The Last Hours of Dr. Harry A. Young

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. n. JULY, 1899. No. 9.

LAST HOURS OF DR HARRY A. YOUNG.

A THRILLING EXPOSITION OF INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH HIS DEATH IN THE PHILIPPINE WAR.

BY MAJOR RICHARD W. YOUNG.

One of the most tragic events of the war with the Filipinos was the death of Assistant-Surgeon Harry A. Young, Utah Battalion of Light Artillery. At the time of recruiting the batteries for service in the Spanish war, I was appointed by Governor Wells to visit, among other portions of the State, the north end of Sanpete County, including Ephraim. At this town I found Dr. Young in the practice of his profession.He was engaged to make the preliminary physical examination of those residents of Ephraim who volunteered for the war. During the evening of my stay, he expressed himself as being much in sympathy with the war against Spain, and said he felt it almost a duty to enlist. He mentioned the fact that his brother Bert was at home with their mother looking after the old home-

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stead, and was therefore performing a most useful service, and that his other brother Frank was about to graduate at the University as a normal student, and that it would be unfortunate for him to be disturbed in his studies. He felt strongly that his branch of the family should be represented and asked my advice. I appreciated then in part, as I have since fully realized, the serious nature of enlisting, that a man not only ran a risk of being killed or seriously wounded, but of succumbing to the diseases of the camp or of being permanently ruined in health. I, therefore, expressly declined to give him any word of encouragement, but told him it was a question he must decide himself. I mentioned as other considerations which must affect his decision, and of which I wasigno. rant, the demands of his practice in Sanpete valley; his home obligations, and his financial conditions. We talked of his prospects of securing a position in the line of his profession in the army, and I discouraged the thought, informing him that Utah would not have

more than one or two appointments, if any, and that those had already been pledged by the governor. However, at his request, I left him an enlistment blank which he said he would send me should he, upon further thought and consideration, decide to Join. Within a day or so after this he came to Salt Lake City to consult his mother and family, as I understood it. I received the card through the mail soon after, and at the appointed time of rendezvous he appeared for muster and enrollment. Realizing the sacrifices he was making and desiring to render and prohis position as consistent as possible with his educational fessional standing, I appointed him to a staff sergeancy in my battery. When the batteries came together at Camp Dewey, near Manila,, we were without a doctor. The government had declined to permit a doctor to be appointed for the battalion, and Dr. Penrose, who, as a contract surgeon, had been assigned to duty with us, had subsequently been appointed a major and brigade surgeon, and was no longer with our troops. Doctors were scarce; we applied for the assignment of one but to no effect. When, late in July, detachments from Capt. Grant's battery and my own were moved forward into the trenches. Dr. Young, at his own instance and request, voluntarily spent every evening at the front with our guns. He didi

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this to render professional service to those of the command who might be wounded. This voluntary service on his part was offered at the sacrifice of personal comfort, for at the trenches all was mud, water, and discomfort, and at the risk of life and limb, since our lines were almost nightly the target of determined artillery and infantry attacks by the Spaniards. It was Utah's distinction to have been the only state that had

men in those trenches every night during the siege, owing to the fact that Utah furnished the only available artillery in the corps; and it was Harry Young's distinction to have been the only man of the Utah Artillery, and therefore of the army, who was present with our troops at the front night after night throughout the siege. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten to see this merciful, and self-sacrificing man every evening strap on his haversack filled with surgical appliances and start out on his hazardous mission to the front. By this noble service he won the admiration and love of the whole command. It was perhaps the most commendable feature of this conduct, that it was performed without parade, even shrinkin gly, and that he never felt to claim any sort of credit for acts which jeoparded his life itself. After the capture of the city of Manila, August 13, 1898, wrote a communication to superior military authorities in which I described the services of Dr. Young, and mentioned the fact that he was a graduate of one of the best medical colleges of the United States — — the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City and had served as house surgeon for two years in a prominent hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, and asked that he might be appointed as active assistant-surgeon. United States army. The recommendations were approved until the supreme medical oflacial was reached and there, owing to lack of authority, adverse instructions from Washington, etc., were disallowed. I had previously recommended him as worthy a medal of honor or special recognition for these extra hazardous services of a voluntary character there. Not long after Dr. Bourns, the health officer of Manila, having heard of Dr- Young's professional attainments requested to have him detailed for service in that department. The request was granted, and he was given charge of the inspection of the city with special reference to contagious and infectious diseases and to vaccinations. He

