Week 15 2023: Solitude #52Ancestors — Making Sense of it All

While not strictly about “solitude,” I wonder if my granduncle, Charles B. Spencer fit that description. Born in Brooklyn in 1883, he left home when he was twenty-three years old. He only reconnected with his mother and sister (my grandmother) on his death bed in February of 1908.

In December of 1906, Charles enlisted at Fort Slocum, New Rochelle, Long Island, New York, for a three-year stint with the Sixth Cavalry. Initially established by the Third Regiment of the Irish Brigade in 1861, Fort Slocum became a U.S. Army recruiting and training center in 1878.[1] The Register of Enlistments describes Charles as being 5’ 10 ¾” with blue eyes, dark brown hair, and a “ruddy” complexion. He was assigned to Troop E.

According to the Sixth Cavalry Museum website, the Sixth was the only Regular cavalry regiment raised during the Civil War.[2] Established in August of 1861 in Pittsburg, PA, the regiment went on to participate in every campaign in the eastern theatre. Following the war, the Sixth Cavalry was stationed on the American frontier and engaged in some of the worst battles during the so-called Indian Wars.[3] Famously, the regiment fought alongside Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the battle of San Juan Hill.

I can only guess that this twenty-three-year-old saw life in the cavalry as somewhat more exciting than his life as a trolley car conductor in Newark, New Jersey. When he enlisted in 1906, he, his parents, and two siblings were living in an apartment above a store in Newark. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for 1908 shows this address as a three-story, triangle-shaped building of frame construction, with each floor measuring about 450 sq. ft. and likely no backyard to speak of.[4] Cramped quarters for a family of five.

Two months before Charles enlisted, The Sixth Cavalry was tasked with assisting the Tenth Cavalry in intercepting a band of White River Utes who had the audacity to leave their reservation in Utah.[5] According to a newspaper account at the time, the Utes “completely outwitted the military” when they raided Army supply wagons of 3,000 pounds of flour.[6]Caught by the subheading of a newspaper articles saying “Troops are in Need” and “Indians Attack White Men,” I can picture Charles imagining what an adventure it would be to in the fight.[7] Perhaps he also wanted follow in his father’s footsteps in the military. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from his father, who my mom describe as a mean old S.O.B

Please allow me a brief side-trip into this dispute with the White River Utes. According to the tribes website, the Ute people are the oldest residents of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona.[8] In 1879, after decades and decades of white intrusion, slaughter, and theft of their lands, a group of White River Utes, re-located to a reservation in northern Colorado, rose up against the local “Indian Agent” Nathan Meeker in what was called the “Meeker Massacre.”[9] The Utes were defeated again and were forcibly removed to the Uinta and Ouray Indian Reservation in northern Utah, losing all the lands the government had promised them. In 1905, the U.S. government again reneged on the treaty it had with the Utes and opened that reservation up to white settlement.[10]

Frustrated with the actions of the government, suffering from a lack of food and water, and denied their ability to hunt, a large group of armed Utes made their way north into Wyoming.[11] The Cheyenne Daily Leader reported on October 13, 1906, that a band of “renegade” Ute Indians had reached the Crow reservation.[12] The Tenth and Sixth cavalries were called up to confront the Utes and “escort” them back to the reservation in Utah. In late November, the soldiers of the Sixth had escorted them to Fort Meade in South Dakoa.[13] Utes had agreed to go to Fort Meade in exchange for the opportunity to air their grievances to President and to persuade him to not force a return to the reservation in Utah.[14]Long story short (and we can certainly anticipate this ending) the Ute’s lost their fight and were returned to their shrinking reservation in Utah. The New York Sun noted: “The Utes are practically the only Indians who as a tribe are holding out against the inevitable.”[15] As the Wyoming Historical Society article noted:

This much is clear: A band of a few hundred Utes had just completed a thirty-month act of nonviolent civil disobedience. They left Utah because they saw allotment as an existential threat to their culture and their economy, which it was. The events are a clear demonstration of the failures of the reservation system. The Utes were looking for a place where they could live as they wished and not be forced to farm. On the march … they appear to have been doing just that. They returned because the government left them no alternative.[16]

Back to Charles.

