Saturday, December 13, 2014

James K. L. Duncan


Monmouth College Student Earns the Nation’s Highest Honor for Valor

Not much is known about Seaman James K. L. Duncan other than the specifics that of the action in which he earned the Medal of Honor.  He was born in Frankfort Mineral Springs in Pennsylvania on the 6th of July of 1845.  He enrolled in Monmouth College and would have graduated with the Class of 1866 had he stayed in school.  Like so many young men though, he caught up in the patriotic fervor that swept the north, and enlisted in the Union Navy.  Monmouth College sent 232 young men to help put down the Rebellion during the Civil War.  James Duncan was assigned to serve on the USS Fort Hindman, a 286 ton “Tinclad” gunboat that was built in 1862 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, as a civilian steamer.  Purchased by the Navy in 1863, it was first commissioned as the USS James Thompson.  She went through two name changes, becoming next the USS Manitou in June of 1963, and later to the USS Fort Hindman in November of 1863.  In July of 1863, as the Manitou, it participated in an expedition that made its way up the Little Red River expedition and captured the Confederate steamer Louisville.

On the 29th of February, 1864, a fleet of five gunboats and a monitor- the Osage-began patrols up the Red River, the Black River and the Washita River successively to break up some enemy camps that had formed near Harrisburg, Louisiana.  Arriving at the town of Trinity, at the junction of the Little and the Washita Rivers, a battery of 12-punder guns opened up on them, as well as a band of sharpshooters under the command of the Rebel General Polignac.  Responding with a barrage of fire of their own, the union flotilla drove the enemy from the town.

The following morning the fleet made its way up the Washita.  They proceeded in the following order: The Osage, Fort Hindman, Conestoga, Cricket, Washita and Lexington.  Within about two miles of Harrisburg, General Polignac set up his guns and sharpshooters and launched an attack against the advancing Union fleet, directing the heaviest fire against the Fort Hindman, the flagship of the Union flotilla.  The thin iron plating and the two inch planking that had been added to the steamer to make it battle worthy served as little defense against the Confederate fire.  Twenty-seven 12 pound shells slammed into the Fort Hindman within a half hour, one of them disabling her starboard engine.  With only her port engine left, the steamer was unable to maintain proper steerage, and thus swung back and forth in the current, exposing her to more enemy fire.   Seaman Hugh Malloy would earn a Medal of Honor earlier during this engagement for risking his life during the battle by leaping from the protection of the gunport to retrieve a sponge that had fallen, then cleaning the gun from the outside of the part, the whole time being exposed to a hail of enemy fire.

Next it was Seaman James K. L. Duncan’s turn to seize his opportunity to become a hero.  An enemy shell burst at the muzzle of one of the Hindman’s guns, setting fire to the tarred yarn of a cartridge, which had been put in the mouth of the gun prior to the next step, which would be to ram them home.  Seaman Duncan saw the yarn burning, and before the fire could eat its way through the covering of the cartridge and explode in the gun, Seaman Duncan quickly moved forward and grabbed the blazing cartridge with his bare hand, and wrenched it from the muzzle of the cannon.  Rushing to the port side of the ship with the blazing cartridge still in his hand, he threw it over the side of the vessel.  Barely had it left his hand when it exploded, still in the air. In Deeds of Valor, a two volume account of Medal of Honor heroism that was published in 1907, there is a riveting artist’s rendition of young Duncan being hurled back by the force of the cartridge explosion.  The force of the explosion knocked young Seaman Duncan unconscious and sent him reeling across the deck.  His shipmates caught him and carefully set the stunned sailor down.

 When Duncan came to he described his sensations.  It seemed to him at first as though all sounds of the battle had ceased.  “When I regained consciousness after the explosion of the cartridge I looked about me in surprise, but there were the men rushing about, loading and firing the guns, but all were inaudible to me.  Upon recovering from my amazement I became convinced that I was deaf.  This belief was confirmed by the surgeon, who pronounced the drum of my right ear completely destroyed, and the other temporarily impaired.”

