Radio Script #1113

Little Talks on Common Things
February 13, 1977

A man who had Waterville connections 70 years ago and now living in San Antonio, Texas, has let me see an amazingly interesting letter written by his father during the Spanish American War. The man with whom I corresponded is Col. John E. Hatch, who will be 90 years old in March and who graduated from Colby in the class of 1908.

Col. Hatch is in the third generation of a Maine family with notable military records. Col. Hatch’s grandfather was Enos M. Hatch, born in Montville, Maine, in 1835. He moved to Liberty, where he enlisted in the 4th Maine Volunteers less than a month after the Confederates had fired on Fort Sumter in April, 1861. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness and lost his right arm. He was discharged with his regiment in June, 1864.

The 4th Maine, recruited largely in Waldo and Knox Counties, was led by Col Hiram Berry of Rockland. It was organized for active service at Rockland on May 8, 1861 and was mustered into the federal service on June 15. The second in command, Lt. Col. Thomas Marshall was a Belfast man who stimulated recruiting in Waldo County where Enos Hatch lived.

The 4th Maine saw its first bloodshed in the first major battle of the war that at Bull Run, where they were the last Union regiment to leave the field. They saw heavy fighting at the battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill and in the second Battle of Bull Run, then on through the terrible fighting at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Nor did the regiment miss the great Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863 where they lost 14 killed and 52 wounded.

In fact, the regiment was engaged in all important battles fought by the Army of the Potomac between 1861 and 1864.

Both the present Col. Hatch and his father, Everard Hatch were West Point graduates, Everard in the class of 1884 and John in the class of 1911, and both were appointed to the Military Academy from Maine.

Everard Hatch’s wartime service was in the Spanish-American War. As a captain of infantry, he was a company commander in the first engagement against Spanish troops in the Philippines and was present at their surrender. Then he participated in the war against the Filipino insurrectionist, Aguinaldo, on Panay Island. Staying in the regular army after the Spanish War was over, Everard Hatch received repeated promotions until his retirement as Brigadier General in 1921.

John Hatch, my correspondent was born in Palermo, Maine in 1887. On graduation from Colby he received an appointment to West Point where he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1911. He saw distinguished service in both World War I and World War II. Although more than fifty years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he saw active service in the war that followed. At that time, as a colonel. he was in charge of supplying many thousands of soldiers in the South Pacific.

The letter I referred to at the beginning of this broadcast was written by Col. Hatch’s father, Everard Hatch, soon after his arrival in the Philippines in 1898, when he was a first lieutenant. He was promoted to captain just before Dewey’s famous naval victory at Manila Bay.

Accompanying, the letter which Everard Hatch wrote to his father in Maine on July 27, 1898, was a hand-drawn map showing clearly the area of encampment and combat. It shows the American Army Camp near Manila on the Pasig River, with Filipino insurgents entrenched between them and the city. It shows the location of the wrecked Spanish ship sunk by Dewey’s fleet in May and Dewey’s ship drawn up before them. Farther out in the Bay is a formation marked “foreign fleet”, the ships of other nations in the area. At the bottom of the map is Corregidor Island, later made famous as the last stand of American troops in the Philippines before capture of the Japanese in 1942.

The long letter which this American officer from Maine wrote to his Civil War veteran father is filled with what can now be regarded as historic information. Written from the Philippine encampment known as Camp Dewey, the 1898 letter said: “We sailed into Manila Bay on Sunday, July 17. On our left was Corregidor Island, where we could see the batteries that Dewey had destroyed after the naval fight. We crept past them in the darkness.

“At sunrise we could see the City of Manila. On our right, extending from Cavite to Manila Bay lay the American men-of-war with transports between them and the shore. At our left across the Bay lay the foreign fleet of four German, three British, two Japanese and one French ships. “As we passed along side the Battle Cruiser Raleigh, there was loud cheering. Her sailors, dressed in whites, ran into the rigging like squirrels until they made one vast bank of white. From there they cheered the troop of the Army now arriving to clean up after Dewey’s naval victory.

