(See Page 112 - Maryland Historical Magazine.)

THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Incorporated 1843

Irvine Keyser Memorial Building,

201 W. Monument Street,

Baltimore

Article: Vol. XXIV. June, 1929, No. 2

“THE FIRST MAN UP SAN JUAN HILL.’

By De Courcy W. Thom.

This is a tale of daring-do. It recounts the heroic record of a Maryland man at the Battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba, on July 1st, 1898, in the Spanish-American War and on several other occasions. Our hero is Henry Anson Barber, son of the Reverend Theodore P. Barber and his wife Anna C. Hooper, of Cambridge, Dorchester County, Maryland, Where “Hal,” as we called him at the Episcopal High School of Virginia, was born and generally had his residence until about 1882 when he adventured to St. Louis, Missouri, in search of fame and fortune. There and thereabouts his funds were soon exhausted. He would not ask financial support from his home folks. He could not secure steady employment and was reduced to doing any odd job, such as his first job that of holding a man’s riding horse, and such as carrying a hod and then, as the jade fortune denied his wooing, there and afterwards in Mexico, “Hal” sought fame at the cannon’s mouth-- he joined the Army as a private on March 5th 1885, in Baltimore, Maryland, intensely determined to win an officer’s commission. That was a difficult thing to accomplish in those days but sometimes done by men of good family without political pull.

“THE FIRST MAN UP SAN JUAN HILL.’

(Page 113 - Maryland Historical Magazine.)

The Adjutant’s General’s Office in the War Department, Washington, D. C., has kindly furnished me with the following statement of military service of Henry A. Barber: ---

War Department The Adjutant General’s Office Washington

AG-Offer-RB-MMR-434 December 7, 1928

Statement of Military Service of

HENRY A. BARBER

Born at Cambridge, Maryland, August 20, 1862. Appointed from the Army.

Private, Corporal, Sergeant and 1st Sergeant

Troop E, 7th Cavalry .....................................................Mch. 5, 1885 to Mch. 3, 1889

2nd Lieutenant, 1st Cavalry……………………………………………………Feb. 11, 1889

1st Lieutenant, 9th Cavalry…………………………………………………….Aug. 27, 1896

Captain ………………………………………………………………………………Feb. 2, 1901

Transferred to 28th Infantry……………………………………………………Dec. 26, 1901

(to rank from February 2, 1901)

Major, Assistant Chief, Record and Pension Officer…………………..Apr. 23, 1904

Retired………………………………………………………………………………..July 31, 1904

Graduate: Infantry and Cavalry School 1893.

SERVICE

He was on duty with the 1st Cavalry at Fort Custer, Montana Territory, from April 21, 1889 (with troop B in the field and at Fort Keogh, M. T., November 24, 1890 to February 8, 1891, in connection with Sioux Campaign in South Dakota) to March 10, 1891, Student, Infantry and Cavalry School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to June 22, 1893; under orders to join regiment and on leave to October 15, 1893; with regiment at Fort Bayard, New Mexico (in the field on scout November and December 1893) to September 1895; at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to January, 1896; Fort Reno, Oklahoma, to February 15, 1897; at Fort DuChesne, Utah, to April 1898; en route to Cuba and in Santiago Campaign; participated in Battles of Las Guasimas, June 24, San Juan July 1-3, and Siege of Santiago, July 4-17, 1898; on sick leave August 20 to October 30, 1898; rejoined regiment at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, November 5, 1898; with regiment at this post to July 1, 1990; en route to Philippine Islands and on leave to August 7, 1900; with regiment at Albay, Guinobatan (sick in hospital Manila, P. I, February 6 to April 1, 1901) to April 19, 1901; on General Court Martial duty at Mania to June, 1901; with regiment at Guinobatan, P. I., to July 1, 1901; en route to United States and on sick leave to September 9, 1902, when he rejoined regiment at San Francisco de Malabon, P. I.; changed station with regiment to Jligan, P. I., January 1, 1903; at Iligan to December 15, 1903; arrived with regiment in United States January 14, 1904; at Presidio of San Francisco, California, to March 3, 1904; on leave to June 17, 1904; sick in United States General Hospital, D. C. and on sick leave to July 31st, 1904, date of retirement. He died December 31st, 1915.