As the action continued, the Hindman continued to be pounded with shot and shell.  The courage of its crew was exemplary though.  Not a man flinched from doing their duty, and yet another earned the Nation’s highest horror for valor.  Despite having his left hand shattered by a shell fragment, Seaman William P. Johnson bound the wound with a strip that he tore from his shirt, and took the place of a fallen comrade at one of the ship’s guns until the engagement was over.

     James K. L. Duncan never returned to Monmouth College to finish his education.  His trail grows dim after the war.  All that I could find for certain about him is that he eventually made his way to Wisconsin after the war, and lived until March 27th, 1913, almost to the start of another Great War.  The brave Seaman is buried in Milwaukee’s Wood National Cemetery.  His GAR stone has been replaced with a more modern version, one that alludes to him being the recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Bibliography

Deeds of Valor, Volume 2    Perrien-Keydol Company, Detroit. 1907

James K. L. Duncan  Find a Grave Memorial

James K. L. Duncan     Wikipedia entry

USN Ships Fort Hindman    Naval Historical Center Internet Site

Medal of Honor Recipients 1863-1994  Vol. 1   Lang, Collins and White

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff



German Surgeon in a Swedish Regiment goes on to become Renowned Physician

     Perhaps it was an independent streak that led young Hugo Max Starkloff to leave his family in Germany to come to America, or perhaps like so many intellectuals of the time he had become disillusioned with the failure of the uprising in 1848.  Certainly he’s asserted his independence before, turning his back on his family’s rich military tradition by leaving the infantry regiment that he’d been assigned as a cadet to in order to study to become a doctor instead.  His studies took him to universities at Tuebingen, Heidelburg and Prague before he finally received his degree in medicine as an 18 year old in 1852. 

     A few months later he arrived in New York City, planning to head out to the “wild west” that he’d read so much about to make his fortune.  He almost drowned before he left the Great Lakes.  He had signed on as a deckhand on the steamer Griffith, which caught fire while making its way across Lake Erie.  The craft burned to its waterline, but its passengers were fortuitously rescued by a passing ship, which set the hapless folk it had rescued ashore in Cleveland.  From there young Hugo made his way eventually to California, where he found employment as a surgeon with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company.

     The difficulties of setting up a practice for a “greenhorn” doctor were best evidenced by his movements between 1853 and 1861.  After a stint in California he was next heard from attempting to establish practices in Palmyra and Hannibal, Missouri.  He found little success there, but did find a wife.  He married a beautiful widow, Hermine August Reinhart, and their first child, a son, Johan, was born in 1855.  He died in the spring of 1857, just a month before the birth of Emil Arthur.  Their third child, Maximillian Carl, was born near the end of 1858.

     Dr. Starkloff’s efforts to establish a practice took him to Quincy and then to Galesburg.  A biography of his daughter Irma, states that Dr. Satarkloff was in St Louis in 1861, and witnessed the Camp Jackson affair, which saw loyal Union militia surround and force the surrender of southern militia that had been bent upon seizing the weapons from the Federal Arsenal. An angry mob gathered and began to throw rocks at the Union troops, who were marching the captured rebels to prison.  As the crowd degenerated into a threat to their safety, the harassed militiamen fired into it, wounding many and killing fifteen of the stone-throwing attackers.  Despite the bloody aftermath of the confrontation at Camp Jackson, this success of the Unionists, many of whom were Germans who felt a loyalty toward their adopted country, may have spurred Dr. Starkloff’s intention to enlist.  He returned to Galesburg and became a surgeon, with the rank of Captain, of Company C of the 43rd Illinois Infantry, a regiment which travelled to Camp Butler and was mustered in on October 12th, 1862.  The regiment consisted of 100 Swedes and 3 Germans, one of whom was Dr. Starkloff, who assumed the role of the regimental surgeon.

     In February the 43rd boarded the steamer USS Memphis, which was taking them to Tennessee to aid General Grant in vanquishing Forts Henry and Donelson.  They arrived too late to participate in those Union successes, but were soon billeted with the rest of Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.

