New York Military Academy - Shrapnel Yearbook (Cornwall on Hudson, NY)

Page 26 text:

fa W JOHN G. SHATTUCK, '05 Shown with the inscribed silver plate presented to him at a dinner held in 1959 at the Waldorf-Astoria by a group of alumni and faculty in appreciation of his thirty years of endeavor on behalf of N.Y.M.A. The photo in the background shows the three Shattuck boys who have fol- lowed their father at the Academy. They are Cleft to rightj Thomas, Morgan, and john, Jr. An important improvement in Academy equipment is noted in the October 16, 1907, issue of The Ramble. It appears that an urgent need was felt for a new projecting lantern to be used in connection with lecture courses, and the purchase of such an instrument was greeted with cheers by The Ramble editors. The old machine was not satisfac- tory, they felt, as it was equipped with an electrical lamp only and such a lamp is extremely uncertain . . . fP.S. The new lantern was operated by the tried and true me- dium of gas.j The need for music, especially of a martial character, is felt nowhere so keenly as at a military school, but it was not until 1906 that anything but the most informal type of musical organization was established at N.Y.M.A. In that year a drum and bugle corps was formed, and this unit furnished all of the cadet music for the next three years. In 1909, however, Harley A. Ide came to the Academy as director of music. One of his first actions was to organ- ize a school band which superseded the drum and bugle corps as the oliicial musical organization. It was due to Ide's influence that the band became at once a vital ad- junct to cadet life. He remained at the Academy for more than a decade and witnessed the establishment of other mu- sical organizations, as well as the growth of the band into a high-class unit, with cadets striving earnestly for a place in its rank. But the year 1909 is chiefly distinguished in New York Military Academy history for the fact that it marked the coming of Major, later General, Milton F. Davis to the school. Born on November 15, 1864, at Mantorville, Min- nesota, young Davis moved to Oregon with his parents a few years later and was educated in the public schools of that state. At the age of twenty, Milton F. Davis matricu- lated at the University of Oregon, and then was graduated with honors from West Point in 1890. He was commis- sioned a Second Lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Cavalry, and served successively at Fort Walla Walla, Washington, and in the Presidio of San Francisco. For the next five years he explored, surveyed and mapped Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park and Roosevelt National Park. In 1895, while exploring the Grand Canyon, he lost his way and wandered for days without food in a superb effort to find an outlet from the canyon. Finally he picked up a trail and by following it emerged one of the first explorers of the Grand Canyon. Davis was a notable mountain climber and in 1892 made the first ascent of a 12,000-foot peak in the High Sierras, which, in 1896, was named Mt. Davis in his honor. He also made a record ascent of Mt. Popocateptl in Mex- ico. Commissioned First Lieutenant of Troop C, lst Cav- alry, in 1897, he served at Fort Sheridan, Fort Robinson, in the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippine Insur- rection. He was awarded the Silver Star Citation for gal- lantry in action against the Spanish forces at Santiago, Cuba, July lst, 1898 . And in that same year he was ap- pointed Military Governor of El Caney during a devastat- ing yellow fever epidemic. As a Lieutenant in 1898, Davis married Elizabeth Aitken Hall, who bore him four children: Dorothy fdeceasedj, Margaret fMrs. Frank A. Pattilloj, Helen fMrs. Morton Starr Cressy of Plainfield, New jerseyj and Milton Fenni- more, jr. Davis became, in turn, Captain, Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff to General S. S. Sumner, as well as Aide on the General Staff to the Secretary of War. In connection with the Silver Star Citation the follow- ing excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt's book The Rough Riders is pertinent: Among the men who were foremost fin storming San Juan Hill, was Lieutenant Milton F. Davis of the First Cavalry. He had been joined by three men of the Seventy-First New York who ran up and, saluting, said: 'Lieutenant, we want to go with you. Our officers won't lead us.' One of the brave fellows was soon after- ward shot in the face. Page Twenty--two

Page 25 text:

