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The following are brief biographies of soldiers who serve in the 71st New York Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish American War.

Black, Joseph Irving, Pvt.,

Private Joseph Irving Black "enlisted as a private in the 7th Regiment, N. G. N. Y., September 4th, 1871 ; was promoted corporal December 7th, 1874, and received his full and honorable discharge November 6th, 1878. He had three brothers who also served about ten years in the same regiment. He was the oldest man in the company. In spite of the fact that he was past the age of enlistment, he was quick to offer his services to his country, and at the outbreak of the war, applied for enlistment in his old company of the 7th Regiment. He had a thorough knowledge of military rules and regulations, but finding that his regiment was not to respond to the President's call, he was only too willing to enlist in our company as a private. After being a short while in the Company he was appointed company clerk. When the regiment departed from Cuba he was left behind because he was too ill to go, and he died at Santiago, September 2d, 1898. His remains were afterward brought home to rest in the soil of the country which he had loved so well. The cause of his death was given as 'pterocolitis.' "

Black was always cool and collected under fire, and the following extract from a letter to his mother, written a few days after the battle, serves to show his grit and courage under adverse circumstances, besides a knowledge of the military situation at Santiago, which was unusual considering the little information (mostly inaccurate), which we all possessed at that time. " I write these few lines to let you know that I am all right. You, of course, heard all about the battle we were in. Just one week ago it started, and we are now waiting for the City of Santiago de Cuba to surrender, or go at them again. We have the place surrounded on the land side by nine miles of intrenchments, besides the fleet outside. There is no hope for them, and if they are wise, they will give in. We started from camp on the day of the battle, about daylight, and at about 9 o'clock were under fire. We were ordered into the bushes along the roadside and to lie down. One man was killed lying alongside of me. I attended service with him the Sunday before. A bullet struck directly in front of me with a smack, — in fact they were dropping all around us. We occupied the hill captured from the Spaniards, and were two and a half days under fire. We had to lie down with the bullets whistling over us. I saw some unpleasant sights during and after the battle."

The following statement made by one of the officers of the company ably expresses the sentiments of the men. " I can testify to the soldierly and gentlemanly qualities of Private Black. He never shirked a duty, no matter how arduous or dangerous — he died beloved and respected, both by the officers and men of his company."

Crosby, Norman Wilson, Pvt.,

Private Norman Wilson Crosby, son of Horace Crosby, of New Rochelle, N. Y., was born January 27th, 1874. He was graduated with high honors from the Trinity Place Public School of that city in the class of '88, when he became President of the Alumni. He entered New York University in the Fall of 1899, took his B. S. in 1893, and his C. E. in 1894. He was a prominent member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and took an active interest in alumni and fraternity matters after graduation.

After attaining the age of citizenship he became interested in the local affairs of his native city and joined the Relief Engine Company. It was intended that he should be its next President. He was also Corresponding Secretary of the New Rochelle Republican Club. He was a member of St. John's (Methodist Episcopal) Chapter of the Epworth League, and at one time was Librarian in the Sunday-school. He held other positions of trust, and was one of the most loyal and energetic members of these organizations. After leaving college he went into business, in New Rochelle, with his father, who is also a civil engineer. He had a very bright future before him, and in his death the city lost one of its best citizens.

When the war broke out he enlisted, after calm deliberation, in Co. K. He chose the regiment, as he himself said, " as the surest and quickest way of getting to the front, even if in no higher capacity than a private."

One of the men of the company has truly said, " He endured the terrible hardships of the Santiago campaign with a self-sacrificing spirit, always ready to do his own work and be helpful to others."

While in Cuba he was detailed for a short time to the Engineer Corps, where he was equally as popular with the men as in " K." He was, to say the least, a high-minded, truehearted man; an upright citizen and a brave soldier. He was in everything sound to the core.