“Next we came along side Dewey’s flagship Olympia. Their officers came aboard our transport and talked with us about the war and asked us what people were talking about in the States. Our own officers, including myself, then visited the Olympia. Inside the line of American ships lie the eleven sunken and burned hulls of the Spanish fleet.

“Dewey is just the man needed for this difficult place. Everyone sounds his praise. He is shrewd and skillful.

“The Germans are a saucy people. (Remember this was written 16 years before the Kaiser’s haughty launching of World War I). They boasted after the battle that Dewey would starve because he could get no provisions. While they were talking about his starving, Dewey sent a dressed lamb to every man of the foreign fleet, asking them to accept this gift from his lavish supply, since he knew they had only salted meat. A cold storage ship for Dewey had just arrived from Australia with 6,000 sheep.

“One of Dewey’s harbor regulations is that no ship shall change anchorage between sunset and sunrise. About ten days ago a German man-of-war was caught moving in the night slyly toward shore. The Olympia turned her searchlight on the Germans and kept it there all night. At daylight the Olympia cleared for action, steamed over beside the German ship, and ordered her back into the original position. The Germans reluctantly complied. Then the German admiral sent his flag officer to Dewey with a message complaining that Dewey’s harbor regulations were oppressive. The German said he and his ship nad been doubly insulted – by having a searchlight turned on them, and by an order given them while the Olympia was cleared for action. Dewey’s reply was that night repeated to all aboard the American ship. He said, “Give my compliments to your admiral and tell him this is now an American harbor of which I am in command. If he again violates one of my harbor regulations, I will consider it an act of war and will fire on him without warning.”

“We landed on July 21, using the flat native boats and waded ashore in the surf.

“Now I will try to explain our situation. Cavite was a Spanish arsenal, fort and garrison. When shelled and captured by our fleet, it contained 6,000 rifles which Dewey turned over to Aguinaldo with some ammunition. With these Aguinaldo has fought the Spanish, has taken 3,000 prisoners and has driven the Spanish force back into the City of Manila. The insurgents now occupy trenches all around the city. They cannot capture the city because they have no cannon.

“This Aguinaldo is a precious rascal. He is a half-breed but his features and characteristics are mostly Spanish, The Germans have lately filled his head with schemes to proclaim himself a dictator and president of an entirely independent country,

“The Spanish are now ready to surrender to the Americans if we will assure them they will not be massacred by the insurgents. They know the insurgents view them with the most intense hatred and they fear a manslaughter if they are not protected after surrender. The insurgents say the Spanish killed their women and children and they want to slay every last Spaniard in revenge.

“While the insurgents cannot take Manila themselves, it is at the mercy of Dewey’s guns. In a few hours he could demolish every building in the city.

“General Merritt arrived yesterday, and 5,000 more American soldiers are expected in a few days. Then we expect Manila to surrender.

“The American problem is how to keep the city from being burned by the insurgents and save the Spanish from murder, and at the same time satisfy Aguinaldo who is friendly to us.

“We are beginning to employ insurgents in our own army. Aguinaldo’s brother-in-law, with a company of natives, joined our army yesterday. He was given the position of Master of Transportation and is collecting a wagon train of native-horses and carts. I think the Aguinaldo faction can be pacified for the present by giving them this kind of employment.

“There is great resentment in the army at the way we are being treated. A soldier at the front, even a regular army officer, gets nothing. He cannot get an answer to an official communication. He can get no clothing for his men. The politicians and the political generals get everything. They took our regular army units mustered at San Antonio and turned them over to a volunteer regiment that has a political colonel with pull. We just can’t get the promotions that are our due under the law. The army is overrun with temporary generals and staff officers who don’t know a thing about military matters. There is a deep feeling that we are not used right, and that everything is going to the Mark Hanna crowd of politicians. But we must make the best of it for the present.

“I must now close so I can get this letter on a ship that leaves for the States today. ”

Ever since the United States has had a regular standing army, our wars seem to have been characterized by the feeling Everard Hatch expressed in this letter – deep resentment by army officers of, long standing against those freshly commissioned from civilian life. We know it was true in both World Wars – now we know it was the same in 1898.

However, the reason why this letter deserves a place on this radio program of 27 years duration is that it represents a Maine military family of three generations with records of which all Maine people can be proud.

Year: 1977