1

 

Harry Clay Egbert

Commanding Officer 22nd Infantry

July 1, 1898 - March 26, 1899

 

 

 

The Official Army Registers give the following record of Harry C. Egbert's military service:

He was offered a commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the 12th US Infantry on September 23, 1861,
which he accepted on September 24. He received a Brevet promotion to on Major August 1, 1864.

He was promoted to Captain of the 12th Infantry on April 1, 1865.

He commanded B Company 12th Infantry from 1879-1890.

Egbert was promoted to Major of the 17th Infantry on April 23, 1890. On May 18, 1893 he was
promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th Infantry.

On July 1, 1898 he was officially promoted and assigned as Colonel of the 22nd Infantry
(Ed., This is the same day he was wounded while commanding the 6th Infantry.)

On October 1, 1898 he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, a position which he accepted
on October 8. On December 1, 1898 he was honorably discharged from the Volunteers.

(Ed., The Returns of the 22nd Infantry indicate that Egbert was absent on sick leave
recovering from his wounds until January 20, 1899 at which time he joined the
22nd Infantry at Fort Crook, Nebraska and assumed command of the Regiment.)

He was killed in action at Malinta, Philippine Islands, on March 26, 1899.

 

A section of a photograph by Matthew Brady entitled "Gen. Abner Doubleday and staff of six".
1st Lieutenant Harry C. Egbert is in the rear, standing.

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 111-B-3516
From:: Series: Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, (Record Group 111)

Courtesy of Bradley M. Forbush
Battle of Cedar Mountain Foundation

 

 

 

A more detailed account of Egbert's military service is found in Powell's Records of Living Officers:

Born in Pennsylvania January 3, 1839.

Actual Rank ---

1st Lieutenant 12th Infantry September 23, 1861, accepted September 24, 1861

Captain April 1, 1865

Major 17th Infantry April 23, 1890

Lieutenant Colonel 6th Infantry May 18, 1893

Colonel 22nd Infantry July 1, 1898

Brigadier General Volunteers, October 1, 1898, to December 1, 1898

Brevet rank ---

Brevet Captain August 1, 1864, for gallant services at the battle of North Anna, Virginia

Brevet Major U.S.A. August 1, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Bethesda Church, Virginia

Honorably mentioned ---

In the "Records of the Rebellion", in the reports of Generals Doubleday and Newton on the battle of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, series I, Vol. XXVII, part 1, pp.256-263

Service ---

In the field during the Civil War, 1861-1865

Commissary of Musters 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac, March 1863

on Inspection duty in the state of Illinois

at Georgetown, South Carolina, 1868

Montgomery, Alabama, 1868-1869

at various posts and in the field in California and Arizona from 1869 to 1882

at Fort Sully, South Dakota 1890

Staff positions occupied ---

Adjutant 2d Battalion 12th Infantry, March 1862

Battles, skirmishes, etc. ---

Engaged at the battle of Cedar Mountain, captured and confined in Libby Prison

exchanged November 1862

engaged at the battle of Fredericksburg

engaged at the battles of Rappahannock Station, Chancellorsville, Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

captured by rebels, and escaped

engaged in the operations at Mine Run, battles of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania, North Anna,
and Bethesda Church, Virginia (wounded)

Commands held ---

At Georgetown, South Carolina, commanding post 1868

commanding post of Montgomery, Alabama 1868-1869

commanding post of Camp Independence, California 1869-1873

commanding post of Fort Yuma, California 1874-1875

commanding battalion 12th Infantry in Nez Perces campaign 1877

commanding post of Benicia Barracks, California 1877-1878

commanding battalion 12th Infantry in Bannock campaign 1878

commanding post of Fort Verde, Arizona 1878-1880

at Fort Sully, South Dakota 1889

History ---

Member of the Philadelphia Bar, 1860

son of Medical Director Daniel Egbert, U.S.N., and

grandson of Colonel Richard Dennis, 18th Infantry in 1815

Killed in action at Malinta, Philippine Islands, March 26, 1899 2

 

 

In March, 1899 the 22nd Infantry under Egbert's command arrived in the Philippines and was immediately sent into action.
The Regiment became part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division of 8th Corps in the expedition to capture and secure the seat
of Filipino government at Malalos. The Brigade Commander was Brigadier General Loyd Wheaton. Wheaton was tasked
with the capture of Malinta, the third in a series of towns on the road to Malalos. He sent the 22nd Infantry forward to attack Malinta.

