Association to Commemorate the Chinese Serving in the American Civil War, Part 18

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An Old Chinese man talked about Election

(And his story on serving in the American Civil War Navy)

An Old Chinese man talked about Election
(And his story on serving in the American Civil War Navy)

{An article from a Newspaper "East-West Daily" or "China-West Daily" (Chung Sai Yat Po) November 5, 1920, written in Chinese language. Courtesy of Ruthanne Lum McCunn, who sent the article to the webmaster. The article is translated by the Webmaster, Gordon Kwok. Please note that some of the proper nouns are tonal translation from Chinese into English and the words may not be the exact original English words.} The words in parenthesis are the translator's added words to supplement the story.

The most senior Chinese old man John Hall, whose true last name is Chan, voted on Tuesday at the Election Station located at the corner of Kenny Street and Hudson Street. Chan voted for the Republicans. He explained his Republican choice to the Chronicle reporter, that he would root for the Republican all the way and all the time. He voted for the Republican for the first time, when Lincoln was running for the Presidency. This year, 1920, Chan is currently 84, and would like to exercise his right to vote for the last time. He thought his life on earth would not last more than two more months.

He was born on August 16, 1836. He ran away at age eleven, boarding a ship with sails, John Wood, from this city to Boston, and later on arrived at the city of Salem in Massachusetts. He entered public school there, and the teacher gave him the name John Hall. Later on, he joined the Navy and served as cabin boy / landsman. During the Civil War, the Navy ship he was serving sailed to Mobile Bay. He discussed the torpedoes with the Rear Admiral (David Glasgow) Farragut (whose flagship is USS Hartford.) Suddenly one torpedo hit (one of the fleet) (It was the Ironclad Tecumseh, which exploded and sank.) and it happened on 5 a.m. August 5, 1864. Followed the Navy to New Orleans, and experienced combat. Chan first joined the Navy in 1863, and mustered out in 1870. Again he re-entered the Navy and served in the Revenue Cutter, Pierre, for seven more years. Chan bought twenty six acres of orchard and retired in Western Valley. Now his four children helped him to manage the orchard. A few days ago, owing to his illness, he came to this city. He stayed in the Navy Hospital and then, transferred to the Emergency Hospital. He visited Chinatown and made use of the opportunity to vote.

Footnotes by the translator: If we literally interpreted that John Hall (Chan) actually talked to Rear Admiral David Farragut just prior the Naval attack, then, John Hall had to serve on USS Hartford, the flagship. But examining the July 1, 1864 muster roll of USS Hartford, I could not find the name John Hall (Chan) or anything sounded like it. Courtesy on Terry Foenander's Navy web site on the Complete Descriptive Muster Roll of the Crew of the U.S. Flag Ship "USS Hartford" on the First day of July, 1864, which listed the muster roll in alphabetical order, with description on color of eyes, color of hair, color of complexion and age. John Hall should be age 28 in 1864. But nothing matches all variables or partial variables. I am thinking John Hall might exaggerate by stating he talked to Farragut just before the Navy battle. If we interpreted his statement more loosely, he might have talk to Farragut some other time, and that won't place him on USS Hartford. He might have served on one of the ships in the attacking squadron. At this moment, I don't have all the ships' names in the squadron and their muster rolls. Further research may be necessary to verify the facts.

Terry Foenander's response:

Dear Gordon and Ruthanne,
Thank you for the information on the latest find of another Chinese serviceman in the Navy. Although his name is not listed on the July, 1864 muster roll of the USS HARTFORD, there is still a possibility he was aboard the vessel, as the battle wasn't fought until over a month later, so in between that period he may have been transferred aboard the vessel. Alternately, there is the possibility, as you mentioned, that he was aboard one of the other vessels in the squadron, that participated in the battle. I did check my Union Naval personnel listing (which is still miles from completion, so cannot be taken as the naval bible of personnel), as well as the index to the 30 volume set of the Naval Official Records, but there is no John Hall listed, although there are about five or six John Halls with a middle initial. The only way I can think of is to check the Naval rendezvous records at the National Archives. If he is listed there, then I am rather surprised that Ed (Edward Milligan) missed his name, if it does indeed mention him. It is apparent that he enlisted from Massachusetts.

