r^^/z'-i 
 
 
 Glass u^uaA 
 
 Book .BH D i^ 
 
THE 
 
 Worth'Baoley, Ensign. U S N. 
 
 U 
 
 His Life, for His Countr 
 
 
57 
 
 LAST PH0rj3RAPH--TAKEN AT HEY WEST, APRIL. 1896 
 
The FSrst 
 
 o o o 
 
 o o o 
 
 allleini Hero 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 WORTH ■ BAGLEY 
 
 ENSIGN, U. £. K. 
 
 JOSEPHUS DANIELS. 
 
 IHIe gave ihis life for Ms CoMotry on the Torpedo 
 
 boat Wflmsilow lira Cardenas Bay, 
 
 May EntHu, n8<98o 
 
 "And thus this man died, leaviiig^ his death for an example of a noble 
 courage, and a memorial' of virtue, not only unto youn^: men, but unto 
 all his nation."— 2nd. Maccabees, vi, 31. 
 
 NORFOLK, VA.: 
 
 SAM W. BOWMAN, 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 COPYRIGHTED !898 BY SAM W BOWMAN. 
 
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 u 
 
 S^'^ 
 
 ItD. 
 
 
 
 In response to a request made to the family of Ensign Worth 
 Bagley for a sketch of his life for pubhcation, this volume has 
 been prepared. There has been no attempt to write an elaborate 
 biography, but only a desire to put in permanent form, for the 
 emulation of aspiring youth, the record of the short and brilliant 
 career of the first American officer to die in battle in the war be- 
 tween the United States and Spain. 
 
 The editor has sought to let the letters of the dead Ensign tell 
 the story of his young life. During the eight and a halt years 
 that elapsed between his entering the Naval Academy and his 
 heroic death at Cardenas, his letters to his mother, sisters and 
 brothers touched upon every topic that interested him. They 
 give a better insight to his hopes, his loves, his ambitions and his 
 character than can be derived from any other source. Written 
 for the eye only of those he loved best there is no reserve. The 
 extracts given show his inmost thoughts and feelings. It is only 
 from such letters that the real heart of the man can be known. 
 
 In collating from the letters written home by Worth Bagley, 
 and the letters of sympathy to his sorrowing mother, the con- 
 trolling purpose has been to convey a clear understanding of his 
 sweet home life; his abounding love for his mother ; his affec- 
 tion for his sisters, brothers and kindred ; his high ideals of life; 
 his chivalry that shone out in all his association with women ; his 
 clean and pure life — 
 
 " His >trength was as the strength of ten 
 Because his heart was pure ; ' 
 
 his manly spirit and steadfastness of purpose , his generous dispo- 
 sition, comradeship and broad charity ; his noble ambitions, ani- 
 mating to high and lofty deeds; his devotion .to his profession to 
 which he was wedded ; his love for his fellow ri-.en and his faith in 
 God ; and his splendid courage, enabling him, to conquer fear and 
 meet death with a smile upon his face. 
 
 It is hoped and believed that, though the preparation has 
 been hurried, the simple recital of what he thought and what he 
 did will stimulate to high aims and lofty aspirations all manly and 
 ambitious youth who are mo\^ed by the example of heroic 
 achievement. 
 
 J. D. 
 
Jl^e pirst pallep J^ero. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 " Easter Monday was a visiting day of some importance at 
 the house of a Grand Master in this city. The little Odd Fellow 
 weighed nine pounds and three-quaiters. Long may the little 
 Grand Master wave ! " 
 
 THIS was the announcement of the birth of Worth Bagley, 
 which appeared in the Raleigh News in its issue of April 
 yth, 1874. He was born in Raleigh, N. C, on the sixth day of 
 April 1S74, in the house in which his mother now resides, on the 
 corner of Blount and South streets. His father at the time was 
 Grand Master of Odd Fellow^s of the State of North Carolina, and 
 it was his prominence in the order that caused the editor to call 
 "the little stranger" an Odd Fellow. 
 
 Worth Bagley 's ancestry was honorable. His ancestors gave 
 abundant evidence of their patriotism in peace and in war. 
 He was the oldest son of the late Maj. Wm. H. Bagley, a native 
 of Perquimans County, North Carolina. When the War Between 
 the States was declared, Maj. Bagley volunteered in the first 
 company for the Confederate service that \v?s raised in his county, 
 having, prior to the war edited "The Sentinel" at Elizabeth City, 
 and having obtained license to practice law in 1859. He was at 
 first commissioned Lieutenant and afterwards Captain, transferred 
 to Company A. 8th., Shawn's Regiment, Clingman's Brigade, 
 and he followed the fortunes of the Confederacy in the uniform ot 
 the gray to the end, except when as a prisoner on parole at home 
 in 1864, he was elected and served in the State Senate. He was 
 afterwards made Major of the 68th. N. C. Regiment, of which 
 Hon. E. C. Yellowley of Pitt county was Colonel, and held that 
 
position in the Confederate army when Lee surrendered, in 
 civil life, he was elected and served as Register of Deeds of Per- 
 quimans county before he was of age. In July 1865, President 
 Andrew Johnson tendered him the appointment as Superintendent 
 of the U. S. Mint at Charlotte, but he could not take the "iron 
 clad" oath and could not accept that office. Upon the election 
 of Jonathan Worth as Governor in 1865 he became Private Sec- 
 retary to the Governor, and in March 1S66 he married the Gov- 
 ernor's daughter, Adelaide Anne. From this union there are now 
 living five children, Addie Worth, wife of Josephus Daniels, 
 Belle Worth, Ethel, William Henry and David Worth. In 
 1S68 Maj. Bagley was chosen Clerk of the Supreme Court ot 
 North Carolina, which position he held until his death, February 
 2 1 St, 1S86. He was an active Odd Fellow all his life, serving in 
 every position in the gift of that order. In 1873 he was Grand 
 Master of the State, and in 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877 he was chosen 
 Grand Representative of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the 
 World. He was also a member of the Masonic order and of the 
 Royal Arcanum. Major Bagley was a son of Col. Willis H. Bag- 
 ley, a highly respected citizen who was sheriff of Perquimans 
 county for many years. His grandfather, William Bagley. fought 
 in the War of 1812, and was at the battle of "Crany's Island," 
 Norfolk Harbor. His great-grandtather, Thomas Bagley, served 
 in the Revolutionary War. His mother was Mary Elizabeth 
 Clary, who was directly descended from Mackrora Scarborough, 
 who was Colonel of " His Majesty's Militia," member of the 
 Colonial Legislature, and of the Governor's Council. 
 
 Ensign Bagley's mother is the youngest living daughter of the 
 late Governor Jonathan Worth and Martitia Daniel, daughter ot 
 John Daniel of Charlotte county, Virginia. She was a grand- 
 daughter of Col. Archibald Murphy, who was a colonel in the 
 Revolutionary Army, The Worths were originally Quakers 
 and were amon^ the first of the Friends who came to America 
 primarily for the purpose of finding in the New World a place 
 where they could worship God according to the dictates of 
 conscience. They settled at Nantucket before the coming over 
 to Pennsylvania of the colony of Friends under Wm. Penn. 
 William Worth, who emigrated from Devonshire, England, to 
 this country in or about 1640, was the common progenitor 
 
of Gen. William Jenkins Worth, of Mexican war fame, and 
 Governor Jonathan Worth, grandfather of Ensign Worth Bag- 
 ley. His Worth ancestry dates back to the reign of Cromwell. 
 The first emigrants to America settled in Massachusetts, and 
 between 1771 and 1775, Daniel Worth, the founder of the North 
 Carolina family, with others of the Society of Friends, moved 
 to Guilford county. His son, Dr. David Worth, a physician 
 and farmer, who was born at Centre Church, Guilford county, 
 in 1776, was the great-grandfather of Worth Bagley. 
 
 The Worths have long been leaders in law, business and pol- 
 itics in North Carolina. Worth Bagley's grandfather, Jonathan 
 Worth, first entered public life as a member of the House of 
 Commons in 1830. He was elected again in 1840 and was a 
 State Senator in 1858-59, and 1860-61. In that body he vehe- 
 mently opposed secession, "votingagainst submitting the question 
 of a Convention (even to consider the matter of taking the State 
 out of the Union) to the people; and, the Legislature deciding 
 against him, addressing a circular to his constituents, advising 
 them to vote against Convention, as the surest way of defeating 
 secession. * * After secession, he gave in his adhesion to the 
 de facto Government, and acted toward it in the same good faith 
 which distinguished all his conduct, public and private." In 
 1862-63 he was a member of the House of Commons and was 
 elected Public Treasurer of the State ; he was re-elected without 
 opposition in 1864, and held the position until the then State 
 Government was overthrown by the Federal forces in 1865. 
 President Johnson appointed him State Treasurer, but he resigned 
 in a short time to become a candidate for Governor against Provis- 
 ional-Governor Holden. He was elected and. entered upon the 
 duties of Governor on the 28th day of December, 1865. He was 
 re-elected Governor in 1S66. He continued in the Executive 
 office until July, 1868, when the government was suspended 
 by that organized under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. 
 He surrendered the position, writing a protest denying the 
 constitutionality of those Acts of Congress and the legality of 
 his removal. He died on the 5th day of September, 1869, 
 
 Worth Bagley was a robust and healthy child, growing in 
 strength and manly grace, and as a lad possessed a gentleness 
 and courtesy that was the delight of his parents and instructors. 
 
Speaking of his home, on the occasion of his last visit to 
 Raleigh, he said, " I have always been happy here. It is the 
 sweetest place in the world to me." Growing up in a happy home- 
 where love and unselfishness reigned, he was as chivalrous toward 
 his sisters and playmates while wearing kilts as he was gallant and 
 courteous in his intercourse with men and women in the clubs and 
 brilliant gatherings in which afterwards he was a favorite guest. 
 There was in him the rare blending of the simplicity and direct- 
 ness of his Quaker ar.ccstry and the bonhommie and geniality 
 that is the characteristic of Southern cixilization. He would not 
 contend, even as a little child, for his own with his sisters or girl 
 playmates, but he surrendered to no boy in any contest and, while 
 almost wholly free from school-boy fighting, he stood up for his 
 rights against all comers. If this led to a fight, he did not shirk it. 
 but fought to the finish having the creed : " You must always 
 stand up for your rights and let nobody run over you." That 
 was his spirit — to encroach on the rights of no one and to permit 
 no encroachment upon his rights. "He had an inherent sense of 
 justice and fair play," said one of his school-mates, "and 1 do not 
 recall any fight he ever had at school except when he took the 
 part of a smaller boy against a big boy who was imposing on the 
 little fellow. After he took part, it was his quarrel and he did not 
 quit until he came out on top." 
 
 The oldest son of a family of six children, he was very dear 
 to his father, who entered into the lives and thoughts of his chil- 
 dren, drawing them out and helping them with perfect under- 
 standing of their powers. The letters between lather and son 
 illustrate the strong bond between them. 
 
 The following little jingle, written in the form ot a letter to 
 
 please a child's fancy, was sent to Worth when he was five years 
 
 old : 
 
 Raleigh, December 7th. 1879. 
 Dear Worth : 
 
 I drop you a line, as I have time, to let you know what is the go ; 'tis 
 Sunday now. and just somehow, I thought to you I'd write, to see if not 
 you've nie forgot — to tell you, too, what will be true, if, by Tuesday 
 niglit, you do not write. 
 
 The clouds are gone, the rain is done and everything is bright ; the sun 
 siiines out and, all about, there is nothing but it's light. Addie and 
 Belle both are well, and so is "Henry boo''; little Ethel's neat and very 
 sweet, and so is Edwin, too. Mama is good and Papa's mood is on the 
 good incline ; so be not sad and only glad, and bear us all in mind. 
 
Surely give Sis a loving kiss, from each and every one, and let her, loo, a 
 kiss give you, my darling little son. Cousin Henry kiss, and his little sis^ 
 also, the "little wee,"' Aunt Annie squeeze and Uncle teaze ; and, then 
 a good boy be. Now do not fail, by Tuesday's mail, to us to send a let- 
 ler ; for if you do— my word is true— I tell you, you had better ! 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 Papa. 
 
 The son was not less thoughtful. The follou^ing- letter, written 
 at the age of seven years to his father, on the latter's birthday, 
 discloses his generous desires which were early developed : 
 
 Jackson, N. C, July 5th, 1S81. 
 Dear Papa : 
 
 Please send me some torpedoes and some pop-crackers, I cannot send 
 you a present. Henry Benton and I are going down to the brick kiln 
 to see what our boats are doing. I cannot find you a present. 
 
 Every time Sizzie says "March," me and Henry Benton do like we are 
 marching. Your son. 
 
 Worth Bagley. 
 
 Among many other letters written to his cousins as a boy, three 
 extracts are given : 
 
 May nth, 'Si : 'Miss Nettie Marshall calls me her best adder." 
 
 Aug. i6th, 'Si : "I lost my bird betting with . I wont bet any 
 
 more. It is wrong I believe." 
 
 June 3rd, '8S : " Eighteen speeches were made at Morson & Denson's 
 Academy Commencement. Mine was the very last, and when I got up. 
 I tell you I was scared. But I got through all right and got more boquets 
 than any other bov. After it was all over people crowded around me 
 
 congratulating, as'they said. I got mortally tired of it I got five 
 
 'honors', three of them were 'firsts' and two were 'seconds'. The 'firsts" 
 were on Latin Exercises, Algebra. Penmanship. The 'seconds' were on 
 Latin Grammar, Latin Reading. The 'first honor' is given to the boir 
 who stands the best examination in his class, the 'second honor' is given 
 to the next best." 
 
 On February 21st, 1886, after a long illness, Major Bagley died 
 When the twelve year old boy recovered Irom the first blow, the 
 sense of his responsibility as the oldest son gave him the fortitude 
 of a man. He hid his own grief to be able to comfort and cheer 
 the widowed mother, and from the hour that she leaned upon his 
 strong young arm for support, in the anguish of her woe, until the 
 fateful day at Cardenas, he was her strength and stay. On the 
 afternoon of the funeral of his father, as they stood by the open 
 grave, his mother felt an arm about her neck. It was Worth's 
 arm and his hand was affectionately patting her fece. Coming 
 home he said, " Mother, lean on me and I will take care of you.' 
 A few months after the death of her husband, Mrs. Bagley took 
 her youngest son to her church (the Presbyterian) to have him 
 
baptized. As with his hand in hers, she approached the altar she 
 found that Worth was by Iier side, standing in the place made vacant 
 byhis lather's death. Itwashis own thoughtand it brought a feeling 
 of happiness into the saddened life of the mother that could have 
 come from no other human source. She came more and more to 
 lean upon him and to find comfort and help in his strong arm, his 
 brave spirit, his true heart, his stimulating hope and faith. To 
 his sisters, to whom he had ever been considerate, a gentler sym- 
 pathy was shown, and, feeling the responsibility of his example 
 toward his younger brothers, he became to them an example of 
 filial affection, respect, courtesy and obedience. The loss of his 
 father while it was not permitted to cloud the cheerfulness of 
 his sweet home life, gave him the steadying sense of duty, and 
 made him older and more studious. He early became a Chris- 
 tian, joining the First Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, on the 2Sth 
 of November 1887, having been baptized when a young child in 
 that church. 
 
 Of his school days, before going to the Naval Academy his 
 teachers are the most competent ones to speak. Among the very 
 first to write to his stricken mother was Mrs. E. McDonald who 
 was his teacher at the age of six years when he first became a pu- 
 pil in the Centennial Graded school at Raleigh. Writing from 
 Winston she said : 
 
 " How my heart goes out in sympathy, for you and yours, at the loss 
 of your nob'e boy. I, liis first teacher, have ever remembered him with 
 love and affection, and watched, with pride, his successful career, and 
 to-day mingle my tears uitli yours in this liour of trial." 
 
 jMrs. J. M. Barbee, who had been his teacher at the Centennial 
 Graded School at one time, said : 
 
 "Worth was very popular as a school boy and had wit and gallantrr. 
 He was even then fond of ships. When a pupil of Miss Gales, he drew 
 a picture of a full-rigged vessel and wrote under it, ' it takes fair Gales 
 to drive my ship.' '' 
 
 Prof. E, P. Moses, of Rock Hill, S. C, who was superintendent 
 of the Raleigh Graded Schools, writing to Mrs. Bagley, said : 
 
 ';The fact that Worth was a student of mine and always such a noble 
 boy, makes the loss a personal one to me. It will be a comfort to you to 
 feel that his heroism in life was as conspicuous as iiis heroism in death, 
 which has won the admiration of a whole nation." 
 
 There is still preserved by his mother an Easter card, presented 
 in March, 1S84, as a prize, by Miss Jean Gales, his teacher at the 
 

 20 YEAR5. 
 
 m 
 
 
 13 '/2 vear^. 
 
 (■^ VEAR3. 
 
 16 'h Vear^. 
 
 
 I Ve>\r. 
 
 FROM ONE TO TWENTY-ONE. 
 
Centennial Graded School, on which is written ; 
 
 "Prize received by Worth Bagley for spelling thirty wo^ds correctly. 
 The words were selected and prize awarded by tiie editor of the 
 Teacher." 
 
 In a letter written in his eleventh year, while visiting an aunt in 
 the country, he wrote his mother : 
 
 '■ I can swim 150 ieet." 
 
 His ability to swim was afterwards worth a great deal to him 
 
 when he entered the Naval Academy. Writing from the same 
 
 place, during the same visit his interest in athletics and his spirit 
 
 of pleasantry are thus shown : 
 
 " Tell Henry I hope Cain, the new pitcher, will be able (Abel) to shut 
 
 out the Wilminjjton club when they play at Charlotte I understand 
 
 now what piscatorial means, as I have studied Latin I wonder if I 
 
 am included in Miss 's love. She said she seiit it to all the family." 
 
 Finishing the course at the Centennial Graded School, he 
 entered the classical school of Morson & Denson, at Raleigh in 
 1884, to prepare for college. He took a high stand there, winning 
 medals and honors in a class composed of many young men of 
 talent, some of whom have already made reputations. Prof. 
 Hugh Morson, one of the principals of the school writes of his 
 pupil ; 
 
 " Worth Bagley was for several years a pupil of mine, and as one who 
 taught, knew and loved him, it may not be amiss at this time when 
 his native city and state are filled with mingled feelings of grief at the loss 
 of a son so brave and gifted, and with pride at his heroic death, to say a 
 few words in tribute to his many noble qualities of heart and head. He 
 entered the Raleigh Male Academy at the opening of the session of 1886, 
 and was until he went to Annapolis, a pupil of the school, pursuing such 
 studies mainly as were preparatory to a classical course at college. As 
 might be supposed, he was always a leader among his school-t^ellows, 
 beloved, respected, and looked up to by them all ; and as his nature was 
 pure, honest and truthful, scorning everything false and base, he ever 
 exerted a healthful and beneficial influence upon the moral tone of the 
 school. In all athletic games and sports he displayed surprising skill 
 and strength for his age, and showed those same qualities of daring and 
 endurance which afterwards won such reputation for him as an athlete 
 in the games ^ilayed at the Naval Academy with West Point and other 
 institutions. 
 
 "As a pupil he was studious, obedient and faithful In the discharge of 
 duty, with a character above reproach and intellectual endowments of a 
 very high order. As evidence of this, at the close of the session of 1S88- 
 89, he received the highest honors in several of his classes, and was fully 
 prepared, though only fifteen years of age, to take, as he intended, the 
 full classical course at the University of North Carolina ; but entering a 
 competitive examination for appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at 
 Annapolis, he won the prize in a la^^ge class from this district composed 
 
ot younij men who were all his seniors by several years. Theconimittee 
 who held this examination reported to Representative I5iinn that 'young 
 Bagley's papers' were almost perfect."' 
 
 Capt. C. B. Denson, a co-principal of the school, writes: 
 
 "At the Raleigh Male Academy he excelled in classical studies, and 
 at the age of fifteen years was prepared to enter the Universitv. His 
 character was lofty and noble ; he scorned petty things ; generous, warm- 
 hearted, resolute, and brave. As a student' he mastered evervthing 
 thoroughly ; to him duty was the supreme watchword. He was strikingly 
 handsome, with fine open frankness of the sailor. His friends here nfay 
 be said to have numbered the whole people, who looked with pride to 
 his future advancement." 
 
 The News and Observer in its report of Morson and Benson's 
 closing exercises in 1888, said: 
 
 ".Master Worth Ragley showed wonderful oratorical jiowers and talent 
 in delivering "The South of the Past and Present. ' He surprised his 
 young friends who applauded him liberally and heartilv." 
 
 PVom earliest boyhood he read with avidity the war-like 
 periods in history, and though fond of all manly sports, he was a 
 voracious reader, spending hours at the time reading historic nov- 
 els as well as those histories that gave the most graphic pictures 
 of war and revolution. He knew how every great decisive battle of 
 the world had been fought and won and before he was old enough 
 to leave off short pants his knowledge of the ships of the navy 
 and his interest in the life of Paul Jones, Farragut, Lord Nelson 
 and other great naval commanders was marked. 
 
 As I write there lie before me portions of the manuscript o{ a 
 story of a naval encounter in the fogs off Newfoundland, written 
 when he was about thirteen years old. Though the production of a 
 school-boy, written on Saturdays, it shows that at that early age he 
 was familiar with nautical terms and naval batdes. His family be- 
 lieved that he had real talent and encouraged him to fit himself 
 for a career as author of sea tales and naval methods. He had a 
 fine imagination, wrote readily and elegantly, was a master of 
 good English, and the plot of his school -boy nov-1 of the sea 
 gives prornise that he would ha\e made reputation ^s an author 
 and a novelist. 
 
 As he grew older, the ambition to go into the navy fired him. 
 and when in 1889, Hon, Benjamin H. Bunn, at that time Member 
 of Congress from the Fourth Congressional District, gave notice 
 that he would appoint as cadet to Annapolis the youth who stood 
 the best competitive examination, the desire to win the appoint- 
 
II 
 
 merit stimulated him to thorough preparation for the contest. 
 Mr. Bunn named as the committee to conduct the e*:amination, 
 Prof A. G. Wilcox, of Nash, chairman, Prof E. W. Kennedy, of 
 Durham, and Prof Purington, of Wake Forest College. There 
 were a number of applicants who presented themselves for exam- 
 ination. After standing this competitive examination and before 
 knowing the result, he went in June, 1889, to the University 
 of North Carolina, where he passed the entrance examination, 
 and in June wrote to his youngest sister, 
 
 " I got a letter from Chapel Hill the other day saying I had passed the 
 entrance examinations So I can enter the University even if 1 can't enter 
 Annapolis." 
 
 A few days *^hereafter, in another letter to the same sister in 
 playful mood he signed himself, " Worth Bagley, U. S. N., Lord 
 High Admiral to His Majesty Sen Harrison's fleet." 
 
 When, after marking all the papers, the committee announced 
 that Worth Bagley had been the successful applicant, his joy 
 knew no bounds The appointment was dated June 30th, 1889. 
 Always self contained, even as a boy, his enthusiasm could not 
 now be suppressed. It pervaded the household and family cir- 
 cle. Soon thereafter, in order to be fully prepared to stand his 
 entrance examination at the Naval Academy, he went to Annap- 
 olis to study for one month under a special instructor. During 
 that preparation, it chanced that being in Annapolis with his oldest 
 sister, just at the close of the examination, the writer recalls the 
 joyous pride of the noble young fellow as he bounded across the 
 campus to tell his loving sister of his success and to cheer her heart 
 by saying, jestingly, in the flush of his first victory, " I will be 
 an Admiral one of these days." To this hour I can see the fresh 
 and glowing young face, made truly beautiful with the light of 
 conscious strength and illuminating ambition. 
 
 When he went to Annapolis to take private lessons to prepare 
 for his entrance examination, his mother wrote to the instructor : 
 
 " Worth has always been a studious boy and has been fortunate enough 
 to gain the regard of his teachers. He is free from any bad habits." 
 
 This was not merely a mother's partiality that thus told of his 
 good habits and deportment. It was what his playmates and all 
 who knew him could have truthfully written of the pure-hearted 
 young lad, who through life; retained the qualities that gave him 
 
12 
 
 the friendship of the best men and women wherever his duty and 
 pleasure called him. 
 
 From his entrance into the Nav^al Academy, he was no longer 
 an inmate of the home-circle, except during holidays and vaca- 
 tions, but no anniversary of any member of the household 
 escaped him and he wrote irequent letters and made long stays at 
 home whenever leave was allowed him. He loved his home with 
 a passion that made him long for the periodical vacations when 
 he could rest under the shades where he had played as a boy, 
 and he always hurried home so as not to lose a day from the 
 sweet communion with his family. He kept in touch with his 
 schoolmates and friends, too, and had a deep and abiding attach- 
 ment for, and growing pride in, his native city and state. His 
 state pride was based upon a knowledge of its glorious history, 
 the sturdy patriotism of its people, and the simple virtues that 
 distineuish them. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY. 
 
 » Annapolis, I\Id., Sept. 7th, 1889. 
 Mrs. W. H. Baglev, 
 
 Raleigh, N. C. 
 Passed mentally and physical!}-. 
 
 Worth Baglev. 
 
 THIS telegram, which his mother has preserved, announced the 
 lulfilment of his youthful ambition. He was but a few 
 months more than fifteen years old, the youngest member of his 
 class, and much younger than the average entrance age at the Acad- 
 emy. He had given special attention at school to the classics, and 
 was a fine Greek and Latin scholar. The course at Annapolis was so 
 different, leaving out Greek and Latin altogether, and giving mathe- 
 matics, chemistry and kindred subjects first place, that the young 
 cadet found it required very hard work to keep up with his class, 
 composed mainly of older boys who had been trained with a view 
 to the studies taught at the Academy. His letters home for the 
 first year or more tell of his application to his studies, his "boning" 
 
to keep up on "skinny'' and the other studies that required all his 
 attention. Sometimes he wrote that it was ahnost too hard, but 
 these expressions were accompanied by an expressed determina- 
 tion to do his best. There ran through them all a yearning for 
 home, a tender love for home folks and a desire to so act as to 
 win the commendation of his mother. A few extracts from letters 
 to his mother will serve to show the channel of his thoughts : 
 
 Feb. 23rd, '90. "Vou never wrote me whether I was behind liand in 
 my Bible or not. I am now nearly through Job.'" 
 
 March 23rd, '90 : Tell David a good way to learn to spell is to ask 
 what signs and bills read on the street and spell them over to himself. 
 Do you remember how I used to spell "Little Joker Smoking Tobacco?" 
 
 Ethel must not be discouraged with Ctesaras the first book is very 
 
 much harder than any of the others and after awhile one becomes used 
 to Iiis st\le and reads h'ni without difficulty. When I was in \'iigil I 
 could read Caesar without opening a vocabulary and anybody can do the 
 same thing. I know she will like French : it is very easy to understand 
 after awiiile. We in our class can understand the native Frenchmen in 
 that department very easily when they talk."' 
 
 June ist, '90: ''Do be careful about yourself Don't work any now 
 for a long time. You positively ifiusi not while you are having these 
 headaches. Rest a lot.'" 
 
 June Slh, '90: "We have been having a good time during the past 
 
 week. The board of visitors has been here A cadet fell overboard 
 
 The Admiral then had us called aft again and gave us a speech in wliich 
 he mentiontd the cadet falling Overboard, saying that his catching the 
 rope siiowed the cool-headedness cadets acquire while here. He ended 
 by saying that in after life' whenever we should find ourselves in anv 
 strait wliatever always clutch with one hand high up on the nearest 
 rope for ourselves, and with the other hand still higher for the govern- 
 ment, I heard a pretty wild fellow in my class say : ' Government be 
 d if ever I fall overboard.' " 
 
 Dec. I2th, '90: "I hope you received my letter on your birthday as it 
 
 was a 25 pager I wish I had been home with you. A thousand 
 
 hugs and kisses." 
 
 Oct. ist, '90: Whenever I get homesick I get out my photo album 
 and think of home. Your letters are so sweet and encouraging that 
 they make me nearly cry in the midst of my rough surroundings." 
 
 Oct 7th, '90: "T read my Bible every night. Last night I read the 
 14th chapter of Isaiah. Where are j'ou ?"' 
 
 Oct. 26th, '90; "Your letter came last night when I was in my de- 
 spondent mood and it was so long and home-like that it made me feel 
 entirely different .... I like to get a letter on Sunday when I come back 
 frcm church. But I would like to get them at all hours of the day." 
 
 Dec. 7th, '90: "I enjoyed the Thanksgiving box you sent. I enjoy- 
 ed the butter and biscuit about as much as anything else. Of all the 
 orange cakes you have sent me that was the best. None of the people 
 in this building had ever eaten any to compare with it. or ever will unless 
 they get your receipt." 
 
^4 
 
 Dec. 7th, '90 : "I generally take my photograph album down at nigiit 
 when I havn't had any letters for seyeral days and gaze and gaze at all 
 the familiar faces. It seems to keep off homesickness.'" 
 
 Dec. 2ist, '90: '•! am so glad of the prospect of going home that I 
 am just wild for Wednesday to come so I can go. "N'oii must hang up 
 my stocking Christmas eve so I can get it when I come at 2 o'clock 
 Christmas.'' 
 
 Jan. 19th, "91 : "A new preacher preached at our church to-day and I 
 was delighted with the sermon, which was directed principally to young 
 men, as the State Y. M. C. A. meets here this week. His te.xt was 
 "Serving the Lord.'' He made one |)oint whicii struck me very much. 
 He said that it is not to be saved that we serve the Lord, hut because we 
 are saved. I \v;is taught several things by his sermon and realized more 
 than ever how hard and difficult it is to live up to our vows. I always 
 feel the need of strength of purpose and will, and nearly all of us do I 
 
 guess I know there is but one way to get this strength and I always 
 
 pray for it." 
 
