'A Gardener Is an Artist'

Reading a fabulous nonfiction/popular history For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose.  Fascinating stuff.  And this passage, wow!

Butchart Gardens (via)

“Although science was very much at the core of Fortune’s work, he was at heart a gardener, and a gardener is an artist: His canvas is land; his medium, plants.  A gardenre works in a three-dimensional world, taking into account the relative heights of trees and depths of borders, the slope of a hillside, and the views to be ‘borrowed’ or enhanced.  But he works in a fourth dimension as well: time.  A gardner plans for seasons: which trees will bloom in spring (forsythia, magnolia, cherry, lilac, and apple) and which will reach their peak of color in autumn (acer, euonymus, and elder).  A gardner’s art also spans years ~ in determining which trees mature quickly and grow tall easily, such as birch, ash, and the softwood evergreens such as cedqar, fir, and pine, and which grow slowly and with some effort to leave a lasting legacy, such as oak, beech,a nd maple, which stand for generations.  Fortune was well aware that to be a great gardener demanded great patience.” ~ Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

Richard III

So, Richard III is having yet another 15 minutes of fame. The youngest of eight, he was the King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.  He was also a great Shakespeare villain.  And now they’ve found his bones, with evidence that he was not only killed in battle but brutalized.

Want to go down the internet rabbithole?  Some great resources.

Here’s the Wiki entry for some background.
 

Here’s the announcement that they confirmed it was Richard III.

 

 

Here’s a video about the dig.

Here is more info about the wounds here and in the video below.
 

Here’s a facial reconstruction.

Full text of the Shakespeare play

And, finally, about Richard III and Netflix’s new series House of Cards.

Let's Hear It for Labor!

Boy Coal Miners, 1911 (via)

 
Happy Labor Day!

The meanings of these things get lost, I think, in the excitement of having a day off, hehe, but the day celebrates the contributions of labor.

It's history, from Wikipedia:

 

In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed the holiday while serving as secretary of the CLU (Central Labor Union) of New York. Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882, after witnessing the annual labor festival held in Toronto, Canada. Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday in 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day. Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with Reyes, leader of the labor movement. Fearing further conflict, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in International Workers' Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.
 

We have such a short memory.  We forget all the people who struggled ~ and some died ~ in order to get to where we are today.  Before there was the Civil Rights Movement, there was the Labor Movement, and it's because of that children aren't working 12 hours in coal mines and we have a 40-hour work week and things like that.

A great book to read to find out more about this is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  It's history that was largely ignored up until that firebrand Zinn wrote about it, I think.  (Did you know that Zinn got fired from a teaching job in the south for supporting rabble-rousing civil rights activitst students?)  The labor movement ~ and Native American history ~ wasn't really official history until he put it forward, as I understand it.

And there's a great documentary of Zinn, too, called You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

In these days of a shrinking middle class and a disdain for labor movements, it's good to remember, lest it repeat itself.
 

Happy 4th, or 'Screw You'

Happy 4th, everyone! How long has it been since you read ~ I mean really read ~ the Declaration of Independence? Have you ever?  I used to teach it in freshman composition, not as a historical document but as a rhetorical stance.  A bunch of guys saying, hey, King George, you suck, and these are all the ways that you suck.  And did you know that ALL those who signed it were totally ruined? Look at their faces.  Try to imagine how the scene really looked, how it wouldn't at all have been like this.  I tried to get the students to see the document looking forward, not back through the surity of history, to how scary it must've been. Maybe you're a kid, and your dad is kind of erratic, but you know if you tell him off he's going to beat the daylights out of you. So you tell him off anyway. 

The Declaration of Independence

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of AMERICA.

WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another; and to assume, among the Powers Of The Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them and formidable to Tyranny only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the people.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, Incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be,FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.

Black Soldiers in the Johnson County War

A little known confrontation ~ the Suggs Incident ~ during the Johnson County in 1892 involving the black soldiers of the 9th Cavalry.  I wrote this with the invaluable help of the lovely archivist Leslie Shores Waggener of the American Heritage Center and the Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership, and it was published in the Casper Star-Tribune on February 24, 2005.  I thought I'd repost it.

by Laurence Bjorklund

Range and Race

by Tamara Linse

A saloon in a tent town just ahead of the railroad. An insult, guns drawn, reinforcements, and then a shootout.

This is what you might expect from Wyoming history, especially during the Johnson County War, except that some of the combatants were African-American soldiers.

On June 16, 1892, Pvts. Abraham Champ and Emile Smith, "buffalo soldiers" of 9th Cavalry, were insulted by a man waving a gun in a saloon in Suggs, Wyo. The next evening, 20 soldiers returned and exchanged gunfire with locals. One soldier was killed, and two soldiers and one local were wounded.

"They were thrust into the tense, volatile situation created by the invasion of Johnson County," wrote Frank Schubert in "The Black Regular Army Regiments in Wyoming, 1885-1912."

A racial insult might have been the spark, but the tension brought on by the Johnson County War invasion was the wood, and one man - an invader named Phil Dufran - was the tinder.

The conflict

The Johnson County War erupted from years of friction between the cattlemen with large operations and the smaller landholders (the "rustlers"). Before 1892, four men and one woman who opposed the cattlemen were lynched or dry-gulched (shot by hidden gunmen).

Many of the cattlemen were powerful politicians and members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and many of the smaller landholders were former cowboys who had worked for the cattlemen and then struck out on their own. Cattlemen claimed that smaller landholders stole cattle, or "rustled," and the smaller landholders objected to the Maverick Law of 1884, which favored the cattlemen.

"Wherever we looked during those spring days, we could see riders, all heavily armed, on the tops of each of the high hills. Wherever long-range view could be obtained, a solitary rider would be seen with field glasses always searching the country," said Charles Hayden, surveyor for the railroad.

On April 5, 1892, 49 men, including 25 hired guns from Texas, invaded Johnson County. They killed two men at the KC Ranch before Sheriff Red Angus of Buffalo and a large force of men cornered the invaders at the nearby TA Ranch.

Gov. Amos Barber telegraphed U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, who sent in troops from Fort McKinney. The invaders were removed to Fort Russell near Cheyenne to await trial.

On June 1, the cattlemen sent a blunt message to U.S. Sen. Joseph M. Carey: "We want changes of troops made as follows. Send six companies of Ninth Cavalry from (Fort) Robinson to McKinney. The colored troops will have no sympathy for Texan thieves."

The 9th Cavalry

The soldiers of the 9th Cavalry were disciplined, battle-hardened African-American men from Louisiana and Kentucky, commanded by white officers.

