Gilded Age Collections

(Description ID: 595647)

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

160th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Spanish
American War Photographs

GA-PH-10

Introduction
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content
Inventory

Introduction
The photographs were donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center by Mr. and Mrs. David Crawford in 2008.

Biographical Sketch
After the sinking of the USS Maine in the harbor at Havana, Cuba February 15, 1898, President William McKinley began a buildup of U.S. armed forces.  Indiana Governor James A. Mount received orders for four infantry regiments and two light artillery batteries. Citizens responded so quickly that Indiana was the first state to meet its full quota of recruits. Four volunteer infantry regiments formed immediately: 157, 158, 159, and 160. The state also formed the 27th and 28th Light Batteries, Company D of the Second U.S. Engineers, and the 14th Company of the U. S. Signal Corps.

The men who made up the 160th Indiana Volunteer Infantry were from southeastern Indiana: Marion, Decatur, Lafayette, Wabash, Bluffton, Ossian, Columbia City, Warsaw, Tipton, and Huntington. The Company was mustered in at Indianapolis May 12, 1898. The 160th IVI was sent to Chickamauga Park, Georgia for training and then to Newport News, Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; and finally to Charleston, South Carolina. There the 160th boarded the SS Saratoga and set sail to Cuba. The unit was based in Matanzas, Cuba. The 160th returned to Savannah, Georgia aboard the transport Thomas in March 1899. The company was mustered out at Savannah April 25, 1899.

Scope and Content
The photos in this collection apparently belonged to Samuel Darmouth Sewall, a private in the 160th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The Marion, Indiana man enlisted at Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 1898, and was mustered out with the Company April 25, 1899 at Savannah, Georgia.

The albumen prints are approximately 6 ½ inches by 4 ¾ inches and mounted. Eight of the photographs are of soldiers serving in the160th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Twelve record scenes of Matanzas, Cuba.

Inventory

Ac. 5687

20 items

1. 160th IVI loading on to the SS Saratoga at Charleston, South Carolina January 17, 1899
    Camp “emblem”
    Captain’s tent – Company A
    Dress parade – Company A (2)
    Troops loading on to a lighter at Matanzas
    Troops being ferried to the transport Thomas March 27, 1899
    Aboard the transport Thomas off Georgia

2. Cuban Volante [horse and carriage]
    Cuban milk peddler
    Pack mules in Matanzas
    Hut on the outskirts of Matanzas
    Bone pile in Christopher Colon Cemetery, Havana, Cuba
    Street scene in Matanzas
    Interior of church in Matanzas
    Plaza in Matanzas
    Bird’s eye view of Matanzas
    Interior of cave at Matanzas (2)
    Fort San Salv[indecipherable] in Matanzas