THE TROOP AT MT. GRETNA.
Had the Troopers not known from experience that Mt. Gretna was an ideal
spot for a camp, their impressions of the place, gained from
observations taken the morning after their arrival, would have been
disagreeable beyond expression. In the words of "Longfeller," as one
Trooper expressed it, in a letter to the _Press_,
"We saw the tents of the others,
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness came o'er us,
That our hearts could not resist."
For, to the disgust of the Troopers, daylight brought no news of the
missing canvas, and visions of another night in the mess tents of the
Battery and Sheridan Troop began to disturb the men. Captain Groome and
his lieutenants had planned plenty of work for the men, however, and as
soon as their minds were once occupied they began to feel better.
Details were sent to relieve the guard that had been placed over the
baggage car, to secure wagons to haul the luggage to the camp grounds
and to do regular sentry duty.
While the spot selected for a camp by Captain Groome had its
disadvantages in rainy weather, it proved to be on the whole, the most
desirable spot on the entire grounds; one of its greatest advantages
being the nearness of Lake Conawago, where later in the season the men
enjoyed a daily bath. The Philadelphia infantry commands had been
assigned the worst quarters at Mt. Gretna. They occupied a deep basin,
fully a mile and a half from the station and telegraph office, and
during the entire time the First, Second, Third Regiments and Battalion
of State Fencibles remained there, the valley was a sea of red mud.
Every other regiment was encamped on rising ground, where the sandy soil
was well drained and kept comparatively dry despite the long continued
rains which set in.
In the afternoon the Troopers tents arrived, and went up with
astonishing rapidity. The men worked hard arranging wooden supports for
their straw-filled canvas bags, so they would not be obliged to sleep on
the wet turf. The horses had been well sheltered in the woods near the
camp, but men and beasts alike were glad when they saw the bright sun on
Saturday morning. These weather conditions quickly wrought a great
change throughout the miles of tented streets. Soldiers faces brightened
and the Troopers, who had kept up their pluck splendidly under a stress
of unfortunate circumstances such as no other organization had been
obliged to face, could not help showing their pleasure at the improved
prospects.
Sunday was spent for the most part in straightening up the camp. In the
afternoon there were a number of visitors on hand from Philadelphia,
although rainy weather had set in again. All kind of rumors were current
as to what would be done with the State organizations, and many feared
that the Troop would not be allowed to enlist as a whole, but that the
men would be called upon to enter the volunteer service as individuals.
These rumors soon died away, however, and on Monday when the men were
lined up and asked if they were willing to enter the service of the
United States there was but a single dissenting voice. One private
refused to volunteer, and he at once resigned from the Troop. As there
was no provision in the call for volunteers for an assistant surgeon,
with a troop of cavalry, Dr. Charles H. Frazier could not be mustered
in.
After the privates and non-commissioned officers had expressed their
willingness to volunteer, Colonel Morrell addressed the officers as
follows: "Is it your desire that I should request the Governor of
Pennsylvania to issue to you a commission for the same places you now
hold in the volunteer army of the United States?"
Captain Groome and Lieutenants Browning and McFadden signified their
desire to serve, and Governor Hastings at once responded that it would
give him great pleasure to have the commissions made out as requested.
After this inspection the men settled down to camp life with zest. On
the day they had signified their willingness to enlist, the great news
had come of Commodore Dewey's victory in the harbor of Manila. The
destruction of the entire Spanish fleet in the East, gave a new turn to
the war, and it was soon whispered that it would not be long before some
of the men encamped at Mt. Gretna would be on their way to these distant
islands in the Pacific. Daily drills were taken up with added interest.
Wednesday and Thursday were rainy. The brigade surgeons were being
examined, and all was put in readiness for the physical examination of
the soldiers, preliminary to their being mustered into the volunteer
service. Friday the City Troopers were examined and four men were
rejected by the surgeons, chiefly for defects in eyesight. Two of these
were afterward reinstated by direct orders from Washington.
Saturday, April 28th, the Troopers were marched down to division
headquarters to be mustered in. A heavy Scotch mist hung over the camp,
and objects at a short distance were invisible. The men were lined up
before a long wooden platform upon which stood Major William A.
Thompson, of the First U. S. Cavalry, the officer detailed by the War
Department to muster the Pennsylvania National Guard troops into the
Volunteer service of the United States; Governor Hastings and his staff,
and hundreds of spectators. As the roll was called, each Trooper stepped
forward and answered to his name. Then the mustering officer told the
men and officers to raise their right hand. Up went the hands and the
spectators removed their hats while Major Thompson repeated this oath:
"Do you solemnly swear that you will bear true faith and allegiance to
the United States of America, and will serve them faithfully against all
their enemies whomsoever, and that you will obey the orders of the
President of the United States and the orders of officers appointed over
you, according to the rules and articles of war?"