 Jan. loth, '91 : (When his niece was born, he wrote M "Ever since 
 I heard it I have been very glad and jubilant. Kiss Addie a thousand 
 times for me and tell her I have a great notion to try to get sick leave 
 just to go home and see the bal)y. 1 bet '$■•,0. she is nut any more 
 proud of it than I am. Vou failed to tell me the weight of the young one 
 ami llie color of her hair. Love to all and a thousand kisses for my 
 darling sweetheart mother." 
 
 fan. 25th, '91 : "I have been rejoicing and feeling better lately in my 
 heart. I had begun to feel cold in my religion for awhile, but lately I 
 have had all my love for Christ, and a desire to serve Him, return to me. 
 I have felt light hearted and glad lately and I attribue it greatly to this. 
 I had begun to pray in my bed at night and I think we might as well not 
 pray at all as to do that.' • 
 
 May ist, '91 : (Writing to his oldest sister:) " I guess you are treat- 
 ing X like you treated us both that time we had the mumps. 1 tell you 
 I wish I could have that sort ot mumps again." 
 
 Feb. 22nd, '91 : "I didn't know what hard studying meant until I 
 
 struck this second term 1 have been thinking several days about 
 
 papa, and I feel and have felt during this year so many times how I 
 wished I could have him with me and that we all could be here together 
 
 I am getting old I tell you. Only a month and I will be 17. Just 
 
 think of that 1 I am so glad that you are reading "The Light that Failed" 
 I thought it was really beautiful.'" 
 
 March 29th, '91 : "I wouldn't swap places for anything. Riches are 
 not a// in this world." 
 
 April 19th, '91 : " never hears from his mother but once a week 
 
 and I don't see how in the world he can stand it." 
 
 April I2th, '91 : "Tell Aunt Julia that I may be a little more dignified, 
 but the same boy that used to trot around in bare legs, and just as inno- 
 cent and tries to be as pure as the little boy who used to draw the sled 
 and help build the fires to drive off the sand flies.'" 
 
 Among the incidents of his life at AnnapoHs which illustrate 
 his character, there is one that stands out conspicuous. It was 
 shortly after he had entered the Academy that some of the upper 
 classmen entered his room and "hazed ' him. The authorities 
 
15 
 
 had determined to stamp out hazing at any cost and to expel 
 those who practiced it. Somehow it became known that Cadet 
 Bagley had been "hazed" and he was summoned betore the Com- 
 mandant and ordered to give the names of the "hazers". An 
 account of this experience is thus related : 
 
 '■ I have been taught", he said, "that it is dishonorable to tell on a 
 playmate or schoolmate. I mean no disrespect to or disobedience of 
 authority, but I would regard myself as doing a dishonorable act if I 
 were to tell. That I cannot do."' The Commandant said, "Unless you 
 obey orders and tell you will have to go on the Santee ". (The Santee 
 was'the ship on which cadets were sent for severe punishment.) He 
 persisted in his refusal and for eighteen days he was kept in confinement 
 on the Santee, being permitted to leave it only to go to his recitations, 
 and then being allowed to speak only to his instructors. At the end of 
 that time the cadets who had hazed him confessed and asked for his re- 
 lease. He would have remained in prison indefinitely before he would 
 have told who hazed him, such was his devotion to what he considered 
 honorable." 
 
 In the Spring of 1891, the fear that had haunted him for weeks, 
 that he might not successfully pass the examination, was realized. 
 Upon the examination his mark was 2:42 when 2:50 was required. 
 Failing to obtain a re-examination, he wrote his mother a frank 
 and manly letter, stating all the circumstances and expressing the 
 hope that Hon. B. H. Bunn, member of Congress from the 
 Fourth North Carolina District; by whom he had originally been 
 appointed, would see his way clear to re-appoint him. The de- 
 voted mother took the letter to Mr. Bunn, who immediately made 
 out the papers of re-appointment, and with a grateful heart, she 
 wrote to her son of his good fortune. As soon as he heard the 
 news, the following letter written from Annapolis was sent to iMr. 
 Bunn. The date does not appear, but it was in June, 1891. 
 
 Mv Dear Mr. Bunn : 
 
 My mother has written to me cf your kindness to her and me in p-rant- 
 ing me a reappointment to the Naval Academy. I have never thonght 
 that it is the part of the fallen to make excuses, but I feel that I nmsttell 
 you I hope that with the start that I now have and the de- 
 termination to fulfil evL-ry duty that lies in my way, I shall never cause 
 YOU to regret thi appointment you have made. I siiall never forget and 
 shall always appreciate your great kindness, and shall try, l)y hard work 
 and stndy, to show myself worthy of being a North Carolinian and your 
 appointee. ' Believe me. Sir, 
 
 With much respect, 
 
 Gratefully yours, 
 
 Worth B.\glev. 
 
i6 
 
 At the same time he wrote to his mother, calHng her " My 
 Dearest Little Mother." from which a long extract is taken: 
 
 "The lirst thing I thought when 1 found that I was not to have a re- 
 examination was, not as to how 1 was ever to get or rather linish my edu- 
 cation, but how it niigiit hurl my dearest mother and sweet, dear home 
 folks. I was so afraid tiiatit had gone badly with you that it was a longtime 
 
 before I could summon courage to ask how you took it. I thought 
 
 to myself, it I have caused my own mother a single gray hair 1 will be 
 wretched indeed. I don't think I have ever caused you truubh? know- 
 ingly and I hope so much that this artair will not go hard with you. But 
 now that 1 have a new appointment 1 will stand so iiigh that my mama 
 will be laughing instead of crying soon. 
 
 "I was so rejoiced when 1 received s letter saying that Mr. Hunn 
 
 had re-appointed me, that my heart leaped and I felt like going and tell- 
 ing everybody. My classmates have all congratulated me on it and 
 nearly all have e.xpressed the opinion that I will do finely when I re-enter 
 and that I attempted it too early in my life. I know they are right, and, 
 with the e.xperience I have had, the lessons I have learned, anci the de- 
 termination anil ambition that seem to have returned anew tome, I am cer- 
 tain 1 willtake an honorable stand inmy newclass. Itwillbethe first time 
 that I have not been the youngest man in my class in my life. But, my 
 dearmother, if youknevv whatdesirel have toredeem myself, you wouki be 
 as sure as I am that I will study faithluUy and stand high, and who knows 
 but wliat I shall stand among tlie 'fiends' and come home with a star on 
 my collar ! [This ambition was realized and he came home with a star 
 on his ccjllar. — Eijitor.] So be hajipy and then I will be hajjpy too. . . . 
 I think that all of my late troubles (the first set-back I ever had) have 
 a.ged nie in many respects, and I believe firmly they have done me a 
 great deal i)f good and have taught me many lessons. Perhaps for this 
 reason, God put the punishment upon me. For whatever reason He did 
 put it upon me I know it is for the best because He did it and He has 
 been good to us all If 1 could feel that you are in anyway satisfied 
 
 with me it certainly woukl make me feel glad." 
 
 Writing to his mother July 19th, 1891, he said, referring to two 
 relatives he loved very much : 
 
 " I was so glad to see them that I didn't know what to do. I guess no 
 one would havenoticeti, though, that I wassoglad, because I never go into 
 anv outward display of showing my love for anyone. I never believe in 
 kissing and kissing and telling persons how glad 30U are to see them. I 
 can meet anyone coidially, l)ut if they can't know and find out by my 
 actions that I am glad to see them why then I don't want them to know 
 it at all. It is the same way about loving a person, with me. I don't 
 believe in telling them thousands and thousands of times how much you 
 love them, but show in your actions that you love them and act so that 
 they may find it out." 
 
 Upon his re-entrance in the Academy in the fall of 1 891, he 
 became a member of the class of '95 in which he graduated. 
 From his re-entrance until graduation his life ran smoothly, bring- 
 ing realization of his ambitions, delightful vacations at homewhere 
 his presence was a joy and a light, cruises in the Atlantic waters, 
 trips to summer resorts, where he enjoyed the social pleasures to 
 
AS FULL BACK-1892. 
 
17 
 
 the utmost, stimulating victories in ibot-ball, in which he made 
 himself famous, an extension of acquaintanceship in all ports 
 where duty called him, and a growing of his mental faculties and 
 an enlargement of his views and sympathies. His letters to his 
 mother, his sisters and his brothers were frequent and grew in 
 number and in expressions of tender love. They are so full of 
 affection, of noble sentiment, of patriotism, and give so clear an 
 insight into his inner life that the task of selecting a few extracts 
 from the many of the same tenor, so as to let his letters tell the 
 story o his last four years at the Academy, has not been easy. 
 It is believed that the extracts which follow will give to the reader 
 a conception of a young man who was as tender and loving at 
 home, as thoughtful and considerate of his comrades, and as gen- 
 erous and high-minded in peace as he was brave and fearless in 
 the solemn hour of his tragic and heroic death. 
 
 Oct. nth, '91 : " I am so glad that you came in my room that day 
 when I was showing you around here. Sometimes I tliink 'Well, mama 
 has been in here', and it makes me feel real good and happy." 
 
 Nov. 8th, '91 : " I was so sorry to hear about Judge Shepherd's son's 
 death, but it should not be considered as a sorrowful death, dying as he 
 did. If we could all die in that way, I would say ' let me die ' and it 
 would be a pleasure. Such faith and in such a young boy ! It will surely 
 lessen the sorrow of his family." 
 
 Dec. 13th, '91. "What do you think about my coming home? I was 
 afraid you would think it too expensive for so short a stay, but I would 
 
 be willing to work forever to go I just must go, I have been just 
 
 wild for the last month to be at home and sit down in a nice, warm 
 rocker by the fire with all the home folks around." 
 
 Dec. 22nd, '91 : "I am so glad I can come home that I don't know 
 what to do," 
 
 Jan. 17th, '92: " All the talk here now is w^ar. We talk perpetually 
 of tbat and nothing else. Everybody hopes that we will be ordered to 
 
 sea in active service I am afraid the fourth class will not get a 
 
 chance, at least for two years, if the war lasts that long I am going to 
 
 apply for permission to go as I am well up in seamanship, drill, &c. Just 
 think how fine that would be. . . .The Chilians depend most on a vessel 
 of theirs now nearing completion in France which we cannot match ; but 
 I think we will declare war before she is completed and then declare an 
 embargo on her which France cannot violate, as she is being built by 
 Frenchmen in a French shipyard. A Chilian cruiser is being built 
 in England also, and the same embargo will be declared in her case, too. 
 Neither will be violated then, we may be sure, for England does 
 not desire to pay 115,000,000 damages again as she did in the case of 
 the Alabama in our late war. The fight will be even at the start or per- 
 haps we may sustain a few losses, as Chilian soldiers are in training after 
 their last war and very hot headed. They give no quarter and the throats 
 of all their enemies left wounded on the field are ripped with knives 
 
I8 
 
 nrade especially for that purpose. If they adopt this mode of warfare 
 lor their ordinary enemies, what can we Americans, wiioni they utterly 
 
 detest, expect? There will hardly be any chances for our naval 
 
 officers other than captains of vessels to distinguish themselves- in the 
 modern manner of warfare, and here the army have an advantage over 
 
 us Every one here is praying for war and it will help to remedy the 
 
 present stagnation in promotion in our arm of the service." 
 
 Spring of 1892: (Writing of the visit of fifteen Austrian Naval Cadets 
 to the Academy, telling how he had devoted the day as one of a com- 
 mittee to entertain them) : "At the Austrian Academy thty are allow- 
 ed to drink and smoke as they choose. They were w illi us at diiuier 
 today. The cadet 1 was with told me rathtr bluntly that tluy were 
 very much surprised that we bad oftert-d them nothing to drink at 
 taljle. 1 thought that the nobleman's son was brought up rather badly 
 to make such an impolite remaik, and told him that we were not allowed 
 anything to drink. ' Not allowed anything to drink ! ' he cried in 
 French. * Men Dieu. I do pity you American Cadets ! ' I got rather an- 
 gry at his ' pitying us American Cadets', so 1 said rather holly ' Ne 
 vouz ennuyez, Monsieur, nous sommes tres bien contents.' (Don't 
 bother yourself, we are very well contented.) He noticed how his 
 remark had been taken and apologized ; so after that we were very good 
 friends. . « . . . • We treated them very nicely and whtn they left us to go 
 on board their steam launch (tlie vessel is three miles out) they all 
 tossed their hats about their heads and hollered "Aurevcir.' We an- 
 swered them and started to give the Academy yell. Init remembering 
 that they could not understand English, we were afraid they would 
 think we were hootivg at thtm." 
 
 April 17th, '92 : "I would like to get some letters this week on Wed- 
 nesday, Thursday, and Friday as they are our e.xaniinatit n days 
 
 That trip to Calif( rnia will be scmething simply fr,e Wx ycu, mama. 
 You don't know how good it makes me feel for you to get a chance to 
 go oft and enjoy yourself. 1 will be a great deal happier than were I to 
 take the trip and a thousand times more disappointt d if you don't go 
 tlian I would be were I to be cut out of such a trip. You just shall go." 
 
 May ist, 92 : "I was perfectly delighted with the flowers. They are 
 in front of me on the table and give a delicious odor to the room. The 
 banksias particularly lemind me of home, as I can imagine the front 
 porch covered with them.'" 
 
 May ist, 92. " If I were a politician I would lay for sneaks and ex- 
 pose them." 
 
 June loth, '92 : "I starred for the year and stand 3rd in the class with 
 
 a very good mark Tell Addie I think the red store is the prettier 
 
 I am so proud 'starring," as much forthe ring as the honor, but 
 
 did not fully realize it until I saw the stars on my jacket at the June ball." 
 
 New London, Conn., July nth, 92 : "I have been very homesick for 
 
 a week or more I really do not believe that any home in this world 
 
 is as dear and loving as ours Kiss Adelaide and don"t forget to 
 
 leach her my name if shecan learn it 1 efore I get home ThankGod 
 
 ] was taught to despise vulgf;r language and habits when I was little." 
 
 Long Island Sound, July 19th, '92: "You would be perfectly in love 
 with the Navy if you could ste the ships of the North Atlantic squadron. 
 Admiral Gherardi is in command of the fleet and the Philadelphia is his 
 flag ship. I went aboard the Philadelphia and MiantononK h F>iday 
 morning and enjoyed looking them over very much indeed. I was struck 
 with the discipline and rigor with which the ship is run. Everything is 
 
19 
 
 done like clock work, especially on the flag ship. From stem to stern 
 and from spar-deck to keel the ships themselves are neatness personified. ' ' 
 
 New London, July 31st. '92 : " I am not in favor of 's going out 
 
 of the State. We all have so many friends in North Carolina It 
 
 w juld seem like leaving the whole world to me." 
 
 Jamestown, R. I. Aug 12th, '92 : "I am sure nobody in the world ever 
 had a home like ours and how thankful we should be for it." 
 
 Annapolis, Oct. 3rd, '92 : " I feel mighty homesick and complain con- 
 tinually that I can't be back in my own dear little home. Mother, how 
 much I love you and my dear brothers and sisters nobody in the world 
 but myself knows. How I wish I could be home with you." 
 
 Nov. 3rd, '92 : (To his sister Beile at school in Chambersburg, 
 Pa) "I received a real nice long letter from mother to-day. It 
 just breathed of home and home life and consequently I enjoyed it and 
 haven't ceased to enjoy it I shall read it again after awhile beiore going 
 to bed.'" 
 
 Feb. 5th, '93. " My letters from home are • chewed and digested ' as 
 
 Carlyle has it I was delighted and had to take Adelaide's picture 
 
 out and laugh all to myself to think that she is running about the house 
 by herself. I think about her a great deal and love the picture I have of 
 her. I am so glad I have it. I am sure it does me lots of good.' " 
 
 Oct. 22nd, '93: " This is Sunday atternoon and a very rainy, dreary 
 one with the prospect of a hard, very hard, week ahead of me. This is 
 exam, week I have worked myself up to a good old home-sick feel- 
 ing this afterncon. I believe I love to get real home-sick in a room by 
 myself, and have the rain patter against the panes as it does now, and 
 have the wind whistle ami moan through the cracks. I always feel that 
 come what will, exams, or no exams., ' bilge ' or graduate, 1 have such 
 a dear home that would be more tiian a recompense for it all. I think 
 it is a sweet, cry-baby sort of feeling that we often love to indulge in.'" 
 
 Nov. 2oth, '93: "Please let me have lots of letters this week of 
 ' exams.' " 
 
 Aug. 4th, '94 : "I have been transferred from the Monongahela to the 
 Bancroft with the rest of my class."' In the same letter, writing of the 
 birth of his nephew, " I want to tell you how happy I was to get the de- 
 lightful news. It was so fine that 1 am tickled to death 1 shall cer- 
 tainly bring the young naval officer a package of cigarettes to teethe with 
 when I come on leave. That and a good bottle of AnnheuserBusch will 
 start him well on the track of the Navy, which my heart is set on his 
 entering. We have not had enough naval men in our family, and I want 
 to offer the suggestion that he be given as a votive offering to his coun- 
 try's service in the navy. I will be there to look after him, tiiat's the reason 
 I want him. I shall make it my duty whether desired or not (?) to incul- 
 cate into him all possible seamanship knowledge and he shall be able to 
 find the latitude and longitude of Raleigh or Washington by the time he 
 is twelve years old. I think about him lots and am so anxious to see 
 
 what he looks like I am glad of the good time you are having, but 
 
 of all the good news the arrival of the young admiral has caused me the 
 greatest happiness I have had in a long time.'" 
 
 Aug, 4th, '94 : "I am assistant Navigator now on the Bancroft. 
 
20 
 
 The following letter, written a few days after the birth of his 
 nephew, is printed in full because it is believed to give his high 
 ideals of life and duty — ideals which he carried into the daily dis- 
 charge of his duties : The letter was addressed, showing his 
 playful humor, to 
 
 "Commodore Josepuls Daniels, Jr.,'': 
 
 Annapolis, Md.. 
 Sunday, Aug. 2nd, 1894. 
 Mv DEAR YOUNG (?) NEPHEW — 
 
 I make an early reply to your letter announcing your most welcome 
 arrival, in order to show my appreciation of the honor you have conler- 
 red upon me in allowing me to be the first to receive a letter from your 
 hand. 
 
 Your handwriting is strangely like your father's: vou will be lucky, 
 sir, if you resemble him in other traits and cjualilies of heart or 
 mind— I came within an ace of adding "looks," but I love you little one 
 already, and shall wish you no such hard hick. 
 
 I shall help to bring you up in the right way when 1 am at home. Do 
 not cry when I inform you that you must eat hard tack and salt horse 
 from now on so that you may get used to the diet Worse yet you nuisl 
 have a copy of Luce's Seamanship right at hand even while sleeping and 
 eating. Then on your first class cruise you won't have the trials to un- 
 dergo that your uncle is now passing through. 
 
 Above all, you must learn to be self-reliant. You must be a man at 
 fifteen : it won't be hard for you to accomplish, it. Never ask any favor.-; 
 if you can help it. Be a lady's man but don't tell each and all of them 
 that you love them ; at first some of them will believe you which will be 
 sad for tiiem, afterward none of them will believe you which will be sad 
 for you. 
 
 Study hard and. uiUil you enter the Naval Academy, don't pretend 
 you know a thing until you do know it. Don't be a book worm or a hot 
 house plant but take the proper e.xercise and make yourself a strongman. 
 Don't tell a lie even at the Naval Academy. Love your father and 
 mother and obey orders. It is as bad to disobey orders from the proper 
 source as it is to tell a lie. 
 
 Keep this letter and I will keep yours, then someday we will compare. 
 You will laugh then and wonder if your uncle kept all these things. 
 
 He didn't, that is the reason he wants to warn you beforehand and 
 make an oflticer of you : you won't have the faults that he had. 
 
 But he will repeat to you what was said to him and the rest of the 
 Navy team last year before the game with West Point which we won 6 
 to 4. Mind it wherever you may be. It is : "For God's sake keep your 
 nerve, and show the stuff you're made of!" 
 
 With every good wish, and the hope that your young life begun in a 
 bed of roses will suffer from only enough thorns to make a man of you 
 in the time of danger and necessity, I am, 
 
 Your loving uncle. 
 
 Worth Bagi.ey. 
 
 Life ran along with him pleasantly, with no cloud on his hori- 
 zon, until May, 1895, "^vhen there came like a clap of thunder out 
 of a clear sky, from an unexpected quarter, a trouble that threat- 
 ened his graduation. From his babyhood he had been physically 
 
perfect, and his fondness for athletics had developed his muscles 
 until he was conscious of being capable of any amount of physical 
 endurance. The following letter written home on May 5th, 1895, 
 told of his trouble : 
 
 "I liave learned from a good source that I am recommended to be 
 
 dropped physically on account of my heart Last year on the annual 
 
 physical examination the doctors found that the apex of my heart had 
 shifted to the left about two inches, due to violent exercise. The right 
 side had enlarged in muscle and had naturally forced the apex to the 
 left. This is not at all dangerous and does not by any means affect a 
 
 man's lite or efficiency The doctors noted the fact on my record 
 
 and held me over but advised me not to indulge in violent exercise then 
 or the next fall at foot-ball without first consulting them- When the foot- 
 ball season came around during the following fall I said I would not play 
 and did not do so for about a month when every one begged me tocome 
 
 out Some of the boys said I had the big head, and only wanted to 
 
 be begged, etc., so I said if Doctor would examine me and rec- 
 
 onunend me to pla_\' that I would do so. So he examined me and said 
 that it would not hurt me at all. So I played. Since that time, last De- 
 cember, I have taken no violent exercise at all I am going to tell the 
 
 Superintendent that I am not satisfied with the verdict and wish to have 
 another examination, and ask permission to request it of the Secretary 
 of the Navy. A cadet just graduating is worthy of such consideration 
 Dr. , who examined me a year ago says I am fit for the ser- 
 vice physically I hope you can come to Washington. It would be 
 
 best for us to be in Washington at the same time. .... I feel that I am 
 
 allrigiit jjhysically, having never l)een in the slightest degree unable to per- 
 form such duties as ordinarily came my way....... I have heard that the 
 
 Surgeon General is an able and a s<iuare nian, and I believe if he could 
 know how well and healtiiy I am, he would hold me over." 
 
 To his mother at the same time he wrote : 
 
 "lampretty confident of getting held over for my two years cruise at the 
 least, and of passing on my return as well for I am confident that nothing 
 is the matter with me. I am going to make use of the fact that I have 
 played foot-ball for years without ever feeling the slightest hurt to my 
 heart Keep up your spirits and I feel sure all will come out well." 
 
 The Secretary of the Navy granted a re-examination, and the 
 Examining Board recommended that he be held over for the final 
 examination at the end of the two years cruise and then to deter- 
 mine, in June, 1897, whether the enlargement of the heart was such 
 a physical infirmity as to disqualify him for service in the Navy. 
 This decision gave him great happiness tor he felt confident that 
 in two years time it would be demonstrated that his heart was as 
 sound as a dollar. 
 
 Writing to his oldest brother May 30th, 1895, he gave thi, 
 
 good counsel : 
 
 " Write and tell me all about school ; it would be a great thing for vou 
 if you will realize like the sensible person you are, just exactly how real- 
 
22 
 
 ly valuable it is for you at the present time to prepare for the near as 
 well as the distant future. I beg you to think of what I have just said, 
 and enlarge on it with your ideas and determination. Please think of 
 the words not as advice from one who thinks himself particularly adapt- 
 ed to advise, but merely like a reminder from an equal in age who real- 
 izes with you the importance of it Keep care of mama and look 
 
 after the thousand and one little and big things for her that you will wish 
 you could do when you go away." 
 
 The 1895 Lucky Bag, published at the Academy, j^ives the 
 
 individual record of each graduate. The name of Worth Bagley 
 
 came first on the list, and his record is thus given : 
 
 " Bagley Line. C. C. P. O. Raleigh, N. C. 
 
 " T am not in the roll of common men." 
 Quarter-back and Full-l)ack Navy Football Team, 1S91, 1892, 1S93, 
 1894. Captain Class Football Team, 1S92. 1S93, 1S94. Class Baseball 
 Team, 1S92, 1893, 1895. Chapel choir. Holds Four N. A. A. A. Track 
 and Field Medals. -June Committee. Toast at Class Supper." 
 
 At the supper of the Class of '95, given August 4th, 1893, at 
 Welcker's. in Washington, D. C, he responded to the toast 
 " Them Buzzards they fly so high.'' 
 
 He received four medals during his career at the Academy. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE TWO YEARS CRUISE. 
 
 DETACHED from the Academy on graduating in June, 1895^ 
 he went to the receiving ship Vermont, whence he was sent to 
 the cruiser Montgomery July 23 ; thence to the Texas on October 
 8th of the same year; on January 20th, 1S96, he was assigned to 
 the Maine; on the 20th of July, 1896, he was transferred back to 
 the Te.xas where he remained until he returned to Annapolis for 
 his final Naval Academy examination in May, 1897 ; on the 30th 
 of June, having successfully passed his examination, he was pro- 
 moted to Ensign on the ist of July, 1897, 
 
 His letters home during the two years of the cruise breathed 
 the same spirit of tenderness and affection that had made thein 
 so full of cheer and helpfulness during his six years at Annapolis, 
 but to quote even the noblest expressions would alone fill a 
 volume. For this two years cruise, upon his application, he was 
 
23 
 
 assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron. He was impelled to 
 ask this assignment so he would not be out of reach of his home- 
 folks. Before starting on this cruise he was at home on leave for 
 a few days. His sister was in Washington, D. C., and these 
 extracts are taken from a letter written to her in June, 1895 : 
 
 "Our whole family went to church this morning and sat in our 
 old pew. After church mother received a perfect ovation in the aisle 
 and vestibule, nor was I dissatisfied with the kind of welcome I re- 
 ceived. I wore my undress uniform, at the solicitation of mother and 
 Addie, whom I told that, for their sakes, I would play once more the part 
 
 of The Tin Soldier's Return, or how siveet he looks in uniform 
 
 Josephus, (his one year old nephew) is a regular dude, and above all 
 takes a liking to mv uniform. He will be contented with nothing short of 
 the noblest arm of 'the service, a thing that I of course am glad to see. 
 He behaves and acts like a gentleman. He is a handsome boy, favoring 
 me a great deal, and his father somcivhat, a combination that in future 
 
 days the women will not be able to resist is very well and 
 
 pretty. She carried off a ' rogater' (as Nellie called it), from the Chapel 
 
 Hill finals Keep up your nerve for it will take a lot there all alone 
 
 I will see you on the 22nd. So now! will close in the words of Paul: 
 
 'Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with pen and 
 ink ; but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy 
 may be full. The children of thy elect, sister, greet thee." 
 
 Oct. 2 1 St, 1S95, on the Battleship Texas, writing to another 
 sister, he said ; 
 
 " Here is a cap ribbon, I hope you will take, and as it is of niy ship, 
 please mascot me with it. It isn't much of a present (that is it isn't ex- 
 travagant) but remember that I am as poor as the outer fringe of the 
 outer circle of Coxey's army, and take the manner in which the gift is 
 given— don't consider the value of the donation, or the beauty of the 
 donor, in which cases you would enjoy the gift too much. Crowning you 
 the worthy mascot of a battle-ship, and wishing you many and many a 
 birthday." 
 
 He was fond of music, had a good voice, and when at home 
 nothing delighted him so much as to have his mother play and to 
 sing with his sisters and brothers. In a letter to his sister written 
 Dec. 9th, 1895, he said : 
 
 " I do hope the time will pass soon till we see each other again, and 
 can sing again together. Do you know, "Good bye to Summer?" 
 Isn't it pretty?" 
 
 His letters abounded in such references, for he was passionately 
 fond of music, sung in the Naval Academy choir at Annapolis, 
 wrote long and glowing accounts of every opera that pleased him, 
 and when on leave his home was a home of music, where, with 
 accompainment of piano and violin, he sung all his college tunes, 
 songs of the sea, hymns he had loved in childhood, snatches from 
 popular opera, and delighted to join his sisters in lea-ning the 
 
24 
 
 -ongs that they loved A sweeter home scene, with the niother 
 
 at the piano and this noble youth leading in the melody 
 
 that filled the house and floated out on the summer evening air, 
 
 could not be found anywhere. His love for music and his fine 
 
 voice made him friends wherever he was called. The daughter 
 
 of an Army officer, writing from Boston a few days ago, gives one 
 
 of the many glimpses of the delights that his love of music 
 
 brought to him and to others : 
 
 "At Old Point, where I saw him most, the men used to )iieet at our 
 house a s^reat deal and witli a banjo, j^iiitar and autoliarp. would sintj to 
 while away the time. Worth often made one of our mimber and always 
 added greatly to the singing. His voice, as you know, was extremely 
 sui-et. 1 rememl)ertliattwo of Ills favorite songs at tliat time were 'l)on't 
 you heardem bells' and the 'Little Alabama Coon'. I can see him now 
 leaning against the door and singing 'a Ringing out the (ilory of the 
 Navy' and ' Way down yonder in tlie corn field'. Generally we ended 
 with 'God be with you till we meet again' — the men sang it so well." 
 
 His iricndshad his whole heart. One of the closest was Cassias 
 Bartlett Barnes, son of Governor Barnes of Oklahoma. In a dc: 
 sire to render a service to this friend he wrote to a relative : 
 
 "You have htrard nie speak ot liarnes. one of my best friends. I 
 would do anything in the world I could for him. and many a time he has 
 
 proved his friendship for me You have had men friends if the kind 
 
 that one loves — he is one of these to me.'" 
 
