Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D.
Page 10
CHAPTER VII
NEW HAVEN IS PUNISHED FOR RIOTING AND INSUBORDINATION
Meantime the United States from coast to coast was seething with rageand humiliation. This incredible, impossible thing had happened. NewYork City was held by the enemy, and its greatest citizens, whose nameswere supposed to shake the world--Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie,Vanderbilt,--were helpless prisoners. General Wood's defeated army hadbeen driven back into New Jersey, and was waiting there for vonHindenburg's next move, praying for more artillery, more ammunition, moreofficers, and more soldiers. Let this nation be threatened, Secretary ofState Bryan had said, and between sunrise and sunset a million men wouldspring to arms. Well, this was the time for them to spring; but wherewere the arms? Nowhere! It would take a year to manufacture what wasneeded! A year to make officers! A year to make soldiers! And the enemywas here with mailed fist thundering at the gates!
The question now heard in all the clubs and newspaper offices, and indiplomatic circles at Washington, was, which way would von Hindenburgstrike when he left New York? Would it be toward Boston or towardPhiladelphia? And why did he delay his blow, now that the metropolis,after a week's painful instruction, was resigning itself to a Germanisedexistence, with German officials collecting the New York custom houserevenues and a German flag flying from the statue of Liberty? What wasvon Hindenburg waiting for?
On the 3d of June these questions were dramatically answered by thearrival of another invading expedition, which brought a second force ofone hundred and fifty thousand German soldiers. What cheering there wasfrom Brooklyn shores as these transports and convoys, black with men,steamed slowly into the ravished upper bay, their bands crashing out"Deutschland Ueber Alles" and their proud eagles floating from all themast-heads!
"This makes three hundred thousand first-class fighting-men," scowledFrederick Palmer as we watched the pageant. "What is Leonard Wood goingto do about it?"
"I know what von Hindenburg is going to do," said I, taking the role ofprophet. "Divide his forces and start two drives--one through New Englandto Boston, and one to Washington."
As a matter of fact, this is exactly what the German general did do--andhe lost no time about it. On June 5, von Hindenburg, with an army of125,000, began his march toward Trenton, and General von Kluck, who hadarrived with the second expedition, started for Boston with an equalforce. This left 50,000 German troops in Brooklyn to control New YorkCity and to form a permanent military base on Long Island.
General Wood's position was terribly difficult. His army, encamped halfway between Trenton and Westfield, had been increased to 75,000 men; but50,000 of these from the militia were sadly lacking in arms andorganisation, and 5,000 were raw recruits whose first army work had beendone within the month. He had 20,000 regulars, not half of whom had everseen active warfare. And against these von Hindenburg was advancing with125,000 veterans who had campaigned together in France and who wereequipped with the best fighting outfit in the world!
It would have been madness for the American commander to divide hisoutclassed forces; and yet, if he did not divide them, von Kluck's armywould sweep over New England without resistance. In this cruel dilemma,General Wood decided--with the approval of the President--to make a standagainst von Hindenburg and save Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington,if he could, and to leave New England to its fate.
At this critical moment I was instructed by my paper to accompany araiding expedition sent by General von Hindenburg into northern NewJersey, with the object of capturing the Picatinny arsenal near Dover;and this occupied me for several days, during which General von Kluck'sarmy, unresisted, had marched into Connecticut up to a line reaching frombeyond Bridgeport to Danbury to Washington, and had occupied NewRochelle, Greenwich, Stamford, South Norwalk, and Bridgeport. The Germansadvanced about fifteen miles a day, living off the country, and carefullyrepairing any injuries to the railways, so that men and supplies fromtheir Long Island base could quickly follow them.
On June 10, when I rejoined General von Kluck's staff (to which I hadbeen assigned), I found that he was accompanied by the Crown Prince andthe venerable Count Zeppelin, both of whom seemed more interested in thisNew England occupation than in the activities of von Hindenburg's army.They realised, it appears, the great importance of controlling theindustrial resources, the factories and machine-shops of Connecticut andMassachusetts. It was this interest, I may add, that led to the firstbloodshed on Connecticut soil.
Thus far not a shot had been fired by the invaders, who had been receivedeverywhere by sullen but submissive crowds. Only a small part of thepopulation had fled to the north and east, and the activities of occupiedtowns and cities went on very much as usual under German orders andGerman organisation. The horrible fate of Brooklyn, the wreck of theWoolworth and Singer buildings were known everywhere; and if New YorkCity, the great metropolis, had been forced to meek surrender by theinvaders, what hope was there for Stamford and Bridgeport and SouthNorwalk?
