1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

Service At Home 1902-1903

"General Inspection, Fort Crook, Nebraska, November 1902, 22nd U. S. Infantry"
Although a poor scan of the original photo, it appears that the entire Regiment
has gathered at Fort Crook for this inspection.

SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES 1902-3

The third battalion embarked on the Rosecrans and sailed January 24, 1902; headquarters, the first, and the second battalions
sailed on the Hancock February 1. The voyage homeward was very rough, the Hancock traveling through storm after storm
from Nagasaki to San Francisco. During one of these storms, two men of the casual detachment were washed overboard.
The Rosecrans entered "Frisco" harbor on the evening of February 25; a few hours later the Hancock dropped anchor within hailing distance.

The regiment at once moved into camp at the Presidio, remaining there until March 4, 5, and 6, when the various companies moved by rail
to their assigned posts.

Company C took station at Fort Logan H. Roots, Arkansas, March 9;
companies A and D, at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, March 8;
company B, at Fort Niobrara, Nebraska, March 9;
headquarters, the second, and the third battalions, at Fort Crook, Nebraska, March 11.

Private Milus L. Mull of Company F died of penumonia on April 22, 1902 at Fort Crook, Nebraska.

May 7-9, companies A and D changed station to Fort Reno, I. T.; August 18-21, company B changed station from Fort Niobrara
to Fort Logan H. Roots. No additional changes of stations were made until the regiment was ordered to its second tour of duty in the Philippines.

Private William S. Berrill of Company K died of dysentery on July 8, 1902.

Garrison duty, during the regiment's brief stay in the United States, was almost as exacting as field service. Drills and parades, target practice,
military athletics, summer exercises, fall maneuvers, schools for officers and men, and the necessary studies, combined to make strenuous service.
Each year the companies at Fort Crook, by battalion, marched one hundred and eighty miles to and from their target range
on the Omaha Indian reservation; in addition, in 1902, these companies marched four hundred miles to and from Fort Riley, Kansas.
August 1, the third battalion, Major Crittenden commanding, attended the reunion of the National society, army of the Philippines, at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

For the season of 1902, the regiment won first place in the department rifle competition at Fort Leavenworth, and second place
in the army competition at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. 1st Sergeant Archie Deuberry, company B, won both places.

(Ed., Note: the correct spelling of this soldier's name is Deubery. In various accounts his name is spelled as Deuberry or Dewberry.)

"First Sergeant Archie Deuberry, Company B, 22d Infantry, was the only man to earn a distinguished marksman shield in 1902.
Previously, he had won only a silver second class prize for a third-place finish in the 1894 Department of the Platte infantry match
while he was a private in F Company, 22d Infantry. Deuberry did poorly in the preliminary 1902 competition conducted during the last two days
in July, placing fourteenth by scoring 100 points less than the first-place finisher, the regimental quartermaster sergeant from his own unit.
Deuberry steeled his nerves and for the first three days of August shot the best of all entrants, finishing first with a score of 503 points.
His first 1902 medal was the department gold first prize. Having started by earning a D-13 prize (ed., 3rd place silver medal 1894) ,
Deuberry shortly went on to win a coveted second-place gold at the army level." ²

The regiment was concentrated at Fort Riley in September for fall maneuvers. As this was the first assembly of troops
for experimental field purposes, great interest was taken in the event. Invitations were extended by the war department to the states;
many of the states accepted and sent representatives from the officers of their national guards. The Riley reservation became a huge camp,
from which, each morning, marched a khaki army to oppose an army in blue. These forces were employed in action according to pre-arranged plans;
the results of combat at various points were judged by disinterested umpires. And in order to obtain all possible benefits, lyceums were held nightly;
at these, the senior umpire read reports and decisions of the day's maneuvers. The regimental commander, Colonel James Miller,
commanding a brigade of the 18th and the 22nd infantries, two batteries, and River's squadron of the 4th cavalry,
won what was judged the only decisive victory of the maneuvers.

Above: Article announcing the march of troops to the fall maneuvers at Fort Riley, Kansas.
The Fort Crook troops mentioned in the article are the Second and Third Battalions of the
22nd Infantry. Note the article states it will take the 22nd Infantry troops about fourteen days
to march the 200 miles to Fort Riley from Fort Crook.

From the Chicago Tribune September 8, 1902

Chicago Tribune website

Above: the title of an article describing the fall maneuvers of 1902
at Fort Riley, Kansas. The text of the article is immediately below:

FIERCE 'PLAY' WAR RAGES IN KANSAS.


Two Army Corps Fight San-
guinary Battle on Plains
Near Fort Riley.

