Military | Page 42 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 27, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Unknown Negro Mess Man’

Following the attack, the reports from all of Pearl Harbor’s ships and shore facilities of the events of December 7, 1941 were assembled and analyzed; then, the process of confirmation and then giving commendations to all personnel cited in the hundreds of reports began.

The Navy Board of Awards was established on February 12, 1942. A Navy spokesman recommended that the ‘unknown Negro mess man’ be considered for an award (the sole commendation to an African American.)

The unknown Negro mess man was named to the 1941 Honor Roll of Race Relations. On March 12, 1942, Dr Lawrence D Reddick announced, after corresponding with the Navy, that he found the name was ‘Doris Miller.’ (Aiken)

Let’s look back …

Doris Miller was born on October 12, 1919, the third of four sons to Connery and Henrietta Miller in Waco, Texas. He was named for the midwife present at his birth.

The family lived in a three room farmhouse near Speegleville, Texas where his father was a farmer. His life had begun in a time of controversy, turmoil and violence, although his immediate surroundings appeared to be peaceful and simple. Everyone in America struggled through the Great Depression. (Baltimore AfroAmerican)

Along with his siblings, Doris worked to support the family farm from an early age. In his youth, he became an excellent marksman as he hunted for small game with his brothers.

Doris also had a successful school career at AJ Moore High School. His tall stature gained the attention of the football coach at the school who recruited Doris as a fullback on the team.

However, as Doris became older, and as war loomed on the horizon, he longed to join the armed forces much to the chagrin of his parents. After several attempts to join different sectors of the military, Doris enlisted in the US Navy in Dallas, Texas, on September 16, 1939.

Unfortunately, at the time of his enlistment, discrimination limited the areas of service for African Americans in the military. After training, his assignment was as a mess attendant, third class. (Danner; Waco History)

“You have to understand that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president in 1932, he opened up the Navy again to blacks, but in one area only; they were called mess attendants, stewards, and cooks,” says Clark Simmons, who was a mess attendant on the USS Utah during the Pearl Harbor attack.

“The Navy was so structured that if you were black, this was what they had you do in the Navy – you only could be a servant.” (National Geographic)

After training in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving a stint on the ammunition ship Pyro, Miller was assigned to the battleship West Virginia in 1940. He soon won renown as the best heavyweight boxer onboard.

With the exception of a training stay at Secondary Battery Gunnery School, Miller would remain on the West Virginia until December 7, 1941, when the ship was in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i.

The morning of the Japanese attack, Miller was doing laundry rounds when the call to battle stations went out. He rushed to his station, an antiaircraft-battery magazine. Seeing the magazine damaged by torpedo fire, he went above decks to help the wounded to safety.

Word came that “the captain and the executive officer, the ‘XO,’ were on the bridge and they both were injured,” says Simmons. “So Dorie Miller went up and physically picked up the captain and brought him down to the first aid station. And then he went back and manned a .50-caliber machine gun, which he had not been trained on.” (National Geographic)

He committed his efforts to the defense of the West Virginia until superiors ordered all to abandon ship.

“It wasn’t hard,” said Miller shortly after the battle. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.” (National Geographic)

Here’s a clip of Cuba Gooding, Jr portraying Miller in ‘Pearl Harbor.’

Of the 1,541 men on West Virginia during the attack, 130 were killed and 52 wounded. Then, word circulated about the ‘unknown Negro mess man’ and his actions that day.

On March 14, 1942, The Pittsburgh Courier released a story that named the black mess man as ‘Dorie’ Miller. This is the earliest found use of ‘Dorie,’ an apparent typographical error. (Some sources have further misspelled the name to ‘Dore’ and ‘Dorrie.’

Various writers have attributed ‘Dorie’ to other suggestions such as a “nickname to shipmates and friends”… or “the Navy thought he should go by the more masculine-sounding Dorie.” (Aiken)

On May 27, 1942 in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Chester W Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, personally recognized Miller aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Miller became the first African American recipient of the Navy Cross, the highest decoration the navy can offer besides the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Danner; Waco History)

The Navy’s commendation noted, “For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawai‘i, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941.”