     As dawn arrived on the morning of April 6th, 1862, it was accompanied by the yells of rebel troops and the staccato of musket fire.  The rebels had launched a surprise attack, hoping to drive the Union army up against the Tennessee River to force their surrender.  A shell came screeching overhead.  It slammed into the limb of a tree, which landed upon Louis Nelson of Galesburg, disabling him.  A Union officer later described the rebels as being “thicker than fleas on a dog’s back.”  The 49th Illinois, which was to the left of the 43rd, had already broke and fled, leaving the 43rd in a vulnerable situation with its left flank exposed.  Company C was one of 5 companies ordered to move to the left to fill the gap left by the flight of the men of the 49th.  The five companies held firm for about 10 minutes, then had to fall back.  They reformed about 1000 feet further back, then attempted to hold again.  They were able to hold the rebels back for a short time due to the superiority of their Belgian rifles, which had a range of about 200 feet farther than the firearms that the rebels carried.  Confederate numbers drove them back again though, eventually about a mile.  Grant personally inspected their lines and ordered up reinforcements to bolster the position.  At the end of the day the regimental officers took stock of their losses.  Out of 500 men the 43rd had suffered 206 casualties in killed or wounded.  Company C lost 17 men.  Lars Bergloff, Claes Danielson and Charles Samuelson, all from Andover, died during the desperate conflict.  Daniel Chase, also of Andover, went missing.  Company C’s Captain Edvall died on May 7th, succumbing to a wound received during the April 6th battle.  Yes, the men of the 43rd would have cause to remember that horrible day’s fighting, which took the name of a log church that occupied the bloody ground.  They would remember “Bloody” Shiloh.

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff would remember the battle as well.  As a child his daughter Irma listened to her father tell horror stories of the Union doctors running out of essential medical supplies in the aftermath of the conflict, which had proved more destructive of lives and limbs than any type of warfare that those responsible for laying in supplies had anticipated.

     Bloodied now, the regiment went on to participate in the Siege of Corinth, in battles with General Nathan Bedford Forrest, in Little Rock, and in the assault at Prairie D’Anne and Camden.  At Jenkin’s Ferry, Company C was part of 4000 Union troops that held off an assault launched by Confederate general Kirby Smith, whose attacking force of 20,000 men were beaten back with 2,000 casualties compared to 700 casualties on the Union side. 

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff’s competence as a surgeon led him from his assignment as the company’s surgeon to the eventual post of Medical Director of the 1st Division of the 7th Army Corps.  Yes, as had the troops of the 43rd who had established their reputation for bravery in numerous engagements against the enemy, Hugo Starkloff had made his reputation as well, as a knowledgeable medical man, one worthy of promotion to more responsible positions.  He finished the war with the rank of “Major.”

     The end of the war saw Dr. Starkloff return to Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, to become a respected member of the German community there.  He had no ambition for political office himself, but as a German who had fought loyally for the Union, he felt a loyalty toward the party of Abraham Lincoln, so he became active In Republican politics.  He also joined the local Freethinkers’ Union and the “Schiller Union,” a club dedicated to the poet whose eloquent verse made him the spokesman for German liberty.  He also was a member of the German-American National Alliance and the Turnerbund.  He also took an interest in education, becoming a member of the St. Louis School Board.  Dr. Hugo Starkloff had an open mind for educational innovations;  he was a member of the school board that ushered in the first public school kindergarten in the United States, modelled upon its German Predecessor.

     Dr. Starkloff’s support of the Kindergarten initiative wrought change in his personal life as well.  His wife Hermione had died in 1875 of an “inflammation of the brain,” Arriving with kindergarten faculty from Germany was Emma Kuhlmann, a young woman who soon caught the eye of Dr. Starkloff.  They were married in 1876.  The doctor’s new wife was 18 years his junior, and soon became a valued business partner as well as his wife.  She managed his accounts, supervised the household staff, and managed the stream of patients that arrived at all hours with all sorts of ailments and emergencies that had to be dealt with immediately.  Emma had an independent streak as well; she had a gift of debunking irony that served as a foil to sometimes deflate the pomposity of her husband, and a mind open enough to be receptive to the wiles of the Women’s Movement.

