108 Army-Navy Journal, 23 January 1891, p. 837. 107 Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1883, Vol. 1, p. 718. 108 Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 103; Army-Navy Journal, 19 February 1881, p. 595, and 12 November 1881, p. 323; Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1881, Vol. 1, p. 580 and 1882, Vol. 1, p. 192. 109 Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1886, Vol. 1, p. 111; 1887, Vol 1, pp. 111-112; and 1891, Vol. 1, p. 274. 110 Fowler, Black Infantry, pp. 103-104; Army-Navy Journal, 15 August 1885; Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1885, Vol. 1, p. 111. 111 Army-Navy Journal, 19 September 1885, p. 137; George P. Robinson to Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., 19 March 1888, note attached to letter, 30 March 1888, Selected ACP, G. P. Robinson, RG 94, NA. 112 George P. Robinson to Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., 19 March 1888, note attached to letter, 30 March 1888, Selected ACP, G. P. Robinson, RG 94, NA; George P. Robinson to Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., 18 February 1889, Selected ACP, G. P. Robinson, RG 94, NA; General Order No. 9, Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D.C., 31 January 1889; Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 103. 113 General Order No. 119, Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D.C., 7 October 1890. 114 Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1890, Vol. 1, pp. 61–62; 1891, Vol. 1, pp. 70, 115. Army-Navy Journal, 22 November 1890, p. 211. 115 118 Annual Report o the Secretary of War, 1892, Vol. 1, p. 199; 1893, Vol. 1, pp. 169–170; 1895, Vol. 1, pp. 112, 166. 117 Ibid., 1894, Vol. 1, pp. 73, 94, 212; 1895, Vol. 1, p. 112. 119 Revised Army Regulations, 1895, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1895), p. 44. 120 Army-Navy Journal, 30 January 1886, p. 537; Annual Report of the Secretary, of War, 1890, Vol. 1, p. 109. 121 Nave, "The Status of Army Chaplains," Steward, Active Service, p. 42. 122 Fifty-eighth Congress, Sess. II, Chap. 1404, An Act to Recognize and Promote the Efficiency of Army Chaplains, 21 April 1904, p. 226; Official Army Register, 1905, pp. 86, 468, and 1906, 478; Cleveland Gazette, 21 April 1906, p. 1. 123 Ibid. 124 William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, (New York: Arno Press, 1968), pp. 843-844; Charles Alexander, Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth, (Boston: Sherman, French and Company, 1914), pp. 8, 20, 133, 135, 137, 139–141, 172. 1 Simmons, Men of Mark, pp. 844, 845; Alexander, Battles and Victories, pp. 172-180, 187-217. 126 127 Simmons, Men of Mark, pp. 845-846; Alexander, Battles and Victories, p. 218. 138 139 Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 85; Alexander, Battles and Victories, p. 270. Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 106; Alexander, Battles and Victories, p. 344; Army-Navy Journal, 29 April 1891, p. 590, and 30 May 1891, p. 674. 140 Alexander, Battles and Victories, pp. 344–348; Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 106. 141 Alexander, Battles and Victories, p. 345; Fowler, Black Infantry, p. 106. 142 Alexander, Battles and Victories, p. 348. 143 Army-Navy Journal, 6 February 1897, p. 409. CHAPTER 3 In the West: 1865-1898 (Part 2) AMERICAN CHURCH LIFE American churches were in an expansive mood between the Civil and Spanish-American wars. Through their evangelistic efforts and mission boards, Protestant churches reached out, won many converts, and increased their memberships. There were also non-denominational enterprises designed to Christianize both America and the world. Dwight L. Moody's evangelistic campaigns were enjoying great success, and following his college campus revivals of the mid-1880s, he held a summer school in 1886 for mission-minded college students. One hundred of those students pledged themselves to become foreign missionaries, and within a year that number multiplied 21 times. The Young Men's Christian Association brought a breath of fresh air into the religious life of the cities with its four-square programs of physical, educational, social, and religious endeavor. The Student Volunteer Movement was organized in 1888 and expanded rapidly. In the meantime, the membership of the Catholic Church increased, primarily by immigration from Europe, and the Church hierarchy built churches and schools and sent missionaries to the Indians.1 Curiously enough, perhaps because there were chaplains, the churches displayed little interest in the military services as fields of evangelistic and missionary activity, especially between the end of the Civil War and 1887.2 The Y.M.C.A., which regularly furnished current books, magazines and newspapers to chaplains and post libraries, showed the most interest; it even established a post chapter in 1879 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The American Bible Society also demonstrated its interest in the soldier's spiritual welfare by furnishing Bibles, at cost, to the chaplains who sold them for the same price so that their parishioners would have the "Book of books in their hands" and feel "its soul-persuading power and influence." 3 See notes at end of chapter. It was temperance, however, that commanded the greatest attention of the churches, and if there was a unifying factor among American Christians, particularly among Protestants, it was the temperance movement, which emerged as a lively force in the 1820s. The major temperance organizations, founded during the last half of the 1800s, consisted mainly of American church men and women. The National Prohibition Party was established in 1869 and ran a candidate for the Presidency in 1871. The Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) was organized in 1874, and the Anti-Saloon League in 1895. By 1890 six states had enacted prohibition laws or constitutional amendments, and though only five states still had prohibition in 1900, 15 had experimented with it. Moreover, 23 percent of all Americans lived in "dry" areas." THE IMAGE AND STATUS OF CHAPLAINS 6 Army chaplains, both Protestant and Catholic, were not unaffected by the developments in American religious life. Many of them were caught up in the churches' expansive mood; some considered