War heroes spoke at Memorial Day events

Some of the great names in American military history – men whose careers stretched from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War – made appearances in Bangor in the early years of the 20th century thanks to Gen. Joseph S. Smith, who, as the newspapers liked to say, was well-connected.

They included Admiral Winfield Scott Schley of Spanish-American War fame; Gen. Nelson A. Miles, intrepid Civil War hero for the Union and Indian fighter; and Gen. Joseph Wheeler, one of the Confederacy’s great cavalry leaders. They spoke at Memorial Day exercises in 1902, 1904 and 1905, respectively. Gen. John B. Gordon, another well-known Confederate officer, appeared in 1900 to help raise money for a veterans’ home.

This parade of military celebrities became so well known that Memorial Day in Bangor was transformed into a major media event for a few years, and Smith into a celebrity. These famous men stayed as guests of Smith at his large brick house at the corner of State and Newbury streets. When it was announced that Wheeler was coming to Bangor a century ago, it was Smith’s photograph, not Wheeler’s, that appeared below the large headline in the Bangor Daily News.

As early as March 1905, it had been rumored that Smith had succeeded in convincing his friend Admiral George Dewey, the man who had succeeded in sinking the Spanish

fleet in Manila Bay a few years before, to come give the Memorial Day address. Dewey sent his regrets, but the newspaper whispered to its readers that he might come next year.

Instead of “the hero of Manila,” the guest of honor turned out to be “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler. Gen. Robert E. Lee had declared Wheeler, a youth still in his twenties, one of the two most outstanding Confederate cavalry leaders.

Forty years after the end of the Civil War, Americans were still trying to heal the wounds. Wheeler had become a symbol of national reconciliation when in 1898 President William McKinley appointed him general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War.

Although he had entered the Union Army as a private and emerged as a decorated general, Smith was not a famous military man outside of Maine, but he appears to have developed the political graces necessary to attract the attention and friendship of great men.

Born in Wiscasset, he came to Bangor as a youth to work in a lumber mill before going out West for a few years lumbering. He returned to Maine at the beginning of the Civil War and enlisted. After the war, he returned to Bangor as a businessman, where he manufactured “the famous Bangor extension ladder” and clocks, according to his obituary. He erected “a large factory in Salem Court” near his home.

Smith demonstrated his political connections when he was appointed collector of customs for the Bangor District by President Rutherford Hayes. He apparently developed still more connections later while involved in various veterans organizations. He was president of the Army of the Potomac organization, and eventually became governor of the soldiers’ home at Togus and the one at Hampton, Va., where he died in 1919.

By the time Gen. Wheeler came to Bangor, Memorial Day in the Queen City had evolved into a two-day celebration that began the day before with the arrival of the vaunted speaker on a private train.

“The snappy little soldier,” as the BDN called Wheeler, was greeted by “bursts of band music, the cheers of thousands of people and the flaming colors of miles of bunting,” which decorated many of the stores and homes. A procession of barouches filled with local dignitaries moved through Bangor to Chapin Park, where thousands of school children screamed their approval and sang “America.” Wheeler raised a flag and made a short speech , then headed for Gen. Smith’s home to rest up for the banquet that night at the Bangor House.

Many of the same local dignitaries assembled at Bangor’s finest hotel that evening to the melodies of Pullen’s Orchestra. The menu was dominated by boiled Penobscot River salmon and potatoes a la hollandaise.

A series of patriotic speeches were given by the president of the Bangor Board of Trade, the mayor, the adjutant general, and the president of Bangor Theological Seminary. Then the band played “Dixie” before speeches by Gen. Wheeler and Gen. Smith.

Memorial Day included more of the same. In the morning, Wheeler was given a tour of the city, from the pumping station to Summit Park on Thomas Hill, with a brief stop at the Children’s Home, before having lunch at the Bangor House with accompanying dignitaries.

In the afternoon, a parade began at East Market Square, proceeding up State Street to Mt. Hope Cemetery. Thousands of people took special trains and the electric trolleys to see the festivities at the cemetery. Wheeler left early to take a ride down the Penobscot aboard the steam yacht Aria owned by Edward H. Blake, the president of Merchants National bank.

That night, 1,500 people assembled at City Hall (located then at Hammond and Columbia streets) to hear Fightin’ Joe give yet a third speech, a long one this time. In it he paid tribute to distinguished Maine men he had known, including “the Christian General,” Oliver Otis Howard, who had been Smith’s commander during part of the war. Howard was speaking at Skowhegan’s Memorial Day festivities that very day.

There were solos sung by local talent Arthur Huskins and Marion Louise Parsons, musical selections by the Bangor Band and the Apollo Quartet, a bugle call, and readings of the Gettysburg Address and the Role of Honor. But only Gen. Wheeler – and Gen. Smith – spoke.

The next year, 1906, Admiral Dewey did not appear for Bangor’s Memorial Day celebration. Instead, Gen. Smith brought Rear Adm. Joseph Coghlan, another well-known, if antiquated, Spanish-American War figure, to Bangor.

These heroes were gradually fading away. Gordon died in 1904, Wheeler in 1906, Coghlan in 1908 and Schley in 1911. But for a short period, Gen. Smith made Memorial Day in the Queen City a day to remember.

Wayne E. Reilly has edited two books of Civil War era diaries and letters including “The Diaries of Sarah Jane and Emma Ann Foster: A Year in Maine During the Civil War”. He can be reached at wreilly@bangordaily

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