"As they are more temperate in habits, more readily disciplined, they take greater pride in performance of military duty, and therefore as a rule are better fitted for soldiers than white men," reported Major John Bigelow.

Their rate of desertion was much lower than white troops, and their morale was high.

The soldiers were small - they averaged 5-foot-6, as regulations mandated that they be under 155 pounds to place less of a burden on their horses.

There are two stories about the name "buffalo soldiers." One is that the Indians thought their hair resembled that of buffalo. Another says that the soldiers fought like cornered buffalo, suffering wound after wound but recovering.

Before 1892, the 9th Cavalry fought for 26 years in the "Indian Wars" in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma. During these campaigns, 11 members of the 9th received Congressional Medals of Honor.

The 9th Cavalry was stationed at Fort Robinson in northwest Nebraska in 1892 when the Johnson County War began.

The Suggs incident

The 9th Cavalry entered the Johnson County conflict on June 13. The expedition consisted of 310 enlisted men and officers, commanded by Major Charles S. Ilsley, and they set up Camp Bettens four miles south of Suggs in southeastern Sheridan County (near present-day Arvada).

Suggs was an end-of-the-tracks tent town. It offered drinking, gambling and prostitution. The Burlington & Missouri Railroad grade had been built, but track was still being laid.

Locals consisted of rough drifters and rail workers, as well as the more-permanent small landholders. A log cabin was converted to a saloon and labeled "Rustlers Headquarters."

Rumors surfaced about why the 9th Cavalry had been called in. Some thought they protected the railway workers from Indian attack, but others said they were tools of the cattlemen.

Wyoming believed in rough justice. As historians such as Michael Pfeifer have pointed out, Wyoming was more apt to hang a person, white or black, for property violations than for anything else. Between 1878 and 1918, 60 percent of those hanged were accused of property crimes.

However, between 1878 and 1918, 10 blacks - 28 percent of those hanged - were killed for everything from theft to rape to murder, this in a population of about 2 percent African-Americans.

Add to this mix one Phil Dufran, who was sent as a guide. Dufran had been the city marshal of Buffalo in 1885-86 and a stock detective, as well as one of the invading cattlemen.

Dufran incited the soldiers against the locals: "He took no pains to conceal his hostility, and the soldiers had offered to escort him into Suggs and defend him," one man later testified.

Dufran also incited the locals against the soldiers. The Buffalo newspaper printed Dufran's claim that he would come back as a U.S. marshal to arrest everyone, and he would bring a regiment to back him up. Consequently, Dufran's presence among the 9th Cavalry signaled to locals that they were there to punish small landholders.

Suggs showed open hostility to the soldiers. "Repeated and constant insults were heaped upon the soldiers by a certain class on account of their being colored," Ilsley said.

On June 16, Pvt. Smith rode into Suggs to put up fliers advertising for freighters and, unauthorized, Pvt. Champ went with him. Champ heard that a prostitute who "dispensed her favors regardless of color" was in Suggs, a woman he had known. He went to see her, but she was now living with a white man and refused entry, so Champ and Smith went to a nearby saloon.

Soon after, the woman's lover entered and put a gun to Champ's head. "Are you the soldiers who kicked on my door?" he asked. Then he insulted Champ, saying, "Ain't your mother a black b- - - -?" Smith pulled his gun.

The situation was defused by the bartender, who led the two soldiers out the back door. Doubled up on the horse, they raced away. One hundred yards from camp, they were fired upon, and Smith took a bullet through his hat.

That night and the next day, the camp was in an uproar, but Major Ilsley did his best to lock it down. Firing was heard at 10:30, and roll-call revealed missing soldiers but no missing horses or mules.

About 20 of the soldiers had snuck past the guard and went into Suggs. Town Marshal Jack Bell tried to dissuade the soldiers, but they pushed past him. One solder pointed to a saloon and said, "There's the place. Close in on it." A signal shot was fired into the air, and then a volley was fired into the saloon. One man in the saloon was grazed on the arm, but otherwise no one in the saloon was hurt.

"The action of the men was more in the nature of braggadocio than a desire to inflict bodily harm, as their shots were in the main too high to hurt anyone," Capt. John Guilfoyle later reported.

Men in the neighboring Rustlers Headquarters returned fire. Two horses tethered outside the saloon died immediately. The soldiers retreated.

People scattered. Men, women, and children tripped over tent guy wires as they ran. A Mrs. Potts ran into the night with her nightgown flapping and her baby Sadie over her arm. She heard the Chinese who owned the bake ovens across Wild Horse Creek talking excitedly.

E.D. Baker, a resident of Suggs who told the story in the 1945-46 Westerners Brand Book, said, "It was about the liveliest three or four minutes I ever saw."

Pvt. Willis Johnson was killed in the street. He was shot twice in the back of the head, the bullets exiting under his right eye. It is unknown whether he was killed by locals or from friendly fire. Champ was shot through the shoulder, and Pvt. William Thomkins through the hand.

Shortly after, Guilfoyle arrived at Suggs with two troops, the Hospital Corps, and a Hotchkiss gun rumbling behind. He reassured the town and gathered people from the sagebrush. He arrested soldiers for being absent without leave.

Dufran said he was sorry that they hadn't killed a whole lot of people. He was escorted to Gillette shortly thereafter.

Johnson, three-quarters of an inch over 5-foot-6, was buried next to a cottonwood tree. It had been Johnson's third enlistment, and previously he had served under the Hospital Corps. He was 31 and came from Dresden, Tenn.

Champ, Smith and Thomkins spent three months in jail awaiting trial and then were fined 50 cents. Champ later fought with the 10th Cavalry in the Spanish-American War, and Smith became a teacher and librarian at Fort Robinson.

The Army buried the incident, and Wyoming citizens turned their attention to the cattlemen. In the years that followed, historians took turns villainizing first one side of the Johnson County War and then the other, but few wrote about the buffalo soldiers.

Leslie Shores of the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center contributed to this article.

Buffalo soldiers in Wyoming

Buffalo soldiers served in Wyoming almost continuously from 1885 to 1912:
* Fort McKinney, near Buffalo, 1885-90 and 1893-94 (9th Cavalry).
* Fort Washakie, near Lander, 1885-91, 1895-98, and 1901-07 (9th and 10th Cavalry, 25th Infantry).
* Fort D.A. Russell and Camp Carlin, near Cheyenne, 1887, 1898-99, 1902-04, 1906-07, and 1909-12 (9th and 10th Cavalry, 24th Infantry).
* Camp Bettens, near Arvada, 1892 (9th Cavalry).
* Camp Pilot Butte, near Rock Springs, 1898 (24th Infantry).
* Fort Mackenzie, near Sheridan, 1902-06 (10th Cavalry).

