SECOND OREGON VOLUNTEERS GO TRANS-PACIFIC

The Spanish-American War enjoyed ramped up emotions across the United States.  Oregon was by no means immune in the enthusiasm to teach Spain a lesson.  The state’s National Guard – a part-time militia more trained in strike-breaking than actual warfare – consisted of a brigade of two regiments .  President William McKinley requested the State to furnish the Army with one regiment in the war with Spain, so a little selecting had to be done initially.  And with the distance involved between Oregon and Cuba, there was little chance of Oregon troops being involved in the main war there.  Dewey’s 1 May victory at Manila Bay, however, gave the men from the Beaver State another opportunity, but instead of going transcontinental, the Second Oregon would need to go trans-Pacific to participate off to the Philippines.  

War with Spain

Volunteers far outnumbered the available slots the Army had set aside for their perceived need in the upcoming hostilities with Spain.  The Army only consisted of 27,822 men the day war was declared.  There was a National Guard, which was essentially State militia renamed during the Civil War.  Another 114,602 men were enlisted in the Guard.

The National Guard Association – the Guard’s lobby firm in Washington, DC – wanted the Army to recognize the Guard as the official Reserve of the Regular Army but maintaining state identifications and militia officers.  The War Department thought a war with Spain only required between 50,000 to 100,000 men.  Congress defeated their proposal – the Guard lobby being much more persuasive. A compromise was reached where Volunteers – i.e., National Guardsmen – would serve alongside the Regular Army.  While the War Department wanted only 60,000 Volunteers, President McKinley, much more astute politically, requested 125,000.

The Second Oregon takes form

Early in May 1898, the Oregon Guard assembled at the meadow of Irvington Racetrack in Portland – now Irving Park.  With two regiments and only one needed, winnowing took place.  In the end, 1,300 volunteers joined with an average height of 5’8” and 148 pounds.  A little under 10% of the men were college graduates. Keeping with Oregon tradition, less than half were members of a church.

Many officers who wanted to go accepted lesser ranks.  Colonel George O. Yoran of Eugene was the colonel of the Second Regiment of the Oregon Guard. A regiment with 8 companies from the Willamette Valley and southern Oregon.  He became the Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Oregon. Command of the Philippines-bound regiment fell to the colonel of the First Regiment, Owen Summers. The First consisted of 7 companies all from Portland.

Summers served in the last years of the Civil War – he was only fifteen. Riding with the Third Illinois Cavalry throughout the South. He finishing up with service against the Sioux in 1865 before mustering out.  After surviving the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871, Summers moved to Portland.  He started a successful business surviving another fire in his new hometown.  Besides business, Summers became a state legislator. He helped pass a new militia bill – Summers Law – in 1886 re-establishing the militia.  The Oregon militia had disappeared at the end of the Civil War due to politics.

A New Purpose – Oregon goes east to the Philippines

Admiral George Dewey’s Asiatic Fleet scored an early knockout blow against the Spanish fleet in the battle of Manila Bay on 1 May.  The Spanish fleet was one thing, but the thousands of Spanish soldiers in Manila were another.  He requested – one day after his cable of his victory – a force of troops to enable him to both hold the Spanish naval base at Cavite and to move onto Manila.

The men in Portland were initially disappointed to hear of the victory at Manila Bay thinking the war with Spain was over.  McKinley is famously known for searching on his glove after receiving Dewey’s news for the location of “those darned islands”.  Dewey’s second request gave the Second Oregon new life.

To get around possible legal questions, the men of the Second Oregon were sworn into Federal service to serve for two years or the duration of the hostilities with Spain.  They had already been sworn into service with Oregon, but foreign lands, like the Philippines, were another thing entirely.

Getting ready for the leap

The Oregonians entrained for San Francisco on 11 May reaching there two days later.  They camped at the Presidio.  In contrast to the chaos encountered in the army’s efforts in Cuba, the movements across the Pacific flowed much smoother.  The first expedition sent out comprised of 2,500 men of the Second Oregon, the First California (a regiment made up from men of San Francisco), a California battery and the 1^st Battalion – five companies – of the 14^th US Infantry Regiment from Vancouver Barracks. 

Overall Philippine Expedition leaders

Overall command of the American effort to the Philippines was Wesley Merritt, a West Point cavalryman who became a favorite of Phil Sheridan during the Civil War.   He was a regimental commander on the frontier during the Indian Wars, working his way to major general in 1895.  Merritt was still in Washington at the end of May, so command fell to Merritt’s second-in-command, Major General (volunteers) Elwell S. Otis.  Otis had also served in the Civil War as an officer with the 140^th New York Volunteers.  Just before the war, he graduated from Harvard Law practicing for a short time.   He worked his way to command a brigade during the Siege of Petersburg where he was wounded.  Recovering, he was made a lieutenant colonel in 1867 in the Regular Army.

