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The Volunteers wanted more than
anything to go home, but after Tom read a batch of U.S. newspapers in
late October, he said, “near as I can see, our chance is good for
staying here all winter.” That was not a happy prospect. Morale
was
low. Volunteers were angry at being kept in service after the peace
protocol ended the fighting, which nominally marked the end of their
military obligations.[i]
Before the end of the year, Otis would send Washington more than 400
requests for discharge by Volunteers asserting their legal right to be
discharged.[ii]
An indication of their sour mood was the response to a solicitation for
re-enlistment. Volunteers were promised $500 in travel and
transportation pay at the end of another year’s service. It appears
not a single man in the regiment took the offer. John quotes one as
saying, “We are 10,000 miles from the place we did our
volunteering.”
Discouraged and
resentful, some Volunteers became sloppy soldiers. At a regimental
inspection, Tom said Lt. Col. Treumann “found occasion to call quite a
few of us down for not shaving, etc.” Others were wistful that a few
lucky ones were returning home because of illness. By year’s end,
eight from the 1st North Dakota would leave for the States,
discharged for disability.[iii]
Tom’s company wagoner was a different matter; Corp. Fred Mullen
(one
of three Mullens in Company I) was discharged by order and was sent home
because of his rheumatism. Tom was impressed with the man’s financial
good fortune. He said Mullen:
got
$508.24. It will cost him about $30.00 for board from here to Frisco so
he will be able to reach home with $400.00 in his pocket after 8 months
service.
Also leaving the
Philippines was part of the Nebraska Volunteer regiment and the Astor
Battery, which turned its 3-inch Hotchkiss mountain guns over to the 18th
U.S. Artillery. Seeing off the Astor men he had hoped to join, John
regretfully mused – if only he had made his request for transfer
sooner, he would be leaving with them. Those going home left hundreds
like John who wished they were going also.[iv]
The rain did not help morale. Tom stood
guard November 5 where there was “no shelter and it rained more or
less.” On patrol near Blockhouse #14 a few days later, he said, “It
is raining all the time so it is rather slushy.” On November 12, he
said it had “rained steady for 3 days, and we have had no drills and
all roll calls inside.” Next day, he said, “It rains still....” On
November 15, a Dress Parade was called off because “the parade ground
was too damp.” Both weather and grounds at last permitted the delayed
Dress Parade on November 20, but a week later at General Inspection, it
rained so hard “we looked like a lot of drowned rats.” Two days
later, Tom stood guard on still another “disagreeable day, a continual
drizzle of rain right along.”
[i]
“Nominally” is the operative word. Their military obligation
would end only after the peace treaty was ratified and signed by the
President, legally bringing an end to the state of hostilities.
[ii]
U.S. Serial 3902, p. 44.
[iii]
Those discharged were: Privates Philip Dawson, Edward Fay, and Louis
Swett
of
Company A; Pvt. James Hall, of Company K;
Capt. Frederick Keye and
Pvt. John McConnel of
Company B; Corp. Daniel Wallace
and
Lt. Fred Conklin
of
Company H. Tom’s notebook says Pvt. John C. Leathert of Company I,
who was left at Honolulu to recover from illness, had also received
his discharge. Cooper and Smith (p. 62) err in saying that Conklin
received his discharge from Company B. From Jamestown, Conklin
enlisted in Fargo’s Company B,
but on October 22 transferred to Jamestown’s Company H and was
discharged from that company.
[iv]
A. B. Feuer (America at War:
The Philippines, 1898-1913) errs in saying the Astor Battery
“steamed into New York harbor on 22 January 1899.” The Battery
disembarked at Pier 7 in San Francisco and traveled by train across
the U.S.
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