BLUES MAKE THE ATTACK

General Bates Directs First Les-
son in Maneuvers---Militia
to Join Monday.

[BY A STAFF CORRESPONDENT]

Fort Riley, Kas., Sept. 27.-[Special.]- Under command of Col. Kobbe, who only two months ago returned from the swamps of the Philippines,
the army of the " Blue " at Fort Riley today swept over the Kansas reservation and fought the army of the " Brown " under command of Col. C. C. Carr, to a finish.

Technically, two entire army divisions, having a constructive strength of 24,000 men, were in action. Every problem which would have confronted two opposing army corps
in the field was met. For five hours the battle raged, the troops mowing their way through the blue stem grass, which swept the backs of the horses, under a broiling sun.
In the thick of the fight, moving from hill to hill, as lines were shifted, rode Maj. Gen. Bates and his staff. Militiamen from more than a dozen states followed every movement,
studying the methods of Uncle Sam's regulars in action. There were major generals, brigade generals, and colonels and captains from Virginia, from New Mexico, from
Texas, and from California.

Battle Lasts Three Hours.

On Monday an army of militiamen, 4,000 strong, will march into camp, and then more extended maneuvers will begin. Today's military problem dealt with the handling
of an army's advance guard and the deployment of an entire division under the enemy's fire.

For three hours the troops scampered about the big 20,000 acre plot which composes the reservation, then, under the roar of artillery, the charging of cavalry and the
rattle of infantry fire, the columns, looking like lines of midgets from the points of vantage afforded by the hills, plowed their way over the valleys and swales
in the general advance; then, when the opposing forces were 200 yards from each other, divided by a bulky ridge, the umpires sent the command " cease firing "
around the lines through the wigwaggers with the signal flaus and the battle was ended.

The marching force, when it swept down by rushes on the enemy and his roaring artillery, formed a line of blue clad men extending in a three mile front over the hills
and ravines. On a plateau to the east the handful of cavalrymen and sweating artillerymen who wore the brown used every maneuver to check the advance of the "Blue".

Discuss Blunders of Day.

Tonight in the big mess tent commanding officers and umpires are discussing the work of the day. Those guilty of false steps are having their faults pointed out.
Those who handled their men so that every natural advantage offered by the country was utilized are being commended, for this is a big school of military instruction,
and the problems of war are being discussed and taught just as a college student faces his Greek or his mathematics in the classroom. With all the flighting there is
never a formal decision as to which army has won, though the criticisms show the commanders that they may draw their own deduction.

Blues Move to Attack.

It was only a few minutes after 8 O'clock when the columns moved out from the big main camp. At the head of the line moved a battalion of engineers, fully equipped
for field service. A squadron of the Fourth cavalry followed them. Then came the six guns of the Seventh battery, the entire Eighteenth regiment of Infantry, and,
eight companies of the Twenty-second, the "doughboys" trekking over the dirt road on the double quick. A bunch of men from the signal corps came next,
followed by a string of wagons bearing ammunition and the picks and shovels needed for entrenchment work.

Six ambulances closed the column, telling the story of what marks the close of a real battle.

A quarter of an hour later, and 3,100 men of all branches of the service filed down the road, swinging along after the manner of an army on a long march. Sandwiched among the batteries moved the little line of mules that compose the mountain artillery.

Down the winding road, edged by its heavy growth of trees, the column made its way. It passed out on the bank of the Republican river; the men, when seen
from the heights above, looked like giant centipedes.

" Brown " Army on Hills.

Four miles away to the east on the edge of a plateau veiled by rolling hills the army of the " Brown " had taken up its position. Here Col. Carr had two squadrons of cavalry
and the Sixth battery with its six field guns. Behind was an imaginary army division of 10,000 men.

Prom the heights above the river Gen. Bates watched his men. The army of the " Blue " looked to be crawling along like a huge dragon. Then the bugles took up their music
and turning abruptly to the east, the army made its way through the deep ravines.

It was over just such ground as the men of the civil war tought the battles of Chickamauga and of Shiloh.

Cavalry Opens the Attack.

At a call from the bugles two troops of cavalry scampered away up the deep gullies. Behind them, as a reserve, a battalion of the Twenty-second Infantry hoofed ahead
on the double quick. Two guns of the artillery plowed their way to thr front at a gallop, the men swaying on the carriages as they were swept up and down the hills and
through the ravines. Ammunition wagons and the wagons and the wagons bearing the intrenchment tools bumped along in the rear, followed by two guns of the
mountain battery, the cannoneers tramping alongside the mules that carried the folded carriages and the light guns. The remainder of the advancing army formed the reserve.