“While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.” (Navy)

The Pittsburgh Courier called for Miller to be allowed to return home for a war bond tour like white heroes. In November 1942, Miller arrived at Maui, and was ordered on a war bond tour while still attached to the heavy cruiser Indianapolis.

In December 1942 and January 1943, he gave talks in Oakland, California, in his hometown of Waco, Texas, in Dallas and to the first graduating class of African-American sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Chicago.

Miller then reported to duty aboard the aircraft carrier Liscome Bay as Petty Officer, Ship’s Cook Third Class. After training in Hawai‘i for the Gilbert Islands operation, Liscome Bay participated in the Battle of Tarawa which began on November 20, 1943. (Philadelphia Tribune)

During the battle of the Gilbert Islands, on November 24, 1943, a single torpedo from a Japanese submarine struck the escort carrier near the stern. (Texas State Historical Assn)

The aircraft bomb magazine detonated a few moments later, sinking the warship within minutes. There were 272 survivors. The rest of the crew was listed as “presumed dead.”

On December 7, 1943 — exactly two years after Pearl Harbor —Miller’s parents were notified their son “was dead.” (Philadelphia Tribune)

In addition to conferring upon him the Navy Cross, the Navy honored Doris Miller by naming a dining hall, a barracks and a destroyer escort for him. The USS Miller (a Knox-class frigate) is the third naval ship to be named after a black navy man.

In Waco, a YMCA branch, a park and a cemetery bear his name. In Houston, Texas, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, elementary schools have been named for him, as has a Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter in Los Angeles.

An auditorium on the campus of Huston-Tillotson College in Austin is dedicated to his memory. In Chicago, the Doris Miller Foundation honors persons who make significant contributions to racial understanding. (Doris Miller Memorial) In Honolulu, there is a Doris Miller Loop, just mauka of the airport. (There are many more memorials to Doris Miller.)

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Admiral Chester Nimitz presenting the Navy Cross to Doris Miller

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Doris-Dorie-Miller

Miller speaking during a visit to the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, on 7 January 1943-80-G-294808

Miller speaking with sailors and a civilian at Naval Station Great Lakes, January 7, 1943

Dorie Miller-cartoon

Above_and_beyond_poster-1943 U.S. Navy recruiting poster featuring Doris Miller

Dorie Miller Pin

May 17, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Salvaging Oklahoma

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was planned as the initial step of their Pacific campaign. Admiral Isoruku, then Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet, supposedly originated the plan in early-1941.

The force assembled 2 battleships, 6 carriers, 3 cruisers, approximately 20 destroyers and 5 submarines, including midgets which were carried by mother submarines.

The force departed at 6 am, November 26, Japan time, and set an indirect northern course for the next rendezvous, 200 miles north of Oahu. On December 6, when the force was still 800 miles north of O‘ahu; it received the long awaited code message to proceed with the attack.

When the Japanese attacked, 86 vessels, including 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines, plus the usual complement of small craft, were based in the harbor (there were no aircraft carriers moored at Pearl Harbor at the time.)

When the onslaught subsided, nearly every ship bore scars. One of the worst damaged, the Oklahoma, was salvaged by one of the most complex operations in history. (Morris) Salvage efforts concentrated on the least damaged ships first, the Oklahoma was one of the last ships to receive serious attention.

The Oklahoma was, at the time of the attack, located outboard of the battleship Maryland, which was moored alongside Ford Island. She was struck on the port side by four to nine torpedoes, which caused the ship to capsize quickly and come to rest on the bottom at an angle of over 150-degrees from upright.

The righting and refloating of the capsized battleship Oklahoma was the largest of the Pearl Harbor salvage jobs, and the most difficult. Because the Oklahoma was old and very badly damaged, future active service was not seriously contemplated. The salvage effort focused on clearing an important mooring berth for further use.

Refloating operations were commenced by installing four independent patches in breaches of the hull, the largest of which consisted of five sections and was 130 ft long by 57 ft high.