The description of Egbert being killed while leading a bayonet charge has been portrayed in several accounts of his death.
Captain Jacob Kreps, Commander of M Company 22nd Infantry during the battle of Malinta wrote in his diary:

"The battle raged for twenty minutes, then Egbert led a bayonet charge----routing the enemy.
The colonel was killed in the victorious assault."
3

That portrayal also appears to be confirmed by the after-action report from Egbert's Commander,
Brigadier General Loyd Wheaton.

Wheaton commanded Third Brigade, 1st Division, Eighth Corps to which the 22nd Infantry was assigned.
In his report he states that he directed the 22nd Infantry to form on line and "charge" the enemy trenches at Malinta.
Wheaton writes that Egbert was killed in this charge. Here is the relevant section from Wheaton's report:


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

 

Another descriptive account gives a somewhat different description but still gives the impression Egbert was killed
during an advance, or "charge":

Meanwhile the always impatient and dashing Wheaton lost patience. The movement was too slow for him, and he swung
his brigade rapidly into line with the rest of the army, dashing over the tremendous network of trenches, earthworks,
leaving a large number of his men, until his brigade came in touch with the Third Artillery, the centre of his line.
General Wheaton planted his artillery on each side of the railway track and began the bombardment of the convent
of Malinta, used as an Insurgent fortress, preparatory to the coming of the Twenty-second Infantry and the
never-to-be-forgotten charge of that regiment in which Colonel Egbert lost his life.

Egbert brought the Twenty-second across the Tuliajan River through a swampy country. The regiment was marched
Indian file until within a short range of two Insurgent forts, from which smoke was issuing, and figures could be seen above
the earthworks. Scouts were sent out, and ascertained that the forts were absolutely empty; that the figures were dummies,
put there to deceive us; and that the fires were left to give the fortifications a semblance of life. Wooden cannon were also
mounted on the ramparts. The railway line was deserted, and it was concluded that the Insurgents had checked their
baggage farther north. So Egbert, with two hundred men, advanced across the open field to a little hill in front of the town.
Suddenly from the church on the outskirts, seventy yards from our men, came a terrific fire. A hasty retreat was ordered,
but hardly had the word been given when Colonel Egbert fell dead, pierced with a Filipino bullet. Major Shields and his
orderly had their horses shot from under them, and three privates were killed. Had the Insurgents been marksmen,
the two companies would have been wiped out. " Colonel Egbert never asked his men to go where he would not lead,"
was the tribute of a soldier of his command, and it is worthy of an inscription on his monument.
5

 

     

Left: From an article which described the
fighting at Malinta, a description of Egbert's death.

This article mentions the advance of the 22nd Infantry
as it moved toward the high ground of the insurgent
trenches, giving again, the impression of Egbert
being killed in a "charge".

The Day newspaper of New London, Connecticut,
Monday, March 27, 1899

 

Major Leo O. Parker of the 22nd Infantry was Egbert's second in command that day and when
Egbert fell Parker assumed command of the Regiment. Since Egbert was killed it was the responsibility
of Parker, as temporary Commander, to write the after action report for the Regiment. He also mentions
the charge against the enemy positions by the 22nd Infantry but indicates that Egbert was killed after
those positions were captured. Here is the relevant section from Parker's report:


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

 

The following is a description of the action during which COL Harry C. Egbert was killed.
The narrative is taken from a history of the 22nd Infantry Regiment
prepared under the direction of the Regimental Adjutant,
CPT G.C. Graham, 1922:

Early in the morning of the 26th the enemy in front of Wheaton's brigade were in retreat.
Malabon, on the left front, was in flames; a stream of insurgent soldiers and natives of the country
was pouring north. The 22nd marched a short distance to the right of where it had bivouacked,
received the fire of the insurgents' rear guard, forded the Tuliahan river, and formed line perpendicular to the river
in order to flank the enemy's trenches. Advancing to the railroad, these trenches were found deserted.
The regiment changed front to the north; the first battalion moved forward to scout toward Malinta.
On commanding ground, 800 yards south of Malinta, the insurgents were strongly intrenched;
these works were charged and captured. Five hundred yards beyond was a stone church;
a breast-high stone wall surrounding the church bristled with Mauser rifles;
here the rear guard of the retreating insurgent army hoped to check the American advance.
The ground in front of this stronghold was a natural glacis, broken with only a few rice paddies;
each seventy meters of the approach was marked with nipa streamers flying from tall bamboos.
A galling fire, accurately delivered by a superior force, met the battalion
and forced it to seek the shelter of the captured trenches and rice paddies.
Return volleys directed at the crest of the stone wall seemed only to increase the intensity of the insurgent fire.
Meanwhile the remainder of the regiment was racing from the rear to assist the troops so sorely pressed.
Arriving on the line, they threw themselves on the ground, and at once poured over the stone walls a fire so accurate
that the well-directed firing of the insurgents promptly ceased.
There was no diminution of their fire—merely less accuracy in their aim.
During this stage of engagement, Colonel Egbert, the gallant commander of the regiment, was mortally wounded.
For twenty minutes the fusillade from both lines continued. At the end of that time, the insurgent fire slackened;
ten minutes later it ceased. Entering Malinta, great quantities of loaded and empty rifle shells were found
behind the stone walls of the church; only artillery could have forced a valiant enemy from this position.

 

The official Regimental history of the 22nd Infantry and other accounts indicate that Egbert was killed during the
exchange of gunfire between the static lines of the 22nd Infantry and the Filipino insurgents at Malinta, which occured
after the 22nd Infantry had charged and taken a series of trenches on the outskirts of the town.

At the time of the exchange of gunfire which killed Egbert the 22nd Infantry was just outside of the town
and in the surrounding rice paddies and the insurgents were mostly in the town itself, the main body of insurgents
occupying the area around the church. Susbsequent reports show that Egbert was mortally wounded as he stood
in the open while directing the fire of his Regiment.

Most of the above reports used the word "charge" which was picked up by the media of the period and
displayed in many of the accounts of the day. Egbert did lead the charge which resulted in the capture of the
trenches before Malinta but from most accounts he was not killed during the charge but after the charge had ended.

 

 

 

 

The following biography of Harry C. Egbert is from the official history of the 21st Infantry Regiment.
(According to the lineage and history system of the Army the 21st Infantry was created in 1866 when
the 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry was re-designated as the 21st Infantry Regiment. Thus the 21st Infantry
claims descent and history back to the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry.)

Harry C. Egbert was commissioned an officer in the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry in 1861,
as one of the original 1st Lieutenants of that Regiment after its creation on May 4, 1861.

Since the 21st Infantry was later created from that 2nd Battalion of the 12th
Egbert is thus considered by the 21st Infantry to also be part of their history and heritage.

 

7



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7

 

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A part of the graduation ceremony program of the University of Pennsylvania, 1856.
Harry Egbert received a degree of Bachelor of Arts. His name is marked with a red star.

University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center

 

 

**********************

 

As a young 1st Lieutenant with the 12th Infantry during the Civil War Egbert reported to the senior Captain in his Battalion,
Capt. Thomas McArthur Anderson. Thirty-seven years later when Egbert brought the 22nd Regiment to the Philippines,
Anderson, as a Major General of Volunteers was again Egbert's immediate superior, this time as Commander of 2nd Division,
8th Corps. In his memoir of duty with the 12th Infantry in the Civil War Anderson wrote the following about Egbert:

When we received our marching orders I had to select a battalion adjutant. Fortunately I had another choice.
At that time Harry C. Egbert seemed to me not much older than a boy. He had a youthful look and manner, yet
there was something about him which inspired confidence. When I told him he would have to act as adjutant
he protested that he knew nothing of the duties of the position. I told him I knew he did not, but that in the
life-and-death business we were in we had to do the best we could. He looked very serious and answered,
"I will do my best." From that time on he did his duty faithfully, bravely and earnestly, until, thirty-seven years after,
he fell mortally wounded in battle in the Philippines. It seemed a strange coincidence that I should have been
the first officer to whom he reported, and the last.