The Past Is Not Another Country ~ It’s Us and It’s Now

I’ve been doing an informal survey of historical American fiction (~ 1850 to 1910) set in the American West.  Lots of interesting books. A lot I’ve read and a lot more need to go into my pile.

But I’ve noticed something while reading through reviews on Amazon about fiction set in rural America in the 1960s, or even set in rural America in presentday.  (This rural America tends to be the South, the Midwest, and the West.)

This is what I’ve noticed:  the blurbs about these contemporary novels read about the same as the ones for historical fiction, even to the extent that I have to do more reading to make sure they aren’t historical fiction.

(Yes, 1960 is in the past, but it’s not 1920 or 1890, for heaven’s sake.)

Why is that, do you suppose?  It immediately struck me that the past lies heavy over these parts of the country.  For whatever reason, it occupies the inhabitants more, and it seems to have a much firmer hold on current occupants.  For example, here in Wyoming, we hold firmly to our cowboy roots, even if trailer parks and roughnecks may be more representative of current inhabitants.  The Code of the West video is a prime example.

I can think of two reasons.  1) People want something to be proud of, and sometimes those things are ideals that are embodied in a (mostly fictional) past. 2) Somehow we are not able escape our past as easily.  We aren’t as distracted by the present, the technology and the fast-paced life of the city.

Am I wrong?  Does the past weigh just heavily over urban areas? Am I just more sensitive to the writing about places similar to where I grew up?  Or is it that the default subjectivity is the urban present, and all else feels strange in some way?  Or is there another reason?

Maybe there’s a personal component as well.  Our familial pasts affect us more than our shared overarching past. We seem to forget the overarching past very quickly, but throughout our lives our families continually remind us of ourselves and our families’ pasts.  We tell old stories and talk about who we are as a family, yet as a state or a nation the rhetoric doesn’t refer to the past much.

Hmmm.  I don’t know.  I’m going to be thinking about this for a while.

The Titanic Centennial

The Alleged Culprit, from Boston.com

Enough ponderous pontification!  How about that Titanic centennial!  There’s been a lot of great links lately, so here’s a roundup.

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic ~ The wiki entry to give you some background.

·         http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/16/120416fa_fact_mendelsohn ~ The first of two exceptional links.  The fabulous New Yorker article about the cultural impact of the disaster.

·         http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/04/the_titanic_at_100_years.html ~ The second of two exceptional links.  Boston.com’s indepth look with exceptional photos.

·         http://www.rmstitanic.net/ and http://www.titanic.com/ and http://www.titanic1.org/ ~ Links all about the Titanic.

·         http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/titanic/titanic-photography ~ photography of the wreck.

·         http://www.titanic-facts.com/ ~ facts about the Titanic.

·         http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/ ~ The 1997 blockbuster movie.

·         http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47020850/ns/technology_and_science-science/ ~ Was Titanic’s sinking more than human folly?

·         http://news.discovery.com/titanic/ ~ A collection of articles by Discovery.

·         http://www.titanicinquiry.org/ ~ Inquiries into the disaster.

·         http://www.the-titanic.com/Home.aspx ~ Titanic stories from Ireland.

·         http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/17488357 ~ Titanic 100 from the BBC.

The writer Teju Cole @tejucole, who tweets the ironies of newspapers of 100 years ago in “small fates,” says he might tweet about it, too.  I can’t wait.

Down the virtual rabbithole!

King Henry VIII

A bit rushed today, so I thought I'd just point out this fascinating Wiki about King Henry VIII.  It's made me really want to see Showtime's The Tudors, which I have not seen.

Fascinating stuff.  At the very bottom, it says that we know from his armour he was between 6'2" and 6'3" tall, which was a giant for his time.  When he was young and in shape, he weight 180 to 200 lbs, fighting weight.  Man oh man, he must've been something to behold. 

Like I said, history is just fascinating.

Questions of the Day:  Is there any particular time period that fascinates you?

The Wyoming Cowboy in WWII

Dick Winters has passed away.  He was 92.  He was one of the brave WWII soldiers who was the subject of the Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and the subsequent excellent HBO series. This brings to mind my dad Royce Tillett.  Like Winters, he was born in 1918, and like Winters, he served in WWII.  This also reminded me of all the other very brave Wyoming soldiers, and I thought I'd post an article I did in 2004  for the University of Wyoming Alumnews about the 115th Cavalry.





The 115th Cavalry (Horse-Mechanized) in W Formation. 
Ft. Lewis, Washington, 1941.  Courtesy Wyoming Militia Historical Society.

  
The Wyoming Cowboy in World War II:  The 115th Cavalry Horse-Mechanized

When people think of Wyoming, they think of the Wyoming Cowboy. So why have some of the most colorful, most courageous, and hardest working Wyoming cowboys—the men of the 115th Cavalry Wyoming National Guard—been forgotten?

It's simply bad timing. The 115th Cavalry Regiment was formed after World War I from the First Regiment of the Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard, in 1921. Then, in anticipation of World War II, the 115th was activated, but within a year or two they were dispersed to other units. Some of its members performed valuable service on the home front, and many saw action but not as the 115th Cavalry Regiment. Because the unit was broken up early in the war, they are forgotten.


My Father Royce Tillett,
Ft. Lewis. Courtesy Fred Laing.

 My father, Royce Tillett, was one of them. A ranch kid from Lovell, Wyoming, he came to UW and took geology classes from S. H. Knight and history classes from T. A. Larsen. But before he was to graduate, he quit school to join the 115th Cavalry.

Initially, all 115th Cavalry troops were horse troops. Then, they began to be mechanized, and Troop A (Lovell), Troop B (Sheridan), and Troop C (Lander) stayed horse units, while Troop D (Laramie) and Troop E (Torrington) were mechanized. Troop F (Douglas) rode motorcycles, and Headquarters Troop (Casper) had both horses and was mechanized.

Some men resented the extra duties of tending a horse and so welcomed the change. Others hated to lose their horses, and there were rumors of suicides. Kenny Anderson (of Cody) said that "they took my horse away and gave me a jeep, and I never forgave them for it." But even those in favor of keeping their horses realized what they were up against. Irving Garbutt says, "against Hitler's Panzer division, going to war on as horse cavalry seemed outdated."

The University of Wyoming was also preparing for war. Eventually, they would provide training in engineering and other fields to soldiers. Some members of the 115th attended UW before they were activated, but, with current information, the proportion is unknown.

