That the Naval Division is worthy of a history in enduring form is undeniable: that it is worthy of a historian of more philosophy and patience is also undeniable. But if the principle is correct that “any weather is better than none,” as Mark Twain, who once produced a treatise on navigation which he called “Following the Equator,” summarized his opinion of the elements, then it may be correct to allege that this history is better than no attempt. From newspaper files which have long lain in un

In the early nineties the so-called, and perhaps miscalled movement for “Naval Reserves” came into Connecticut. In 1893 it gathered shape in New Haven and on the petition of Edward G. Buckland and forty-four others. General Edward E. Bradley of New Haven, adjutant-general under Governor Luzon B. Morris, issued an order for the formation of the First Division, Naval Militia, C. N. G. In November of that year a division was organized, a month pregnant with meaning in the annals of the naval establ

It is recorded that most of the originators of this movement were employees of the Pope Manufacturing Company or were members of the Hartford Canoe Club, and that some were luminaries in a social body known to fame as The Bachelors, but this last declaration is disputed. It was on March 14, 1896, that an application to Governor O. Vincent Coffin of Middletown, Commander-in-chief of the Connecticut National Guard, for the establishing of another division was drafted. The paper was guardedly circu

At 6:45 Saturday morning, July 11, the division to the number of forty-six entrained for New Haven and by 8 o’clock was on board the Cincinnati, as she lay off the breakwater. An hour later the cruiser weighed anchor and headed down the Sound, landing the divisions of the battalion on Gardiner’s Island, where they went into camp. Till late Sunday evening it was hard work and plenty of it, but the mettle of the division was shown in the test. Part of Sunday evening was spent in “hustling ice,” as

In a few months the division was carefully recruited and when the drill season started it was little effort for jack o’ the dust to report a tidy sum in the treasury. The division parlor was artistically decorated. Along the frieze was painted a stretch of blue water of dipsy hue on which was developed some of the most startling advances in shipbuilding. A craft of the time of Hiero, a Roman galley, a Viking ship, a French frigate of the sixteenth century, a warship of Revolutionary days, one of

Barely was the next drill season well inaugurated when the Maine sailed for Havana, and then came the terrible disaster in which many of the division’s shipmates were hurled into eternity, and next the preparation for the approaching conflict with Spain. In April, the First Regiment marched away, the division remaining eager for the coming call. Each drill evening the men put heart, energy and sustained attention into the work. Drills took place on the park in the presence of citizens who paid t

Following the excitement of the war summer came a reaction. The membership dropped nearly to the danger point. For a time it was a long and hard beat to windward, a trying fight with wind, wave and tide. Like every command from Connecticut which served in the war with Spain, the division found many of its best members returning to civilian ranks, and that to replace them either numerically or in quality required time and activity. But new blood—or what might be called a saline infusion—came, and

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER LYMAN ROOT Probably the most memorable occasion in the history of the command was September 30, 1899, “Dewey Day,” the day of the giant procession in New York City in honor of the fine old hero of Manila Bay. When the organizations to represent this state were selected, it was the Naval Battalion which headed the list of honor. The First Regiment was not upon the list, but with honorable patriotism officers of the regiment who had served in Camp Alger requested of Lieutenant

That summer’s cruise was on the Prairie and led to Penobscot Bay. The division sent in a whaleboat crew to race against one from the First Division on that water, and its crew defeated that from the Elm City by a quarter of a length, one of the New Haven officers marveling at this result and asserting that it was a mystery of the deep. It also captured two other boat races. Later in the summer camping parties spent week-ends in Paradise, the narrow strip between Bodkin Rock and the river a short

The third anniversary of the mustering in of the battalion at Niantic was observed by an outing at Woodmont, followed by a week-end cruise on the Elfrida, the converted yacht once owned by W. Seward Webb and purchased by the government at the breaking out of the war with Spain. At a banquet in the Pembroke Hotel at Woodmont, General Edward E. Bradley, adjutant-general when the First Division organized, and Senator Joseph R. Hawley were speakers. Master-at-Arms Murphy trained a volunteer racing c

