A Civil War Memorial for Andover In the spring of 2015, the Andover and the Military Executive Committee approached Phillips Academy’s senior leadership to recommend building an on-campus memorial honoring the significant contributions made by alumni during the Civil War. A specific decision on creating such a memorial will follow the Board of Trustees’ approval of a new Campus Master Plan as well as determinations of the proposed memorial’s message, location, design, and funding. Research undergirded the proposal, and that research continues today. The tally of PA alumni identified as Civil War veterans now stands at 814 Union and 50 Confederate soldiers and sailors. Four alumni died fighting for the Confederacy, 105 perished for the Union.
Hampton Roads by the CSS ironclad ram Virginia. It was no contest. The sinking of the Cumberland signaled the end for wooden-hulled, wind-powered warships, and launched Randall’s fame. Union writers celebrated his heroics: as the Cumberland sank, Randall continued firing a sternmounted cannon into Virginia’s open gunports. He survived the battle, retired from the Navy in 1882—and then returned to serve during the Spanish-American War. Randall died in 1904. Laudatory obituaries recalling his Civil War gallantry appeared in newspapers across the nation. “Voices from the Dead” was the title of a sermon delivered to Union troops March
26, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, where the war had begun almost four years before. Rev. Samuel Willis, Class of 1831 and chaplain of the 127th N.Y. Infantry, delivered that sermon. “Be faithful to every trust,” he declared, “to the Flag of our Union…now floating over the graves of our brave brothers—be ever true.” Willis had begun his homily with a biblical quote: “He being dead, yet speaketh.” May an Andover Civil War memorial speak for the honored dead, to those living today, and to those coming to Andover in the decades ahead. —David Chase
What of the stories behind these numbers? Theodore Wheaton King, Class of 1861 went AWOL from Andover after Fort Sumter was surrendered to Confederate forces in April 1861 and enlisted without consulting his parents. At 17, he was now Private King in Company F, 1st Rhode Island Infantry. Three months later, wounded and captured at Bull Run, King lay in Richmond’s infamous tobacco warehouse prison. There he suffered from infection, malnutrition, and overcrowded conditions. Private Teddy King died in January 1862, the first of 10 Andover Union POWs who perished as a result of confinement by the Confederacy. Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Class of 1833, graduated from West Point in 1839 and began a long career as an Army engineer stationed in the West. He held civilian positions in government, including service as the governor of Washington Territory. With the onset of war, Stevens returned to the Army. Appointed colonel of New York’s Cameron Highlanders, he was soon promoted to brigadier general, then major general. On September 1, 1862, at the Battle of Chantilly, the Highlanders’ flag sergeant was wounded and the guidon fell. Stevens grabbed the flag, raised it, shouted, “My Highlanders, follow your general!” and led his charging troops, flag in hand. A Confederate bullet found its mark and Stevens fell dead. Stevens’s cousins William O. Stevens and Gorham Phillips Stevens also died fighting for the Union. Before the war, William Randall, Class of 1846, captained New Bedford whaling ships. Volunteering for Navy duty in 1861, Randall became second-in-command aboard the USS Cumberland, a 50-gun, square-rigged heavy frigate—a formidable battlewagon of former days. On March 8, 1862, the Cumberland was attacked in
The Blue Guidon The Newsletter of Andover and the Military
Walter J.P. Curley ’40
Courage and Death at Iwo Jima Iwo Jima, D-DAY, 2/19/1945, 0430 hours—“We pulled on dungarees, piled into the mess hall for breakfast and went topside to witness the preliminary bombardment.” Awestruck by the force and power, U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Walter J.P. Curley ’40 recalls the pounding naval gunfire, strafing dive-bombers, rocket-firing ships and planes, and ships, ships, ships!
Theodore Wheaton King
Cumberland vs. Virginia
Isaac Ingalls Stevens
Spring 2016
general of the Third Amphibious Corps on Okinawa during the last major battle in the Pacific. After the Japanese surrender, Curley recalls a trip to Peking with Rockey to meet with Generalissimo Chiang Kai’shek and Madame Chiang; Curley was Madam Chiang’s luncheon partner.
By war’s end, Curley’s freshman class of 860 at Yale had lost 36 to the war, with many more badly wounded. A degree from Harvard 0930—“The shoreline bombardBusiness School led to work at ment let up. The first assault petroleum producer Caltex in wave headed in.” India and Italy. Curley later joined 1030—“We climbed down the J.H. Whitney & Company and rope netting into our landing discovered “the dazzling world craft, circled the landing area, of venture capital,” establishing hitting the beach at noon, moved his own firm, W.J.P. Curley & 25 yards, flattening on the black Company, in 1978. Public service sand. Raked by sniper fire. I paralleled his career. He was Curley with Chaing Kai’shek jumped into a foxhole on a dead tapped by New York Mayor John Japanese soldier. We moved 50 yards, choking on Lindsay to serve as commissioner of events and smoke and the stench of death. Howls of pain and chief of protocol (1973–1974); President Gerald Ford fear! Advancing, we set up a command post at the to serve as ambassador to Ireland (1975–1977); and edge of Airfield #1. The first night, screams of anger President George H.W. Bush ’42 to serve as ambasand fury, comrades being slaughtered. The second sador to France (1989–1993). day we were pinned down. Night! More mortar and Ambassador Curley was a trustee of the Frick artillery barrages!” Collection and on multiple boards, including February 21—“We constructed a command post Sotheby’s International, Bank of Ireland, and New and temporary POW stockade! Terrible news, Yorker magazine. Decorated by the U.S. Army, Navy, more casualties in our platoon! We routed out and Marine Corps and by the Republic of China, Japanese soldiers from caves and held them, stripCurley holds the rank of commandeur in France’s searching, medically examining, and interrogating Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. them. Prisoners helped to induce remnants of the The mottos on Andover’s seal—Finis Origine Pendet Japanese soldiers to surrender. Too often they chose (the end depends on the beginning) and Non Sibi a different end. (not for self)—were approved by Academy trustees “35 days after we came ashore, there were fewer in 1782, no doubt in anticipation of the life stories of than 1,000 Japanese alive out of the garrison of alumni such as Walter J.P. Curley ’40. 22,000. The combined casualty count (killed and —George S.K. Rider ’51 wounded) was 50,000—or one per minute. 6,800 of the 70,000 U.S. forces died in the battle for Iwo Jima!” Walter J.P. Curley died in his sleep on June 2, 2016, After Iwo Jima, Curley was assigned to the staff at the age of 94, having enjoyed the preparation of of Lt. Gen. Keller Rockey, USMC, commanding this article. Semper Fi.