The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-23

On the twenty-third day of April, 1898 -- forty-three years this twenty-third day of 1941 - President William McKinley's call for two hundred thousand volun- teers to avenge the blowing up of the U. s. Battleship Maine, found Connecticut lacking in heavy artillery with which 1t was expected that the strongholds Of the Spanish in Cuba would be carried by assault. As Connecti- cuts quota included two batteries of heavy artillery, 1t was thought that New Haven and Bridgeport should each furnish one, as Hart ford had already furnished Q goodly number of men who be- longed to the companies of the First Connecticut Infantry, which regiment had already responded to the call of Governor Lorrin A. Cooke for the infantry allotment from Connecticut. Therefore, Bat. tery A. First Connecticut Artil- lery was organized in New Haven and Branford, and the recruiting of Battery "B", was entrusted to Captain Fred J. .Breckbill of Bridgeport. Enthusiasm ran high in Bridgeport those days, and the recruiting .~as the two hundred men needed ISe the battery, was but a matter of picking the best specimens of physical manhood from the hundreds who volun- teered.
 They left for the front on May 1, 1898, which was made the oc- casion of q great celebration by the patriotic and civil societies of Bridgeport, amid scenes of enthu- siasm which had not been wit messed since the Civil War. Their first stopping place was at the Mantle State camp grounds, where the surgeons of the United States Army subjected them to the most rigid physical test, as Q result of which many were rejected and re. turned home. Their places were promptly taken by enthusiastic recruits. and on May 19, 1898, they were mustered into the serv- ice of the United States as Bat tcry B, or "Brackbill battery" as It was sometimes called.
 On May 20, 1898, they left the Mantle training camp for a des- tination known only to the com missioned officers, and were given Q good send off by the other troops in camp. They were the first Connecticut troops to leave for Cuba. At that time 1t was thought that the Spanish Admiral Cervera and his fleet were off the North Coast of New England, threatening Boston and New York. The impression was general that B. Battery, was to be part of Gen. eral Shafter's army corps which formed the first army of the in- vasion of Cuba, and which took part in the siege of Santiago. The battery detrained at Groton, Conn, and took possession of Fort Griswold, of Revolutionary fame.
 The commissioned officers were: Captain Fred J. Breckbill; First Lieutenant John A. Leonard: Sec- ond Lieutenant William A. Evans, all of Bridgeport, and Second Lieutenant William Baseley, of New London. Lieutenant Baseley, who had served in the regular army, was assigned as artilley in structor. After camp organiza- ton had been perfected, artillery drill was continued for several hours daily, and the battery soon became an efficient unit. But the short duration of the Cuban cam paign did not give the battery a chance to show it's metal, and the outfit was mustered out Decem- Der 20, 1898.
 The war that commenced in '98 with the invasion of Cuba lasted four years and two months. It ranged from Cuba, and Porto Rico. to the Spanish colonies in the Pacific. One million men vol- unteered but only 458,15i were enlisted. Every man was volun- teer, None were drafted or coll- scriDted. The total cost Of the