<p style="text-align:center"><strong>WILLIAM EWEN SHIPP</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>No. 2982 · Class of 1883</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Died July 1, 1898, at Santiago, Cuba, aged 37 years.</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Interred at churchyard at Lincolnton, N.C.</strong></p><p>William Ewen Shipp was born at Asheville, N.C., August 23rd, 1861, the son of the late Hon. William M. Shipp, Judge of the Superior Court, and his wife, Kate Cameron Shipp, daughter of Judge John A. Cameron. When he was little more than a year old, his father moved here and for years made Lincolnton his home. By a brilliant examination he won the appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, over about forty other contestants, in 1879, and entered that institution the same year, graduating eleventh in a very large class in 1883.</p><p>At West Point Lieutenant Shipp was very popular, as he was afterward in the army. His classmate, chum and most intimate friend was Lieutenant W. H. Smith, who was also an officer in the Tenth Cavalry. Their affection was such as is seen in devoted brothers. Side by side they fell in that charge at Santiago-a charge that recalls that at Balaklava. Together they had studied, labored and fought, knit in their friendship as with hooks of steel. In death they were not divided.</p><p>He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, and, by his own request, was assigned to the Tenth. He joined his command on the frontier and fought through all the bloody wars with the Indians, until 1889; shortly after his promotion to First Lieutenant, he received an injury to his ankle from which he never fully recovered. As he gradually improved, he was detailed to duty at the Davis Military School and with the North Carolina State Guard.</p><p>While serving on the frontier, Lieutenant Shipp performed a most heroic and glorious feat. The Indians under the ferocious Geronimo had become very bold and were murdering and plundering along the Mexican border. General Crook, having obtained the permission of the Mexican government to pursue the Indians when they should attempt to escape by crossing the border, determined to pursue Geronimo's band to the end. The section of country in which the Indians had taken refuge was a broken one with mountains all around and valleys full of boulders, affording excellent hiding places for the Indians and rendering the movements of troops exceedingly difficult, arduous and hazardous. To pursue the bloodthirsty Indian band into this country and capture and exterminate it, was not only a most hazardous task, but seemingly a hopeless one. Volunteers were called for and among those volunteering, Captain Emmet Crawford, of the Third Cavalry; First Lieutenant Marion P. Maus, (now Lieutenant Colonel on the staff of General Miles,) of the First Infantry, and Second Lieutenant Shipp of the Tenth Cavalry, were selected to command the scouts and troops forming the expedition. After enduring great hardships and after much desperate fighting, the Indians were routed out of their fastnesses and, as usual, took refuge over the line in Mexico. The U.S. troops pursued them and on January 10, 1886, had them hemmed in and suing for peace. Early the next morning our troops were fired upon by Mexican troops, who claimed that they thought they were Indians. Captain Crawford was mortally wounded and several others were less severely wounded while a number were killed. After capturing the wife and children of Geronimo, and several other relatives of that chief, Lieutenant Maus, now in command of the expedition, and Lieutenant Shipp, placed their wounded on litters and turned to make their way out of this hostile country. After travelling 150 miles Captain Crawford died. Then Lieutenant Shipp carried the dead body of his Captain (of whom he wrote, "He was one of the noblest men I ever knew, and I loved him with all my heart,") across his horse in front of him for 50 miles, saving it from mutilation by the Indians.</p><p>Such was Lieutenant Shipp's modesty and self-effacement that although he telegraphed and wrote his mother at the first opportunity, assuring her of his safety and telling of the death of his Captain, not one word or hint did either dispatch or letter contain of his own conspicuous gallantry and heroism.</p><p>On January 27th, 1894, Lieutenant Shipp was married to Miss Margaret Busbee, a daughter of Hon. Fabius H. Busbee, of Raleigh, one of the leading lawyers of the State. Followed by the good wishes of a host of friends this young couple have lived an idyllic short married life. Those who were near enough to know the sweetness of the wedded life, so rudely broken, say that they have never known a husband more chivalric and tender than Lieutenant Shipp. He was all that a generous, loving and chivalrous man could be to the wife who crowned his life with joy and supreme happiness. To them were born two sons-William E. and Fabius-handsome, manly little fellows.