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was employed in these very important duties for several months to the great satisfaction of his superior officers. The offices of the board of health are in the same building with those of the provost marshal-general and of the heads of the several city departments. After Dr. Young's death I received from Dr. Bourns a note in which the following occurs: "It is hardly necessary to tell you of the shock to me, caused by the Doctor's sad death. My sorrow is, I think, but little less than your own, for in the four months' intimate association with him in the office, I had come to hold him, not only in great esteem for his efficiency, but also in affection for his personal qualities. His death affected all in the provost office, but more those of us in my own office, who knew him more intimately." When the situation became strained, in the latter part of January, and rumors were rife concerning native uprisings, having as their purpose the assassination of the Americans, Dr. Young and his associates found it impossible, as it certainly was imprudent to continue their labors among the thickly populated districts of the city. Under a system of terrorization, waiters and other household servants quit their American employers, and coachmen left their work unceremoniously, sometimes taking even carriages and horses with them in their flight to the Filipino lines. About this time too I had cabled the Governor recommending Dr. Young's appointment as surgeon (or, more correctly, assistant surgeon, since no doctor less than a major in rank is entitled to the grade of surgeon) for the battalion; and had persuaded Gen. E. S- Otis, the military governor, to cablethe war department recommending that the Governor of Utah be authorized to appoint an assistant surgeon for the battalion. The General framed his own dispatch, however, and cabled recommending that the Governor be empowered to appoint Sergeant Young to the position, saying he knew of the Doctor's worth and deserts mainly through Brig. Gen. Hughes, the Provost-Marshal General, and Major Bourns, the health officer. The appointment was authorized and made; the commission

was issued January 19th, as I remember, but unhappily did not arrive here until after the Doctor's death. About the first of February, he moved his personal effects from

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his former residence in the Calle Iris to the quarters occupied by the Utah officers, and became a member of our mess. On the night of February 4th, most of the officers of the battalion had retired early, some in barracks and others in our own quarters. About 9:30 a shot was heard in the eastern part of the city. This was followed by a few scattering shots and these by a small volley. It was an electric shot to the entire American army.

Our relations with the Filipinos had been strained for days. We were virtually besieged. Their lines circumscribed the city. They were everywhere in considerable force and forbade any American soldier going through their lines. By threats, intimidation and outrage they had created a reign of terror among the natives within our own lines. Time and again we had expostulated against the encroachments of their pickets on our own ground. The patience of the American soldier had been tried almost beyond endurance by these repeated acts of unfriendliness and insult and by the apparent indifference of our own commanders. But at last the worm turned. A Filipino commander had insisted upon occupying with his patrol a small village, which had for weeks been reserved for our own outposts. He and his superiors had been expostulated with, but to no avail. They had been told that their patrol would be fired upon should it encroach further on our lines. Either doubting our courage or believing we would go on forever yielding to their aggressions and submitting to their insults, they ventured into the forbidden zone. Our sentry warned them but to no avail. He fired, killing the warlike lieutenant and one of his party. The survivors retired to the main force at a Spanish blockhouse on a from here a volley was poured into our outpost. The gage of hill ;

battle was accepted. The regiments sprang to arms and hurried to the support of their pickets. The firing spread from block house No. 7 to blockhouse No. 6, and thence around from east to west, north of the Pasig, to the main thoroughfares along the shores of the bay. Our own battalion was assembled at once. With limbers filled with shell and shrapnel, with sand-bags strapped in the limber chests —the men, with revolvers, with blankets and ponchos, with haversacks containing rations for two meals, awaited the word to move. It came in the shape of an order from Gen. Mc Arthur, the