The external structure served to reinforce the patch, which consisted of 4-in. thick siding sealed with packing materials. The sections were secured to the sides by means of hook bolts installed in holes burned by divers through the damaged shell of the ship. The patches were sealed by means of concrete poured into forms along the bottom and up both ends.

Fuel oil, ammunition and some machinery were removed to lighten the ship. Coral fill was placed alongside her bow to ensure that the ship would roll, and not slide, when pulling began.

Oklahoma’s port side had been largely torn open by Japanese torpedoes, and a series of patches had to be installed. Divers worked in and around her to make the hull as airtight as possible; their work was critical to the salvage success.

They wore deep-sea diving dresses weighing 185-lbs, and worked for many hours several hundred feet from access openings. All of this was done in total darkness, underwater lamps being of no use because of the excessively murky water.

All in all, about 6000-individual dives were made, during salvage operations at Pearl Harbor, averaging approximately four hours per dive.

An extensive system of righting frames (or “bents”) and cable anchors was installed on the ship’s hull, twenty-one large winches (the winches were powered by motors from Honolulu street cars) were firmly mounted on nearby Ford Island, and cables were rigged between ship and shore. (Navy)

The Oklahoma capsized in a position parallel to the shore. Righting operations involved the use of 21 five hp DC motor-driven winches, each of which, through two 17-part tackles, applied an approximately horizontal force transverse to the ship.

To allow turning moments, pendants extending from the outer blocks were secured to the tips of 21 40-ft-high “A” frames mounted on the above-water portion of the starboard bilge.

The first pull began on March 8, 1943, the final pull was on May 20, 1943 – it took 74-days to turn the ship over. She was floated by pumping air into air-tight compartments and pumping water out of the hull.

The ship came afloat in early November 1943, and was drydocked in late December. Once in Ship Yard hands, Oklahoma’s most severe structural damage was repaired sufficiently to make her watertight.

Guns, some machinery, and the remaining ammunition and stores were taken off. After several months in Drydock Number Two, the ship was again refloated and moored elsewhere in Pearl Harbor

The Oklahoma was later sold to the Moore Drydock Co of Oakland, California, for scrapping. On May 17, 1947, while under tow, the Oklahoma sank 540-miles out of Pearl Harbor with no one on board.

In the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were 2,402 US deaths from the attack. 1,177 of those deaths were from the USS Arizona, while 429 of the deaths were from the USS Oklahoma (14 Marines and 415 Sailors.)

Thirty-five crew members were positively identified and buried in the years immediately after the attack. By 1950, all unidentified remains were laid to rest as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Recently, the Defense Department recovered for identification and return to families the last of 388 sailors and Marines killed on the battleship USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941, and later buried as “unknowns” in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. (Lots of information here is from Navy, Morris and USSOklahoma-com.)

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USS_Oklahoma-_Salvage._Aerial_view_toward_shore_with_ship_in_90_degree_position-03-19-43

Capsizing of Oklahoma-illustration

Ship righted to about 30 degrees-29 March 1943

Backstay connections on the starboard hull. Cables attached here were connected to winches ashore

Ship righted to about 30 degrees, on 29 March 1943

Beginning of salvage operations, with righting bents and cables installed

View from off the port side, 24 December 1943, more than a month and a half after refloating and four days before the ship entered drydock

Installation of #1 and #2 righting bents on the capsized hull of the battleship

Oklahoma righted using Honolulu Street Car Motors-1943

Hauling blocks and tackles under preliminary tension, viewed from aft of the capsized battleship

Commencement of righting operations on the capsized battleship, at Pearl Harbor, 8 March 1943

Aerial view from off the port side, 6 November 1943, after the ship had been refloated

Refloated battleship enters drydock-12-28-1943

March 15, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Harold Melville Clark

Harold Melville Clark was born October 4, 1890, to Charles Asa Clark and Amanda Palmer Clark in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Clark family had a strong military tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.

His father fought Spanish forces in the Philippines while assigned to Company E, 13th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish American War of 1898. Clark’s older brother, Charles, served as a field-artillery officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.