H. Bridges,

Brigadier General,

Acting The Adjutant General.

A fine record that! Hal had not only risen in nineteen years from the ranks to a Majority but had incidentally educated himself in military learning, rendered splendid service and become such a soldier as to draw from his fellow soldier, President Theodore Roosevelt, the following appreciation expressed to Hal Barber’s brother, Mr. W. W. Barber, a teacher in St. Mark’s School, South Borough, Massachusetts, when Roosevelt went there to make an address:-- “I want to tell you that he is my ideal of what a soldier should be.” And Ex-President Roosevelt wrote Hal’s widow from

Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y. February 7, 1916.

My dear Mrs. Barber:--

I hope you will not think it intrusive of me to write you this line of profound sympathy. I regarded your husband as typical of what was best in the American Army. I am glad, indeed, that your son is now at West Point and is to carry on the tradition.

With very deep sympathy and high regard, I am,

Faithfully yours,

Theodore Roosevelt

Mrs. Inez Barber,

Cambridge, Maryland.

However, I knew nothing of the military details of Hal’s life until in the Summer, I think it was, of 1902, or was it of 1904, when he dashed into my office in Baltimore, Maryland. We had not met since our chummy school days at the “Episcopal High School,” near Alexandria, Virginia, where his joyous and gallant disposition and fleetness of foot had marked him out. Well, in he came to my office just as lithe and erect as when at the old School and with his brave blue eyes dancing and greeted me as of old. Soon we had brought one another up to date personally. Then he said, “‘Dick’ I am just back from lunching with ‘Teddy’ (he meant the great Theodore Roosevelt) at the ‘White House’ and I must tell you all about it.” then our Maryland soldier told me the following tale:-- “After the Spanish War I served in our Cavalry in the Philippines and fell sick, was invalided to the United States and there was advised by my doctors (among whom was the late Nathan S. Gorter of Baltimore, Maryland) that I ought to seek transfer of service. Teddy Roosevelt (then serving his first term as President) would help me in that I was confident for we had fought in company in Cuba; so today I attended one of his office receptions to the public. There I stood among senators and other prominent men and wondered when the busy President would be able to listen to my humble self. But he saw me and brushing though the big folk strode up to me and grasped my hand and said ‘I am delighted to see you again, Barber’ and heard my desire for the needed transfer and then said ‘stay to lunch with me today.’ I, too, was delighted. It gave me a chance to emphasize my need and soon at luncheon the President; who, when Colonel of the “Rough Riders,” had launched the general attack at the Battle of San Juan Hill, said with much good humor:-- ‘Barber, tell Mrs. Roosevelt who was the first man up San Juan Hill’ and I answered, ‘you might have been, Mr. President, but I was.’ “ Then Hal stated to me the following details of that achievement:

“On the day of the San Juan Hill fight the heat was almost prostrating to me despite the fact that I was protected by a white helmet which I had bought a few days previous. Hour after hour our Army lay in the grass at the foot of San Juan Hill. I was temporarily serving in Captain J. F. McBlain’s company of the ninth regiment (a colored one) in consequence of my having volunteered at Port Tampa, Florida, for active service in Cuba. The 71st New York regiment held the left of the line, then came the sixth cavalry regiment, then the ninth cavalry regiment, then the regiment of Rough Riders and then the tenth cavalry, while a regiment of regular infantry was stationed back of the 71st New York regiment and some artillery was stationed just back of our regiment -- the 9th Cavalry (colored). After we had broiled a long time in the high grass an officer outranking me called for a volunteer to go down the line to Colonel Roosevelt and ask him if he had received any orders to charge. I volunteered and was about to start when someone substituted for the white helmet I was wearing an inconspicuous head covering because I had to run in full sight and easy range of the Spanish snipers until I reached Colonel Roosevelt. As I ran the Spaniards shot at me from the top of San Juan Hill but I was not wounded. I delivered my message to Colonel Roosevelt and was told by him that he had received no orders to charge but was willing to join the other Colonels of regiments in ordering the charge. I then ran back to my starting point but could not deliver my message as the officer who had sent me [Was it Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton of the 9th Cavalry! DeC. W. Thom.] was not there and I never did deliver it because he was incapacitated for service in the field before I saw him again. [Hal told me that such officer was shot through the eye. DeC. W. Thom.] Having resumed my white helmet as some little help against the terrible heat of the sun I laid down once more with my command. Suddenly there came an order to advance. We officers jumped up and ran in front of our men and drawing our sabers led them on. We got to a road fringed with trees and low bushes and laid down again. The nearest Spanish position was about 400 yards away on top of a hill. A stone house formed part of its defenses. I got permission to take a few men and try to stop some of the firing from this hill. We crept out in the open field between us and the hill. I took a rifle and aiming carefully fired several shots. My men fired carefully. Such a storm of bullets came in reply that I was bidden to stop as I was only drawing fire. For an hour or more, so it seemed, we laid in this road. Shells burst over us and the whisper of bullets was unceasing. Bits of leaves cut by them would fall on us. I was very tired and after saying a prayer slept awhile. I felt very badly. I did not expect to live, for I had a clear view of the Spanish trenches and thought it impossible that many should live out an assault on them, especially a company of officer who would be in advance of his men. All this time shells were exploding but none exploded near us. The tension on the men was great. Suddenly a line of men appeared coming from our right. They were advancing through the long grass deployed as skirmishers and were under fire. At their head, or rather in front of them and leading them, rode Colonel Roosevelt. He was very conspicuous mounted as he was. The men were the Rough Riders so called being combination of college boys and frontier men. I heard someone calling to them not to fire into us, and seeing Colonel Carroll -- the Colonel of the 9th Cavalry -- reported to him and was told to go out and meet them and caution them as to our position, we being between them and the enemy. I did so speaking to Colonel Roosevelt. I also told him we were under orders not to advance and asked him if he had received any orders. He replied that he was going to charge the Spanish trenches. I told this to Colonel Carroll and to Captain Dimmick our squadron commander. A few moments after the word passed down that our left, Captain taylor, was about to charge, Captain McBlain called out, “we must go on with those troops, we must support Taylor.” I called this to Captain Dimmick and he gave the order to assault. I tried to cut down the wire fence in front of us, having an excellent blade. It had been an old Japanese sword and I had had a regulation grip and hilt put on it. McBlain and myself called to the colored troop. I cut through the fence in several places, and my men rushed through. I called out ‘as skirmishers’ ‘guide left’ ‘march’ and our men deployed at double time. We were in perfectly open field, the grass nearly up to our waists. A storm of bullets came but most went high. It sounded like a flock of birds passing overhead. Then came a strange thing, for a glorious, a beautiful feeling came over me such as I had never felt before. As the order had come to assault I had shut my eyes and said “God have mercy on my soul and my Wife’ and then as I rushed in front of my men this great wild feeling of delight came. Never before had come into me this feeling of heavenly exhilaration. I did not feel at all excited. My men were advancing, halting to fire. When we got with 200, perhaps more, yards of the hill, I ordered them to stop firing and they did so. Then I saw just behind our lines some 15 of the Rough Riders. They were firing right through us. I waved my saber and called to them to stop. But they did not obey. I was about 30 yards in front of our line so I put my white helmet on the point of my saber and held it high to attract attention and called to them and my colored troopers to come with me, that I would lead them to where they could fight hand to hand and could not miss. ‘I am about to charge,’ I cried out. ‘Will you follow me, lads.’ Some one of them shouted out ‘we will go with you.’ I gave the command to charge and we all cheered and advanced at a run not firing a shot. And so part of my colored troop and these Rough Riders started up the hill. [Please note that reference is here made to some of the above mentioned 15 of the Rough Riders. DeC. W. Thom.] Colonel Roosevelt, of the Rough Riders, started the whole movement on the left which was the first of the advance of the assault. We had to cross a little stream about waist deep and as I got into it I buried my face and neck in its sweet coolness. Just before reaching this stream a shell, low down, burst just after passing me and a sergeant of the troop, who was a few yards back of me, fell as if dead; but he was only stunned. Also, out of the long grass rose a guinea chick (we found them wild around Santiago) and a sergeant raised his carbine laughing as he did so as though to shoot at it flying. After scrambling up the steep bank of the little stream I found myself within 60 yards of the summit and the house held by the Spaniards and my men some 30 yards back of me except three of four Rough Riders and the same number of my troop, that is, of Captain McBlain’s company of colored troopers of the 9th regular cavalry, who were right up with me a few yards behind.