Actually, Gordon, going over Chan's statements again, I note that he does not actually mention serving aboard the HARTFORD, just that he had talked with Admiral Farragut, whose flagship was the HARTFORD. It should be noted that Farragut, being the Admiral in charge of operations, would have been inclined to make visits to other vessels in his squadron, to discuss matters with the other commanders, as well as to make checks to see that things were going as he planned, etc. A good commander did make the effort to go around the different vessels to check on his men and equipment.

I guess that John Hall would have had to have served on one of the other vessels of the squadron, and during the Admiral's rounds he may have had the chance to talk with him. I will continue to check in my personal resources to see if I can find anything on Hall. Let me know of further developments. Regards, Terry.

The Webmaster's explanation:

Hi Terry and Ruthanne, Terry, Thank you so much on your input and insight.
Caveat Emptor. "John Hall" is only my tonal translation. I am not 100% sure Chan's English name is "John Hall" It is only a probable name. You have to take it with a grain of salt. This is the closest I could think of that would make sense in converting the 2 Chinese characters into an English name. I speak Cantonese and use Cantonese as my benchmark. The 2 words may sound something totally different if a different Chinese dialect is used. In Contonese, the 2 words sound like "Juian" "Hor", the the closest names I think of is "John Hall." In the Navy, if they don't know your name, they will call you "John", which make life easy for everyone to remember your name. So please don't take my translation of "John Hall" as absolutely correct. I also have problems with the local San Francisco street names too. I don't know the area, and may be Ruthanne could help me out and make correction. I tried my utmost to make my translation on the proper nouns as accurate as possible.

On the original text, it was said that Chan talked to a "Chronicle" reporter. I have a hunch that he was a "San Francisco Chronicle" reporter. That means there may be an original English version of the story printed prior the printing of the Chinese newspaper. I have a hunch that the article shown on the Chinese newspaper was a translation from the "San Francisco Chronicle" version. If we could get hold of the original English version, we will be in a better shape. Terry, again thank you for your input. Take care and keep well. Gordon Kwok, Webmaster.

Some thoughts on my Research Project

In 19th Century America, the mostly white Americans often had ethnocentric view of their surrounding. When an unfamiliar race arrived in the West Coast, most of them stereotyped the Chinese as "coolies," wearing strange clothes and hair style, eating strange food, acting strangely, and having not much social interaction with their society.

I would like to dispute such stereotype, and point out that Chinese did serve in the Union and the Confederate army, and navy too, during the Civil War. Some did fight for freedom, fight to preserve the Union, fight to maintain State Right. These historical facts are not known and are not taught in High School / College / University. Even 99% the popular Civil War books, magazines hardly mentioned that Chinese and Asians had participated to free the country and preserve the Union. For this reason, I was motivated to do research on the subject and motivated to broadcast these facts to the Nation and to the world.

With the invention of the Internet, it makes my job easier. I was thinking if I put my web site on the internet, with links, the information will reach many, many people. I started small, with only two or three web pages, and it grew and snowballed to 19 web pages as of today. I envision the web site will continue to grow as time pass by. Again, the purpose of the web site is to show pride of the Chinese people, and their contribution for freedom ought to be recognized. That is the goal I have in my mind, and would like to continue to promote this goal, to spread the news. My original idea is a one way communication, to inform people about Chinese serving in the American Civil War. However, since Internet is a two-way communication system, I got feedback from readers. Not only that, some readers became contributors and later on, became friends, and I found these very rewarding. I am very surprised at the generosity of the authors, who handed me their research findings with no strings attached. As I start collecting these materials, and add them to my site, it grew, and I also made many friends along the way. Therefore, the project became a "give and take" process and I feel all the time I spent on the Internet in creating these pages are all very worthwhile and rewarding. I started as a researcher, writer and webmaster, and later became an editor / anthologist / coordinator / promoter / manager of my web site.

