Ethelbert Watts

He was the second son of United States Minister to Austria Henry Miller Watts and the former Anna Maria Schoenberger.

He was a great-grandson of Revolutionary War brigadier-general Frederick Watts, and also of lieutenant colonel Henry Miller (1751–1824), who led colonial army units in the siege of Boston and the engagements of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.

[2] Only seventeen years old, his service was limited to the 32nd Regiment Emergency Militia Infantry, which existed from June 26 to August 1, 1863, and performed duties in the Department of the Susquehanna until Lee was driven from the Commonwealth after the Battle of Gettysburg.

In recognition of his services in protecting Japanese interests in Russia during that war, he was decorated by the Emperor of Japan with the Order of the Rising Sun and with that of the Sacred Treasure.

[1] When the United States entered the war in 1917 all consular offices in German-occupied Belgium were discontinued, and Mr. Watts was ordered home.

[1] He was acting consul at Halifax, Nova Scotia (in maritime Canada), on December 6, 1917, when the SS Mont-Blanc, a vessel loaded with munitions, exploded in the harbor, razing a large section of the city.

The U.S. consular offices, located within three blocks of the waterfront, were wrecked,[11] but Watts managed to survive because, at the time of the explosion, he was late for work.