themselves evangelists and conducted gospel meetings, whereby their parishioners could become converted and eligible to enter that "Heavenly District where there are no Apaches and where gold is found free in the rock." Some even conducted revivals and helped establish churches in frontier towns. Alexander Gilmore claimed to have attended the first camp meeting ever held in Arizona Territory in 1875, and Winfield Scott-for whom Winfield, Kansas, and Scottsdale, Arizona, are named-made it a regular practice to conduct evangelistic meetings in towns near his stations. From 1872 to 1884 Toussaint Mesplie was continually engaged in Catholic missionary activity among settlers and Indians near Army posts in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. Eli W. J. Lindesmith-who claimed to be the only chaplain and clergyman between Fort Buford, North Dakota, and Helena Montana, from 1880 until the end of the Sioux Warfostered Roman Catholic institutions near Fort Keogh, Montana.9 It was the temperance movement, however, that had the greatest influence upon chaplains. They saw that drunkenness was a formidable problem among soldiers, and they organized temperance societies, held temperance meetings, and persuaded the men to sign total abstinence pledges. Cephas C. Bateman prayed for "a 'cold water army' from top to bottom"; he said that ancient armies "conquered the world and drank 'Adam's ale' while they did it." 10 Chaplain Lindesmith regularly reported the number of enlisted men-sometimes including their names-that took a total abstinence pledge, and it ranged from one to 27." The pledge may have resembled the one used by Chaplain Edward J. Vattmann: "I promise before Almighty God, and upon my honor to abstain from the use of all intoxicating drink for years from date." Vattmann also presented a certificate to those who took the pledge.12 Fort Riley's post chaplain, Delmar R. Lowell, once found himself in difficulty as a result of his activities on behalf of temperance and prohibition. Six pastors and the local chapter of the W.C.T.U. invited him to address a temperance rally in Junction City, Kansas, one Sunday evening in March 1893; he accepted the invitation, and charged his audience to elect officials who would enforce the Kansas prohibition law.' 13 I appeal then to all good people—all the business men and leading Lowell's audience appreciated his remarks, but two of Junction City's four newspapers, the Sentinel and Republican, took exception to them. The Sentinel editorialized that Lowell, "who having (presumably) banished sin and intemperance (at so much per banish), from the highways and by-ways of Fort Riley," should stay at Fort Riley rather than "intrude his presence and air his cranky, incendiary ideas from a Junction City pulpit," and the Republican agreed. Moreover, a Junction City businessman complained to the Secretary of War that Lowell had mixed in politics and had cursed the businessmen of Junction City; Lowell, through military channels, was instructed to explain.1 15 Lowell denied both allegations and said that he merely addressed an issue related to the "good name, morals, and finances' of soldiers under his "ministerial charge."" But his commander, Colonel James W. Forsyth, believed that prohibition and temperance were political issues in Kansas and that Lowell had attempted to influence votes in the municipal election; consequently, he suggested through military channels that Chaplain Lowell be transferred.18 In the meantime, however, the other two Junction City newspapers, the Tribune and Union, supported Lowell, and 38 prominent Junction City citizens signed a petition of support and sent it to the Secretary of War through Congressman John Davis, who represented Kansas' Fifth District. Davis told the Secretary of War that Lowell had spoken in "a very proper and dignified, though earnest manner, as is usual among orthodox clergymen on such occasions"; that "no civilized, law abiding man should have taken offense at anything said"; and that it was "extraordinary" that such a trivial matter was brought to the attention of the Secretary of War. Furthermore, Davis expressed his hope that the War Department "take no action" against Lowell "for doing his plain duty, in a mild, conservative and unobtrusive manner. 99 19 Major General John M. Schofield, the Army's commanding general, agreed that Chaplain Lowell was innocent of any conduct that merited condemnation from the War Department. Experience has fully shown that earnest advocates of the cause of matters. 20 Schofield did note, however, that Junction City, located only three miles from Fort Riley, contained several churches, and agreed with Colonel Forsyth that the chaplain should be transferred to a station where his services were more needed. But to preclude any suspicions that Lowell's transfer was the result of his participation in the temperance rally, Schofield said that the transfer should take place "at some future time." 21 Eighteen months later, Chaplain Lowell was reassigned to Fort Douglas, Utah. Many chaplains found that their participation in the temperance movement was only one reason why their parishioners were sometimes unenthusiastic about their ministry. During the 1895 International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association of North America, Major General Oliver O. Howard, who had retired from the Army only six months earlier, was introduced to the assembly. After the delegates sang “America," he talked about "Christian Work in the Army,” and it was reported that he spoke with much force and feeling." Hardly anyone better qualified could have been found to put the subject in perspective; his reputation as a soldier and an active Christian layman was common knowledge. Some of Howard's address pertained to the chaplaincy. Though he acknowledged that there were some good chaplains, he also claimed that "weary, overworked, or sick clergymen" frequently became chaplains through political connections and made the chaplaincy appear as “a haven of rest." 23 He also said that the "customs of service" socially divided the population of Army posts-officers, noncommissioned officers, employees, enlisted men, and their families—and that chaplains therefore found it difficult to build congregations. They sometimes succeeded in gather |