Geisemann, Arnold, Pvt.,

Private Arnold Geisemann was a clerk in the American Printing Co. department of Bliss, Fabyan & Co., dry goods commission merchants, where his memory will ever be fondly cherished by all with whom he came in contact. He was but eighteen years of age when he entered the regiment, several months before it was mustered into the service of the Federal Government. He had always looked forward to the time when he would be old enough to join the National Guard, and at the outbreak of hostilities with Spain he was still more eager to serve his country. His patriotism was of such sterling quality that nothing whatever could have prevented him from following the flag for which he so willingly gave up his life, and without the slightest hesitation he volunteered to enlist with the regiment in the United States Army. Not only was he courageous, but ever faithful in the performance of his duty. Although slightly built and not strong, he stood the hardships of the campaign with remarkable fortitude and performed his full share of the arduous duties of soldier life without a word of complaint. He received a slight flesh wound at the Battle of San Juan, but escaped serious injury, only to succumb later on to the effects of the campaign. He died peacefully at Santiago a few days after the company left for home. The exact cau.se of his death is not known. His body was buried in Cuba, but was subsequently brought home, at the expense of his family, and buried in Lutheran Cemetery. At the foot of his grave, lies, carved in granite, a broken sapling, and on his tomb-stone is carved the regimental emblem with its motto : " Pro Aris et Pro Focis." Below is the inscription —

Gombert, Charles, Pvt.,

Private Charles Gombert was a citizen of Freeport, L. I., and enlisted in the company as an assistant cook when the regiment camped on Hempstead Plains. He afterward became cook and assumed a position which nobody in the company begrudged him. Many were the complaints about " poor grub," and scant the praises of "good cooking." In spite of the trials of his position, he soon became a good cook and a very useful man to the company. When Cuba was reached the company cooking outfit was left on board ship, each man had to shift for himself, and Gombert was relieved of his rather unpleasant duties. Nothing is known of his relations outside the company. Although he was strong and powerfully built, he succumbed to the fever at Santiago, August 15, 1898.

Haller, John H., Pvt.,

Private, John H. Haller  was born in New York City, December sth, 1875 ; was educated in Public School No. 26, and, after graduating, took a business course in the school connected with the Young Men's Christian Association.

He was employed as a clerk by Runkel Bros., the chocolate manufacturers, which position he left to enlist in the company for the war with Spain. He was an enthusiastic bicyclist, a member of the League of American Wheelmen and the Greenwich Wheelmen. He was so sick at one time in Cuba that he had been given up as lost by the doctors, but his remarkable grit enabled him to pull through successfully, only to fall, later on, a victim to the much dreaded fever. He died at Camp Wikoff, August 24th, 1898.

McClurg, William, Pvt.,

Private William McClurg , when twenty-two years of age, enlisted in the 71st Regiment, N. G. N. Y., in the spring of 1892, and was honorably discharged after five years of service. The year following, when the call to arms rang throughout the country, he immediately re-enlisted in his old command and, in spite of the pleadings of his wife and his father, who argued that there was no necessity for married men to go to the front, he was found later on in Cuba, fighting shoulder to shoulder with his old comrades-in-arms. He went through the entire campaign with the regiment without having received a scratch, but with him it was the same old story. Exposure in the trenches, together with the numerous other hardships incident to soldier life at the front, had undermined his sturdy constitution, and he fell a victim to the fever which he had contracted while in Cuba. He was educated in Public School No. 36, and, at the outbreak of the war, left a position as clerk in the Department of Street Cleaning. He was twenty-eight years old at the time of his death, and left a wife and child surviving him. He was well liked in the company by those who had served with him during his term in the National Guard.

McKeever, Edward Percy, Pvt.,

Private Edward Percy McKeever  joined the 8th Regiment, N.G.N.Y., several years before the war, and was transferred into the regiment from that organization, about a year before hostilities commenced. Being the smallest man in the company, his physique was not such as would stand the strain of a trying campaign, but he made up in determination and spirit what he lacked in bodily strength. One cannot help thinking that had he not been ill-treated and abused before he ever reached Cuba that his indomitable spirit would have eventually carried him successfully through the ordeal which he had to face. In Florida he received so large a share of "police duty" that one day, being sick and unable to work, while digging away at a task which he had protested he would be unable to do, he became unconscious and was carried away to the hospital. " K " men came near forgetting Army regulations that day, but fortunately for all concerned, they stowed away their resentment, and like soldiers, bowed to the superior authority vested in a pair of ill- worn shoulder straps. Looking backward to the time in Cuba when the stronger boys were failing, and almost all were sick, one can still see little McKeever burdened down with a load of canteens, trudging wearily along through the mire, seized with a determination to "get there," but almost dropping in his tracks.

In connection with McKeever we will always remember his father, who on several memorable occasions showed a spirit of kindness and good will toward the boys, which will not easily be forgotten. We will always think of the one in connection with the other.