"I do!" shouted each man in the same breath, and as the hearty response
went up, the spectators applauded and the Third Regiment Band, sheltered
in a building near at hand, struck up "The Star Spangled Banner." The
officers' commissions were then filled in by the Governor and handed to
their owners. Back to their camp marched the Troopers, no longer their
own masters but servants of Uncle Sam, and as they filed past the
mustering stand, a company of infantrymen stepped up to go through the
same ceremony.
Noah is credited with being the only man who ever saw it rain for forty
days and forty nights, but the City Troopers ran him a close race in the
month that followed. The intervals between showers were almost too brief
to be noticed, and it became a popular jest that the weather man was
trying to break the men in for a campaign in Cuba during the rainy
season. The worst storm of the lot was reserved for the Sunday following
the muster-in of the Troopers. In regular cloud-bursts the floods
descended upon Camp Hastings. The camp of the Troopers was surrounded by
hills on three sides, and down these hills came innumerable streams, all
headed for the Troop street. Visitors in large numbers had come out from
the city on the long excursion trains, and many were half ferried, half
driven to camp in an old wagon which seemed especially designed to do
service as a boat. Bad as was the Troopers' lot, it was almost nothing
compared to what the Philadelphia infantrymen were compelled to endure.
The foot soldiers in the first place had not taken the same precautions
as the Troopers in raising their mattresses from the ground, and in some
cases they actually found their beds under water by nightfall. Mud in
the streets of every camp in the First Brigade was six inches deep, and
so sticky that to attempt to walk through it, invariably meant the loss
of a boot.
On Monday morning, drills were resumed by the Troopers, and upon Tuesday
they were called to bid farewell to the men of Battery A, who had been
ordered to Newport News for guard duty.
Although the rain spoiled all attempts at systematic drill, captains
throughout the camp were gradually getting their men in better shape,
and the work of mustering-in had proceeded uninterruptedly. On Friday,
the 13th, the last of the Pennsylvania Troops had entered the volunteer
army. There were at that time 10,860 in all, and a grand review by the
Governor was planned for the next afternoon. As if to compensate for
past sins and sins to come, the weather for that day was perfect, and by
three o'clock on Saturday afternoon the various troops and regiments
throughout the camp began wending their way from the tents to the parade
ground. The Troopers took up their stand on a little hill near their
camp, but the rising ground prevented their seeing the miles of blue
ranks, glittering with steel, that stretched away just beyond.
The Governor and his staff rode at full gallop along the lines, while a
little band, the only one in camp, kept blowing out the strains of "Hail
to the Chief." The lack of proper music was the only drawback to this
occasion. Then the order to march came; the many commands swung past the
reviewing party, and the finest display ever made by Pennsylvania troops
since the Civil War was at an end.
The second command of Philadelphia soldiers to leave Camp Hastings was
the Third Regiment. Colonel Ralston received his orders the Sunday
following the review, and attempted to get off that afternoon, but
railroad facilities were wanting and it was not until Monday evening
that the boys of the Third got away. Tampa was their destination.
The next day Captain Groome received an order to report to General
Merritt, of the Department of the East, and this order gave the
reporters of the various papers material for many scare stories, as it
became known the next day that General Merritt had been ordered to take
command of the expedition to the Philippines, and it was supposed by
some that he would take the Troopers with him. This rumor was in a
measure substantiated by the orders which came for the Tenth Regiment to
prepare to take a journey to the islands. For, like the Troopers, the
Tenth had just previously been ordered to report to General Merritt, and
when the orders came regarding the Philippines, the men of the Tenth had
struck tents preparatory to going to meet General Merritt in New York.
On this same Tuesday the First Regiment, made up of Philadelphia men,
left Mt. Gretna for Camp Thomas, Chickamauga, and the Ninth Regiment
started for the same camp.
From the movement of the infantry regiments it seemed probable that they
would soon be required for active service, but the cavalry troops were
detained at Mt. Gretna waiting for the issue of arms and equipments from
the Government. As the City Troop was fully armed with the carbine,
saber and pistol, uniformed, equipped and mounted, and owned all their
equipments and horses, Captain Groome offered to Governor Hastings, and
through him to the Secretary of War, to transfer immediately all the
horses and troop property of every description to the United States, to
be settled for at any time and price satisfactory to the Government. The
Troopers hoped by this offer to be enabled to take the field at once,
but unfortunately this was not accepted, although the spirit which
prompted it was warmly commended in the return message from the War
Department. After this there was nothing to do but wait for the
Government to provide new horses and equipments.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 19th, Captain Groome was called to
Washington and Lieutenant Browning remained in charge of the City
Troopers camp. He put the men through a long dismounted drill and
followed it up with another the next day. While the captain was away, a
report came from Washington, through the Associated Press despatches,
that the Pennsylvania Cavalry were to be ordered at once to Hempstead,
L. I., to camp there until wanted. Saturday noon Captain Groome
returned. He borrowed thirty horses belonging to the Sheridan Troop and
took one-half of the City Troopers out for drill. When they returned
Lieutenant Browning took out the other squad. In the evening there came
an inquiry from the War Department as to how many horses were needed by
the City Troop. This did not arouse any enthusiasm, however, as the same
request had been made two weeks before and nothing had come of it.
