Campaign of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: HACIENDA CARMEN.]

CHAPTER X.

HOME AGAIN.

From the time the Jersey coast was sighted the Troopers began to realize how glad they really were to get back home. Early on the morning of Sat.u.r.day, September 10th, the "Mississippi" pa.s.sed Sandy Hook, and was soon cleaving the waters of New York Bay. It was rather misty, and objects at any great distance were very obscure. The Philadelphia cavalrymen were often obliged to smile at the airs which some of the members of the New York and Brooklyn troops a.s.sumed as they found themselves in familiar waters. The men of Gotham boasted much of the fine reception which they felt sure was in store for them, and looked rather pityingly upon the Philadelphia cavalrymen. When, through the mist, a tug was made out, with flags flying, approaching the "Mississippi" at full speed, several of the New Yorkers pointed to it and said to the Quaker City men, "Here comes the advance guard of our escort."

While the tug was still too much surrounded by mist to make out her ident.i.ty, there came floating from her deck the ringing notes of a bugle. At the first sound the Philadelphia Troopers became all attention, and a moment later the air of the Troop march--strains known to City Troopers for two generations--could be clearly distinguished.

"It's our friends," shouted the City Troopers with glee, while the New York riders did not attempt to conceal their surprise at the fact that citizens of their city had been out-generaled by the Philadelphia visitors in the effort to give the first greeting to the returning Troopers.

But while the later recruits among the Troopers shouted "It's our friends," the older members cried out, "It's Ellis Pugh," for they knew almost by instinct from whose lips had come the welcoming blast. d.i.c.k Singer was upon the deck with his bugle in a twinkling, and tooted back a response. Nearer and nearer the two vessels approached, until at last the two buglers joined together in the long final note.

Then other tugs appeared--six in all--five of which were filled with enthusiastic Philadelphians. The Troopers crowded to the rail and occupied all points of vantage in the rigging. Up the bay the transport and her shrieking escort continued their course. From the whistle of every vessel met there came a welcome, until the din became almost deafening.

While the health officer boarded the transport, friends on the tugs and troop ship yelled greetings back and forth. A port hole in the "Mississippi" was opened, and an avalanche of boxes and bottles poured into the hands of the soldiers aboard. The moment quarantine was raised, there was a general scramble of male visitors onto the deck of the transport, followed by a whirlwind of affectionate greetings. Fathers proudly hugged their brawny, dirt-stained sons; chums and brothers shook each others' hands off.

Soon there came along another tug, and Governor Hastings and Major Richardson clambered over the rail amid loud cheers of the Pennsylvanians. And so the big reception went on until the "Mississippi"

pulled into dock at Jersey City. There the cavalrymen looked down from the high decks upon a sea of men and women, the great majority of whom were Philadelphians. The hospital train was run in on a siding right under the ship, and the sick were unloaded with but little delay.

Meanwhile, Captain Groome had accepted an invitation from the Philadelphia Councils Committee, to partic.i.p.ate in a public reception upon the Troop's arrival home, and word to that effect was telegraphed to Mayor Warwick. The Troopers partook of a light lunch before unloading their camp equipage, and after two hours hard work the last piece of canvas was loaded on the cars, and late in the afternoon they finally found themselves rolling rapidly homeward.

In the New York _Sun_, the day after the City Troop's arrival, there appeared the following paragraph by a reporter of reputation, who had been in Puerto Rico during the campaign:

"In commissariat, general intelligence and knowledge of tactics, the First City Troop of Philadelphia outranked any volunteers I saw at the front. They were the only company to take a water filter with them, so were the only men to drink pure water. They were the only soldiers with forethought enough to provide salt, mustard and the other little things that help make army rations palatable. Then they knew how to cook. They kept their camp clean. They kept their horses in good condition, in fact they neglected nothing, and shirked no duty, no matter how disagreeable. So much for the dude soldier."

It was eight o'clock when the train bearing the City Troopers, every man ready and fit for duty, came puffing into the Broad Street Station.

Outside the building and along Broad, Chestnut and Market Streets, the route over which it had been planned to have the cavalrymen march, dense throngs packed the sidewalks, and were only kept from the streets by ropes in charge of hundreds of policemen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERGEANT'S CLUB AT GUAYAMA.]

Captain Groome was the first man to alight from the cars, and he was at once requested by General Morrell and Director Riter to permit a street parade of the command before going to Horticultural Hall, where a banquet had been prepared. The Captain said his men would be pleased to do anything the Reception Committee wished, and the line was immediately formed for parade. Police horses had been secured and were on hand for the Troopers.

