First Colorado Volunteers, Aug/Sept 1898 - Denver Newspaper Clipping
Transcribed by Lee Zion
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HAVE GONE
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Captain Carroll and His Recruits Are Off to the Coast.
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NINETY-ONE PRIVATES IN LINE.
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There Were Many Tearful Scenes of Parting, but the Boys in Blue Bore Up
Bravely and Cheered Lustily as Their Train Pulled Out on Its Long
Journey - The Solders' Aid Society Was on Hand.
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With the God-speeds of a host of the people of Denver ringing in
their ears the ninety-one recruits to aid in the complement of the
First Colorado Volunteers left the Union depot this morning on their
long journey to the far Phillippines. Long before the hour scheduled
for the train to start the waiting room of the depot was filled with
the fathers and mothers, the wives and sweethearts and sisters of the
embryo soldiers going to war.
Under the great shelter which stretches along the building toward
the tracks the women of the Soldiers' Aid society had provided against
the hunger of the soldier boys, both going and coming. A half dozen
long tables spread with immaculate linen and bountifully burdened with
substantial food, were arranged in a space set apart for the exclusive
use of the newly recruited troops. Great piles of boxes filled with
luncheon to cheer the inner man on the long journey to the coast lay
about, and stacked up against the boxes were little bundles of
miniature flags and glistening piles of tin plates and cups, all the
gift of the philanthropic people.
Captain F.W. Carroll, who had charge of the recruiting, marched
his men into the depot as the train bearing seventy Nebraska volunteers
arrived. There was a mighty cheer from the Nebraska boys when they
caught sight of their Colorado comrades and for fully three minutes the
cheers and shouts echoed back and forth between the men of the two
states.
So soon as the gates were opened to admit the friends and
relatives of the departing soldiers the walks between the tracks became
the scene of many pathetic incidents that touched the hearts of many an
on-looker. An old gray-haired mother stood holding the hands of her
boy bravely trying to smile though the tears that wet her cheeks as she
whispered her last words of advice and like the Spartan mothers of old
told him to be brave. Fathers, on the lapels of whose coats were the
little bronze buttons that told of the days when they were soldiers,
took their sons aside and admonished them to do their duty like men.
The women of the Soldiers' Aid society mingled with the crowd
distributing the little flags to the recruits and handing them the
bouquets of flowers and boxes of luncheon that had been sent to cheer
the boys on the way to the front. Hundreds of magazines had also been
supplied and these were handed out to the men as they formed in line
and marched to the tables whereon breakfast had been spread for them.
It was a hurried breakfast which they ate. They were plainly nervous
and anxious to be away and have the ordeal of parting over with. At
exactly 8:55 o'clock, ten minutes after the time set for the train to
start, Captain Carroll's voice rang out, giving the order:
"Fall in!"
As the long line marched out to the waiting train in single file
each man received a tin plate and cup with knife, fork and spoon, the
gift of the Soldiers' Aid society. At the train the most affecting
scenes of parting occurred. Women stood about in little family groups
weeping as if their hearts would break as they saw their loved ones go
aboard the cars that stood to carry them away, some of them, perhaps
forever. But the scene was not without its element of comedy. A
little Irishman who was hardly more than four and a half feet high
stood alongside one of the cars filled with troops. He held his hat in
his hand as in deference to the solemnity of the occasion.
"Begorra," he said, "I wisht I wuz a bit hoigher; I'd go wid the
byes an' help foight thim Spanyards mesilf."
The crowd fell back as the train hands shouted for the people to
clear the tracks and when the wheels slowly began to revolve cheer
after cheer went up form the recruits who were hanging out of every car
window. Women waved their handkerchiefs and from the cars fast
retreating towards the West there was a flutter of flags and the faint
echo of a parting shout. The little Irishman looked wistfully after
the train and muttered as he turned away:
"I wisht I was a bit hoigher."
The ninety-one men under Captain Carroll left in three cars over
the Denver and Gulf railroad. At Colorado Springs they will be
transferred to the Midland and will go over that road to Salt Lake
City, where they will take cars for San Francisco over the Central
Pacific. After being drilled and equipped at San Francisco they will
be sent on to join their regiment at Manila.
Two detachments of recruits of thirty-five men each for the First
Nebraska Volunteers arrived at the Union depot this morning from Omaha
and Lincoln. Privates George B. Scrambling and George Bates had the
men in their charge. Breakfast was provided by the Soldiers' Aid
society at the depot. They were given flowers and flags and magazines.
After the Colorado boys had left the men from Nebraska were allowed to
go about the city. They will leave the depot for San Francisco at 6:45
o'clock tonight over the Union Pacific railroad.
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Notes:
This clipping was undated. The date was estimated by outside events.
The main body of the 1st Colorado Volunteer Infantry Regiment landed
in the Philippines in August 1898. One of the men in this group of
91 volunteers was Private Orton Thomas Weaver of Vernon, Arapahoe Co.,
Colorado, who, after recruit training and the long sea voyage, arrived
in Manila in time to be wounded in action in the first week of February
1899 in one of the first battles of the "Philippine Insurrection."
Most of this group of men was later assigned to Company B, 1st Colorado
Volunteer Infantry, with Captain Frank W. Carroll remaining as their
company commander.
A muster listing of the 1st Colorado Volunteer Infanty Regiment is on-line
at the Colorado State Archives pages http://www.archives.state.co.us/
LCZ
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