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:

[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,24Seminole
Arthur W. Barber, Landsman,25Minnesota
George S. Baxter, Coxswain,22Wyandotte
Robert C. Beers, Landsman,26Catskill
Howard Berry, Ordinary Seaman,20Wyandotte
Henry W. Bigelow, Seaman,30Minnesota
Herbert G. Bissell, Ordinary Seaman,24Minnesota
Fred G. Blakeslee, Seaman,30Minnesota
Fred E. Bosworth, Quartermaster,23Minnesota
Arthur L. Brewer, Seaman,21Minnesota
George Brinley, Seaman,26Wyandotte
John H. P. Brinley, Seaman,23Wyandotte
Henry R. Buck, Seaman,22East Boston
Joseph F. Burke, Landsman,22Wyandotte
Archibald L. Case, Seaman,23Minnesota
Henry B. Case, Landsman,19Minnesota
Robert D. Chapin, Seaman,22Minnesota
Murray H. Coggeshall, Q. M., 1st Class,25Wyandotte
George F. Colby, Landsman,21Wyandotte
Arthur S. Cutting, Landsman,20Minnesota
Hermann F. Cuntz, Ensign Lr. S. N.,26Sylvia
Stanley K. Dimock, Seaman,20Seminole
Edward J. Doran, Ship’s Apothecary,24Minnesota
Henry W. Drury, Seaman,22Minnesota
Francis E. Field, Seaman,25Minnesota
George C. Forrest, O. M., 3d Class,29Wyandotte
George Foster, Coal Passer,23Wyandotte
Paul Franke, Landsman,24Minnesota
Burton L. Gabrielle, Ordinary Seaman,20Minnesota
Christopher M. Gallup, Fireman,22East Boston
William A. Geer, Landsman,27Minnesota
Frank W. Gillette, Ordinary Seaman,23Wyandotte
William Goulet, Landsman,22Minnesota
James J. Hawley, Q. M., 2d Class,27Seminole
George A. Holcomb, Ord. Seaman,22Seminole
Richard J. Holmes, Ordinary Seaman,25Minnesota
Charles A. Huntington, Chief G. M.,25Wyandotte
William M. Hurd, Seaman,23Minnesota
Edward Q. Jackson, Ord. Seaman,23Minnesota
Lorenzo W. Kenyon, Seaman,20Minnesota
Frank R. Keyes, Chief Quartermaster,21Wyandotte
Frank E. Kowalsky, Coal Passer,21Seminole
Arthur P. LeFever, Landsman,19Minnesota
Michael C. Long, G. M., 2d Class,28Wyandotte
Oliver W. Malm, Seaman,25Minnesota
George R. Martin, Ord. Seaman,19Minnesota
Ralph W. McCreary, B. M., 1st Class,22Wyandotte
J. Ward McManus, Seaman,23Minnesota
Louis F. Middlebrook, Ens’n, U. S. N.,32Enquirer
Guy P. Miller, Seaman,23Minnesota
Hugh I. Miller, Seaman,25Minnesota
James H. Morgan, Q. M., 1st Class,23Seminole
Victor F. Morgan, Seaman,18Minnesota
Shiras Morris, Coxswain,23Wyandotte
Linwood K. Moses, Landsman,20Minnesota
Carl C. Nielson, Wardroom Steward,25Seminole
Edward J. Noble, Ordinary Seaman,23Minnesota
Edwin T. Northam, Seaman,23Minnesota
Robert C. Northam, G. M., 2d Class,25Minnesota
Harry Y. Nutter, Seaman,26Minnesota
Lauriston F. L. Pynchon, Seaman,26Minnesota
Judson B. Root, Ordinary Seaman,22Minnesota
Harrison Sanford, Ordinary Seaman,21Wyandotte
Charles C. Saunders, Seaman,22Minnesota
Felton Parker, Lieutenant, U. S. N.,38Huntress
Lyman Root, Ensign, U. S. N.,29Elfrida
Otto M. Schwerdtfeger, Landsman,22Minnesota
Albert W. Scoville, Jr., Seaman,21East Boston
Lester H. Scoville, Ordinary Seaman,20East Boston
William H. Scrivener, Seaman,21Minnesota
Frederic A. Seaver, Landsman,34Minnesota
Freeman P. Seymour, Ord. Seaman,34Minnesota
Forrest Shepherd, Seaman,28Wyandotte
Herbert E. Storrs, Seaman,19East Boston
Morton C. Talcott, Landsman,20Minnesota
George H. Tinkham, Landsman,22Wyandotte
William C. Tregoning, Seaman,22Seminole
John F. Twardoks, Landsman,21Minnesota
Jonathan K. Uhler, Seaman,24Minnesota
James D. Wells, Seaman,23Minnesota
Richard B. Wells, Coxswain,29Seminole
Alanson H. Wightman, Q. M., 1st Cl.,26Seminole
George E. Wilcox, Ord. Seaman,21Minnesota
Louis B. Wilson, B. M., 1st Class,26Seminole
Frank L. Young, Cabin Steward,19Wyandotte

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.