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2nd Lt. Lloyd Parkinson,

2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry

Writes Home From Cuba

by Patrick McSherry
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General:

Lloyd Parkinson was a 2nd lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry, also known as the "2nd Immunes." He served with the regiment in Cuba. Parkinson wrote the long letter below home about his experience in Cuba.

The Biography:

Lloyd Parkinson was born into a prominent Kansas family in 1875. As a young man Parkinson had left his family home about 1895 to live in New Orleans. His family had heard he had been killed there but the account proved to be false. When the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry was formed, he enlisted and was appointed second sergeant. Shortly afterwards, Parkinson was promoted to first sergeant. When his company’s second lieutenant was unable to pass the required examinations, Parkinson was unanimously elected to fill the position.

Parkinson mentions that he wanted to stay in Cuba following his period of service. It is unclear if he followed through on those plans. However, by 1905, he was at Ottawa, Kansas and heading the construction of a natural gas line to serve the town. He later served as the general foreman of a sugar refinery, the Sorghum Syrup Works, which was started by his father and was superintended by his brother. Later he worked for the Studebaker Automobile Company at Detroit, Michigan.

When World War One broke, and before the United States entered the war, Parkinson traveled to France and enlisted in the French army. He was injured in battle in 1915, and was sent to a hospital in England to recover.

Lloyd Parkinson died in 1928 at the age of 52, and is buried in the Dayton National Cemetery Dayton, in Montgomery County, Ohio.

The Letter:

"AN OTTAWA BOY AT SANTIAGO

Lloyd Parkinson, who is at Santiago, Writes an Interesting Letter to his Sister.

 Mrs. P. R. Moise received a letter from her brother, Lloyd Parkinson, a lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry now at Santiago, and from which the Herald [newspaper] is permitted to make some extracts. Lloyd is a son of Hon. W. L. Parkinson and was born and raised in Ottawa. He was in New Orleans last year through the yellow fever epidemic, and though not an "immune" in the true sense of, that term, is quite as much so, perhaps, as any of the young men who flocked from different parts of the south to enlist in young Hood's regiment. Col. Hood is a son of the celebrated confederate, Gen. Hood, is a West Pointer and the wealthy legatee of Gen. Beauregard. Young Hood had resigned from the army, but offered his services when war was declared and raised a regiment which is called the bon-ton military organization of the south.

Having been at Gambier, Ohio, military school a couple of years and being a fine specimen of young manhood, young Parkinson quickly secured a commission. The following are extracts from his letter:

Santiago de Cuba, Aug. 19, '98.

"My Dear Sister: I am glad you approve of my course in joining the army. It seemed to me the proper thing to do. I did not expect a commission so soon, though I hoped to win one in time if the war lasted long. I have been indeed fortunate, not only in securing a commission, but being in one of the best volunteer regiments the country has turned out. We think Gen. Shafter has been disposed to roast us rather unmercifully and the newspapers have not been slow to magnify our shortcomings. We came here raw recruits and were practically charged with keeping order in the entire city. We have failed in part but I have never seen the same number of men who would have done better under like circumstances. In a strange country, unable to speak its language, with about 10,000 Spanish prisoners walking about the town and about the same number of Cubans, who are absolutely worthless except to draw upon Uncle Sam's commissary. Then there were some 15,000 American soldiers being paid off and of course their hardships had to be talked over, their late enemies treated and victory duly celebrated. Was it any wonder there was some drunkenness? But it's all over now and we are having easier and happier times.

I do not assume to criticise Gen. Shafter, but there are those here who do. He certainly lacks that tact, discretion and kindly disposition that wins the love of the soldier or the admiration of the outsider.

This is a pretty city and as old as it is pretty. We have elegant quarters in the old theater ‘Teatro de la Reina.” I have met several Spanish officers and find them pretty good fellows. They take their defeat cooly enough and cannot say too much in praise of the Americans. They are not less surprised at the hospitality of their treatment than the way the Americans fight. There were about 10,000 Spanish and 18,000 Americans engaged in the fight and I dare say had our boys been where the Dons were an army of 40,000 men would have been easily repulsed. They say the more Americans they killed the faster the others advanced and the louder they yelled. The Dons were paralyzed by the push and splendid bravery of our boys as they pushed on and over every possible danger and obstruction. This is the first successful attempt to capture Santiago by a land force. The English and the French were both defeated on San Juan Hill where our boys won such a glorious victory and taught the world that Uncle Sam's boys are invincible in war. I would have given anything to have been in it. I have been all over the battle field and have some relics I will bring home with me.

So far as health is concerned I feel safer here than I did in New Orleans. The sickness here is confined mainly to the troops that did the fighting and who contracted disease in the trenches before Santiago surrendered.

I see no signs of our regiment being mustered out. I want to get to Havana, as that will be the central point for the sugar industry, in which I hope to engage when mustered out of the service. I hope to take a hand in Americanizing Cuba. But no place will ever be to me or take the place of dear old Ottawa, the place of my birth, where the soul of my sainted mother winged its pure flight to heaven and where still live those who have been mother and sister and truest friends to me.

 Your loving brother, Lloyd Parkinson.”


Bibliography:

“20 Cent Gas Equals $3 Coal,” The Ottawa Daily Republic (Ottawa, Kansas). June 22, 1905, 1.

“An Ottawa Boy at Santiago,” The Ottawa Herald (Ottawa, Kansas). September 8, 1898, 6.

“City News Briefs,” The Evening Herald (Ottawa, Kansas). July 28, 1898, 3.

“Death Claims Him,” The Evening Herald (Ottawa, Kansas). June 14, 1907, 3.

“Local Pickings,” Fort Scott Tribune and The Fort Scott Monitor (Fort Scott, Kansas). February 28, 1913, 7.

“State News Paragraphed,” The Centralia Journal (Centralia, Kansas). July 08, 1899, 7.

“Personal Mention,” Fort Scott Tribune and The Fort Scott Monitor (Fort Scott, Kansas). June 1, 1915, 6..


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