THE CHICAGO RECORD'S
WAR STORIES
/ /
BY
STAFF CORRESPONDENTS
IN THE FIELD.
COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED.
REPRINTED FROM THE CHICAGO RECORD.
1808.
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY TUB CHICAGO RECORD.
PREFACE.
Several weeks before the United States declared war with Spain THE
CHICAGO RECORD organized and equipped its war staff. Its correspondents
were "at the front" long before the first gun was fired. During the progress of
the war the entire field was covered — the Philippine islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico
and the camps in the United States. A swift and stanch dispatch boat, used
exclusively for THE CHICAGO RECORD, cruised in the waters of the West
Indies, covering the movements of the American fleet and carrying dispatches
from Santiago and Puerto Rico to the nearest cable stations. Wherever bullets
flew the staff correspondents of THE CHICAGO RECORD were- found on duty.
The war stories printed in this book were written by THE RECORD'S corre
spondents in the" field, except those which were sent from the front to The
Chicago Daily News by the war correspondents of that newspaper.
Following are the artists and writers who made up THE RECORD'S war
staff:
JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
WILLIAM SCHMEDTGEN.
MALCOLM MCDOWELL.
DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
KATHER1NE WHITE.
HOWBERT BILLMAN.
TRUMBULL WHITE.
HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
KENNETT F. HARRIS.
Following are the members of the war staff of the Daily News:
WALTER MARSHALL CLUTE.
GUY CRAMER.
JAMES LANGLAND.
CHRISTIAN DANE HAGERTY.
CONTENTS.
Page
— How the War Began 7
Dewey's Fleet in Mirs Bay By John T. McCutcheon 24
The Battle of Manila By John T. McCutcheon 27
Sampson's Men and Guns By Malcolm McDowell 41
Marines at Cusco Hill By Howbert Billman 4(5
Afloat with an Army By Malcolm McDowell 50
Landing Troops in Cuba By Kennett F. Harris .'5
— Red Cross in Cuba By Katherine White 58
With Sampson Off Santiago By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 5!)
Cavalrymen at Guasimas By Kennett F. Harris (54
El Caney's Bloody Field By Howl>ert Billman 70
With Grimes' Battery By Kennett F. Harris 70
The Battle of Santiago By Malcolm McDowell 80
The Destruction of Cervera's Fleet By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 80
After Dewey's Victory By John T. McCutcheon !»0
'•' - Hough Riders at Sea By Kennett F. Harris . !»7
Soldiers in the Tropics By Katherine White 101
After a Big Battle By Howbert Billman 103
In the Trenches Before Santiago By Malcolm McDowell 110
Shrapnel, Dynamite and Shell By Kennett F. Harris 11:?
Schley's Unf ought Battle By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 114
Life on a Torpedo Boat By Malcolm McDowell 117
On the Eve of Battle By John T. McCutcheon 120
Glimpses of a Beleaguered City By Howbert Billman. . 123
Sunday in Camp at Chickamauga By Henry Barrett Chamberliu 125
Sampson's Picket Line By Malcolm McDowell 128
•*- Rough Rider O'Neill By Kennett F. Harris 131
A Day Off Blockaded Manila By John T. McCutcheon 133
The Daring Trip of the Uncas By Trumbull White 139
Military Station No. 1 By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 140
Refugees from Santiago By Kennett F. Harris 143
Wainwright's Men By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 140
_ The Rough Riders By Kennett F. Harris 148
Parker's Catlings at San Juan By Malcolm McDowell 155
When Santiago Fell By Howbert Billman 157
Hobson's Heroic Deed By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 101
Told by Hobson's Pilot By Daniel Vincent Casey 102
Shatter's Flag-Raising By Malcolm McDowell 103
Red Cross in the Lead By Katherine White 100
Use of the Megaphone in War By Daniel Vincent Casey 100
Regulars at San Juan, Cuba By Malcolm McDowell 171
American Soldiers in Cavite By John T. McCutcheon 174
The Gussie Expedition By Trumbull White 170
Santiago's Worthless Cannon By Howbert Billman 178
Moonshiners and Army Mules By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 181
While the White Flag Flew By Kennett F. Harris 184
Santiago After the Surrender By Malcolm McDowell 186
A Battle in the Night By John T. McCutcheon 189
Dogged Pluck of American Soldiers By Guy Cramer 193
The Flight from a Besieged City By James Langland 196
With the 1st Illinois By C. D. Hagerty , 198
The Taking of Manila By John T. McCutcheon 201
American Sharpshooters in Cuba By William Schmedtgen 211
Heroism in the Ranks By Howbert Billman 213
~ Feeding Havana's Starving Thousands By Daniel Vincent Casey 210
How Ponce Received Americans By Henry Barrett Chcmberlin 217
Gen. Brooke at San Juan, Porto Rico By Trumbull White 219
In Havana During the Armistice By Daniel Vincent Casey 221
Forts of San Juan, Porto Rico By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 223
Some Rough Rider Stories By Kennett F. Harris 226
--In Cuban Hospitals By Katherine White 231
Fighting at Malate By John T. McCutcheon 235
A Trip to Morro Castle By Howhert Billman 240
Types of Spanish Prisoners By Kennett F. Harris 241
Heroes Who Shoveled Coal By Richard Lee Fearn 244
Log of the Dispatch Boat Hercules By Henry Barrett Chamberlin 246
Life on the Yale By James Taft Hat field 249
~~ Fever Days in Santiago By Malcolm McDowell 251
-Work of the Christian Commission By Daniel Vincent Casey 253
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
President William McKinley 6
Michael Mallia, the man who fired the first shot, fc
American soldiers' graves before Santiago 11
Senator Redneld Proctor 12
Spanish Hag captured at Cavite 15
United States battleship Maine 17
Wardroom of the Maine, before the explosion.. 19
Capt. Charles D. Sigsbee of the Maine 20
Two of the Maine's big guns 21
Ma.j.-Gen. Fitzhugh Lee 23
Map of the Philippine islands 25
Rear-Admiral George Dewey 29
Map of Manila bay 31
An omen 33
Carrying shells to the after magazine — Dewey's
fltet 34
Cutting the Iloilo cable, Manila bay 35
Map showing scene of Admiral Dewey's victory. 36
Insurgents carrying plunder from Cavite 37
"!><> you surrender?" 39
Nashville chasing the Buena Ventura 42
The New York overhauling the Pedro 45
Francisco Reveruges, Spanish prisoner 48
Landing American troops at Baiquiri, Cuba... 51
Spanish rifle pits at Baiquiri, Cuba 53
United States troops going ashore at Baiquiri,
Cuba 57
Raising the ensign on a United States warship. 60
Watching the flagship New York for orders.... 63
Rough riders pitching their tents 65
American and Cuban soldiers advancing on Se-
villa, Cuba 67
American outpost between Sevilla and Santiago 69
The stone fort at El Caney 71
On the El Caney road 73
A Cuban insurgent 75
The "sunken road," Santiago battlefield 77
Issuing rations to Cuban troops— Siboney 79
liaiquiri, where the 5th army corps landed 81
Maj.-Geu. Henry W. Lawtou 83
Maj.-Gen. Jacob F. Kent 83
The "bloody bend," Santiago battlefield 85
Admiral W. T. Sampson 87
Spanish warship Infanta Maria Teresa 88
Spanish armored cruiser. Almirante Oquendo... 89
Spanish man-of-war Cristobal Colon 90
Plan of the city of Manila 912
Shell holes in Cavite arsenal 94
Interior of Fort Malate 95
United States auxiliary cruiser Mayflower 97
Jackies of the Newport and their pets 99
Torpedo boats Foote and Porter loo
Advance troops marching on Santiago 102
Lieut. John D. Miley 105
"Fighting Joe" Wheeler 108
Maj.-Gen. Nelson A. Miles .111
Polishing the propeller of a torpedo 119
Adjusting motor mechanism of a torpedo 121
Page
Dewey signaling that war had been declared. . . .122
Commodore W. S. Schley 115
Secretary of War Alg-.jr 12(5
Spanish steamer Panama 129
Spanish blockhouse in Cuba 132
Mouth of the Pasig river, Manila 135
Dungeon at Cavite 138
Eben Brewer 1-11
First United States postoffice in Cuba 142
Church at El Caney 144
Lieutenant-Commander Richard Wainwright 146
United States auxiliary cruiser Gloucester 147
Col. Theodore Roosevelt 149
Rough riders at San Antonio, Tex 153
Gen. Wheeler's divisional flag 154
Maj.-Geu. Shatter at Siboney 159
Gen. Wheeler's roadside sign 160
Lieut. Richmond P. Hobson, U. S. N 161
Red Cross ship State of Texas 167
Using the megaphone on warships 170
American soldiers in the Philippines 175
Landing horses from the Gussie 177
Cuban volunteers drilling at Tampa 183
Maj.-Gen. Joseph Wheeler 187
Scene in the naval hospital, Canacoa 190
Searching for American dead before Manila. ... 192
Regimental blacksmith at work 195
Map of fortifications, Santiago bay 197
Unloading cattle for the navy 2 )0
Where the Spanish buried their dea:l. Cavite.. 203
Spanish prisoners at Cavite 2. ID
In shelter tents, Camp Dewey 207
Hidden chamber, Fort St. Philip, Cavite 210
Iron door in stone fort, El Caney 212
Where Spanish shells struck at El Poso 214
Docks at Port Tampa 218
Forward deck of the Oregon 222
Helena taking on coal 225
Gen. Wheeler reconnoitering from a tree 228
Camp of the 25th infantry 229
Lighthouse north of Cardenas 230
The New York's whaleboat and crew 232
The Mangrove capturing the Panama 234
Deck watch on a vessel of Dewey's fleet 236
Room at Cavite showing effects of Dewey's
shells 238
Where one of Dewey's shells struck 239
Moi-ro castle, Santiago 240
Admiral Cervera 242
Ruins of ancient Spanish fort, Siboney 243
Coaling a warship 245
The Chicago Record's dispatch boat Hercules. .247
Ship's company, dispatch boat Hercules 248
Jackies of the Yale 250
"Watering" a United States man-of-war 252
Secretary of the Nav^- John D. Long 253
Arrival of the 25th infantry. Key West ?"4
Map of Guantanamo bay 255
PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
HOW THE WAR BEGAN.