Supplementary writings on Manilamen and the Spanish Galleon trade

During the 16th century, Spain had colony in the Far East, the Philippines, New Spain in the west coast of North America and Central America. Starting in 1565, Spain sent a ship once a year from Philippines to Mexico City, the capital of New Spain, making use of the prevailing clockwise currents and winds, known as "Kuroshiro" current. (The webmaster learned this term from a History of Chinese Junks Exhibit, on a recent visit to Monterey, California.) The Galleon transported directives, letters, payrolls, Chinese silks, porcelains and jewelry from Asia for Peruvian and Mexican gold and silver. Filipinos sailors, including some with Chinese ancestry, boarded the Galleon to New Spain. On their return voyage, the Galleon generally sailed from Acapulco in summer, finding the prevailing trade winds to carry them back. It took a surprisingly short time of about two months to be back. The Spanish Galleon was modelled after the Chinese Junk, weighing more than 1,500 tons, about 7 times heavier than the Columbus / Magellan 200 tons ship. The Spanish Manila Galleons, known as naos de China, or, China Ships, were designed and builted by the Chinese shipbuilders in Manila, and crewed partly by Chinese sailors. {Sandy Lydon, Chinese Gold ---- the Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, Capitola Book Company, 1985}

The Spanish also brought Chinese shipbuilders to BaJa California in 1571 to provide maintainence to their galleon. We might ask the question, why did the Spanish take the Chinese shipbuilders? Let's pause and take a look at the Chinese Maritime history. During the 14th and 15th century, the Chinese Ming Dynastry sent Cheng Ho (Cheng Wor) and his fleet of ships to the Southern Ocean (Nam Yeung). The Fleet sailed as far as Madagasca, visiting the countries along their way. Each ship weighed about 1,500 tons, about 7 times heavier than the European ship. So the Chinese had the advance Maritime technology in ship-building and therefore, the Chinese were sent to New Spain.

Quoting Sandy Lydon, Chinese Gold ---- the Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, Capitola Book Company, 1985, pp. 19, second paragraph. "A large number of Chinese merchants had found their way to Mexico via the galleons, and over the years they had taken the necessary steps to become citizens of New Spain, taking Spanish names and marrying local women. When the colonial system spread north to Alta California after 1769, some of the 'Spanish' who came north were, in fact, ethnic Chinese or Spaniah Chinos. --------" A group moved from Mexico to New Orleans and settled there.

A footnote in History ---- Furture American Civil War (1861-1865) veteran was linked to the Chinese Tai Ping Civil War (1850-1864) veteran

In 1854, USS Susquehanna visited Shanghai, China. (This is the same battleship that Hong Neok Woo took passage to the United States.) Its captain is Franklin Buchanan who corresponded with the Tai Ping (rebels) force in Nanking (Nanjing), along the Yangtze river. The Tai Ping occupying troops were not familiar with the flags of foreign vessels, and constantly suspicious that the Ching (Qing)(Government forces) might be traveling in their wake or under their protection, fire warning shots as USS Susquehanna approached Nanking, along the Yangtze.

That prompted Franklin Buchanan to write a communication to the Chinese Rebels.
"Sir, ------
I will tomorrow morning send a boat on shore at 11 a.m. for the answer to my communication delivered to you today by an officer of this ship, and I have to insist that this answer shall contain a full and satisfactory apology for the heedless and insulting demonstration, of your battery, on shore this morning. If the fullest and the most satisfactory apology is not made by you in response to my demand, I shall not hesitate on my return from Nanking, to resist the insult offered to the Flag of the U.S.

At one o'clock tomorrow I shall weigh anchor and proceed to Nanking, and then represent to your Ruler Taiping-Wan the insolenceof those at Chin-Kiang-Fu, who have been so insensible to the properties and obligations of friendly natural intercourse, and the respect which the Flag of the U.S. must always command, more especially from those whom we have fully informed of the friendly and neutral character of that Flag, as you were by me, in my communication of this morning.

I send you here enclosing a drawing of the Flag of the U.S., that you may never mistake it thereafter.

Very respectfully
Your obdt. Servt.
Frank L. Buchanan (1854)"

[Source: Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong XiuQuan (Hung Sau Chuen), W.W. Norton & Company, New York]

{Webmaster's notes: How ironic! In 1862 down in Hampton Roads (a sea lane), another Naval History was made. The same Franklin Buchanan commanded the Rebel ironclad CSS Virgina (former USS Merrimack), ramming the U.S. frigate Cumberland with U.S. Flag flying, and firing and burning the U.S. frigate Congress with U.S. Flag flying. The next day, he dual with ironclad USS Monitor. Again in August 1864, Franklin Buchanan fought Union Adm. David Farragut in Mobile Bay, firing at the Star and Stripes. How ironic!}

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