The Farewell Voyage of the Third Cavalry
As the steamship St. Paul prepares to ferry soldiers to the Philippine Islands, Seattle watches its 'brave boys in blue' depart for a war from which many may never return.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The steamship transport St. Paul, Capt. J. M. Hays, arrived in port yesterday. The ship is painted snowy white, and everything about it is immaculately clean. The steamer was built by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco and was chartered by the government transport service in July of last year. She has already made two trips to Manila. The St. Paul will act as a convey in the fleet of transports which will leave Puget Sound for the Philippine islands. She will carry about 809 troopers. The departure of these brave men for the field of duty is an occasion of great enthusiasm, interlaced, nevertheless, with sadness. Many of them are destined, in all probability, never to return. They are going on active service in the field, and some will surely lie beneath the Philippine soil. No sight on the landscape seen by our townspeople is more pitiful than that of our departing boys in blue.
“The departure of these brave men for the field of duty is an occasion of great enthusiasm, interlaced, nevertheless, with sadness.”
This 1899 dispatch captures the anxiety of a community watching its youth deploy to a far-flung conflict. Today, the names of the vessels have changed, but the somber, quiet atmosphere of a military deployment from the Puget Sound remains a constant, haunting echo in Seattle's history.
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