Sunday was a pleasant day, for a change, and the Troopers spent it
quietly. There were not many visitors on the grounds, as all the
regiments had departed except the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and
Eighteenth. Most of these men came from distant parts of the State. In
the afternoon Sergeant Glendinning tried some experiments in kite flying
that were watched with interest, and others of the Troopers planned to
go into the kite manufacturing business to be ready for sport on the
next clear day.
There was a novelty in the way of drill in store for thirty of the
Troopers, on Monday, as they were sent out in search of tramps who had
settled in a nearby mountain, and were said to be moonshiners on a small
scale. The exercise was splendid, but no tramps were found. That night a
baby cyclone struck the camp. The wind got in its fine work about one
o'clock in the morning, and the Troopers had to jump out of bed and hold
their tents down. Some of the tents were sent flying before the alarm
was given, and as rain immediately followed the blow, there were many
men who passed an uncomfortable night.
At this time the order of the day, in camp, was as follows:
5.55 A. M. First call.
6 A. M. Reveille roll call.
6.05 A. M. Setting up exercises.
6.20 A. M. Mess.
7 A. M. Police camp.
8 A. M. Guard mount.
8.30 A. M. Drill.
11.30 A. M. Inspection of quarters.
12 M. Mess.
3 P. M. Drill.
6.15 P. M. Mess.
7 P. M. Retreat roll call.
9.30 P. M. Tattoo.
10 P. M. Taps.
All the men contributed to the mess from their pay, so that the meals
did not consist solely of salt pork and hard tack. In the mornings the
drill covered the manual of carbine or saber drills, and pistol practice
by squad or troop, also dismounted drill by the Troop; this drill lasted
as a rule two hours. The afternoon drill as a rule extended over three
hours, and was chiefly in outpost and skirmish work. One platoon would
start, under the command of an officer, telling the general direction it
would take, and having gone a certain distance would establish outposts
of an imaginary camp, twenty minutes later a second platoon would start
on a march through the country, throwing out flankers and advance guard.
The men of the two platoons wearing different colors on their hats so as
to distinguish them. Up hill and down dale the men would crawl their way
until the crack of the pistols would show that one platoon had been
unmasked. Then it was left to the officers to decide which side had the
best of the manoeuvres. While two platoons were thus engaged a third was
always left in charge of camp. Each morning half the Troop would be
taken over to the rifle range for pistol and carbine practice.
One piece of work had been done by the Troopers, during the early days
of their stay at Camp Hastings, that has not been referred to. It was a
squad of City Troopers that went over the triple muster rolls of the
entire quota of Pennsylvania volunteers, for Major Thompson, and their
quick, accurate work helped greatly in the rapid mustering-in of the
men. When he discharged these Troopers from further duty, Major Thompson
wrote a cordial letter to Captain Groome, giving the Troopers high
praise.
And so the days passed on. Sometimes the Troopers felt that their
peaceful camp life was pretty slow, but as the drills became harder day
by day they realized that it was not only a great school of experience,
but that each day's drill was part of a general plan of their officers,
that would gradually improve their physical condition and bring them to
a high state of efficiency as a Troop when they were needed for active
service. And so each night, when at the last note of "retreat" the
guidon was taken in, they felt they had not only earned a good
night's rest, but that they had learned something during the day.
[Illustration: PISTOL PRACTICE AT CAMP HASTINGS.]
On May 25th, President McKinley issued his second call for troops, and
it was announced that the men thus called for would be added to the
organizations already in the field. The City Troop was to be recruited
up to a complete war footing of one hundred men, and arrangements were
made to notify the men upon the waiting list of the opportunity that
would be thus offered. Two days later the Paymaster reached camp for the
first time. Three members of the Troop were sent to Harrisburg to secure
the cash, and that night the men had their first look at Government
money; for in their previous campaigns, as a troop, their pay had come
from the State. A Board was appointed, consisting of Major W. A.
Thompson, First U. S. Cavalry, and Captain Paxton, Sixth Infantry, U. S.
A., to purchase horses for the three troops of cavalry, and the last day
of May Captain Groome left camp to join them in New Castle, Pa.