Responded to in a happy manner by Mr. Marshal of the N. Y. Paris
Herald, followed by reminiscences of the Mexican War.
I will now call on our comrade, Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford, who
commanded the 36th Regiment New York Volunteers, and served with great
distinction all through the war of the Rebellion. He was the youngest
captain in his regiment, the 2nd New York Volunteers, in the Mexican
War, and was the officer who first hoisted the American flag over the
Castle of Chapultepec. Time will not permit me to mention the many
heroic deeds of valour performed by Colonel Hungerford in the Mexican,
as well as in the Civil War. Colonel Hungerford, of Rome, Italy, will
now address you, which he did in the following words:--
=Comrades and gentlemen.=--To-day, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
where a few of our comrades may be found they are gathered like
ourselves, enjoying the brief moments in the recollections of our
campaign of 1847 and 1848 in Mexico, a campaign fraught with so much
importance to the progressive age of the nineteenth century. Neither
the war of the Rebellion, (let its sad memories be for ever buried
in the depths of oblivion, is my wish), nor any other war of ancient
or modern times has accomplished so much to promote the present and
future prosperity of the civilized world, as did the brief conflict
between the Republics of Mexico and the United States of the North
in 1846 and 1848. There is no part of the globe where civilization
prevails, or where Christianity is taught and respected, but has
experienced the beneficial effects, moral, physical, and financial,
resulting from the magnificent and surprising campaigns of that
eventful period, in which our countrymen will ever feel a pardonable
pride. The impetus given to the gigantic spirit of enterprise, by
the acquisition of nearly a million square miles of territory, and
the almost simultaneous discovery of vast fields of gold and silver,
completely revolutionized all the channels of human industry, and
quickened into life the dormant energies and the inventive genius of
the world. With colossal strides, our beloved country overtook the
governments of the old world in the race for excellence, and to-day
she proudly holds her place in the front rank, the youngest and the
strongest, and the most hopeful of reaching the goal, and distancing
the field, because of her illimitable resources as yet untouched.
I am a old New Yorker, as you know, having no feeling of animosity
with citizens of any other part, portion, or section of our common
country. When the _Palmetto Regiment of South Carolina_ marched
side by side with the New Yorkers, in front of the enemy in Mexico,
there was a rivalry, to be sure, but it was a proper spirit of
emulation--_ésprit de corps_ each trying to out-do the other, but both
having the general interests of their common country at heart. There
was no _North_ or no _South_, in the offensive sense, that entered
into the general spirit of “go-ahead!” That contest on a foreign soil
showed what the American people are capable of doing, when united
under the old flag of their fathers--whether they hailed from the
North or the South, East or West.
In the war of the Rebellion I commanded a New York regiment on the
side of the Union, but I never for a moment forgot that I was a
soldier, or that the foe with whom we were contending was entitled to
my respect as fellow-countrymen.
Colonel Murphy was asked to give his recollections of the war.
[Illustration: COLONEL CHAS. J. MURPHY]
The Chairman, on introducing the Colonel said it would not be out of
place here to give a brief sketch of his career. He is the youngest man
now living who served in the Mexican War. In the War of the Rebellion
he was one of the only two commissioned officers who were awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor in the first general battle of the war,
Bull Run, where 50,000 men were engaged on each side. The other officer
was Major-General Adalbert Ames, of the 5th U. S. Artillery, now living
at Lowell, Mass. He was one of the only two regimental staff officers
of the same rank who won this distinction during the war. The other
officer was first Lieutenant John W. Clark, R.Q.M., 6th Regiment
Vermont Infantry.
Our medal of Honor ranks with that of the cross of the Legion of Honor
of France, and the Victoria Cross of England, and only 1,400 were
awarded a distinction greater than can be conferred by any potentate
in Europe, because granted to so few of the two million seven hundred
and fifty thousand men who were mustered into the armies of the United
States between 1861-65.
Colonel Murphy, after resigning from his regiment, and while awaiting
his commission in the regular army, which appointment was tendered him
by President Lincoln, was engaged in the battle of Fair Oaks, and all
through the seven days’ battles on the peninsula, from Gaine’s Mill to
that of Malvern Hill, as a volunteer aid, and this without rank or pay.
He erected the first field hospital for the army of the Potomac at
Harrison’s Landing.
Colonel Murphy was one of the first three officers who escaped from
Richmond after Bull Run. The history of this remarkable escape was
very graphically described by John S. C. Abbot, the historian, in
“Harper’s Magazine” of January, 1867. Colonel Murphy was one of the
old forty-niners of California, having arrived in San Francisco on the
ship South Carolina in June, 1849, the first sailing ship to arrive
with passengers for the mines from New York, after a short passage--for
those days--of 156 days.
Of the 300 passengers on board, the only lady was Mrs. John White, the
mother of the late U.S. Senator White now living in San Francisco, who
wrote two years ago that she was not aware of any living survivors of
those passengers except herself and Colonel Murphy, who were the two
youngest people on the ship.
He went from California to Shanghai, China, and established the first
commercial house at the mouth of the Yang Kin Pang River, opposite the
foreign quarter at Shanghai, and loaded the first vessel that carried
Chinese agricultural products to San Francisco.
Colonel Murphy has done more than any other man in the way of
introducing the products of California in Europe, and secured the first
gold medal for the grand wines of that State at the Antwerp Exposition.
He has done yeoman service in making known the splendid fruit of the
golden State, and it was mainly through his efforts while in the
service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the California wines
and fruit are now on sale in nearly all the grocery and wine houses of
Northern Europe.
It was through his initiative work that the exports of our Indian corn
was so largely increased from 24,000,000 bushels the year he commenced
the propaganda to over 213,000,000 last year.
If he had devoted the last fifteen of the best years of his life with
the same enthusiasm and energy that he has given to this work in any
legitimate business, he might have been a well-to-do man to-day.