As I had run up the hill I passed the dead body of a Spaniard from whose knapsack had rolled out a little money, and further on I came across a second body form whose knapsack had rolled out a piece of hard-tack. There I made my first pause in this charge and stooped and picked up the hardtack for it had been a very long time since I had anything to eat. When I reached this point within 60 yards of the summit of San Juan Hill and the house upon it, some shots were fired at me by a few Spaniards who fled at once. I fired four shots from my six shooter but did not hit my man and in a moment we were where the Spaniards had been. This place in a manner flanked the rest of the Spanish line and hot fire was opened on us from trenches some 500 yards away. Finding the men had their sights too high I sat down on top of the ridge and taking a rifle fired carefully target fashion with two men marking the shots. After awhile we got out sights properly adjusted and were successful in hitting. Just then Lieutenant A. L. Mills (1st Cavalry Aide) came up and we chatted with congratulations, etc. Someone called me Captain McBlain and told me to try and get some ammunition. As I walked along the line some 40 yards I came upon Colonel Hamilton’s dead body. Just then Captain Taylor fell and was carried by me. I collected some belts of ammunition from dead and wounded men and then returned to the troop. In reaching the top of San Juan Hill I was first, then a few yards back of me came a few of my colored troopers of McBlain’s company and a few of the Rough Riders.”

That is the basis of Hal Barber’s belief that he was the first man up San Juan Hill. The great President Roosevelt, then serving as Colonel of the Rough Riders, was satisfied that his command--mark you “his command” -- was the first up. 1st Lieutenant Henry A. Barber’s belief that he was first man up was maintained by his company Captain J. F. McBlain who wrote to Hal Barber from Fort Grant, Arizona, April 11th, 1899, as follows:--

“I suppose you have been reading Roosevelt’s account of the Cuban Campaign, published in Scribner’s in the April number, his description of the San Juan fight, he wrote to me to criticize it and to send in my comments so that he might correct errors before putting it out in book form. I told him I had no comments to make of any circumstances of any importance. I did tell him that I am absolutely certain that the first officer up San Juan Hill, called by some Kettle Hill, was Lieutenant Barber of the 9th Cavalry. I know this to be so, Barber, because as I jumped down into the San Juan you were throwing water over your head and face, and preceded me up the hill about 10 yards, and if you remember I called to some of the men to get up into the house to see if there were any Spaniards lurking there. I went with the men over to where Hamilton was afterward killed and Taylor wounded and there was not a soul on the hill on the left of the house. [Italics mine DeC. W. Thom.] I made this plain to Teddy but cannot satisfy him that his command was not the first up. ... I made ‘ The 9th Cavalry in Cuba’ the subject of a Lyceum paper, and I pride myself I made a fairly readable paper.”

On page 109 in the ‘Roosevelt Book’ occurs this entry about the battle of San Juan Hill: -- “The first guidons planted there were those of the three New Mexican troops G, E and F of my regiment and their Captains Llewellen, Luna and Miller; but on the extreme right of the hill at the opposite end from where we struck it Captains Taylor and McBlain and their men of the 9th were first up. [Italics mine DeC. W. Thom.]. Each of the five Captains was firm in the belief that his troop was first up. As for the individual men each of whom honestly thought he was first on the summit, their name was legion.” Surely, Hal Barber’s claim that he was the first man upon the summit of San Juan Hill is not negatived by the Roosevelt assertion that the guidons of certain companies were the first guidons on the summit. Moreover, in addition to the above we have the definite statement which I have quoted from Captain McBlain in whose company 1st Lieutenant Barber was serving a volunteer, that Barber was the first officer up. Be it noted that when Captain McBlain reached the summit of San Juan Hill just after Hal Barber, he, McBlain, clearly viewed the summit of that Hill to the left of him and saw no one there; but that when Roosevelt with his three Companies did reach the summit, he, Roosevelt, saw thence to his “extreme right” the Taylor and McBlain Companies the latter of which Hal Barber had led as I have told you. It happens, too, that I have tis supporting statement made through a letter of the late Dr. Nathan R. Gorter of Baltimore to our comrade Hal Barber. It is as follows: --

“1 West Biddle Street, Baltimore, Maryland March 13th, 1902.