War between the United States and Spain
was declared by congress in a joint resolu
tion hurriedly passed through both houses
and immediately signed by President Mc-
Kinley on tlie afternoon of April 25. This
was the formal declaration of war, but as a
matter of fact war existed from April 21, for
on that day the first shotted gun was fired,
throwing a six-pound shell from the United
States gunboat Nashville across the bow of
the Spanish steamer Buena Ventura, the first
prize taken by Admiral Sampson's blockading
fleet. Following is the declaration of war
adopted by congress April 25:
"A bill declaring? that war exists be
tween the United States of America
and tlie kingdom of Spain.
"Be it enacted, etc.
"1. That war be and the same is
hereby declared to exist and that war
has existed since the 21st day of
April, A. D. 1HOH, including? said day,
between the United States of America
and the kingdom of Spniii.
"2. That the president of the United
States be and he hereby is directed
and empowered to use the entire
land and naval forces of the United
States and to call into the actual serv
ice of the United States the militia of
the several states to such extent as
may be necessary to carry this act
into effect."
This resolution was passed after congress
had received a message from the president
recommending a declaration of war against
Spain. The message read as follows:
"To the Senate and House of Representa
tives of the United States of America: I
transmit to the congress for its consideration
and appropriate action copies of correspond
ence recently had with the representative of
Spain in the United States with the United
States minister at Madrid, and through the
latter with the government of Spain, showing
the action taken under the joint resolution
approved April 20, 1898, 'for the recognition
of the independence of the people of Cuba,
demanding that the government of Spain re
linquish its authority and government in the
island of Cuba and to withdraw its land and
naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters
and directing the president of the United
States to use the land and naval forces of
the United States to carry these resolutions
into effect."
"Upon communicating with the Spanish
minister in Washington the demand which it
became the duty of the executive to address
to the government of Spain, in obedience to
said resolution, the said minister asked for
his passports and withdrew. The United
States minister at Madrid was in turn noti
fied by the Spanish minister of foreign affairs
that the withdrawal of the Spanish repre
sentative from the United States had ter
minated diplomatic relations between the two
countries, and that all official communication
between their respective representatives
ceased therewith.
"I recommend to your especial attention
the note addressed to the United States min
ister at Madrid by the Spanish minister for
foreign affairs on April 21, whereby the fore
going notification was conveyed. It will be
perceived therefrom that the government of
Spain, having cognizance of the joint resolu
tion of the United States congress, and in
view of things which the president is thereby
required and authorized to do, responds by
treating the representative demands of this
government as measures of hostility, fol
lowing with that instant and complete sev
erance of relations by its actions whereby
the usage of nations accompanies an ex
istent state of war between sovereign powers.
"The position of Spain being thus made
known and the demands of the United States
being denied with a complete rupture of
intercourse by the act of Spain, I have
been constrained, in exercise of the power
and authority conferred upon me by the joint
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
resolution aforesaid, to proclaim, under date
of April 22, 1898, a blockade of certain ports
of the north coast of Cuba lying between
Cardenas and Bahia Honda, and of the port of
Cienfuegos, on the south coast of Cuba; and
further in exercise of my constitutional pow
ers and using the authority conferred upon
me by the act of congress approved April 22,
1898, to issue my proclamation dated April
23, 1898, calling for volunteers in order to
carry into effect the said resolutions of April
20, 1898. Copies of these proclamations are
hereto appended.
"In view of the measures so taken, and with
a view to the adoption of such other meas
ures as may be necessary to enable me to
carry out the expressed will of the congress
of the United States in the premises, I now
recommend to your honorable body the adop
tion of a joint resolution declaring that a
state of war exists between the United States
of America and the kingdom of Spain, and I
urge speedy action thereon to the end that
the definition of the international status of
the United States as a belligerent power
may be made known and the assertion of all
its rights and the maintenance of all its du
ties in the conduct of a public war may be
assured. WILLIAM McKINLEY.
"Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C.,
April 25, 1898."
On the previous day President McKinley
issued a proclamation calling for 125,000 vol
unteer troops, under authority granted him
by act of congress, approved April 22, and
on the day war was declared. The states and
territories were ordered to furnish their re
spective shares of troops as follows:
Alabama — Two regiments of infantry and
one battalion.
Arkansas — Two regiments of infantry.
California — Two regiments of infantry, two
battalions and four heavy batteries.
Colorado — One regiment of infantry and one
light battery.
Connecticut — One regiment of infantry, one
light battery and two heavy batteries.
Delaware — One regiment of infantry.
Florida — One regiment of infantry.
Georgia — Two regiments of infantry and
two light batteries.
Idaho — Two troops of cavalry.
Illinois — Seven regiments of infantry and
one regiment of cavalry.
Indiana — Four regiments of infantry and
two light batteries.
Iowa — Three regiments of infantry and i\vo
light batteries.
Kansas — Three regiments of infantry.
Kentucky — Three regiments of infantry
and two troops of cavalry.
Louisiana — Two regiments of infantry.
Maine — One regiment of infantry and one
heavy battery.
Maryland— One regiment of infantry and
four heavy batteries.
Massachusetts — Four regiments of iiifanrry
and three heavy batteries.
Michigan — Four regiments of infantry.
Minnesota — Three regiments of infantry.
Mississippi — Two regiments of infantry.
Missouri — Five regiments of infantry and
one light battery.
Montana — One regiment of infantry.
Nebraska — Two regiments of infantry.
Nevada — One troop of cavalry.
New Hampshire — One regiment of infantry.
New Jersey — Three regiments of infantry.
New York — Twelve regiments of infantry
and two troops of cavalry.
North Carolina — Two regiments of in
fantry and one heavy battery.
North Dakota — Five troops of cavalry.
Ohio — Six regiments of infantry, four light
batteries and two squadrons of cavalry.
Oregon — One regiment of infantry.
Pennsylvania — Eleven regiments of in
fantry and four heavy batteries.
Rhode Island — One regiment of infantry.
South Carolina — One regiment of infantry,
one battalion and one heavy batteiy.
South Dakota — Seven troops of cavalry-
Tennessee — Three regiments of infantry.
Texas — Three regiments of infantry and
one regiment of cavalry.
Utah— One troop of cavalry and two light
batteries.
Vermont— One regiment of infantry.
Virginia — Three regiments of infantry.
Washington — One regiment of infantry.
West Virginia — One regiment of infantry.
Wisconsin — Three regiments of infantry.
Wyoming — One battalion and one troop of
cavalry.
District of Columbia— One battalion.
Arizona — Two troops of cavalry.
New Mexico — Four troops of cavalry.
Oklahoma — One trooop of cavalry.
The states responded so promptly to the
call that the work of mobilization began in
some of them before the governors had re
ceived the telegrams from Secretary of War
Alger. The declaration of war, call for vol
unteers and assembling of troops at the
places designated by the war department
marked the culmination of events which be
gan when the United States battleship Maine
sailed into the harbor of Havana on a
friendly visit Jan. 25, 1898. No appreciable
excitement attended her stay until the even
ing of Feb. 15, when an explosion destroyed
the ship, which sunk in the harbor at her
moorings, carrying down two officers and 200
men. It afterward was established by a
court of inquiry that the Maine was de
stroyed by an exterior explosion, believed to
be caused by a torpedo or submarine mine.
Whatever the real cause wras, the American
people regard the destruction of the Maine
as the beginning of the war. The average
American dates the beginning of hostilities
from 9:40 o'clock p. m. Feb. 15, when the ex
plosion occurred.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
'm^m^^
;>iY^--^*?-~>.-;;
'"^fflsi?^;^^
MICHAEL MALLIA. BO'SUN'S MATE ON THE NASHVILLE— THE MAN WHO FIRED THE
FIRST SHOT.
But the war had been coming for some
time before the Maine settled down in the
mud at the bottom of Havana harbor. Sen
ators and representatives in congress had
been agitating for the recognition of Cuban
independence for months, for both of the
great political parties had adopted planks in
their national platforms declaring for Cuban
independence. Some members of congress
were in favor of armed intervention, and
tangible substance was given the pro-Cuban
feeling on Feb. 8, when Senator Allen of
Nebraska, Senator Cannon of Utah and Sen
ator Mason of Illinois introduced Cuban reso
lutions in the senate. Senator Allen of
fered, as an amendment to the diplomatic and
consular appropriation bill, a resolution rec
ognizing the belligerency of the Cuban in
surgents; Senator Cannon offered a resolu
tion urging the president to notify the king
dom of Spain that if it did not recognize the
independence of Cuba before March 4, 1898,
the United States would recognize the bel
ligerency of the Cubans and within ninety
days thereafter would assert the independ
ence of the Cuban republic; Senator Mason
10
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
offered a resolution requesting the president
to notify Spain that the Cuban war must
cease and declare the intention of the United
States to restore and maintain peace in the
island of Cuba.