In some respects the yearly cruise which started several weeks later was among the most memorable adventures of the division; and when some of the old hands are spinning yarns about what they did when they were young, they like to hark back to the “sham war” and a certain hike across Montauk Point. The most extensive land and sea maneuvers in many years were arranged in Washington for a force of several thousand of the army and for practically all of the fine North Atlantic squadron of that year

Amphibious is the word to apply to the division’s tour of duty that summer. The steam whaleboat, by this time christened “Tillie Hadley,” by her fireman, Gunner’s Mate Arnold, started down the river August 21, 1903, with the three pulling boats in tow, carrying nearly a quarter of the division. The following day the remainder boarded the Elfrida in New Haven harbor, and she with the First Division’s small boats in tow steamed to Crescent Bay. A detail from each division spent eight days afloat a

FURLING SAIL ON THE U. S. S. HARTFORD The yearly cruise of 1904 was on Farragut langsyne flagship, the Hartford, relic of the battle of Mobile Bay. It was as interesting as any which the division has ever taken, barring, perhaps, that on the Panther. When station billets were issued even the old hands volleyed questions at their running mates of the regular crew. Here is the start of a typical station billet: That was easy enough, even for a rooky. But what do you know about this? It was a novel

Sail drill was the feature of the cruise on the Hartford in 1904 and in the following year drill in small boats was the feature. On the training ship the boats usually hung outside the rail, but on the cruiser the boats were frequently kept inside the rail. With the ship’s four funnels and her multitudinous skylights and deckhouses her superstructure was unsuitable for “setting up.” A series of tug-of-war pulls enlivened the trip. The New Haven division won from Bridgeport and Hartford from New

Mr. Chapin’s cruise was on the Minneapolis, sister ship to the Columbia, and it started on August 25, 1906, from New Haven harbor. The ship steamed down the Sound and by Race Rock Light and anchored off Block Island in the evening with the port anchor, in seventeen fathoms, sixty fathoms of chain out. A protected cruiser, the Minneapolis did not rate a band, but she carried one till the Dolphin came along and commandeered the musicians. The next day the ship steamed out to sea for a hundred mile

Space has been economized for the chronicling of the next cruise, a trip on our old friend the Prairie to Hampton Roads. For several seasons the naval militiamen had prospered with running mates from the regulars, but for a reason to be made evident in the next sentence the pair-off system was not pursued this time. The Prairie had a skeleton crew of 145 and the battalion numbered about fifty above those figures. The start for the run down the coast was made by way of Montauk Point, rounding whi

Jan’y 4, 1909—Fourth Day Out. Lat. 41° 49′ N. Long. 71° 36′ W. Bar., rising; Wind, E. S. E.; Atmos., Smoky. All hands happy. Thus ends this Day.—[Extract from the Division’s Log.] At eight bells in the second dog watch all hands were piped to the fo’c’sle. On the forecastle-head two screen cloths were rigged on a sliding gunther brace. Being drawn, these disclosed Master-at-Arms Perkins in the capacity of Neptune disguised as Santa Claus. By the heel of the bowsprit were the crosstrees, which ha

So near is the history drawing to the present that merely a bare outline is given here of the next two years. The cruise of the summer of 1909 was on the Machias and took the division to quaint old Provincetown. The Pilgrims’ Tower and the swimming linger in the men’s memory. ENSIGN FRANK H. BURNS Members of the company enjoyed three days’ duty at the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York City. In December the company transferred to the new state armory and the indoor meet drew nearly three thou

Soon after the forming of the First Division an engineer force was outlined and then established and this in time became known as an engineer division. The organizing of the Second Division had its influence on the so-called engineer division. In time the branch as a separate organization seemed to lapse, although its importance was increasing. In January, 1908, an artificer division was called for, in an order from the adjutant-general’s office, to have a maximum enlisted strength of forty, and

The following is a list of members since the organization of the division, compiled from rosters and roll books and various records, and is believed to be substantially accurate: DIVISION PIN...