From the 12th Regiment U.S. Infantry Company A website

 

**********************

 

Immediately below are two reports filed by Egbert as a Captain with the 12th Infantry
while serving during his long years on the frontier.

 

A dispatch sent by Harry Egbert, as Commander of a Battalion of the 12th Infantry during the Bannock War of 1878 8

 

 

A telegram sent by Harry Egbert, as Commander of a Battalion of the 12th Infantry during the Bannock War of 1878 8

 

 

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Harry C. Egbert as a Lieutenant Colonel assumed command of the 6th Infantry at Tampa, Florida from April 23 to May 16, 1898
when Colonel Melville A. Cochran was assigned temporary command of 1st Provisional Brigade. From May 16-29, 1898 Ebgert
commanded 1st Battalion 6th Infantry at Tampa.

On May 29, 1898 Egbert again assumed command of the 6th Infantry and brought the 6th Infantry to Cuba
aboard the transport Miami.

Egbert led the 6th Infantry in the assault on the heights at San Juan on July 1, where, under heavy fire during the attack
he was shot through the left lung. That same day he was officially promoted to Colonel of the 22nd Infantry upon the
death of Colonel Charles A. Wikoff.

Egbert's official report to the War Department, of his command of the 6th Infantry Regiment during its assault
on San Juan heights was dated September 2, 1898 and was written by him while he recovered from his wounds at
Fort Thomas, Kentucky. He signed it as Colonel Twenty-second Infantry, late Lieutenant-Colonel Sixth Infantry.

To read his 4 page report, click on the following link:
(The link is to a PDF file. To return to this page click the "back" arrow in the PDF file.)

Report of the 6th Infantry at the battle of Santiago

 

**********************

More information on Harry C. Egbert:

Born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 3, 1839, he joined the 12th United States Infantry
on September 23, 1861 (where he served with his brother-in-law, William A. Dove)
and served with distinction in actions at Gaines Mills, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg, etc.
He was taken prisoner at Cedar Mountain and at Gettysburg, and was seriously wounded at Bethesda Church.
He remained in the Army following the Civil War and when the Spanish-American War broke out,
he was Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th United States Infantry, which he commanded in the Santiago Campaign
until he was shot through the body at El Caney, Cuba, on July 1, 1898.

He was promoted to Colonel, 22nd United States Infantry, and before his wound was completely healed,
he sailed for the Philippines. He arrived at Manila with his command on March 4, 1899,
and while leading a bayonet charge against Insurgents received a wound from which he died on March 26, 1899.

He is buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to his brother-in-law and sister,
William A. and Julia Dove.

His wife, Ellen Young Egbert (1843-1913) is buried with him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EGBERT Avenue in San Francisco is named for Colonel Egbert, United States army.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Clay Egbert of Pennslvania
Appointed First Lieutenant, 12th United States Infantry, 23 September 1861
Captain, 1 April 1865
Major, 17th United States Infantry, 23 April 1890
Lieuenant Colonel, 6th United States Infantry, 18 May 1893
Colonel, 22nd United States Infantry, 1 July 1898
Brigadier General, United States Volunteers, 1 October 1898
Honorably discharged from Volunteer Service, 1 December 1898
Breveted Captain, 1 August 1864 for gallant service in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia,
and Major, 1 August 1864, for gallant service in the Battle of Bethesda Church, Virginia
Killed 26 March 1899 in action at Malinta, Philippine Islands
Also buried with Egbert is his wife:

EGBERT, ELLEN YOUNG WIDOW OF HARRY C
DATE OF DEATH: 06/01/1913
DATE OF INTERMENT: Unknown
BURIED AT: SECTION OS/WS SITE LOT 280
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
WIFE OF HC EGBERT - COL 22ND US INF

Much of the above information used with permsission,
from Arlington National Cemetery Website


http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/

The 1st Battalion website is grateful to Michael R. Patterson,
webmaster for the Arlington National Cemetery Website,
for the use of the above.