On the day these resolutions were intro
duced the Cuban junta in New York made
public a letter, written by Senor Dupuy de
Lome, the Spanish minister to the United
States, to his friend Don Jose Canalejas, the
editor of Heraldo, Madrid, who at the time
was in Havana. This letter had in it that
which was an insult to the president of the
United States, and at the same time conveyed
the impression to the public mind that Spain
was not sincere in her protestations that she
was doing all possible to establish autonomy
in Cuba. The letter, which at once became
of national importance, and which undoubt
edly had much to do in hurrying forward
the events which led to war, read as fol
lows:
"Legation de Espana, Washington, D. C. —
Eximo Senor Don Jose Canalejas — My Dis
tinguished and Dear Friend: You need not
apologize for not having written to me; I
ought also to have written to you, but have
not done so on account of being weighted
down with work and nous sommes quittes.
"The situation here continues unchanged.
Everything depends on the political and
military success in Cuba. The prologue of
this second method of warfare will end the
day that the colonial cabinet will be ap
pointed, and it relieves us in the eyes of this
country of a part of the responsibility of what
may happen there, and they must cast the
responsibility upon the Cubans, whom they
believe to be so immaculate.
"Until then we will not be able to see
clearly, and I consider it to be a loss of time
and an advance by the wrong road, the send
ing of emissaries to the rebel field, the ne
gotiating with the autonomists not yet de
clared to be legally constituted, and the dis
covery of the intentions and purposes of this
government.
"The exiles will return one by one, and
when they return will come walking into the
sheepfold and the chiefs will gradually re
turn. Neither of these had the courage to
leave en masse, and they will not have the
courage thus to return.
"The president's message has undeceived
the insurgents, who expected something else,
and has paralyzed the action of congress, but
I consider it bad.
"Besides the natural and inevitable coarse
ness with which he repeats all that the
press and public opinion of Spain has said of
Weyler, it shows one what McKinley is —
weak and catering to the rabble, and, be
sides, a low politician, who desires to leave a
door open to me and to stand well with the
jingoes of his party.
"Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, it will
only depend on ourselves whether he will
prove bad and adverse to us. I agree entirely
with you that without a military success
nothing will be accomplished there, and
without military and political success there
is here always danger that the insurgents
will be encouraged, if not by the govern
ment, at least by part of the public opinion.
"I do not believe you pay enough atten
tion to the role of England. Nearly all that
newspaper canaille which swarms in your
hotel are English, and while they are corre
spondents of American journals they are
also correspondents of the best newspapers
and reviews of London. Thus it has been
since the beginning. To my mind the only
object of England is that the Americans
should occupy themselves with us and leave
her in peace, and if there is a war so much
the better; that would further remove what
is threatening her, although that will never
happen.
"It would be most important that you
should agitate the question of commercial
relations, even though it would be only for
effect, and that you should send here a man
of importance in order that I might use him
to make a propaganda among the senators
and others in opposition to the junta and to
win over exiles.
"There goes Amblarad. I believe he be
comes too deeply taken up with little polit
ical matters, and there must be something
great or we shall lose.
"Adela returns your salutation and we
wish you in the new year to be a messenger
of peace and take this New Year's present
to poor Spain.
"Always your attentive friend and serv
ant, who kisses your hands.
"ENRIQUE DUPUY DE LOME."
Senor de Lome resigned before the United
States government could take action, al
though Minister Woodford was directed to
demand the recall of the disgraced Spaniard.
At first Spain seemed disposed to stand on
her dignity and refused to apologize, but the
Maine disaster placed the Spanish govern
ment in a perilous position and it disclaimed
officially and in a positive manner the re
flections contained in the De Lome letter.
While the naval board of inquiry was hold
ing sessions in Havana and Key West, gath
ering testimony relating to the Maine ex
plosion, the trend of daily events set unmis
takably toward trouble with Spain. Con
gress took this view of the case, for on
March 8 the house of representatives, by a
unanimous vote, appropriated $50,000,000 to
be used at the discretion of the president in
national defenses. The next day the bill
was passed through the senate and was
signed by the president, and at once agents
were sent abroad to purchase warships.
American warships were ordered to as
semble at Key West. Congress authorized
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
11
AMERICAN SOLDIERS' GRAVES ON THE ROYAL ROAD— SANTIAGO.
the formation of several additional regiments
in the regular army; contracts were let for
coal for the navy, ammunition and war sup
plies; orders were issued by the war de
partment to man all coast fortifications, and
word came from the Philippine islands that
the insurgents, encouraged by the turbulent
prospect, had renewed the rebellion against
Spain with increased vigor.
On March 14 the navy department an
nounced that two cruisers, which were being
built for Brazil in England, had been pur
chased by the United States. On the same
day a Spanish torpedo flotilla set sail from
12
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Cadiz, Spain, ostensibly for the Canaries,
where Admiral Cervera's squadron already
had assembled.
Senator Proctor, who had gone to Cuba per
sonally to satisfy himself concerning the
claims made by Cuban sympathizers that the
Spaniards were killing thousands of Cubans
through the reconcentrado system, made a
speech in the senate March 17 which, it is
generally conceded, stands as the best, most
straightforward and most effective state
ment of Cuban conditions ever made in con
gress.
This speech aroused the country to the
urgent necessity of doing something at once
to put a stop to the "Cuban horrors," as they
were called, and its influence was felt imme
diately in the house and senate. Senator
Proctor's speech is given in full, because it
SENATOR REDFIELD PROCTOR,
had much to do with hurrying forward a
war with Spain. The speech follows:
"It has been stated that I said there was
no doubt the Maine was blown up from the
outside. This is a mistake. I may have said
that such was the general impression among
Americans in Havana. In fact, I have no
opinion about it myself, and carefully
avoided forming one. I gave no attention
to these outside surmises. I met the mem
bers of the court on their boat, but would
as soon approach our Supreme court in re
gard to a pending case as that board. They
are as competent and trustworthy within
the lines of their duty as any court in the
land, and their report when made will carry
conviction to all the people that the exact
truth has been stated just as far as it is
possible to ascertain it. And until then sur
mise and conjecture are idle and unprofit
able. Let us calmly wait for the report.
"There are six provinces in Cuba, each,
with the exception of Matanzas, extending
the whole width of the island and having
about an equal sea front on the north and
south borders. Matanzas touches the Car
ibbean sea only at its southwest corner, being
separated from it elsewhere by a narrow
peninsula of Santa Clara province. The
provinces are named, beginning at the west,
Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, Santa
Clara, Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba.
My observations were confined to the four
western provinces, which constitute about
one-half of the island. The two eastern ones
are practically in the hands of the insur
gents except the few fortified towns. These
two large provinces are spoken of to-day as
'Cuba Libre.'
"Havana, the great city and capital of the
island, is, in the eyes of the Spaniards and
many Cubans, all Cuba, as much as Paris is
France. But having visited it in more peace
ful times and seen its sights, the tomb of
Columbus, the forts, Cabanas and Morro cas
tle, etc., I did not care to repeat this, pre
ferring trips in the country. Everything
seems to go on much as usual in Havana.
Quiet prevails, and, except for the frequent *
squads of soldiers marching to guard and
police duty and their abounding presence in
all public places, one sees little signs of war.
"Outside Havana all is changed. It is not
peace, nor is it war. It is desolation and dis
tress, misery and starvation. Every town
and village is surrounded by a trocha
(trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed
on a plan new to me, the dirt being thrown
up on the inside and a barbed-wire fence on
the outer side of the trench. These trochas
have at every corner and at frequent inter
vals along the sides what are there called
forts, but which are really small blockhouses,
many of them more like a large sentry box,
loopholed for musketry, and with a guard of
from two to ten soldiers in each. The pur
pose of these trochas is to keep the recon-
centrados in, as well as to keep the insur
gents out. From all the surrounding coun
try the people have been driven in to these
fortified towns and held there to subsist as
they can. They are virtually prison yards,
and not unlike one in general appearance,
except the walls are not so high and strong;
but they suffice, where every point is in
range of a soldier's rifle, to keep in the poor
reconcentrados, women and children. Every
railroad station is within one of these tro
chas and has an armed guard. Every train
has an armored freight car, loopholed for
musketry and filled with soldiers, and with,
as I observed usually and was informed is
always the case, a pilot engine a mile or so
in advance. There are frequent blockhouses
inclosed by a trocha and with a guard along
the railroad track.
"With this exception there is no human
life or habitation between these fortified
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
13
towns and villages, and throughout the whole
of the four western provinces, except to a
very limited extent among the hills, where
the Spaniards have not been able to go and
drive the people to the towns and burn their
dwellings, I saw no house or hut in the 400
miles of railroad rides from Pinar del Rio
province in the west across the full width of
Havana and Matanzas provinces and to
Sagua la Grande on the north shore and to
Cieafuegos on the south shore of Santa Clara,
except within the Spanish trochas. There
are no domestic animals or crops on the rich
fields and pastures except such as are under
guard in the immediate vicinity of the
towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold
in these four western provinces just what
their army sits on. Every man, woman and
child and every domestic animal, wherever
their columns have reached, is under guard
and within their so-called fortifications. To
describe one place is to describe all. To
repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is
•concentration and desolation. This is the
'pacified' condition of the four western prov
inces.
"West of Havana is mainly the rich to
bacco country; east, so far as I went, a
sugar region. Nearly all the sugar mills are
destroyed between Havana and Sagua. Two
or three were standing in the vicinity of
Sagua, and in part running, surrounded, as
are the villages, by trochas and 'forts' or pal
isades of the royal palm and fully guarded.
