One War Becomes Two
Cubans had sought independence from Spain, and Americans
sympathized with them, especially when Spanish rule was harsh. Moreover,
American economic
interests in Cuba had been surging, and the imperial endeavors of other
major powers spurred America to increase its global military and political reach.
For many Americans, the last straw was the
sinking of the USS Maine
battleship and its 260-plus sailors in Havana Harbor in February 1898. Spain
was never proven to be the perpetrator, but the public outcry was unforgiving
and impatient. Congress declared war in April, and the subsequent four months
saw fighting in Cuba and the Philippines, another disgruntled Spanish colony.
The United States demolished the Spanish fleets in the
Caribbean and the Pacific, and won many land battles—most famously the July
advance of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” in Cuba. Around 3000 Americans
died in the war, most from disease. Combat ended in August, and Spain and the
United States signed the Treaty of Paris in December. Spain gave up most of its
overseas possessions, and America liberated Cuba—though arguably only
technically—and purchased the Philippines for $20 million. America had become a
world player.
Yet many Filipinos had desired independence, not another colonial
occupation. They rejected the protracted presence of U.S. troops, and
war broke out in
February 1899 between the recent allies. Each side committed atrocities,
and peace stalled for more than three years. Tens of thousands of Filipinos
perished, as did some 4200 Americans. The islands finally achieved independence
after World War II.
The First Montana
Seemingly far removed from all this, in a state with a name
ironically derived from the Spanish word for “mountain,” was a Big Timber
laborer named Bird Vestal, Big Timber painter George Pitcher, and Melrose
farmer (or engineer, records vary) Oscar Fallang. In May 1898, these men joined
Company
L of the
First
Montana Infantry, a volunteer regiment under the command of Colonel Harry
C. Kessler, a Civil War veteran and future one-star general.
The 1st Montana was mustered into service in Helena on May 9,
1898. By the end of the month, it was stationed at Camp Merritt in San
Francisco with more than 1000 men. While there, one of the Big Timber enlistees,
W.J.
Hannah, wrote home as follows:
“Armed with their new Springfield
rifles and dressed in new uniforms, the men of the regiment appear second to
none…There is very little of the ‘dude’ and ‘prig’ element to be seen among our
officers or the soldiers…Although few in number, the Sweet Grass County boys
are in evidence on all matters of import…The Montana men are more than anxious
to go to the front…This moment the regiment is happier than ever before. Each
of the soldiers has received $29.64, his pay for two months’ service, and
permission to leave camp until 8:30 p.m.”
Hannah decries some issues with old guns and low rations. But
he also remarks that Bird Vestal has “superior marksmanship,” George Pitcher is
“unsurpassed by the best men in the regiment,” and Oscar Fallang “is a soldier
and a gentleman.”
Late in August, the regiment disembarked at the Philippines,
where it served with honor for one year. In a pre-travel age, the Montanans
were far from home for 17 months until October 1899, when less than 900
returned.
Roughly 40
soldiers had died, 100 had been wounded, and 10 had deserted. The adjutant
general’s
official
report calls these numbers “mute but eloquent evidence” that “war is a
serious business.”
Three Local Soldiers
Bird
Vestal was five feet, five inches tall, with grey eyes, brown hair, and a
“ruddy” complexion. So read his enlistment card, which also said he was 21
years old in 1898. But he might have lied about his age in order to volunteer, given
that two other sources note he was born as late as 1882. When Bird was young,
his
parents James and Harriet moved from Oregon to Montana, where his father
became a sheep rancher. Just a few years later, his mother died. Yet he evidently
overcame this tragedy as he grew up. His father hosted a party for
his
11th birthday, he made the
honor
roll in school—possibly at Springdale—and at 12 years of age he
helped
guide some tourists through Yellowstone Park. Besides all this, Bird had
three siblings—including his older brother Ora, who also served in the military
(hence their first name references).
George
Pitcher was born in Fort Ellis. His enlistment card shows he was 26 years
old, had brown hair, grey eyes, and a fair complexion. Also, he was five feet,
eight inches tall. Pitcher was single before the war, but like Bird and
Fallang, married afterward. In Pitcher’s case, marriage ended in a catastrophe—abuse,
divorce, drunkenness, and finally his own murder.
Oscar
Fallang was the second of six children born to
Peter
and Inger Fallang. Peter served in the Norwegian Army for a few years until
1873, when he and Inger
immigrated
to the United States. Oscar was born about two years later in Wisconsin,
but eventually Peter started a ranch near Big Timber. According to a
biographical sketch on the “Progressive Men of the State of Montana” page on
archive.org, Peter “does not belong to any secret society, but is a firm
believer and active worker in the Lutheran church.” He shied away from public
office more than once, but he did become an early commissioner of Sweet Grass
County, albeit refusing pay. Peter felt Montana was “one of the best and most
promising [states] in the Union.” Oscar joined Company L at age 23, and had
blue eyes, light hair and complexion, and a height of five feet, seven inches.
