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Chapter 9 The Land of the Midnight Sun Early in April 1902, I received a telegram to send a company of men to Skagway, Alaska, by the first boat. I was able to embark the Thirty-second Company, Coast Artillery Corps, the next day. Later, another telegram directed me immediately to take my company to Skagway. Again, I caught a boat and left on May 11. Our baby was expected in June, and I was compelled to leave my wife with only the good Margaret to care for her. The situation was heartbreaking, although there was a good contract doctor1 stationed at the post. On arriving at Skagway, I received orders to send the Thirty-second Company to Valdez, Alaska, which I was able to do at once. We replaced a company of colored troops of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, which returned from Skagway to the States. I soon learned that England , through Canada, had laid claim to all of southeastern Alaska.2 As a result, the Northwest Mounted Police forced the American customs station forty miles back to the summit of the mountains twelve miles from Skagway and had occupied the town shortly before I arrived. The Canadian police drove American gold miners from their possessions on the Porcupine River and were ready to seize Skagway and Valdez and to take over southeastern Alaska by force. Secretary of War Elihu Root stopped this daring plan by occupying the disputed territory with two companies of coast artillery one thousand miles apart. Paradoxically, a Virginian, Colonel Zachary Taylor Wood, commanded the northwest police and Major Snyder of Boston commanded the station at White Horse on the Yukon, with whom we had to deal. In this situation, because I expected to be attacked, I sent a field gun to Skagway and prepared a defensive position. In the meantime, I was desperately uneasy about my wife, who was alone except for Margaret McInturff and the contract doctor. A telegram finally came that Charles Jr.3 was born June 16. Later, I learned that the lives of both were saved by a miracle. Dr. Wickline,4 the post surgeon, summoned a specialist from Seattle to Fort Law- 66 THE WAY OF DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY ton at the critical moment. Both mother and baby were very ill, and no one who was near knew what to do. Her aloneness was heartbreaking , and she and the baby were nearer to death than life. I have never been able to reconcile myself to this separation. The army is cruel to families. When Dr. Bailey from Skagway went to Seattle for his discharge, he arranged for them to come to Skagway three weeks after the baby was born. The boat arrived after midnight, and I found them very ill in the care of Margaret. The baby was starving. We found an excellent doctor and some good women in Skagway, including a foster mother, Mrs. McCrea, who knew what to do. The leading saloonkeeper’s wife and the doctor’s wife were very fine women who also tried to help. The baby’s life was saved, but both continued very ill. Under the conditions, the army ordered me to go to Haines Mission on Lynn Canal, about fifteen miles south of Skagway, locate a military reservation, and begin construction of a post for a battalion of four companies of infantry. I procured a small launch, employed a surveyor, and took about twenty armed men to Haines Mission. This was the heart of the disputed territory and the beginning of the trails to the Yukon and the Porcupine River. On landing, I found a number of men of the Northwest Mounted Police. The message to me had been sent in the clear over Canadian telegraph lines as there was no American telegraph or cable line to Alaska. The northwest police forbade me to begin any construction and said that this was disputed territory. I replied that this was American territory and that, if they interfered, I would use force. After seeing what I could from where we landed, I decided to place the post behind a high mountain to the north to protect it from the north wind and in a valley protected by a ridge to the south. I had an old order designating a military reservation said to be at a rock at Haines Mission. Selecting a rock that would serve the purpose , I directed the surveyor to begin the traverse. The reservation took in the entire area...

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