 From Key West, June ist, 1S96, while he was on the ill-fated 
 
 Maine, writing to his mother he said : 
 
 " Your letters are such dear ones. The last made me live ov^er again 
 
 thatdeligiitful day at Old Point which I will never forget It is not near 
 
 as hot here as one would expect, for nearly always there is a breeze from 
 the sea. " 
 
 His assignments in the Navy pleased him very much. Shortly 
 
 after he first went on the Maine, he wrote to his mother : 
 
 "I believe you know that Breckinridge and I are rooming together 
 now. (They had been room-mates at Annapolis most of the time when 
 they were cadets and were like David and Jonathan in their friendship — 
 Editor.) The lAbune is a fine ship and we are very well satislied this 
 time."' 
 
 Having twice served on the Texas, he always defended it from 
 the criticisms of the press, feeling that it was an old friend. He 
 was on the Texas in September. 1896, when it ran aground in 
 New York harbor. Writing home he gave a graphic account ol 
 the accident. 
 
 The time had come, June 1897, to have the final test of his 
 he :rt made to ascertain whether he could receive his commission. 
 
TAKEN IN JANUARY, 1894. 
 
25 
 
 Dr.Warfield, president of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., tells the 
 result of the examination in an interview published on the i6th 
 day of May, 1898: 
 
 "Eiisij,m Bagley was a classmate and intimate friend of my cousin, 
 Ensign Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, who was washed overboard from 
 the Gushing near Havana a few months ago. I first met him at Wash- 
 ington. He had come up from Annapolis in great anxiety because the 
 examinin'T board had reported that he had heart trouble, brought on by 
 footl)all. ' He came to General Breckinridge in search of 'influence', 
 but the General was absent on an inspecting tour, and the 'influence' 
 was not forthcoming. I was very much struck by his frank and manly 
 ways, and offered to see Assistant Secretary Roosevelt for him. We 
 found tlie enthusiastic secretary most skeptical as to 'football heart", and 
 a few mhiutes examination bv a medical officer of high standing gave 
 Mr. Bagley a clean bill of health, and the forthcoming certificate insured 
 his promotion as Ensign. He was the happiest and most grateful fellow 
 I ever saw. I have 'often heard his fellows at the Academy sing his 
 praises. He was a famous back on the football team, and though very 
 popular, as modest and as unassuming as a manly man always is. In 
 every way he was the kind of a young man to whom we look to do the 
 country credit. It is very strange that the two young men in whose |)ro- 
 motion I was especially interested should thus be killed at the opening 
 of the war." 
 
 As soon as he knew his commission would be issued, he has- 
 tened with the good news to his home in Raleigh to gladden the 
 heart of his mother and family. He was perfectly happy, feeling 
 that all his troubles were past, and he was prouder to be an officer 
 of the American Navy than any earthly honor or wealth could 
 have made him, and in his joy, with forty days leave, he had 
 made many plans for bringing happiness to his home-folks. He 
 was welcomed with love and pride, and dreams of an ideal vaca- 
 tion were being realized when his mother became ill. In a few 
 days the disease was pronounced appendicitis and her physician 
 decided that an operation was necessary to save her life. In this 
 hour, his fortitude and his tenderness upheld his brothers and sis- 
 ters and gave comfort to his sick mother. He accompanied his 
 oldest sister and family physician on the journey with his mother 
 to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and it was his strong arms 
 about her and his brave spirit that gave strength and comfort. 
 Writing to his brother-in-law from the hospital, of the operation, 
 he said . 
 
 "Mother did not make a murmur in regard to the knife. As a man, 
 I feel vastly proud of her courage. When they came for her to take her 
 to the oi)erating room, I went into the room unknown to her to see that 
 they didn't handle her roughly as they sometimes do, you know, - * As 
 she passed me on the stretcher, she lifted her hand up for me to take, all 
 
26 
 
 the time looking out of her eyes with the same expression of resignation 
 that the Savior is pictured with. * * We, (Addie and I) were informed 
 that the operation would be over in fifteen minutes, and we waited thirty, 
 we waited forty five, and an hour. Then came a half-hour that neither 
 of us will ever forget, for that stretcher didn't appear till one hour and a 
 half had elapsed 1 Toward the last. I felt as though a bomb were inside 
 
 of me and that I was to be blown into a thousand pieces Weil, from 
 
 the time the stretcher left the room till it returned we waited on the l)al- 
 
 cony outside of mother's window 1 remember turning around to look 
 
 at Addie ; she was sobbing but otherwise apparentlv calm, and accused 
 me of crying. Such nerve in a woman was too mucli for me, so I took a 
 brace for very shame of it." 
 
 When his mother was well enough for him to leave, his orders 
 
 for duty as an Ensign had come, and he went to duty thankful 
 
 that in her serious illness, his vacation made it possible for him to 
 
 render her every service that love and tenderness could prompt. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FULL B.VCK ON THK X.WV FOOT-RALL TEAM. 
 
 ALWAYS fond of sports requiring physical strength and dar- 
 ing, the young cadet soon became a leader in athletics at 
 the Naval Academy. In the gymnasium and on the field he 
 excelled. During his first term he was on his class base-ball 
 team, and came to be one of the brag base-ball players at the 
 Academy. He took part in the running and jumping and other 
 contests in the department of athletics, and won four Naval 
 Academy Auxiliary Athletic Association medals. But foot-ball 
 was his athletic passion, and when he had become a champion 
 in that most exciting and hazardous of games, other sports 
 seemed tame to him. He became an authority on how to play 
 the game. 
 
 In his second year at the Academy, was regarded among the 
 cadets as one of the best foot-ball players. The following extracts 
 from his letters home during that season, show his love of the 
 game, his pride in his success, and the way he bore his injuries : 
 
 Nov. 23rd, '90 : '•! made my debut as a halfback yesterday afternoon 
 in the game between the team and the Deal and Dumb College, Ken- 
 dall. As a consequence, I am laid up to-day with a sore leg and arm, 
 nothing serious of course. But my playing was complimented so by the 
 
27 
 
 fellows that I did not mind my bruises much. I am now sitting in my 
 warm room, the doctor's liniment on one hand, my photograph album 
 on the other, and writing a letter home. I really feel delightful. Our 
 team beat 24 to o, and while we were in a very broken contition, too. 
 Our really two best players were laid up in the hospital. We want 
 them to get perfectly well before Thanksgiving day so they can play 
 against our old friend, Lehigh, which was the only team that beat us 
 last year. Our team leaves here the morning after Thanksgiving day 
 and goes to West Point where they play Saturday afternoon. We are 
 very anxious to beat West Point and Lehigh, as we have not been beat- 
 en yet this season, and only tied once." 
 
 Dec. 6th, '90: "When I got your letter last Thursday night, I nearly 
 went wild over it. I read it I don't know how many times My foot- 
 ball last month didn't hurt me at all in my studies as you see from my 
 report." 
 
 Dec. 7th, '90 ; "We have the satisfaction of knowing that we wallop- 
 ed West Point in the dust, 24 to o, notwithstanding the excuses which 
 
 the papers make for West Point I forgot to tell you that I am on 
 
 the e.xcused list again for football, not hurt bad enough to speak of. 
 though my leg pains me slightly when I walk. I have tiie consolation of 
 knowing, however, that I "made the winning touch-down and goal for 
 the class of '93 before I quit playing. I have some good liniment and 
 am feeling finelv up here in my room writing while all are at church, but 
 it is rather cold'today though and has been for a week or more." 
 
 He first played as quarter back and then as full back on the 
 
 Annapolis team. He kept a scrap book which he called " Notes 
 
 in Athletics" in which he preserved all the newspaper accounts of 
 
 the notable games, and recorded the names of the foot-ball and 
 
 base-ball teams at the Academy. His absorbing^ interest in the 
 
 contest between the army and navy is shown by the fact that on 
 
 the first page of his scrap book in his clear round hand this 
 
 record appears : 
 
 SCORES IN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES. 
 ANNAPOLIS AND WEST POINT. 
 
 1890— Annapolis, 24; West Point, o. 
 1891— Annapolis, 16; West Point, 32. 
 1892 — Annapolis, 12; West Point, 4. 
 1893 — Annapolis, 6; West Point, 4. 
 
 In his "Notes on Athletics," this extract is copied from F. Mar- 
 ion Crawford : " Brave natures— good and bad alike — hate false- 
 hood not for its Wickedness, perhaps, but its Cowardice.'' 
 
 His pride in being chosen on the team to play West Point in 
 1 89 1 is seen in an extract from a glowing letter written to his 
 youngest sister on the 4th of November of that year. He wrote : 
 
 ' I am on the foot-ball team this year. At the beginning of the 
 season we had Poe, who used to be captain of the Prmceton ceam, 
 here to coach our team and to decide who was 10 belong to it. He 
 
28 
 
 had the team to play against the second team before him so he could 
 see how we played. From that he was to choose the team. Just 
 think! I brought myself under the notice of the immortal Poe himself 
 and he recommended me for quarter back on the Naval Academy 
 eleven ! His recommendation was the same as my election. So 1 am 
 and have been all this season on the foot-ball team. We have played 
 two games so far, one against St. John and one against Rutger's Col- 
 lege. We beat St. John 28 to 6 and Rutger's 21 to 12. I have played 
 well enough in both games to get myself especially mentioned in the 
 New ^'ork World, Sunday, for the last two weeks. The Haltimore 
 American and the Annapolis papers mentioned me very flatteringly, 
 too. Our team this year is considered one of the finest in America 
 and we are very proud of it. I am the lightest man on it and 
 weigh 151 " 
 
 Before the game of 1891, his letters home were full of refer- 
 ences to it, all of them indicating that he thought the result in 
 doubt. On the 8th of November he wrote : 
 
 '"Everybody is looking forward to oiu- game with West Point at 
 the close of the season, Saturday after Thanksgiving. West Point is 
 confidert. They have written articles to the World about how badly 
 
 they are going to beat us, etc The Naval Academy keeps silent 
 
 wisely; does not seek to bluff by newspaper articles ancl is cer- 
 tainly not bluffed in return. We simply wait for the game which will 
 
 decide the contest better If we get beat New Quarters will be 
 
 draped in mourning. Everybody is assured of one fact, however, 
 and that is that West Point will beat us only after the hardest tussle 
 they ever had. The team is composed of older and heavier men 
 than ours, but we have the muscle, and the grit and spirit of younger 
 men." 
 
 Writing on the 15th of November he said ; 
 
 " We have had two foot-ball matches since I wrote you last Sunday. 
 One was on Wednesday when we played the team from Georgetown 
 University (Washington), and defeated them 16 to 4. I made a touch 
 down in this game, the first made during the game. Then we 
 played a game with Dickenson College, one of the strong teams 
 North, and beat them 34 to 4. I made two touch downs, one after a 
 run of 75 yards ; the other, after a run of 40 yards. I don't supj^ose 
 you will see the Sunday Herald, so I will tell you what it said about 
 my first touch down of 75 yards. The article was headed 'Middies 
 vs. Tiieologians' and it gave a short account of the game. One of the 
 things it said was: 'Within two minutes after the beginning of the 
 second half. Bagley, the cadet quarter-back, made a brilliant run of 
 over two-thirds of the length of the field (seventy-five yards), dodg- 
 ing tlirough Dickenson's line and scoring a touch down.' I liave to 
 keep in training all the time and it is no easy work either, I can tell 
 you . .1 have not been hurt at all except yesterday, 1 bit just a little 
 piece out of my lip. My nose (usually so small ?) is now shapt-d like 
 the side of a bracket. It is not hurt, though, and I can still smell and 
 breathe through it with ease. ' 
 
 When We=t Point won by 32 to 16, his letters hom.e show how 
 he took defeat. Nov. 30, 1891 : 
 
29 
 
 "We are beaten as you have nlready read no doubt in the New 
 
 York papers. The score was 32 to 16 They were all large men. 
 
 averaging nine pounds more than ours. . . .1 did not write yesterday, 
 I was suffering from a slightly sore back which is nearly well, however, 
 to-day. I wish I could be home. I just feel awfully homesick lately. 
 The West Point game didn't take away any of the feeling either, I 
 
 can tell you One of the songs sung on the foot-ball field by the 
 
 cadets was to the tune of ' Marching Through Georgia.' The chorus 
 is all I remember : 
 
 "We'll rush, we'll rush, we'll rush the ball along, 
 
 We'll rush, we'll rush, we'll rush it tiirough the throng, 
 
 With Macklin running round the end 
 
 And Bagley by his side. 
 
 Working like the devil for a touch down." 
 
 Dec. 6th, '91 : •■ I could not help showing my disappointment over 
 the game with West Point, and one of the officers patted me on the 
 shoulder and said: 'Brace up, old man, we'll beat them next year 
 when we get our coaches. We are still ahead because we beat them 
 last year 24 to o.' I replied, ' Yes, sir, but if I had only gotten my leg 
 broken or something like that during the game, I would feel more 
 consolation'. He laughed and went on. Several spoke to me in the 
 
 same manner I wouldn't have missed playing in that game for a 
 
 good round sum, even if we did get beat. The game was grand. At 
 one time both teams were striped with blood, but still we fought like 
 two dying game cocks to the bitter end and I felt exactly as limaf^iue 
 I would feel in battle, threatened ivith defeat and carried away ivilh ex- 
 citement. Not a thought of danger entered my head, and if it did I 
 would be ashamed to own it. It was not a 'fighting' game, but both 
 teams strove so hard that eight men were carried off the field wound- 
 ed. I did my best during the game and had the satisfaction of hear- 
 ing many times a yell composed especially for my name." 
 
 The New York World of Nov. 14th, 1891, said : 
 
 "Bagley, quarter back, is a beautiful sprinter. His drop and punt 
 kicks are fine, and he is a most valuable man. He is light, weighing 
 148 pounds." 
 
 Writing of the Thanksgiving game when West Point won, the 
 
 New York Times said : 
 
 " Davidson advanced over the ground like a shot from a gun. Bagley 
 alone stood between him and the goal. Would Bagley stop him ? He 
 would." 
 
 This closed his first season as a member of the Annapolis team. 
 Instead of being dismayed by defeat, it nerved him for more 
 thorough training in order to be ready for the 1892 game. Writ- 
 ing on the 13th of December he said : 
 
 " I will probably play full back next year instead of quarter back, 
 and that is the most responsible position, except being captain of 
 course. It is hard to say whether we will beat West Point, but every 
 effort will be used to accomplish that end." 
 
 He always believed a naval cadet was better trained than a 
 
 cadet at West Point, and therefore, in spite of difference in age 
 
or weight, could win in a trial of strcnoth. The record of the 
 foot-ball contests confirmed his faith. In the Spring and Sum- 
 mer of 1892, before the toot-ball season opened, he took part in 
 the athletic contests. On June loth, he wrote to his mother : 
 
 '-Saturday before annual week, the Spring athletic sports were held 
 at tile Academj-, all entries open to cadets only. I won medal for the 
 half mile run, making the half mile in i minute and 5S 4-5 seconds. 
 The medal is a silver one about the size of a dollar. The badge to 
 which it is attached is in the shape of a shield and is silk of Academy 
 colors, navy blue and gold. I have the medal in my trunk and will 
 bring it home when I go on leave."' 
 
 His ambition was realized and when the team was announced 
 for 1892, he was i.Aromoted to full back. The following extracts 
 from his letters show his elation of spirit : 
 
 "Oct. i6th. '92: "Don't tell anybody, hut several of the papers 
 after this game said that 1 was 'undoubtedly the most valuable man 
 on the team.' " 
 
 "Nov. 2oth, '92: "I am thankful that the foot-ball season will 
 soon be over. It will be over for us ne.\t Saturday after the West 
 Point game... We played (it-orgetown University yesterday and beat 
 them 40 to o. I made four touch downs and kicked three goals from 
 touch downs, making 22 of the 40 points. . . .1 am so glad I am going 
 to VV^est Point ne.xt week, and I will go unless I get hurt in a practice 
 game tomorrow or day after. . . .Both teams have very fine records so 
 far this season and a very close game may be expected. I shall be 
 very much disappointed if we don't win, but we have a very heavy 
 and a very well coached team to play against us I can't think of any- 
 thing liut that game, and often I dream about it. If we win, we will be 
 kings here at the Academy ; if we lose, we will feel \ ery bad. . . .1 wish 
 my little mama was going to watch me play next Saturday." 
 
 Nov. 30th, '92 : (To his oldest brother) " I have about risen to the 
 zenith of my glory, I guess, having been esj^ecially mentioned in Har- 
 per's Weekly. The sporting editor of that paper is very careful about 
 complimenting, too .. Since the game with Pennsylvania our team 
 has improved wonderfully. We held Princeton down to the smallest 
 score she has made this year. Pennsylvania beat us 18 to o, but since 
 then we have beaten LaFayette 22 to 4, and several days after the 
 game Pennsylvania only beat them 8 to 6. .. I made a touch down 
 
 from centre of field without any interference for me at all We have 
 
 the best team the Navy has ever produced My hair is nearly four 
 
 inches long and I plaster it down on my head until games. It pro- 
 tects my head from the hard ground." 
 
 His joy when the Annapolis team won over the West Pointers 
 in the Thanksgiving game of 1S92 at West Point by a score of 
 12 to 4 knew no bounds. He wrote of his happiness with the 
 fresh ardor of victorious youth, and sent the New York papers 
 home so that his home folks might read the minutest details of 
 the ofame. 
 
31 
 
 A song, the " Middies' Revenge " written of this game, to the 
 
 tune of " Boom de ay ", made this reference to him : 
 
 " Rushing like a mighty blizzard, 
 Thro' the lines flew little ' Izard ', 
 And when ' Bagley ' kicked the ' goal ', 
 Terror seized on every soul." 
 
 Of this game Casper W. Whitney, in Harper's Weekly, said : 
 "Bagley punted with much judgment." The New York Times' 
 account of the game said : " Then more wedges, till the ball was 
 put over the West Point line for another touch down by Bagley, and 
 the same man kicked the gt>al." The New York Morning Adver- 
 tiser said : " Bagley kicked the goal. The enthusiasm of the 
 Naval boys knew no bounds at this juncture." The Annapolis 
 Capital said: 
 
 "Everybody climbed up on chairs to see the attempt at goal and when 
 Bagley sent the ball high above and directly between the goal posts, 
 a demonstration followed which would have satisfied a newly elected 
 
 president Back to Bagley went the ball and into the line he went 
 
 and another touch down was the result." 
 
 A paper showing some records made by naval cadets for the 
 year '92-3, contain the following reference: "4 goals, Bagley, 
 '95 (from 30 yard line — 5 kicks allowed.)" In his score of the 
 season, in seven games, he writes "opponements 64 ; U. S, N. A. 
 146." 
 
 The eyes of all lovers of foot-ball in America turned to the 
 game of 1893, played at Annapolis, between the navy and the 
 army teams. Full back Bagley was confident of victory and 
 played with such skill and genius as to win world-wide reputa- 
 tion in foot-ball circles. He had the joy of victory, for the score 
 was 6 to 4 in favor of the Naval Academy team. The papers 
 were full of the praise of the navy team and they all gave Bagley 
 the credit of winning the game. The high officers of the Navy 
 were as proud of the young Carolinian's prowess as the most 
 enthusiastic "plebe" at the Academy. A trophy of this game 
 was a gold foot-ball, made by Tiffany, to be used as a watch charm, 
 on which was engraved: "Worth Bagley, Full-back, 1893." 
 
 The following is the first verse of a song "The Team That 
 Won the Victory for the Navy," to the air " The Man that Broke 
 the Bank at Monte Carlo ", that the cadets sung in honor of the 
 victory : 
 
32 
 
 " Oh we've just done up the Army, 
 And they are feeling pretty sore 
 For you should have heard us roar 
 When we shoved tlie pigskin o'er; 
 And when Bagley kicked the goal, 
 Why, we shouted all the more, 
 
 And when time was called we had them, six to four. 
 Yes when time was called we had them, six to four." 
 
 " How Barley Won the Game " is the subject of an article that 
 re«ently appeared in the New York Evanj^elist. It is a more con- 
 cise account than any that appeared at the time and is given place 
 here : 
 
 "Although the war has thus far been almost bloodless, there lias 
 been at least the sacrifice of one precious life that is a great loss — 
 that of Knsign Bagley, the first of our brave officers to fall. The 
 death of one so young and so full of life recalls a gay scene at the 
 navy yard at Annapolis in November, 1893, where he for the first 
 time appeared as a hero. It was the day of the great foot-ball game 
 between the army and the navy. A fine team of athletic young West 
 Pointers had come down for a trial of strength with the naval cadets, 
 and the friendly contest had drawn the crowds of army and navy 
 men and of gay women, young and old, wearing the colors of the two 
 branches of the service, and full of enthusiasm for the rival combat- 
 ants. 
 
 "As the stalwart West Pointers appeared on the field they seemed 
 so much larger and heavier than the Annapolis team that experts 
 declared there would be an easy victory for the visitors, and the 
 groujis of army friends were correspondingly triumphant, but as the 
 game began it was evident that the conflict would be a hard fought 
 one, and as one good stand after another was taken by the slight, 
 blue-uniformed boys, interest increased on both sides. There was 
 genuine admiration and satisfaction in the tones of the gray-haired 
 navy surgeon as he rose to his feet and cheered at a good stroke, 
 declaring, ' Our boys may be small, but they have got sand.' 
 
 ■'Finally, at a very critical moment, a slight figure emerged from the 
 mass of struggling men and, seizing his opportunity, gave the hard- 
 fought ball a kick that sent it far above the heads of all contestants 
 to the other end of the gridiron and scored a much-needed point for 
 the navy that saved the game. 
 
 'Only those who have watched such a contest can understand the 
 enthusiasm of the scene ; how hats went into the air and the name of 
 Bagley was sounded with cheers from one end of the ground to the 
 other. 
 
 " In the midst of all the enthusiasm a quiet little woman had arrived 
 alone, and after vainly trying to find the seat reserved for her, caught 
 the name that was on every one's lips and, turning with a flushed 
 face to her neighbor in the crowd, said : ' Oh, I wish I could see what 
 it is, for that is my son, and I have just arrived from North Carolina.' 
 A place was speedily made for the proud little mother, and she 
 watched her boy's triumph and saw him at the end of the game car- 
 ried off the field on the shoulders of his mates amid the most resound- 
 ing cheers. Foot-ball men declared his 'punt' had broken the record, 
 and Bagley was the hero of the hour. 
 
00 > 
 
 O uj 
 UJ X 
 
33 
 
 "From that day to this the mother's pride has never known a 
 check ; the boy successfully finished his course at the Academy 
 holding the respect of his comrades and of his superior officers until 
 the moment when he gave his fresh young life for his country on the 
 deck of the Winslow. The broken-hearted mother has the consola- 
 tion of knowing that many hearts all over our broad land are honor- 
 ing her dead and sorrowing with her." 
 
 In a letter to his youngest brother written in 1895, he tells 
 
 how a boy should learn to punt : 
 
 " Mother wrote me that she gave you a real foot-ball for Christmas. 
 I am so glad and hope you will learn how to kick well. When you 
 punt, drop the ball, bend forward slightly and kick it with the lower 
 part of your instep with a hard side swing of your leg. Measure 
 your punts and by practice you will improve. The longest 1 ever 
 made without wind was si.xty yards. Learn to drop the ball with the 
 point down, nqt crooked. To kick a drop kick, let the ball fall 
 almost vertically and directly on the end. Then kick forward hard, 
 and strike the ball as it hits the ground. The bottom of your foot 
 should almost scrape the ground when in the act of kicking, so your 
 toe will strike the ball near the ground. To kick a place kick for 
 goal, stand the ball vertically on end, and get opposite seams in 
 a line with the goal. Take four or five steps toward it and kick 
 with all your might, striking the ball about an inch and a half from 
 the ground." 
 
 The daughter of an army officer, in whose home Ensign Bag- 
 ley was a favorite guest, writes of one of the last games of foot- 
 ball he played : 
 
 '■ I remember one day at Fort Monroe the Army men and Navy men 
 were to play a game of foot-ball. I had never been able to see Annapo- 
 lis and West Point, so was most anxious to see this game. I remember 
 also that father at the beginning was much opposed to the game, but 
 when it was over I think he was the most enthusiastic man in the post. 
 Worth was playing and of course we expected him to do wonders as 
 usual. .Some of the men, however, thought he might have lost his 
 knack, not having played for so long a lime, but he showed them he 
 iiad not by kicking a beautiful goal from the field, thus winning the day 
 for them. The whole place went wild, and officers, old and young, in 
 both Army and Navy could not say enough in his praise." 
 
 The Portland (Maine) Press says that Ensign Bagley had visi- 
 ted that port several times, and left many friends behind him 
 when his ship sailed. The writer evidently knew him well and 
 was well posted on his foot-ball record, for he writes : 
 
 "Bagley and Breckenridge were the two most popular men of the 
 class of '95. Bagley, with his handsome face and genial manners, was 
 always surrounded by a crowd of cadets when their duties would allow 
 it, and among the ladies he was by all odds the most popular. Besides 
 being a good student and a good fellow, Bagley was a star foot-ball 
 player. He played in three games with the West Point team, each time 
 as full back, and each time he so distinguished himself that the New 
 York and Baltimore papers could not say too much of his dashing, 
 clever work. Mr. Whitney, of Harper's Weekly, complimented Mr. 
 
34 
 
 Bagley by placing him as full back cm the "All Star America" team, 
 and that was indeed a great compliment when it is understood that the 
 best foot-ball players from all the American colleges were selected for 
 this team "on paper" because of their ability in their particular position. 
 
 *' It was a great sight to see Bagley go into a game, for his skill was so 
 great and his pluck so good that no matter how badly things were going 
 for the "middies" Bagley always wore a smile and seemed to be the 
 coolest man in the lot. The cadets ranged along one side of the field 
 would open the garue by giving the academy yell, and then followed 
 their own special yell of admiration and encouragement lor Bagley. He 
 had failed on the academy examination in chemistry once, all because 
 he could not classify certain substances which were soluble and insolu- 
 ble. This was where the jjagley yell came from. It went something 
 like this : 
 
 "Sol, sol insol sol, 
 Insol, insol sol, 
 Bagley." 
 
 "And how this yell used to roll out from the 50 cadets asthe Naval 
 Academy team came trotting out on to the field in their dirty foot-ball 
 clothes and with their long hair waving in the breeze. And Piagky was 
 the king of them all, the man who was never known to lose his head, 
 and who was as sure on a punt or a catch as any man who ever chased 
 the pigskin. Again and again he saved the Naval Academy team from 
 defeat, and his wonderful courage and dash will not soon be forgotten by 
 those who knew him. 
 
 '"There are many pleasant stories the Naval Academy men have to tell of 
 the 'Worthless' Bagley, as he was called by those most intimate with him. 
 He roomed during the four years course at the academy with Breckin- 
 ridge, who was drowned on another toriiedo boat, the Gushing, while 
 trying to get into Havana before the Maine aflair. Bagley and lireckin- 
 ridge were never left much to themselves, for to their ruoms crowded the 
 cadets at all hours for advice, for skylarking, for sympathy, for assistance 
 in their studies, and many other things. And no one, nc/t e\ en a home- 
 sick plebe, entered this room that he did not come away feeling hai)|)ier 
 and more contented with his lot, for. though he might be h;'zecl ai^d 'run' 
 a little by Breckinridge and Bagley, he was never ill-treated or made 
 unhappy by their treatment of him. 
 
 "And there was another one, the first young officer in the Navy to be 
 killed by Spanish treachery, and that was D. R. Merritt. He, too, 
 was a classmate of Breckinridge and Bagley, and a close and intimate 
 friend of both of these fine fellows. Merritt was killed in the explosion 
 of the Maine a few weeks after Breckinridge's death on the Cushiig. 
 These three men, Breckinridge, Bagley and Merritt, all drissmates. all 
 friends, and all remarkably fine young officers, will not soon be forgotten 
 by their associates, and if the Young Ensigns and Assistant Engineers in 
 the Navy who were classmates of these fine fellows ever get v iihin gun- 
 shot of a Spaniard and don't more than square accounts with them for 
 the death of these men it will be passing strange.' 
 
 Among the letters received by the mother, many have been 
 from the lovers of foot-ball. Robert Burns Wilson, in a sweet 
 and tender note accompanying a poem with which this chapter 
 is concluded, said: 
 
 "1 with millions of others deeply sympathize with you and would 
 be glad to be able to speak some word of cheer or comfort. Every 
 mother's heart goes out to you in purest love and sorrow. I met 
 
35 
 
 your dear boy at Annapolis once I should be glad to know that 
 
 this tribute may please the motiier of so noble a soul. He is with the 
 immortals." Tlie poem is appended : 
 
 BAGLEY AND FOUR AT CARDENAS BAY. 
 
 Five thousand for the five ! 
 That is the call — that's the price they'll pay, 
 For the brave boys lost at Cardenas bay. 
 
 Five thousand for the five ! 
 The brave Carolina lad was there. 
 Too eager for fight — too willing to dare, 
 He was theie in the midst of the fray; 
 And he won his place in the warrior's heaven, 
 Bagley — "full back" of the old eleven, 
 
 O ! many a score he made, 
 Wliile the 'gridiron' rang with deep, hoarse cries, 
 Till the echoes came back from Annapolis bay, 
 And he was the pride of a thousand eyesj 
 He that is dead to-day ; 
 By God ! it was good for the soul 
 To see the rout — to hear the shout — 
 When Bagley "scored a goal." 
 
 But it's over. The green gridiron game. 
 Though rough and fierce, was mild and tame 
 Compared with the crashing and roaring hell 
 Of the withering battle where Bagley fell, 
 
 But Bagley was still the same. 
 Careful and cool in the midst of alarm, 
 As tiiough with a pigskin under his arm, 
 He fought for a last touch down. Alas '. 
 *Tis the iron deck, not the soft, green grass, 
 And now in a losing game he played ; 
 
 But his is the hero's soul. 
 True to the end of the fight he stayed, 
 He and the four brave lads at his side, 
 He and the four brave boys that died 
 In the fight at Cardenas bay ; 
 Firm-footed and dauntless and unafraid ; 
 And the boys will see that the price is paid, 
 For the guns are ready and grim. 
 