“Captain Henry A. Barber,

My dear Hal:--

“On the 29th of September, 1898, I was called to see Mr. Robert Baker, who was a soldier in the Sixth Cavalry, and who, just before his death, gave me an account of the San Juan fight which should interest you, as you were the officer who wore the white helmet. Baker said:--

“ ‘ I want to tell you of the most heroic thing in the Spanish War. We were all lying in the grass, at the foot of San Juan Hill. I was in the Sixth Cavalry; on our left was the Seventy-First, New York, behind them a regiment of regular infantry, which charged over the Seventy-First, the men of which lay upon their faces. Two companies of this regiment, however, went up with us. To the right was the Ninth Cavalry, a negro regiment led by white officers; to their right were the Rough Riders and the Tenth Cavalry.

“ ‘ The bullets were ringing around us and no one dared to lift his head, when suddenly, a young man sprang from the ranks of the Ninth Cavalry; he ran fifty yards ahead of his men -- took off his helmet put it upon his saber and stood, a target, with Spanish bullets hailing around him. With the voice of a trumpet, which thrilled me and set the negroes wild, he called out,

“ ‘ Boys will you follow me! ‘

“ ‘ The negroes shouted back,

“ ‘ We will.’

“ ‘ He then gave a yell and led up the hill, we, with the Rough Riders and the Tenth, closing in behind them. That young man was a lieutenant, . . . and he led with his helmet on his saber. He was the only man who wore a white helmet, and he was on San Juan Hill fully fifty yards ahead of any one else.’

“ I send this thinking it may some day be of use to you.

With kind regards, believe me,

Very sincerely yours,

Nathan R. Gorter.”

The McBlain, the Roosevelt and the Baker statements concur in demonstrating that Hal Barber was the first man up San Juan Hill.

It seems to me clear, therefore, that on account of his gallantry and firstness in this historic charge up San Juan Hill, we may proudly add the name of Hal Barber to the glorious list of heroic Maryland soldiers on which shine especially for active, heroic and personal leadership in battle the names of Howard, of Williams, of Ringgold and of May.

In order to be an effective soldier natural capacity needs to be aptly trained. And the following additional incidents in Hal Barber’s preparatory military education will interest us, I am sure. “ He served nearly four years as Private, Corporal, Sergeant and 1st Sergeant in Troop E, 7th Cavalry, studying indomitably in order to prepare for examination as an officer. He even read on horseback some of the history involved. He passed a good examination for a 2nd lieutenancy and on February 11, 1889, became a 2nd lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry. Within three months after he had received that appointment as an officer he was sent with a body of cavalry in pursuit of some Indians. He was the only officer in the detachment. After passing through a small town in the wilds of Wyoming, an encampment for the night was made a few miles beyond it. During the night the sergeant woke up Lieutenant Barber saying that the men had gotten hold of some whiskey and he could not do anything with them. While Lieutenant Barber was hastily dressing, the Sergeant mentioned the leader in the mutiny. This was at 3 o’clock in the morning. Lieutenant Barber went out and ordered his men to fall in line and nobody moved. He went up to the man whom the Sergeant had told him was the leader in the trouble and ordered him to go to his tent. The fellow just grinned. Lieutenant Barber knocked him senseless with a pistol and ordered the men to fall in line saying that he would kill the first man who refused to obey. He formed them as they were and drilled them for two hours, as if they were on parade, in the cold night in their night shirts until the nasty spirit was out of them. He then made them dress and break camp and march all day. He never had any more trouble with them.” He was made 1st Lieutenant on August 27th, 1896, and transferred to the 9th Cavalry, a colored regiment. While a member of that regiment he took a long ride -- over a hundred miles -- carrying important papers that had to go through. He spared neither his horse nor himself. Through stress of that duty he injured one of his legs so severely as to finally necessitate his transfer to the Infantry.