 

**********************

 

     

From The San Francisco Call Monday, March 27, 1899

CDNC California Digital Newspaper Collection

 

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From The Daily Argus News July 22, 1899

 

**********************

 

Left, a photo of a bust of Harry C. Egbert --- right, a photo of Egbert and his MOLLUS medal.

 

 

 

Colonel Harry Egbert's decorations

 

 

 

The signature of Harry C. Egbert as Commanding Officer 22nd Infantry
on the monthly Return of the 22nd Infantry for January 1899.

 

 

 

     

Left:

A really good photograph of
Harry C. Egbert as Brigadier General
of Volunteers and different from any of
the portraits posted above.

Sadly an original copy of the magazine
could not be obtained by the website
and this scan is the best quality which
could be found.

From HARPER'S WEEKLY magazine
Vol. XLIII, No. 2207 April 8, 1899 pp. 347

Scan from HATHI TRUST Digital Library
Harper's Weekly V.43 Jan-June 1899

 

 

 

Harry Clay Egbert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery

Section 1 Grave 280

 

Grave monument for Harry C. Egbert

Photo from the Official Arlington National Cemetery website

 

 

Back of the monument for Harry C. Egbert

Photo from the Official Arlington National Cemetery website

 

 

 

 

**********************

 

 

 

Fort Egbert, Alaska

Photo from University of Washington Digital Collections

 

In 1899 construction began on a military post at Eagle, Alaska.
It was named Fort Egbert after COL H.C. Egbert.
At its height there were approximately 45 buildings erected at the post.
It existed as a military fort until abandoned by the Army in 1911.
A detachment of the Signal Corps remained at the location,
operating the telegraph and radio station until 1925.
Only three buildings remain today and they are preserved
as a National Park Landmark.

During its service in Alaska elements of the 22nd Infantry Regiment
were stationed at the fort named for their former Commander
during the years 1908-1910.

 

Officers' Row at Fort Egbert

from a postcard circa 1900-1911

 

 

Fort Egbert was established in 1899 during the Klondike Gold Rush, as U.S. Army headquarters in the District of Alaska.
It was named by U.S. President William McKinley in honor of Colonel Harry C. Egbert who died in battle on March 26, 1899 in Manila.

The base was constructed next to Eagle Bluff, a rocky outcropping overlooking Eagle, a Yukon River mining community near
the Canada–US border. Eagle, which was established on a military reservation was placed under the jurisdiction of the new base
“until such time as some form of civil government may be established.” Eagle was released from martial law on July 23, 1900.

Fort Egbert was designated as the first station in the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS),
a network of telegraph lines connecting Alaska with the contiguous United States. The first link in the system was completed
in October 1900, running from Dawson City in the Canadian Yukon Territory to Fort Egbert. Another link, completed August 24, 1902
connected Fort Egbert with Fort Liscum in Valdez. In 1905 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used Fort Egbert's telegraph station
to announce his successful crossing of the Northwest Passage.

Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911 except for an Army Signal Corps contingent which continued to operate a station until 1925,
when the wireless station (which had replaced the land lines) burned to the ground.

Several buildings of the original Fort Egbert have been preserved under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.

 

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There is a memorial plaque for H. C. Egbert on the Stone Water Tower at Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
Fort Thomas is on the northern bank of the Ohio River, just across the river from Cinncinnati, Ohio.

 

Stone Water Tower, Fort Thomas, Kentucky
From a postcard photo taken circa 1900

The tower was constructed in 1890 at the entrance to Fort Thomas and in that same year
the 6th US Infantry took station at the Fort. In 1898 a bronze plaque was mounted on the
front side of the tower, commemorating the Soldiers of the 6th Infantry killed in Cuba.
Two Spanish cannons captured in Cuba were mounted in front of the tower. In 1899
a smaller plaque was mounted on the side of the tower, commemorating Colonel Harry Egbert.