The end of the Spanish American War brought a period of growth and interest in the Philippines. In 1904, the Clarks moved to Manila, where they enjoyed considerable wealth and prestige due to the family’s business ventures. During this time, Harold attended the American High School in Manila; he graduated April 1, 1910.

Harold followed in his family’s footsteps and returned to the US for military training. After being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry in 1913, his first assignment was with 1st Cavalry Division.

A couple years later he transferred into the Signal Corps’ aviation section and went to the North Island Flying School in San Diego, Calif. On May 3, 1917, Clark received his rating as a junior military aviator.

While Clark was getting his Army wings, the Signal Corps’ aviation section and military aviation in general was getting a troublesome start in the Hawaiian Islands. The first Army airplanes, pilots and crews arrived in Oahu in July 1913. The planes were based at Fort Kamehameha, near present-day Hickam Air Force Base.

Lieutenant Harold Geiger, who commanded the aviation assets, noted his limited aircraft were in poor shape. His flights were limited to short flights in Pearl Harbor and a longer flight to Diamond Head and back to Fort Kamehameha.

Geiger was ordered to cease all flying operations in late 1913. The planes were sold locally, and the engines were sent back to the North Island Flying School. The Hawaiian Islands wouldn’t see any more Army aviation activity until 1917. (Romano; Arlington)

Major Harold Clark became Army Department Aviation Officer and arrived in the Territory of Hawaii in 1917 to take command of the Army’s 6th Aero Squadron.

A major construction effort was initiated at the new Army air base at Pearl Harbor. Before long, Ford Island had two double seaplane hangars with concrete ramps, two wooden land plane hangars, one small motor repair and machine shop, and a supply warehouse.

In the center to the south end a narrow strip of land was cleared for land plane operation. By this time, the 6th’s strength increased to 10 officers. (hawaii-gov)

Clark quickly began to learn the Hawaiian winds and how to fly in them. On March 15, 1918, he flew to Molokai and back to Oahu – the first round trip inter-island flight ever made in the Hawaiian Islands.

His next feat was to try a three-island flight. Agreeing to take the mail, on May 9, 1918, Clark and mechanic Sergeant Robert Gray took off from Fort Kamehameha Oahu and flew to Maui. (Griffith)

After landing in Maui, they continued onto the island of Hawai‘i; nearing Hawai‘i’s coastline, Clark encountered thick cloud formations and promptly lost his bearings. Darkness added to his worries, so the Army flyer decided to land quickly. His airplane crashed on the slope of Mauna Kea.

Unhurt, pilot and mechanic found themselves in a jungle-like brush with no civilization in sight. Hoping to draw attention to their location, the pair set a fire some distance away from the wreckage … no rescuers came, so they started to walk out. (Hawaii-gov)

Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerged from the jungle unhurt. Clark delivered the letters, received an enormous welcome from the island’s residents and was the first airman to fly the mail in the Hawaiian Islands. (Griffith)

Clark continued to make regular flights among the islands. However, he was ordered back to the US mainland August 28, 1918, for pursuit training at the North Island Flying School.

Following this, Clark assumed command of Pursuit Group, First Provisional Wing, at Minneola, Long Island, N.Y. Clark commanded this group for only a short time before being ordered to Panama at the end of 1918.

On the morning of May 2, 1919, Clark and two other aviators, Lieutenant JRL Hitt and Lieutenant Thomas Cecil Tonkin, left France Field for Balboa in an Army seaplane. While enroute, the plane developed engine problems, but the trio made it to Balboa safely.

That same afternoon, the three aviators began the return flight to France Field with Hitt at the controls. Due to the plane’s earlier troubles, the flight followed the Panama Canal at an altitude of 250 feet. Shortly into the flight, the plane’s engine stopped.

The plane crashed into the front of Miraflores Locks at about 5 pm. “The machine crumpled up like a house of cards, and the three men were thrown into the water of the lock. Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine.”

“… Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it’s not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned.” (Panama Star & Herald; Romano; Arlington)

Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but bystanders rescued him. The Army ruled his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by “aeroplane traumatism,” according to a Defense Department report on Clark’s death dated May 8, 1919. Clark was buried May 29, 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

The base in the Philippines that would eventually bear Clark’s name was established in 1902 as Fort Stotensberg. The Army used this installation as a cavalry post following the Spanish American War. During World War II, this base would be pivotal in the Army Air Force’s effort to win the air war against Japan.

Following the end of World War II and creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, Fort Stotensberg was renamed Clark Air Base. The US turned over possession of Clark Air Base to the Republic of the Philippines November 26, 1991. Clark Air Base is now an international airport serving the Philippines. (Romano; Arlington)

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Maj_Harold_Melville_Clark

Harold_Melville_Clark-HS Diploma

Harold_Melville_Clark-Junior Military Aviator Certificate

Harold_Melville_Clark

In 1918 Maj Harold Clark & Sgt Robert Gray flew a Curtiss R-6 seaplane (similar to this) on the first flight from Oahu to Big Island

In 1918 Maj Harold Clark and Sgt Robert Gray survived a crash on Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii

Cloudy slopes of Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, where Maj. Harold Clark crashed in 1918

Harold Melville Clark gravestone

Clark Air Force Base

March 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Naked Warriors

They were equipped only with swim fins, face mask and a slate board with a lead pencil on which to record intelligence gathered … their only weapon was a knife (thus, nearly defenseless or ‘naked;’) they were part of the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT.)

The Pacific Underwater Demolition Teams originated at Waimanalo Beach in December, 1943. (A ‘Naked Warrior’ monument commemorates their training at Bellows.)

On November 19, 1943, five thousand US Marines invaded Tarawa Island in the Gilbert Islands. Offshore coral reefs and other obstacles in the surf had resulted in many of the Marines drowning or being hit by enemy fire because their landing craft could not reach the beach.

Tarawa proved that troops should not be sent against enemy beaches until a thorough off-shore reconnaissance had been made.

To prevent a repetition of Tarawa it was necessary for trained personnel to search the water off the beaches and remove obstacles to make the passage from ship to shore nearly safe as possible. UDTs were organized in the Pacific following the Tarawa invasion.

UDT-1 and UDT-2 (each with about 15-officers and 150-enlisted men) were formed at Amphibious Training Base (ATB) Waimanalo, which was situated in proximity of today’s Bellows Air Force Station (AFS.) (By the end of the war, there were 34 UDTs.)

War planners realized success would require massive and numerous beach attacks from Africa to Normandy to hundreds of islands in the Pacific. Every one of those beaches was defended by an intricate network of underwater obstacles, booms, mines, chains and barriers.

Some were straight angled pillars and some were L-shaped, X-shaped and H-shaped “hedgehogs” that functioned even when knocked over. The obstacles could rip the bottom out of landing craft and often were topped by “teller” mines, flat plate-shaped explosives (“teller” is German for “plate.”)

Initially, about thirty officers and one-hundred and fifty men trained in underwater demolition work at Waimanalo. The original teams were comprised of men from the Navy, Army and Marine Corps.

After their first combat deployment in January-February 1944, UDT training was moved to Kihei, Maui, because Waimanalo didn’t have the space or facilities needed for demolition training.

The Naval Combat Demolition Training and Experimental Base, Maui was set up on the beach near the pier of the Kamaole Amphibious Training Base. (A monument commemorating UDT-14 is at Kamaole Beach Park I, in Kihei.)

Some of the first to go ashore in combat were 6-man units, called Navy Combat Demolition Units; divers located obstacles, mapped lines of attack, disarmed mines and demolished natural and man-made beach blockages.

During their early missions, Navy combat swimmers were completely clothed in combat uniforms, boots and metal helmets. That changed during a mission in preparation for the invasion of the Japanese held atoll of Kwajalein in January 1944.

Ordered to conduct a reconnaissance mission to assess beach conditions in advance of the planned assault, the two man team of Ensign Lewis F. Luehrs and Chief Petty Officer Bill Acheson could not get close enough to shore because of a coral reef.