I might give you many more instances of the efficiency and gameness of Hal Barber. I shall state only one more. It developed when Hal was in charge of a detachment protecting a military camp in the Philippines in the Moro country. ‘On two previous occasions the Moros had cut down a sentinel, sneaked up on the nearest tent, cut the tent guides and stabbed with spears the struggling men beneath. To break up that unpleasant “custom” Hal pitched a tent a little apart from the main tent, left it unguarded by a sentinel and ostentatiously occupied it with a squad of men. But at night he allowed no man to sleep in the tent. On the contrary, they slept on each side of the tent in the long grass about twenty-five yards away, and the Moros came and cut down the jabbed the empty tent. Then the men of the detachment rose on each side of them and killed or captured the whole band of Moros.’

I think I should mention one or two other things before pressing this article to an end. While serving as Military Attache in Cuba, Hal Barber organized a battery of mountain artillery for the Cuban Government and also translated the American drill regulations into Spanish. Thus we may say that he saw service in the cavalry, in the infantry and in the artillery.

In preparing this paper I have had the advantage of letters from the devoted widow of Major Henry A. Barber and of copies of letters from her husband to herself and to his mother. Mrs. Henry A. Barber was born Inez Smith, the daughter of Colonel Gilbert C. Smith, United States Army. It was from soldier stock, then, on the mother’s side as well as from the heroic subject of this paper that there came to their only child the present Captain Henry A. Barber, Jr., a West Pointer, the character which brought to him in the great World War the Distinguished Service Cross, the Chevalier’s Cross of the French Legion of Honor and, also, the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. This is the record that brought those honors: -- “1st Lieutenant Henry A. Barber, 9th Machine Gun Battalion. For extraordinary heroism in action near Moulins, France, July 14-15, 1918. Seeing his right flank badly exposed to the enemy advance across the Marne, Lieutenant Barber changed the position of two of his guns to meet this emergency performing this test during terrific enemy fire. He then ran a distance of 150 yards in the open to stop the fire of our own Infantry on our own troops. Going forward to the aid of a wounded soldier, Lieutenant Barber administered first aid and was carrying the wounded man to safety when the latter died. Picking up the one remaining undamaged gun he opened fire on the enemy who were crossing the river sinking one boat, killing many and causing the others to abandon their boats.”

In the name of all Maryland I proudly salute such a record. And I thank him for the loan of his father’s diary dealing with the battle of San Juan Hill and for another paper written by his father regarding some other phases of his career. I have had the advantage, also, of a pertinent letter from Mr. W. W. Barber, my friend’s brother and a teacher in St. Mark’s School, South Borough, Massachusetts, kindly affording me additional data about Hal Barber’s military performances, and of one form that noble Christian gentleman, the late Dr. Brice W. Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland, a schoolmate and life-long friend of Hal’s and mine, imparting some Barber family information.

Do not these sample performances which I have set forth this evening concerning our fellow Marylander, my dear old comrade, Major Henry Anson Barber, stamp him as a soldier of the noblest mettle!

In moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Thom for the above paper, Mr. W. I. Marbury made the following remarks: --

“Hal Barber was a very dear friend of mine. We occupied the same room at Mrs. Turnbull’s boarding house on Charles Street in the block in which Walter’s Art Gallery is now located, before he enlisted in the United States Army. He mentioned to me a rather amusing incident in connection with the meeting with President Roosevelt after the Spanish American War, referred to in Mr. Thom’s paper.

“Upon accepting the President’s invitation to luncheon after the reception, to which Mr. Thom refers, Captain Barber found that the only person other than himself at the luncheon were Roosevelt, himself, Mrs. Roosevelt and Secretary Elihu Root. “Mr. Roosevelt began the conversation by saying to Barber that he wanted him to tell Mrs. Roosevelt about the incident of the assault on San Juan Hill and added ‘Mrs Roosevelt doesn’t believe that I have ever been in Cuba and I want you to tell her all about it.‘ Thereupon Barber began to describe the scene, but he had not gone very far when Roosevelt himself broke in and was giving a very vivid picture of the situation in which he found himself when he reached the summit of the hill, and looking back, found that his men had not kept up with him and he was separated from them by quite a distance. At this point Mr. Root quoting from the then celebrated ‘Mr. Dooley‘ was heard to murmur in sepulchral tones ‘Alone in Cuba,” -- whereupon Mrs. Roosevelt indulged in most unseemly merriment.”