Capt. Frank Crenshaw

 
The Courant American
Cartersville, Georgia
August 30, 1900, page 1
 
Transcribed by:  
 

Sad Death of Capt. Crenshaw.
Succumbs from Wound Received in Philippines.
At the Atlanta Sanitarium
Victim of Hard Experience and Inhuman Treatment While on His Way Home.

Among those who saw Capt. Frank Crenshaw here on his last visit to his father, after he had received his appointment as captain, handsome, buoyant, and was ready for the service which carried him into the Philippines, there were none perhaps who dreamed they would hear of his death at so early a time as it occurred, though all who knew him knew he was ready to brave any sort of danger for his country.

The death of this gallant young officer occurred in Atlanta Tuesday morning at 7:30 o’clock and the story of his experiences and death is one of rare heroism and suffering.

After he landed in the Philippines his command went immediately to fighting and was in hot little engagements with the Filipinos constantly up to the time he received his wound which finally proved fatal.  The engagement in which he was shot was particularly hot.  At the first volley from the enemy he and his men lay down, after which it was intended to rise and charge a fortification.  It was while lying down Capt. Crenshaw received his wound.  The ball, which seems to have been a flat ended one, struck the left forepart of the skull, ranging almost diagonally across the skull, tearing away a small particle of the skin, and producing a fracture.  He was stunned but afterwards rose and joined his men, but fainted and fell and had to be carried away.  He was borne on a rude bamboo litter.  At Manila he was out on a fine hospital ship for treatment and did well until the ship was ordered to China and he had to be removed to a transport where he found lack of attention and poor accommodations.  This transport sailed for America and the young officer from a state room was rudely taken down into the hold of the ship near the hot engine, and where insane men were confined.  He got some better attention by bribing a hospital steward with $25.  At San Francisco with 200 others wounded he was carried to an inadequate hospital, and could get no treatment.  He had been 22 days on the water suffering.  Then came his trip homeward, accompanied by his uncle, who had gone to meet him, and the alkali sands of the California desert from San Francisco to Los Angeles aggravated still more his unattended wound.  When he reached Atlanta a knot on his head as large as a fist almost showed the effect of neglect.  Proud flesh had formed, and it was found also an abscess.

His father lost no time in getting him to the Elkins-Cooper sanitarium.  There an operation was performed, the young man lingered but a short while.  His death was peaceful.

Capt. Frank F. Crenshaw was the son of Col. Tom C. Crenshaw, of this city, chairman of the Georgia railroad commission.  He was 28 years of age.  His first service as a soldier was in Ray’s Immunes and he was at Guatanamo and Baracoa, Cuba.  After the Spanish war he was assigned to Company A, Twenty-Eighth U. S. Volunteers.  He was commissioned captain of this company, one of the bravest in the Philippines.  It reached the islands in November last.  He married Miss Eppinger of Pike county in 1890.  The wife and children survive him.  The body was carried to LaGrange for burial.

[Other articles about Capt. Crenshaw can be found on page 2 and 4 of this issue.]

 

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