THEN, FACING INEXORABLE NECESSITY, GENERAL WOOD ORDEREDHIS ENGINEERS TO BLOW UP THE BRIDGES AND FLOOD THE SUBWAYS THAT LED TOMANHATTAN. IT WAS AS IF THE VAST STEEL STRUCTURE OF BROOKLYN BRIDGE HADBEEN A THING OF LACE. IN SHREDS IT FELL, A TORN, TRAGICALLY WRECKED PIECEOF MAGNIFICENCE.]
But in Hartford a different spirit was stirring. By their admirable spyservice, their motorcycle service, and their aeroplane service, theGerman staff were informed of defiant Hartford crowds gathering inBushnell Park; of the Putnam Phalanx parading in continental uniforms,and of the Governor's First Company Foot Guards marching past themonument where the Charter Oak had stood facing the South CongregationalChurch; and of patriotic speeches from beside the statue of Nathan Haleon Main Street.
Also in New Haven, city of elms and of Yale College, the Second Companyof Governor's Foot Guards and the valiant New Haven Grays, followed bycheering crowds, had marched down Chapel and Meadow streets to the SecondRegiment Armory, home of joyous Junior promenades; and here vehementorators had recalled how their ancestors, the minute-men of 1776, hadrepelled the British there to the west of the city, where Columbus andCongress and Davenport avenues meet at the Defenders' Monument. Whyshould not this bravery and devotion be repeated now in 1921 against theGermans? Why not?
The answer was spoken clearly in a widely published appeal to the peopleof New England, made by the Governor of Connecticut and supported bySimeon E. Baldwin, ex-Governor of the State, and Arthur T. Hadley,president of Yale, in which the utter folly and hopelessness ofresistance without army or militia was convincingly set forth. ProfessorTaft declared it the duty of every loyal citizen to avoid namelesshorrors of bloodshed and destruction of property by refraining from anyopposition to an overwhelmingly superior force.
We entered New Haven on June 12, and for forty-eight hours there was nodisorder. German siege guns were placed on the sheer precipice of EastRock, ranged alongside the grey shaft of the Soldiers' Monument,dominating the city; machine-guns were set up at the four corners of theGreen, at points surrounding the college buildings, and at otherstrategic points. Students were not allowed to leave the college groundswithout military permission.
To further insure the good behaviour of the city, twenty hostages weretaken, including ex-President William H. Taft, President Arthur T. Hadleyof Yale University, Thomas G. Bennett, ex-president of the WinchesterRepeating Arms Company, Major Frank J. Rice, ex-Governor Simeon E.Baldwin, Edward Malley, General E. E. Bradley, Walter Camp, and threemembers of the graduating class of Yale University, including thecaptains of the baseball and football teams. These were held as prisonerswithin the grey granite walls and towers of Edgerton, the residence ofFrederick F. Brewster. As staff headquarters, General von Kluck and theCrown Prince occupied the palatial white marble home of Louis Stoddard,the famous polo-player.
The trouble began on June 14, when the invaders tried to set goingthe manufacturing activities of New Haven, shut down during the pastweek--especially he Winchester Repeating Arms Company, mploying abouteleven thousand men, and th
e Sargent Hardware Manufacturing Company,employing eight thousand. Large numbers of these employees had fled fromNew Haven in spite of offers of increased wages, so that the Germans hadbeen obliged to bring on men from New York to fill their places. This ledto rioting and scenes of violence, with a certain amount of looting, invarious parts of the city; and toward evening German troops fired uponthe crowds, killing and wounding about two hundred.
In punishment of this insubordination, General von Kluck ordered the gunson East Rock to destroy the Hotel Taft and the new Post Office Building,and this was done as the sun was setting. He also ordered that two of thehostages, chosen by lot, should be led out before Vanderbilt Hall, at thecorner of College and Chapel streets, the next day at noon, and shot.
However, this grim fate was averted through the intercession of anAmerican woman, a white-haired lady whose husband, a Northern general,had fought with Count Zeppelin in the American Civil War, and who atmidnight went to the Whitney mansion, where the Count and his staff werequartered, and begged on her knees for mercy. And, for the sake of oldtimes and old friendship, Count Zeppelin had this penalty remitted.