Otis was a brigadier general – in the Regular Army – by the time he got to Manila.  When Merritt left the Philippines at the end of August 1898 to take part in the peace talks in Paris, Otis became the general in charge of the now 8^th Corps in the Philippines, as well as the Military Governor.  Never liked by the press and not popular with his troops in the Philippines, Otis, nevertheless, efficiently organized what turned from a war against Spain into a war of imperialism.

Commander of the First Expedition

Otis and Merritt came to the Philippines in July. Command of the first forces fell to Brigadier General Thomas M. Anderson, nephew of Robert Anderson the Federal commander at Fort Sumter.  Anderson served through the Civil War gaining a commission in the Regular Army, first in the cavalry and then promoted to captain in the 12^th US Infantry.  He stayed in the army after the war and reached the rank of colonel of the 14^th US Infantry 6 September 1886. Mt Anderson in the Olympic Range of Washington is named after him.

The 14^th US was headquartered at Vancouver Barracks across the Columbia River from Portland.  He had overseen the Army’s efforts to protect miners on the Klondike trails out of Skagway before the war.  Anderson put in charge of the first expedition to Manila included 5 companies from his 14^th US Regiment.

First American troops to cross an Ocean

The Second Oregon boarded on 24 May in San Francisco to bands and fanfare, departing for the Philippines the next day.  They were the first force sent across the ocean, sailing on three rented steamers, Peking, City of Sydney and Australia.  Most of the Oregonians were aboard the Australia – ten companies, but three were on the Sydney.  After reaching Honolulu on 1 June, the men had a short time ashore before the expedition departed on the morning of 4 June.  From Hawaii, the troop steamers gained an escorted onwards with the cruiser USS Charleston.

Detour to Guam

After leaving Honolulu, the convoy detoured from a direct route to capture the Spanish island of Guam on 20 June.  Dewey’s force detained the monthly supply-dispatch ship going out monthly from Manila to Guam.  As a result, the Spanish in Guam were unaware a war was on.  Not that they had any possibility of resisting with only some 50 men and 6 officers to resist.

On entering the port of Agana, the Charleston fired several shots at a mud fort above the harbor – the fort abandoned for a hundred years.  The Spanish thought the shelling was a salute. They set out in a boat to explain there was no powder to properly respond.  Brought up to date, the Spanish became prisoners and with the governor and three of his officials they sailed on with the expedition to Manila reaching the Bay on 30 June.  The affair worked well for the American forces. Their artillery had been stored separately among the ships of the force:  guns in the Peking, caissons in the Sydney and ammunition in Australia.

Leaving Guam, they met up with one of Dewey’s cruisers, the USS Baltimore, waiting to guide them on to Manila from the northern end of Luzon.  They finally reached Cavite late in the afternoon of 30 June.  Nine Oregon companies from the Australia went ashore the next morning as the first American troops to land in the Philippines.  The other three companies came ashore the following day.

First in the Philippines

Heat and disease were always the worst enemy of American forces in the Philippines and the Second Oregon was no exception.  Made into stevedores upon arrival to Cavite in Manila Bay, 100 men quickly went on the sick list after the first three days with fever and diarrhea. A full third of the men sick by the end of the first week before finally left alone to recuperate.

Reaching Cavite, General Anderson reserved the building formerly used by the mayor and Marine officers for his men of the 14^th.  The Oregonians were left with old barracks formerly used by Spanish troops but uninhabited for years.  Admiral Dewey saw the poor conditions of these barracks and outraged, suggested to Colonel Summer to take other adjacent buildings much more habitable.  The Colonel moved one battalion into the neater quarters before General Anderson heard of the Naval meddling.  Becoming infuriated, He ordered the Colonel to move his men back to the quarters he had issued them.

There was little for the Oregonians to do for the first several months.  “They also serve who only stand and wait.” was the saying at the time.  Being the first was not always a good thing.

Hurry up and wait.

Two more forces came out from San Francisco shortly after the first – the second expedition of 158 officers and 3,404 men under Brigadier General Francis V. Greene on 15 June and a third expedition of 198 officers and 4,646 men under Brigadier General Arthur MacArthur on 27 June with each taking about a month to cross the Pacific.  That brought the total number of American soldiers to 10,946 men before the Spanish by the time of the Battle of Manila on 13 August.

So, they waited.