Stories from Bosque Bello

The lives they led…

James Henry Hamilton

The hospital ship, USS Solace , served in two wars. In the 1898 Spanish-American War, the ship returned wounded and sick soldiers from Cuba to the U.S. Following the April 6, 1917 U.S. declaration of war on Germany, the hospital ship served again, primarily at ports along the eastern seaboard from Rhode Island to Florida. It was also the ship where young James Henry Hamilton, Mess Attendant, 3 rd Class, United States Naval Reserve, died along with two other sailors on October 4, 1918.

The U.S. military experience in World War 1 and the influenza pandemic are closely intertwined. Because of extremely crowded conditions at military facilities and on ships in both the U.S. and on the European battlefields during the height of the American military involvement in the war, the disease spread quickly. In the latter part of 1918 and into 1919, about a fifth of the world's population became infected by the influenza pandemic. It killed an estimated 50 million people. Approximately 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic. In fact, it killed more people than those that died in actual combat during . About 40% of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard came down with the flu, while around 36% of the Army became sick.

Hamilton was a Fernandina resident, son of Charles and Laura, who grew up on Division Street and later lived there with his wife, Pearl. In what would be a life changing decision for Hamilton, on June 1, 1918, at the age of 17, he walked to the Fernandina Navy Recruiting Station and enlisted. At that moment, he joined the ranks of about 380,000 other African-American men, who were either drafted or volunteered for military service.

During the period that Hamilton joined up, the U.S. military was segregated. At that point in history, the Navy offered only very limited duty positions on ships for black sailors. Still, Hamilton was eager to join the "Great War" fight even though he wasn't yet of age. He probably could have waited the war out, which was slowly winding down, but he didn't; he volunteered.

About 20 days after enlisting, he reported to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was assigned to the Fifth Naval District. He was then assigned to duty aboard the nearly 20-year-old , USS Ohio , based in Norfolk and used exclusively for training new ship crews in battleship maneuvers and operations during World War 1.

Naval records are unclear if he contracted the flu while with the USS Ohio and was then transferred to the hospital ship as a patient or whether he was reassigned as part of the USS Solace crew, and subsequently came down with the disease. However, just five months after he had entered the Navy to do his part in the "War to End All Wars," the armistice was signed, the conflict was over, and Hamilton, the very young sailor from Fernandina, was dead at 18.