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Page 38
Trains were soon running regularly between Jersey City and Trenton, their
operations being put in the hands of two Pennsylvania Railroad officials,
J.B. Fisher, superintendent of the New York division, and Victor Wierman,
superintendent of the Trenton division--these two, with their operating
staffs, being held personally responsible, under pain of death, for the
safe and prompt arrival of troops and supplies.
For the pacification of Trenton the Germans left a force of three
thousand men with artillery encamped in the State Fair grounds near the
capital, and it was announced in the Trenton _Times_ (made the official
German organ) that at the first disorder shells would be fired at the
white marble City Hall, at the State House, with its precious collection
of flags and banners from the Civil and Revolutionary wars, at the Broad
Street National Bank, and at the Public Service building, which stands
where the Hessians surrendered in 1776.
Among hostages taken here by the Germans were R.V. Kuser, head of the
Trenton Brewing Company; General Wilbur F. Sadler, president of the Broad
Street Trust Company; Colonel E. C. Stahl, a Civil War veteran and the
father of Rose Stahl; also the Roman Catholic Bishop James F. McFaul and
the Episcopal Bishop Paul Matthews.
Many Trenton women, including Mrs. Karl G. Roebling, Mrs. Oliphant, wife
of the General, Miss Mabel Hayter, and Mrs. Charles Howell Cook, were
devoted in nursing the wounded who were brought by thousands to the
historic churches of Trenton, used as hospitals, and to the vast Second
Regiment armory.
Several American nurses came into possession of diaries found on wounded
German soldiers, and some of these recorded excesses similar to those
committed in Belgium in 1914.
"On the main street of the town of Dover, New Jersey," wrote Private
Karmenz, 178th Saxon Regiment, "I saw about fifty citizens shot for
having fired from ambush on our soldiers."
"Glorious victories in Pennsylvania," rejoiced Lieutenant A. Aberlein of
the Eighth Bavarian Army Corps. "Our men of softer spirit give the
wounded a bullet of deliverance; the others hack and stab as they may."
The tribute levied upon Trenton was four million dollars in gold,
recently realised by the State Treasurer from an issue of State bonds to
supply State deficiencies.
German officers made themselves comfortable in the Trenton Club, the
Lotus Club, the Carteret Club, and the Elk Home; also in the Windsor
House, the Trenton House, and the Sterling House. Printed schedules of
rates for food and rooms were posted up, and the proprietors were
notified that they would be punished if they refused to give service at
these rates, just as the German soldiers would be punished if they tried
to evade payment.
Officers of the German headquarters staff occupied Karl G. Roebling's
show place, with its fine stables, lawns, and greenhouses.
A few days after the battle of Trenton, I received a cable to the effect
that the American fleet had nearly completed its voyage around South
America and had been sighted off Cape St. Roque, the northeastern corner
of Brazil, headed toward the Caribbean Sea. It was known that the German
fleet had been cruising in these waters for weeks, awaiting the enemy's
arrival, and cutting off their colliers and supply ships from all ports
in Europe and America; and it was now evident that a great naval battle
must occur in the near future.
I took steamer at once for Kingston, Jamaica; and on the evening of my
arrival, July 10, I called on my friend, Rear-Admiral Thomas Q. Allyn of
the United States Navy (now retired), whom I had not seen since our
dramatic meeting at Colon when the Panama Canal was wrecked by the
Germans. I had many questions to ask the Admiral, and we talked until
after midnight.
"I am horribly anxious, Mr. Langston," said the veteran of Manila. "We
are facing a great crisis. Our ships are going into battle, and within a
few hours we shall know whether the civilian policy at Washington that
has controlled our naval development--the policy that forced me to resign
rather than assume the responsibility for consequences--we shall know
whether that policy was wise or foolish."
"I did not suspect that you resigned for that reason," said I.
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