 Five thousand for the five — 
 That is the call, and Spain will pay 
 Theirs is the place in the warrior's heaven. 
 Bagley, "full back" of the old "eleven," 
 And the men that fell with him. 
 
 Silence on board when they call the roll, 
 " Bagley and four at Cardenas bay," 
 
 Absent, but only in name. 
 Theirs is a place in the warrior's heaven, 
 Bagley — "full back" of the old eleven. 
 And four brave lads that fell with him. 
 Five names, the first of the roll — 
 In the battle's red fiame, in the last great game. 
 At the finish, death "scored a goal." 
 Let the guns be ready and grim, 
 Five thousand for the five! 
 To be paid and without delay. 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AS ENSIGN IN THE NAVY. 
 
 WORTH BAGLEY was at the hospital with his convalescent 
 mother when he received his commission as Ensign in the 
 Navy, dated Jnly ist, 1897, and signed by the President and the 
 Secretary of the Navy. He was ordered to report to the Indiana 
 on the loth of July. With a glad and thankful heart that he 
 had been with his mother in her critical illness, he bade her good- 
 bye and began his career as Ensign on the Indiana. On 
 the 17th of August, he was transferred to the Maine, remaining 
 on that ill-fated vessel as executive clerk to Capt. Sigsbee until 
 November 19th of the same year when he was ordered to the 
 Columbian Iron Works, Baltimore, as inspector, in connection 
 with fitting out the torpedo boat Winslow. Of his short career 
 before he went on board the Winslow there is little to be said ex- 
 cept that he was a faithful and popular officer, winning the confi- 
 dence and regard of his superior oflicers and the respect and ad- 
 miration of those who served under him. Many expressions have 
 come from ofiicers and sailors, all agreeing that the Navy had no 
 manlier officer or one who gave greater j^romise of uiselul and 
 honorable service. 
 
 There was in his nature the innate spirit of the charming host, 
 and it was his custom to invite his friends aboard ship to 
 dinner or to luncheon. Here is a description of such an oc- 
 casion described by a gentleman writing from Elizabeth, N. J. 
 
 " While the squadron was at Bar Harbor last summer, my young^est 
 daughter and myself met your son among others of the young officers 
 . . .They naturally desired us to see their pet ship, so on a day 
 appointed we went aboard. It was lunch time before we had gone 
 over the vessel and the young gentlemen insisted upon our lunching 
 with them, and also my daughter, who is only iS,^sitting at the head 
 of the table and presiding. It was a very jolly lunch, your son mak- 
 ing himself especially agreeable and entertaining, and in that way, 
 dispensing as it were, the hospitality of his own house." 
 
 He was much at Norfolk after he was commissioned Ensign 
 and was a great favorite. The daughter of an army officer gives 
 
this view of him that shows one of his ways of having fun and 
 giving pleasure : 
 
 '•We used to turn the three rear rooms in our house over to our 
 Navy friends to occupy whenever they Hked. Mother called them 
 her ' boys ' and Worth vvas one of them. He used to take the great- 
 est delight in dressing up in whatever he could tind and acting for our 
 amusement. He was full of fun and always so dignified in whatever 
 he did. It was the greatest pleasure to have him around. When he 
 would have us aboard ship he was delightful, and at a dance he was 
 
 always a 'star.' It is indeed wonderful how perfect he was in so 
 
 many things." 
 
 Commodore Gear, of the Maryland Naval Reserves, says : 
 
 "I knew poor Bagley well. We were shipmates together on the ill- 
 fated Maine for nearly three weeks, when I was cruising in that ship 
 undergoing instruction. He was a boyish-looking fellow, but as in- 
 trepid as a lion. He was proud of his uniform and of his profession 
 and no one loved the Stars and Stripes better than he. His disposi- 
 tion was as sunny as ever man had, and he was beloved by the officers 
 and men. While he was at the Naval Academy he was a leading foot- 
 ball-player, in which game he excelled. He was very fond of a joke 
 and many a pleasant hour have I spent in his company listening to 
 his jolly yarns." 
 
 Corporal W. L. Byrnes, at Camp Collier at Lexington, Ky., 
 
 says : 
 
 ' I served under Ensign Bagley, having enlisted in the Navy when 
 I was sixteen years of age. He was the first person to teach me the 
 use of a gun after my first enlistment. He was the most popular 
 officer among his subordinates I ever had any connection vvith. 
 While never losing his sense of discipline, he was always dignifiedly 
 jiolite to men under him. and was never a user of harsh or profane 
 language." 
 
 The New York World, of May 12th, says: 
 
 '• A naval officer under whom Ensign Bagley served said to-day 
 that the Ensign was one of the most lovable young men in the navy." 
 
 When Lieut. Bernadou knew that he was to be given command 
 of the Winslow he enquired from a number of junior officers whom 
 of their grade they considered fittest to serve on a torpedo boat. 
 Of five or six lists of many names thus formed, including that 
 submitted by the late Ensign Breckinridge, Bagley's name was 
 universally given first or second place. Deciding to offer Ensign 
 Bagley the position, Lieut. Bernadou wrote him the following 
 
 letter : 
 
 Newport, R. I., August 19th, 1897. 
 Dear Mr. BAGLitY : 
 
 I have received preparatory orders to the torpedo boat Winslow 
 and desire to choose my lieutenant. I am told that you are a j,ood 
 foot-ball player. Deeming that such ability represents a round of 
 
38 
 
 qualities necessary to an efficient torpedo boat officer, I write to ask 
 you whether you desire to come to the Winslow. If you do, notify 
 me on receipt of tiiis letter. . . .Upon hearing from you I will endorse 
 your application to the Chief of the Bureau. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 John B. Bern.adol-. 
 
 To the letter a reply was made expressing some hesitation 
 about acceptance, and adding that if the offer had been made a 
 month later it would have been agreeable. Lieut. Bernadou re- 
 plied that he would defer making the application " until the 
 Winslow's trial approaches " and addmg " if however you do not 
 desire to come, please write me, and I w'ill consider the incident 
 as closed, and endeavor to select my second elsewhere." From 
 a letter written to him by Lieut. Bernadou on the loth of Sep- 
 tember, these extracts are taken : 
 
 ' I am well pleased that you have decided to come to the Winslow. 
 .... It is the manifest duty of every officer to look to his best profes- 
 sional interests; this is the explanation of Captain Sigsbee's con- 
 templated action and your own ; nor can he blame you for desiring 
 to exchange to a torpedo boat from duty as his clerk. Again, it may 
 be more of a compliment to have him endorse your orders unfavora- 
 bly than favorably, in the present issue, as it is easy to understand 
 why he does not wish to part with you." 
 
 From this letter it is seen that Capt. Sigsbee hated to part with 
 his clerk, and that the young Ensign hesitated about leaving the 
 Maine, to which and to whose captain he was warmly attached. In 
 the light of the destruction of the Maine and the engagement of 
 the Winslow at Cardenas, the debate in Ensign Bagley's mind, 
 prior to his leaving the Maine for service on the Winslow, assumes 
 the aspect of a choice between disasters. There is another inci- 
 dent connected with the change from the Maine to the Winslow 
 that has a mournful interest. After Ensign Bagley had been 
 offered the position of second in command on the Winslow and 
 was hesitating about accepting, there camea long letterto him from 
 his closest friend and intimate, Ensign J. Cabell Breckinridge, whr, 
 had lately been made executive officer on the torpedo boi.t 
 "Cushing ", urging him not to stand in his own light by declining 
 the preferred promotion, and closing with these words : 
 
 "You cannot imagine my disappointment when I heard that you 
 were about to decide to remain a quill-driver when the opportunity 
 of getting a torpedo boat, of getting with Bernadou (our smokeless 
 powder expert and a man of numberless good qualities), and of put- 
 ting yourself in line of succession to command, had been offered you 
 
39 
 
 Ensigns will command torpedo boats before we are promoted and 
 the men who get them will be men who have had previous experi- 
 ence. ' 
 
 On the 1 2th day of February, this gallant young officer, whose 
 advice may have turned the scale and induced Ensign Bagley to 
 go to the Wmslow, was washed overboard in the harbor of 
 Havana from the torpedo boat Gushing. His death was the sor- 
 row of Ensign Bagley's life. Writing to his mother a few days 
 later, he said : 
 
 "Just a line to tell you that I leave here for Lexington via Wash- 
 ington to-night. General Breckinridge telegraphed me to come on. 
 I am heart-broken. Thank you for your sweet sympathy. I shall 
 ask llie honor of commanding the volley over his dear body." 
 
 How little we then thought that in three short months the North 
 Carolina volunteers would fire a volley '' over his dear body", 
 and that Worth Bagley would follow his friend to a death- 
 less grave. In life they were not separated. In death they are 
 not diyided. When the boxes containing the letters, photographs, 
 and valuables, of Ensign Bagley reached Raleigh after his death, 
 side by side with the pictures of his mother and sisters were two 
 photographs of Cabell Breckinridge, wrapped in crape, mutely 
 telling the grief he felt at the sudden death of his room-mate, 
 classmate, comrade, friend. 
 
 The following is the extract from his letter home announcing 
 
 his transfer to the Winslow : 
 
 Nov. 27th, '97 : (Written from Baltimore) : " My present ambitions 
 have been realized and I am in Baltimore on shore duty at Columbian 
 Iron Works in connection with the torpedo boat Winslow', of which 
 I am to be executive officer when she goes in commission in a few 
 weeks. Lieutenant Bernadou commands her, and we will be the only 
 officers on board. I will write you all about it. My orders raise me 
 professionally, so I know you will be glad about them." 
 
 It was on the 28th of December when the Winslow went into 
 commission and Ensign Bagley entered upon his duties as exec- 
 utive officer. He was proud of the little boat, came to have the 
 warmest regard for Lieut. Bernadou, and to enjoy the confidence 
 and esteem of the entire crew. In January last the young Ensign had 
 opportunity to demonstrate that he had taken the advice he com- 
 mended to his nephew "For God's sake keep your nerve, and 
 show the stuff you are made of" In a raging storm, with the as- 
 sistance of two sailors in a life boat, he saved the lives of two 
 poor fellows fro/n a scow which was adrift at sea about fifty miles 
 
from New York. For this deed, the Secretary of the Navy, on 
 February ist, wrote a letter of thanks to Lieut. Bernadou, Ensign 
 Worth Bagley and the other members of the crew, closing with 
 the words : "The service performed by the Winslow is not only 
 gratifying to all who engaged in it but tends to reflect additional 
 lustre upon the whole service." 
 
 Upon the arrival of the Winslow at Norfolk, after this narrow 
 escape, it was necessary to make some repairs to the boat, and, 
 while these were being made. Ensign Bagley obtained five days 
 leave and spent from Tuesday to Saturday at his home in Raleigh. 
 His home coming was always like the coming of Spring, bringing 
 warmth and chec^r and happiness. This time he was received as 
 one who had narrowly escaped a Matery grave. It was five days 
 of such happiness as those who survive will e\er look back upon 
 as the sweetest period life has vouchsafed. He told the story of 
 the adventure in the storm on the Jersey coast, only when his 
 mother asked for the details, as if he had done nothing worthy of 
 honor, but did not disguise the extreme peril of the situation. 
 
 He recounted the bravery of the crew and said that they bore 
 themselves like courageous and noble men. 
 
 ' [On watch one night when the wind was blowing a gale, 
 mother," he said, "and the weather was as cold as it could be, I 
 found myself singing in an undertone, "Anchored."' 
 
 " Safe, safe at last, 
 The danger past, 
 Safe in his fatlier's home," 
 
 and — it seemed to give me hope and strength." The last words 
 of that song which had strengthened him in the hour of peril 
 were sung over his gra\e on the day of the funeral. 
 
 There was then talk of war with Spain, He believed in the 
 righteousness of our cause and was eager for war. His mother, 
 even at that time when war was not imminent, felt a sinking of the 
 heart at the mention ot it, and he sought to cheer her by telling her 
 that it would be a short war and that if occasion offered he would 
 distinguish himself She believed that his courage and daring 
 would carry him into places "where the bravest love to die," and 
 had a premonition that his immortalily would come at the sacri- 
 fice of his life. On Saturday, February 5th, for the last time he 
 said good-bye to his home-folks, and went away to duty and to 
 
-4 
 
 id uj 
 
 :5 ° 
 
 Uj ^ 
 
 K a; 
 
 ^ S 
 
 :;! •- 
 
 in g 
 
 CQ ^ 
 
■^.. 
 
41 
 
 death. His mother clung to him with a yearning, a fondness, a 
 caressing love that was born of her premonition of danger. His 
 farewell was full of tender chivalry, 
 
 ''The bravest are the tenderest. 
 The loving are the daring." 
 
 When the Maine was blown up in the harbor of Havana his 
 righteous wrath was kindled into a blaze, and his letters were full 
 of the spirit of war which dominated him. He wrote often and 
 fully, and these letters show his faith in his country's cause and 
 his eagerness lor the fray. When his ship left Norfolk, he tele- 
 graphed his mother, and telegraphed her afterwards when it 
 reached Charleston and Key West, hoping to minimize her 
 anxiety by accurate knowledge of his movements. 
 
 Noting the presence of the Winslow at Charleston in March, 
 the News and Courier said : 
 
 I Ensign Worth Bagley. the executive officer of tiie Winslow, has 
 visited Charleston before and has numbers of friends among 
 Ijotli fair and gallant Charlestonians. He will be remembered also 
 by many for his excellent work on the "gridiron" in a recent foot- 
 ball game, " Uncle Sam'' vs. the Y. M. C. A." 
 
 Hon. F. A. Woodard and wife, of Wilson, were at Key West 
 
 about the 20th of March, and dined with him on the Winslow. 
 
 Writing to Ensign Bagley's sister, Mr. Woodard said : 
 
 " We were delighted to meet Worth. He is here and will leave in 
 a few days. We went to see him at his ship and had a very pleasant 
 talk with him and went over the boat. It is certainly a most interest- 
 ing craft Lt. Bernadou is very pleasant and I was gratified to hear 
 him speak so highly of Worth. He said he was one of the most 
 promising of the young men of tlie Navy. Worth is looking splen- 
 didly." 
 
 By these friends he sent loving messages home, asking them 
 to assure his mother that he was in no danger, was at the post of 
 duty, and was chiefly anxious because of her anxiety. 
 
 His letters from March 3rd to May 8th, tell the story not only 
 of the last two months of his life, but show also the nobleness of 
 his nature., his thoughtfulness, his affection, his devotion, to "My 
 Dearest Little Mother," as he began his last letter, his brave 
 spirit, and the true faith of the soldier that was in him. These ex- 
 tracts are given : 
 
 March 3rd, '98: (Writing from Portsmouth): ''We are on the eve 
 of sailing and would have sailed this afternoon but for a telegram 
 announcing- a storm off the coast to-night. W? will lay by till a fav- 
 
42 
 
 orable opportunity offers for a straight away run for Charleston. It 
 will take ns a little over a day to reach there, and we remain there 
 long enough to hll up with coal. Then we proceed to Jacksonville in 
 the same way, taking a long run then for Key West, our destination. 
 
 I am very well You will have to get out of the habit of feeling 
 
 fear for my safety. I am always safe Besides you have enough of 
 
 the Spartan in you, if you wish, to say 'with your shield or on it ' 
 and that is what you must always say to me to give me strength and 
 determination. You may be sure that I am not ashamed to use the 
 proper amount of care of myself and will think of you in the midst of 
 every danger, 'fhese latter are few, after all ; reallv there are none. 
 
 I wish I couki talk to you, for I liave a great deal to tell you 
 
 It must be pleasant to have every one well now. It makes me 
 more contented about leaving. . . .The ne.xt time we come to Norfolk, 
 you are to come and make me a visit, and I'll return it if I can." 
 
 April 3rd, '98 : (Written from torpedo boat Winslow) : " It looks as 
 though we are to have war; our work is for that reason even hanler 
 than usual, so that all hands on board the Winslow are thoroughly 
 fatigued. I was never stronger or in better health in my life, but am 
 tired nearly all the time. Often when needing sleep 1 find ii much 
 more refreshing to go ashore for the rela.xation from confining 
 work. These opportunities to get relaxation are, however, very few 
 in number. I believe I am making a success of this work; at all 
 events, Jiernadou says nice things to everybody about me. This may 
 be on account of a personal interest in my future, however, so I am 
 by no means satisfied, for it is very apparent to me that there are 
 innumerable things that should be familiar to me that I do not know. 
 Bernadou is gaining confidence iii me I hope, and leaves a great deal 
 tome; he is very patient wilh me He is one of the most broad- 
 minded men I have ever known, and one of the most far-sighted. He 
 is certainly kind to me. . . You can readily see that, now that war is 
 imminent, the torpedo boats have the best chances of distinction. 
 Consequently we are envied right and left, by all young oflicers at 
 least. You will of course be glad that my post, though one of danger, 
 will be the most honorable. You may be well sure that I shall think 
 of your dear face and see it before me whenever I am under fire, and 
 if I get the opjiortunity to do some distinguished service you mav 
 know that the thought of the happiness it will give you is alone sufh- 
 
 cient to make me seize it Do not fear that I shall be afraid, 
 
 mother, but always remember that I have a certain amount of skill 
 and strength wherewith to attack; don't think of me as in danger 
 defending myself against a black-haired Spaniard with an ugly face, 
 but think of me as blowing up tlie Dago lepers. The Spaniards will 
 be easy prey for our Navy, which is in the most eflicient condition. 
 ... If the Spaniards back down now, it would be the source of the 
 very bitterest disappointment. They will have to kneel and crawl in 
 a manner that history has never before seen . . .Why did they blow 
 up our Maine? No matter what pretext any or all the members of 
 Congress can give for war, zue must have it. The cause of war lies 
 in a set of American colors blown up in an explosion, and with the 
 colors the men who served to protect them: blown up at night while 
 asleep — evidence in itself sufficient to show that a contemptible 
 Spaniard did it The blood almost fills my head when I think of 
 
 this; it makes me almost wild with anger I shall write you another 
 
 letter soon, certainly before any fighting takes place. There is no 
 great danger of my being killed, but should such a thing happen, there 
 
43 
 
 * 
 
 is not a great deal for me to say. You know how much I love you, 
 dearest, don't you ? Love to each one at home." 
 
 April 14th, '98 : (Written from torpedo boat Winslow) : " You must 
 not fret about me. In the first olace, there may be no war; this is 
 very probable, I am afraid. In the second place, a Spaniard couldn't 
 hit an honest American at pistol range ; the Dago is too much a 
 coward for that. The war, if it comes, will be very easy. The adver- 
 sary is too poor an adversary lor much glory to be gained for cur 
 flag. Rut it is to be hoped that we may sink some of their ships in 
 return for the poor Maine. Do not be uneasy about me. I will not 
 run into any danger I do not think proper, but can't promise you 
 anything else; don't you know what I mean, dear? Still, I will think 
 of you all the tinie. It is so Svveet of you to remember me on my 
 birthday. I was so busy that day I didn't know it was my birthday 
 till 3 in the afternoon. The pipe is a beauty. Being your present, it 
 will make many a peaceful, happy smoke for me whenever I smoke 
 it ....The little yellow buds you put in your last letter made me 
 think of our front porch, and of how beautiful it must be just now 
 with its wealth of them .... I send you my picture taken the other day 
 by an artist in Key West. I am afraid they are not good likenesses, 
 for I am much thinner on account of the heat and look much older for 
 
 whatever reason I am well, however, and stronger than I ever 
 
 was, so you can know that I go to v.ar in good condition. . . .1 am so 
 glad you are well. Please don't be uneasy on my account ; as 1 said 
 
 before, the chance of war after all is a rather scant one I must 
 
 close now It is a pleasure to tell you that I am thinking about you 
 
 all the time." 
 
 April 2ist, '98: (Written from Key West, Fla.): "We are under 
 
 orders to stand by to leave to-night I felt like I would like to write 
 
 you a line before going, to say good-bye, not that there is any danger 
 for me — there never is any — but I knew you would wish to hear. For 
 your sake, I might almost wish there would be no war; on my own 
 account, I am very happy that chance is offered me for distinction. 
 . . . You need have no fear for me. Nothing will happen to me with 
 such prayers as yours to aid me. I shall have full confidence at all 
 timeS; in action or wherever I may be, and that alone would keep me 
 ready to do good service. .. Our boat is in splendid condition, and 
 officers and men are well and anxious for a fight. We have good men 
 
 and faithful ones, and our chances for success are the very best 
 
 Do not be afraid for me. Everything turns out for the best." 
 
 May 4th, '98 : (Written from Key West) : "We leave in a few hours 
 for Matanzas, whence we came two days ago for some minor repairs 
 and necessary stores and coal. You are the sweetest mother to me, 
 for more reasons than I can ever count; but I am thinking principally 
 about your writing to me. Everytime we have received a mail there 
 has been a letter from you ; and you would be so glad if you knew 
 how happy they make me. Each time we come into port or get any 
 chance whatever to send you a letter I shall do so, and have done so 
 up to this moment. 
 
 "You need have no fears about me, for there is no danger for us 
 now. There may be when the .Spanish fleet comes, but I am sorry to 
 say that I fear that will never be. A war comes only once in a gene- 
 ration, and it will be very hard if I can get no chance to do some un- 
 usual service, so it is very disappoi-nting to have no tangible enemy 
 to meet. You are a brave mother, so you must feel like I do when- 
 
44 
 
 ever we are engaged in anything at all dangerous— enjoy the excite- 
 ment, feel that but nothing more. Thank heaven, I have found that 
 I have no fear, for I have analyzed all my feelings in danger. Dont 
 repeat that, it would be a boast to anyone but you. Your last letter 
 made me feel so happy and I am so proud to receive your praise, to 
 feel that never have I 'given you an hour's trouble or unhappiness.' 
 To hear you say that, dear angel, is more to me than any ambition in 
 this world. 
 
 •' i3o you ever think that I have no heart to love because I follow 
 a profession that keeps me nearly always from you ? I know that you 
 never do feel so, for you know I love you. Sometimes 1 remember 
 and think of how you always love to have us children tell you how 
 much we love you^and how you used to wonder why I hardly ever 
 petted you. When I am away it is so easy to write my thoughts to 
 you as they come and tell you how I yearn to be with you. But when 
 with you it is my reverence for you that keeps me back, cjuiet but 
 (even if I do say it) waiting to serve you. not as a return, but in appre- 
 ciation of the tender loving care and the hard sacrifices that not till 
 late (years too late) have ^1 understood; I can indeed, my mother. 
 
 •rise up and call vou blessed.' Good bye for a. short space. This 
 
 letter is hurried for there is a great deal that 1 must do. Love to 
 everyone Good bye for a few days." 
 
 The following is his last letter, which was received by his mother 
 half an hour after the news that prostrated her. It was dated 
 " Off Matanzas, Cuba, May 7th. 1898, 1 1.30 a. ni." 
 
 "We are now Iving off" Matanzas in the middle of the entrance to 
 the harbor three miles further in. A mile and a half away on one side 
 are the Panto Gardia and Sabanilla batteries, and at the same dis- 
 tance on the other side are the Maya and other batteries. Matanzas 
 is a town of about 35,000 inhabitants with an antebellum commerce 
 of some value. It lies, as I said before, three miles inside the 
 entrance at which we are lying, around a horse shoe or bend which 
 makes it not visible from our position. The batteries, however, are 
 here at the entrance and made themselves very much in evidence 
 yesterday'by firing at the Dupont, which was lying too close under 
 their fire.' She got away cjuickly and in return for having to run, 
 went up the coast two miles and leveled a Spanish block-house. The 
 Winslow has not been fired at. All the large ships here left the 
 blockade, the gunboats and torpedo boats remaining to hold it. No 
 ship has as much as hove in sight of this entrance for days. So you 
 may judge for yourself whether the blockade is eflfcctive. 
 
 "The work, I must say, is e.xtremely tough and unpleasant. We 
 are in great luck when we receive newspapers from the news corres- 
 pondents three days after they are published, and read news greedily. 
 
 " Being without' news and nothing happening within our own little 
 sphere, the monotonv is absolutely painful. There are two other 
 warships here, thetor'pedo boat Dupont, and the armed yacht Hor- 
 net. These two boats lie over at the eastern entrance, while we 
 guard the western. Of course it is necessary to keep a very careful 
 lookout at night on account of the Spanish gunboats in these waters. 
 The calibre of their guns is greater than that of our three little i-pound- 
 ers but we wish they would come out just the same, for we would use 
 our torpedoes and sink them .. . You may be sure, 1 am well. The 
 weather is not half bad, as we us'.- the awnings now and get all the 
 
45 
 
 breeze without the sun. It is nearly always perfectly clear and a 
 light passing shower this morning is the first rain I have seen since 
 the beginning of the war. 
 
 •'No one knows where the armored ships of our squadron have gone, 
 but it is supposed that they have left to intercept the Spanish fieet off 
 San Juan, should that port prove to be its destination. 
 
 "The nation as a whole, from the tenor of the papers, has realized 
 that the navy is our defense, our real fighting body.." 
 
 *' The Navy has shown its worth; we may trust hereafter that poli- 
 ticians will cease to prate as they did si.\ months ago, about our ' e.\- 
 pensive gold-laced lu.xury '. Our nation, a first. class power suppos- 
 edly, should at the present moment feel shame that our navy is nut 
 such a one that the war should even now be over. Tome it seems a dis- 
 grace that the United States should be fighting an apparently lengthy 
 war vvith a nation poor in defense as well as finances. How can the 
 ordinarily well-informed man, although he may have some pride of 
 country, tingle with it as he should, if such conditions last ? It is 
 this ' rope-rein ' politics, advanced by dishonest ' leg-pulling' dema- 
 gogues, that keeps us as a nation from gaining and gaining glory ' till 
 we forget'. I have almost spoken my thoug'hts on paper, and have 
 forgotten that I am writing a letter. The above subject, which so ab- 
 sorbed me, is close to my heart The Dupont is coming this way, 
 
 so I must have my letter ready for her and close now. I feel that I 
 will hear from you when the next mail comes. Bless you, dear, for 
 your goodness. 
 
 " Love to each one, and don't forget that I am in perfect safety. 
 
 " Devotedly, 
 
 " Worth." 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 AT CARDENAS. 
 
 ON the nth of May, the telegraphic reports conveyed the news 
 that the Winslow had been engaged near Cardenas with three 
 Spanish gun-boats. The Associated Press account, dated May 
 loth, was as follows : 
 
 "On board the Associated Press dispatch boat Kate Spencer, off Car- 
 denas, May 9th, (via Key West, Fla.)— May loth.— The little torpedo 
 boat Winslow yesterday morning precipitated the first naval engagement 
 fought in Cuban waters. On a reconnois.sance in Cardenas Harbor she 
 drew the fire of three Spanish coast guard vessels, and a lively vest 
 pocket sea fight followed with the tiny gun boats. As the Winslow was 
 decidedly in the minority she ran for the open sea, where her big station 
 mate, the gun boat Machias, who had been called up by the firing, 
 took a hand in the game with her four inch rifies and tossed several 
 shells over the low sand spit behind which Spanish boats were shel- 
 tered. It was impossible to see whether any of these landed. The Win- 
 slow was not touched, but she claims to have knocked a few splinters out 
 of the larger coast guard boat. 
 
46 
 
 " The most important result of the Winslow's reconnoissance was the 
 tliscovery that Cardenas harbor is mined. If there where any batteries 
 on shore, the Spaniards did not think it worth while to disclose their 
 position. That there are mines in the channel, is important in view of 
 the report that it is Cardenas and not JMatanzas, where the landing of 
 United States forces will be made. 
 
 ''The fight with the Ciiiardia Costas occurred yesterday morning. Car- 
 denas is one of the largest bays along the coast, the little town of the same 
 name, lying at the southern end. From the western shore Icicas Point 
 reaches out like a long inde.x finger, almost touching Piedras Key Light, 
 which in peaceful days lieaconed the harljor entrance. The light house 
 has been in darkness and deserted for many nights. 
 
 "Feeling safe in the desolation of the light house and the silence 
 ashore, the little Winslow crept (juietly in, under the early morning haze, 
 for a closer inspection of the harbor. There had e\ideiuly been a look- 
 out among the dunes along the sand spit, for tlie Winslow was allowed 
 to feel her way into the harbor, taking notes of changed buoys and false 
 marks designed to lead a hostile fleet on to torpedo fields. J5ut, suddenly, 
 there was a puff of smoke among the mangrove clumps along one of the 
 inlets and a six pound shell screeclu-d out of the bushes. Crack ! came 
 another from the shelter of a tiny key in the bay, audathirdfnjin further 
 down the coast. Then three coast guard boats darted from their cover, 
 under a full head of steam, like a big garpike after a minnow. The 
 Winslow's crew jumped to the two jxninders fore and aft antl let the 
 Spaniards have it, port and star-board, as they chased in. The little gun 
 l)oats came along, shooting, but after the usual Spanish fasliion, hit 
 nothing but the adjacent scenery. Then the AVinslow scuttled along for 
 the open sea, using her after gun as a stern chaser and defiantly shooting 
 as she went along. The Si)anish boats wasted about sixty shots, and the 
 biggest boat, mounting a twelve pounder, kept up the bombardment as 
 long as tlie Winslow was in range. The Spaniards who had probably 
 heard the news from Manila, were evideiulv as mad as a nest of hornets 
 and kej)t up the chase until all four of the little craft were rocking in the 
 swell past Piedras Keys. Just then there was a crash and a roar to sea- 
 ward and the Machias. bearing in untler a canopy of smoke, sent a shell 
 smashing into the pursuing fleet. The little patrol boats spun about like 
 water spiders and ran to shelter beyond the sand spit. The Machias 
 sent a few shells skipping in between the sand dunes, but with what 
 effect could not be seen. 
 
 '" At any rate, there are -three prospective additions to our mosquito 
 fleet bottled up in Cardenas harbor, waiting shipment."' 
 
