Historic
Jacksonville Cemetery is located on a hill overlooking the city. Jacksonville was a gold rush town dating to the 1850s and many homes and commercial buildings have survived to become part of the
Jacksonville Historic District, including this cemetery.
The stone monument and plaque reside at the gate entrance to the cemetery and there's a stone wall that borders the cemetery along the hill all the way to the beginning of the first grave sites.
The monument plaque reads:
WALL BUILT IN 1923
IN MEMORY OF
COL.H.H.SARGENT
U.S. ARMY |
Herbert Howland Sargent lived from 1858 to 1921. I found very little information about his life online. I DID mange to locate a number of websites that are selling a number of books that he wrote regarding military battles -- some that he either fought in -- or wrote his own historical documentary on other wars. His book titles include
Napoleon Bonaparte's First Campaign; The Campaign of Marengo; The Campaign of Santiago de Cuba; The Strategy on the Western Front (1914-1918).
I also located an excerpt from wvculture.org of a military battle that Lt. Col Sargent fought in as part of the Spanish American War and reads:
At the time, as lieutenant colonel of the 29th Infantry U.S.V., Sargent led the principal force against insurgents holding the town, which is located about eighteen miles northeast of Manila in the valley of the Mariquina River. He commanded a provisional regiment comprised of a battalion each from the 27th and 29th Infantry U.S.V., and a dismounted squadron of the 11th Cavalry U.S.V. Another (mounted) 11th Cavalry squadron was to march north to Montalban, then attack south down the Mariquina valley to San Mateo. Approaching during the night by separate routes, the provisional regiment's battalions were to assemble at a bluff about a mile west of San Mateo on the morning of December 19, 1899. Maj. Gen. Henry W. Lawton directed Sargent to assault the town in conjunction with the cavalry attack, or no later than 6:30 a.m. should the cavalry not attack before that time. As fate would have it, the campaign commenced in the teeth of the heaviest monsoon rains in over thirty years. The deluge slowed all units, and the 27th Infantry and dismounted cavalry elements were also delayed by getting lost en route, and arrived late.
Sargent's infantry would have to assault across the Mariquina to reach San Mateo, which was situated on the river's eastern bank. Inability to locate an expected ford imposed further delay. The American soldiers formed an impromptu line along the edge of rice patties bordering the western bank of the river, and there came under insurgent fire beginning around 8:15 a.m. The enemy occupied 12-15 entrenchments about 350 yards from the Americans, and also had "positions behind an almost impenetrable bamboo hedge...." General Lawton, who had accompanied the expedition, was killed by enemy fire soon thereafter.
Locating the ford was absolutely essential to the operation, as the monsoon rain was quickly making the Mariquina otherwise impassable.
During the whole morning the rain had fallen almost continuously. Now and then it would slacken and almost cease for awhile, only to begin again. The river, already high, was rapidly rising. The men were soaked through and through. The rice fields which they had just crossed were submerged; and many of them lay at full length in the water behind the ridge of earth from which they were firing.... Had the river not been high and almost impassable, we could have quickly driven the insurgents out of San Mateo; but the river presented to us a serious obstacle, which encouraged the insurgents to persevere and stick to their entrenchments.
One attempt to wade the Mariquina revealed the water to be over the men's heads. Eventually the 29th Infantry found the ford, and crossed quickly. At about the same time, Major Hugh T. Sime also "succeeded, in one way or another, in crossing with a part of his" dismounted 11th Cavalry troopers "north of the main buildings of the town." Sargent notes that, "In fact, a small number had crossed there in a boat a few minutes before the main crossing had been made at the ford." All units were across by around 11 a.m. The insurgents, seeing American infantry advancing determinedly, "withdrew rapidly through the town to the hills" in back of San Mateo. Several companies pursued, the enemy but they "made good their escape...."
Sargent had about 812 men under his command during the battle. They faced an estimated 500 enemy, of whom 250-300 "were armed with rifles." American losses in the action were one killed (Lawton), nine wounded and one captured. There were 24 insurgents verified as killed and two wounded, but many other casualties were supposedly carried off when the town was evacuated.
Sargent cited "many instances of conspicuous bravery" during the fighting. He mentioned several officers from the various regiments, but only two enlisted men--both first sergeants from the 29th Infantry whom he recommended for commissioning in the volunteers as a reward for their conduct. He did not mention any enlisted men of the other participating regiments.
In fact, two Medals of Honor were eventually awarded for action at San Mateo, both to noncommissioned officers of Company M, 27th Infantry U.S.V. Award citations for Corporal Antoine A. Gaujot and Sergeant Edward H. Gibson, a Boston native, were identical: "Attempted under a heavy fire of the enemy to swim a river for the purpose of obtaining and returning with a canoe."
Neither the official citations nor Sargent's article illuminate details of the action. Sargent states that Major George L. Byram's battalion of the 27th Infantry U.S.V. arrived behind the firing line of the 29th "and his men were posted in the intervals between the platoons and squads already there." There is no indication that any soldiers in the intermixed 27th- 29th Infantry line actually crossed the Mariquina other than by the ford, whereas (as noted above) "a few men" from the 11th Cavalry U.S.V. did cross by boat during the assault.
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It can be ascertained from the above excerpt that Lt. Col. Sargent was a good leader of his men and I'm sure the citizens of Jacksonville wanted to remember his life and military accomplishments through this stone wall and monument. Sargent is buried in Jacksonville Cemetery and his grave can be visited here.