Fighting in the
Philippines
The 1st Montana saw action numerous times in 1899.
According
to one source, Bird Vestal took part in 23 engagements. In its history of
the regiment, the
Butte Miner states that at least one
unit was in combat each day for six weeks in February and March. On February
23, enemy fire killed
Second
Lieutenant Eugene S. French, of Company L, while he and his men secured a
bridge. He actually tried to help some Filipinos who wanted to surrender, but
exposed himself to a shot from the trees in the process. He was the regiment’s only
officer to die in battle.
The
military honored him with a formal funeral—yet he left behind his wife and
four-year-old son.
Also in February, Colonel Kessler’s superior officer told
him his men were in front of the firing line, when they were supposed to be in
reserve.
Kessler’s
prompt response was as follows: “My compliments to the general and tell him
to bring up his firing line.” The 1st Montana stayed put. The same general lauded
Kessler’s men as “coyotes” which “nothing can stop.”
Time
and again the regiment displaced the enemy, inflicting greater casualties
than it sustained itself.
The first regiment death resulted from disease in July 1898,
a month before going to the Philippines; while the final death came in July
1899, also from disease, a month before leaving the Philippines.
Homecoming
Kessler’s soldiers got a huge “
welcome home” when
they returned to Montana in October 1899. Dignitaries, the state governor,
members of the press, volunteers, and “800 lunch boxes” awaited them in Dillon,
their first train stop. To those who were from Dillon, a parade,
schoolchildren, an arch, flags, Civil War veterans, and a feast awaited them. A
town leader addressed them, saying, “The city is yours. If you see anything you
want, take it. If you do not see what you want, ask for it; and it will be
given to you.”
The following weeks must have been exciting but strange. The
men were home—and away from the fighting and free from orders. They could find
regular jobs, live in relative comfort, and even consider marriage. Yet maybe
they missed their comrades or their adventures, or some may have felt guilty
that others were still fighting, as the war dragged on into the new century.
And nobody knows if they had nightmares or other symptoms of post-traumatic
stress.
The Fourth Soldier
Ora
Vestal was Bird’s oldest sibling. He led an extraordinary life for his day,
especially given his location and age. He was popular as a teen.
When
he turned 15, the
Big Timber Pioneer
mentions that seven boys and 17 girls attended a surprise birthday party for
him—“and with games and dancing the evening was very pleasantly spent.” The
following year,
Ora
played a clown during a city-wide masquerade. Before long, Ora enrolled at
Montana
Agricultural College—today’s Montana State University—60 miles away in
Bozeman. He earned a business degree, one of just two graduates from Big Timber
at that time at the College.
Around 1896-1897, Ora left the United States for at least a
year. Sources are unclear, but he may have volunteered for the
Argentine
Navy for a time, and his passport likely acquired a variety of stamps in
it. When he returned to Montana in late 1897—not even 18 years old yet—he
declared he was “
only
back on a vacation.” (In those days, the local small-town newspaper
regularly identified fairly monotonous, or even personal, details of
individuals’ lives and locations.) It was evidently a lengthy vacation, as he
started bookkeeping at
Big
Timber National Bank in January. But by mid-1898, with war under way, he
signed up for the American Navy and ended up on the USS Yosemite, which went to
Haiti and Cuba.
He
wrote a letter from Philadelphia to his sister Maud, also cited in the
Big Timber Pioneer, just before sailing
south. He cheerfully described his office, which had “Brussels carpet and China
silk curtains”; his responsibilities, such as “anchors that weigh twenty tons”;
and his daily routine, which included chores, drills, and reading “a good
book.” His signature affectionately read, “I am yours as ever, Ora Vestal.”
After the war, Ora briefly tried a calm life,
becoming
a bookkeeper again in May 1899. But even in Montana, it seems he could not
settle down, as he spent “
a
month’s visit in the western part of the state” early that fall. Then in October
he joined the Army, and bade farewell to his family for the hundredth time. But
his younger brother Bird—whom he had not seen in nearly 18 months—and the 1st
Montana were still returning from the Philippines. Amazingly, their mutual
transition helped them cross paths in Oregon—Ora going to war, Bird coming home.
Before long
Ora
became a sergeant, “and was in line for future promotion.” He served
honorably with his unit for around six months. In the summer of 1900, the
Big Timber Pioneer printed two letters
by his fellow soldiers. One called Ora “a soldier if there ever was one, and a
friend to all.” He had “an almost superhuman endurance…smiling face…congenial
way…utter disregard for self” and a “kind and loving disposition.” Officers and
soldiers saw Ora as always “ready to help a weaker comrade, intelligent and
self-reliant, always ready to volunteer for any dangerous or arduous duty.” Then
in May 1900, at age 21, his accomplished life abruptly ended.