 This news deepened the anxiety in the home of Ensign Bagley, 
 though the retreat ot the Winslow in good order w as regarded 
 as a sign that it could take care of itself. Prayers of thanks- 
 giving w^ent up for the successful termination of this first engage- 
 ment in Cuban waters. There was no thought that the engage- 
 ment was to be repeated, and when the news of the result of the bat- 
 tle on May nth, was flashed to Raleigh, the blow was as crushing as 
 if no news of the first fight had been received. Thursday, May 
 1 2th, on the sw-eetest of May mornings, as ]Mrs. Bagley and fam- 
 ily were at a late breakfast, talking of the happy escape from the 
 
47 
 
 fight of May 8th, the door-bell rang. Hon. W. M. Russ, Mayor 
 of the city, had called at Mrs. Bagley's home to break the terri- 
 ble news contained in this telegram ; 
 
 Key West, Fla., May 12th, 1S9S. 
 Mayor of Raleigh : — 
 
 Please break news to Mrs. Bagley that her son was killed instantly in 
 action off Cardenas yesterday. 
 
 John B. Bernadou. 
 
 The Mayor, long a friend of the family and of the young officer, 
 with a heavy heart, first communicated the news to this writer. 
 It was feared that the mother, not fully recovered from her serious 
 illness of 1897, could not survive the shock, and it was not until her 
 physician. Dr. Hubert Haywood, had been hastily summoned, 
 that it was deemed safe to acquaint her with the contents of the 
 telegram. The universal sympathy, so prompt and touching, 
 coming first from all the people of Raleigh, and later from all por- 
 tions of the country, carried a measure of consolation and comfort 
 that helped to temper the blow. 
 
 From a letter written by Lieutenant Bernadou, commander of 
 the Winslow, to Mr. W. H. Bagley, brother of Ensign Worth 
 Bagley, the following extracts, telling of the engagement, are 
 taken : 
 
 "I have deemed it best to wait, before writuio- you, until I have suf- 
 ficiently convalesced to be myself again, ^'our brother had become a 
 proven friend, and the remembrance of his loss awakens a keener pang 
 than the sense of my bodily injury. Still, life is short for all of us ; he 
 fell in harness; and the Almighty has bestowed upon him the great 
 honor of calling upon him to die for his country, — than which no honor 
 is greater. 
 
 "Your brother died instantly. I was standing about ten feet from him 
 when he fell and immediately ran to him. A glance conv^^yeci the im- 
 pression that life was extinct, and a minute's observation confirmed the 
 impression. A hasty examination of his wounds showed me that there 
 was nothing to be done to save him. His face was composed ; I do not 
 believe that he suffered. The remains were immediately removed to the 
 most protected spot and covered. Directly after the fight I signaled to the 
 Wilmington: ' Send boat with doctor, many killed and wounded': and 
 upon transferring those that were injured, I took your brother's body 
 with me and saw it placed upon the quarter deck and covered with the 
 flag, before having my own v\ound dressed. 
 
 " Your brother fell at the end of the action. Injuries to the machinery 
 and steering gear had made the boat almost unmanageable. As I found 
 that we were working out from under the enemy's batteries by alter- 
 nately backing and going ahead with the one remaining engine, and as 
 mechanical communication with the engine room was cut off, I directed 
 him to watch the movement of the vessel ; to keep her out of the Wil- 
 mington's line of fire ; to watch the man at the reversing gun below and 
 
48 
 
 see that he obeyed orders. This necessitated your brother making re- 
 peated short trips from the deck to the foot of the engine room ladder. On 
 the conclusion of one of these trips, he had stopped for a moment on 
 deck.presumably to watch the eflect of our (the Wilmington's) fire, which 
 was silencing the enemy. He came up to me where 1 was standing, near the 
 compass forward, and said: 'Captain, I'm sorry you're wounded; I'm 
 lucky in these things.' I replied : ' Well, old man, we've been in a fight 
 this lime for sure.' He said: 'Shake"; and we shook hands and looked 
 one another full in the eyes. A moment later was a quick explosion,— a 
 short snap, like the rei^ort of a pistol ; your brother and two fell dead ; 
 and two were mortally wounded. 
 
 "After being conveyed to the Wilmington, your brother's body was 
 transferred to the revenue cutler Hudson and arrived at Key West on 
 the morning of the 12th. Being an.xious to convey to your mother the 
 news of the death of her son, and to minimize the chance of its coming 
 to her indirectly ; and not having your address at hand, I wired to the 
 Mayor of Raleigh. At about the same time I learned that Paymaster 
 Izard had notified General Breckinridge, requesting him to break the 
 news to her. 1 trust that what I did was for the best. 
 
 • The funeral of your brother here took place on the 13th, when the 
 rites were celebrated in accordance with the service of the Episcopal 
 
 church Here at Kev West, every ollicer's wife i)resent, every otlicer 
 
 and all the men of the torpedo fieet,'vied with one another in bestowing 
 affectionate care and attention to all that remained to us of one so gene- 
 rally beloved, respected and admired. And apart frum personal feel- 
 ings, I cannot but dejilore the loss to the service of such a gallant fellow, 
 the embodiment of all that a young otilicer should be, and who served as 
 a model for the best half of the juniors of the fleet. 
 
 "I have been in intimate contact with your brother for nearly five 
 months ; have practically had noother companion ; was dependent upon 
 
 him for many things, and it is not so easy for me to write to you Tiie 
 
 general accounts of the fight published were garbled Your brother 
 
 did not fall overboard, as" stated, nor was he killed in attempting to 
 reach any tow line ; he died instantly at his jjost, while observing the 
 movements of the enemy. To the moment of his end he was as cool and 
 collected as when demonstrating his splendid abilities and judgment on 
 the field of athletic contest." 
 
 Lieutenant Bernadou's official report of the engagement to the 
 Secretary of the Navy in full, is as follows : 
 
 Convent Hosimtal, Key West, Fla., May i6th, 1S98. 
 The Honorable Secretary of the Navy : 
 
 Sir— 
 
 1. I respectfully submit the following report of the action off Cardenas, 
 Cuba, as participated in by the U. S. torpedo boat Winslow, to supple- 
 ment the summarized statement submitted by me on the nth inst., the 
 day of the fight. 
 
 2. The Winslow arrived off Cardenas from Matanzas at 9 a. m. on the 
 nth, having left her station on the blockade to obtain an additional sup- 
 ply of coal, the amount of fuel in her bunkers being reduced to five tons. 
 The U. S. S. Machias and Wilmington were found at Peidras Cay. Upon 
 making application to Captain Merry the senior officer present, I was 
 directed to apply to Captain Todd, commanding U. S. S. Wilmington, 
 for necessary supplies. 
 
h 
 
 O 
 O 
 
49 
 
 3- On boarding the U. S. S. Wilmington, I was informed by her Com- 
 manding officer of his intention to enter Cardenas harbor on the aftei- 
 noon of that day. Of the three channels leading through the Cays, two 
 were believed to be mined ; there remained unexplored a third channel 
 between Romero and Blanco Cays, over which the minimum depth of 
 water, as shown by the chart, was one and three-quarter fathoms. As the 
 rise of tide at this place was about one andone half feet, and as the Wil- 
 mington drew scant ten feet, I was directed to receive on board a Cuban 
 pilot, Santos, to take with me the revenue cutter Hudson to sweep the 
 channel for torpedos. 1 his work I completed by noon, except the sweep- 
 ing of tlie channel, which could n;)t betloneon account of the groundiiig 
 of the Hudson. That vessel touched lightly but managed to work oft with- 
 out injury The Winslow, therefore, dragged the channel with grapnels 
 and r^'turned to the Wilmington, repoiting to Captain Todd upon the 
 practicability of the entrance. 
 
 4. The entrance was be^un at 12:30, high tide, the Hudson on the 
 starboard side and the Wiiisluw on the port side of the Wilmington 
 assisting in marking out shual water. No vesse's were in sight on enter- 
 ing Cardenas bay, save two square-rigged merthantmen with sails un- 
 bent, anchored directly off the town. As it was thought possible that 
 gunboats might attempt tu escape, the Hudson was sent along the west- 
 ern side and the eastern side of the bay to intercept them in evt nt of 
 such movement ; not finding them, the tiiree ve.ssels met off the town at 
 a distance of about 3500 yards. W hen in this position, the Win-low was 
 signalled to approach tlie Wilmington within hail and I w;'.s directed by 
 Captain Todd to go in ar.d investigate a small gunboat then observed for 
 the first time. — painted giey, with t)lack smokestack, apparently not un- 
 der steam and mo;;red to a wharf, to the left of wliich arose a compact 
 mass of buildings close to the water front. Torpedoes were set for sur- 
 face runs, the fans upon the war noses were run up, so as to provide 
 for explosion at short range {<^r use alongside of the gunboat, and all pre- 
 parations were made for inniiediate action. 
 
 5. At a distance of about 1500 yards, at which time the Winslow was ad- 
 vancing about 12 knots, which seems her maximum speed in quite shoa' 
 water, the first gun of the engagement was fired from the bow of the Span- 
 ish gunboat, marked by a clear puff of white smoke. This shot, which 
 passed over the Winslow, was at or.ce replied to by that ship and was 
 the signal for the commencement from the beach of a rapidly sustained 
 fire, characterized primarily by a total absence of smoke. At the com- 
 mencement of this firing, I received a flesh wound in the left thigh. As 
 the action advanced, a cloud of haze collected 011 shore at tl.e location of 
 this battery, and when closest I detected one or two gun Hashes from 
 among the buildings, but at no time could I detect the exact position ot 
 the guns. My uncertainty as to the position of the enemy was attested 
 to by the commanding officer of the Hudson and by officers command- 
 ing gun divisions on the Wilmington, who enquired of me shortly after 
 the action what I made out to be the enemy's exact position. 
 
 6. At this time the wind wis blowing from the ships toward the shore. 
 The first shot that pierced the Winslow rendered her steam and hand 
 steering gear inoperative and damaged them beyond repair. Efforts to 
 work the hand steering gear from aft were frustrated by the wrecking of 
 that mechanism and the rupture of both wheel ropes ; relieving tackles 
 failed to operate the rudder. For a short time the vessel was held in her 
 bows on position by use of her propellers. She then swung broad side 
 to the enemy. A shot now pierced her engine room, rendering one 
 engine inoperative. I directed my attention to maintaining fire from her 
 
1-pounder guns, to keeping the vessel constantly in nlovemeii'., so as to 
 reduce the chances of her being hit, to endeavoring to uitlidraw iroiu 
 close range and to keeping clear of the Hne of hre of tlie Wihnington anti 
 Hudson. The use ')f tlie remaining engine, iu.n\ ever, had the effect of 
 throwing her stern towards the enemy upon backing, while going ahead 
 threw her bow in the same direction. Under the heavy tire of the Wil- 
 mington tiie fire of the enemy slackened ; the Spanish gunboat was 
 silenced and put out of action early in the engagement. 
 
 7. The Winslow now being practically disabled, I signalled to the 
 Hudson to tow us out of action ; she very g.illanily ajiproached us and 
 we succeeded in getting a line to her. Previous to this, the alternate 
 rapid lacking and steaming ahead of the Winslow had had the effect of 
 working her out from under the enemy's batteries, ana in this way a dis- 
 I. nice of about 300 yards was gained. Finding that we were working out 
 in this manner. I directed Ensign Bagley to concentrate his attention 
 upon the movement of the ship, walchftig the vessel so as to keep her 
 ont of the W'ilmmgton's way and to direct the movements t.f the man at 
 the reversing gear, mechanical communication from deck to engine beings 
 mipracticable This necessitated Mr. Bagley"s making rej^eated short 
 trips from the deck to the foot of the enL:;iner()om ladder. While directing 
 the vessel's course and at the moment of being on deck, hesti^od abreast of 
 the starboard gun, close to a group of men who had been stationed below, 
 but who had been sent on deck from the dis.ibled machinery. A shell 
 hitting, I believe, a hose-reel, exploded instantly, killing Knsign Ragley 
 and two others and mortally wounding two. This accident, which oc- 
 curred at the close of the action, was virtually its end ; the enemy hred a 
 tew more shots, but was soon completely silenced by the heavy firing of 
 the Wilmington. The conduct of P^nsign Baijley. and of the men with 
 him as well as that of the crew who survived the hght. is beyond commen- 
 dation. After seeing the dead and wounded removed from the Winslow 
 and conveyed on board the \Vilmingtt)n, I turned over the command of 
 the ship to (junners .Mate G. P. lirady, mv own injury preventing me 
 from perf(jrming active duty for the lime bei'ng. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, sir. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 John B. Bkknadou, 
 
 Lieut., U. S. Navy. 
 
 The papers published many and varied accounts of tlie engage- 
 ment. The official report here given makes it necessary to print 
 but one newspaper e.xtract. Concluding a graphic account in the 
 New York Journal, dated Key West, May 12th, Mr. Vincent S 
 Cooke writes : 
 
 '' The engagement at Cardenas was not a lost fight by any means al- 
 though the ships withdrew in caring for the Winslow. The Spanish loss 
 in killed and wounded is not known, but the chances are that it will be 
 soon. It is said that the Machias and Wilmington were to enter the 
 harbor and shell Cardenas at once. 
 
 "The death of these men has cast a gloom over the people her<^. All 
 Flags are at half-mast. Ensign Bagley is well known, and while the 
 fliet was here was a general favorite. He was known as a fearless young 
 officer and was well thought of by his superiors. Captain Todd, of the 
 Wilmington, who gave the order to go into Cardenas Harbor, w as espec- 
 
51 
 
 ially fond of Bagley, and more than once, in speaking of the young offi> 
 cer, said : " He's got the right material in him." 
 
 "Lieutenant Bernadou was also fond of Bagley. The men on the 
 Hudson say they never saw greater courage than Bagley and his men 
 exhibited while standing unprotected on the Winslow, waiting to catch 
 the Hudson's line. The air was full ofsliots, and every instant was fraught 
 with danger, but Bagley coolly stood by his men, knowing that unless a 
 line was gotten the VVinslow would be shot into ribbons and sunk. 
 " r3escrit)ing the fight, Captam Newcomb ot the Hudson said : 
 "We were in a Irap. There were masked batteries at several points, 
 and neither ihe Machias nor the Wilmington could aid us much, owing 
 to the shallow water. Batteries opened on us from all sides — behind 
 trees, bushes, houses and other places. I think the guns used by the 
 masked batteries were held pieces." 
 
 Cardenas is an important point. It is pronounced Kar-day-nas, 
 accent on the first syllable. It means " of a purple color." Car- 
 denas Bay, in which the encounter took place, is a picturesque har- 
 bor, 70 miles west of Havana. It is broad and shallow, with two jut- 
 ting fangs of land close at the mouth and a picket line of coral keys 
 •outside, and its surfaceisstudded with other green crowned keys, 
 through which the tortuous channel, scarce two fathoms deep, winds 
 and twists its way to where the city of Cardenas lies nestled under 
 the angle of the sloping hills, fully seven miles from the entrance. 
 Its value to the American cause and General Lee's estimate of 
 Ensign Bagley, are thus given in the Washington (D. C.) Times 
 of May I3ih : 
 
 "Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, who is spoken of as the most likely man 
 for the post of military governor of Cuba until the republic is established 
 firmly, said yesterday that Cardenas, which was attacked yesterday by 
 tour American gunboats, was an important point, strategetically, to be 
 possessed by the United States forces. 
 
 "About twenty miles back in the country, at Jovellenes, I think it is. 
 all the railroads of Cuba form a juncture, and, with Cardenas in the hands 
 of the Americans, the investment of Havana would be materially advan- 
 ced by the possession of that place,"' said Gen. Lee. "No supplies 
 could reach Havana by the regular channels from the interior, and, with 
 the blockading fleet in front of the city, its fate would soon be determin- 
 ed finally. In my opinion, the attack upon Cardenas was for the purpose 
 of getting at Jovellenes. 
 
 "Gen. Lee was told that the official dispatches gave the number of 
 killed as five and of wounded as three. Referring to Ensign Bagley, 
 Gen. Lee said : 
 
 " He was a gallant lad. and 1 am sorry he is gone. He was a worthy 
 fellow and brave as a lion. I'll bet he made a good fight. But we must 
 not take our losses too much to heart War means bloodshed upon 
 both sides, and we are bound to lose many brave lads before we drag 
 down the yellow ensign of Spain from the ramparts of Morro." 
 
 In Collier's Weekly of June 4th, Mr. James H. Hare, staff pho- 
 tographer, writing of an expedition to Gomez's camp, tells of an 
 
52 
 
 adventure with the Wins'low, as his party was trying to escape the 
 Spaniards to reach an American ship : 
 
 " Suddenly we saw smoke in the distance ; it was evident we had been 
 sighted. The oiitiiiies cif a l)oat ajipeared. Then smoke became more 
 distinct. The boat was c^-riainly bearii;g down on us. What was it. Our 
 glasses were trained on it. Jt loomed up, larger and larger, "bow on" 
 all the time, so we could not decioe whether it was a Spanish gunlioat or 
 one of our own cnift, until at last "Old Glory" was recognized and our 
 an.xiety was at an end. 
 
 ''Bang!" went a shot. We hove to immediately. "Bang!" went 
 anotlier, evidently a shotted gun, by the sound. 
 
 " Let down your sails!" we shouted to thesailor. " Hurry up!" That 
 is an Am'jrican expression, but he undersli od it. 
 
 " By this time we personally h.id been reccgnized, and as we lay to, 
 awaiting instructions from the torpedo boat, we sang the Doxology — 
 perhaps not very nuisicaliy, iDUt I will guarantee with as much sincerity 
 as it had ever known, fur our own " Winslow" now had us in charge. 
 
 "We were taken to the ".Machias," where the captain and officers 
 made us very welcome, and food was set before u.s tli.<t we shall never 
 forget, for it w is the first civilized meal we had eaten in t"o weeks. 
 
 '' \\'e joked tlie " Winsiow's' officers, Li-utenant P.c-ri.adou and En- 
 sign Bagley, about the prize they thought they h.id in vi^-w when they 
 bore tlown on us. This was on Sunday, May 8. On the following Thurs- 
 day I photographed the remains of Ensign Jiagley ami some of his crew 
 and later attended their funcr.d ; they had been killed in action o(T Car- 
 denas— '■ the'fortunes of war," with a vengeance." 
 
 The New York Herald's staff correspondent, sent an interview 
 tliat was published May 13th, with Ensign Bagley, indicating 
 that he had premonitions of the late that was in store for him : 
 
 " Kkv West, Fla., Thursday. — The de.ith of Ensign Raglcy recalls a 
 story written after an in erview with him on April 29, which was surpres- 
 sed by the'censor, who feared that it might cause Bagley's friends un- 
 necessary alarm. 
 
 'From the Herald's despat'-h boat Albert F. Dewey I had boarded 
 the Winslow to take papers and n.-ws bulletins to Lieutenant Bernadon. 
 After talking some minutes with him I turned to Ensign Bagley with 
 soma rem irk about the troubles which had befallen his fellow executive 
 officers of the torp >do fleet. His rejoinder was : — 
 
 "Yes, Iheirth.it I'oyd (of the torpedo boat Gushing) is in trouble 
 through no fault of his own, That puts it right up to me. I'm sorry 
 about Boyd, for I am sure that the accidi^nt to the Gushing was not due 
 to his carelessness. Now, Isippose you will say that I am superstitious 
 but I must admit that the fatalities which have pursued us have given me 
 some moments of sombre thought. 
 
 "There was poor Breckinridge, my classmate, executive officer of the 
 Gushing, who was swv^pt overboard between Key West and Havana and 
 drowned. Then Bostwick. executive officer of the Erics.son. who was 
 knocked overboard in a collision with a schooner, had his chest caved in 
 and was all but drowned. He is now slowly recovering. Baldwin, ex- 
 ecutive officer of the Gushing, successor of Breckinridge and predeces- 
 sor of Bovd, took his turn next. He was knocked down an open hatch- 
 way and had his ribs broken. He will not be out of the hospital until 
 the war is over. 
 
53 
 
 ^'Therethey are, the four B's' — Breckinridge, Bostwick, Baldwin and 
 Boyd. I am the fifth and last — Bagley. I have never been superstitious, 
 but for a \veei< I have had mysterious intuitions that I am not to escape, 
 I will make the list complete — of tliat I am certain. I only hope that my 
 trouble will not be serious enough to take me out of the fight.'' 
 
 " Bagley's closing remarks were made in a laughing manner, as though 
 lie would not have me take them seriously. Yet it was easily seen that 
 the premonition of serious trouble had taken a strong hold upon him. 
 At any rate, the fate of the 'B's' is complete, and the torpedo boats are 
 now expected by the "jackies,"' who are always superstitious, to have 
 better luck in the future.'" 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ANTE-BURIAL SERVICE AT KEY WE.ST. 
 
 THE body of the youiii^^ Ensit^^n was carried to Key West, 
 where it was embalmed. There, as w'ell as all other points 
 where his ship had headcjuarters, he had made warm friends. 
 The officer ordered by the Navy Department to accompany the 
 body from Key West to Raleigh was at Cardenas and did not 
 receive the orders in time. The exigencies of the war thus pre- 
 ventini.' a naval funeral at his home, the authorities at Key West 
 arranged to have ante-burial services in that place on the after- 
 noon of May 13th. These services were held by Rev. Gilbert 
 Higi^s, rector of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, who had 
 formerly been rector at Jackson and Warrenton, N. C. From a 
 letter, dated May 14th written by Dr. Higgs to Rev. Dr. M. M. 
 Marshall, rector ot Christ church, Raleigh, these extracts are 
 taken : 
 
 " Yesterday I "-ead the ante burial service over the remains of the late 
 F^nsign Worth Bagley, Raleigh, N. C He was the first officer killed in 
 
 battle in our war with Spain I write to you thinking it might be a 
 
 comfort to his parents and family to hear through you that his remains 
 w'ere sent to them from God's house and to know that not only a large 
 representation of the Navy and Army, but many of our citizens were 
 present in the church and afterwards in a procession, the casket covered 
 with fiowers and emblems, the body was borne to the steamer leaving 
 
 that evening for Tampa For many things I love North Carolina, its 
 
 people, and feel it an honor to the State that she can claim the first martyr 
 in the nation's call to arms, and it is a great satisfaction to me to have 
 been here to minister the last rites before the interment." 
 
54 
 
 The following is the Associated Press telegram g:i\iiig an ac- 
 count of the funeral at Key West: 
 
 " Kev Wkst, Fla. May ijtli. 
 
 "The remains of Ensign Wortli Bagley, of the torpedo boat U'inslow, 
 were sent to Jacksonville this evening to his brother there, from which 
 point they will l>e taken to his home in Raleigh, N. C. Brief fnneral ser- 
 vices were held at St. Paul's Episcopal church, tiie Rev. Dr. (Gilbert 
 Higgs officiating. A number of othcers, with a guard of marines and 
 sailors from many ships, escorted the body to the church. The Stars and 
 Stripes and a number of floral offerings covered the coffin. At the con- 
 clusion of the services many passed near the casket to take a last 
 look upon the face ot the dead. The casket was borne by si.x sailors, 
 immediately followed by the pall bearers selected from among Ensign 
 Bagley's personal friends. Then came filteen survivors of the torpedo 
 boat Winslow, who showed much emotion as they gazed upon the dead 
 officer. 
 
 "Most of the fleet officers attended the services and marched to the 
 wharf. A salute was given when the body was placed on the steamer 
 ^Iascotte." 
 
 The New York World's account of the funeral contains these 
 
 additional particulars : 
 
 " The commander and executive officer of every warship in Key West 
 harbor was in the procession, and all lifted their gold-embroidered caps 
 and stood in attention as the body passed 
 
 "Worth I5agley was the first officer of the United States to fall in a 
 naval engagement of the jiresent war. 
 
 " Only a lew weeks ago he remarked : ' It is the ambition of my life to 
 have a shot at Spain.' 
 
 " He had that one shot, and it cost him his life. 
 
 " While at Annapolis he played on the foot-ball eleven. For two years 
 he was full-back, and men who were plebes when he was an upper class- 
 man will tell you to-day that no one ever went to Annapolis who could 
 plav foot-ball like Bagley. He graduated in 1895 and was on the Maine, 
 until Commander Bernadou, of the Winslow, sent for him and made 
 him executive officer, a great honor for an Ensign of twenty-four. 
 
 ■'At Annapolis the thre^ greatest cronies were Breckinridge, Merritt 
 and I'agley. Breckinridge was washed overlioard and drowned from the 
 deck of the torpedo boat Gushing in a storm just outside of Morro Castle, 
 Merritt went down with the Maine and his body was never recovered." 
 
 In the account in the Washington Times, still more jKirticulars 
 
 are given : 
 
 "The body was escorted to the church and thence to the boat by a 
 guard of fit'ty marines, and an equal number of bluejackets from the 
 torpsdo boats now in the harbor, including a color-guard for the draped 
 flag. 
 
 ••Ten junior officers acted as honorary pall bearers. The coffin was 
 covered with the flag, on which the dead man's sword rested among 
 flowers." 
 
 Among the tender letters received by his mother was one from 
 
 a Key West, lady, at whose home he had spent the last evening 
 
 ashore. Under date of May 14th. she writes : 
 
55 
 
 ''The precious remains of your son were taken to our 'clruTch. St. 
 PhuPs, yesterday afternoon. The casket was borne by eight sailors from 
 liis ship ; it was draped with his flag;, and kind hearts placed on it God's 
 ■choicest shifts, sweet flowers. The church was filled with sympathizing 
 friends who. atter the service, followed the body to the steamer. . . .The 
 beautiful hymn sung at the service was: 'When our heads are bowed 
 with woe.' " 
 
 Capt. C. M. Chester, commander of the U. S. S. Cincinnati, 
 writing from Key West, Fla., on May 13th, to Mrs. Bagley, gives 
 -an account of the funeral and his estimate of the young Ensign: 
 
 •• It was my sad yet agreeable duty to have charge of the ceremonies 
 attending the funeral of your son Worth today, and they were made 
 more sad and also more agreeable by the fact that he was under my care 
 as Commandant of Cadets at Annapolis for nearly four years. There I 
 learned to have a high regard for his manly and sterling qualities, and I 
 always felt that whatever difficulties came up his honor and integrity 
 could be relied upon. 
 
 '■ Full of courage and youthful vigor, he has met the death that we who 
 are approaching the three score years limit of life, envy. Vet, for liim with 
 his life all before him, we almost doubt the Divine will that orders such 
 things. We must, however, bow to it, and I trust the Father who doeth 
 all things well will give you strength to bear this great affliction. Mav 
 He comfort you with the thought that you have such a noble boy, and 
 
 with the knowledge that all his friends loved him With great respect 
 
 for the mother of one so worthy." 
 
 Writing under date of ^^ay i6th, at Key West, Fla., Mr. Wal- 
 ter B. Izard, of the U, S. S, Machias. who had been a class-mate 
 of Ensign Bagley's at Annapolis, says : 
 
 " [ was ordered by the Department to accompany his body North, but as 
 we have only just returned from Cardenas, I did not receive them. I would 
 
 like to have done something for him at the last Everything that was 
 
 possible was done 1 want to e.xpress my deepest svmpathv for vou at 
 
 the loss of your noble son. I had known Worih so long and intimately 
 that it seems hard to realize that so true an officer should be taken 
 from us." 
 
 The casket containing all that was mortal of Ensign Worth 
 Bagley, U. S. N., reached Jacksonville Sunday morning. To that 
 point the oldest brother of the dead officer had come to take 
 home the body of the noble youth who had given up his life £of 
 his country. 
 
56 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FUXliRAL IN RALEIGH. 
 
 THE follovvin.y- account, with a levy additions, oi'the hineral held 
 in Capitol Square, Raleigh. N. C, at the foot of Houdon's 
 statue of Washington, Monday afternoon May i6th, is taken h-oiii 
 Tuesday morning's News and Observer : 
 
 ■' Yesterday aflernoon at 5 ()'clt)ck wIk-ii the funeral open air exercises 
 were in pro.v,n-ess in the capilol square ow-r the budy of hinsign IJagley. 
 the United States lla;^ over the cuiainl old Iniikling was e.xnltant in the 
 sweet wind from llie south. 
 
 "It seemed typical of tlic i)riile t.f tliis great nation in the tlirilling 
 valor of this yoi'uh trom the Old North Stale. 
 
 "Tiiere he lay under the tall green elms the casket wrapped in colors 
 overlaid with spear of palm and wreatii of ivy. The casket rested on a 
 caisson-shaped pedestal. 
 
