East Texas Historical Journal Volume 43 Issue 1 Article 16 3-2005 ETHJ Vol-43 No-1 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (2005) "ETHJ Vol-43 No-1," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 43 : Iss. 1 , Article 16. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol43/iss1/16 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME XLIII 2005 NUMBER 1 HISTORICAL JOURNAL EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 2004-2005 OFFICERS Cary D. WinO ,, President R.G. Dean , First Vice President Dan K. Utley Second Vice President Portia L. Gordon Sa'retary-Trea...urer DIRECTORS Priscilla M. BenhaJn Houston 2005 Jonathan K. Gerland Diboll 2005 Beverly J. Rowe Texarkana 2005 Margaret Agnor., Marshall 2006 Dennis Bradford ,, Nacogdoches 2006 Ted Lawe Emory 2006 Doris Bowman Lufkin 2007 Tom Crum Granbury 2007 James Smallwood Gainesville 2007 1Y Cashion , Huntsville " ex-President Gail K. Beil " Marshall ex-President EDITORIAL BOARD Valentine J. Belfiglio " Dallas Bob Bowman , Lufkin Garna L. Christian , Houstoo Ouida Dean , Nacogdoches Patricia A, Gajda ,, Tyler Robert L. Glover ," Flint Bobby H. Johnson , Nacogdoches Patricia Kell , , Baytown Max S. Lale , Fort Wolth Chuck Parsons Luling Pred Tarpley Colnmerce Archie P. McDonald EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR Mark D. Barringer ASSOCIATE EDITOR MEMBERSHIP INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS pay $100 annually LIFE MEMBERS pay $300 or more BENEFACTOR pays $100, PATRON pays $50 annually STUDENT MEMBERS pay $12 annually FAMILY MEMBERS pay $35 annually REGULAR MEMBERS pay $25 annually Journals $7.50 per copy P.O. Box 6223 Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX 75962 936-468-2407 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.easttexashistorical.org ©Copyright2005 XLllI - No.1 - East Texas Historical Association EAST TEXAS HISTORICAI-J JOURNAL Volume XLIII 2005 NUMBER 1 CONTENTS TWO I KNEW: THE BROTHERS FIELDING by Max S. LaZe 3 ROMEO M. WILLIAMS: TUSKEGEE AlRMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER by Milton H. Williams, III 7 EAST TEXAS NEWS AND EVENTS by Mark D. Barringer 68 BOOK NOTES by Archie P McDonald 71 BOOK REVIEWS 75 Archie P. McDonald, Executive Director and Editor Mark D. Barringer, Associate Editor STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY P.O. BOX 6223 NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS 75962 936-468-2407 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.easttexashistorical.org 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOKS REVIEWED Green, East Texas Daughter by Sara Crowley La Vere, The Texas Indians by James M. Smallwood Foster, The La Salle Expedition on the Mississippi River: A Lost Manuscript ofNicolas de la Salle, 1682 by Robert H. Thonhoff Jackson, Almonte's Texas: Juan N. Almonte's 1834 Inspection, Secret Report & Role in the 1836 Campaign by F. Todd Smith Early, Presidio, Mission, and Pueblo: Spanish Architecture and Urbanism in the United States by James Wright Steely Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texa.'l Revolution by James E. Crisp Lowe, Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A.: Greyhounds ofthe Trans-Mississippi by Ralph A. Wooster Lundberg, The Finishing Stroke: Texans in the J864 Tennessee Campaign by Dallas Cothrum Skoch/Perkins, Lone Star Confederate: A Gallant and Good Soldier ofthe F~fth Texas Infantry by Dallas Cothrum Smallwood, Murder and Mayhem: The War ofReconstruction in Texas by Bob Glover Killebrew, The Royal Air Fon.:e in Texas: Training British Pilots in Terrell during World War II by W.G. Tudor Hillerman, Kilroy Was There: A Gl's War in Photographs by Max S. Lale O'Neal, Captain Harry Wheeler: Arizona Lawman by Brandon H. McElroy McArthur/Smith, Minnie Fisher Cunningham: A Suffragist's Life in Politics by Linda S. Hudson KnightIDavi~, Bonnie and Clyde: A Twent)'-Fint-Century Update by Patrick McComl1 Thonhoff, Camp Kenedy, Texas: World War I Training Camp; Depression-Era CCC Camp; ",-orid War II Alien Detention Camp, German POW Camp, and Japanese POW Camp by Charles D. Grear Sitton, Harder than Hardscrabble: Oral Recollections of the Fanning Life from the F:dge ofthe Texas Hill Country by Kyle Wilkison Hendrickson/CaBins/Cox, Profiles in Power: Twentieth-Cnltury Texans in WashirzRton-New Edition by L. Patrick Hughes Myers/Sharpless, Rock Beneath the Sand: Country Churches in Texas by Claire Phelan Moyers, Moyers on America: A Journalist and His TImes by Gail K Beil Parisi, The Texas Post OJfice Murals: Artfor the People by L. Patrick Hughes Smead, Vocabulaim Vaquero/Cowboy Talk: A Dictionary of Spanish Tenns from the American West by Ken Untiedt EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 TWO I KNEW: THE BROTHERS FIELDING By Max S. Lale Both were Princeton graduates. Both were redlegs I knew at the field artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Both are now deceased. One died while earning the Distinguished SeJVice Cross in the Pacific Theater. The other worked for me while I was plans and training officer in the 261't Field Artil1ery Battalion in Texas. Later, he died while enjoying life in his villa on Majorca after earning an international reputation with annual editions of his books on travel in Europe. Their names were Temple and Dodge Fielding. Temple, the older, was a captain, and Dodge was a first lieutenant. Temple was married, Dodge was unmarried. Temple was a published writer of whom I was a bit in awe. Dodge was a brilliant intellect with an engaging manner. I first knew both brothers (Temple also later) while I was an instructor in gunnery at the school. My late wife Georgiana also knew Nancy, Temple's wife, who also was his literary agent. Both Temple and Nancy occasionally had dinner at the hotel in Lawton, then a much smaller city than now. We also had dinner from time to time at the same hotel, though never, as I recall, at the same time. It added an element of intrigue to an otherwise inelegant dining room that a rumor had it the owner was a former cook for General John Pershing while both served on the Mexican border in 1916. Georgiana recounted that occa­ sionally she encountered Nancy, a New Yorker with a tlair for head scarves and other up-scale east coast attire, while shopping in the Lawton stores. My vivid memory of Dodge Fielding arises from a classroom incident at the old Snow Hall at Fort Sill, not the new, modem teaching and museum facility on the post. The old Snow Hall was a venerable red brick building located on the east end of what used to be a parade ground, Now there is only a plinth to mark its location. It had, in addition to the school headquarters and classrooms, a barbershop and a small library where I first read an obscure French officer's text on mobile warfare. This was a future prime minister named Charles de Gaulle. While I was teaching gunnery to officer candidates in the hasty canton­ ment area of the post built to accommodate expanding activities soon after World War II began, an instructor in the basic officer course at Snow Hall became ill. I was detailed to take his place. The courses were quite similar, so this posed no immediate problems. Prepared with my lesson plan and a roster of the students, I presented myself on a Monday morning, prepared to enjoy the permanent accommoda­ tions. These included an office I shared with another instructor instead of the bullpen to which I was accustomed. What followed was an embarrassment to Max S. lAle i.~ a former president of the Easr Texa..~ Historical Association and the Texns Scale Historical Association. He lives in Marshall and Fort Worth, Texas. 4 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION both Lieutenant Fielding and me. In the time-honored Anny academic custom, I began my new duties by lecturing briefly, then sending the class to chalk boards for a problem I then announced. As the students indicated they had written their answers by turn­ ing once again to face the instructor, I glanced at my roster to choose a name. I knew nothing of the students, of course, and when I chose Lieutenant Fielding a bolt of electricity seemed to fill the room. To discover what had happened, I swept the faces before me and found one struggling to speak. I did not know that Lieutenant Fielding stuttered, par­ ticulary under pressure, though every officer in the class knew this. The elec­ tricity in the air was for Lieutenant Fielding, who by ill luck had been chosen randomly, and I like to think also for me as the instigator ofhis embarrdSsment. In the three-and-one-half weeks remaining in the gunnery cycle before I handed off the class to another cycle of instruction, I came to know this stu­ dent well. I discovered that his answers were almost always correct. His IOglc was impeccable. At ease, his stutter was hardly detectable. After my experience with this class, I never saw Dodge Fielding again. His brother Temple told me of his death while fighting in the Pacific. This is the story told to me. As the survey officer in his battalion, Dodge was given a daunting assignment. His task was to establish a baseline for triangulating date to use in calculating unobserved firing data. The only pos~ibility for doing this involved transiting small islands in a small boat. It was during this operation that Dodge was killed, whether by artillery or rifle fire, or by Japanese fighter plane or submarine, I do not know.