</p><p>Lieutenant Shipp was ordered to join his regiment at Assiniboine, Montana, last August and went with it in April to Chickamauga Park and later to Tampa. So anxious was he to remain with his command that when detailed to open a recruiting station at Chickamauga, and later to reorganize a troop at Tampa, he begged off and went to Cuba with the troops; and although he protested, he was appointed Brigade Quartermaster, but volunteered for field service and met his death while doing volunteer duty in the Battle of San Juan on Friday July 1st. The news of his death reached his family here on July 4th.</p><p>The first letter giving any particulars was written by Lieutenant Barnum, Adjutant of Lieutenant Shipp's regiment. Lieutenant Barnum wrote that in passing over the battlefield about noon on July 1st, he found Lieutenant Shipp. He had been shot through the body, the ball probably passing through his heart. He had not seen him that day before he found him dead, but from others he learned that he had been doing splendid service in guiding the troops through the dense undergrowth, a service for which his experience in the Indian wars peculiarly fitted him. That night with a detail of men, Lieutenant Barnum buried him and carefully marked his grave.</p><p>From every part of the country have come to his bereaved widow expressions of sympathy, and the press, especially the papers of North Carolina, have been unanimous in their expression of admiration for his life and character.</p><p>General Nelson A. Miles, Commander of the United States Army, said "I knew him personally. He was every inch a man. There was no officer in the army of his rank who commanded more respect and none more deserving."</p><p>General Leonard Wood wrote:</p><blockquote><p>"Lieutenant Shipp was on my staff the morning of July 1st, and was killed while making a charge with his troop. I had sent him to deliver an order to a regiment of the brigade, ordering it to advance; on his return, it seems he passed his own regiment, the Tenth, which is also a regiment of my brigade, just as it was starting forward to the charge; he joined his troop and was leading it when killed. His death was a great shock to all his friends, of whom I have been one for many years. His conduct during the entire action was distinguished by the greatest gallantry and absolute disregard of danger."</p></blockquote><p>General Joseph Wheeler: "It is a great privilege for a soldier to die as he did."</p><p>Colonel Roosevelt:</p><blockquote><p>"It was Shipp who brought me word to advance with my regiment. I did not see him again. He had been riding to and fro with absolute coolness and fearlessness, paying no more heed to the bullets than if they were hailstones, though men were dropping on every hand."</p></blockquote><p>From Major Webb Hayes the fullest particulars were received: "On the afternoon of June 30th the order came for the cavalry division to advance to El Poso at 4 P. M., and in the absence of General Young, who was then lying delirious from fever, the brigade marched out, the headquarter's officers mounted, Colonel Wood, the acting brigade commander, with Captain Mills. Lieutenant Shipp and I coming next. We bivouaced that night on El Poso hill and early in the morning prepared for the action of the day. General Young's personal aides of course remained with him, but Lieutenant Shipp, although a Brigade Quartermaster, voluntarily joined the column, and with Captain Mills accompanied Colonel Wood, assisting him in every way possible, and exposing himself recklessly to the enemy's fire. When the brigade marched across the San Juan River, Colonel Wood was temporarily called away by the Division Commander, and Captain Mills, as Adjutant General, with Lieutenant Shipp, took charge of the column, of which, it so happened, Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt's regiment was in the lead. Owing to the attempt to raise a baloon from the road in almost the center of our brigade, the entire artillery and infantry fire of the Spaniards was drawn to our brigade, which was then marching through the underbrush in columns of fours, parallel to the Spanish line of fire. The First and Tenth Cavalry protected themselves as best they could along the banks of the river until the balloon collapsed, but Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt's First Volunteer Cavalry, with Captain Mills, Lieutenant Shipp and the rest of the brigade staff, pushed on through the high grass under orders to join on Lawton's division, but halted in a slightly sunken road which offered some protection. While the regiment was lying