O'Connor, John E., Pvt.,

Rodgers, James Lansing, Cpl.,
Corporal James Lansing Rogers was born in 1873 at Hornellsville, NY., and died at Camp Wikoff, L. I., September 8th, 1898. He removed at a very early age to New York City, where he resided up to the time of his enlistment in the regiment, which he entered upon the outbreak of hostilities with Spain. He was educated in the Columbia Grammar School of this city, and afterward took up the study of law for a time at Columbia College, but did not complete the course. After leaving the Law School he went into business with his father, who, at that time, was proprietor of the Hotel Castleton on Staten Island. Later on he became interested in the Hotel Balmoral, at Lenox Avenue and 113th Street, New York City.

That Rodgers was a fearless soldier is known to all, and it was due to his soldierly qualities that he was appointed a corporal, not long after joining the company. He was almost a stranger to most of the men, but those friends with whom he became intimate can testify to his many good qualities. Of his life outside the company very little is known. He died at detention camp, four days after his return to the States.

Rouse, Frank E., Pvt.,

Private Frank E. Rouse  was born June 8, 1874, at Rockland, Me. He was the son of an eminent physician and surgeon, and received a common school education. He became a clerk in Rockland after leaving school, but afterward went to New York, where he became head department clerk in a wholesale and retail provision store. He was well liked by his employers, who when he enlisted promised to keep his position open for him if ever he returned to business. He was twenty-six years of age at the time of his death, and was to have been married upon receiving his discharge from the service. His parents were both dead, and he believed that if a man was not bound down by family ties it was his duty to serve his country by enlisting. Before war was declared he had always expressed his intention to enlist if the opportunity presented itself, and his enlistment was the result of careful consideration. He was the only man from his section of the country who saw active service in the Army, although quite a few had served in the Navy. In Rockland he was universally liked and was a boy of good habits. When he left there to go into business in New York he carried the best of recommendations with him. His townsmen regarded him as thoroughly honest, upright, open hearted, good natured and kind. In the company he bore the same reputation — he was a good soldier, a genial companion and a firm friend. He shouldered the burdens heaped upon him with the same cheerfulness which characterized most of the men, and no matter how weighty they were, uttered no word of complaint.

He died of typhoid malaria at Camp Wikoff, August i8, 1898, and was buried at Montauk Point. His remains were afterward removed to the place of his birth, where his memory will be fondly cherished by all with whom he was acquainted.

Schofield, Sidney A., Pvt.,

Private Sidney A. Schofield was at one time connected with the National Guard of Connecticut. When the war broke out he had a knowledge of military work and promptly volunteered his services. He was a citizen of Fishkill, N. Y., and a good friend of Private Watson of that city. He died a true soldier's death, being almost instantly killed in action at San Juan Hill, July 1, 1898, by a bullet wound through the head.

Schroter, August F., Pvt.,

Private August F. Schroter was born in New York City, June 15th, 1875. He was the son of a soldier of the Civil War, and inherited a liking for military life. In childhood, he was never so happy as when he wore a military cap and marched along at his father's side, vainly attempting to keep step with the veterans of '61.

He was educated in the Public Schools, and for some time attended evening classes at Cooper Institute. When but eight years of age, his father died, leaving him the oldest son in the family. August's inclination toward military work was only overshadowed by his love for drawing. He was an excellent draughtsman, and his ambition was to become an architect. He was employed as a draughtsman in an architect's office when he enlisted with the regiment, and there he was well liked.

The effect at home, caused by his sudden death, cannot be imagined. In one cruel moment all the joys and hopes of his family were dashed to pieces. That he did not die by a Spanish bullet makes his death no less glorious, for he sacrificed his life — the most that he could give — for his country.

He was very quiet and unassuming, always willing to do his share of work, and well liked by all. He was buried at Montauk Point, but his body was afterward removed to Lutheran Cemetery, where father and son, one the veteran of '6i, the other of '98, lie side by side.

Von Ette, Arthur, Musician,

Musician Arthur von Ette was born in New York, January 29, 1865, died September 5, 1898. He was a bugler and assigned to the rolls of the company together with Musician Killeen. He was a member of the regiment several years, and when he went to the front gave up a position with the Metropolitan Moving Co. When the regiment reached Cuba, he, with other musicians, was detailed to assist the men of the hospital corps in attending to the sick and the wounded. He was left in Cuba when the regiment departed, and afterwards came north on the transport Missouri. He died of fever on the voyage home, and, having been a sailor for quite a number of years, was buried according to the traditions of his former associations. A widow and four small children survive him.

“K” Company 71st Regiment, New York Volunteers:  A Record of its Experience and Services During the Spanish-American War and a Memorial to its Dead.  (New York: Scott, Chas. H., 1900).