The 115th Cavalry was activated nine months before war was officially declared. The entire 115th Cavalry Regiment, all 1,086 men, was inducted into federal service on February 24, 1941, the day they boarded a train for Fort Lewis, Washington.

Like all wartime training facilities, Fort Lewis was unprepared for the influx of soldiers. The men trained with stove pipes for cannons, sticks and brooms for rifles, and jeeps marked "TANK" for enemy armored vehicles. Aircraft used sacks of flour for bombs.


An Officer of the 115th Cavalry Jumping
a Jeep. Courtesy Wyoming State Archives.

 My dad told stories of riding and shooting drills. In these, each man had to ride a horse at a gallop while firing a pistol at targets. Once past, he had to turn the horse while pulling the clip from the pistol and replacing it with one in his belt. Then he returned down the line, firing again at the targets. Dad says, "I'll be darned if the raunchy horse they gave me didn't run away with me. I fired wildly at the targets as I rode past, and when I reached the end and tried to turn that stubborn son-of-a-gun, he jerked his head and made me drop my replacement clip. But, you know, I hit every one of those targets."

After the initial excitement, life settled into a dull routine—marching, horse maneuvers, attending to the horses, and keeping things organized. The portly Colonel Hazeltine, whom the soldiers called "Colonel Die-and-shine," seemed more concerned with spit and polish than military maneuvers. The colonel was determined to have the best parade outfit on the post—and he did. The 115th was popular in public parades and demonstrations.

Colonel Hazeltine was known for his high standards in shoe maintenance. The soldiers used Cordova polish, a red dye, to polish the brown leather boots, and the colonel, crop in hand, would personally inspect each soldier's feet. The boots had to shine like a mirror. Some joked that the boots were intended to dazzle the enemy and blind them.

Some reports say the cavalrymen made $21 a month. Some raise that figure to $36.

Back home in Wyoming, families organized loads of gifts for the men. For example, the Lingle Legion Auxiliary mailed Christmas boxes full of goodies, and the people of Lovell raised enough money to buy them a juke box.

The men all had sweethearts, and today there are a lot of Wyoming transplants in the Washington-Oregon area due to marriage. My dad, tall and dashing in his uniform, saw my beautiful mom across a dance floor, and they were married before he shipped overseas. My mom, Marian Fisher, was originally from Iowa and was attending Willamette University at the time.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Fort Lewis heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. At that time, many men were away on 36-hour passes. When they returned, they found all gates barricaded by barbed wire and covered by machine guns. MPs at checkpoints searched all vehicles.

Unknown, Fred Laing, and Royce
Tillett, Ft. Lewis.  Courtesy Fred Laing.

The 115th was then ordered onto Coast Patrol. Their sector extended along almost all of the Oregon coast and into northern California, a vast amount of distance. The 115th was ordered to repel or hold enemy attacks on the beaches. If not possible, they were to blow up bridges, fight delaying actions, and then hold the designated north/south line of final resistance at Hood River, Oregon.

Each man had a carefully designated travel kit that included clothes and toiletries, gear for himself and his horse, food, water, bedding, guns and ammunition, a sewing kit, a compass, and half of a pup tent—the other half was provided by another man. Standard Operating Procedure called for trotting the horse for 40 minutes, walking 10, then resting 10. The horse always came first; on hills, the trooper got off and walked. In the evening, the horse was unsaddled, brushed, and its hooves cleaned, and it was fed and watered and then hobbled or picketed. After that, he could set up his tent and, as Jake Benshoof says, "if the trooper was in a reckless mood, consuming the C rations is attempted." During the night, guard duty was 2 hours on, 4 hours off.

In addition to Coast Patrol, the members of the 115th provided the valuable service of training other troops, and they were often called upon to act as enemy forces. A number of units passed through and trained at Fort Lewis on their way to overseas destinations, including the 41st Infantry Division.

Their Coast Patrol mission was not merely a precautionary measure. On September 9 and 29, 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-25 surfaced off the coast of southern Oregon and launched a Glen seaplane, which dropped bombs inland. Luckily, the recent rains pre-empted what could have been large forest fires. Subsequently, the I-25 sank two ships off the coast of Oregon—the SS Camden and the SS Larry Doheny. The I-25 was finally sunk on September 3, 1943, by the USS Ellet and the USS Patterson.

The 115th Cavalry defended against another little-known threat in the form Japanese balloon bombs. From November 1944 through April 1945, the Japanese launched 9,300 balloon bombs into the jet stream that crosses over the Pacific Ocean and then the continental U.S. The public was not aware of this threat because, on January 4, 1945, the Office of Censorship requested that newspapers and radio broadcasts observe a publicity blackout. This voluntary censorship was strictly adhered to. The reason for the blackout was to discourage the Japanese from sending more bombs; if they did not know the results of the initial wave of bombs, they would doubt their effectiveness. The balloons were made of three or four layers of tissue paper sealed with an adhesive made from Japanese potatoes. Of the 9,300 launched, there were 285 confirmed sightings of balloons or parts of balloons in North America, as far east as eastern Michigan and as far north as northern Alaska. The only published account (prior to the publicity blackout) occurred near Thermopolis, Wyoming, and the only known casualties from this weapon were a woman and five children near Lakeview, Oregon.

Lives were lost while on Coast Patrol. On March 12, 1942, at Corvallis, Oregon, four men lost their lives in a barracks’ fire, among them Sergeant Harry Boles, Corporal John "Jack” Williams, and Sergeant Elmore J. Howell.

In 1943 and 1944, the 115th Cavalry began to be split up.

Some men stayed together and remained within the U.S., continuing to provide training, homeland defense, and other duties. They were stationed in California and at Camp Hood, Texas, and Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

After the 115th Cavalry, some went to North Africa and Europe.

Joe Heyer, who just passed away in July of 2004, was sent to North Africa in 1942 and was part of some brutal campaigns.

115th Cavalry Bars and Unit Pin.

When the 115th was dispersed, Harold Roum (Laramie) was assigned to the 16th Cavalry Reconnaissance, a light armor squadron. There he trained other servicemen, and in September 1944, he fought in France and Germany, where his squadron lost many men. After V-E Day, he was sent to invade Japan. He was halfway to the Panama Canal on V-J Day. After the war, he continued to serve in the Wyoming National Guard until 1965.

Those who stayed with the 115th Cavalry became the 115th Cavalry Group, commanded by Colonel Garnett Wilson. In February 1945, they relieved the 15th Cavalry near the seaport of St. Nazaire, France, to hold pockets of German resistance. On April 25, the 115th was attached to the 103rd Division near Stuttgard in southwestern Germany. Once across the Danube River, the 103rd captured Landsberg (near Munich), the town in which Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. Near this town of 30,000, the elements of the 103rd liberated six concentration camps. They helped push south into Austria, alongside the famous 101st Airborne. Then they captured Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps on May 4 and, at Brenner Pass looking down into Italy, they met members of the U.S. 88th Division, who had fought hard up the Po Valley.