in this road, Lieutenant Shipp was most busy and efficient in carrying orders to the detached portions of the brigade, until finally Captain Mills received orders from the Division Commander to march back again through the zone of fire and join the remainder of the division in making an assault on San Juan Hill, whose deadly fire could be no longer endured. Then came the grand charge on the San Juan fortifications. It was the grandest scene that I will ever witness and the most exhilirating, and to me enjoyable, as after the hours spent by us under fire without a return shot we could no longer stand it without action. In this charge I became separated from Lieutenant Shipp, I going with the First Volunteer Cavalry, and Lieutenant Shipp apparently with the center of the brigade and near his own regiment, the Tenth Cavalry. I judge of this more particularly from the fact that he fell but a few feet from his life-long friend and classmate, Lieutenant W. H. Smith, who was in command of a troop of the Tenth.</p><p>Lieutenant Shipp was one of the most lovable men that it has ever been my good fortune to meet. He was generous, frank and kind-hearted. In this campaign he literally shared his blanket and divided his last piece of hard bread with his comrades. He was indefatigable in his efforts to get us supplies. On the battlefield he was utterly fearless, and neither by voice or action indicated that there was anything to be feared in the bullets that whirled about him. He was a noble, true-hearted soldier."</p><p>It was fitting that his death should be among his comrades of the Tenth, whom he had loved so in his life. His southern friends could not understand his choice of a negro regiment. To one he wrote:</p><blockquote><p>"The whole matter in a nut shell is this: The government, in its wisdom, has seen fit to organize these regiments. I had a chance to take any regiment when I graduated, white or black. I chose this because I saw material advantages in it. After being in it for years, I find associates, some older and some younger, who are more congenial to me than any other men I knew of and who represent the highest type of manhood. In the army we are greatly dependent on one another, and this class of men means a great deal. They are the noblest lot of men I have ever known. Truthfully, we have by far the best officers in the army. That has been acknowledged by outsiders and men high up in rank, so it is not my individual opinion only. On the other hand, there are manifest disadvantages, the main one being the prejudice against the negroes, which makes it necessary for us to go around all the time with a chip on the shoulder. But we have men whose chips are very dangerous to knock off, and no one ever does it."</p></blockquote><p>In March Lieutenant Smith and Lieutenant Shipp were brought back together on the Transport McClellan. March 17th, all that was mortal of William Shipp was laid by his mother's side in the quiet little churchyard at Lincolnton. From all over the State people came to do him honor; in the presence of three thousand people, the Confederate Veterans and the Lee's Rifles, he was buried with military honors. Taps was sounded over his grave, which lies in the shadow of the church at whose altar he was taught those lessons of faith, endurance and devotion to duty that made his life noble and his death heroic.</p><p>IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED.</p><p>Rarely has a coincidence of so remarkable a nature been recorded as that brought out by the deaths of two young officers of the Tenth Cavalry-Lieutenants W. E. Shipp and W. H. Smith-while charging the enemy at Santiago. In June 1879, two country lads, strangers to each other, met on the ferry boat crossing the Hudson between Garrisons and West Point. They were candidates for cadetships. They formed an acquaintance before they reached the West Point plateau and agreed to room together at the hotel, for they did not report to the Adjutant until the next day. They passed their examinations, tented together during "plebe" camp, and roomed together during the whole four years' course. When these two cadets graduated they succeeded in getting assigned to the same regiment. The corps of cadets used to say: "They'll stick together as long as they live." Smith and Shipp were killed within five minutes of each other by Spanish bullets at Santiago. W. E. Shipp was from the North Carolina town made famous as the scene of Tourgee's "Fools Errand." The cadet resented the criticisms contained in the book, and once said to the writer: "I'll show Tourgee some day that there's true patriotism where I came from." He seems to have kept his word.</p><p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/12285">Annual Report, June 7, 1899, pp. 22�30 · U.S. Military Academy Library</a></p>