 

The following eulogy for Egbert is from an article in Munsey's Magazine of 1899. The passage on
Egbert ends with the announcement of the memorial at Ft. Thomas, to be established.

 







--------------------------------------------------------------------9

 

 

The following biography of Harry C. Egbert was published by the University of Pennsylvania
and gives further detail about the plaque on the tower at Fort Thomas. Note in the beginning
Egbert is incorrectly called "Henry" Clay Egbert, then his name is changed to "Harry".

 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10

 

 

 

Photo of the memorial plaque for Colonel Egbert on the Stone Water Tower at Ft. Thomas

The memorial plaque reads:

IN MEMORY OF

COLONEL HARRY CLAY EGBERT, U­S-A
BRIGADIER GENERAL U-S-V
WHO FELL MORTALLY WOUNDED UPON THE BATTLEFIELD NEAR MALINTA, LUZON, MARCH 25 1899
WHILE HEROICALLY LEADING HIS REGIMENT, THE TWENTY SECOND UNITED STATES INFANTRY, AGAINST
THE FILIPINO ENTRENCHMENTS * FOR THIRTY SEVEN YEARS AN OFFICER IN THE REGULAR ARMY OF
THE UNITED STATES, DISTINGUISHED IN THREE WARS OF HIS COUNTRY, TWICE GRIEVOUSLY WOUNDED IN
ACTION, AT BETHESDA CHURCH VIRGINIA, 1864, AND AT SAN JUAN HILL, CUBA, JULY 1 1898, WHERE HE
COMMANDED THE SIXTH REGIMENT UNITED STATES INFANTRY.

ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF CINNCINNATI COVINGTON NEWPORT & VICINITY

 

The bronze plaque of Egbert was sculpted by John C. Meyenberg and was dedicated July 8, 1899.
The plaque is officially registered in the Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums.

 

     

Close-up of Egbert's plaque

Note the 22nd Infantry insignia on his collar.

 

 

View of the water tower showing the large plaque for the
6th Infantry above the entrance. The Spanish cannons
were taken from Havana harbor in 1898.

Photo from Entertaining View from Cincinnati

Side view of the tower
The plaque for Colonel Egbert can be seen
on the white stone base in both photos above.

Photo from the Apex Realty Group

 

 

**********************

 

Egbert Barrack, at Fort McClellan, Alabama, is named in honor of Harry C. Egbert.

 

Phillip Tutor: At McClellan, meet Col. Egbert

May 23, 2013


To find Harry Clay Egbert at McClellan, drive over to the three-story building that sits across the road from Silver Chapel. Find the main door,
the one that faces Buckner Center. Look up, through the limbs of pine trees and climbing vines.

There you’ll find H.C.

This Memorial Day weekend, H.C. Egbert lives on at Anniston’s former Army post.

The brass plaque affixed to his building — Building No. 144, it’s called — dubbed it Egbert Barrack when soldiers still lived on post. After nearly 15 years
of base closure and McClellan redevelopment, Egbert’s plaque reminds us that these acres of Alabama land wield a history that is as vast as it is varied.

Fitting, it is, that Egbert’s plaque sits hidden, almost out of view. He isn’t buried in McClellan’s military cemetery. He never visited Fort McClellan.
He had nothing to do with the post’s creation. He was neither a Southerner nor an Alabamian. But his plaque, which, I am thankful, hasn’t been vandalized
or innocently lost, is worth a lesson on this man who was a quintessential American soldier of his time.

Born in Philadelphia, H.C. joined the 12th U.S. Infantry in 1861. His list of battles reads like a John Keegan textbook: Gaines Mills, Malvern Hill,
Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg. Confederates wounded him once and twice took him prisoner. After the war, he remained in uniform, serving at several
outposts in the American West, from Arizona to Alaska. He commanded units that fought against the Sioux.

Discharged as a brigadier general of the U.S. Volunteers in 1898, H.C. became a lieutenant colonel in time to command the 6th U.S. Infantry during the
Spanish-American War in Cuba. There, on a July day on San Juan Hill, he took a bullet “through his body,” records show. He survived.