Ike Prine was in the 115th Cavalry Band and played in many parades at Fort Lewis. He was sent to France and helped hold the St. Nazaire pocket. He did not continue with the 115th Cavalry Group, though; he was transferred to the Third Army and stayed in France until V-E Day.

My dad part of the 115th Cavalry Group, and he went to France, Germany, and Austria. Like Radar on MASH, he was the company clerk of Headquarters Troop—he could type 120 words a minute. He used to laugh when he said, "I thought as company clerk, I might stay at the rear and type reports. Turns out I rode up front in the jeep with the Colonel."

After the 115th Cavalry, some went to the Pacific, and a lot of men went to the 41st "Sunset" Division.

As part of the 41st, Jake Benshoof trained Russian, English, Canadian, French, and Greek troops in Pershing Tank operation, and then he was trained in amphibious armored warfare. He was shipped to the Pacific, where he was in the Caroline Island Group. Like many of the 41st, he shipped back to the U.S. through a huge typhoon.

Raymond McKinsey (Casper) was also reassigned to the 41st and sent to Australia and the South Pacific. In a letter from the Pacific dated 1943, he wrote: "Last night in bed we got to talking about snow storms and how we enjoyed them—we were sweating at the time and wondering what would happen here if it got 10 below zero." In Mindanao during the April 1945 Philippines campaign, he and his group surprised a force ten times their number. Thinking that they were outnumbered, these Japanese fled. Two months before the war ended, he returned to the U.S. on the point system. McKinsey received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart and his final rank was General.

George Welch (Casper) joined the 115th in 1938 when he was 16 years old. He went to the Pacific with the 77th Division, including the Leyte and Cebu Islands in the Philippines. On August 9, 1945, the day the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, they were preparing to land on Japan. Welch says, "In my opinion, if the bomb had not been dropped, we would have had American troops piled up on beaches a mile high and casualties would have been far worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor."

Some men were wounded. Irving M. Stewart was a Japanese prisoner of war.

And some men were killed. Lieutenant Gorden Burt (Lander) lost his life in the battle at Leyte in the South Pacific after being transferred from the 115th. At present, though, there is no accurate record of how many former members of the 115th were killed in action in World War II.

In the end, no horses were transported overseas, and the reason given was that it was too expensive to transport and feed them. "While their thrift is to be commended," Jake Benshoof says, "the policy was never applied to troops going overseas."

After the war, many soldiers took advantage of Public Law No. 16 (for disabled veterans) and Public Law No. 346 (the GI Bill) to attend school. For example, Ike Prine of the 115th came to the University of Wyoming from 1946 to 1949, where he got a degree in education. He taught school in Laramie for 35 years, and both his sons and their wives attended UW.

The members of the 115th were some of the last military cowboys, and the myth of the Wyoming Cowboy appeals to something deep within us—just as it appealed to Americans during World War II. In May 1941, a Seattle newspaper reported: "Applause rose just once yesterday from the crowd of 10,000 which watched the greatest spectacle in the history of Ft. Lewis. ... The applause was for the horses and men of the 115th (Powder River) Cavalry from Wyoming. Perhaps it was for something else, too; something gay and romantic and gone forever." Our Wyoming Cowboys worked so hard and gave up so much.

I want to thank Jake Benshoof for his generosity and thoughtfulness. He was a tremendous help in writing this article.

"Writing History"

A fascinating paper on the types of writing and the relationship between writing history and "truth" written by the sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein.  I was reading through my research for the novel yesterday and came across it.  I love how he interpolates from the report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to talk about history and truth. 

There's one line that describes so well what I'm trying to do in my fiction:

[Sach's third experiential truth] was an effort to look at one's subjective experience objectively, "in a truly unprejudiced way."

I love this because it encapsulates my attempts to capture what I've felt (because, really, what else can I know) and try to extrapolate to what others have felt.  Fiction writing is an attempt to take make one's subjectivity ~ the only thing we have, in the end ~ and make it objective.

To Whom Are You Related?

When I work on fiction set in the past, I invariably get more interested in my own family history. (You might’ve noticed.) So the novel I’m revising now I started more than ten years ago, and at that time I did a whole bunch of family history research, and I was a member of Ancestry.com. Do you know this site? If you’re doing family history research, it is Mecca.

So I re-upped my membership yesterday and poked around a bit. In the ten years since I’ve been on it, it’s come a long long way! What is particulary amazing is the one world tree, where everyone tries to connect to everyone else. They also are working with DNA.

Well, I was poking around yesterday and entered my dad’s name. Someone (whom I don’t know) has entered him into the one world tree. One of the really cool features of one world tree is you can see the famous people to whom you are related.

So, who am I related to? Can you believe it?

• Georgia O’Keefe (my father’s 6th cousin once removed)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (5th cousin 3x removed)
• Truman Capote (7th cousins 2x removed)
• Agatha Christie (5th cousin 6x removed)
• Isaac Newton (3rd cousin 10x removed)
• Julia Child (8th cousin)
• T.S. Eliot (8th cousin 1x removed)
• Ray Bradbury (8th cousin 1x removed)
• Jane Austen (6th cousin 7x removed)
• Bob Hope (8th cousin 4x removed)
• George Orwell (10th cousin 1x removed)
• Elizabeth Browning (9th cousin 4x removed)
• Audrey Hepburn (11th cousin 2x removed)

Isn’t that hilarious? Of course, this just confirms that everyone is related to everyone, but still. I find it fascinating. What I’m most proud of, of course, is being related to the writers: Capote, Austen, Eliot, Orwell, Emerson, Browning, Christi, Bradbury. And to be honest, Capote and Austen would be whom I’m most proud of. And Audrey Hepburn ~ I love Audrey Hepburn.

You know what would’ve been the absolute best? If I’d’ve been related both Hemingway and Woolf!

Questions of the Day: Whom would you like to be related to?

Family Histories

I read this morning that they’re doing a new season of Who Do You Think You Are?, the show that traces the family histories of celebrities. I absolutely adored the first season. Come to find out, it originated in Britain from the BBC.

My first thought is that that means there are six full seasons of it out there for me to watch. Waahoooo! I’m absolutely thrilled. I’ve watched one episode of the BBC version so far, the Jeremy Irons episode (on YouTube ~ I'd've gladly purchased the full episodes to stream). Wow. So so good.