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division commander, to "carry out the prearranged plan." Lieu- Camp Santa Mesa, with tenant Webb was already on the lines at two guns and detachments; Captain Wedgewood started at once with two guns for the Sane Paloc cemetery; Captain Grant, with Lieutenant Critchlow and three guns for the Calle San Lazarus; Lieutenant Seaman with one gun to the shore, or Caloocan, road, while Lieutenant Gibbs remained at barracks in command of the reserves. Lieutenant Naylor was on the army gunboat. was about to start to report to General McArthur, as pre- I

viously directed, when Harry Young came up to me in the darkness, mounted on Lieutenant Seaman's grey horse, asking what I wished him to do. I told him he was on detached service and it would be for him to suit his pleasure. He asked who was going with me. I replied that I had not yet provided a man. On his intimation that he would be pleased to go, I told him that it would be very agreeable to have him with me. At General Mc Arthur's temporary headquarters, word was received a few minutes after the fight opened that the Kansas regiment on our left was meeting with strong opposition; a second gun was requested, and at the General's suggestion, I went over to barracks and took the gun to the front myself, the Doctor accompanying. We remained with these guns all night. The enemy was in great force and at frequent intervals poured a heavy small-arm and cannon fire down the road. Our guns were compelled to remain on the road, while the infantry were enabled to lie down behind rice dikes and take advantage of other cover. Twice during lulls in the firing, the Doctor, at his own instance, went forward along the road with scouts to discover the position of the insurgents. On the second trip, he ventured a few yards ahead of his companions and was fired on; he and the other members of the party ran back in haste and took refuge behind a friendly road just in time to avoid a heavy fusillade. Early in the morning we started back to town, along the main road. In the insurgent-infested district of Tondo, we saw, crawling through a vacant lot, near the street, a Filipino with a gunshot wound through the thigh bone. The Doctor hastily dressed the wound, using pieces of bamboo as splints; while thus engaged another wretch, shot through both ankles, crawled down a rickety pair of steps towards us; the Doctor was just going over to render

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tim such assistance as was possible when a number of shots were heard on the main street, and a soldier shouted over to us that an American had just been shot. We ran to the spot and found the wounded man to be Isaac Russell, formerly of Battery A. On the outbreak of hostilities he had promptly gone to the front and had been useful during the night in caring for the wounded and in other respects. Upon returning to the City he had been attacked by several men armed with bolos (large knives); one of his assailants had suceeded in inflicting a severe scalp wound on him, and Russell had used his revolver to good effect in his own defense. Dr. Young 'dressed the wound. We continued on our course. We arrived at Captain Wedgewood's position just as the final cannonading of Block House No. 4, previous to the charge of the South Dakota regiment, was being done. While I accompanied Gen. Hale to the top of a neighboring •church to get a better view of the field of operations, Harry ran off with a number of hospital corps men to the South Dakota position, to assist the wounded. Upon his return we hurried over to the Santa Mesa position, where the battle was still raging. As we turned into the main road leading over the San Juan bridge, we saw, farther up the road, an ofiicer fall from his horse. We supposed he had been shot since a great many bullets were striking in the vicinity. Hastening to the spot, the doctor dismounted and examined the fallen man, whom we learned to be Col. Smith of the Tennessee regiment. He was breathing with the greatest effort, and in a few moments expired. The doctor earnestly declared that his death was due to apoplexy. At Lieutenant Webb's station on McLeod's hill we learned of the death of Private Wilhelm Goodman and the wounding of Gunner Corporal Jno. G.Young, early that morning. Lieutenant Webb was shelling a number of insurgent strongholds beyond the San Juan and Pasig rivers. Corporal John Young was said to be but slightly wounded by a graze in the chest. Lieutenant Gibbs with two guns was at the bridge over the former river on the firing line of the Nebraska regiment, shelling the woods on the heights beyond where the natives were in considerable force. I made a hurried visit to Lieutenant Gibbs' platoon, Harry

accompanying me, to inquire into his condition, state of his ammunition, etc., and started back to report the state of affairs all along