The next spring, and now a colonel, H.C. sailed to the Philippines, where America’s turn-of-the-century venture in colonialism rolled on.
He landed in Manila on March 4, 1899. Twenty-two days later, he died during a battle with Filipino insurgents.

The Army returned his body to the United States.

He’s buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s no surprise, really, that memorials to his legacy dot the American map.

In San Francisco, Egbert Avenue runs for three blocks just northwest of Candlestick Park.

In Eagle, Alaska, near the Canadian border, sit the remnants of Fort Egbert, which President William McKinley established the same year H.C. died.

In northern Kentucky in Fort Thomas, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, a 102-foot stone water tower reaches to the sky.
Affixed to the tower is a bronze plaque that memorializes H.C.

In the early 1900s in Newport, Ky., the Lansdale Cigar Co. produced “Colonel Egbert Cigars” and packaged them in a box adorned
with his photograph and paintings of him leading troops in Cuba.

Fort McClellan’s Egbert plaque isn’t as large or ornate as the stone tower plaque in Kentucky, it’s not part of the National Park Service
like the Fort Egbert remants in Alaska, and it’s not as secure as the avenue in San Francisco.

But it is McClellan’s, which makes it ours.

It says, “EGBERT BARRACK, Named in Honor of COLONEL H.C. EGBERT, Brigadier General, U.S.V., who commanded the 22nd Infantry
from July 1, 1898, to March 26, 1899, when he was killed leading his regiment in the attack on Malinta during the Malolos Expedition of the Philippine Insurrection.”

As Fort McClellan methodically transforms from a deserted Army post into a 21st-century economic engine, H.C. Egbert and those like him deserve protection.
I can’t help but wonder how many other McClellan namesakes have been lost over time. There is no official McClellan museum, a secure place open to public view.
It’s a shame.

Yet, Harry Clay Egbert, bronze, weathered, partially obscured, is as much a part of McClellan’s past as the soldiers who served there.
This is his weekend. Monday is his day, again.

Phillip Tutor — ptutor@annistonstar.com — is The Star’s commentary editor. Follow him at Twitter.com/PTutor_Star.

From The Anniston Star

 

**********************

 

 

Cigar box label from Colonel Egbert cigars with Spanish American War motif.
Cigars were made in Newport, Kentucky, only four miles from Fort Thomas,
where the stone tower with Egbert's plaque is.

 

 

**********************

 

 

In 2012, a cannon inscribed as a memorial to Colonel Egbert was un-earthed in the Philippines.
For a report on that cannon click on the following link to go to that page on this website:

Memorial Cannon for 22nd Commander Found in the Philippines

 

 

**********************

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Illustration of Egbert as a Colonel and Commander of the 22nd Infantry.
Note the 22nd Infantry Officer's Insignia on his collar.
"The Cost of a Year of War" by Jerome C. Bull, Munsey's Magazine VOL XXI No. 3, June 1899

2 Powell's Records of Living Officers of the United States Army by William H. Powell, Major, 22d Infantry U.S.A.
L.R. Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia 1890

3 COMBAT DIARY Episodes from the History of the Twenty-second Regiment, 1866-1905 by A. B. Feuer, Praeger Publishing, New York 1991

4 Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899
Government Printing Office, Washington 1899

5 AGUINALDO - A Narrative of Filipino Ambitions by Edwin Wildman, Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston 1901

6 Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899
Government Printing Office, Washington 1899

7 Photo of Egbert as a Brigadier General of Volunteers
HISTORY OF THE Twenty-first U.S. Infantry From 1812 to 1863
by Captain Celwyn E. Hampton, The Edward T. Miller Co., Columbus, Ohio 1911

8 Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the year 1878, Washington, Government Printing Ofice 1878

9 "The Cost of a Year of War" by Jerome C. Bull, Munsey's Magazine VOL XXI No. 3, June 1899

10 University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics; with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Founders,
Benefactors, Officers and Alumni,
Author Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Editors Edward Potts Cheyney, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer
Publisher R. Herndon Company, Boston 1902

 

 

 

 

 

 


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