They stripped to their underwear and swam over the reef to complete the mission undetected, becoming the first “Naked Warriors.”

Following the success of that mission, training emphasized strong swimming skills and operating without the use of lifelines, wearing only face masks, swim trunks and fins.

Underwater Demolition Teams were the foremost precursors of today’s Navy SEALs (starting on the windward coast of Oʻahu, in Waimanalo.)

The concept for development of an improved “Naval Guerrilla/Counter-guerrilla Warfare” capability within the US Navy was delineated in a March 10, 1961 Navy memorandum of recommendations.

Included was a recommendation for a wide range of “additional unconventional warfare capabilities within, or as an extension of our amphibious forces.”

The same memorandum stated that, “An appropriate name for such units could be ‘SEAL’ units, SEAL being a contraction of SEA, AIR, LAND, and thereby indicating an all-around, universal capability.” (Navy)

A bronze “Naked Warrior” statue greets visitors at the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. (Lots of information here is from Navy and Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.)

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Pencil drawing displaying NCDU men at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6th, 1944

Naked Warrior in water

Naked Warrior-First_Trainees_FT_Pierce_1943

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Naked Warrior

Naked Warrior-under water

Naked Warriors-on beach

Naked Warrior-setting charges

Naked Warrior-setting charges training

Underwater Demolition Team 14 -Kihei Maui

Naked Warriors

Naked Warrior-monument-Bellows

UDT-14 Memorial-Kamaole_1-Kihei, Maui-600

Naked Warrior-plaque-Bellows

Naked Warrior UDT WWII _ National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

Underwater_Demolition_Teams_shoulder_sleeve_patch

USN_-_UDTBadge

February 27, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Henry Ho‘olulu Pitman

“Henry Pitman, the first of Hawai‘i’s sons to fall in the war, died at Annapolis Parole Camp, Union army. His remains were deposited in Mt Auburn Cemetery, near Boston, Massachusetts, his memory be embalmed among our band. … He died in a just cause.” (HMCS)

Timothy Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman, born March 18, 1845, in Hilo, was the eldest son of High Chiefess Kinoʻole-o-Liliha (Kinoʻole) of Hilo and Benjamin Pitman, originally from Boston (his siblings were Mary and Benjamin.)

“(Kinoʻole) was a daughter of Hoʻolulu, a famous chief in the time of Kamehameha the Great. Hoʻolulu and Ulumāheihei (afterwards converted to Christianity and renamed Hoapili-Kane by the missionaries, and first governor of Maui) took the body of Kamehameha at his death and hid it in the caves at Kaloko fish ponds, according to Hawaiian custom with great chiefs.”

“The Chiefess Kinoʻole who married Benjamin Pitman, senior, lived for many years in a mansion on the spot where the Hilo Hotel now stands. Pitman, is a first cousin of the late George Beckley, for many years purser and director with the Inter-island Steamship Company. Beckley’s mother was Kinoiki, sister of Chiefess Kino‘ole.” (Star-Bulletin, December 26, 1916)

His father “came here in about 1833, and ran a general merchandise store on one corner of the present Hotel grounds, the family homestead being located where the Hotel is now located.” (Hilo Tribune, February 14, 1905)

Henry’s father, “ became very wealthy out of the then flourishing whale business, which was centered around the Islands, and … (became) the king’s representative on Hawaii, having charge of all the royal, crown and public lands here.”

“He acquired considerable property, owning the whole of the Puueo tract of 2,500 acres, and also about 300 acres of the Ponohawai tract, commencing just above Pleasant Street and running 2 miles up the Kaumana Road.”

“As Pitman’s business increased he built a new store on the comer of Front and King Streets, where the Ick Sing Company is now located, and continued in business there until 1861 when he sold to Capt. Spencer.”

“His store and that of Geo. More, located where the Coney House now stands, were the only two stores in the village during the lava flow of 1840, when night was as bright as day in Hilo.”