599 ,X V.: Z' f lx! il liar 1 1 ln: ARTILLERY DRILL IN UNAUGHTY-NAUGHT judge Lee Parsons Davis, '00, between the cannons. duced what was probably the greatest football team in its history. Captained by Walter Bortz and coached by Ernest L. Bragg, this team was not only unbeaten but it was unscored upon and rolled up 258 points in the course of the season. The team played eight games and only two of them were at all close. High spots of the season were an 89-0 victory over Poughkeepsie High School, defeat of the Groff School by 25-0 at the Polo Grounds in New York, and a grand climax when Peekskill Military Academy, tradi- tional rival of N.Y.M.A., was beaten 21-0 in the final game of the year. Here is the complete record of the 1906 foot- ball team: N.Y.M.A.-58g Catskill High School 0 N.Y.M.A.-18: Faculty 0 N.Y.M.A.-893 Poughkeepsie High School 0 N.Y.M.A.- 63 Pratt Institute 0 N.Y.M.A.- 4: DeWitt Clinton High School 0 N.Y.M.A.-23: Groff School 0 N.Y.M.A.-39: Poly Prep 0 N.Y.M.A.-21: Peekskill Military Academy 0 Totals 258 0 Members of the varsity squad, in addition to Bortz, were Herbert Gerst, jesse Rinehart, Robert Smith, Edward Rhodes, William Gradi, Bradford Manning Qpresident of the Alumni Association, 1938j, Leslie Walker, Merrill Staples, Warner Day, Newton Sholes, Amos Crooks, Lang- don Leslie, Richard Beebe and Isador Levy. The next year Headmaster Charles Sumner Havens was succeeded by Artemas D. Dimmick, who carried on as headmaster until 1910. An important addition to the scholastic stature of the Academy was inaugurated in 1907 when a four-year Tech- nical Course was included in the curriculum for the first time. There had previously been only two college prepara- tory courses, Latin Scientific and Academic. Inclusion of this third course, with its emphasis on the subjects necessary for admission to the great engineering schools of the country, placed the Academy in the position of being able to offer complete preparatory training for any college or university. The Technical Course immedi- ately became, and has remained, one of the most popular at the school. The first rifle range also made its appearance during the school year of 1907-08. Captain William Muldoon, '02, an enthusiast of this sport, organized a rifle club and coached the cadets daily. Page Twenty-one

Page 27 text:

I gif - -C wat- - if THE FOOTBALL TEAM OF 1906 This is one of the best teams that ever represented N.Y.M.A. It went through a hard season with an uncrossed goal-line. and scored 256 points against its opponents. fLeft to Rightj Gerst, Rinehart, Smith, Rhodes, Gradi, Manning, Walker, Bortz CCapt.j, Staples, Day, Sholes. Crooks, Leslie, Beehe, Levy, Bragg CCoachj. There is every reason to believe that two of the three men of the Seventy-First New York were Clifton Beck- with Brown, '96, and Talmadge Brereton, '96, and that it was Brown whom Roosevelt saw shot. The coincidence of this meeting between Davis and these alumni of N.Y.M.A. on the battlefield was not known until many years later. During the Wtxrld War, Davis served as Colonel and lixecutive Officer of the Signal Corps, Chief of Training in the Air Service, and Chief of Staff in the Air Service. And in 1925 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services . And in the hearts of N.Y.M.A. boys General Davis is recalled with honors beyond those that any government can bestow! On the national horizon, as the second decade of the twentieth century opened, there were no signs of the Armageddon that was to come. New York Military Acad- emy was still unaware of the boys who were to be sacri- ficed all too soon. The quiet before the storm reigned in Cornwall as elsewhere. lt was bitterly cold when taps was blown on the night of january 9, 1910, and a dull, overcast sky gave promise of snow before morning. The cadets, burrowing beneath extra blankets, luxuriated in a feeling of security against the elements and dropped off to sleep with dreams of sledding and snow-ball fights for the next day. Later, much later-it was after two o'clock in the mor- ning of january ICJ-William Olin Sibert, a member of the senior class, stirred restlessly in his bed on the second floor of the main building. He turned over and then back again, his hand brushed irritably at his face, and then he began to cough. The coughing brought him wide awake and up- right in bed. Then bewilderment turned to horror as he saw, pouring through a hole which admitted the steam pipes to his room, a steady stream of smoke, and smelled the acrid gases which had caused his coughing. He leaped from his bed and ran, panting, across the hall to the room of Headmas- ter Artemas D. Dimmick. The fire had started in the servants' hall and stairway of the main building, directly beneath Sibert's room, and Dimmick, accompanied by Superintendent Jones and As- sistant-Commandant Frank Fraser, rushed to the scene with fire extinguishers. They made a short attempt to curtail the blaze, but it was evident almost at once that this was a serious fire and orders were given to have fire call blown. Military discipline came immediately to the fore in this emergency and the building was quickly cleared of its more than two hundred occupants. All were out before the flames reached the main stairway, and there was not the slightest sign of panic, nor any injury. Officers and cadets joined in fighting the fire, and were assisted in a short time by the Cornwall fire department. The conflagration had gained too much headway, however, and the fight was hopeless from the beginning. By day- light, there remained only a great hole in the ground, with the main chimney protruding like the grim finger of Fate. Page Twenty-three