 "It contained the bodv of Worth Bagley. Knsign. U. S. N., Torpedo 
 Boat Winslow, killed .May nth, in an action off Cardenas, while at his 
 post of dutv, 
 
 "At 1.30 p. m. a detail of forty-eight men from the Governor s (.uard, 
 Co. K, as a special escort, accompanied the remains to the capitol Irum 
 the home of Mrs Haglev. The casket wrapped m a large United Stales 
 tlag, completely cov.ired with beautiful tloral dej.rations, was lifted on 
 the shoulders of si.\ non-commissioned officers, chosen to act as body 
 bearers, Sergeants Hunch, Broughton, Remington. Snipe, Berry and 
 Huglies, and borne from the home and placed on tiie caisson, which 
 was dr^iped in black. Its six horses had also black "coverings and each 
 was led Ijv a United Slates soldier. They were followed by the follow- 
 ing officers of the First and Second Regiments of North Carolina \'< Jun- 
 teers. who acted as honorarv pall-liearers : Capt. Crawford, ol the Gcv- 
 ernor's Guard, Raleigh ; Capt. Robertson, of the Hornets' Nest Ritlts. 
 Charlotte; Capt. Michie, of the Durham Light Infantry ; Capt. .MacRae, 
 of the Wilmington L.iiiht Infantry ; Capt. Bain, of the Goldsboro RiHes ; 
 Capt. Grav, of the Guilford Grays, Greensboro. The caisson, completely 
 covered with flowers, accompanied by the military escort, moved slowly 
 to the capilol. .Along Favetteville street the cortege moved with giin> 
 bareness, the honorsbeing those of a Brigadier General. As the caisson 
 passed along heads were bowed and bared before the loved boy to wlvm 
 those of his home were glad to do such honor, and the sidewalks were 
 deep with the people and the windows sombre with the tears (.n tlie faces 
 of women. , , , r 
 
 "The body at the capitol, in the rotunda under the dome, lor two 
 hours lay in stale, though the face was not exposed, and while this was 
 iusdy considered wise, it may be grateful to friends to say ihat the face 
 'was splendid to look upon and not disfigured, as has been incorrectly 
 sent out by the press. Floral designs were sent up from the home by the 
 wagon load, and were eagerly taken by loving hands, men, women and 
 chitdren alike, and disposed about the circular area under the dome. 
 Elaborate designs had been sent bv friends, cides and organizations from 
 
SNAP SHOTS-FOOT-BALL FIELD AMD SUMME.i CRUISE 
 
 SPOILING A SNAP BACK. (bAGLEY AT RIGHT END OF CROWD ) 
 NAVY GOES AROUND THE END FOR TEN YARDS. (bagLEY AT CENTRE, TO LE^T OF REFBREE 
 SU^^MER CRUISE ON CONSTELLATION.- isAG.EY AND BRECNRIOOE ,N WO^^fs WrsT 
 BAGLEY AND IZARD IN POSITION FOR PLACE KICK FOR COAL. isAOLEY STaZZ) 
 
.57 
 
 all parts o f til e country. Remaining under charge of the niihtary detm''^ 
 ahe casket was viewed by thousands of people who walked reverently 
 through the corridorri of the capitol until the arrival ot tlie Brigade at 
 
 .3.30 p. 711. 
 
 "AH places of business in the city were closed promptly at 4 o'clock 
 and shortly after that hour the reverent throng withdrew from the ro- 
 tunda and corridors that the family might be alone with their dead. 
 
 " Soon the casket was again lifted on the shoulders of the soldier body- 
 bearers. Preceded by all ot the city clergy and several ministers from a 
 distance, all reading in unison the solemn and beautiful scripture, begin- 
 ■ning ' I am the Resurrection and the Life,' and followed by the family, the 
 bodV was borne along the line of the special escort, which was standing 
 with ' prtrsent arms' formation to the catafalque at the south end of the 
 broad terrace which overlooked the length of Fayetteville street. The fam- 
 ■ily, with its large connection wa? seated on the right of the casket, the 
 ministers in the rear, iaimediately in front ol the statue of Washington. 
 Oil the left were the choir, the honorary pall-bearers, and behind them the 
 State and City ofti.-i.ils. State Supreme Court and Federal judges, and 
 the class mates of Ensign Hagley at Morsoii and 13enson's Academy. 
 Around were deleg.itions from n^any towns and cities, students from 
 Morson's Academy, children of the Centennial and Murphey graded 
 schools, and young ladies of Peace Institute and St. Mary's. Outside of 
 all those who had been assigned places nearest the remains, the battalion 
 •of cadets from the Agricultural and Mechanical college, under command 
 •of Major Stancell, were formed in a large circle. Beyond these were the 
 students of Shaw Universitv, and the children of Garfield and Washing- 
 ton graded schools, and the thousands of men, women and children 
 ■from' a hundred towns, cities and hamlets who had gathered to join with 
 the people of Raleigh to pay honor to Raleigh's noble martyr-hero 
 
 "The Brigade, including the First and Second Regiments of North 
 Carolina Volunteers, under command of Colonel Armfield, was formed 
 ■on Favetteville street. • 1 r^ r^ 
 
 "The funeral services were conducted bv Rev. Eugene Daniel, D. D., 
 pastor of the First Presbvterian church, of which Ensign Bagley was a 
 member assisted by Rev. W. C. Norman, D D., pastor of Edenton 
 Street Methodist church; Rev. M. M. Marshall, D. D., rector of Christ 
 Protestant Episcopal church, and Rev. Tlws. E. Skinner. D. D.. of the 
 Baptist church The choir consisted of the following persons : Mrs. M. 
 tP Baumann Mrs. J. J Thomas. Mrs. I). H. Hamilton, Mrs. Chas. Mc- 
 Kimmon, Miss Minnie Tucker, Miss Potter. Miss Bessie Bates. Miss Ada 
 Womble, Miss Josephine Mitchell, Miss Mary Dinwiddle, Mr. W. S. 
 Prinirose, Mr. T. K. Bruner. Mr. Chas Newcomb. Mr. Leo D. Heartt^ 
 with accompanists, ^^lss Bettie Dinwiddie, organ, Mr. Sam Parrish, 
 organ, and Mr. J. D. Turner, trombone. ^ . ^ y-. u . 
 
 "The services began with a hvmn : "The Son of God Goes Forth to 
 War,'' snug by the"^ full choir, with organ and trombone accompani- 
 ment. . , , , ii J 
 
 "Rev. Thos. E. Skinner, D. D., of the Baptist church, then ottered 
 
 an appropriate praver. -^ 1 .• .. 
 
 " Mrs. Chas. McKimmon sang with touching pathos a favorite selection 
 ■of Ensign Bagley. the music of which is by the wife of Commander 
 Crowninshield, U. S. N.: 
 
 '• There is a land mine eye hath seen 
 In visions of enraptured thought, 
 So bright that all that spreads between 
 Is with its radiant glory fraught. 
 
5^- 
 
 A farnd upon whose blissful shore 
 There resis no shadow, falls no stain ; 
 
 There those who meet shall part no more 
 And those long parted meet again 
 
 Its skies are not like earthly skies. 
 With varying lines of shade and light ; 
 
 It hath no need of suns to rise 
 To dissipate the gloom of night. 
 
 There sweej^s no desolating wind 
 
 Across the calm, serene abode ; 
 A waiidtrrer tliere a home may find 
 
 Within the paradise of God." 
 
 " Rev. W. C. Norman, D. D , of Edenton Street M. E. chinch. Sontfr, 
 read the 90th Psalm, commencing • Lord thou hast been our dwel in^^ 
 place in all generations.' 
 
 "A quartette, Mrs. Chas McKimnion, sp|)rano ; Mrs. J. J. Thomas, 
 contralto; Mr. Chas. Newcomb. tenor, and Mr. W. S. I'rinirose, l)ass, 
 then chanted the beautiful hymn : 
 
 •' 'Abide with Me, Fast Falls the EveiUfde. ' 
 
 "Rev. Eugene Daniel, D. D.. of the First Presbyteiian church, reacf 
 from the 15th chapter of ist Corinthians, and offered a prayer so beauti- 
 ful and appropriate that it is elsewhere in to-day's i^aper published in 
 full. The choir then sang : 'Just As 1 Am, Without One I'lea.' many 
 soldiers (at the request of Ensign Bagley's mother, aimounced by Dr. 
 Daniel) joining in the hymn. 
 
 "This strange summer sc^ne of peace, with the great grove shot to 
 the heart with requiems presented a startling contrast with the marliaf 
 dead lying solitary in the midst of the great mass. But the contrast was 
 no more marked than the blue of the sky with the black batlaiions of 
 cloud that walked abroad war-voiced when the remains at midnight 
 were nearing the city. 
 
 "The sky was rent with electric mines, and javelins of light alternated 
 with terrible luminousness while silence was swallowed up in the deep- 
 lunged fury of thunder. 
 
 "That was the music the young Ensign loved to hear, but no more 
 than the sweet whispers of the elms of the capitul under which he had 
 passed his childhood. For if he loved to revel breast high in danger, his 
 life and letters showed that none was more soothed by the touch of gen- 
 tleness and peace. Looking upon iiis face iron lined xvith the ciuves of 
 courage, some one remarked: 'There lies Napoleon." Love took up the 
 observation, saying : ' No. Napoleon had upon his face the look of an 
 unsatisfied ambition ; U[)on his face sleeps a smile of peace." It was 
 true, but illustrated just the contrast noted above wherein Love and War 
 live together housed as one in the same heart. 
 
 "Ten thousand? Ves, more, said some. They stood surrounding the 
 little funeral scene, lines of militarv divergii\g backward from the pulpit 
 terrace. In front, down Fayetteville street, came the First and Second 
 Regiments with a heavy tread. 
 
 "The services were over and the procession toOakwood cemetery was 
 forming. The band of the First Regiment was playing the ' Dead March 
 in Saul ', while eleven salutes were fired from a cannon at the east gate 
 of the Capitol as the procession formed on Morgan street at the head of 
 Fayetteville street, moving thence to Wilmington street, thence North 
 street via North street to Oakwood avenue to Oak wood cemetery. 
 
39 
 
 ^' The dead m irch ! Oh. the tears of the dead march ! How it goes 
 mourning through the grove trees of sweet Southern towns so poig- 
 •naiitly when the dead is great in death. 
 
 '• Along the route to the cemetery, the great line ebbed and flowed in 
 motion, and thousands had taken' their places along the way and on the 
 hills overlooking beautiful Oakwood. All the city was mourning, the 
 places of business had been closed, and there was no desire except to 
 gather about the center of the common heart. 
 
 " Djwn the little hill, all knew so well, over the little rock bridge, the 
 l)ridge of sighs to many a home, around the bend along the gentle slope, a 
 •gentle climb, there \ras the spot, the spot where his gallant father. Maj. 
 \V. H. Bagley. ol the Confederate Army, lies, and where rest the dust 
 ■of his honorecl and distinguished grandfather, Governor Jonathan Worth. 
 
 "As the family, the cleVgy and the pallbearers surrounded the open 
 .grave, the picturesque hills that sloped off Oakwood being tilled with a 
 vast concourse of soldiers and citizens, the last sad rites were said. The 
 impressive and touching praver of committal was offered by Rev. M. M. 
 Marshall, D. D., rectorof Christ church, after which Rev. Eugene Daniel, 
 D. D., pronounced the benediction. 
 
 " As they waited by the flower-lined grave, the choir sang softly with- 
 out accomnainment. ' Now the Day is Over", and one verse again of 
 'Abide with Me." after which Mrs. J. J. Thomas, in the same key, sang 
 ■sweetly the last sentence of a favorite song of Ensign Bitgley 'Anchored', 
 by Watson, as follows : 
 
 " 'A soft smile came from the stars. 
 And a voice from the whisp'ring foam, 
 .Safe, safe at last, the danger past. 
 Safe in his Father's home.' 
 The full choir responding ' Amen". 
 
 "Once again and the last time the choir sang. This time the hymn call- 
 -ed the ' Prayer for Seamen' of which the first verse is always used at the 
 close of the chapel service at the Naval Academy where Ensign Bagley 
 was a member of the choir : 
 
 " 'Eternal Father, strong to save, 
 
 Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, 
 Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep 
 ■ Its own appointed limits keep ; 
 Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee 
 For those in peril on the sea, Amen.' 
 
 " The flowers were nearby, ready to be disposed upon the grave, and 
 ihey rose above the dead a very mass of tribute in color and sweetness, 
 until the mound was hidden deep from the eye. 
 
 " From the capitol eleven guns had been fired, and now eleven more 
 guns were fired at the cemetery. i 
 
 " As the press of people fell away somewhat at the last words of the ben- 
 ediction, the troops were drawn up on the north side of the grave. 
 
 "The three volleys given over the body and commanded by Col, Arm- 
 field were simulating to the hearts of those who heard in them an echo 
 of the spirit of the dead. 
 
 " Taps were blown on the bugle from the head of the grave. There was 
 a m:irtial sweetness in the notes 
 
 '• Worth Bagley, Ensign U. S. N., on Board Torpedo Boat Winslow, 
 killed May nth by a bursting shell in an action off Cardenas, while at 
 post of duty. 
 
6a 
 
 '■' TTiere Fin lay. 
 
 "The requiem of the elms had grown deeper wnth the deepening^ 
 twihght. 
 
 " From, the he;rrts of the thoijsands issued this inaudible chant : '^'He 
 Kved well, he died well, he sleeps well l' 
 
 "■ The livhig had stood helpless i-n the presence of the dead that they 
 would have brought back to life, but they stood nvighty to do honor ancE 
 that they had- done for all the world to know." 
 
 CIIAITER IX. 
 hoxorp:i) in ralkich. 
 
 RALEIGH uas all tears, "like Niabe " when the annotmce- 
 ment of the fatal enga.^ement reached tlie city on Thursday 
 morning, May 12th. The Post of the next morniii!:: told how the 
 news was received in his native city : 
 
 " 'Worth Bagley killed in a naval engagement in Cninin waters' 
 were the words passed from mouth to mouth in Raleigli yesterday 
 morning. 
 
 ' 'Never were the people of the capital city so shocked and never 
 were there more spontaneous and genuine expressions of sympathy 
 and grief expressed by all classes of people. As if by an electric cur- 
 rent the news spread throughout the city and every heart throbbed 
 in deepest sympathy for poor Worth Bagley and his grief-stricken 
 motiier, sisters antl brothers. Kveryone sought to discredit the news, 
 hoping against hope that it was only a false report, but the bulletin 
 boar<is soon announced confirmatory messages of the terrible tragedy 
 ill Cardenas harbor. Business was laid aside and people talked only 
 of the distressing fate of the brave young naval officer. Since his en- 
 listment in the navy the peojile of Raleigh, and of the State for that 
 matter, have watched with pride and interest his position as a naval 
 officer. They knew hiiu as a boy, noble and brave in all things, and 
 they knew furthermore that he was a worthy son of courageous and 
 distinguished parentage. They knew the man, and they awaited only 
 the opportunity for him to distinguish himself. Fate decreed other- 
 wise. It remained for this brave young North Carolinian to be the 
 first to sacrifice his life in the war against the Saffron flag. His death 
 was that of a hero. It reads like a romance. It can hardly be rea- 
 lized." 
 
 A Saturday morning's issue of the News & Observer, in local 
 
 columns, contained the following : 
 
 "There were yesterday inquires on every lip as to the details of the 
 funeral ceremonies, and eulogy and di.stress throbbed even to the deep 
 heart of the city. The sense of the heroic in men and women had glowed 
 under tlie picture of the young officer's bearing in battle, but tears came 
 when North Carolina took knowledge of the youth and promise of the 
 son who had been torn asunder from her all too soon. Then, too, the 
 
6i 
 
 home that had senttorth a mere youth who should in one brief hour thrill 
 a nation's heart was turned to with tender condolence by scores of loving 
 friiuds. All day long these friends called to offer their sympathy to those 
 who mourned. 
 
 " Among those who came was a committee composed of Mavor Russ, 
 Messrs. N. \V. West, VV. S. Primrose, R T. Gray and F, A. Olds. 
 
 ■' These gentlemen brought the request that the family accede to the 
 general desire for a miHt-iry funeral Furthermore, it was stated by the 
 committee, that as no church in the city would begin to accommodate 
 those who wiihed to attend the funeral, that the plan had been suggest- 
 ed to have the ceremonies in the Capitol grounds. 
 
 " Deeply touched by those expressions on the part of their own peo- 
 ple, the family assented to the request." 
 
 The two thousand volunteers in camp at Raleigh were greatly 
 moved by the sad event. The Raleigh papers of the 13th, con- 
 tained the following : 
 
 " At Camp Grimes the soldier blood boiled with hatred for the na- 
 tion that had done the bloody deed, and 'to the front' became the 
 watchword, 
 
 " ' 1 hope it's true,' said a member of the Governor's Guard, 'that 
 we are to be sent at once to Cuba. We now have a mission — some- 
 thing to fight for — Worth Ragley's death must and shall be avenged." 
 
 " Maj. E. M. Hayes, U. S. A.; 'Thati.s terrible news. And Ensign 
 Bagley had such a iirilliant future before Jiim. Even at this time he 
 was tlie best known man <if his rank in the United States Navy. I 
 consider his death a national loss. Though I have met him but a few 
 times, I was very much impressed with his manner and bearing. I 
 have always watched his career with positive pleasure." 
 
 " Col. Wm. H. .S, Burgvvyn, Colonel of the Second Regiment, South 
 Carolina Volunteers: 'It is truly an extraordinary coincidence 
 that North Carolina should lose the first soldier in 1861, and 
 now tlie first in the present war. North Carolina has just given her 
 brightest and best. She will demand back from .Spain a like return, 
 with tenfold increase. She has something now to fight for, and she 
 will make as good a record in this war as she did in the last." 
 
 "Col. A. D. Cowles, Adjutant General of North Carolina: 'The 
 North Carolinians will remember the 'Maine' and they will remember, 
 too, poor Bagley. Gallantly fighting for his country, he fell the first 
 martyr in the cause of humanity. He poured out his heart's blood 
 at the base of the standard on which the starry emblem of liberty 
 proudly fioated, and stricken unto death, a patriot's loving hope led 
 his palsied arms to its fond embrace. As the angels kissed his eye- 
 lids down in sleep, lovingly he gazed upon the flag above him, and as 
 the last faint whisper lingered on his stricken lips, he murmured : 
 ' Mother and My Country.' Passing to fame's eternal camping 
 ground, he saluted our banner in the sky and amid the glories of its 
 folds, his soldier spirit was wafted to its God. 'Remember thee! 
 aye, brave soldier, while memory holds a place in this distracted 
 globe.' Remember thee ! Yea, we'll remember the ' Maine' and you." 
 
 These expressions of sympathy came not only from the war- 
 like living among arms in the white tented city of Camp Grimes. 
 They came from all organizations, from all creeds, from all 
 
62 
 
 classes, from all colors. At each of the schools the children were 
 o^athered tooether, and the heroic manner ol his death was told 
 and his noble character portra^^ed. At the Centennial Graded 
 School, ol which Ensif^n Bagley had been a pupil, Mrs. Barbee, 
 who had been his teacher, and Miss Mabel Hale, principal of the 
 school, gave incidents in his life, and Superintendent Logan D. 
 Howell spoke at length upon his career. 
 
 At Morson & Denson's school, where he was prepared for col- 
 lege, the present and former students, resolved to attend the fun- 
 eral in a body, and appointed a committee of his class mates, 
 composed of Hubert A. Royster, William B. Snow, C. Van 
 Fleming and W. W. Vass, to draw up appropriate resolutions. 
 " We deeply mourn " said the former fellow students, "the end 
 of a career so full of promise and the loss of one so rich in the 
 noblest qualities of mind and character, yet we glory in the proud 
 example of a life devoted to duty, filled with unselfish heroism - 
 and fearlessly offered up in his country's cause." 
 
 The news came during the commencement of Shaw University, 
 the chief Baptist school for the education of the colored youth in 
 the State. President Meserve announced the death, and resolu- 
 tions drawn by a committee composed of A. B. Vincent, E. A. 
 Johnson, J. A. Dodson and Chas. F. Meserve, were adopted. 
 Rev. John E. White, who was delivering the address, said "the 
 death of Ensign Bagley was the first contribution of American 
 blood to the cause of liberty in Cuba," and the audience was melt- 
 ed to tears as he spoke of his noble life and heroic death. 
 
 The L. O'B Branch Camp No. 515, United Confederate Veterans, 
 (A. B. Stronach, Commander and J. C. Birdsong, Adjutant,) re- 
 solved to attend the funeral in a body, and appointed a committee 
 composed of J. M. Monie, A. M. Powell and A. B. Stronach to 
 draft resolutions, from which the following is taken : 
 
 "North Carolina is again called upon to lose one of her beloved 
 sons. By sea and land her sons have made glorious history of this 
 great cui'nnionwealth. In the pages of history the young hero of Car- 
 denas will take his place in that proud galaxy of names which have 
 immortalized their country. 
 
 " See him at duty's call, as he stands amid the shower of death- 
 dealing missiles (fresh and ruddy as David, the shepherd boy), in 
 the prime of his manly beauty, the embodiment of a line of heroes 
 which North Carolina cherishes as her richest treasures. Never had 
 mother nobler son. In him all that was pure and lofty in purpose 
 
found lodgment. Dignified witliont presumption, affable vvitlioui; 
 familiarity, he united all graces that made him the idol of his friends 
 and ofiiis sailors. The perspective of the glories of a liberated Cuba 
 ■did not intoxicate him, neither did the cloud of adversity, that so rap- 
 idly passed over him, serve to dejiress him. With a smile upon his 
 face, with the flag of his country in his hand, with thoughts of loved 
 ones at home, his face to the foe — thus passed away Ensign Worth 
 Bagley. 
 
 "As if the soul that moment caught 
 Some treasure it through life had sought.'' 
 
 The iMeade Post, No. 39, G. A. R., of Raleigh, vied with the 
 L. O'B. Branch camp of Confederate Veterans in honoring the 
 dead Ensign, and on the day of the funeral they marched together 
 to Oakvvood cemetery. On Memorial day, May 30th, a commit- 
 tee from the G. A. R. Camp composed of S. D. Wait, chairman, 
 C. H. Beine and A W. Shaffer, arranged for placing the floral 
 contribution of Gen. Meade Post, No. 1, Dept. of Pennsylvania, 
 on the grave of Ensign Bagley. 
 
 Memorial day exercises in Raleigh, ?vlay 30th, l8g8, made 
 new history in the re-uniting of the blue and gray. Just 
 as the women and girls had decorated the graves of the 
 Federal soldiers who sleep their last sleep in the National 
 cemetery, a storm dro\'e the assembled company to a shel- 
 tered place to hear the address. They hurried to the Con- 
 federate Home nearby and in the chapel of the Home, with the 
 old Confederate veterans composing most of the audience, the 
 exercises took place. The account in the Raleigh papers is thus 
 condensed : 
 
 "It was an object lesson in the reuniting of tiie blue and the gray, 
 such as perhaps has never before been witnessed in the whole coun- 
 try. It is certain that never in North Carolina were the blue and the 
 gray so brought together. It was a sight not soon to be forgotten, 
 the Federal soldier, speaking of the Southern valor in a Confederate 
 chapel, and the eyes of Confederate soldiers moistened with tears at 
 the speaker's reference to the' young North Carolina hero, whose 
 blood has forever banished sectionalism." 
 
 " President Chas, F. Meserve, of Shaw University, delivered the 
 memorial oration. He said the South vies with the North in patriot- 
 ic ardor and is pouring out her best life-blood in this struggle. After 
 referring to the sublime spectacle of Gen, Lee, (with a grandson of 
 Gen, Grant and a son of Benjamin Harrison on his staff,) and Gen. 
 WHieeler, closing their military careers in uniform of the army of the 
 United States, he said : 
 
 " But the greatest honor that could come to any State has come to 
 liberty-loving North Carolina, where the memories of the Revolution, 
 are still alive and the spirit of Henry Clay still lingers. I say honor. 
 It was indeed a great honor, but a most terrible sacrifice, and it touch- 
 
64 
 
 ed deeply the heart of the nation, and the grief was telt by all. Wiien 
 Ensign Worth Bagley, shattered by a Spanish shell, grasped, as he 
 fell upon the deck of the Wiiislow, the staft'from which ' Old (ilory' 
 proudly waved, and, as his life-blood ebbed away, murmured, 
 ' Mother and Country,' the South showed her loyal df'votion to the 
 Union and her fixed determination to maintain its integrity. 
 
 " The Southland lias given up her fairest, her choicest and her best, 
 and has made the first sacrilice in the cause of freedom for Cuba. 
 The North mourns and weeps with her sister South in her sorrow. 
 Sorrow has brought both sections close together, and shoulder to 
 shoulder they will work out the destiny of the American republic." 
 
 •' Miss Minnie .May Curtis then read a beautiful origii>al poem, from 
 which the following verses are taken : 
 
 The North and South clasped hands above the first brave martyr's bier: 
 They both could claim him, — I'ilgrim blood was blent with Chevalier ? 
 .Such fine commiugliug forces met to knit that sturdy frame. 
 To mould that brave heroic soul, who won a deathless name! 
 
 " The love of Freedom that beat strong within that I'ilgrim sire. 
 Throbbed in this true young patriot breast with pure and holy fire. 
 And nerved his hand to do its best for crushed humanity. 
 To right a crue:, grievous wrong, and set a i)eople free. 
 
 United now as ne'er before, a Nation mourns to-day, 
 For 'neath "Old Glory," sleeps the son of one who wore the gray. 
 So loving, gentle, faithful, good : so strong, so brave, so true, 
 America may well rejoice in noble sons like you ! 
 
 "The procession then moved to Oakwood cemetery, where the 
 whole company stood with uncovered heads while Governor Russell 
 and Mayor Russ and the Commander of the G. A. R. placed 
 at the head of the grave of Ensign Worth F?agley the beautiful fioral 
 offering sent by the Meade G. A. R. Post of Philadelphia. The grave 
 had already been literally covered with a profusion of flowers of the 
 -•reason, and was an embowered bank ofthe rarest and loveliest (lowers, 
 tastefullv arranged by Steinmetz by order of the New York World, 
 which paid this tribute to the memory of the first American officer to 
 fall for Old Glory in tiiis struggle. Above the bower of flowers, 
 which were intertwined with laurel, were branched the pine and the 
 palm, typifying the uniting ofthe North and the South over the grave 
 of the Federal officer, son of a Confederate soldier. There were 
 other beautiful tributes, among them one from the Loyal Legion of 
 Women of Washington, D. C, and Ensign Alfred ^IcKelthan, a 
 class-mate of Ensign Worth Bagley at the Naval Academy. The 
 company gathered about the grave, added choice flowers to the love- 
 ly decorations, and the choir sang "America." The clouds had 
 passed away, and the last rays of the setting sun fell on the heads of 
 the company as Rev. Dr. Curtis ofTered prayer, and Rev. Dr. Pittinger 
 pronounced the benediction." 
 
 Seaton Gales Lodge, No. 64. L O. O. F., passed resolutions 
 .saving that the Lodge " which was honored by having upon its 
 roll the name ofthe lather ofthe young and noble son, doth here- 
 by extend to the grief stricken family the profound sympathy and 
 condolence that the ties of fraternal love and esteem so forcefully 
 
05 S 
 
 00 § 
 
 o *- 
 
 (J o 
 
65 
 
 suggest." They were signed by B. H. Woodell and Henry J. 
 Young, committee ; E. G. Faust, Noble Grand, and Phil. Thiem, 
 recording secretary. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Alderman of the city of Raleigh, 
 Mayor Russ appointed Messrs. John C. Drewry. chairman ; W. 
 W. Parrish, and J. E. Hamlin a committee to draft resolutions, 
 from which these extracts are taken : 
 
 " That we lament the untimely death of this gallant young officer, 
 whose constant courage and devotion to duty has honored the city 
 of his birth, and who has found the immortality that comes to a brave 
 and noble soul who yields his life to the service of his country. 
 
 " Resolved, That as a child and boy and man the people of Raleigh 
 have known and loved him, living as he did a life without fear and 
 without reproach, and they will keep ever fresh in their hearts the 
 precious memory of his Hie and virtues." 
 
 On the 2oth of May, the anniversary of the Mecklenburg De- 
 claration of Independence, in presenting a flag given by the ladies 
 of Raleigh to the Governor's Guards, Capt. C. B. Denson made 
 this reference to Ensign Bagley : 
 
 "And when you strike, remember tliat the first hero of this war to 
 give his blood for his country, was your own friend and fellow-towns- 
 man, your schoolmate and fellow-Carolinian, now no longer our own, 
 but blazoned by the triumph ol fame arouud the world, as his great 
 country's son." 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TRIBUTES FROM ARMY AND NAVY FRIENDS. 
 
 WHEREVER he went Worth Bagley made many friends. 
 As a boy, he was popular with old and young. As a 
 naval cadet, he won the love of his fellows, the confidence of his 
 instructors, and the respect of his superior officers — ore friend 
 writing ' a history of the past lew years of his life will be iound in- 
 extricably woven in that of the Naval Academy, for he was of the 
 kind that made history of the place in which he happened to be." 
 In the discharge of his duties as an officer of the navy he not 
 only came to number his fellow officers as his friends but in every 
 port in which his ship touched the charm of his attractive per- 
 sonality made him a host of friends. From all quarters ha\e 
 
66 
 
 come words of sympathy to his stricken mother, evidencing that 
 whether on shipboard, in places of danger, in the brilhanl gather- 
 ings of the great cities and resorts in the (juiet of vacation, in 
 the school room, in the workshop, on the athletic field, every- 
 where, he showed the grace, strength and true chivalry that made 
 men and women love to call him friend. The letters which hun- 
 dreds of these friends have written to the darkened home of 
 which he was the light are full of proofs of the strong hold he had 
 upon the affections of those who had come into near relationship 
 with him. The limits of this \olume permit extracts only from a 
 few who had known him intimately at the Naval Academy or 
 afterward when he was an officer in the navy. 
 
 The tribute paid to him by Major General J. C. Breckinridge, 
 the father of Ensign Bagley's room-mate at Annapolis and his 
 most intimate friend, is as follows : 
 
 " war's TRIHUTE I'.Ml). 
 
 '■ Knsigii Bagley has given a name to our national annals which has 
 a ring of sweetness and pathos in it like monastery hells, hut all 
 must mourn at the sacrifice of the indiviilual, even though devoted 
 to the cause of humanity. The charm of his character and his loyal 
 reliability were tempered with such winning manners aufi sturdy 
 strength that his exit from our sphere in the first flush and beauty 
 of manhood makes the music cease while a wail is heard. Possibly 
 the tragic death of no other young man of his age would have thrilled 
 so many hearts with pain nor awakened so many to .syjnpathy, espe- 
 cially ill the sister services. That poets have sung lo the theme of 
 this gallant young life and noble death; that youth throughout the land 
 have felt their hearts beat higher as they chose him for a model; that 
 young and old, the daring and the fair, join in his ])raises and mourn 
 for his loss is as natural as that honey should be jiroduced from the 
 dewy flower. It w-as the very nature of this young man to be loved and 
 to win unstinted praise from all and for all that he did better than any 
 one else could do. He was accustomed to have breathless thousands 
 wait and watch what he, all unperturbed, would do next and do su- 
 premely well. 
 
