This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSG Justin Davis
to remember
Barth, Christ (Christoph), C/SGT.
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Contact Info
Home Town Waldorf, Baden
Last Address Marion, Marion County, Ohio
Date of Passing Feb 05, 1923
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Color Sergeant Christ Barth was born in Germany in 1865 and had immigrated with his family to the United States in 1881 settling in Marion County, Ohio.
In 1887 Christ Enlisted with Company H, 2nd Cavalry Regiment and served as a musician until 1892 when he was discharged.
On 20 April 1892 Christ again enlisted this time assigned to Company F, 22nd Infantry Regiment where he also served as a musician. In 1897 Christ was promoted to First Sergeant and transferred to Company L, 22nd Infantry where he remained until 1908.
1908 saw First Sergeant Barth sent to Fort William H. Seward, Alaska Territory where he was appointed Quartermaster Sergeant until 1909 when he was made Color Sergeant both times serving with 22nd Infantry Regimental Headquarters.
On 16 June 1910 Color Sergeant Barth retired with 23 years of service having seen campaigns in Indian territory, Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars as well as humanitarian duties in San Francisco following the great earthquake of 1906.
Upon Returning home to Ohio Christ married Lydia Ambrust in November 1910, who had also immigrated from Germany. The couple remained in Ohio and Christ worked with a steel company.
Christ and Lydia had traveled to Germany in 1915 and again following WWI to visit family whom they were worried about following the war.
in 1923 Color Sergeant Christ Barth passed away in Ohio at which time Lydia returned to her family in Germany where several years later she also passed.
Christ's burial location in Ohio is unknown at this time.
Spanish-American War
From Month/Year
April / 1898
To Month/Year
August / 1898
Description The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule. The U.S. later backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by newspaper publishers such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to call for war. The business community across the United States had just recovered from a deep depression, and feared that a war would reverse the gains. They lobbied vigorously against going to war.
The US Navy battleship Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana harbor; political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war that he had wished to avoid.[9] Spain promised time and time again that it would reform, but never delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid declared war, and Washington then followed suit.
The main issue was Cuban independence; the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. US naval power proved decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and US forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace with two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($575,760,000 today) to Spain by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98.[ The United States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism. It was one of only five US wars (against a total of eleven sovereign states) to have been formally declared by Congress.