Defenders Open Fire.,

Suddenly ahead the spitting of carbines told that the advance guard had struck the cavalry of the " Browns." A scouting force had been out watching for the coming
of the enemy. This scouting force, too, had to find out for itself just where the enemy was advancing, as no previous instructions are given which would make the
maneuvers merely a prearranged series of sham battles.

It is real war from start to finish so far as the problems presented are concerned.

From the plateau two miles to the east there came a puff of smoke and " Carr's battery " was in action, meeting the enemy's advance. In the meantime, to the roll of
the artillery, the opposing cavalry were maneuvering to exactly locate the conditions marking the disposition of the opposing forces.

Then the deployment of the advancing force began. A battalion of the Twenty-second Infantry advanced in extended order, the men scattered in long lines and making
their gains by rushes, and then dropping to the ground. Only the enemy's artillery, trumping away to the east, told where the " Brown " force was intrenched.

The lines of the Twenty-second were sent to the heights as flankers for the advancing columns, the men closing almost three miles over the hills to reach this position
on the right of the main force. A battalion of the Eighteenth infantry effected the same maneuver to the left.

The advancing army crept on, the men in loose order, leaving it to the advance guard to pave the way and do the fighting. Then, the " Brown " battery constructively
having been effective at 3,500 yards, the commanders began to take advantage of every natural protection afforded by the ridges and the ravines.

The men were cautioned, lest the umpires should find them exposed, and rule them out , as " constructively " dead soldiers.

As the advance lines swept up over a ridge the first capture of the fight took place. They plumped into a little bunch of "Brown" cavalry and the khaki clad riders
were taken into camp in a hurry on the signal of an umpire. " Constructively " they were prisoners of war, and on the " Blue " lines went crawling along now and
dodging along in the heavy grass, whose roots formed traps for the feet of the unwary infantrymen.

From the hills to the north there came an answering roar to the thudding guns of the "Browns," the artillery of the advancing force had wheeled its guns on this point
of vantage and the sweating cannoneers added their protection to the advancing troops.

Swing Into Line of Battle.

In the meantime bugles were calling along the blue clad line. Like a great fan this line of blue opened. Battalions of men were wheeled to either side, scattering,
and always advancing. From the hills they looked like so many giant ants, whose workday grind had been disturbed by some chance pedestrian. With machinelike
precision this breakup continued until a line of creeping blue men, extended its length north and south for three miles, sweeping on toward the plateau to the east,
where the guns of the battery were roaring their defiance. The entire Seventh battery of the marching forces has taken up its position on the right. In line with their guns
the two remaining battalions of the Twenty-second Infantry had debauched their men in long broken lines. Then the Eighteerith infantry and the remaining artillery
was in the same position with the other end.

From far off to the left the rattle of rifles, spanking the air with quick, sharp reports, told where the advancing flankers had met a detachment of the enemy's cavalry.
Over there the Sixth Infantry was quickly deployed. While the rattle of the rifles and artillery was being waged there, the lines on the right settled down, awaiting the
advance of the battery of the " Blues," which had first unlimbered.

Eat Under Heavy Fire.

Lying down in the deep grass, which afforded relief from the midday sun, the men dug in their haversacks and made a hurried lunch. When the advancing force finally
had swung into one great line, extending almost four miles over the roving hills and the precipitous ravines, the battle had ended. Gen. Kobbe had pushed his advance
forward while the main body of his army was completing its deployment, and Col. Carr had disposed his small force so as to outline the position of an entire army division.

That is all there was to the day's problem. It had given just as much experience as if 12,000 men instead of 5,000 had made the advance and had been confronted by
an opposing force of the same number instead of the handful which formed Col. Carr's real command.

Signal Men Work Hard.

On the hills, which lend to the country an air of the kopjes of the south African veldt, signal men had been hard at work. Wigwaggers were sending information
from one end of the line to the other with their waving flags. Another squad was flashing its heliographs as if a real campaign was being waged.

The medical corps had set up their dressing stations where wounded men are given their first examination before being sent to the hospitals. Men with stretchers
had crept through the grass and over the ledges for sandstone formations, picking up men who had been ruled to be " constructively " dead by the umpires.

The army was formed in column again. with its wagon trains and their convoys, and the long march of five miles back to camp was begun. Over on the slope of a
sweeping hill two full batteries of artillery formed in battery front, wheeling off in a solid mass of black guns and blue uniforms until the carriages swept out singly
on the dirt road which skirts the river.

