#6 Sgt. John Fraser Cameron (1878-1905) - Veteran of the Spanish American War

 

PCA Archives

John Fraser Cameron, born January 1878 in Memphis, Tennessee, is believed to have been the son of Col. John Fraser Cameron, Sr. and his wife Mary A. Myers.  Since John Sr. and his wife died in 1882 and 1883 respectively, it is likely that their six orphaned children were raised by relatives.  Three of the Cameron daughters—Mary Belle, Chloe Ann, and Nancy Louise--made advantageous marriages.

John F. Cameron was working as a telephone lineman when he enlisted in the U. S. Army at Galveston on April 28, 1898.  It was just a few days after President McKinley had declared war on Spain. 

Cameron was regarded as a very good soldier.  He rose to the rank of sergeant in Company C, 30th U. S. Infantry and might have made a career in the military, had it not been for his contracting tuberculosis.

He was at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, when he was discharged on May 16, 1905, as unfit for duty.  Fort Bayard was a decommissioned frontier fort which was being used as a tuberculosis sanitarium for Army personnel.  A week later, Cameron was awarded a disability pension.

 Cameron then traveled to Arizona to join his older brother Allen, who was living in Sayer.  However, he died in Wickenburg, Arizona, on December 26, 1905, and was buried in Porter Cemetery. 

 -by Donna Carr

The Girl I Left Behind Me

 

Val Digital Art and AI

One of the songs associated with the Spanish-American War is "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which, although not originally from that period, was popular among soldiers during various American military engagements, including the Spanish-American War. The song itself dates back much further and has British origins, but it became part of American military culture. The lyrics speak to the feelings of soldiers as they leave their loved ones to go off to war. Here are the lyrics to one of the versions of "The Girl I Left Behind Me":

I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill, 

And o'er the moor and valley,

Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill,

Since parting with my Sally.

 

I seek no more the fine or gay,

For each does but remind me

How swift the hours did pass away,

With the girl I left behind me.

 

Oh ne'er shall I forget the night,

The stars were bright above me

 And gently lent their silv'ry light,

When first she vowed to love me.

 

But now I'm bound to Brighton camp,

 Kind heaven then pray guide me,

And send me safely back again,

To the girl I left behind me.

 

The bee shall honey taste no more,

The dove become a ranger,

The falling waters cease to roar,

Ere I shall seek to change her.

 

The vows we've made to one another,

Oh, they're recorded in the sky,

And never shall I wed another,

Till the day I die.

 

Though in the battle front we're placed,

And death is hovering round us,

No fear shall mine the line to waste,

Nor entwine the laurels round us.

And if we're called to face the foe,

No fear shall e'er unbind me,

 My thoughts will be with her I know,

The girl I left behind me.

 

 

John A Rodgers (1873 - 1908) - Spanish-American Soldier (repost)

                                       

Army Invalid card for John A. Rodgers, 1908

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

John A. Rodgers, African American, was born around 1873 in Senatopia, Mississippi. On July 12, 1898, he enlisted in Company E, 23rd Kansas Volunteer Infantry. It was a segregated unit drawn from several Kansas communities founded by freedmen in the post-Civil War era. Black units were being sent to Cuba on the theory that African Americans would have some immunity to tropical diseases. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case.

By the time the regiment reached Santiago, Cuba, in August 1898, the shooting war was already over. The 23rd Kansas was tasked with guarding 5000 defeated Spanish soldiers awaiting transport back to Spain. During much of his tour of duty in Cuba, Rodgers was laid up with dysentery and then malaria.
 
On March 1, 1899, the 23rd Kansas boarded a transport ship for New York City. Rodgers was discharged on April 10 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he married a woman named Annie Pickett on October 3, 1900.
 
Rodgers’s military service had left him debilitated and unfit for heavy physical labor. Pension records show that he was 6 feet 4 inches , unusually tall for that era.  He became a tailor, possibly because readymade clothing did not fit him and he had to sew his own anyway. 
 
On May 26, 1906, Rodgers applied for and received a disability pension (Invalid Certificate #1022317). Owing to his bout with dysentery in Cuba, he was afflicted with large, protruding piles (hemorrhoids). Initially, he received $10 a month. Over the years, payment was increased to $17 a month.
 
In mid 1908, John Rodgers was experiencing heart problems, although he was only 35 years old. He left his wife in Hot Springs and went to Los Angeles, possibly to the Old Soldiers Home in Sawtelle. Thereafter, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he rented a room at 30 North 2nd Avenue. To support himself, he placed ads in the local newspaper, asking for work repairing old carpets and refurbishing used clothing.
 
John A. Rodgers died on November 14, 1908, of aortic insufficiency, mitral regurgitation, and hypertrophy of the left ventricle.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.
 
Several days after Rodgers’ death, Marshal Moore of Phoenix received an urgent letter from a Mrs. Jennie Reeves, asking the marshal to take charge of Rodgers’ body and effects. She also said that the deceased was a military veteran and asked that Rodgers’ body be returned to Arkansas for burial or sent to the National Cemetery. Her request could not be accommodated, however, because Rodgers was already buried and no one could attest to Mrs. Reeves’ legal rights to Rodgers’ property.
 
- story by Donna Carr