 " He was my dead son's room-mate. They have been in my house 
 like twin gods, endeared to all. I believe you will pardon me more 
 emotion than can be properly expressed when in the midst of this 
 campaign we stop to recall the loss our country's cause has 
 brought to you and us. The State where he was born, the people he 
 has served, the home so shattered can well hold his memory dear: 
 he deserved well of his people. 
 
 " With admiration and affection for the dead and .^incerest sympathy 
 for the living. I remain, most sincerely yours, 
 
 "J. C. Bkeckinridge. 
 
 " Tampa, Fla." 
 
 Extracts from the letters of Ensign Bagley have already shown 
 the friendship existing between him and Ensign Barnes, of Okla- 
 
67 
 
 homa. Before the death of Ensign Breckinridge the three were 
 inseparable. After that mutual sorrow the friendship of these two 
 young officers was strengthened by their common grief Writing 
 from " U. S. S. Vicksburg," off Havana, Cuba, to the mother of 
 his dead friend. Ensign Barnes says : 
 
 When Worth died for his countrj^'s cause before Cardenas I lost as 
 true a friend as God gives to a man and one whom I shall mourn the 
 remainder of my life, for there is no one to take his place, to be the 
 friend and companion he was to me. 
 
 " Please accept my tearful and heartfelt sympathy, for knowing him 
 as I did to be the truest gentleman and noblest friend I also know 
 what a son he was to you. 
 
 " Deprived of Bagley and Breckenridge in three short months I do 
 not know what I shall do. 
 
 " For me they were the embodiment of chivalry and honor and I 
 will miss them all my life. 
 
 " It seems as though I had lost myself, so completely do I grieve. 
 To von and his sisters my heart goe^s out, feeling the anguish of the 
 loss' of a brother as you do that of a son. He lived ten days ago when 
 I saw him last and walked down to the boat with my arm around his 
 dear broad shoulders. My Dear Madam, I can write no more, please 
 accept the sympathy I feel for that I would express. I too am be- 
 reaved." 
 
 Writing to a relative of his dead friend, Ensign Barnes says : 
 
 " There are true men in the world, but one does not often know and 
 prove them. Worth Bagley's life was a short but unmistakable proof 
 of a noble manhood, a deep-Vooted character of gentle chivalry and ster- 
 ling nobility. He died as a brave man would wish to die— in the 
 midst of a well fought fight, battling for humanity's cause, front to 
 the foe." 
 
 Ensign .Alfred McKethan, of Fayetteville, N. C, who entered 
 
 the Naval Academy on the same day that Ensign Bagley entered, 
 
 and who was always one of his best friends, writes from " U. S. S. 
 
 Solace " at Key West : 
 
 " The sad news of Worth's death was received on the I7th at sea 
 
 from the dispatch boat. Sorry and sad am I On account of the 
 
 brotherly affection that has always existed between us, I feel his loss 
 more than words can express. A friendship and affection from boy- 
 hood when we first started North in 1889, increa.sed and strengthened 
 as each day passed, until at last we were as brothers, and now as I 
 look back upon a friendship never once marred by an unpleasant in- 
 cident or word between us, my heart bleeds with sorrow and sadness 
 to know that he has passed away. He gave his life to his country and 
 died in its defense at his post of duty." 
 
 Paymaster Walter B. Izard, a classmate at Annapolis and a 
 
 member of "the famous eleven " who defeated the West Point 
 
 football team, writing from the " U. S. S. Machias," at Key 
 
 West, says : 
 
68 
 
 " I want to express my deepest sj-mpathy for you at the loss of your 
 noble son. I had known Worth so long and intimately that it seems 
 hard to realize that so true an officer should he taken from us. 
 
 " I was ordered ])y the Department to accompany his body North, 
 but as we have only just returned from Cardenas I did not receive 
 the orders. I would like to have done something for him at the last." 
 
 Ensio;n R. Z.Johnston, of Lincolnton, N. C, a classmate and 
 friend, writing from the " U. S. S. Oregon," says : 
 
 " When I heard the news we were in quarantine at Barbadoes. 
 Some one rowing around the ship was asked the news and replied, 
 ' Winslow sunk, Bagley killed.' It affected me strangely for I was 
 
 terribly mad I liked and admired Worth very much, and you 
 
 know that he loved his mother, which I think is tlie noblest trait in 
 any man. We are all proud of him and very sorry for his mother 
 whom he loved so dearly and who always came first in his thoughts." 
 
 Naval Constructor Homer L. Ferguson, of Waynesville, N. C, 
 
 writing from his station on the Pacific, says : 
 
 " I am glad that the Old North State is to so fitly honor one of the 
 Vjravest, noblest sons she ever had." 
 
 Ensign Hariis Lanning, now of the training-ship Mohican, 
 
 upon learning of the death of Ensign Hagley, upon his arrival 
 
 from Honolulu, said to a reporter of the San Francisco Chronicle : 
 
 " I saw Bagley last only a few months ago. when, after two years 
 cruising, we met at the Naval ,\cademy to take our final e.vaminations 
 and receive our cotnmissions. Baglej- was known among his fellows 
 as a man who knew not what tear was. For his bravery and goo<l 
 fellowship he was especially beloved by us all." 
 
 Charles F. McNeill, Galveston, Te.xas, writes ; 
 
 " Worth and I were classmates at the Naval Academy in 1889-00 and 
 our friendship was never broken until his tragic death. * * * 
 I am deeply grieved — for I have lost a friend." 
 
 Ensign A. H. A. Davis, l . S. Navy, of Louisburg, N. C, tele- 
 graphed from Tortugas : 
 
 *' Plea&e express my sorrow and deepest sympathy. We have lost a 
 noble fellow." 
 
 Ensign Amon Bronson, U. S. Navy, telegraphed : 
 " To the memory of the best fellow I ever knew." 
 
 John William Wilen, cadet U. S. Military Academy, West 
 Point, writes : 
 
 " I knew Worth when he was a' cadet at Annapolis, and it is useless 
 for me to speak of his many noble qualities of which we all know. I 
 hope you may find comfort in knowing that he gave up his life as 
 only a brave man can for his glorious flag." 
 
69 
 
 Lieutenant Lawrence S. Adams, U. S. Navy, who attended the 
 funeral at Raleigh, writes : 
 
 " As a friend of your son's, I want to express my sincere sympathy 
 with you in your great loss, and also to express my personal regret in 
 losing so good a friend." 
 
 Robert Coleman Bagby, Newport News, Va., whites : 
 
 " Your son was my good friend — a fine, noble fellow, possessing 
 all the qualities that constitute an ideal naval officer. For two 
 years I was associated with him' at Annapolis, and it was there that 
 I first knew him and learned to admire him. * * * Every 
 cadet that knew him admired him. I have followed his career with 
 the greatest interest. His death came to me as an awful shock, and 
 his loss is a personal one." 
 
 Mr. Wm. J. Reecke, of St. James, Mo., a former classmate at 
 the Naval Academy, in a St. Louis paper, says ; 
 
 " In all the various duties and activities at the Naval Academy in 
 which manliness and true courage make up the record of a man's 
 efficiency. Worth Bagley was in the foremost rank of the leaders. 
 Personally, his cheerful disposition and earnest endeavor to do his 
 duty earned the good will and respect of every officer and cadet at the 
 Naval Academy." The country has lost one of its brightest officers." 
 
 Prof Samuel Garner, of the Naval Academy faculty, writes : 
 
 " Ensign Bagley was strongly imbued with a sense of duty. When 
 once he had conceived anything as a duty, he immediately sought to 
 put his whole energy into it, firmly resolved to succeed at any cost. 
 This earnestness of purpose Bagley carried into the athletic sports in 
 which he engaged and to it was attributable his wonderful success as 
 
 a ' footballist ' ' In the class room Cadet Bagley was a model young 
 
 man — deferential and respectful to his instructors, in a word, a per- 
 fect gentleman in his demeanor— always in earnest, always attentive 
 to the matter in hand. I do not recall a single instance on his part 
 where he failed to fairly prepare his lesson, how many soever other 
 claims there may have been upon his time. Here, as elsewhere, his 
 earnest nature would not allow him to neglect a palpable duty. In 
 these respects I feel sure that the testimony of his other instructors 
 would follow along the same lines as my own." 
 
 Rev. Robert H. Williams, who was pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church at Annapolis while he was a cadet, writes : 
 
 " Permit me, who had an interest iu your son, Worth, long before 
 this war commenced, to offer a word or two of sympathy. As pastor 
 of the Presbyterian Church, of Annapolis, for nearly ten years, a large 
 number of cadets of the Naval Academy came under my pastoral care, 
 and your son among them. I remember your son with a great deal of 
 interest and pleasure. He was a general favorite and bade fair to be 
 very efficient as an officer, and very useful to the missionary in the 
 foreign countries he might visit." 
 
70 
 
 Among his classmates and friends at the Naval Academy to 
 whom he was deeply attached, was Ensign Merritt, who perished 
 on the Maine. Mr. W. W. Alerritt, of Red Oak, Iowa, father of 
 Ensign Merritt, writes : 
 
 " My heart goes out in sympathy to you in this great sorrow that 
 has come to you. Your noble son and my son were classmates and 
 intimate friends. 1 have often heard him speak of your son in terms 
 of admiration anil affection. ]My son was foully murdered in the 
 harbor of Havana. Your son had occasion to ' remember the Maine ' 
 and douVjtless controlled by an almost uncontrollable impulse he 
 braved danger on that fatal day at Cardenas harbor. May we not 
 hope that they, with that other classmate, Breckinridge, are now to- 
 gether on the other shore beyond war's alarms.'' 
 
 A sister of Lieut. Jenkins, who was lost on the Maine, writes : 
 
 " Although a stranger, I do not feel you will deem these few Hues 
 an intrusion, for none I am sure can feel more profound sympathy for 
 )'Ou in the loss of your dear boy than do the mother and sister of 
 ours. Aside from the common bond of sympathy existing I feel that 
 the life of your noble son was given partly in avenging the death of 
 my brother and I assure you my whole heart goes out to you in your 
 sorrow." 
 
 Dr. Paul J. Dashiell. an instructor at the Naval Academy, 
 writes : 
 
 " I saw a great deal of Bagley, in athletics specially, and his genial 
 ways and sharp plucky play and coolness under trying circumstances 
 
 left a name here that none has eclipsed .All liked him — men and 
 
 women — and personally I was much attached to him His ath- 
 letic achievements which will live very long here rather reached a 
 climax in the very dirticult go.'.l he kicked in '08 against West Point, 
 thus winning the game for the navy." 
 
 Mrs. Robley D. Evans, wife of the Commander of the Iowa, 
 vvrites : 
 
 " We were first drawn to your son by his rare personal beauty and 
 charm of manner six years ago at the Naval Academy, and as he 
 matured and developed his nature and character seemed to deepen 
 and sweeten until he promised a very high and noble future to us who 
 watched him. 
 
 " I saw him last at Key West in the middle of March, about two 
 months ago, and my husband and I were much impressed by the 
 splendid development that had come to hira. He always bore him- 
 self in a princely way, and two months ago there was added to thgt 
 bearing a strength and sweetness and power of expression that gave 
 his fine face an almost seraphic expression. His deep suffering, which 
 we shared, in the loss of his friend, Cabell Breckinridge, I think had 
 elevated, fortified his own spirit. In writing you this I am sure that 
 Captain Evans would agree with all T say for he loved and valued 
 your son, as we all- did and do, and alwaNs shall do while memory 
 lasts. 
 
71 
 
 " When your deep anguish shall have become a part of your life — 
 for that isall we mothers can expect when such a blow falls upon 
 us — you will realize that your boy died as he would have wished, in 
 the flush and stir of battle, with no lingering or time for pain. 
 
 " ' He flashed his soul out with the guns, 
 And took his haven at once.' 
 
 " My only boy, who loved yours, sailed for Havana yesterday after- 
 noon on the Massachusetts, so you can understand that I know how 
 to feel for you with very tender sympathy." 
 
 Mrs. Priscilla Alden Nicholson, whose husband had been his 
 instructor and superior officer, writes : 
 
 " In the sad death of your brave son I feel, as an old friend of his, 
 I must offer my deepest' sympathy. In our life in the navy we are as 
 one, so united, and my heart is all interest for those in such dreadful 
 peril as the present. 
 
 " While at the Academy my late husband instructed your son, and 
 always admired him as a sterling youth, and while on theU. S. S. 
 Montgomery found him a line officer. He was in charge of his bat- 
 tery, and spoke of him always in the highest terms of praise. Last 
 June, when taking his final examinations, he was a great deal at our 
 house, and only last December passed Sunday as my guest. I have 
 always felt I knew him well, and trust you will believe how deeply I 
 mourn with you and yours. Please accept my sincerest sympathy — 
 words fail me. * * * He died bravely— doing his duty 
 faithfully to the end — but it seems a sacrifice of a much-needed life." 
 
 Lieut. Jos. B. Batchelor, Jr., U. S. A., Fort Slocum, New York, 
 
 a native of Raleigh, N. C, writes : 
 
 " His work was well done— all, from first to last, well done ! On 
 the edge of the strife, whose course no eye can foresee, all eyes may 
 see that the sacrifice offered is of our very best. Had he lived, high 
 honor must have come to him, and we his comrades, afloat and 
 ashore, mourn the loss of the deeds he would have done ; but who 
 shall say that the fresh young life so gallantly given to his country, 
 instantly on demand, is'not of more worth than all the long triumph 
 
 of a life time I am serving here with many who knew him well. 
 
 Of him no word is spoken save in praise. All speak of him, and speak 
 such words as any mother would be proud to hear.*" 
 
 The wife of an officer at the Naval Academy, writes : 
 
 " We knew your dear son very well, and both my husband and I 
 were devoted to him. There never has been a cadet more universally 
 loved and admired here, and it must be some comfort to you to know 
 he died doing his duty unflinchingly and leaving an unspotted record 
 behind him." 
 
 Mrs Wm H. G. Ballard, writing for herself and her husband, 
 who was instructor in Physics and Chemistry at the Naval Acad- 
 emy and who is* now on the " U. S. S. Columbia," writes : 
 
 " We were both devoted to Worth Bagley and all of his first class 
 year he was most constantly at our quarters, and if he had been one 
 
of in\- own family I could not have felt his loss more <leeply. A 
 sweeter, gentler and more refined nature I never saw." 
 
 Closing its account of the disaster at Cardenas, the Army and 
 Navy Journal, says : 
 
 " Ensign Bagley was a great favorite in navy circles." 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 inni.lC TRIBUTES 
 
 TN many public gatherings throughout the country the heroism 
 
 of Ensign B«gley was the subject of eloquent orators, who 
 
 found in his death the theme for inculcating patriotism and those 
 
 virtues that make the highest type ol manhood Only a few can 
 
 be given here. Concluding a noble speech, to the Kentucky 
 
 volunteers in camp at Lexington, with a prayer for his own boys 
 
 who were in the ranks, Henry Watterson said : 
 
 " In that prayer let me include each and every one of you, though 1 
 would rather see my hoys, and each and every one of you, lying by 
 the side of that brave and lovely sailor lad wl om North Carolina has 
 just given up as Heaven's first sacrifice upon the altars of the nation 
 and mankind, than that one feather should be pluckeil from the 
 eagle's wing, or a syllable of reproach be justly cast upon the name 
 and lame of our dear Kentucky." 
 
 At the commencement exercises of the University of North 
 Carolina, May 29th, June ist, inclusive, both the preacher and the 
 orator paid eloquent tributes to the memory of Ensign Bagley. 
 It was fitting that the institution in which he had passed the en- 
 trance examinations, before receiving his appointment to Annapo- 
 lis, should feel a special pride in his glory. In the course of the 
 baccalaureate sermon on " Perfect Manhood " from Ephesians 
 4:13, by Rev. Wilbur F. Tillett, D. D., Dean of the Theological 
 Faculty of the \'anderbilt University, he said : 
 
 " The whole American nation is now watering with its tears the 
 new made grave in your Capitol City where Ensign Worth Bagley has 
 been laid to rest. If a Greek historian were to record how that brave 
 boy, with the blood of a noble and honored Carolina ancestry in his 
 veins, went in obedience to superior orders to the place of danger on 
 the ill-fated Winslow, and gave up his pure young life in gallant de- 
 fense of his country's flag as it sought to carry freedom to the down- 
 trodden and oppressed, can we be in doubt for a moment as to which of 
 

73 
 
 these two words the historian would choose in calling him a man 
 
 Brave boy, thou art not dead ; thou hast simply taken thy well earned 
 place alongside the gallant andrhs of never dying Thermopylae and 
 among the noble young heroes of our Anglo Saxon race whose names 
 will find an abiding place in the memorabilia of ideal manhood and 
 the history of the vState that loved you in life and now honors you in 
 death." 
 
 Hon. Hannis Taylor, of Mobile, Ala., Minister to Spain from 
 1893 to 1897, in the course of his address at the University on 
 " Our Widening- Destiny," made the following reference to En- 
 sign Bagley : 
 
 " By some strange fatality the sons of this State seem to be called 
 first when such an oblation is to be made. In that dreadful moment 
 when the North and South were aljout to be torn apart. North Caro 
 Una, a l)order .State, who loved the Union as she loved her life, held 
 out lier pleading hands to her brethren on either sifle in the hope that 
 by kind and tender words she could put away wrath and avert the im- 
 pendin.i; strife. Not until her most slreuuou.s efforts had failed ; not 
 until she had been cruelly maligned and mii-understood did she finally 
 resolve to enter into that i)rolonged and bloody conflict to which she 
 contributed the first victim in the person of Henry W^yatt, who fell at 
 the battle of Bethel, on the soil of Virginia. May it not have been 
 that North Carolina, tlirough her heroic though unavailing efforts to 
 avert the civil war and save the Union, won for herself the post of 
 honor when the time came for the first victim to be offered up upon 
 the altar of the united nation in its first war against a foreign foe ? 
 In a proud, yet stricken spirit, we can all feel that the victim was 
 worthy of the sacrifice. When the brave and pure young life of 
 Worth Bagley went out on the tide at Cardenas we yielded up one 
 worthy of a race of heroic men. Of such a life and such a death, 
 typical as it was of a great national event, there should be some per- 
 manent memorial. We owe it to ourselves to perpetuate in bronze 
 or marble the memory not only of our heroic son, but of the noble 
 mother who gave him to his country. 
 
 " If we can do no more let us fix a tablet upon the walls of the Cap- 
 itol at Raleigh, and carve upon it the fateful words from his last letier 
 in which he" told her : "You have enough of the Spartan in you, if 
 you wish, to say, ' With your shield or upon it,' and that is what you 
 must always say to me." Such words have an eternal meaning com- 
 ing as they did from one who was about to die. Let us hang them 
 up for monuments so that the generations yet to come may know that 
 
 " At the altar of their nation, 
 Stood that mother and her son, 
 He, the victim of oblation; 
 Panting for his immolation; 
 sShe, in priestess' holy station, 
 Weeping words of consecration. 
 While God smiled his approbation, 
 Blessed the boy's self-abnegation, 
 Cheered the mother's desolation, 
 When the sacrifice was done." 
 
74 
 
 In his commencement oration at Davidson College, Hon. 
 Theo. F. Kluttz, of Salisbury, said : 
 
 " Now that the silver bells of Peace have been silenced bj^the dread 
 sounds of War, North Carolina is again giving freeh' of her best and 
 bravest to her country's cause. As at Bethel, she gave in Wvatt, the 
 first martyr to the vain but glorious struggle for Southern indepen- 
 dence ; so now, at Cardenas, she gives the first martyr in this war for 
 Humanity; nor could she have offered a more costly oblation than 
 the brave young life of gallant Worth Baglev. 
 
 " I knew him well : a gallant, manly fellow, the pride and idol of a 
 widowed mother's heart: capable, brilliant, enthusiastic, ambitious, 
 loving and loved — with everytliing in life to live for, he yet laid down 
 his life bravely, willing!}-, for his country's honor, and in tlie great 
 cause of humanity. 
 
 " His name can never die. 
 
 " Let it live in story and in song, in marble and in Ijronzc, as long 
 as patriotism has a votary, or heroism a shrine." 
 
 Hon. Hugh G. Miller, of Norfolk, \'a., who deli\ered the com- 
 mencement oration at Elon College, thus alluded to Ensign Bag- 
 ley's death : 
 
 " And this evening I bow my head with a feeling of reverence 
 almost akin to consecration as I stand upon the sacred soil that gave 
 Ensign Worth Bagley to this I'nion, the first American to give up his 
 life for his country in the Spanish-American war. And when at last 
 over the ruins of Morro Castle the ' Lone Star of the Pearl of the 
 Antilles" shall float and glitter side by side with our stars and stripes, 
 the world will rememl>er that it was the life blood of a Carolinian that 
 first consecrated the divine cause of Cuban Liberty." 
 
 Rev. Joseph F. Berry, Fraternal delegate to the General Con- 
 ference of the M. E. Church, South, at Baltimore, May iSth, in 
 his address, said : 
 
 " A nation's tears have fallen upon the bier of Ensign Bagley, and 
 a nation has remembered that the first American soldier to fall at his 
 post, the stars and stripes waving about him, was a youthful son of 
 North Carolina." 
 
 At the meeting of the North Carolina Colonial Dames, held in 
 Wilmington, May 25th, resolutions were passed, and in an ad- 
 dress, the President, Mrs. Geo. W. Kidder, made this reference 
 to Ensign Bagley : 
 
 " If the deeds of valor of a dead and gone generation appeal 
 to us, how much more are we thrilled bj' the daring and courage of 
 the men of our own day, with whom we are in touch either by word, 
 thought, or kindred ties. Foremost among them is North Carolina's 
 brave young Ensign — foremost because he was the first martyr, and 
 as sucii will go down conspicuously into history. 
 
 " He ventured love and life and youth 
 For the great prize of death in battle." 
 
75 
 
 " One touch of nature makes the whole worldakin," and the law of 
 universal motherhood makes us — a body of patriotic women — claim 
 this young hero as our own and calls forth a tender and hearty re- 
 sponse to the appeal for a monument to his meraor}- " 
 
 The following resolution, suggested by General W. P. Roberts, 
 and introduced b)^ Professor E. E. Britton, was adopted by a rising 
 vote of the Democratic State Convention, held in Raleigh May 
 26th : 
 
 "Resolved, That as Carolinians, proud at all times of the honors, 
 the achievements and patriotic sacrifices of the sons of our beloved 
 State, we proclaim our admiration of the heroic conduct of Ensign 
 Worth Baglev, of the United vStates Navy, which caused a sacrifice of 
 his vou'ig and promising life in his country's cause, and we extend to 
 his noble^mother our svmpathy in the anguish she has been called 
 upon to suffer in the death of her noble and heroic boy— now the 
 nation 's son." 
 
 The platform, Ohio Republican State Convention, in session 
 
 at Columbus, June 22d, contained these words: 
 
 " To the friends and relatives of Ensign Bagley, whose noble young 
 life was the first forfeit of the war, we send condolence." 
 
 The Indiana State Democratic Convention in its platform, 
 ' rejoices in the heroic deeds of Dewey, Bagley and Hobson." 
 
 In a debate in the House of Representatives on the first of 
 June, Hon. R. Z. Linney, of the Eighth North Carohna District, 
 said : 
 
 " The vState of North Carolina always does its full duty, in time of 
 war or in time of peace. She not only furnishes troops, but she fur- 
 nishes the best troops in the world. The first soldier who gave up his 
 life in the late war between the States was a North Carolinian. The 
 first who shed his blood in the war with Spain was a North Carolinian. 
 And such was also the case in the war of the Revolution. Let me call 
 attention to the sacrifice that State has recently made. 
 
 "Worth Bagley stood amid the fire-flames of war at a period that 
 tried men's souls ; and amid the volleys of shot and canister from the 
 strongholds of the enemy he had the cool, philosophic courage to 
 utter expressions that none but the noblest heroes of the w^orld could 
 have uttered : 'Throw me a rope ! Heave the ship, boys ! It is too 
 warm for comfort here ! ' One moment afterwards off went the head 
 of one of the grandest patriots and noblest soldiers of the United 
 States [\pplause.] 
 
 " The services of the citizen soldiery of North Carolina will place 
 her standing as a State up to high-water mark. The example of 
 Worth Bagley is the standard my State has set for courage and devo- 
 tion to principle. We simply invite other States to come up to that 
 standard. 1 have no doubt all the soldiers of all the States of the 
 Union, from Mississippi to the State of my friend from Washington, 
 will do all they can to come up to the high standard of Worth 
 Bagley." 
 
76 
 
 Mrs. Flora Adams Darling, A. M.. President of the Daughters 
 of the Revolution, in a letter to Mrs. Spier Whitaker, Regent for 
 North Carolina, conveyed in loving words the sympathy of the 
 patriotic societies. 
 
 Mrs. Alice McL. Birney sent the sympathy of the National 
 Congress of Mothers. 
 
 At the hour of the funeral service in Raleigh, May i6th busi- 
 ness was suspended in the town of Plymouth, N. C, and 
 services were held in the courthouse and bells were toiled- 
 Mayor Blount presided, and addresses were made by Re\'. 
 E. P. Green. Rev. D. \V Davis, Rev. G. L. Finch and Mr. H 
 S. Ward. ' The Roanoke Riflemen, Company E, attended 
 m a body, with crape bands around their arms; the drums were 
 wrapped in mourning, and the muftled beat of the dead march 
 added solemnity to the occasion," says the Roanoke Beacon. 
 
 Rev. A. W. Cheatham, rector of Trinity Church, Nashville, 
 Tenn., held memorial services in his church on the 15th of May, 
 and delivered an appreciative eulogy. 
 
 Ot the organizations sending resolutions of sympathy to the 
 family in addition to those already referred to, were the 
 Cape Fear Lodge No. 2 I. O. O. F., and Wilmington 
 Lodge No. 139, L O. O. F., of Wilmington ; the New Jersey 
 Society of the Daughters of the Revolution ; the Women's 
 National Relief Association ; the General Secretary of the Daugh- 
 ters of the Revolution : the Woman's National Cuban League ; 
 the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 
 and the North Carolina Society at Washington. D. C. 
 
 The Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarkesville, Tenn., 
 placed its fiag at half-mast, and Chancellor Summey wrote that 
 Worth Bagley's name was inscribed upon it. Many other like 
 tributes were paid in memory by schools, colleges and commu- 
 ties. 
 
 On the day of the funeral in Raleigh by oider of the Governor 
 of Virginia the flags on the capitol at Richmond were placed at 
 half mast. 
 
 The first resolutions passed by any military organization were 
 passed by Company M, " The Queen City Guards " (Capt. H, S. 
 Chadwick) in camp l>ryan Grimes at Raleigh, on May 13th, 
 Every member of that company contributed to the erection of a 
 m;onument. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TRIBUTES FROM PUBLIC MEN. 
 
 t k ^RESIDENT Mckinley deeply deplored the death of the gal- 
 
 p lant fellow. Both President McKinley and Secretary Long, in 
 
 the expressions of their sorrow at the tragedy, and admiration 
 
 for the conductof the U inslow's crew, made it clear that the Winslow 
 
 had acted under orders when she entered Cardenas harbor." 
 
 The New York Journal of May 14th contained the above tele- 
 gram from Washington. 
 
 The papers have been full of tributes from eminent public men, 
 and many of them have written words of sympathy to the mother 
 of the bra\e boy who sleeps in his deathless grave at Oakwood. 
 Room is made here only for a few of the personal letters and 
 telegrams received by Mrs. Bagley from public men of other 
 States than North Carolina. 
 
 Hon. John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, wrote : 
 
 '• Washington, D. C, May 17, 1898. 
 " My Dear Mrs. Bagley : 
 
 " I am in receipt to day of a letter from Rev. T. N. Haskell (copy of 
 which is herein enclosed), requesting that I forward to you the at- 
 tached verses on the death of your son. 
 
 " In forwarding you this, may I not be permitted also to offer you 
 my heartfelt sympathy at your irreparable loss. Mr. Haskell's quo- 
 tation of the letter from President Lincoln seems to me especiall}- 
 appropriate. You, too, have the thanks of the Republic, and a solemn 
 pride in having ' laid so costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom.' 
 
 " You also have the assurance that the whole navy mourns with 
 you in the loss of your son, who died at his post, in the performance 
 of a daring dutj' — one of the bravest of the brave. 
 " With great respect, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "John D. Long." 
 
 " 1651 Emerson Avenue, } 
 " Denver, Col , May 12, 1898. f 
 
 " Dear Mr. Secretary Long : 
 
 " The news of Ensign Bagley's tragic death, with a sketch of his 
 beautiful character and life, and brave deeds, in the midst of which 
 the bursting shell nearly beheaded him and killed four of the brave 
 fellows by his side, hasjust come to my desk, and I could not refrain 
 from impromptuing the enclosed poem for his deeply afflicted mother, 
 whose address I cannot learn. On the back of the slip I have copied 
 President Lincoln's pathetic letter to Widow Bixby, of Boston. I wish, 
 
78 
 
 even in the midst of your mighty deeds and duties now, you would 
 see that the message is sent to that Jochebed, ' Glorious Mother,' as 
 soon as may be. \Vorth Bagley's moiher deserves well of all. 
 
 " T. N. Haskell." 
 
 LINCOLN'S LETTER OF CONDOLENCE TO A BEREFT WIDOW IN 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 November 21st, 1864. 
 My Dear Madam : 
 
 I have been shown in the files of the War Department, a statement 
 of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of 
 five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how 
 weak and fruitless must be any word of mine, which should attempt 
 to beguile 30U from the grief of a loss so overwhelming, but I cannot 
 refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in 
 the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our 
 Heavenly Fatlier may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
 leave you only the clierished memory of the loved and lost, and the 
 solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice 
 upon the altar of Freedom. 
 