During the battle the umpires moved over the fields with the various battalions in action. They were In command of Col. Wagner as chief umpire with the " blues ".
Major Knight of the engineers served as senior umpire with the " browns," Col. Augur of the Tenth cavalry and their eleven assistants were drawn from all branches
of the service---infantry, cavalry, ordnance department, and engineers.

Militia in Monday's Action.

With dawn of Monday the national guardsmen will begin to arrive, and then, the big school, for that is what Gen. Bates calls it, will be full. Problems of every kind
will be presented the militiamen to solve. There will be lectures to militia quartermasters by Capt. Baker, chief quartermaster. There will be lectures to commissary officers
by the head of this department of the regular army, and then, in actual field practice, both regulars and militiamen will be taught the profession of arms under modern conditions.

Tomorrow the big camp will rest, except that the " rooters " will remain out to howl for the opposing sides in a baseball battle, in which cavalry and infantry
will try conclusions in the national game.

From the Chicago Tribune September 28, 1902
From the Chicago Tribune website

Companies A and D returned to Fort Reno, October 8; companies B and C, to Fort Logan H. Roots, October 10;
the second and the third battalions, to Fort Crook, October 22.

Musicians of the 22nd Infantry Regimental Band at Fort Crook 1902
They are still wearing the model 1895 forage cap, with musician insignia and a gold cap band, the model 1902 cap
most likely not making its way into the band's inventory yet. Instead of wearing a "22" in their cap insignia,
they have added the number "22" to their collars. These collar numbers would have been the individual number "2"
applied twice to form the number "22".

Photo from the webmaster's collection

Private Eugene F. P. Brewster of Company C died from paralysis on February 9, 1903.

April 28, 1903, the second and the third battalions were sent to St. Louis, Missouri, to take part in the parade incidental
to the dedication of the Louisiana Purchase exposition; the battalions returned to Fort Crook, May 4, 1903.

Musician William Leary Jr. of Company G was killed by a freight train on March 10, 1903.
Private Louis H. Vanatta of Company D died of penumonia on July 3, 1903.

Ed., Bancroft, Nebraska was approximately sixty miles from Fort Crook.
The above photo appears to show the Soldiers of the 22nd Infantry in the process of
unloading their supplies from the train and transferring them into wagons.

Photo from:

Historic Railroads of Nebraska
By Michael M. Bartels, James J. Reisdorff
Published by Arcadia Publishing, 2002

Ed., On the 11th of August, 1903, Colonel Henry Wygant became Commander of the 22nd Infantry Regiment.

The regiment again won first place in the annual department rifle competition at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, (Corporal William A. Vickery, company C)
and eighth place in the army competition at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. (1st Sergeant Archie Deuberry, company B).

October 20 and 21, 1903, the regiment left its peaceful stations for San Francisco, en route to the Philippines.
October 31, it embarked and sailed on the U. S. A. T. Sheridan.

Ed., The Regiment sailed to the Philippines on October 31 with 48 Officers and 733 enlisted men. ¹

After stopping at Honolulu, November 8-10, and at Guam, November 22-23,
the Sheridan arrived at Manila November 28. Here, definite orders were received, assigning the regiment to service in Mindanao;
the Sheridan sailed from Manila bay December 1, and arrived at Camp Overton December 3. The regiment disembarked the following day.
December 6, the second battalion took station at Pantar; headquarters, the first and the third battalions, at Camp Marahui.

A bill sent to the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad, for the amount of fifty-nine cents,
and dated July 9, 1903 at Fort Crook, Nebraska.
Signed by Captain Peter W. Davidson, who, in his position as Quartermaster of the 22nd Infantry,
was, at the time, also acting Chief Quartermaster for the US Army's Department of the Missouri.

Below are photos of a model 1898 Krag rifle, issued in 1903
and bearing markings for H Company of the 22nd Infantry:

The rifle, showing the 22nd Infantry marking on the buttstock.

The issue cartouche on the rifle, bearing the initials "JSA", for J. Sumner Adams,
who was the chief inspector of rifles, and the issue date of 1903.

Closeup of the stock, clearly showing the markings for H Company 22nd Infantry.

Photos of the 1898 Krag rifle courtesy of Vic Samuel LTC USA (Retired)

See Vic's website by clicking on the following link:

SSA Enterprises

Narrative from the 1904 Regimental History

¹ Annual Reports to the Secretary of War 1904

² Marksmanship in the U.S. Army: A History of Medals, Shooting Programs, and Training
by William K. Emerson University of Oklahoma Press, 2004

Additional material added by the website editor

Additional information taken from:

Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, June 1821–December 1916.   NARA microfilm publication M665
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

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