I’ve done a lot of research on my own family history. I’m sort of the family historian. I’ve always been interested in history ~ in another life, I would’ve been a historian, I think I’ve mentioned. Something about my love of books and the way history sits heavy upon us, in the American West in particular but I think probably everywhere, whether you’re aware of it or not. What prompted me more than anything to research our history was that we were trying to have kids. Then we had infertility problems, and it made me very sad that I’d done all this research into family lines and my husband and mine would stop with us. Really bothered me. But, things turned out, and we have four-year-old twins.

Such wonderful stories in our history. A horse thief who married while in prison in Iowa and made his way west, first with a store in Kansas City and then supplying ties for the railroad until he settled in northern Wyoming and that’s where my family’s ranch is. A soldier from Indiana in the Civil War ~ there’s a great document where he wills all his worldly goods ~ a set of dresser drawers, a cow, maybe a pan, and other stuff, as I remember ~ to his father-in-law when he re-ups for a second or third time. A woman who was supposed to have had five husbands and had danced at the original Tom Thumb’s wedding. A six-foot-six man who was a crack shot with a rifle who won a cow in a shooting contest who moved from Virginia to Indiana. The captain of a ship, possibly a pirate, off the coast of Virginia. Mayflower ancestors.

But the love of history stays with me, even as I’m not actively doing family history research. In my writing, I have one foot in contemporary fiction and one foot in historical fiction. I’m always trying to figure out why people do what they do, no matter when they lived. Real people are so much more interesting and various than the sanitized versions, and family stories most often turn out to have a grain of truth. My mom passed our family history down to me, and she told me many family stories that some doubted, but it turns out that most of them are true and verifiable.

Questions of the Day: Have you ever researched your family? How has it changed you or your writing?

The Victorian Genre of Death Stories

Did you know that nineteenth century people were obsessed with death?  It makes sense.  The mortality rate was very high, and people would short the living in order to save money to properly bury their children ~ because it was pretty likely that at least some of their children would die.  There was a whole industry built around the fetishization of death.  Now, of course, it's all underground and we act like it doesn't even happen. But, then, there was a genre of story where the death of a person would be told in great detail.  They appeared in newspapers and people would write them in letters to loved ones. Here's an example: the death of Ulysses S. Grant in 1885 in the New York Times (from here).  This is only half of it. It goes on about the lead up to the death, 14 pages total of single spaced text.

News of Ulysses Grant's Death

[From page 1 of the New York Times, July 24, 1885]

A HERO FINDS REST

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GEN. GRANT'S PEACEFUL, PAINLESS DEATH.

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THE END COMING IN THE EARLY MORNING.

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THE LAST BREATH AT SIX MINUTES AFTER EIGHT O'CLOCK.

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THE SORROWING GROUP AROUND THE DEATHBED.

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HIS LAST WORDS FULL OF REGARD FOR OTHERS.

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THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST DISEASE ONLY ENDED WHEN VITALITY WAS THOROUGHLY EXHAUSTED -- CONSCIOUSNESS PRESERVED NEARLY TO THE LAST WHEN ALL OTHER FACULTIES WERE DEAD.

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HIS BURIAL PLACE.

New-York. -- Because the people of that city befriended me in my need.

U.S. Grant.

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Mount McGregor, July 23. -- Surrounded by all of his family and with no sign of pain, Gen. Grant passed from life at six minutes after eight o'clock this morning. The end came with so little immediate notice as to be in the nature of a surprise. All night had the family been on watch, part of the time in the parlor, where he lay, rarely venturing further away from him than the porch on which the parlor opens. There seemed no hope that death could be held off through the night. It was expected at 9 o'clock, again at about midnight, and again neat 4 o'clock. There was serious failure at 9 o'clock and at midnight, but not at 4 o'clock, and as day came, bringing but slight change, the hope was that he might last until midday.

The General did not speak even in a whisper after 3 o'clock this morning. Before that it had been little more than an aspiration at any time of the night, and then only answers to inquiries. But when the respiration grew rapid and weak all his powers that depended upon it failed him. His normal respiration is under 20. It was quick during the evening, 44 at midnight, 50 at 3 o'clock, and 60 at 5 o'clock. Then it became quite faint.

He coughed somewhat after midnight, and was able with the doctor's aid to dislodge the mucus and throw it off, but from about 3 o'clock he could neither dislodge it or expectorate, and it began to clog his throat and settle back into his lungs.

It was about 4 o'clock when the rattle in the throat began. For an hour or longer, Dr. Shrady, in the hope of easing, rather than of sustaining the General, as he was past that, have been giving hypodermics of brandy with great frequency, and applying hot cloths and mustard to various parts of the body, especially the hands and feet, which were growing very cold.

It was soon evident that the General was too far gone to be aided by stimulants.

Then came the waiting for death. The family had all been near the General through the night. It was not kept from them that he was beyond saving. They moved quietly about the sick room and out on the porch.

The General lay on the bed, his face leaden, yet with some warmth left in its hue. His eyes were closed. Power to open them had been restored to him, and it was occasionally invoked when some member of the family, or the doctor, or one of the attendants spoke to him. Then he would open his eyes. He could make no other recognition, but that of the eyes was clear. His lungs and pulse were failing, but there was yet no cloud on the brain.

At about 4 o'clock Dr. Douglas, who had been resting a little at the cottage, joined Dr. Shrady at the sick bed. Dr. Sands, considering himself of no use in the case, had gone quietly to bed at the hotel early in the evening, and was not disturbed.

Dr. Douglas walked to the hill top after he had looked at the General. "He is conscious," the Doctor said; "that is, he has not lost his power of recognition. He Breathed; his heart lives; his lungs live; his brain lives; and that is about all."

At 5 o'clock, when Dr. Newman left the cottage for a few moments, came word of rapid sinking, of the death rattle, of cold extremities, and of the discoloration of the finger nails. All was failing except the brain, which would be the last to die, the Pastor said.

"For an hour past," he went on, "Mrs. Grant has been sitting with the General. When she speaks to him he opens his eyes. She says little and bears up wonderfully. As he is going, there is a change apparent in everything except his head. The broad forehead is as fine and commanding as ever. The head has not been seen to advantage in his sick chair, but now that he is recumbent it stands boldly out in the wreck of body. It has reminded me over and over again to-night of the death mask of Peter the Great."

While Mrs. Grant sat by the General the other members of the family kept either in the other parts of the room or on the porch, almost within whispering call. They did not care to risk annoyance to him by grouping about him before it became necessary.

The rays of the morning sun fell across the cottage porch upon a family waiting only for death.