 Yours very respectfully and sincerely, 
 
 Abr.\ham Lincoln, 
 
 ENSIGN BAGLEV AND HKS BOYvS. 
 
 BY T. N. HASKELL. 
 An Impromptu. 
 
 When Israel's " firstlings of the flock " 
 
 (Upon Jehovah's altar laid) 
 Besprinkled blood upon the rock 
 
 On which the offering was made. 
 When Ellsworth fell, a holocaust. 
 
 Anil in the White House " lay in state,'' 
 Mankind conceived how much it cost 
 
 Humanity to liberate. 
 
 When Ensign Baglej' fought and fell. 
 
 As the first offering of this land — 
 The victim of that vicious shell 
 
 Exploding 'mong his valiant band — 
 O, God ! How great the human gift, 
 
 A widow's son, so wise and pure, 
 The Spanish barbarism to lift 
 
 And Cuban liberty secure. 
 
 (And must men fight and must men fall 
 
 And give their lives for greatest good? 
 The few to fall for good of all, 
 
 And broaden out our brotherhood ? 
 This problem, like thy Providence, 
 
 Seems awe-inspiring when'er seen, 
 And it must have long ages hence 
 
 To learn much that its lessons mean.) 
 
79 
 
 O, Widow Bagley ! Could you see 
 
 Your son's proud name — above all praise — 
 Emblazoned — as 'twill surely be — 
 
 Down to his country's latest days. 
 You would thank God for such a son 
 
 And that his death in such a scene, 
 Doth decorate all he hath done 
 
 And show what Martyrdom doth mean. 
 
 " The Boys " that fell at Bagle)''s side, 
 
 Be blazoned, too, in types of blood, 
 Proclaimed henceforth " their country's pride," 
 
 To make all boys both brave and good ! 
 Their memory — and that of the " Maine " — 
 
 Like " resurrection from the dead," 
 Shall give the world their lives again 
 
 Whene'er their names are known or read. 
 
 Hon. W. J. Bryan, Lincoln, Neb.. " Relying for an excuse upon a 
 brief but pleasant acquaintance with your son, I write to tender 3'ou 
 my sympanj'in your great bereavement, and at the same time to bid you 
 rind consolation in the thought that, while it is the lot of all to die, 
 it is the good fortune of but few to meet so honorable a death as that 
 which befell your bo}-. Time, that great healer of wounds, will as- 
 suage your grief, but it will only brighten the glory that crowns the 
 memory of Worth Bagley." 
 
 Hon. Hoke Smith, Atlanta, Ga.: " I spent last week at Key West 
 and was on the Winslow with Ensign Bagley. I was with him several 
 hours. I am deeply grieved and sympathize with you with all my 
 heart." 
 
 Hon. Clark Howell, Atlanta, Ga.: "Permit me to extend 
 deep sympathy in the bereavement of Ensign Bagley's family. The 
 fact that the blood of this brave young Southerner is the first shed 
 on our side builds an everlasting monument to his memory and em- 
 phasizes more than anything else could have done the fact that this 
 is a re-united country." 
 
 Senator Pritchard : " Permit me to tender you my sincere sympathy 
 in this your hour of great bereavement." 
 
 President Geo. T. Winston, University of Texas : " My heart bleeds 
 for you in your awful sorrow. May God strengthen and comfort you ! 
 Only a few months ago I saw him here on the Texas, so happy, so 
 noble and handsome and so admired and beloved by all." 
 
 Senator Butler : " He died fighting under the stars and stripes in 
 the cause of humanity and the advancement of republican institu- 
 tions. His gallant life and heroic death will do honor to his State, 
 and, indeed, to the whole country." 
 
 Booker T. Washington : "I feel it to be the duty of negro citizens 
 as well as white citizens to contribute to erect a monument to the 
 memory of Ensign Worth Bagley." 
 
 O'Brien Moore, Charleston, W. Va.: " I send congratulations. I 
 would rather have a dead Bagley for a relative than a hundred ordi- 
 nary live men." 
 
8o 
 
 Gen. W. R. Cox, Secretary of the U. S. Senate: "Not only 
 individuals, but the nation laments the sacrifice. Your afflic- 
 tion is indeed grevious, but yet there is amidst the dark- 
 ness a silver lining to the cfoud, when we recall that at 
 the command of his country he went promptlv to the front, fell 
 with his face to the country's foe, and parting left behind him a light 
 that illumines his chosen profession." 
 
 Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr., New York : " Please express my heart's 
 deepest sympathy in the great sorrow in the death of the young hero 
 at Cardenas. I am proud of him as a North Carolinian. I am proud 
 of him as a young Southerner. lam proud of him as an American. 
 I thank God that he reserved for the defeated and poverty-stricken 
 vSouthland the pain and glory of the first heroic sacrifice for the new 
 nation that has entered upon the achievement of its divine destiny. 
 
 The young hero's name is a household word in every nook and 
 
 corner of America to-day." 
 
 Henry Jerome Stockard, Fredericksburg, Ya.: "Life at longest is 
 but a breath : whether we live a day or a century it makes no differ- 
 ence — there is no 'long,' no 'short ' life when measured with the in- 
 finite reach of time and eternity : then that spirit which went out in 
 the blinding, petrific shell at Cardenas went out in a veritable 
 blaze of glory. The nation reveres him and will remember him." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SEALED THE UNION WITH HIS BLOOD. 
 
 i ' \ 1 7E ai'e all Worth Bagley's countrymen " was the concluding 
 
 VV sentence of an editorial in the New York Tribune 
 
 referring to the death of the first American officer in the war with 
 
 Spain, the son of an officer in the Confederate Army. The 
 
 Tribune's editorial, reminding one of the utterances of Horace 
 
 Greeley, ended with this paragraph : 
 
 " It is worth while al.so to remember that the South fnriiisiies the first 
 sacrifice of this war. Ensign Bagley was a native of North Carolina. 
 With his blood he has sealed the union in arms of the North and South. 
 A people who once fought against the Stars and Stripes send one of 
 their sons as the first sacrifice for the honor and glory o( that flag. There 
 is no North and no .South after tiiat. We are all Worth Bagley's coun- 
 trymen." 
 
 In the same s})irit writes the Springfield Republican, voicing 
 
 the breadth of patriotism breathed into it by Sam Bowles: 
 
 "The loss of life in the Cardenas engagement was our first sacrifice 
 of the sort in this war. Let us not forget that the first American oft:cer 
 to die for his country was from the South. In view of the great and trag- 
 ic past, this fact possesses an interest that touches the hearts of all Amer- 
 icans. In the red blood of the young Carolinian, the North and South 
 have sealed their perpetual reconciliation." 
 
FUNERAL SCENES AT RALEIGH. 
 
 LYING IN STATE AT STATE CAPITOL, VIEW FROM THE HEAD. 
 
 HONOR GUARD AT THE BACLEY HOME. 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES AND CORTEGE AT CAPITAL SQUARE. 
 
 FLOWER DECKED GRAVE. WITH GRANDFATHER'S CRAVE TO LEFT, FATHER'S TO THE RIGHT. 
 
 CAPITOL SQUARE DURING FUNERAL SERVICES. 
 
From all sources have come similar expressions. The G. A. R. 
 Posts and the Confederate Veteran Camps have sent resolutions 
 and wreaths of flowers to place upon the grave. The most his- 
 toric of the actions taken by any organization outside of North 
 Carolina was by the George G. Meade Post No. i of Philadelphia, 
 the oldest Grand Army organization in America. The Philadel- 
 phia Press thus tells of the method employed by the Meade post 
 to do honor to Ensign Bagley : 
 
 "The handsome floral design which members of George G. Meade Post 
 No. I, Grand Army of the RepubHc. will lay on the new-made grave of 
 Ensign Worth Baglev, ihe hereof Cardenas, was completed y-sterday. 
 To-morrow it will be sent to the Mayor of Raleigh, N. C., with the 
 Post's expressions of sympathy and eulogies of the gallant conduct of 
 the brave Southern boy who ?ave his life for the flag of a reunited nation. 
 
 "This pretty tribute by which gray Northern veterans will memorialize 
 the bravery of a young Southern oflicer is touchmgly symbi lical of the 
 sentiment that promi:)ts its sending. It speaks tenderly of the past and 
 hopefully of the future. On a large snow-white wreath of immortelles, 
 significant of the undying fame of the Southern hero whose name it 
 commemorates, lies a grim and heavy sword, crossed on its worn scab- 
 bard, and tied below' to the wreath by broad strands of the national 
 colors. 
 
 " The sword is a time and war worn weapon, knicked and blunt-pouit 
 ed, rust-eaten and stained with blood that flowed a third of a century 
 ago, frayed on its wire-bound hilt— mute testimony of deeds of valor in 
 the thick of terrilic slaughter The symbolism is touching in its import. 
 F'or this blood-cut sword is a relic of one of the fierce and deciding bat- 
 tles of the war between North and South. In hand-to-hand combat it 
 was wrested from one of the bovs in gray by one of the boys in blue, on 
 the death-strewn field of Gettysburg. Long prized as a trophy won m 
 chivalric combat, it is now the gift of a member of the first Grand Army 
 Post of the country, the Post that beirs the name of Meade, the hero of 
 Gettysburg, as a tribute to the bravery of the South. 
 
 "Raised to strike at the nation, captured and shorn of power by a 
 defender of the nation, at length returned in forgiveness to the Common- 
 wealth that was foremost in the civil strife, it tells the whole story of a 
 divided country reunited and devoted to a common flag. 
 
 " Further significant of the sentiment that prompts the sendmg of this 
 
 tribute is the word "United" in purple immortelles, wrought prettily on 
 
 the background of white, between the points of the sword and scabbard. 
 
 On the ribbons of national colors that hold the sword and scabbard to 
 
 the wreath loom, in gilt lettering the inscriptions :— 
 
 •• Ensign Worth Bagley, U. S. N. 
 
 "George G"^. Meade Post. No. i, G. A. R,, 
 
 Philadelphia." 
 
 "Veterans of Meade Post speak proudly of the act of chivalry toward 
 the men of the Southland. Colonel William Haikness. Jr., who is a 
 member of the Memorial Committee that sends the tribute, said : "We 
 send this wreath to the people of the South as an outward expression of 
 what all Northern soldiers feel toward their old foes of Dixie. We all 
 harbor the kindliest feeling toward Southern soldiers. We want to for- 
 give and foro-et. We want to wipe out all that bitter feeling ot the past 
 
82 
 
 and we are glad to have this opportunity to show our sympathy in the 
 loss of a son oi the South and our admiration for a So'utliern officer's 
 valor. 
 
 " We have long since come to believe that the boys in gray were sin- 
 cere in their belief in the righteoi?sness of their cause, and' we respect 
 them for their heroic devotion to principle. They were brave men and 
 good fighters." 
 
 Accompanying this historic tribute was a tender letter of sym- 
 pathy to the mother. Placed on the grave by Federal and Con- 
 federate soldiers, this wreath and sword will find a permanent 
 place in the State Library at Raleigh, N. C, typifying the oblite- 
 ration of sectionalism and proving that the long cherished hopes 
 for a reunited country have been realized. 
 
 On May 30th. a beautiful wreath of red roses and i\'y, with 
 streamer? of the national colors sent by the loyal legion of Wo- 
 men of Washington, D. C. was placed on the grave along with 
 the tribute from Meade Post. 
 
 About the same time, the New York Chapter of the United 
 
 Daughters of the Confederacy held a meeting and passed resolu 
 
 tions of sympathy. In forwarding the resolutions, Mrs. M. L. 
 
 Brodna.x, Corresponding Secretary, wrote to Mrs. Bagley: 
 
 " While every member feels tenderest emotions of pit> for the mother, 
 they rejoice with you in tlie glory and honor which will fl>rever rest upon 
 the memory of your son whose noble life was sacrificed for his country... 
 At the memorial services the most beautiful tribute was paid to your gal- 
 lant boy by the orator of the day. Allusion was made to the graves in 
 our dear Southland, where the father and son lay side by side, heroes of 
 the two wars, one in the blue the other in the gray, and the fact that the 
 first blood that was poured out as a sacrifice was that of a Southerner, 
 was recalled with great pride by the speaker." 
 
 In his jMemorial day address in Philadelphia, Commander John 
 W. Frazier, of the Col. Fred Taylor Post, in the course of a pa- 
 triotic address on the sublime spectacle of hearing " the Union 
 cheer and the Rebel yell mingling in melody," said : 
 
 •' Can we do better upon this Memorial Day than to highly resolve that 
 this re-united country of ours baptized with the blood of the martyred 
 heroes of the Maine, cemented by the death of North Carolina's Bagfey— 
 the Ellsworth of the conflict— shall, under Divine guidance, have a new 
 birth of Fraternity. Charity and Loyalty that the sectional animosities 
 that have beset us for a generation shall be obliterated forever ; that ail 
 enmity and prejudice between the North and the South shall be forever 
 buried, and now that an indestructible Union binds us together in purpose 
 and patriotism to make tlie fellowship cordial and sincere, as tender and 
 lasting as a mother's love, respecting each other's sufferings and sorrows 
 with American manhood and sympathy? It is our duty as past soldiers 
 of the Republic, as American citizens, to help bring about these things.'" 
 
83 
 
 When this Federal soldier was thus speaking of the reunited 
 nation, the R. F. Webb Confederate Camp No. 8i8, of Durhani. 
 N. C. (Col. Julian S. Carr, Commander, and Capt. N. A. Ramsey- 
 Adjutant) in a series of resolutions said: 
 
 "The first blood that has been offered on the altar of humanity and in 
 the cause of Cuba's freedom is full worth the sacrifice. The spirit of 
 Worth Bagley has gone to join that of Henry Wyatt. Brave spirits both, 
 with whom the post of danger was ever the post of honor, and whose 
 bravery and gallantry have made richer the history of our common coun- 
 try." 
 
 Among many letters from Federal soldiers the following is 
 given as showing the spirit of the men who followed Grant in the 
 War Between the States : 
 
 Auburn, N. Y., May 25th, 1S98. 
 De.\r Madam •.— 
 
 Although a graduate of the prison pens of Petersburg and Libby, Va., 
 and of Salisbury. N. C, and though my two visits to your beautiful city, 
 as a prisoner ofWar, were made under painful conditions and circum- 
 stances, still, so great a healer is time, and so strong is love for one's 
 country and its citizens, that I find myself among the thousands of others 
 in our reunited land, droi)ping a tear over the sad fate of your noble boy 
 who so recently gave up his life as a sacrifice in the cause of America 
 and humanity. . ,, 
 
 While it is true that "one touch of nature makes the whole world km' 
 I believe it to be equally true that only those who have suffered greatly 
 for country's sake can best svmpath'ze with one another. It is with that 
 feeling that I as a Union soldier of the late war, send to you as a widow 
 of a Confederate soldier, my heart-felt sympathy as you sit by the new 
 made grave of him who belonged to and died for neither the North nor 
 the South, but the uhole country united under one flag, and now more 
 closely bound together in a bond of perfect union by the sacrifice of this 
 young patriot's blood. 
 
 ■ ' Respectfully, 
 
 Robert L Drummond. 
 
 Rev. James; L. Tryon. rector of All Saints church, of Atdeboro, 
 Mass., on Sunday May 29th, preached a sermon before the Wm. 
 A. Streeter Post, G. A. R., at a memorial service to the victims of the 
 Maine, Private Wesley Brass, and Ensign Worth Bagley. At the 
 request of Mr. Tryon, Mrs. Bagley sent flowers and a picture of 
 her son. This extract is taken from the sermon : 
 
 " Worth Baglev was a young man characteristic of his time. Public- 
 spirited, ambitious in the best sense, in mind thoroughly and conscien- 
 tiously trained. An athlete of athletes, built like a Greek ; a warrior ot 
 warriors, brave as a Spartan. The flower of the South ; tender as gal- 
 lant, in love of mother none surpassing, he was a gentleman like General 
 Lee. He died as the Southern boy would pray to die ; his last command 
 the grace of knighthood, his arm around the one true flag." 
 
84 
 
 In his memorial address at Arlington, Senator Thurston said : 
 
 " If I read God's history aright, civilization and Christianity have not 
 come from the survival of the fittest, but by the sacrifice of the best. What 
 puny human intellii^ence dares to assert that the blood of Lexington was 
 not sacred, even as tlie blood of Calvary ? Warren at Bunker Hill. Baker 
 at Ball's Blutf, Baglev at Cardknas, all gloriously died to hasten the 
 coming of God's kingdom on earth." 
 
 At Fredericksburg, Va., the Ladies Memorial Association 
 placed a beautiful floral anchor beneath the shield of North Car- 
 olina on the Confederate monument, and attached to it was a card 
 on which was written: 'A memorial of the Courage and Faith- 
 fulness of Ensign Worth Bagley, another Laurel in North Car- 
 olina's Crown of Heroes. We place this tribute beneath her 
 shield on our Confederate momnnent May 19th, 1898." 
 
 At Portsmouth, Va. , on Contederate Memorial day, the most 
 touching incident was the unfurling on the soldiers' and sailors' 
 lot in the cemetery of a silken flag, inscribed to the memory of 
 Ensign Worth Bagley, U. S. N., the first victim of the Spanish- 
 American war. The walnut flagstaff was wound about with garlands. 
 At the top was a chaplet of green and white, w'hile around the 
 base were grouped a profusion of floral designs and rare blossoms. 
 
 " We send this tribute of flowers in the name of Fraternity, 
 Charity and Loyalty" were the closing words in a letter from the 
 John Brady Woman's Relief Corps, auxiliary of the G. A. R. 
 of Erie County Penn., in sending flowers that were placed on the 
 grave by the side of the flowers sent by Confederate associations 
 of Southern women — thus commingling the floral offerings of the 
 noljle women of the two sections who keep green the deeds of 
 valor of the men who composed the armies of Lee and Grant. 
 
 From a mass of like clippings from editorial utterances of lead- 
 ing papers in every state in the Union, the following fairly repre- 
 sent the view the papers take of the heroic death of the young 
 officer : 
 
 Hartford (Conn.) Courant : "All of us are proud of Worth Bagley, 
 and his fame belongs to us all . All the states should be represented 
 in the Monument Fund, and those New England States among the earli- 
 est. North Carolina was one of the Old Thirteen, and this is now — God 
 be thanked for it I — -a re united country." 
 
 Washington (D. C.) Times : " It is fitting that the grave of the young 
 Ensign should be marked by a monument erected by the Nonh and 
 South together The South is proud that Ensign Bagley was a North 
 Carolina man ; the North is proud that he was an American ; and both 
 should hasten \.& do him honor in the only way that remains." 
 
85 
 
 Philadelphia Record: "The spirit that blossoms forth in such a tri- 
 bute as that sent to Raleigh, N. C, to be laid on the grave of Ensign 
 Bagley, honors the Grand Army even as it honors the immortal dead ; 
 and its manifestation at this time is a proof that the lesson of decoration 
 day is being all the more deeply impressed upon thoughtful natures by 
 the events of the present war." 
 
 Columbus (O.) Journal : "The South did not stand alone at the bier of 
 the dead Ensign who gave his life for his country. In the North the 
 warmest sympathy was felt for the hero and his bereaved friends, la- 
 menting his death, were nevertheless happy that he was called to the last 
 muster under the flag that his father fought against in the late war. The 
 sad event marked the complete reconciliation of the two sections." 
 
 New York Journal : " Ensign Bagley was a North Carolinian, son of a 
 Confederate, and a Democrat. Admiral Dewey is a Vermonter, of poli- 
 tics wiiich may be guessed at from the fact that he was simultaneously 
 made an honorary member of the Union League and Democratic clubs. 
 Lieutenant Hobson is an Alabamian and a Democrat. Surely this war 
 obliterated sectionalism and partisanship in setting up the one standard 
 of valor." 
 
 New York Times : " Ensign Bagley will be mourned as the first Amer- 
 ican victim of the war, but for that very reason he is sure of lasting remem- 
 brance. There is no American who does not remember the first victim 
 of the civil war on tiie side of the Union. Bagley will be remembered 
 as long as Ellsworth is remembered, but with the differene that 
 whereas Ellsworth threw away his life in doing what he should have 
 ordered to be done by others, B.xgley laid down his in the strict line of 
 his duty." 
 
 Denver (Col.) Times : " Deeplv significant of the thorough restora- 
 tion of our union is the fact that the first man to fall in the war with 
 Spain is a Southerner. Ensii^n Bagley was from North Carolina, and 
 was the son of a Confederate Major. He was born smce the civil war, 
 was a brilliant naval cadet, a gallant officer, and died smiling at danger, 
 a worthv scion of the heroic pecjple from whom he sprang. 
 
 " A more glorious death for a young officer could not be imagined. His 
 blood was the final cement of a're-united nation, and will be an immor- 
 tal landmark in historv. As the first shot at Sumter rent the nation 
 asunder, the long healing process was forever completed the moment he 
 fell. ■ ,.,.., 
 
 "Ellsworth, first heroic young officer to give up his life in the civil 
 war, was the idol of the North. "His name is remembered where gener- 
 als and admirals and statesmen of the period are forgotten. But Bagley 
 is the idol of the \AhoIe nation. Long after the pyramids of Egypt shall 
 have sunk to the level of the Nile, his name will live in the memory of 
 Americans."' 
 
 Atlanta Constitution : " There is more than ordinary significance in the 
 fact that the first drop oi American blood shed in the present war with 
 Spain should have come from the veins of one of North Carolina's gal- 
 lant sons ; and if the anguish of private grief for one so gifted with the 
 hero's spirit admits of any consolation, surely it is found in the gratifying 
 fact that the blood of this young martyr freely spilled upon his country s 
 altar, seals effectually the covenant of brotherhood between the North 
 and the South and completes the work of reconciliation which com- 
 menced at Appomattox. . , . 
 
 " While deploring with unaffected sorrow the tragic death ot Ensign 
 Bagley, North Carolina must feel some measure of patriotic pride in be- 
 
86 
 
 ing the first State in the entire Union to suffer bereavement for the stars 
 and stripes. But the vvlioie South shares with North Carolina in the 
 tearful honors of this initial sacrifice. Ensign Hagley illustrated in his 
 ardent temperament the fire and spirit of the ideal Di.xie youth. His 
 father was one of the bravest soldiers who ever donned the Confederate 
 uniform, and for generations back his ancestors were natives of the soil. 
 " More than any oilier infiuence which has operated to restore fraterni- 
 ty between the sections since the late war is the martyrdom of North Caro- 
 lina's brave young oftirer. Eloquent speeches have softened the heart of 
 the nation, but they have failed to appro.ximate in welding and solidfying 
 power the blood of Ensign Bagley." 
 
 Cincinnati Christian Advocate : "Twenty-seven years before. 24th, 
 May, ]86r, Elmer E. Ellsworth, colonel of the Fire Zouaves, of New 
 York City, died in Ale.xandria, Virginia. In filial words to parents he 
 had written: "Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that E 
 was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty.'" Ordered to Alex- 
 andria, his duty became the removal of the rel)el flag that, from a win- 
 dow in the White House, Abraham Lincoln had seen floating defiance 
 from the roof of the Marshall House. Fearles3 of death, Ellsworth cut 
 the stars and bars from their staff— and died a martyr for the Union, the 
 first soldier oflicer killed by secession arms. 
 
 " In no unworliiy urns lie the dust of these voung men. Horn far apart 
 one the son of the North, the other son of the South, they died beneath 
 the same flag, and for the sacretl cause of liberty. Had Bagley lived in 
 '61, he might have fought beneath the eleven stars— but history had made 
 him son of the Union, and he died, as Ellsworth died, for stars and stripes 
 and the Fatherland. 
 
 " Beneath the Cuban sun he stood, his face full front toward the foreign 
 foe ; then fell for Cuba's freedom and philanthropy. When all the story 
 of the struggle has been told— this also shall be told, that first to die in 
 warforthe Republic of Cuba, was Worth Bagley, ensign on the Winslow."' 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TWO MONUMENTS. 
 
 TWO enduring monuments will lell the high esteem in which 
 Ensign Bagley was held by the people and the permanent 
 place that will be accorded him in history. On May 13th. the 
 Raleigh News & Observer, in its local columns, said; 
 
 " Almost immediately upon the reception of the news of the battle 
 here. Captain N. \V. W'est, proposed a manument to the first martyr 
 of the war for Cuban freedom, and indicated a willingness to start 
 the subscription list with ^loo. 
 
 " Upon consideration, though, it was deemed best to build such a 
 monument by popular subscriptions of from r cent to $1 each. This 
 suggestion was endorsed by the other members of the committee. 
 Mayor Russ, Mr. W. S. Primrose, Mr. R. T, Gray, Mr. F. A. Olds, 
 who represented the city in hon<')ring the dead hero. To this end they 
 asked the press of the city to publish, from day to day, the list of sub-- 
 scribers, and to request patriotic citizens in this and other .States t-O' 
 ^onLribwte to th*; fund." 
 
87 
 
 On the same day the Raleigh Morning Post said : 
 
 " The universal sorrow at the death of Ensign Worth Bagley, the 
 first officer in the American navy to fall in the war with Spain, finds 
 expression in a spontaneous movement to contribute a fund for the 
 erection of a monument to commemorate his gallant life and heroic 
 death. To Mr. N. W. West, who followed the fortunes of the stars 
 and bars during the war between the States, is due the credit of 
 suggesting to the Morning Post that it undertake to raise a monument 
 fund, and accordingly his name heads the list of subscribers. But 
 the response of the public was so prompt that half a hundred citizens 
 within half an hour, voluntarily came to the office and had their 
 names enrolled. 
 
 " The monument fund will be raised by a plan that is truly a pop- 
 ular subscription. No subscriber will be permitted to contribute more 
 than a dollar to the fund, while subscriptions for one cent, or for any sum 
 more than one cent and not more than one dollar will be received. 
 Subscriptions are solicited from patriotic citizens wherever the Amer- 
 ican Hag floats, who love their country and honor bravery. To tiiis 
 fund all can contribute, for the widow's mite or the child's penny 
 will be acceptable as any man's dollar. 
 
 " The fund will be placed in the custody of the treasurer of the 
 Post, and when a sufficient sum shall have been received, proper 
 committees will make arrangements for the erection of a monument." 
 
 This fund which the Post thus inaugurated has grown so rapid- 
 ly as to make it a bronze or marble statue, or monument erected 
 in the city of Raleigh by contributions from all parts of the Union, 
 will recall the story of the valor of Worth Bagley to all visitors 
 to his native city, and be a daily inspiration to the youth of his 
 native state. 
 
 A monument of another character, one peculiarly fitting, will 
 connect his name forever in history with Gushing, Ericcson, 
 Winslow [also a native of North Carolina] and other heroes of 
 the American Navy. On the 20th of June, 1S98, the Secretary of 
 the Navy announced in the public press that the first of the new 
 torpedo boats to go into commission would bear the name of the 
 brave young Ensign Bagley, the first American officer to lose his 
 life in this war. Hon. Richmond Pearson member of the House 
 of Representatives of the ninth North Carolina district, conveyed 
 the information of this honor in the following telegram from 
 Washington, D. C, to a relative of the dead Ensign : 
 
 "The Secretary of the Navy has just told me he would name the 
 new torpedo boat 'Worth Bagley.' When I described the sponta- 
 neous outpouring at Bagley's funeral, the Secretary said : 'It was 
 well deserved.' " 
 
 The press and the public received this action with approval. 
 The following editorial from the Syracuse, N. Y. Post voiced this 
 sentiment that found expression everywhere : 
 
88 
 
 " It was a deserved act of grateful recognition for the (iovernnient 
 to give the name of Bagley to the first of the new torpedo boats to be 
 constructed. This brave young officer, the first commissioned othcer 
 in the Navy to fall in the war, met death under peculiarly heroic cir- 
 cumstances. He did his duty at a most perilous post, exhibiting a 
 bravery and heroism worthy of a veteran officer. The honor due to 
 his memory will be an inspiration to other young officers that emulate 
 his virtues." 
 
 TWO MOTHKRS. 
 
 [Written liy Mr. W- C Erviii on the Dealli of Eiibisn Woilli Biif^U-y.] 
 
 Two mothers stand by a hero's grave 
 
 In a Southern city fair. 
 And one sheds tears for the fallen brave, 
 
 And cries in her dark despair ; 
 But one makes never a cry nor moan, 
 
 And stands in her pride elate ; 
 For one is the mother of tlesh and bone. 
 
 And one is the mother State. 
 
 O, mother, you of the burning tears 
 
 And you of the dark despair. 
 The hope and pride of your love-lit years 
 
 Are shrouded and buried there : 
 For fame is naught when the loved are dead. 
 
 And a nation's praise is vain 
 When tlie parting words at the grave are said. 
 
 And the soul is seared with pain. 
 
 And, mother, \ou in your pride elate, 
 
 Vou joy that another name 
 Is blazoned now on the lofty gate 
 
 In the temple of your fame ; 
 " Behold ! '" you cry, "'on wave or strand. 
 
 How my children die for me — 
 They fall like Spartans on the land 
 
 And like Vikings on the sea ! '" 
 
 A stately shaft of enduring stone 
 
 One mother will rear in pride. 
 And with sculptor's chisel for aye make known 
 
 How a Carolinian died ! 
 And one will plant the cypress tree 
 
 To sigh for the deadly strife, 
 And a rose, as white as the snow can be. 
 
 To tell of a spotless life. 
 
 One mother brings, as a last farewell, 
 
 To our hero's grave to-day, 
 The amaranth and the asphodel, 
 
 And one a garland of bay ; 
 And one stands there in her grief alone, 
 
 And one in her pride elate — 
 For one is the mother of flesh and bone. 
 
 And one is the mother State.