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the line to the Division Commander. We stopped at the field hospital on the Calle Santa Mesa to see how John was getting along and to provide, as best we might, for his comfort. The building used as a hospital is a fine residence with attractive grounds. Harry dismounted and sought out his nephew among several dozen men who had been wounded during the engagement. In a minute or two he came out with the most unexpected and sad intelligence that John was a dying man. He was receiving the very best attention. His wound had been dressed by the surgeons on duty there, among them being Dr. Cabell, once stationed at Fort Douglas, an old time friend of mine. Knowing of John's relationship to me he had, for old acquaintance sake, done everything that could be done for his comfort. The Corporal had been serving as gunner at his piece on the east side of Mr. McLeods' residence. Our guns there opened fire as early in the morning as it was possible to see. The hill immediately became the target of hundreds of Mauser rifles.

Private Goodman was shot through the head at Corporal Young's piece and immediately killed; the Corporal's chest was grazed but not penetrated, and the escapes of other cannoneers were numerous and close. The surgeons said the blow had resulted in the breaking of one or more blood vessels within the lung cavity, and that John's death resulted from hemorrhage. Dr. Young gave him a hypodermic injection of morphine upon his statement that he was suflfering. We raised his head and shoulders by using for support the back of a chair covered with blankets. I talked with him as

to his condition, and he seemed hopeful.Duty called me away; so it was decided that the doctor should remain. During the afternoon, I accompanied Captain Grant in the assault on the Brinondo Cemetery, returning to our quarters late in the evening. Harry, however, did not return until after I had gone to bed. The next morning he told me he had remained with John until he died, about four in the afternoon, February 5th; that he had arranged for his body, and that of Private Goodman to be sent to the first division hospital. He said that John, as a dying wish, had desired him to see that his mother and sisters received something by the way of souvenirs of the Philippines, and that he died peacefully. Harry was much affected by the death of Corporal Young. We started early, I to report to General McArthur, and on our

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way called at the hospital to arrange for the funeral of the two dead batterymen. To our surprise we found that their bodies had not been brought in from the field hospital. We secured the services of Private Frank C. Peterson, Battery A, to attend to the proper burial of the dead. Clean clothing was procured, metallic coffins were purchased, and apartments in the vaulted walls of the Paco Cemetery were rented as temporary resting places. On leaving the hospital, we rode eastward along the Calle General Salano, and parted company at the Rotunda, he to go to the field hospital to send in the body of Corporal Young, and to order Lieutenant Webb to take his guns forward without delay, and I to meet Captain Wedgewood to select a new and advanced position for his guns, with the understanding that I would meet him at the McLeod hill or the Nebraska camp near by, or at the Deposito, across the San Juan, in an hour or so. When within the appointed time, about 11 :30 a. m., I reached the Nebraska camp, I learned by inquiry from our guards that the doctor had been there some time previously, but had gone — which in direction no one knew precisely, but one of the men believed he had gone eastward over the San Juan to the Deposito (water works reservoir.) I rode over to the last named place, where I found the

Nebraska regiment and four of our guns, the platoons of Lieutenants Gibbs and Webb. Upon inquiring for Dr. Young, I ascertained that he had not been seen there, and I concluded he had changed his mind about going forward with me and had returned to see personally to John's burial. About 1 :30 p. m. the infantry and our four guns started on the advance to the pumping station on the San Mateo river four miles to the eastward. After going around the high wall enclosing the eight or ten acres of the Deposito, we advanced along the level road for several hundred yards, when our advance line of skirmishers was stopped by a force of insurgents intrenched on the top of a ridge intersecting the road. We pulled our guns oE into adjoining gardens where we were screened by intervening fences from the enemy. A few well aimed shells and shrapnel decimated their ranks and drove them in hasty retreat from their position. The infantry advanced without opposition to the crest of the ridge, the artillery accompanying the first lines. On the top of the ridge I joined Colonel Statsenburg, in command of

