Joseph J. Bartlett

from the Buffalo Express, January 17, 1893:

     "FIGHTING JOE' BARTLETT.
 A dispatch from Washington announces
the death last Saturday of Gen. Joseph J.
Bartlett. It has surprised us that the Wash-
ington newpapers and correspondents have
not furnished stories of his career, which
was sufficiently romantic to have been well
worth writing. Besides his War record,
which was as brilliant as that of any
surviving officer of his rank, he had a part in
making the recent history of Samoa and, we
believe, his adventures in the islands first
attracted international attention to them.
 If we are nor mistaken, he was that
"American adventurer" referred to by
Robert Louis Stevenson in his book, "A
Footnote to History," who tried to teach
the Samoans how to fight. At any rate, he
was in Samoa some time in the '70's and he
did try to make it a military power. Or,
perhaps, it would be nearer the truth to say
that he found the Samoans, as others have
since found them, full of martial ardor, al-
ways trying to fight, but turning war into a
farce because they knew so little about it.
He kindly volunteered instruction in the
profession which he had learned in his own
country. He organized King Malietoa's
soldiers, drilled them and tried to enforce a
little discipline among them. He was not
very well satisfied with the results. He
wrote home that with a dozen of his old
boys in blue he could whip all the Samoans
in the South Seas. His instructions, however,
probably had more affect than he could him-
self see. At least, a few years later the
Samoans had progressed far enough in the
art of war to be able to defeat a German
force of respectable size. Gen. Bartlett's 
"interference" excited the Germans and
English who had large interests on the
islands and complaints were made to the
United States Government. As he was
there in some official capacity, he was called
home, and the project, if he ever enter-
tained it, of making Samoa the great mili-
tary power of the South Seas and himself
its dictator and general, ended.
 An incident has been told of Gen. Bart-
lett's War life which is worth repeating.
He entered the army as major in the 27th
New-York Volunteers, of which Gen. Slocum
was Colonel. After the battle of Bull Run
he was promoted to a colonelcy. As the
War progressed he won an excellent reputa-
tion for bravery and, like Gen. Hooker, be-
came known among his men as "Fighting
Joe." His fame soon became recognized not
only in the Union Army but among the
Rebels, and Col. Bartlett was looked upon as
an officer whom it would be very desirable
to capture. While stationed in advanced
post in Virginia, some Rebel officers laid a
careful plot to take him by a night sur-
prise. A detachment of dismounted cavalry
was sent against his camp. The pickets
werecaptured before they had time to give
an alarm. The Colonel's tent was in the
outskirts of the camp nearest the picket-
line. The first warning of the approach of
the enemy was given by his personal
sentry. Col. Bartlett sprang from his cot
without stopping to dress, but, instead of
running away, planted himself in front of
the advancing line and began snapping his
pistol, at the same time ordering his aide to
rouse the camp. The audacity of a single
man standing in his shirt opposing a detach-
ment which for all he knew might be a
whole regiment caused the Rebels to stop
for a moment to see what force was behind
him. The halt was fatal, for it gave the
Union soldiers time to come up, when the
enemy hastily fled.
 Gen. Bartlett was in the Army from the
first call for volunteers to the Grand Re-
view. He commanded brigades and
divisions in the 5th and 6th Army corps and
was made a major general by brevet to date
from August 1, 1864. During his later years
he had a position in the Pension Office and,
though a strong Democrat, he retained it
during several Republican administrations.
Up to the breaking-out of the War his home
was in Binghamton.