The members of the family had gone to their rooms about 7 o'clock on the advice of Dr. Shrady that they seek rest. The General lay perfectly still. He was yet conscious but not alert. There had been frequent visits. When attendants touched his hands, stroked his forehead, or moistened his lips he did not heed them. At times he would open his eyes; the vision was clear, but there was no sign that he more than barely recognized the surroundings. Such had been his condition since 3 o'clock. The family took the doctor's advice and withdrew. The doctor said he would inform them instantly of any change. Dr. Douglas and Dr. Shrady remained at the bedside. They saw that the General was sinking, that he could not last long, yet the limit of his endurance could not be fixed at 7:30 o'clock. They went out on the porch and Dr. Sands, who had spent the night at the hotel, joined them. The Rev. Dr. Newman was there. Dr. Sands stepped to the bedside. The General's breath came in quick gasps. He had no color. The hands lay white, limp, and cold on the sheet that covered him. His wasted, feeble body could not bear heavier covering. The throat was exposed. It fluttered with every effort to breathe. There was no more motion of the chest. Dr. Sands returned to the porch, shaking his head. He agreed with his associates that the end could not be far off. None of them would say how soon it might come. Dr. Newman inquired if he ought to go to breakfast; he had staid through the weary watch of two nights. Dr. Shrady advised him to wait. The Pastor asked the nurse, Henry, who thought a decline unlikely within an hour. It was then 7:40. Mrs. Sartoris entered the sick room, and as she stood at the bedside the General opened his eyes. She bent over him, and, slipping her hand under his, asked if he recognized her. She thought she felt a slight pressure from the cold fingers. That decided Dr. Newman and Mr. Dawson, the stenographer, to go to breakfast.

They had not been gone more than five minutes when the nurse, Henry, stepped to the parlor door and beckoned to the doctors. A change had come. Dr. Shrady sent for the family. The bed stood in the middle of the room. Dr. Douglas drew a chair to the head near the General. Mrs. Grant came in and sat on the opposite side. She clasped gently one of the white hands in her own. When the Colonel came in Dr. Douglas gave up his chair to him. The Colonel began to stroke his father's forehead, as was his habit when attending him. Only the Colonel and Mrs. Grant sat. Mrs. Sartoris stood at her mother's shoulder, Dr. Shrady a little behind. Jesse Grant leaned against the low headboard fanning the General. Ulysses junior stood at the foot. Dr. Douglas was behind the Colonel. The wives of the three sons were grouped near the foot. Harrison was in the doorway, and the nurse, Henry, near a remote corner. Between them, at a window, stood Dr. Sands. The General's little grandchildren, U.S. Grant, Jr., and Nellie, were sleeping the sleep of childhood in the nursery room above stairs.

All eyes were intent on the General. His breathing had become soft, though quick. A shade of pallor crept slowly but perceptibly over his features. His bared throat quivered with the quickened breath. The outer air, gently moving, swayed the curtains at an east window. Into the crevice crept a white ray from the sun. It reached across the room like a rod and lighted a picture of Lincoln over the deathbed. The sun did not touch the companion picture, which was of the General. A group of watchers in a shaded room, with only this quivering shaft of pure light, the gaze of all turned on the pillowed occupant of the bed, all knowing that the end had come, and thankful, knowing it, that no sign of pain attended it -- this was the simple setting of the scene.

The General made no motion. Only the fluttering throat, white as his sick robe, showed that life remained. The face was one of peace. There was no trace of present suffering. The moments passed in silence. Mrs. Grant still held the General's hand. The Colonel still stroked his brow.

The light on the portrait of Lincoln was slowly sinking. Presently the General opened his eyes and glanced about him, looking into the faces of all. The glance lingered as it met the tender gaze of his companion. A startled, wavering motion at the throat, a few quiet gasps, a sigh, and the appearance of dropping into a gentle sleep followed. The eyes of affection were still upon him. He lay without a motion. At that instant the window curtain swayed back in place, shutting out the sunbeam.

"At last," said Dr. Shrady, in a whisper.

"It is all over," sighed Dr. Douglas.

Mrs. Grant could not believe it until the Colonel, realizing the truth, kneeled at the bedside clasping his father's hand. Then she buried her face in her handkerchief. There was not a sound in the room, no sobbing, no unrestrained show of grief. The example set by him who had gone so quietly kept grief in check at that moment. The doctors withdrew. Dr. Newman, who had entered in response to a summons just at the instant of the passing away, looked into the calm face, now beyond suffering, and bowed his head. There was a brief silence. Then Dr. Newman led Mrs. Grant to a lounge, and the others of the family sought their rooms.

The General was not fully conscious for several hours before he died. There never seemed an utter lack of consciousness, but the hold upon his mind was slight indeed at times all through the night. He began to sink at about 7 o'clock last night, when the doctors forecast the end as almost certain to come during the night. He had been dying, however, for 36 hours before that, when decline followed the fatigue of his ride to the Eastern Lookout. Nothing came from the General before death which could be called his dying words. He took no conscious leave of his family. There had been prayers at midnight, when it was supposed he was going. Mrs. Grant then pressed his hand and asked if he knew her. He replied with a look of reassurance. He was near collapse at the time, and Col. Grant, thinking him possible in distress, asked him if he suffered. He whispered a feeble "no." That question was asked several times with the same result. Once, about 3 o'clock, he seemed in need of something. The nurse bent over him and heard him say "water." He did not speak after that.

At different times through the night up to that hour he made himself understood by some sort of response to questions bearing on his comfort. His last voluntary and irresponsive act of speech which embodied the idea that governed him in all his sufferings, and which will on that account stand probably as his last utterance, dates back to yesterday afternoon, when, noticing the grief that the family could not restrain, he said, whispering in little above a breath, yet quite distinctly:

"I don't want anybody to feel distressed on my account."

He was then past rallying to an effort to hide his weakness, but did not forget his solicitude to spare others pain.

Dr. Shrady was in charge at the cottage all of last night. Dr. Douglas was worn out and needed rest, which he took at the cottage, so as to be at call at a critical moment. Dr. Sands, assuming that he could be of no use, went early to bed at the hotel, and rose of his own accord in the morning, just in time to see the General die.

