New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-12-02
COMMANDER IN
WAR IS MISSING
LIEUT.. COL. WHITTLESEY DISAP-
PEARS FROM BOAT BOUND
FOR CUBA.
PREY TO WARS GRIEF
LEADER OF LOST BATTALION
WHO TOLD GERMANS TO go
TO HE'LL" REPORTED LOST.

New lOrk.-Lieut. Col. Charles W.
Whittlesey, hero of the famous lost
battalion, has disappeared from the
steamship Toloa, on which he sailed
for Havana, according To IA wireless.
News of the famous soldiers disap-
pearance came in the following mes
= received from the captain of the
ship:
Passenger named e. W. Whittlesrv
disappeared. Left several letters"
Officials of the United Fruit Line,
operators of the ship, confirmed the
fact that the passenger was Lieut..
Col. Nhittlesey through his relatives.
Members of Mr.. WhittleSey'S law
firm here We're at II loss to account for
his visit to Cuba. When he left the
offices of the firm he announced his
intention, they said, of attending the
Army-Nayy football game.
His business associates declared his
mind was clear and that he apparently
was in good health otherwise when
last seen. He seemed cheerful, they
added, and declared that they were
unable To explain his seemingly
strange action in going away without
notifying them of his plans.
J. Is. Pruyn, ii lawyer, To whom
messages from Captain Grant of the
Toloa We're addressed, stated he was
of the opinion that Colonel Whittlesey
had ended his life.
Mr., Pruyn stated that he believed
The tragedy to be the result of the
mental strain to which Colonel Whit
tlesey had been subjected as one of
the honorary pallbearers at the Armis-
tice day ceremonies at Washington.
X. +. Little, of White x Case, the
law firm with which Colonel Whittle-
sey had been associated, received a
wireless from Captain Grant of the To-
loa stating that the colonel had left
n message for him regarding some law
papers. The note ended with, Il will
not return"
Colonel Whittlesey has had 50
much grief confronting him since the
war that ! believe he could not stand
il any longer Mr.. Little said. BE
cause of the prominence accorded him,
widows and orphans wrote Ia him
him and appealed 10 him in person.
Many seemed merely to want his sym
pathy, for he was n tender-hearted
man.
II noticed a change in him when he
back from the Unknown Soldier
The funeral at Arlington
To be the climax to all the sad
ness he went through
G. W. Whittlesey, the soldiers uncle,
declared Colonel Whittlesey attended
he services for the unknown dead at
Washington on Armistice day and had
'ince appeared depressed.
Surrounded in the Argonne with his
Command, the First battalion of the
infantry. Seventy-seventh divi-
ion, he had been cut off for four days
Without food or fresh water. All but
ighty-seven men had been killed or
Wounded. At dusk Oct. Z, 1918. a
German bearing a white
lag crossed the lines. He bore a
asking the Americans to sur
ender "in the name of humanity"
A few hours after the messenger
'as sent back with WhittleSey's reply I
n American advance took place and {
II were rescued. (
The crisp, laconic reply, You go to {
ELL! ~ hurled into the teeth of "A Ger
ian officer who called on him and his
TO surrender, was the rhetorical
nttleffeld classic which brought Colo 7
FL Whittlesey into fame. g