Category: Military

SCOVEL, SYLVESTER HENRY 'HARRY' (29 July 1869-11 Feb.

SECESH CANNON is a confederate rifled artillery piece captured by Cleveland troops early in the CIVIL WAR. At the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, several artillery companies from the Cleveland area were ordered into western Virginia as Battery A, 1st Regiment, Light Artillery, Ohio Volunteer Militia, as part of the 3d Brigade, 4th Div. of the Ohio Volunteer Militia. Col.

SHIELDS, JOSEPH C. (10 May 1827-21 Dec. 1898), CIVIL WAR artillery officer, businessman, and politician, was born in New Alexandria, Westmoreland County, Pa., son of John Shields. He was a tanner and furrier by trade, but between 1845-52 worked as a mechanic in Pittsburgh before moving to Cleveland in 1852. Shields was employed by Cleveland Transfer Co.

SMITH, CHARLES HENRY (23 Nov. 1837-13 Aug. 1912), attorney, merchant, banker, and volunteer Civil War officer, was born in Taunton, Mass. to Thomas and Ann Clark Smith. He lived in Fall River, Mass. (1845-50) and Jamestown, N.Y. (1850-56) before moving to Cleveland in 1856 and going into the furniture business. When the CIVIL WAR broke out, he enlisted in Co.

SMITHKNIGHT, LOUIS (16 Dec. 1834-27 Mar. 1915), volunteer artillery officer during the CIVIL WAR and a postwar militia artillery officer, was born in Saxony to Frederick and Auralia Smithknight. He came to the U.S. in 1845, and lived in Columbus, Ohio before arriving in Cleveland in 1850.

SOLDIER PLOTS. Soldier plots containing burials of groups of American military veterans have been established within the City of Cleveland and the following cemeteries, public and private: Harvard Grove, MONROE ST., WOODLAND, Highland Park, West Park, and CALVARY.

SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. See PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES.


SPANGLER, BASIL L. (1822-19 Jan. 1876), dry-goods merchant who served as assistant quartermaster in the U.S. Army during the CIVIL WAR, was the son of Michael and Elizabeth Miller Spangler, who came to Cleveland from Stark County in 1816 and entered the tavern, hotel, and real-estate business. Another son, Miller M.

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. Clevelanders were active, enthusiastic supporters of U.S. foreign policy as practiced by Ohioans Pres. Wm. McKinley, Secretary of State Wm. R. Day, and his successor, JOHN HAY. They lamented the national loss when the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, in mid-Feb.

STONE, SILAS SAFFORD (13 Feb. 1815-18 Feb. 1884), real estate dealer, leased property to the U.S. government for military use during the CIVIL WAR.

STREIBLER, MARTIN (10 Feb. 1825-14 May 1864), a sergeant in Co.

STUPKA, LADDIE (4 March 1878-20 Feb. 1946), a peacetime recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for service in the United States Navy, was a native of Cleveland, Ohio, originally enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1899 at New York. Stupka was serving as a Fireman, 1st Class aboard the USS Leyden when the Civil War-vintage vessel foundered in a heavy fog off the coast of Rhode Island and sank 21 Jan.

SUNDQUIST, GUSTAF ADOLF (4 June 1879-25 August 1918), recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for service during the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, was one of nine children born to Anders Gustaf and Eva Sofia (Kullgren) Sundquist in Irsta, Sweden. Gustaf Adolf arrived in New York about 1895 and enlisted in the U. S. Navy 30 July 1897.

TANK PLANT. See I-X CENTER.


THAYER, LYMAN C. (11 June 1821-23 Dec. 1863), attorney and volunteer cavalry officer, was born in Berkshire, Mass., son of Daniel and Mary Thayer. He was admitted to the bar in 1845, and became a well-known attorney in Boston. Moving to Cleveland in 1853, he formed a partnership in law with Geo. H. Wyman, with whom he was affiliated until 1856, when he formed a partnership with David Kellogg Cartter.

TOWLE, JOHN R. (19 Oct. 1924-21 Sept. 1944), Congressional medal of honor winner for service in WORLD WAR II, was the son of William J. and Mary Simpkins Towle. One of 4 children, he grew up on E. 73d St. in Cleveland, and as a boy attended St. Agnes school.

TROOP A, also known as the 1st City Troop, the 1st Cleveland Cavalry, and the Black Horse Troop, was an independent military organization established after the Railroad Strike of 1877 raised fears about the ability of the militia to maintain law and order. Led by Dr. Frank Wells, Augustus G. Stone, DAVID Z. NORTON, John Tod, and Col. William H.

The U.S. COAST GUARD was created in 1915 when the federal government combined the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life Saving Service with the Steamboat Inspection Service into one organization. In 1939 the Lighthouse Service was added. The Lighthouse Service started operations in Cleveland in 1829, with the building of the first lighthouse on a bluff at Main and Water (W.

U.S. SANITARY COMMISSION (Cleveland Branch, see also SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY OF NORTHERN OHIO) was organized 20 Apr. 1861 to provide aid and medical care for soldiers during the CIVIL WAR.

The U.S. SUBMARINE VETERANS OF WORLD WAR II, NORTHEAST OHIO CHAPTER, was founded in 1968 to help preserve the memory of the 3,505 U.S. submarine sailors who died during WORLD WAR II. Chapter members must have served on a U.S. Navy submarine between 7 Dec. 1941 and 31 Dec. 1946. The first president of the Northeast Chapter was Ted Poelking of Cleveland.

The U.S.S. COD (SS 224), named after the world's most popular food fish, is the last fully intact World War II fleet submarine in existence. The Gato-class submarine is docked on Cleveland's lakefront (N. Marginal Rd., between E. 9th and BURKE LAKEFRONT AIRPORT) as a memorial and historical tour.

The U.S.S. MAINE RELIC consists of a porthole cover and section of the base mast from the ill-fated battleship Maine, mounted on a large rock in the triangle at the south end of Washington Blvd. in WASHINGTON PARK in NEWBURGH HTS.

UNITED SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR VETERANS. See JOINT VETERANS COMMISSION.


The VET CENTER-VIETNAM ERA VETERANS OUTREACH PROGRAM, funded by Congress under the Veterans Health Care Amendment Act (Public Law 96-22) and affiliated with the Department of Veteran Affairs, was established in 1979 to provide counseling services to veterans of the Vietnam War. Primarily focused on Vietnam-era veterans, the vet centers offer limited assistance to any veteran. Working with the Cleveland V.A.

VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS (VFW), a national organization for military veterans formed in Columbus, OH, in Apr. 1899, first appeared in Cleveland in 1920 with the formation of Post No. 84, commanded by George Collyer.