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Image provided by: New York State Military History Museum
8 GAS ATTACK NOTEWORTHY MEN IN CAMP II. Col. Cornelius Vanderbilt* Whose Regiment of Engineers Was the First to Come to Spartanburg. They were the first to come here, and the first to go, the 102nd Engineers. Of course, it was only the second battalion th a t left camp last week, w ith their Colonel at their head, inarching through the rain to entrain for special w o rk in V irginia. B u t when they came here, Camp W ads w o rth was a w ilderness of pine trees and a furrow of cotton fields, and the snake road to Spartanburg was a highw ay of death. They made the road navigable and they made the camp habitable. An Accomplished Engineer. T h e ir commander, Col. Cornelius V ander bilt, who is probably more widely known in civil life than any one officer in the divi sion, is an accom p lished engineer. His figure is a fam iliar one here. You have seen him, perhaps, sw inging along one of the muddy thoroughfares of camp, on his way to in spect a spot w h ere the engineers took a p a r ticularly mean kink out of the snake road, or where a bit of blasting was being done, or where some new feature of the landscape was being dealt w ith. The camouflage school is being held in his camp, and he has given m u ch aid to it. This isn’t the place to w rite of Col. Van derbilt’s private life, of how he let a great fortune go hang in order to do as he pleased w ith his life. B u t this is, decidedly, the place to describe him as an inventor, an engineer, a sailor, a soldier, and—-an Amer ican. His Workshop, As a Boy. How did he come to be an inventor ? He him self once said, when an interview e r b a t tered away long enough at his modesty and reserve: “ 1 always had my own workshop as a boy as early as I can rem ember. I m u st have been born w ith a liking for mechanics, as I constantly played and later worked w ith tools and m achinery. A fter my graduation from Yale it was logical for me to take up a post-graduate course in engineering. In the course of my studies I spent a good deal of tim e in the motive power and engineering departm e n t of the New York Central, trying to acquire practical knowledge. “I had not then taken on business respon sibilities or interests. My m ind was occu pied w ith engineering problems and my study of them led me, as it would lead any one else, to investigate w h e ther improved methods or appliances could not be devised.” His F irst P a tent, A Tender. Col. V a n d e rbilt’s first patent was a tender, a cylindrical tender which the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific were the first of the big railroads to adopt as a standard. It saved both w eight and expense. In 1891 he entered college when seventeen years old. He was graduated from Yale in 1895, and w ent to the Sheffield Scientific School to study mechanical engineering. At this period of his life he worked, spare times, in the office of the New York Central. In 1898 he received his Ph. B., and in 1899 he was graduated from Sheffield w ith the degree of M. E'. There came a tim e when, following a re alignm e n t of the V a n d e rbilt fam ily fortune, Mr. V a n d e rbilt had to drop his inventions for finance. He became a director in many big companies. B u t he was a real director, not a dummy. Ju s t as in the m ilitary serv ice of his country, he is now a real soldier, one who volunteered, not for glory, but w ith a zealous desire to do all in his power to protect this country from danger. N o t New in His Patriotism . It was eighteen years ago th a t Col. Van derbilt joined the N a tional Guard of New York. T h a t was long before the “prepared ness” people began shouting from the house tops. W ith his usual zeal, Mr. V a n d e rbilt threw him self into his work w ith the 12th Infantry, the outfit in which he enlisted, and in eight years he rose to the ran k of Cap tain. Major-General Roe, then comm anding the N ational Guard of New York, appointed him an aide. In 1912, when M ajor-General John, F. O’Ryan succeeded Gen. Roe, Cornelius V a n d e rbilt was promoted to be one of the inspector generals of the State w ith the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Col. V a n d e rbilt a t once responded to the call of the President in the Spring of 1916. He became a Major, owing to the lowering of the rank of all Guard staff officers to meet Federal regulations. Col. V a n d e rbilt’s record on the border was a good one. He believes th a t men who give them selves voluntarily to the nation, to defend it, de serve well at the hands of the nation. It was, w ith this creed at heart, th a t he took steps to prevent the many thousands of Guardsm en on duty at the Mexican border from losing their vote at the Presidential election simply because they were absent from their home States. He made a test case of his application for an order perm it ting him to register. And he won it. It was a battle w o rth while. Back From the Border. In November of 1916 he returned from the border on a leave of absence, and was appointed Inspector General of the Depot B a ttalions in New York State. A few weeks later he was appointed Col onel, in command of the then Twenty-second Engineers. It had always been his desire to command the Engineers, and he tried to make them as efficient as possible. He liked the job in the line much better than one on the staff, and he w anted to see w h e ther he could make a line regim e n t fulfill all th a t was expected of it. During the w inter months of 1917 he w as appointed chairm a n on the reception com m ittee of the French, British, and Italian commissions. For two years before this he was chairm a n of the M ayor’s com m ittee on M ilitary Affairs. In December, 1916, he was appointed senior Engineering aide on Gov ernor W h itm a n ’s staff. A Keen Sailor. In yachting circles he is very well known. He was commodore of the New York Yacht Club for four years, and has always been one of the chief members of the Governing Board of International yachting. He is a keen sailor, and his sailing-yachts as well as his steam e r “N o rth S tar” have been to alm o st every port on the globe. H e has owned and sailed personally two of A m erica’s cup defenders, both of which have never lost a race. His sloop “A u rora” was one of the largest in this country and w ith her he has won over three hundred trophies, many of which were won in foreign w aters. He was one of the first yachting men to race an American boat in foreign waters. Recently he bought the schooner “E lena,” one of the fastest schooners in the world. His steam e r “N o rth S tar” he gave to the B ritish Government in 1914, and she is now being used as a subm arine destroyer, hav ing several to her credit, a t the present time. In 1914 when the G reat International W ar broke out he was yachting near the coast of Belgium, but it w asn’t long before he offered his m ilitary or naval services to Ambassa dors Page and H errick. W hen the U. S. B a ttleship Tennessee was sent to France w ith several millions in gold aboard, Col onel V anderbilt, and two other American. Army officers were sent w ith a great p a rt of this gold through the fighting lines into Switzerland. He Ran the Blockade. The Colonel had m any exciting and in ter esting experiences in running the blockade, but succeeded in arriving in tim e to relieve the congestion of the banks in th a t country. The Colonel has attended Army and Navy m anoeuvers in alm o st every country in the world, and understands the inner w o rkings of foreign arm y w ork alm o st better than any other m ilitary officer in this division. The Colonel was appointed tem p o rary chief-of-staff in the absence of a regular Army officer, as he is the ranking Colonel of the Division. F irst Regiment to Build a Church. His engineers built the Range, and made Snake Road passable, laid out the entire camp, and the m iles of trench-work, con structed bridges, ditches, and culverts, filled in by dexterous cribbing bad spots in camp, established a mule pack train when the w eather was too had for other travel, worked on three different logging details, and were the first regim e n t in any camp or canton m e n t in the country to construct a church.