Some of Ora’s men were positioned across a river and had run
short of supplies. Ora put supplies into an old local boat and began crossing
the river. But the boat filled with water, and Ora started swimming the rest of
the way. By all accounts he was a great swimmer, and for a time he and his men
called to each other. Then silence. The company made all efforts to rescue him,
but without success. They never learned whether a crocodile or an undercurrent
brought Ora down.
After the War
Bird Vestal seemed to live a good life after the war. He
married
May Baxter in Missoula in 1900. A year later he
joined the military again.
In August 1901, Company C of Montana’s reorganized national guard was mustered
in Big Timber, and Bird became First Lieutenant. Whether this unit saw any
action, how long Bird was part of it, or whether his brother’s adventures or
fate inspired him to reenlist—are unknown. After the armed forces, Bird and May
homesteaded near Sumatra, Montana. The
Crazy
Mountain Museum notes that May became a teacher, but died in 1923. Bird moved
to Alaska for several years, but he eventually returned to Montana. He died in
Harlowton in 1948.
George Pitcher also joined the respectable Company C in
1901. Five years later,
Pitcher
married Caroline Watkins, but their marriage had big problems from the start.
Less than eight years after their wedding, Pitcher had been in trouble with the
law multiple times for
beating
his wife. They separated by 1913.
On
October
7, 1914, George visited Caroline’s house while intoxicated and threatened to
kill her. She retorted in kind. Then she noticed him through a window, stepped
outside, and shot him. She and a neighbor went over to where George lay on the
ground. He died within minutes. In a quick trial, the jury accepted their
troubled past and ruled that she killed her ex-husband—but
acquitted
her of murder.
The day after George Pitcher’s death,
the
Big Timber Pioneer editorialized the
killing as follows: “The
Pioneer
believes that it but voices the universal sentiment by stating that [the]
deceased got simply what he had been looking for, and what he should have
gotten years ago.” When Caroline was declared innocent, the paper repeated its
earlier opinion, adding, “Comment is unnecessary.”
Less than two years after killing her husband,
Caroline
was back in jail for 12 days. Using a fake name in Livingston, she and an
apparent lover violated contemporary city ordinances by seeking “the use of
rooms [sic] for immoral purposes.” During her murder trial, she had used her
maiden name, Watkins, but in 1916, the newspaper identified her as “Mrs.
Pitcher.” The paper also cited the Big Timber police chief as calling her “a
woman of doubtful character.” Ironically, the article just above this one was
about efforts to recruit the
2nd
Montana Infantry “to full war strength” in order to quell trouble with
Mexico.
Maybe coincidentally, the same copy of the
Pioneer mentioned
one
more story regarding George Pitcher. A fellow veteran of the
Spanish-American War, John Douglas, petitioned a congressman and a one-star
general to rebury Pitcher in a national or military cemetery, rather than the one
on the edge of Big Timber. But Douglas’ request was denied due to
technicalities. Why he hoped to honor Pitcher in this way is uncertain,
especially since his name is not on
the
1st Montana roster. Pitcher’s body remains at
Mountain
View Cemetery. But his white military headstone, which has neither a cross nor
dates, is now surrounded by dozens of other soldiers’ headstones from wars in
the 20th century.
Oscar Fallang served “with distinction” during his time in
the Philippines. But he left the military when Company L came home. In 1900 Sweet
Grass County elected him sheriff, a job he held for
14
straight years. On Christmas Day 1902, he married Susan Whitfield, who was
a teacher. They had two sons together, before Susan died in 1907. That year Fallang
became a charter member of the iconic
Big
Timber Lutheran Church. His name is on the charter plaque in the main
sanctuary, as is one of this author’s great-grandfathers.
Fallang
remarried in 1911, possibly to Susan’s sister Sarah.
When Fallang became sheriff, “the ‘rustlers’ had the county.”
But by the time he retired, the last of the “rustlers” had “disappeared years
ago.” The
Pioneer praised his service:
“Throughout the state he is known as an able, honest, fearless, close-mouthed
official, one who has made good in every undertaking.” For much of his remaining
life, Fallang went back to agriculture.
He died in 1952. Sarah
outlived him by a decade.
War and Peace
These men are merely four out of 37 from Sweet Grass County
to serve in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars.
More
than 300,000 Americans served in these ostensibly modest conflicts.
Weeks after World War II, the Fallangs received
a letter from
Oscar Jr., by then a staff sergeant. After serving in the European Theater,
his unit was transferred to the Philippines. But in contrast to his father, Oscar
Jr. was on “P.I.” during a time of peace. A year later, the islands gained
their independence from all foreign powers.
America’s victory and half-century rule over the Philippines
overtly benefited the former more than the latter. Yet the great power politics
of the nineteenth century granted small powers like the Philippines little or
no room for their own freedom. This trend notably reversed itself in the
decades after Americans like Ora and Bird Vestal, George Pitcher, and Oscar Fallang
bravely served their country.
(Originally published by the
Montana Pioneer.)
