Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D.
Page 17
CHAPTER XIV
PHILADELPHIA'S FIRST CITY TROOPS DIE IN DEFENCE OF THE LIBERTY BELL
I come now to the point in my narrative where I ceased to be merely areporter of stirring events, and began to play a small part that Fate hadreserved for me in this great international drama. Thank God, I was ableto be of service to stricken America, my own country that I have loved somuch, although, as correspondent of the London _Times_, it has been mylot to spend years in foreign lands.
Obeying instructions from my paper, I hastened back to the United States,where important events were pending. Von Hindenburg, after his Trentonvictory, had strangely delayed his advance against Philadelphia--we wereto learn the reason for this shortly--but, as we passed through Savannah,we had news that the invading army was moving southward against GeneralWood's reconstructed line of defence that spread from Bristol on theDelaware to Jenkintown to a point three miles below Norristown on theSchuylkill.
The next morning we reached Richmond and here, I should explain, I saidgood-bye to the rescued lieutenant, an attractive young fellow, RandolphRyerson, whose home was in Richmond, and whose sister, Miss Mary Ryerson,a strikingly beautiful girl, had met us at Charleston the night before inresponse to a telegram that her brother was coming and was ill. Shenursed him through the night in an uncomfortable stateroom and came to mein the morning greatly disturbed about his condition. The young man had ahigh fever, she said, and had raved for hours calling out a name, arather peculiar name--Widding--Widding--Lemuel A. Widding--over and overagain in his delirium.
I tried to reassure her and said laughingly that, as long as it was not awoman's name he was raving about, there was no ground for anxiety. Shegave me her address in Richmond and thanked me very sweetly for what Ihad done. I must admit that for days I was haunted by that girl's faceand by the glorious beauty of her eyes.
When we reached Washington we found that city in a panic over news ofanother American defeat. Philadelphia had fallen and all communicationswere cut off. Furthermore, a third force of Germans had landed inChesapeake Bay, which meant that the national capital was threatened bytwo German armies. We now understood von Hindenburg's deliberation.
In this emergency, Marshall Reid, brother-in-law of Lieutenant Dustin,the crack aviator of the navy, who had been aboard the _Pennsylvania_,volunteered to carry messages from the President to Philadelphia and tobring back news. Reid himself was one of the best amateur flying men inthe country and he did me the honour to choose me as his companion.
We started late in the afternoon of August 17 in Mr. Reid's swift Burgessmachine and made the distance in two hours. I shall never forget ourfeelings as we circled over the City of Brotherly Love and looked downupon wrecks of railroad bridges that lay across the Schuylkill. Shotswere fired at us from the aerodrome of the League Island Navy Yard; so weflew on, searching for a safer landing place.
We tried to make the roof landing on the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, butthe wind was too high and we finally chanced it among the maples ofRittenhouse Square, after narrowly missing the sharp steeple of St.Mark's Church. Here, with a few bruises, we came to earth just in frontof the Rittenhouse Club and were assisted by Dr. J. William White, whorushed out and did what he could to help us.
Five hours later, Reid started back to Washington with details ofreverses sent by military and city authorities that decided theadministration to move the seat of government to Chicago without delay.He also carried from me (I remained in Philadelphia) a hastily writtendespatch to be transmitted from Washington via Kingston to the London_Times_, in which I summed up the situation on the basis of facts givenme by my friend, Richard J. Beamish, owner of the Philadelphia _Press_,my conclusion being that the American cause was lost. And I includedother valuable information gleaned from reporter friends of mine on the_North American_ and the _Bulletin_. I even ventured a prophecy that theUnited States would sue for peace within ten days.
"What were General Wood's losses in the battle of Philadelphia?" I askedBeamish.
"Terribly heavy--nearly half of his army in killed, wounded andprisoners. What could we do? Von Hindenburg outnumbered us from two toone and we were short of ammunition, artillery, horses, aeroplanes,everything."
"Who blew up those railroad bridges and cut the wires?"
"German spies--there are a lot of them here. They sank a barge loadedwith bricks in the Schuylkill just above its joining with the Delawareand blocked the channel so that ten battleships in the naval basin atLeague Island couldn't get out."
"What became of the battleships?"
"Commandant Price opened their valves and sank them in the basin."
"And the American army, where is it now?" I asked.
"They've retreated south of the Brandywine--what's left of them. Our newline is entrenching from Chester to Upland to Westchester with our rightflank on the Delaware; but what's the use?"