Toward and near Cienfuegos there were more
mills running, but all with the same protec
tion. It is said that the owners of these
mills near Cienfuegos have been able to
obtain special favors of the Spanish govern
ment in the way of a large force of soldiers,
but that they also, as well as all the rail
roads, pay taxes to the Cubans for immunity.
I had no means of verifying this. It is the
common talk among those who have better
means of knowing.
"All the country people in the four western
provinces, about 400,000 in number, remain
ing outside the fortified towns when Wey-
ler's order was ma.de, were driven into these
towns, and these are the reconcentrados.
They were peasantry, many of them farmers,
some land-owners, others renting lands and
owning more or less stock; others working
on estates and cultivating small patches, and
even a small patch in that fruitful clime will
support a family. It is but fair to say that
the normal condition of these people was
very different from that which prevails in
this country. Their standard of comfort and
prosperity was not high, measured by our
own. But according to their standards and
requirements their conditions of life were
satisfactory.
"They lived mostly in cabins made of palm
or in wooden houses. Some of them had
houses of stone, the blackened walls of
which are all that remain to show that the
country was ever inhabited. The first clause
of Weyler's order reads as follows:
" 'I order and command: First, all the in
habitants of the country, or outside of the line
of fortifications of the towns, shall within the
period of eight days concentrate themselves
in the town so occupied by the troops. Any
individual who, after the expiration of this
period, is found in the uninhabited parts will
be considered a rebel and tried as such.'
"The other three sections forbid the trans
portation of provisions from one town to an
other without permission of the military au
thority; direct the owners of cattle to bring
them into the towns; prescribe that the eight
days shall be counted from the publication of
the proclamation to the head town of the
municipal district, and state that if news is
furnished of the enemy which can be made
use of it will serve as a 'recommendation.'
"Many doubtless did not learn of this order.
Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning.
Its execution was left largely to the guerril
las to drive in all that had not obeyed, and I
was informed that in many cases a torch was
applied to their homes with no notice and the
inmates fled with such clothing as they might
have on, their stock and other belongings be
ing appropriated by the guerrillas. When
they reached the towns they were allowed to
build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and
vacant places within the trocha and left to
live if they could. Their huts are about 10
by 15 feet in size, and for want of space are
usually crowded together very closely. They
have no floor but the ground and no furni
ture, and after a year's wear but little cloth
ing except such stray substitutes as they can
extemporize.
"With large families, or with more than
one in this little space, the commonest sani
tary provisions are impossible. Conditions
are unmentionable in this respect. Torn
from their homes, with foul earth, foul air,
foul water and foul food, or none, what won
der that one-half have died and that one-
quarter of the living are so diseased that
they cannot be saved. A form of dropsy is a
common disorder resulting from these condi
tions. Little children are still walking about
with arms and chest terribly emaciated, eyes
swollen and abdomen bloated to three times
the natural size. The physicians say these
cases are hopeless.
"Deaths in the streets have not been un
common. I was told by one of our consuls
that they have been found dead about the
markets in the morning, where they had
crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food
from the early hucksters, and that there had
been oases where they had dropped dead in
side the markets, surrounded by food. These
people were independent and self-supporting
before Weyler's order. They are not beggars
even now. There are plenty of professional
beggars in every town among -the regular
residents, but these country people, the re-
14
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
concentrados, have not learned the art.
Rarely is a hand held out to you for alms
when going among their huts, but the sight
of them makes an appeal stronger than
•words.
"Of the hospitals I need not speak. Others
have described their condition far better than
I can. It is not within the narrow limits of
my vocabulary to portray it. I went to
Cuba with a strong conviction that the pic
ture had been overdrawn; that a few cases
of starvation and suffering had inspired and
stimulated the press correspondents, and
they had given free play to a strong, natural
and highly cultivated imagination. Before
starting I received through the mail a leaflet
published by the Christian Herald, with cuts
of some of the sick and starving reconcen-
trados, and took it with me, thinking these
were rare specimens got up to make the
worst possible showing. I saw plenty as
bad and worse; many that should not be
photographed and shown. I could not be
lieve that out of a population of 1,600,000,
200,000 had died within these Spanish forts—
practically prison walls — within a few
months past from actual starvation and dis
eases caused by insufficient and improper
food.
"My inquiries were entirely outside of
sensational sources. They were made of our
medical officers, of our consuls, of city
alcaldes (mayors), of relief committees, of
leading merchants and bankers, physicians
and lawyers. Several of my informants were
Spanish born, but every time the answer
was that the case had not been overstated.
What I saw I cannot tell so that others can
see it. It must be seen with one's own
eyes to be realized. The Los Pasos hospital
in Havana has been recently described by
one of my colleagues, Senator Gallinger, and
I cannot say that his picture was overdrawn,
for even his fertile pen could not do that.
He visited it after Dr.Lessar.one of Miss Bar
ton's very able and efficient assistants, had
renovated it and put in cots. I saw it when
400 women and children were lying on the
stone floors in an indescribable state of
emaciation and disease, many with the
scantiest coverings of rags, and such rags,
and sick children naked as they came into
the world. And the conditions in the other
cities are even worse.
"Miss Barton needs no indorsement from
me. I had known and esteemed her for
many years, but had not half appreciated her
capability and devotion to her work. I es
pecially looked into her business methods,
fearing here would be the greatest danger
of mistake, that there might be want of
system and waste and extravagance, but
found she could teach me on these points. I
visited the warehouse where the supplies are
received and distributed, saw the methods
of checking, visited the hospitals established
or organized and supplied by her, saw the
food distributed in several cities and towns,
and everything seems to me to be conducted
in the best manner possible. The ample fire
proof warehouse in Havana, owned by a
Cuban firm, is given, with a gang of labor
ers, free of charge, to unload and reship
supplies. The children's hospital in Ha
vana, a very large, fine private residence, is
hired at the cost of less than $100 a month,
not a fifth of what it would command in this
city. It is under the admirable management
of Mrs. Dr. Lessar of New York, a German
lady and trained nurse. I saw the rapid
improvement of the first children taken there.
All Miss Barton's assistants are excellently
fitted for their duties. In short, I saw noth
ing to criticise, but everything to commend.
The American people may be assured that
their bounty will reach the sufferers with
the least possible cost and in the best man
ner in every respect.
"And if our people could see a small
fraction of the need they would pour more
'freely from their liberal store' than ever
before for any cause.
"When will the need for this help end?
Not until peace comes and the reconcen-
trados can go back to their country, rebuild
thtir homes, reclaim their tillage plats,
which quickly run up to brush in that won
derful soil and clime, and until they can be
free from danger of molestation in so doing.
Until then the American people must in the
main care for them. It is true that the al
caldes, other local authorities and relief
committees are now trying to do something,
and desire, I believe, to do the best they can.
But the problem is beyond their means and
capacity and the work is one to which they
are not acccustomed.
"Gen. Blanco's order of Nov. 12 last some
what modifies the Weyler order, but is of
little or no practical benefit. Its applica
tion is limited to farms, 'properly defended,'
and the owners are obliged to build 'centers
of defense.' Its excution is completely in
the discretion of the local military authori
ties, and they know the terrible military ef
ficiency of Weyler's order in stripping the
country of all possible shelter, food or source
of information for an insurgent, and will be
slow to surrender this advantage. In fact,
though the order was issued four months
ago, I saw no beneficent results from it
worth mentioning. I do not impugn Gen.
Blanco's motives and believe him to be an
amiable gentleman and that he would be glad
to relieve the condition of the reconcentrados
if he could do so without loss of any mili
tary advantage, but he knows that all Cu
bans are insurgents at heart, and none now
under military control will be allowed to go
from under it.
"I wish I miight speak of the country, of
its surpassing richness. I have never seen
one to compare with it. On this point I agree
with Columbus, and believe every one be-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
15
SPANISH FLAG CAPTURED AT CAVITE.
tween his time and mine must be of the same
opinion. It is indeed a land 'where every pros
pect pleases and only man is vile.'
"I had but little time to study the race
question and have read nothing on it, so can
only give hasty impressions. It is said that
there are nearly 200,000 Spaniards in Cuba
out of a total population of 1,600,000. They
live principally in the towns and cities.
The small shopkeepers in the towns and their
clerks are mostly Spaniards. Much of the
larger business, too, and of the property in
the cities, and in a less degree in the country,
is in their hands. They have an eye to thrift,
and as everything possible in the way of
trade and legalized monopolies in which the
country abounds is given to them by the
government, many of them acquire property.
I did not learn that the Spanish residents of
the island had contributed largely in blood
or treasure to suppress the insurrection.
"There are, or were before the war, about
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
1,000,000 Cubans on the island, 200,000 Span
iards (which means those born in Spain) and
less than 500,000 of negroes and mixed blood.
The Cuban whites are pure Spanish blood,
and, like the Spaniards, usually dark in com
plexion, but oftener lighter, so far as
I noticed, than the Spaniards. The per
centage of colored to white has been steadily
diminishing for more than fifty years, and is
not now over 25 per cent of the total. In fact,
the number of colored people has been actu
ally diminishing for nearly that time.
"The Cuban farmer and laborer is by na
ture peaceable, kindly, gay, hospitable, light-
hearted and improvident. There is a prov
erb among the Cubans that 'Spanish bulls
cannot be bred in Cuba' — that is, that the
Cubans, though they are of Spanish blood,
are less excitable and of a quieter tempera
ment. Many Cubans whom I met spoke in
strong terms against bull fighting; that it was
a brutal institution, introduced and mainly
patronized by the Spaniards. One thing that
was new to me was to learn the superiority
of the well-to-do Cuban over the Spaniard
in tne matter of education. Among those in
good circumstances there can be no doubt
that the Cuban is far superior in this re
spect. And the reason of it is easy to see.
