Veteran Spotlight
Sterling Archibald Galt
Medal of Honor Recipient
Richard D. L. Fulton
Sterling Archibald Galt was born in Taneytown on October 1, 1866, to parents, Henry and Ann Eliza (Annan) Galt.
Galt entered the service as a member of the First North Dakota Volunteers in 1899, following the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Apparently, Galt was living in North Dakota at that time.
The First North Dakota Volunteers were dispatched to the Philippines, having arrived there on July 31 during a typhoon, according to the North Dakota website (ND.gov), when they were subsequently “assigned to protect the city of Manila from marauding revolutionaries.”
As an aside, some websites, including military sites, had listed Galt’s location of entering the service as having been at “Pawneytown,” rather than Taneytown!
According to ND.gov, “The First North Dakota arrived (back) in San Francisco in September 1899. During their 17-month tour of duty, the soldiers had served their country honorably under very difficult conditions. Eight men had died in combat, one had drowned, and seven died of dysentery. Eleven men were wounded. Nine men had earned the Medal of Honor for their service.”
According to an August 6, 1902, article published in The (Baltimore) Sun, Galt was “repeatedly recommended for a medal of honor.” He did not receive one as a result, but his time would come.
At the end of the Spanish-American War, Galt had reenlisted with Company F, 36th United States Veteran Volunteers, according to The Times.
Peace in the Philippines did not last long. In 1899, Galt, as a member of Company F, 36th United States Veteran Volunteers, found himself returning to the Philippines once again, this time to fight against the Filipino nationalists, who were waging an effort to achieve Philippine independence in the wake of Spain’s surrender, which had ended the Spanish-American War.
The war with the Filipino nationalists has been referred to as the Philippine-American War and as the Philippine Insurrection.
By the time Galt had reached his “second tour of duty in the Philippines,” he had risen to the rank of sergeant major and was further designated as an “artificer,” apparently a military mechanic. He was further detailed as a scout.
It was in an engagement in which Galt was involved in near Bamban, Luzon, on November 9, 1899, that earned him his medal of honor. It was also in this same timeframe that the Army command decided to engage in the guerrilla tactics of the enemy and to rely less on traditional methods of warfare. The fight around Bamban occurred as part of the Tarlac campaign, which had lasted from November 5 to November 20.
Galt was honorably discharged from the First North Dakota Volunteers on July 15, 1899, and was subsequently honorably discharged from the 36th United States Veteran Volunteers on January 23, 1901.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor on February 7, 1902, for “distinguished bravery and conspicuous gallantry” demonstrated at Bamban on November 9, 1890.
Galt married Minette Ashbrook on May 3, 1903, in Granville, Ohio (Ashbrook’s former hometown), and, according to the April 23, 1903, The Beloit Gazette, the couple had then relocated to Pittsburgh, where Galt was employed by the L. & R. Wister Company. The couple subsequently moved to Missouri.
The couple had no children.
While Galt had escaped from being killed or wounded by shot or shell during his service in the Philippines, he did not escape a natural enemy—that having been “rheumatism and other ailments.”
In 1908, the U.S. Committee on Pensions approved Galt’s request for financial relief.
In finding in his favor, the committee stated in its report to the House of Representatives, “In view of the fact that there is record of treatment for rheumatism and other ailments in the service, and the further fact that the soldier’s service was in the Philippines, members of your committee are of the opinion that he is equitably-entitled to some measure of relief, and the passage of the bill is therefore respectfully recommended…”
Galt passed away on October 21, 1908, at age 42, and was buried in the Orient Cemetery in Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri.
Minette passed away on September 27, 1939, at age 73, in Riverside County, California.