     Dr. Starkloff’s medical practice continued to flourish.  By 1883 he took his son, Max Carl Starkloff as a partner in a practice located on Main Street in Carondelet.  To avoid a redundant repetition of the last name, I will refer to the father as “Hugo Max,” and the son as “Max Carl.”  This was a sign of rapprochement between father and son, as young Max Carl had earned his father’s wrath in 1879 by marrying a penniless Irish girl, a match that his father felt was beneath him.  In 1883 Dr. Hugo Max moved to larger home, a prestigious residence on a hilltop that overlooked the river at the corner of Lounghsborough and Michigan Avenues.  He also made certain that his office was connected to his residence by one of the new inventions of that era, a telephone. 

     With the election of Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1889, Dr. Hugo Max lobbied for a reward for his quarter century of service to the Grand Old Party.  He was rewarded with a consulship in Bremen, Germany.  The doctor’s family enjoyed the opportunity to travel about Europe, and the opportunity to meet many of their relatives from both parents sides who had chosen to remain in the old country. 

     In 1892 Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff’s mettle as a physician was tested when an outbreak of cholera spread from Russia to Hamburg and eventually to Bremen.  The city acted to quell the spreading epidemic.  Dr. Starkloff and the North German Lloyd’s shipping line, which controlled traffic from Bremen, undertook screening of the passengers bound for America.  The eminent bacteriologist, Robert Koch, the man whose research led to the discovery of the causes of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, met with the German doctor and together they suggested measures which included monitoring of the emigrant hotels and boardinghouses, two day detention of all arriving travelers, and strict examination and disinfection of all steerage passengers and their luggage before they were allowed to continue on their journey.  Within weeks the outbreak was completely contained without a single traveler carrying the disease out of Bremen to spread elsewhere.  Dr. Starkloff earned much renown for successfully preventing a multinational epidemic.

      The solid reputation he had earned for his efforts led the Democratic President Grover Cleveland to retain him in Bremen in 1892 when the Portly President returned to the White House.  Age and health issues were catching up with the doctor though, and in 1894 he asked to be relieved of his duties as consul in order to return to the United States.   Recovering his health after his return to St. Louis, he lived on until 1914, enhancing his well-deserved reputation as a surgeon and filling the Chair of Orthopedic Surgery in the Marion Sims College of Medicine and Surgery.  He was one of the highest ranked medical educators in the country.  He continued his interest in education as well, serving as a public school director for St. Louis Schools for fifteen years.  He rests in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis along with his wife Emma, who lived until 1931.

     That’s not the end of the story.  It is said that “the evil that men do lives after them.”  So does the good.  Dr. Starkloff’s commitment to education served as an example to his son Dr. Max Carl Starkloff, who became a hero in St. Louis after a tornado ripped through the city in 1898.  Despite suffering a broken arm, he put aside his own pain and worked tirelessly to tend to many of the thousand people who were injured when the twister passed through.  Those efforts paled in comparison though to his efforts during the 1918 influenza epidemic.  By this time he was in his fifteenth year of what would be a thirty year tenure as City Health Commissioner.  He acted quickly, urging the mayor of St. Louis to order the closing of all public places, in order to isolate the public from each other in order to contain the spread of the deadly flu.  Thanks to his efforts the death rate in St. Louis was kept down to 2.8 per 1000 residents, compared to 8.0 in Pittsburgh, 7.6 in San Francisco and 7.1 in Kansas City.  In recognition of Dr. Max Carl Starkloff’s efforts, St. Louis’s City Hospital was renamed in his memory.  Dr. Hugo Max and his wife Emma’s daughter went on to make her mark in life as well.  Irma Louise Starkloff Rombauer went on to write the widely renowned cookbook, “The Joy of Cooking,” a book that was brought to life during the Depression, and that is still in print.  Like the “Betty Crocker Cookbook,” it has evolved and seen numerous changes since Irma’s first edition of it.

     The Starkloff family: another case of newcomers to America who returned their opportunity to begin a life in a new land with labors that impacted the lives of so many of their adopted countrymen for the better.

                                  Bibliography

Hugo Max Starkloff          Find a Grave Memorial

Muench Medical and Cookbook Heroes         Meunch Family Association

Stand facing the Stove       Anne Mendelson, 1981

The Swedes of Knox County   Internet site

The Swedish Element in Illinois   Ernst Wilhelm Olson 1917

Galesburg Company at Battle of Shiloh     Q C Online   article by Marilyn Gantt