They have been educated in England, France
or this country, while the Spaniard has such
education as his own country furnished.
"The colored people seem to me by nature
quite the equal, mentally and physically, of
the race in this country. Certainly physic
ally they are by far the larger and stronger
race on the island. There is little or no
race prejudice, and this has doubtless been
greatly to their advantage. Eighty-five
years ago there were one-half as many free
negroes as slaves, and this proportion was
slowly increasing until emancipation.
"It is said that there are about 60,000
Spanish soldiers now in Cuba fit for duty
out of over 200,000 that have been ;ent there.
The rest have died, been sent home sick
and in the hospitals, and some have been
killed, notwithstanding the official reports.
They are conscripts, many of them very
young and generally small men. One hun
dred and thirty pounds is a fair estimate of
their average weight. They are quiet and
obedient, and if well drilled and led I be
lieve would fight fairly well, but not at all
equal to our men. Much more would de
pend on the leadership than with us. The
officer must lead well and be one in whom
they have confidence, and this applies to
both sides alike. As I saw no drills or regu
lar formation, I inquired about them of
many persons, and was informed that they
had never seen a drill. I saw perhaps 10,000
Spanish troops, but not a piece of artillery
nor a tent. They live in barracks in the
towns and are seldom out for more than a
day, returning to town at night.
"They have little or no equipment for sup
ply trains or for a field campaign such as
we have. Their cavalry horses are scrubby
little native ponies, weighing not over 800
pounds, tough and hardy, but for the most
part in wretched condition, reminding one
of the mounts of Don Quixote and his squire.
Some of the officers have good horses —
mostly American, I think. On both sides
cavalry is considered the favorite and the
dangerous fighting arm. The tactics of the
Spanish, as described to me by an eyewit
ness and participant in some of their bat
tles, is for the infantry, when threatened by
insurgent cavalry, to form a hollow square
and fire away, ad libitum and without ceas
ing, until time to march back to town. It
does not seem to have entered the minds of
either side that a good infantry force can
take care of itself and repulse everywhere
an equal number of cavalry, and there are
everywhere positions where cavalry would be
at a disadvantage.
"Having called on Gov. and Capt.-Gen.
Blanco and received his courteous call in re
turn, I could not with propriety seek com
munication with insurgents. I had plenty of
offers of safe conduct to Gomez' camp, and
was told that if I would write him ar an
swer would be returned safely within ten
days at most. I saw several who had visited
the insurgent camps, and was sought out by
an insurgent field officer, who gave me the
best information received as to the insurgent
force. His statements were moderate, and I
was credibly informed that he was entirely
reliable. He claimed that the Cubans had
about 30,000 now in the field, some in every
province, but mostly in the two eastern
provinces and eastern Santa Clara, and this
statement was corroborated from other good
sources. Tbey have a force all the time in
Havana province itself, organized as four
small brigades and operating in small bands.
"Ruiz was taken, tried and shot within
about a mile and a half of the railroad, and
about fifteen miles cut of Havana, on the
road to Matanzas, a road more traveled than
any other, and which I went over four times.
Aranguren was killed about three miles the
other side of the road, and about the same
distance — fifteen or twenty miles — from Ha
vana. They were well armed, but very poorly
supplied with ammunition. They are not al
lowed to carry many cartridges — sometimes
not more than one or two. The infantry
especially are poorly clad. Two small squads
of prisoners which I saw, however — one of
half a dozen, in the streets of Havana, and
one of three, on the cars — were better clothed
than the average Spanish soldier. Each of
these three prisoners, though surrounded by
guards, was bound by the arms and wrists
by cords, and they were all tied together
by a cord running along the lines — a speci
men of the amenities of their warfare. About
one-third of the Cuban army are colored,
mostly in the, infantry, as the cavalry fur-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
17
UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP MAINE AT ANCHOR IN HAVANA HARBOR.
nished their own horses. This field officer,
an American from a southern state, spoke
in the highest terms of these colored sol
diers; that they were as good fighters and
had more endurance than the whites, could
keep up with the cavalry on a long march
and come in fresh at night.
"The dividinc lines between parties are the
most straight ?.,a clear-cut that have ever
come to my knowledge. The division in our
war was by no means so clearly defined. It is
Cuban against Spaniard. It is practically the
entire Cuban population on one side and the
Spanish army and the Spanish citizens on
the other. I do not count the autonomists in
this division, as they are thus far too incon
siderable in numbers to be worth counting.
Gen. Blanco filled the civil offices with men
who had been autonomists and were still
classed as such. But the march of events
had satisfied most of them that the chance
for autonomy came too late. It falls as a talk
of compromise wouM have fallen the last
year or two of our war. If it succeeds it can
only be by armed force, by the triumph of
the Spanish army, and the success of the
Spanish arms would be easier by Weyler's
policy and method, for in that the Spanish
army and people believe. There is no doubt
that Gen. Blanco is acting in entire good
faith; that he desires to give the Cubans a
fair measure of autonomy, as Campos did
at the close of the ten-year war. He has, of
course, a few cordial followers, but the army
and Spanish citizens do not want genuine
autonomy, for that means government by
the Cuban people. And it is not strange that
the Cubans say it comes too late.
"I have never had any communication,
direct or indirect, with the Cuban junta in
this country or any of its members, nor did I
have with any of the junta which exists in
every city and large town of Cuba. None of
the calls I made was upon parties of whose
sympathies I had the least knowledge except
that I knew some of them were classed as
autonomists. Most of my informants were
business men who had no sides and rarely ex
pressed themselves. I had no means of guess
ing in advance what their answers would ba
and was in most cases greatly surprised at
their frankness. I inquired in regard to
autonomy of men of wealth and men as
prominent in business as any in the cities of
Havana, Matanzas and Sagua, bankers, mer
chants, lawyers and autonomist officials,
some of them Spanish born but Cuban bred;
one prominent Englishman, several of them
known as autonomists, and several of them
telling me they were still believers in
autonomy if practicable,, but without excep
tion they replied that it was 'too late' for
that. Some favored a United States pro
tectorate, some annexation, some free Cuba,
not one has been counted favoring the insur
rection at first. They were business men and
wanted peace, but said it was too late for
peace under Spanish sovereignty. They
characterized Weyler's order in far stronger
terms than I can. I could not but conclude
that you do not have to scratch an autonomist
very deep to find a Cuban. There is soon to
be an election, but every polling place must
be inside a fortified town. Such elections
ought to be safe for the 'ins.'
"I have endeavored to state in not in
temperate mood what I saw and heard, and
18
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
to make no argument thereon, but leave
every one to draw his own conclusions. To
me the strongest appeal is not the barbarity
practiced by Weyler nor the loss of the
Maine, if our worst fears should prove true —
terrible as are both of these incidents — but
the spectacle of 1,500,000 people — the entire
native population of Cuba — struggling for
freedom and deliverance from the worst mis-
government of which I ever had knowledge.
But whether our action ought not to be in
fluenced by any one or all these things, and,
if so, how far, is another question. I am not
in favor of annexation, not because I appre
hend -any particular trouble from it, but be
cause it is not wise policy to take in any peo
ple of foreign tongue and training and with
out any strong guiding American element.
The fear that if free the people of Cuba
would be revolutionary is not so well founded
as has been supposed, and the conditions for
good self-government are far more favorable
The large number of educated and patriotic
men, the great sacrifices they have endured,
the peaceable temperament of the people
(whites and blacks), the wonderful prosperity
that would surely come with peace and good
home rule, the large influx of American and
English immigration and money, would all
be strong factors for stable institutions.
"But it is not my purpose at this time, nor
do I consider it my province, to suggest any
plan. I merely speak of the symptoms as I
saw them, but do not undertake to prescribe.
Such remedial steps as may be required may
safely be left to an American president and
the American people."
On March 28 President McKinley sent to
congress the full report of the court of in
quiry into the destruction of the Maine, and
this report gave convincing evidence that the
battleship was blown up by a submarine
mine in Havana harbor. The president's mes
sage which accompanied the report read as
follows:
"To the Congress of the United States:
For some time prior to the visit of the Maine
to Havana harbor our consular representa
tives pointed out the advantages to flow from
the visit of national ships to the Cuban
waters in accustoming the people to the
presence of our flag as the symbol of good
will and of our ships in the fulfillment of
the mission of protection to American inter
ests, even though no immediate need there
for might exist.
"Accordingly, on Jan. 24 last, after con
ference with the Spanish minister, in which
the renewal of visits of our war vessels to
Spanish waters was discussed and accepted,
the peninsular authorities at Madrid and
Havana were advised of the purpose of this
government to resume friendly naval visits
at Cuban ports, and that in that view the
Maine would forthwith call at the port of
Havana. The announcement was received
by the Spanish government with appreciation
of the friendly character of the visit of the
Maine, and with notification of intention to
return the courtesy by sending Spanish ships
to the principal ports of the United States.
Meanwhile the Maine entered the port of
Havana on Jan. 25, her arrival being marked
with no special incident besides the ex
change of customary and ceremonial visits.
"The Maine continued in the harbor of Ha
vana during the three weeks following her
arrival. No appreciable excitement attended
her stay. On the contrary a feeling of relief
and confidence followed the resumption of
the long interruption of friendly intercourse.
