Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-07-15


| officer of the guard dared walk the line
/ either night or day while the company
was on guard. A few days service on
! the island, however, convinced the
troops that the Spaniards were not
! greatly to be feared.
Though there were hardships to be
| endured the army experiences OF toih-
| pany 4 were not without their re-
| deeming features and very few OF the
members would have missed them In
all the organization travelled seven
or eight thousand miles al Uncle
Sans expense.
Story of Company AS Service.
April p. 1898, Company A left for
| Springfield, together with other units
of the Sixth regiment in response to
the call of President Mckinley. With
all the other militia regiments of the
state, it went into camp at the state
fair grounds, chFistened camp Tanner
! for the occasion, being quartered IN
! the exposition building. May 10 the
I militiamen were mustered into the
service of the United States and May
/ II the Sixth departed for Camp Alger.
named after the secretary OF war, and
which had just been established IN
Virginia, a few miles from the nation
al capital.
Though the period spent at Camp
! Tanner was short, il was long enough
| for the men and they were glad to get
away. Accommodations were of the
poorest. Equipment was slow in COM
| ing and some of the men did not even
! get a gun to drill with for a week at
! ter their arrival in camp. Rain fell
| almost constantly and the fair grounds
were covered with sticky mud At
night the men made their beds on the
| soft side of concrete floor with little
/ between them and the stone and often
| less over them. Many took bad colds
| and several cases of typhoid fever de-
! veloped.
Camp Alger was not much better, at
| least at first. The Sixth arrived at
/ Dunn LOTing, a short distance from
the camp, on the 18th and unlOaded
the day following. Wall tents were
pitched just in time to afford shelter
| from a soaking rain. The camp was
located in yellow clay field and OF
course there was mud. A little later
it was bhstering hot and the men
sweltered. RatiOns were abundant
enough, but much of the food was
spoiled or nearly so by the heat and
dampness. Cooking was of the cTud- |
est and not of the cleanest and the re-
suit was much sickness. Private Louis /
Alger May 81 He was seriously i'll |
with typhoid fever and was deliriOus |
when placed on the train at Spring
field. The manner in which his case !
was handled provoked much criticism |
of the surgical staff. Funeral SER
vices were held at Camp Alger and
detail Of six men from the company
came with the remains back to Rock
Island where there was great turn
out for the burial.
At Camp Alger the Sixth, which was
the only Illinois regiment sent there,
was brigaded with the Sixth Massa-
chusetts and the Eighth Ohio under
General GarretsOn. ID. Jack Foster Of
Chicago was colonel of the Sixth and
Edward Kittilsen Of this city Iieuten-
ant colonel. The majors were W. T.
ChannOn, Rock Island; d. Z. Clark,
Monmouth and W. f. Baldwin, Dixon,
while Frank Anthony of Sterling was
regimental surgeon. Company A was
in the first battalion, together with
Companies E of Sterling, 1 of Nor
rison and F of Moline. T.
Hard Work in Camp. /,
There was hard work and plenty Of
it at Camp AIger. All the men were :
given several hours of hard drill daily ]
and the work usually either in the
mud and rain or in the boiling sun {
was not easy, but the boys, with the I
cheerful optimism of youth, bore the
discomforts well and thought of the {
time when they were to get crack t
at the Spaniards. 1t may be stated {
that those commands which failed to I
be called to the scenes of hOstilities
were pretty thoroughly sOured on the
war game before they were finally re
turned 10 their home. There is moth
ing like plenty of action to keep SOL j
diers in good humor and to cause them {
to bear hardships and dangers with l
fortitude. u
At Camp Alger were regiments from d
many eastern states. Being near c
the boys were visited at d
one time or another by most of the c
of the national capital. c
Senator w e Mason Of Illinois acted '
as sort of patron saint for the Sixth. c
Mark Hanna was a frequent caller i
and May % President Mckinley and i
staff reviewed the troops. Dress pa a
rade each evening was sort of gala t
and hundreds of men ant
women, visitors from Washington and f
rom all states having men in camp, b
lined the parade ground I
Company A was recruited up to the i
war strength then prescribed of 100 d
officers and men by the arrival of 20 n
men secured by Major Ed DunaVin, [
hen sergeant, who made a trip back L
o Rock Island for the purpose. These &
cookies had scarcely time to learn the f
simplest evOlCtions of military tactics v
when orders came to entrain for the O
south July the company, with the p
'ther units of the Sixth, left for n
charleston, arriving that night There o
With the Sixth Massachusetts, the II V
inois boys were placed on the trans r
'ort Yale, formerly the liner City p
+ Paris, Rita. a Spanish prize, and u
ne Miami, and the cruiser Columbia v
nd at midnight July sailed for San D
lago. Cuba, to help the forces then it
the place Company a be-
anne separated from the remainder of lie
he regiment and was finally given Y
lace with the Sixth Massachusetts on la
ne Yale the largest and most com n,