When he went to Long Island to enlist, Charles never told his family he was leaving, where he was going, or what he intended to do: he just disappeared. At some point, he let the family know that he was with the Sixth Cavalry in South Dakota and later in charge of the commissary at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn.

Not the complete story.

According to his service records, Charles deserted his post in South Dakota on August 9, 1907. He was apprehended less than a week later and was then sent to Fort Porter in Buffalo for court martial.

Well, that’s quite a turn of events.

Why desert? Perhaps he concluded Army life was not for him, although leaving in the middle of South Dakota in August appears not to have been the smartest of plans. It could also be because on that same day, an order was issued sending the bulk of the Sixth Cavalry to the Philippine Islands.[17] The Sixth had previously been stationed in Manilla during the Philippine-American War, so maybe his fellow soldiers clued him into what a horrible experience that may have been.

After being held at Fort Porter for about five months, Charles was dishonorably discharged on February 7, 1908. Somehow, some way, he wound up back in the Army, this time at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. The family was told he was in charge of the commissary at Fort Hamilton, which I find unbelievable. By the time his mother and sister visited him at the fort, he had been ill for ten days with some kind of “kidney trouble.”[18] They were present when he died on August 12, 1908.

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[1] Wikipedia.org, “Fort Slocum,” rev. 21:12, 24 March 2023.

[2] “A Brief History,” 6th Cavalry Museum (https://www.6thcavalrymuseum.org/regimental-history : accessed 8 May 2023).

[3] Ibid.

[4] 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, vol. 2, (Sanborn Map Company: 1909), 68; digital image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3814nm.g3814nm_g05571190802/?sp=87&st=image&r=-0.442,-0.014,1.953,1.591,0 : accessed 8 May 2023).

[5] Ibid.

[6] “Renegade Indians Elude U.S. Troops, The (Jersey City, New Jersey) Evening Journal, 2 November 1906, p. 1, col. 1.

[7] Indians Attack White Men,” The (New York) Sun, 31 October 1906, p. 1, col. 2.

[8] “Early History,” Southern Ute Indian Tribe (https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/ : accessed 9 May 2023).

[9] Wikipedia.org, “Meeker Massacre,” rev. 21:47, 13 December 2022.

[10] David D. Laudenschlager, “The Utes in South Dakota, 1906-1908,” The South Dakota State Historical Society, 1979, 236; digital version, (https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-9-3/the-utes-in-south-dakota-1906-1908/vol-09-no-3-the-utes-in-south-dakota-1906-1908.pdf : accessed 9 May 2023).

[11] Laudenschlager, “The Utes,” 236.

[12] “The Ute Renegades Make More Trouble,” Cheyenne (Wyoming) Daily Leader, 13 October 1906, p. 1, col. 3-4.

[13] “The Ute Indians at Fort Meade,” Cheyenne (Wyoming) Daily Leader, 25 November 1906, p. 1, col. 6.

[14] Tom Rea, “The Flight of the Utes,” “Encyclopedia,” Wyoming Historical Society (23 February 2021); digital image, Wyohistory.org (https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/flight-utes : accessed 10 May 2023).

[15] “Ute Indians Must Go to Work,” The (New York, New York) Sun, 3 November 1907, p. 1, col. 3.

[16] Rea, “The Flight of the Utes.” In 2006, a group of thirty Utes traveled from their Utah reservation to Fort Meade to commemorate the 100thanniversary of the “Flight of the Utes.” Ibid.

[17] William P. Duvall, Brigadier General, Acting Chief of Staff, War Department, Washington, D.C., General Order No. 166 (9 August 1907), General Orders and Bulletins -1907, War Department (U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1908), n.p.; digital image, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/General_Orders/jDctAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=166 : accessed 7 May 2023).

[18] “Seeks Her Dead Son’s Friend,” The (New York, New York) Sun, 14 august 1908, p. 5, col. 4.