So noticeable was this immediate effect of
her visit that the consul-general strongly
urged that the presence of our ships in
Cuban waters should be kept up by retain
ing the Maine at Havana, or in the event of
her recall by sending another vessel there to
take her place.
"'At 9:40 in the evening of Feb. 15 the
Maine was destroyed by an explosion, by
which the entire forward part of the cabin
was utterly wrecked. In this catastrophe two
officers and 260 of her crew perished, those
who were not killed outright by the explosion
being penned between decks by the tangle of
wreckage and drowned by the immediate
sinking of the hull. Prompt assistance was
rendered by the neighboring vessels anchored
in the harbor, aid being especially given by
the boats of the Spanish cruiser Alfonso
XII. and the Ward line steamer City of
Washington, which lay not far distant. The
wounded were generously cared for by the
authorities at Havana, the hospitals being
freely opened to them, while the earliest re
covered bodies of the dead were interred by
the municipality in a public cemetery in the
city. Tributes of grief and sympathy were
offered from all official quarters of the
island.
"The appalling calamity fell upon the peo
ple of our country with crushing force, and
for a brief time an intense excitement pre
vailed, which in a community less just and
self-controlled than ours might have led to
hasty acts of blind resentment. This spirit,
however, soon gave way to the calmer proc
esses of reason and to the resolve to inves
tigate the facts and await the material proof
before forming a judgment as to the cause,
the responsibility, and, if the facts war
ranted, the remedy due. This course neces
sarily recommended itself from the outset to
the executive, for only in the light of a dis
passionately ascertained certainty could it
determine the nature and measure of its full
duty in the matter.
"The usual procedure was followed, as in
all cases of casualty or disaster to national
vessels of any maritime state. A naval court
of inquiry was at once organized, composed
of officers well qualified by rank and practi
cal experience to discharge the onerous duty
imposed upon them. Aided by a strong force
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
19
YWisraiJiii
jggj^iilliUfeTMii/rfc «f'm <fjf.,j»i.
WARDROOM OF THE MAINE BEFORE THE EXPLOSION.
of wreckers and divers the court proceeded
to make a thorough investigation on the
spot, employing every available means for
the impartial and exact determination of the
causes of the explosion. Its operations have
been conducted with the utmost deliberation
and judgment, and while independently pur
sued no source of information was neglected
and the fullest opportunity was allowed for
a simultaneous investigation by the Spanish
authorities.
"The finding of the court of inquiry was
reached after twenty-three days of continu
ous labor, on the 21st day of March, instant,
and having been approved on the 22d by the
commander in chief of the United States
2(1
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
naval force on the north Atlantic station,
was transmitted to the executive.
"It is herewith laid before the congress, to
gether with the voluminous testimony taken
before the court. Its purport is, in brief, as
follows:
"When the Maine arrived at Havana she
was conducted by the regular government
pilot to buoy No. 4* to which she was moored
in from five ana one-half to six fathoms of
water. The state of discipline on board and
the condition of her magazines, boilers, coal
bunkers and storage compartments are
passed in review, with the conclusion that
excellent order prevailed, and that no indi-
CAPT. CHARLES D. SIGSBEE OF THE MAINE.
cation of any cause for an internal explosion
existed in any quarter.
"At 8 o'clock in the evening of Feb. 15
everything had been reported secure, and all
was quiet.
"At 9:40 the vessel was suddenly de
stroyed.
"There were two distinct explosions, with
a brief interval between them. The first
lifted the forward part of the ship very per
ceptibly; the second, which was more pro
longed, is attributed by the court to the par
tial explosion of two or more of the forward
magazines.
"The evidence of the divers establishes
that the after part of the ship was practically
intact, and sunk in that condition a very few
minutes after the explosion. The forward
part was completely demolished.
"Upon the evidence of concurrent external
cause the finding of the court is as follows:
"At frame 17 the outer shell of the ship,
from a point eleven and one-half feet from
the middle line of the ship and six feet above
the keel, when in its normal position, has
been forced up so as to be now about four
feet above the surface of the water; there
fore, about thirty-four feet above where it
would be had the ship sunk uninjured.
"The outside bottom plating is bent into a
reversed 'V shape, the after wing of which,
about fifteen feet broad and thirty-two feet in
length ffrom frame 17 to frame 25), is doubled
back upon itself, against the continuation of
the same plating extending forward.
"At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken in
two and keel bent into an angle similar to
the angle formed for the outside plates. This
break is about six feet below the surface of
the water and about thirty feet above its
normal position.
"In the opinion of the court this effect
could have been produced only by the ex
plosion of a mine situated under the bottom
of the ship, at about frame 18, and somewhat
on the port side of the ship.
"The conclusions of the court are: That
the loss of the Maine was not in any respect
due to fault or negligence on the part of any
of the officers or members of her crew.
"That the ship was destroyed by the explo
sion of a submarine mine, which caused the
partial explosion of two or more of her for
ward magazines; and,
"That no evidence has been obtainable fix
ing the responsibility for the destruction of
the Maine upon any person or persons.
"I have directed that the finding of the
court of inquiry and the views of this gov
ernment thereon be communicated to the
government of her majesty the queen, and
I do not permit myself to doubt that the
sense of justice of the Spanish nation will
dictate a course of action suggested by horinr
and the friendly relations of the two govein-
ments.
"It was the duty of the executive to advise
the congress of the result, and in the mean
time deliberate consideration is invoked.
"WILLIAM McKlNLEY.
"Executive Mansion, March 28, 1898."
The following is the full text of the report
of the court of inquiry:
"U. S. S. Iowa, First Rate, Key West, Fla.,
Monday, March 21, 1898.— After full and ma
ture consideration of all the testimony be
fore it the court finds as follows:
"1. That the United States batUeship Maine
arrived in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, on
the 25th day of January, 1898, and was taken
to buoy No. 4, in from five and a half to six
fathoms of water, by the regular government
pilot. The United States consul-general at
Havana had notified the authorities at that
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
TWO OB^ THE MAINE'S BIG GUNS.
place the previous evening of the intended
arrival of the Maine.
"2. The state of discipline on board the
Maine was excellent, and all orders and regu
lations in regard to the care and safety of
the ship were strictly carried out. All am
munition was stowed away in accordance
with instructions, and proper care was taken
whenever ammunition was handled. Nothing
was stowed in any one of the magazines or
shellrooms which was not permitted to be
stowed there. The magazines and shellrooms
were always locked after having been opened,
and after the destruction of the Maine the
keys were found in their proper place in the
captain's cabin, everything having been re
ported secure that evening at 8 o'clock.
"The temperatures of the magazines and
shellrooms were taken daily and reported.
The only magazine which had an undue
amount of heat was the after ten-inch maga
zine, and that did not explode at the time
the Maine was destroyed.
"The torpedo war heads were all stowed in
the after part of the ship under the ward-
•room, and neither caused nor participated
in the destruction of the Maine.
"The dry gun-cotton primers and det
onators were stowed in the cabin aft and
re-mote from the scene of the explosion.
"The waste was carefully looked after on
board the Maine to oviate danger. Special
orders in regard to this had been given by
the commanding officer.
"Varnishes, driers, alcohol and other com
bustibles of this nature were stowed on or
above the main deck and could not have had
anything to do with the destruction of the
Maine.
"The medical stores were stowed aft un
der the wardroom, and remote from the scene
of the explosion.
"No dangerous stores of any kind were
stowed below in any of the other storerooms.
"The coal bunkers were inspected. Of
those bunkers adjoining the forward maga
zine and shellrooms four were empty — name
ly, B 3, B 4, B 5, B 6, A 15 had been in use
that day and A 16 was full of New River coal.
This coal had been carefully inspected before
receiving it on board. The bunker in which
it was stowed was accessible on three sides
at all times, and on the fourth side at this
time on account of bunkers B 4 and B 6 be
ing empty. This bunker, A 16, had been in
spected that day by the engineer officer on
duty.
"The fire alarms in the bunkers were in
working order, and there had never been a
case of spontaneous combustion of coal on
board the Maine.
"The two after boilers of the ship were in
use at the time of the disaster, but for aux
iliary purposes only, with comparatively low
pressure of steam, and being tended by a re
liable watch. These boilers could not have
caused the explosion of the ship. The four
forward boilers have since been found by the
divers and are in fair condition.
"On the night of the destruction of the
Maine everything had been reported secure
for the night at 8 p. m. by reliable persons
through the proper authorities to the com
manding officer. At the time the Maine
22
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
was destroyed the ship was quiet, and, there
fore, least liable to accident caused by move
ments from those on board.
"3. The destruction of the Maine occurred
at 9:40 p. m., on the 15th day of February,
1898, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, being
at the time moored to the same buoy to which
she had been taken upon her arrival.
"There were two explosions of a distinctly
different character, with a very short but
distinct interval between them, and the for
ward part of the ship was lifted to a marked
degree at the time of the first explosion.
"The first explosion was more in the nature
of a report, like that of a gun; while the
second explosion was more open, prolonged
and of greater volume. This second explosion
was in the opinion of the court caused by the
partial explosion of two or more of the for
ward magazines of the Maine.
"4. The evidence bearing on this, being
principally obtained from divers, did not en
able the court to form a definite conclusion
as to the condition of the wreck, although it
was established that the after part of the
ship was practically intact and sunk in that
condition a few minutes after the destruction
of the forward part.
"The following facts in regard to the for
ward part of the ship are, however, estab
lished by the testimony: That portion of the
port side of the protective deck which ex
tends from about frame 30 to about frame 41
was blown up aft and over to port. The main
deck from about frame 30 to about frame 41
was blown up aft and slightly over to star
board, folding the forward part of the middle
superstructure over and on top of the after
part. This was, in the opinion of the court,
caused by the partial explosion of two or
more of the forward magazines of the Maine.
