The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 270
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Texans remained in Mobile only a few weeks, but even that was too
long for at least one man. He found the city to be dirty and the inhabi-
tants to be lazy and so stupid as to "only seem glad to know that they are
living." After about a month in Alabama, both Texas regiments were reas-
signed to separate brigades in the Seventh Corps and prepared to relo-
cate to the small Florida village of Miami. They would be accompanied by
the First and Second Alabama and the First and Second Louisiana In-
fantry Volunteers."2
On June 22, just before departing, the soldiers received their first pay
since entering the service. The men immediately sought to spend some of
their hard-earned money in local eating establishments (they had already
grown quite tired of army food). The restaurants sold out quickly, leaving
some men with money in their pockets and emptiness in their bellies. On
the 24th, the men of the First Texas boarded trains for Miami.3
The Second Texas and the rest of the troops at Mobile were paid off on
that day, and they too sought some outlet for both their pent-up energy
and their newfound wealth. A large number of them apparently opted for
liquid refreshment, of which there seemed to be no shortage. Hundreds
of drunken soldiers soon roamed the streets of Mobile in what one de-
scribed as a "monstrous saturnalia." Army officers pressed a vacant ice
house into service as a makeshift guard house, and soon filled it up with
the revelers. Initial reports of the incident mentioned the Texans as
among the culprits, but Col. L. M. Openheimer vehemently denied that
his men had behaved so badly. In a letter to Governor Culberson, he in-
sisted that only two members of the Second Texas were arrested that
night, and then only for being in town without passes. Some semblance of
order was finally restored and on June 25, the Second Texas followed the
First toward Miami.34
Florida railroad tycoon Henry M. Flagler had striven mightily to con-
vince the government to erect a military camp at Miami, which was virtu-
ally a Flagler company town. Without adequate docks or warehouse facil-
ities, however, army officers initially vetoed this location. Flagler had not
become a wealthy man by quitting, however, and he was not about to quit
now. When a second group of officers was induced to visit Miami he
promised to provide an adequate supply of healthy drinking water and a
campsite that his workmen had already begun to clear of scrub palmetto
" Gentzen Diary,June 3, 1898 (quotation). The First Texas joined the First Brigade, First Divi-
snon, VII Corps along with the First Louisiana and First Alabama; and the Second Texas became
part of the Third Brigade, First Division, VII Corps along with the Second Louisiana and the Sec-
ond Alabama.
" Gentzen Diary, June 22, 1898.
* M. Koenigsberg, Southern Martyrs- A Hstory of Alabama's White Regiments Durnng the Spanish-
American War, Touching Incidentally on the Expenences of the Entire Fzrst Division of the Seventh Army
Corps (Montgomery, Ala.: Brown Printing Co., 1898), 143 (quotation); Galveston Dazly News, July 7,
1898.October
270
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003, periodical, 2003; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101223/m1/322/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.