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the infantry. We were inspecting the country beyond when a soldier of the regiment came to him reporting that there was a wounded horse on the road below, and asking if he should not kill it. We walked over to the brow of the declivity. One glance at the wounded horse filled my mind with apprehension; the second almost froze the blood in my veins. As soon as I saw the horse, I felt convinced it was Lieutenant Seaman's grey, but upon detecting the red saddle stain on its back, caused doubtless by an artillery blanket, all doubt was removed. I ran down to the horse, which I despatched with my own revolver. The only article which either horse or rider had worn that could be found in the vicinity was one of the stirrups, the straps of which were severed with a sharp knife about half way up to the saddle. We even looked into the nearest opening of the large cement aqueduct which runs all along the road, but found nothing. With a heavy heart, I moved forward with the advancing column, hoping, almost against hope, that the horse had been traded and had run away or had been stolen from the hospital, or that its rider was secreted somewhere in the vicinity awaiting our advance. We had not advanced more than one-half mile when I was called to the front. knew at once that some evidence of the missing I

man had been found, but I was not prepared to see his body. On the south side of the road was a structure about eight by ten feet^ -composed of walls of brick about three feet high; this was covered with a gable roof of corrugated iron, the gables being open but protected by wire screens. There is a tree at each end of the ventilator. At the eastern end, close against the wall, his head to the north, lay the body of the Doctor. The lower part of his body was naked, even his feet; around the upper part of the body was his shirt and khaki, uniform coat. Fourteen empty shells caliber .38in., from his own revolver were on the ground near by^

Singularly, among those who discovered the body was Dr Talbot, the intimate associate of Dr. Young in the work of the health department. There were four wounds in the body— a bullet hole through the temples, a bullet hole in the left side of the neck, Si bayonet or knife stab from inside through the muscles of the right arm, and another bayonet or knife stab in the right side of the chest.

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As to the manner in which this unfortunate man met his death, there is room for various surmises. My own theory is as follows: I believe he left the Nebraska camp intending to join our own

guns and the Nebraska regiment known to him to be at or near the Deposito; that upon reaching the Deposito he did not detect from any indications that the troops were there, inasmuch as they were temporarily resting within the walls of the inclosure, having but a small guard at the gate; that thus misled, he rode on past our out-posts and three- fourths of a mile farther along the road, into the very lines of the insurgents; that the latter permitted him to get well within their grasp before showing themselves, and then opened fire on him, wounding his horse; that thereupon he ran still forward on the road with the double purpose of reaching our troops and of avoiding the insurgents in his rear; that he took refuge behind the ventilator and there made a vigorous defense against the pursuing Filipinos, as shown by the empty cartridge cases; that he conceived the purpose of dropping into the aqueduct, then empty, as shown by the wire screen partly torn from its fastenings, that before accomplishing his purpose he was shot through the head by a mauser"from a wooded hollow, seventy-five yards distant, and instantly killed; that the pistol and bayonet wounds were inflicted by the semi-savages after his death, I placed the remains in charge of Corporal Lindsay Hudson, who took them to the hospital. The faithful Frank Peterson prepared him for burial. The battle was still raging, and it was impossible for us to give either him, Corporal Young or Private Goodman, the final attentions we desired and they deserved. Their iron caskets,now hermetically sealed, were purchased by the members of the battalion; their remains are therefore in exceptionally favorable condition for shipment to their homes when possible. The day following the tragic death of the Doctor, a Filipino, wearing a pair of khaki trousers, supposed to be Dr. Young's, was captured by the Colorado regiment and literally filled with lead from the Springfields of indignant soldiers. Thus perished in the service of their country two of the most respected and most beloved members of the Utah Battalion.