"5. At frame 17 the outer shell of the ship
from a point eleven and one-half feet from
the middle line of the ship, and six feet
above the keel when in its normal posi
tion, has been forced up so as to be now
about four feet above the surface of the
water, therefore about thirty-four feet above
where it would be had the ship sunk unin
jured. The outside bottom plating is bent
into a reversed V shape, the after wing of
which, about fifteen feet broad and thirty-
two feet in length (from frame 17 to frame
25), is doubled back upon itself against the
continuation of the same plating extending
forward.
"At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken in
two and the flat keel bent into an angle
similar to the angle formed by the outside
bottom plating. This break is now about
six feet below the surface of the water and
about thirty feet above its normal position.
"In the opinion of the court this effect
could have been produced only by the ex
plosion of a mine situated under the bottom
of the ship, at about frame 18, and somewhat
on the port side of the ship.
"6. The court finds that the loss of the
Maine on the occasion named was not in
any respect due to fault or negligence on
the part of any of the officers or members
of the crew of said vessel.
"7. In the opinion of the court the Maine
was destroyed by the explosion of a sub
marine mine, which caused the partial ex
plosion of two or more of her forward maga
zines.
"8. The court has been unable to obtain
evidence fixing the responsibility for the de
struction of the Maine upon any person or
persons.
"W, T. SAMPSON, Captain, U. S. N.,
"President.
"A. MARIX, Lieutenant-Commander, U.S.N.,
"Judge Advocate.
"The court having finished the inquiry it
was ordered to make adjourned at 11 a. m.
to await the action of the convening
authority.
"W. T. SAMPSON, Captain, U. S. N.,
"President.
"A. MARIX, Lieutenant-Commander, U.S.N.,
"Judge Advocate."
"U. S. Flagship New York, March 22, 1898,
Off Key West, Fla. — The proceedings and
findings of the court of inquiry in the above
cases are approved. M. SICARD,
"Rear-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the
U. S. Naval Force on the North Atlantic
Station."
The report of the court of inquiry was fol
lowed by insistent and imperative demands
from all parts of the country that congress
and the president immediately take radical
action. "Remember the Maine" became a na
tional watchword and congress was over
whelmed by the war spirit. War and Cuban
resolutions followed each other in congress
in rapid sequence, and President McKinley,
who was watching every move and at the
same time putting forth almost superhuman
efforts to postpone aggressive action until
such time as the navy and army were in bet
ter shape, was compelled to give way. On
April 3 Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, the American
consul-general at Havana, was ordered to
come home and bring with him all American
citizens in the Cuban capital. He left Ha
vana April 9, arriving in Key West the next
day. When President McKinley was as
sured that all Americans were out of Havana
he sent to congress the long-expected mes
sage April 11, asking authority to take meas
ures to secure a termination of hostilities in
Cuba and to secure in the island the estab
lishment of a stable government and to use
the military and naval forces of the United
States as might be necessary to carry out
his policy. He recommended the continua
tion of the distribution of food to the starv
ing people of Cuba. There was no reference
in his message of Cuban independence.
In anticipation of war the regular army
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
23
MAJ.-GEN. FITZHUGH LEE, COMMANDING THE 7TH ARMY CORPS.
was ordered to mobilize at Tampa, Mobile,
New Orleans and Chickamauga. On April 21
Gen. Woodford, the American minister to
Spain, was given his passports by the Span
ish government and left Madrid, and the next
morning the American fleet, under Admiral
Sampson, sailed from Key West to begin a
blockade of Havana and the northern coast
of Cuba. Two hours after it steamed out of
Key West's harbor the Nashville fired a shell
across the bow of the Buena Ventura, a Span
ish steamer, and the war with Spain began,
although the formal declaration of war was
not made by the United States until three
days later. The chapters following are some
of the "war stories" written by the corre
spondents of THE RECORD who were sent to
the front.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
DEWEY'S FLEET IN MIRS BAY.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
The Asiatic squadron is ready to start to
Manila on a moment's notice. We await
Consul Williams from Manila, and as soon
as he comes, be it night or day, the fleet will
move within the hour. I have started the
following letter to Hongkong in the hope that
it may arrive there in time for the mail
steamer China.
Long before this letter reaches Chicago I
hope to have sent some cables giving the
news of a decisive engagement. As nearly as
I can determine now the plan will be to send
the Concord, Petrel and probably the Mc-
Culloch into Manila bay in advance of the
other ships of the fleet. They are the smallest
ships and if they should be destroyed by
mines the fighting strength of the fleet would
not be greatly lessened. Then on getting
into the harbor they could steam to one side
so that the Olympia, Raleigh and Baltimore
could have a clear fire at the Spanish armada.
The Boston would enter last of all. This in
formation comes to me from the flag lieu
tenant in his instructions to our commander.
Of course, circumstances may entirely alter
this programme.
The ships will steam across the China sea
in open order, keeping about 1,200 yards
apart, except in thick weather, when they
will be more compact in the formation.
The commodore has asked the three news
paper men with the fleet to send no cable
grams which might reveal the plans of the
fleet, because these cablegrams would be re
turned at once to Madrid and from there to
Manila. Consequently there are a good many
things which it would be inadvisable to have
printed at this time and which it would not
be well to cable.
On Sunday, April 24, while the fleet was
still lying at anchor off Hongkong, we re
ceived pretty definite information that a
state of war existed between Spain and the
United States. We were notified that the
British secretary for the colonies, Joseph
Chamberlain, had decided that war had vir
tually begun, and that all British ports
would be compelled to observe strict neu
trality. The American squadron was given
until 4 o'clock Monday afternoon to leave
the harbor. The Boston, Concord, McCul-
loch and Petrel left Sunday afternoon at 2
o'clock. The Olympia, Baltimore and Ra
leigh left at 10 o'clock Monday morning.
Through the kindness of Commodore Dewey
I came up on the flagship.
The scenes and incidents attending the
departure of the warships were quite im
pressive. Promptly at 10 there was a simul
taneous movement forward by the three
ships, and then the band on every war ves
sel struck up "Hail Columbia." The Brit
ish soldiers on board of a British troopship
cheered as we passed, and the American
sailors answered vigorously. Littl steam
launches puffed alongside the Olympia and
the crowds of Americans on them waved
handkerchiefs and cheereed until the mouth
of the harbor was passed.
The Raleigh had unfortunately broken her
air pump the day before and the speed had
to be kept down. At about 3 o'clock the ves
sels dropped anchor in Mirs bay, which is a
little land-locked harbor thirty-five miles
north of Hongkong. The four other war
ships, which had gone the day before, were
ai anchor, and the two cargo boats, the
Nanshan and Zafiro, were lying off a short
distance. The combined fleet seemed to be
very formidable.
on board the flagship there was the great
est activity. Shells were being carried from
magazines forward to stations near the dif
ferent guns and great quantities of ammuni
tion were being distributed in all parts of the
ship. Up to this time no definite news had
reached the commodore that war had been
declared, but it was of course known that
the declaration would soon come.
At 6 o'clock a small smudge of smoke was
seen away out at sea, and an hour later a
big ship drew up to the Olympia and deliv
ered a cipher dispatch to the commodore.
A quarter of an hour later, from the col
ored lights on the foremast, the signal was
flashed through the night that war had been
declared. Immediately after, the signals read
that all the different commanders would re
port at once to the commodore. It was of
course known to every one on every ship
that in that star-chamber conference of the
powers the plan of action would be resolved
upon and the method of attack determined.
At 10 o'clock the conference was over, and
on board every ship there was the busiest
kind of preparation. From the flagship sig
nal lights came order after order, and all
through the night the pounding of mechanics
and the sharp shouts of officers sounded out
over the bay.
Guns were being loaded and every move-
able and unnecessary thing was being taken
from the decks.
The plan of the commodore, as nearly as
could be learned, was to await the arrival of
Consul Williams from Manila, and then with
the latter steam at once to Manila and storm
the town and fleet. The co-operation of the
consul is regarded as very important, be
cause he arrives from Manila to-day and will
have valuable information about the con
dition of the Spanish defenses. He left on
the Esmeralda Saturday afternoon and ex
perienced some difficulty in getting away. He
should be at Hongkong now.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SOUTH
PACIFIC
oi
MAP OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
In three days Manila will have been
reached and fighting will begin. The Span
ish are rapidly removing from the cities all
valuables and church treasures, more in an
ticipation of the fury of the rebels than of
any pillage by the Americans. Great num
bers of Spanish and foreign residents are
leaving the islands and it is doubtful
whether many besides natives and the Span
ish fighting force will be there when the fleet
arrives.
It is thought that the land batteries will
open up on the American fleet and that the
Spanish vessels will remain inside the harbor
behind the protection of a torpedo-filled strip
of water and the highlands flanking the bay.
In this way a short, decisive action will be
impossible, and it may be necessary to reduce
the forts and force an entrance to the harbor
in spite of torpedoes. In a straight-away
naval fight between the two forces it is
thought the Americans are vastly superior in
strength and equipment, though not in num
bers. The Spanish have four good ships and
a great number of small gunboats. Their
equipment is not thought to be the best, and
a ship like the Olympia or the Baltimore
ought to do considerable damage to any one
of their ships in about ten minutes of fair
fighting. The assistance of the rebel force
attacking the city from the land side, while
not being officially considered, is a factor
that will doubtless be very helpful.