So crushing was the supremacy of the invaders that there was no furtherthought of resistance in Philadelphia. The German army was encamped inFairmount Park and it was known that, at the first sign of revolt, Germansiege-guns on the historic heights of Wissahickon and Chestnut Hill woulddestroy the City Hall with its great tower bearing the statue of WilliamPenn and the massive grey pile of Drexel and Company's banking house atthe corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets. Von Hindenburg had announcedthis, also that he did not consider it necessary to take hostages.
There was one act of resistance, however, when the enemy enteredPhiladelphia that must live among deeds of desperate heroism.
As the German hosts marched down Chestnut Street they came toIndependence Hall and here, blocking the way on their sorrel horses withtwo white mounted trumpeters, was the First City Troop, sixty-five menunder Captain J. Franklin McFadden, in their black coats and whitedoeskin riding-breeches, in the black helmets with raccoon skin plumes,in their odd-shaped riding boots high over the knee, all as inRevolutionary days--here they were drawn up before the statue of GeorgeWashington and the home of the Liberty Bell, resolved to die here,fighting as well as they could for these things that were sacred. Andthey did die, most of them, or fell wounded before a single one of theenemy set foot inside of Independence Hall.
Here is the list of heroes who offered their lives for the cause ofliberty:
Captain J. Franklin McFadden, First Lieutenant George C. Thayer, SecondLieutenant John Conyngham Stevens, First Sergeant Thomas Cadwalader,Second Sergeant (Quartermaster) Benjamin West Frazier, Third SergeantGeorge Joyce Sewell, William B. Churchman, Richard M. Philler, F. WilsonPrichett, Clarence H. Clark, Joseph W. Lewis, Edward D. Page, RichardTilghman, Edward D. Toland, Jr., McCall Keating, Robert P. Frazier,Alexander Cadwalader, Morris W. Stroud, George Brooke, 3d, CharlesPoultney Davis, Saunders L. Meade, Cooper Howell, C. W. Henry, EdmundThayer, Harry C. Yarrow, Jr., Alexander C. Yarnall, Louis Rodman Page,Jr., George Gordon Meade, Pierson Pierce, Andrew Porter, Richard H.R. Toland, John B. Thayer, West Frazier, John Frazer, P. P. Chrystie,Albert L. Smith, William W. Bodine, Henry D. Beylard, Effingham BuckleyMorris, Austin G. Maury, John P. Hollingsworth, Rulon Miller, Harold M.Willcox, Charles Wharton, Howard York, Robert Gilpin Irvin, J. KeatingWillcox, William Watkins, Jr., Harry Ingersoll, Russell Thayer, FitzEugene Dixon, Percy C. Madeira, Jr., Marmaduke Tilden, Jr., H. HarrisonSmith, C. Howard Clark, Jr., Richard McCall Elliot, Jr., George HarrisonFrazier, Jr., Oliver Eton Cromwell, Richard Harte, D. Reeves Henry, HenryH. Houston, Charles J. Ingersoll.
It grieved me when I visited the quaint little house on Arch Street withits gabled window and wooden blinds, where Betsey Ross made the firstflag of the United States of America, to find a German banner in place ofthe accustomed thirteen white stars on their square of blue. And again,when I stood beside Benjamin Franklin's grave in Christ Church Cemetery,I was shocked to see a German flag marking this honoured resting-place."Benjamin and Deborah, 1790," was the deeply graven words and, besidethem under a kindly elm, the battered headstone of their littlefour-year-old son, "Francis F.--A delight to all who knew him
." Then aGerman flag!
I began to wonder why we had not learned a lesson from England'slamentable showing in 1915. What good did all our wealth do us now? Itwould be taken from us--had not the Germans already levied an indemnityof four hundred millions upon Philadelphia? And seized the Baldwinlocomotive works, the greatest in the world, employing 16,000 men? Andthe Cramp shipbuilding yards? And the terminus at Point Breeze down theriver of the great Standard Oil Company's pipe line with enormous oilsupplies?
Philadelphians realised all this when it was too late. They knewthat ten thousand American soldiers, killed in battle, were lying infresh-made graves. They knew that the Philadelphia Hospital and theUniversity of Pennsylvania Hospital and the commercial museum buildingsnearby that had been changed into hospitals could scarcely provide bedsand nurses for wounded American soldiers. And yet, "What can we do?" saidMayor George H. Earle, Jr., to me. "New York City resisted, and you knowwhat happened. Boston rioted, and she had her lesson. No! Philadelphiawill not resist. Besides, read this."
He showed me a message just arrived from Washington saying that theUnited States was about to sue for peace.
The next day we had news that a truce had been declared and immediatelynegotiations began between Chicago and Berlin, regarding a peaceconference, it being finally decided that this should take place at Mt.Vernon, in the historic home of George Washington, sessions to beginearly in September, in order to allow time for the arrival of delegatesfrom Germany.