The procession was led by a file of mounted policemen and carriages containing the Citizen's Reception Committee, which had gone to New York to meet the Troop. Following them came the Third Regiment Band and the Second City Troop. Last of all came the veterans in their Khaiki uniforms, and cheer after cheer went up everywhere as they came into view, mingled with enthusiastic shouts of "Here comes the Rough Riders!"

Up Broad Street, through an endless mult.i.tude, the procession moved, through brilliant displays of fireworks and past brightly illuminated residences. On Chestnut Street the scene was repeated with the added effect of booming cannon from the roof of the Union Republican Club.

Down Chestnut to Eighth, and up Eighth to Market, and thence to the City Hall, the Troop pa.s.sed, and when Horticultural Hall was reached the riders had the satisfaction of knowing that they had partic.i.p.ated in the greatest parade ever given by the Troop in its century and a quarter of existence.

As the Troop drew up in front of the hall, amid wild cheering, the men dismounted and turned the horses over to the mounted police. The men then filed into the banquet room between lines of the Battery A men, who stood at "Present arms." While standing at their designated seats Mayor Warwick addressed the Troopers as follows:

"Welcome home! We are here to-night to greet you with all our hearts.

G.o.d bless you, and G.o.d keep you. The Republic is proud of you, and the city thrown open to you."

While the cavalrymen were eating, their relations and friends crowded in upon them. There was much laughing and much hand-shaking. The men had all been granted a sixty-day furlough, and they took their time about punishing the good things, leaving the hall at a late hour in groups of two's and three's--home at last.

Within a short time after their return, and before their muster-out, the Troopers partic.i.p.ated in a number of interesting events. Several receptions and dinners were given in their honor by individuals and clubs, and the one hundred and twenty-fourth anniversary of the Troop's organization was celebrated. The cavalrymen took a leading part in the military parade, on the second day of the Jubilee Celebration, October 27th. President McKinley reviewed the parade, and as the tradition of the Troop required that its members should act as the President's escort while in the city, the following Honorary members of the Troop were appointed to act in that capacity: Captain General E. Burd Grubb, Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson, Captain Edmund H. McCullough, First Lieutenant James Rawle, Second Lieutenant Major J. Edward Carpenter, Second Lieutenant Frank E. Patterson, Second Lieutenant Edward K.

Bispham, Cornet Charles E. Kelly, Cornet Richard Tilghman, Surgeon J.

William White, Surgeon John B. Shober, Surgeon Charles H. Frazier, Quartermaster Hugh Craig, Jr.

All of these occurrences were joyous occasions, but one day in October the Troopers were called upon to perform a duty which saddened every heart. On that day, for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, there was a voice missing at roll call which would never respond again. Stuart Wheeler had fallen a victim to typhoid fever, contracted while in Puerto Rico, and to the grave of this lost comrade the Troopers marched in silent sorrow to pay the last military respects.

Mr. Wheeler had seemed in good health upon his arrival in the United States after the campaign, and, with several friends, had gone upon a hunting trip in the Maine woods. There the fever seized him, and he died a few days after his removal to a Boston hospital.

Of the departed young hero, the Troopers will ever speak with affection and praise. In college he was an unusually earnest student, on the athletic fields he won laurels that will long remain green, at home he was a loving son and brother, with the Troop he showed the mettle of a gallant soldier. He died for his country--as surely as though his body had been found on a Puerto Rican battlefield, pierced with a Spanish bullet.

At noon on the eleventh day of November, the City Troopers gathered at their armory to bid farewell to the United States Volunteer service.

Their sixty-day furlough had expired, and while there was not one who would have hesitated to re-enlist should need arise, it is safe to say that none were sorry that the moment for ending their terms as warriors had arrived. Six men were unable to be present because of sickness.

Lieutenant B. F. Hughes, of the Tenth U. S. Cavalry, was on hand to muster-out the men, all of whom were first obliged to report to Doctors Spelissy and Brinton for physical examinations.

For a week preceding Captain Groome had made every preparation calculated to expedite the work, and before the men were drawn up for roll call, all the muster-out rolls, the descriptive lists and discharge papers had been prepared for the mustering officer. Even the computations of pay for each man had been figured out. As soon as each Trooper had received his physical examination he was dismissed until the following Monday. On the morning of that day discharge papers and pay were ready for all the Troopers, and so far as they were concerned the war was over.

It was not until twenty days later that the Spanish Commissioners, in Paris, agreed to accept the American terms, and surrendered to the United States 240,110 square miles of territory, with a population estimated at 9,500,000. A treaty of peace between the nations was then prepared. Practically, however, peace had existed since that day in August when but a few minutes separated the City Troopers' _bivouac_, in a field of flowers, from a charge which would have made desolate hundreds of homes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]