“Pitman Street (what is now the segment of Kinoʻole Street between Waianuenue Avenue and Haili (then called Church) Street, where the Hotel is located is named after this early pioneer.” (Hilo Tribune, February 14, 1905)

Henry Pitman’s mother died in 1855; “His hair was jet black, his eyes large and lustrous, his face swarthy, and from the ambrotypes shown us of the princess, his mother, he strongly resembled her whom he mourned”. (Parker)

His father later married Maria Louisa (Walsworth) Kinney, widow of missionary Henry Kinney. She died in Hilo on March 6, 1858.

His father decided to leave the islands and returned to Massachusetts with the children around 1860. Henry continued his education in the public schools of Roxbury, Boston, where the Pitman family lived for a period of time. Then, the Civil War.

“His resolve was made. He would enlist.” (Carter) On August 14, 1862, Pitman left school without his family’s knowledge and volunteered to serve in the Union Army and fight in the American Civil War.

A member of Co. H, 22nd Regt. Mass. Vols., he was with his Regiment in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Sharpsburg. (Pitman Gravestone)

“Among our number, however, we had noticed a tall, slim boy, straight as an arrow. His face was a perfect oval, his hair was as black as a raven’s wing, and his eyes were large and of that peculiar soft, melting blackness, which excites pity when one is in distress.”

“His skin was a clear, dark olive, bordering on the swarthy, and this, with his high cheek bones, would have led us to suppose that his nationality was different from our own, had we not known that his name was plain Henry P– .” (Carter)

“There was an air of good breeding and refinement about him, that, with his small hands and feet, would have set us to thinking, had it not been that in our youth and intensely enthusiastic natures, we gave no thought to our comrades’ personal appearance.”

“(T)he tears trembled upon his long, dark lashes, and rolled down the swarthy cheeks of the boy soldier. As we hastened along the hard Warrenton turnpike, on this 18th day of November, on our march to the ‘Spotted Tavern,’ every step seemed accompanied by a groan of fatigue or exhaustion, from the worn and weary men.” (Carter)

“It was long and terribly exhausting march. It rained nearly every day. In vain did the water-soaked, drowned-out men try to dry out their clothes and cleanse the mud from their persons, now filthy from long neglect.”

“We wallowed and floundered along the boggy roads the wagons stalled the mules, no longer able to scarcely drag the wagons, lay down in their harness, many of them to die. The teamsters cursed and swore, and the columns staggered along.” (Parker)

“Private Henry Pitman, Company H, asked member of the company if he would fall out with him as he was sick, and his feet, from wearing tight boots, were blistered and unfit for marching, and his comrade consented to do so.”

“A fire was started, coffee put on to boil, and the rear of the column had nearly passed, when it was decided that without authority to fall out, even to care for sick man, arrest or disastrous consequences might result, and the comrade determined to move on.”

“Pitman was urged to make further effort and go into camp, but he positively refused to budge until his poor sick body was rested from the exhausting efforts of the day’s march.”

“Leaving him as comfortable as possible, his comrade joined the rear of the column, and struggling to the head joined the Twenty-second, and went into camp an hour later. Pitman was never heard from, and was always borne upon the rolls as missing.” (Parker)

Pitman was taken prisoner by Stuart’s cavalry on the march to Fredricksburg. “He was sent to Libby Prison, and not being strong, contracted still further the chronic disease”. (Parker)

He was part of a prisoner exchange and paroled to a camp in Annapolis, Maryland. “The men who arrived there from Southern prisons ‘were in pitiable condition of mind and body, having experienced extreme suffering.’” (Dye)

“(H)e was confined in a place he called the ‘Pen’ which undoubtedly refers to the Andersonville Stockade where thousands of Union soldiers were starved to death while under gard. In one of his letters Henry Pittman tells of the filthy meat thrown to them as if they were dogs.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 28, 1910)

Then, the sad news … “We regret to learn by the last mail of the death of Henry Pitman, son of Benj. Pitman, Esq formerly of Hilo. He died at the Annapolis Parole Camp, Feb. 27th, of lung fever, having been serving as soldier in the Union army.”

“He was about 20 years of age (17-years, 11-months and 9 days,) and his remains were deposited in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, near Boston Mass.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 28, 1863)

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