keifer, Lawson, Chaffee, Anderson, Garrison

and Ernest, of Ohio.

The first battle of the war, El Cane, was won by Gen. Law-

son, who carried, after a stubborn resistence, a strongly forti-

fied position. Lawson commanded a division which bore its part

in the second day's fight at San Juan Hill, and the subsequent

siege of Santiago.

After Spain sued for peace he was transferred to the Phil-

ippines and put in command of the 1st Division of the 8th Army

Corps, which he led with marked ability and success. Neither

intense heat nor tropical storms stopped his ceaseless attacks on

the enemy. Over miles of swamps and almost impenetrable jun-

gles he led the way in person. In a desperate battle at Zopote

river he won a decided victory, and a little later, like the great

Turrence, he sacrificed his life in an unimportant combat. In

Indian wars in the United States he proved himself a natural

born partizan leader, and in his campaigns in Luzon showed that

he was a daring and skillful general.

Genl. Anderson, another Ohio soldier, led our first expedi-

tion to Luzon, and raised the first American flag on its shores.

He directed the first land attack on Manila, and as a division

commander won battles at Santana, Pasay and Guadalupe

Church. These engagements and those of McArthur on the

north of the Pasig were the only ones in which the American

troops sustained any considerable loss. But the enemy lost three

thousand men and nearly all their artillery.

There were no Ohio regiments in these engagements, but

there were four Ohio officers on the staff of the 1st Division,

8th Army Corps, Capt. C. C. Walcutt, Chief Quartermaster;

Capt. Wm. Anderson, of Greenville, Commissary of Subsistence;

Major W. E. Bickheimer, Judge Advocate; and Capt. T. M.

Anderson, Jr., A. D. C.

The next native of Ohio to claim attention is Genl. Fred.

Funston, a tireless campaigner and energetic fighter. He is best

known as the captor of Aguinaldo.

Genl. Adna R. Chaffee was a Brigade Commander in the

Santiago campaign, doing such excellent service that he was

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Ohio in the Spanish and Philippine War.     553

 

made a Major General of Volunteers, and put in command of

our contingent in the march to Pekin. He bore a conspicuous

part in the capture of that city, and was made a Major General

in the Regular Army without passing through the grade of

Major General. He is now Lieut. General and Chief of the Gen-

eral Staff.

The prompt mobilization and muster in of twelve regiments

of the Ohio National Guard, and their field service has been so

well told in the history of the State Guard that it is needless to

repeat the story. It is sufficient to say that the organizations and

the service were alike creditable. To the deep disappointment

of the rest, only two of the members saw active service in the

field. The 8th O. V. I. under Col. C. V. Hart, reached Santi-

ago just too late to take part in the seige, but in time to perform

its share of routine duty afterwards.

The ₄th O. V. I. under Col. Alonzo Coit, received its baptism

of fire in a combat at the Barrio de Las Palmas, near Guayamas

in Porto Rico. Five of the command were wounded. The whole

division under Genl. Brook then advanced to attack the Spanish

forces at Cayey. Just as a battery of the ₄th Artillery, under

Capt. R. H. Anderson, who hails from the Pickaway plains, had

opened fire, a mounted orderly brought a dispatch announcing

the peace protocol. But a number of Ohio's officers were more

fortunate. Maj. Genl. Keifer commanded a division near Ha-

vana after the protocol and before the confirmation of the treaty

Brig. Genl. Garretson commanded a brigade in Porto Rico.

The following officers were made Brig. Generals of Volunteers

for efficient service in the Spanish and Philippine wars: Genl.

Wm. Sinclair, Genl. M. V. Sheridan, Genl. Gilbert S. Carpenter

Genl. Jacob Smith, Genl. Chas. Hood, Genl. A. S. Burt, Genl.

H. B. Freeman, Genl. Oswald Ernest, Genl. G. M. Randall, Genl.

E. B. Atwood, Genl. J. C. Chance, Genl. C. M. Miner, Genl. Funs-

ton already mentioned. Maj. Genl. Wade, a son of old Ben

Wade, the Ajax of the anti-slavery movement, is now in com-

mand in Manila.

Mike Sheridan, as he is familiarly known in the army, is

a brother of Genl. Phil. Sheridan. Generals Ernest, Smith and

Burt were all brigade commanders. The first named in Porto

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554       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. Rico, Smith in Samar and Burt in the Zambele Province in Luzon. General G. M. Randall is still in the service. Of all these Ohio generals, only two were graduated from the Military Aca- demy. The others, with the exception of Lieut. Genl. Chaffee, began their military careers in the volunteer service. The people of Ohio are not a warlike people. They prefer the arts of peace to the science of war. Yet those of her sons who have adopted the military profession seem to master its the- ories, acting on the principle that what is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

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