It was a folding bed, that had been put into the cottage for use by the attending doctor, to which the General was moved early last evening. He wanted to change from the sitting posture, of which he was thoroughly tired. A reclining position was thought dangerous for him of late months, because it brought on a stuffy throat and choking. That was not to be feared last night; the muscles of the throat had relaxed. No spasmodic power was left; the pulse had not been less than 100 for 36 hours before death, or the respiration less than 30. Both ran up steadily to the end, the pulse touching 120, 140, 160 in quick succession, and then mounting so fast that it could not be counted. It was flighty most of the night. Respiration reached 44 at midnight. It was 60- by 4 o'clock, with a quickening tendency to the end. It ceased to move the diaphragm about midnight. It touched the lungs only slightly at daybreak. Air went little below the throat toward the last. The arms and feet became cold early in the evening. Hot appliances were made to them and to various parts of the body, and were frequently renewed. This was not done in the expectation of reviving him nor was brandy injected for that purpose. Both the injections and the appliances were made for his comfort -- to ease him. They would have served also as a help to a rally if one had temporarily set in. But that was not anticipated. The treatment sought only to comfort him. It was applied whenever pulse or heart of lungs threatened distress -- sometimes every few minutes and again at intervals of an hour or longer.

The General, knowing his disease, foreseeing the result, and apprehending death sooner than did the doctors, had only one wish in regard to it. He wanted to die painlessly. The brandy, the hot appliances, and anodynes made the end what he wanted it to be. Otherwise the feverish coursing of the pulse, the panting, shallow breath, and the sense of dissolution which he might have felt extending upward to the brain may have made the end anything but a peaceful sinking into sleep. These symptoms and the treatment for them make a basis for doubt if the General could have been at any time during the night in clear mind. His posture in bed was most of the time on the right side. The head was bolstered. Toward the end he was turned on his back, dying in that position.

The end was characteristic, the doctors say, of the disease as diagnosed by them. It was a case of clear exhaustion, the emaciation having left him, it is said, weighing less than 100 pounds. This morning, when the first shock was over, the doctors recalled to the family the question raised in regard to the diagnosis, and asked the privilege of an autopsy. The family would not hear of it. They were satisfied, they said, with the diagnosis. The matter was dropped at once.

Dr. Douglas said there was nothing peculiar about the death except the resisting force of remarkable vitality. It was nine months yesterday since Dr. Douglas took charge of the General. The General had not been dead two minutes when the wires were sending it over the country. It was known in New-York before some of the guests heard of it at the hotel, where it spread very quickly. Undertaker Holmes was on his way from Saratoga almost as soon as the family had withdrawn to their rooms from the bedside. A special train which had waited for him all night was at once dispatched for him. A message was sent to Stephen Merritt, at New-York, to come on at once to take charge of the funeral services.

Sculptor Gohardt was informed that he might take the death mask. The General's body still lay on the bed clad in the white flannel gown and the light apparel that he had last worn. The face seemed to have filled out somewhat, looking more as in familiar portraits of him.

It was yet early in the morning when dispatches of condolence and offers of help began to come in on the family. One was from the Managers of the Soldiers' Home at Washington, offering for the place of interment a site in the grounds at the Home, carefully selected and on an eminence overlooking the city. That dispatch suggested the urgency of fixing upon plans for the coming few days and for interment.

Col. Grant said that recently the General had written a note embodying his wishes in regard to the subject of removal from here. He was then anticipating death during this month. It would be too bad, he wrote, to send the family back to the city in the hot weather on account of his death. He proposed, therefore, that his body be embalmed and kept on this hill until the weather should become cool enough to let them go back to the city in comfort, and allow an official burial if one should be desired. The General's supposition in writing this note was that he would be buried in New-York. He had designated, one week after his arrival here, three places from which choice of burial place might be made. His note is given elsewhere regarding this matter. Washington was not one of the places named. He did not know that the family had been in correspondence with Gen. Sheridan, in April, about a burial place in Washington, or that Gen. Sheridan had selected a site on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home. The arrangement was then considered settled. Family preference naturally leaned that way when arrangements had gone so far. Only the Colonel and one or two others knew, until to-day, that the General had given expression to a preference. It was urged this morning the General might have preferred Washington above any other place, but that he had omitted to mention it because of modesty. The disposition of the family, however, when it was explained to-day what he had done, was to follow his wishes.

Plans in this direction were facilitated this afternoon, when a telegram came from Mayor Grace making an official tender of a burial site in any park in New-York City. Col. Grant, in reply, asked that a messenger be sent here to confer on the subject. A messenger will also come from the President to urge Washington. Several telegrams arrived later, one from Thomas L. James, expressive of the universal opinion that the interment should be in New-York. John A. Logan advises Washington. Such is the drift the matter is taking to-night.

There has been talk also on the less important but more urgent subject of what should be done immediately. Joseph W. Drexel came up this morning from Saratoga and begged the family to consider themselves at liberty to use the cottage as they hose and for as long a time as might suit them. W.J. Arkell placed his cottage at the disposal of the family. It is the only cottage here except Mr. Drexel's. These offers helped a decision rapidly. It was thought that arrangements for burial could be definitely made in 10 days; that the body might be taken to the Arkell cottage and left there under guard for that time; that then it might be removed to the place selected for burial, after which the family might return to the Drexel cottage to stay into the Fall. This discussion, in which Col. Grant represented the family, was, of course, merely tentative. A suggestion by Paymaster Gilbert A. Robertson, of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, fitted well into these plans. It proposed to Gen. Hancock, through Gen. Charles A. Carleton, Recorder of the Loyal Legion, that a Lieutenant and 13 men be sent here to guard the body until its removal. A Brooklyn Grant Army Post, which Gen. Grant last visited and which is to bear his name, sent a request to be allowed to act as guard of honor from this place to the place of burial.

The family are bearing the trial well. Few persons have been allowed to visit the cottage. It has been the intention to keep away those whose business was not of the first importance. There have been no willful intruders. The ladies have kept up stairs. They were excessively wearied by the long strain. As the end could not be averted, and as the General could be kept alive only in suffering, the family sorrow seeks comfort in the reflection that death has brought him the only possible relief. It is hard to find consolation with grief yet fresh, but the thought that it has happened for the best has so far averted such violent scenes as had been dreaded. Mrs. Grant is especially brave in her affliction. All have been deeply touched by the many expressions of sympathy from every quarter. Col. Grant has undertaken general direction of affairs. He has had all he could do to-day, and is likely to be employed to his full capacity for work until every arrangement can be completed. The conferences with Mayor Grace's secretary and the President's messenger to-morrow will no doubt go far toward settling the question to which all others are subservient. Dr. Sands went home to-day. Dr. Shrady wanted to try again to persuade the family to consent to an autopsy. They positively declined again, repeating that they were perfectly satisfied with the treatment and diagnosis. The undertakers have been embalming the body to-day. It will be finished to-morrow.

Questions of the Day:  Do you think it's healthier to obsess with death like this or to ignore it completely?