The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-07-12
CIIAPUTEPEC HEROES.
TOUCHING REMEMBRANCE ny
THEIR COMRADES.
The only Americans who Fell In Battle
In n Foreign Land in Defense of
Their Flag.

papers of the metropolis. 1t happened
at Greenwood cemetery. 1t concerns
every man who honors the memory of
those who died defending the stars and
stripes in foreign land.
About two o'clock, on the afternoon
of Decoration Day, the visitors to the
cemetery must have seen procession
as pathetic as 1t was patriotic. Nine old,
many of them feeble men-every one of
them three score and ten years-ascend-
ed the slope, from the florists towards
the entrance to the cemetery. They
were preceded by a man who pushed a
wheel barrow full of red. white and
blue flowers: and each of the nine vete-
rams carried an armful of American
flags. Many persons stopped to look at
this curious procession, but no one
seemed to know who they were, or
whose graves they were about to deco
rate.
They were nine of the heroes who
assisted at the storming of Chapultepec,
in Mexico, of September 10, 1917; and
the graves they came to decorate were
those of the eleven officers of the First
New York Volunteers Commanded by
Colonel Ward B. BurnetD who fell
while storming the fortress, scaling the
walls and planting the American flag
upon the ramparts of the Castle of
Chapultepec, and whose bodies were
brought from Mexico to be inferred in
their native State, by the Legislature of
New York.
The nine veterans who composed the
party of decorators were Jacob r. Riley,
president of the association; Col. James
T.. Kerrigan, vice-president; Daniel
Nicoll, treasurer; secretary johnson, and
comrades Charles Fisher, John Dick,
Carpenter, Constantine and Pratt. The
men whose memories they were honor
ing were Lieut.-Col. Charles Baxter;
Capt Morton Fairchild, Capt. James
Barclay, Capt. Charles Person and Lieu
tenants Patrick McCabe, John Kline.
Charles Gallagher, Albert Lombard,
Edgar Chandler, f, G. Boyle and Robert
Floyd.
These are the only men inferred on
American soil who fell in battle in a
foreign land in defense of the stars and
stripes. The plot of ground where
their bodies lie was given to the associ-
alton by the Greenwood Cemetery Cor
poration in 1913, and was called Battle
Hill. Lieutenant Alexander Forbes
was, by request, entrusted with the
duty of bringing the bodies from Cha
pultapec, but he was taken Ill with
vomito at New Orleans, and died there,
and his body now rests with the heroes
whose memory he so dearly revered and
honored.
The public fu neral took place on July
10, 1913. 1t was made an occasion for
national reverence for these heroic dead
but since that day they have slept un
honored-exceIt by those faithful few
who were Their comrades upon theii
last battlefield State and national
monuments have been erected to those
who fell IN the civil war and to generals
anu VI llldb ltbtlllbils bub oNtl
the graves OF the men who died win
ming honor for the nation, beneath he
flag, in a>foreign country, no monumen
marks the gratitude of the people
which they belonged-the First New
York Volunteers. of whom not twent,
are now alive-were notified, years ago
that, in order to preserve their title t.
the lot they should erect monument
They were not wealthy; most of then
were poor but, in order to prevent tn
transfer of the bod es of their dea,
comrades to the 'poor ground" the.
subscribed among themselves enough t.
place large galvanized iron vase il
the center of the plot, and to place tw'
wooden shafts, with the inscription
"1S46, 1S47, Mexico, Chapultepec, with
in the railing.
These efiigies of monuments are nov
weather beaten and decayed. The littl
wooden tablets at the foot of each grave
recording the names of the dead heroes
are also broken and rotting. Only TIL
green grass and the flowers and the fla
they died to defend denote the fact thu
they are still remembered-and thu
only by the nine old veterans who mt
at Greenwood Cemetery on Decoratio
Day.
There are many costly decorations {
the graves of dead soldiers who die
during or since the civil war; band
parades of the National Guard and ,
the veterans of the late war did hone
to their memories. But the heroes I
Chapultepec were forgotten by a
except their comrades in arms, an,
notwithstanding their limited r
sources, this faithful nine - withol
show or parade or music as accessories
quietly decorated the graves of the
friends with flowers and flags
prettiIv that hundreds of visito
stopped to admire the excellent tas
and patriotic fervor of the septuage
arians. The bodies are laid at rig
angles, so as to form a Roman cro'
and the designs of red white and bl
flowers and Of American flags we
made by the decorating party in perfe
keeping with this form.
When all was finished and the fla
futtered proudly above the dead hero'
short speeches were made by the Pre-
dent and other participants in the Gel
mony, which closed by Colonel Ker
gan reciting, 18th exquisite feeling a
appropriateness, the famous verses
William Collins:
Chow sleep the brave who sink to II
BY all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold
Returns to deck their hallowed mold,