It is also important that the result of the
engagement and maneuvers be accomplished
as quickly as possible, as during the bom
bardment the American fleet must lie in the
open sea and run the additional danger of
heavy weather. The typhoon season lasts
from about June 1 to Oct. 1, and it would be
exceedingly perilous to encounter one of
these terrors of the China sea unprotected.
A small bay north of Manila will be used as
a refuge in the event of z hurricane. It is
meagerly fortified and thei e would be no dif-
ficutly in effecting an entrance. Another
thing to consider will be the question of
supplies and coal. According to the inter
national treaty laws adopted at Paris, ships
of a combating power are allowed to obtain
coal at a neutral port only once in three
months. The nearest port where the Ameri
cans could obtain coal is Hongkong. Others
less easily accessible are Saigon, a French
port in China; Sarawak, Borneo; Singapore,
in the Straits Settlements, and the Chinese
ports Amoy, Foochow and Shanghai. Na
gasaki, Japan, though somewhat farther
away, could also be used.
There is a valuable supply of coal at Ma
nila, and it will be the chief endeavor of
Commodore Dewey to acquire it. If the siege
lasts some time the obtaining of supplies and
fuel will be a considerable handicap for the
American squadron.
A Spanish passenger steamship, anticipa
ting a declaration of war, went into Saigon a
few days ago and changed her flag to the
French ensign. This is permissible before the
declaration of war and assures her against
molestation from the Americans, although it
is uncomplimentary to the Spaniard's pa
triotism.
Last night the entire Asiatic squadron
lay in a group, dark and still, and there
was hardly a sound to be heard from the
warships. The orders had gone out from
the flagship that no lights were to be shown,
and in consequence the different vessels
could barely be seen against t*>a vague hills.
Only dark black masses showed where the
ships, with their hundreds of seamen and
ominous heavy guns, were lying. On Mon
day night we could see thd red and white
glow of dozens of signal lights. Last night
there were only somber 1 lack spars rising
against the shifting f.ray ^cudf. There was
a feeling of waiting and e.vpectancy in the
air.
All day there was feverish activity on the
different vessels. Every piece ( F machinery
has been carefully examined, pump^ have
been overhauled, ammunition put in readi
ness and by each gun thei > * ; a case of shells
ready for immediate use. While :"; seems
very improbable that a hostile act may take
place here, preparations are made for such
an emergency.
Early yesterday morning, about 4 o'clock,
a small steam vessel came quietly in the
bay and approached the Olympia. General
quarters was sounded and dozens of guns
were trained on her. She came to a peace
ful anchorage and proved to I 3 a tug from
Hongkong. A vigilant watch is being kept
to prevent any vessel of craft approaching
too near the fleet.
Mirs bay is simply a protected cove, with
hardly a habitation in sight. Back in the
hills there is a little Chinese village of a
hundred inhabitants, but except f T this
there is no evidence of life on l'->e shores.
Two or three small native sampans occasion
ally approach our anchorage and out to sea
the faint outline of a junk's sail.? may be
seen now and again, but, considered from the
standpoint of seclusion, there could hardly
be a more desirable rendezvous than this
bay.
There is naturally a great deal of specu
lation about the outcome of the attack on
Manila. With some of the officers there is
an expressed feeling that the American fleet
will speedily silence the Spanish guns and
that the conquest of Manila will be quick.
There is a great deal of sanguine expecta
tion, but behind all this show of confidence
one feels that there is some doubt. The fact
that the Spanish force numbers a great
many more vessels than ours and that the
land force is formidable makes an easy con
quest appear not too intensely probable.
While the naval conflict is going on in
Manila bay it is expected that the rebels,
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
who are said to be from 10,000 to 20,000
strong, will probably begin a concerted at
tack on the city. They will be met by the
Spanish soldiers, numbering about 8,000, ancl
it is expected that a stubborn battle will re
sult. The residents of the better class are
leaving the island by every steamer, and it is
reported that a ship has sailed for Spain
laden with church jewels and treasure.
This morning a heavy mist has settled
down over the bay and a fine drizzle of rain
is falling. A chilly, dismal feeling has come
with the general grayness and there is a
suggestion of early fall in the air. There is
great anxiety to get under way, and the of
ficers are chafing under the tedious waiting.
Every day lost now gives more time for prep
aration at Manila. No one knows this better
than the commodore, and consequently this
knowledge adds to the general uneasiness on
the vessels. According to all calculation
Consul Williams should have arrived at
Hongkong last night and at the very latest
joined the squadron this morning. As he has
not come the suspicion arises that possibly
some mishap or accident may have happened
to prevent his joining the fleet.
Early this morning a small steam vessel
passed the mouth of the harbor and it was
thought to be a British torpedo boat. From
the time it came in sight until it steamed be
hind the hills to the south its movements
were carefully watched from the American
vessels.
THE BATTLE OF MANILA.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON
The American Asiatic squadron, consisting
of the flagship Olympia, Baltimore, Raleign,
Boston, Concord, Petrel and McCulloch, and
under command of Commodore Dewey, ac
companied by the transports Nanshan and
Zafiro, left Mirs bay at 2 p. m. April 27 for
Manila. The fleet proceeded in regular for
mation across the China sea, 640 miles, and
sighted Cape Bolinoa at 3:30 a. m. April 30.
This point is about 115 miles north of the en
trance to Manila bay. The Boston and Con
cord, and later the Baltimore, were then sent
in advance of the fleet as scouts, and to ex
plore Subig bay for two Spanish warships,
reported to be there. This bay is thirty-five
miles north of Manila bay.
At 5:15 o'clock on the afternoon of April
30 the squadron came to a stop, and was re
joined by the Baltimore, Boston and Con
cord, which failed to find the Spaniards. A
conference of commanders was held. It was
decided to run past the forts of Corregidor
island in the mouth of the bay, which was
said to be strongly fortified, that night. The
ships were ordered to conceal all lights ex-
cens a faint stern light, which could be seen
only from the direct rear, and slip by the
forts in darkness. The Olympia, Baltimore,
Raleigh, Boston, Petrel and Concord passed
safely, but the McCulloch was fired on with
out effect. The Boston and McCulloch re
turned the firing and gradually the entire
fleet was out of range and safely within the
bay. From this point to Manila it is seven
teen miles, and to the naval station at Cavite
about fifteen miles. The fleet arrived oppo
site Cavite at 5 a. m. and were met by imme
diate fire from the Spanish forts and war
ships. The battle then began. The Olympia,
Baltimore, Raleigh, Concord, Boston and
Petrel steamed over to assail the Spanish at
closer range. At 7:45 the American squadron
withdrew for consultation and at 10:45 re
newed the attack, the firing being continued
until 12:45 in the afternoon, when the Span
iards surrendered.
The Americans were opposed by five land
batteries, well distributed, and by four cruis
ers, two protected cruisers, three gunboats
and some smaller vessels, said to be torpedo
boats. The flagship Reina Cristina, the
Castilla, the Don Antonio de Ulioa and a
transport, probably the Manila, were sunk.
The Don Juan de Austria, the Isle de Luzon,
the Isle de Cuba, the Marques del Ducro, the
Gen. Lezo, the El Correo and one whose
name is unknown, were burned. Two tugs,
two whaleboats and three launches were cap
tured. The loss of life on the Cristina was
130, including the captain. Rear-Admiral
Patricio Montejo y Pasaron was wounded.
The loss on the other ships is not yet known,
but is said to be heavy. The American fleet
was practically uninjured, scarcely $100 dam
age being done. Six men were wounded, the
most serious hurt being a broken leg.
Word was sent to the governor of the
islands, asking him to surrender the city of
Manila. Refusal, he was told, would cause
the city to be bombarded. The Raleigh and
Baltimore were sent to the mouth of the bay
to blow up some mines and the rest of the
fleet is now at Cavite, awaiting an answer
from the governor.
Following is a running account of the
movements of the fleet from the time the
ships left Mirs bay until the present time
(May 6):
April 27 — About 11 o'clock a faint smudge
of smoke on the horizon at Mirs bay marked
the approach of a tug from Hongkong. It
proved to be the long and eagerly expected
'THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
vessel bearing Consul Williams, just from
Manila. It steamed swiftly to a position near
the flagship Olympia. Anticipating that the
tug would contain the consul, all the cap
tains in the fleet were summoned to the
flagship, and a number of captain's gigs
tossed about in the vicinity of the big gray
vessel. One of these was hailed to the tug,
and two figures, Consul Williams and Con-
sul-General Wildman of Hongkong, mounted
the gangway of the Olympia. A number of
Philippine-islanders, rebel refugees, were on
the tug, and one of them was given passage
over on the Zafiro, one of the transports.
A signal was at once sent out ordering all
ships to prepare to get under way at 2
o'clock. Then followed a time of furious
coal-firing, and the volumes of black smoke
from the funnels told of the activity on
board the different vessels.
With Lieut. Elliott I took a hurried trip
over to the Nanshan and the Zafiro and last
the Baltimore. There were hurried intro
ductions and a good deal of strained joking
about how the squadron would soon be in
Manila bay. Many a hope was expressed
that we should all be drinking one another's
health in Manila within a few days. The
big eight-inch guns were painted with the
one monotonous lead color that covers all
the ships, and there was the greatest activ
ity everywhere.
Just before 2 o'clock we returned on board
the McCulloch, and the gig was hoisted in
place for the departure. Consul-General
Wildman, on the bridge of the tug Fame, is
waving his good-by with a handkerchief.
Two *or three Chinese 'sampans are tossing
in and out among the various ships, and
there is a lot of signaling from the flagship.
Consul \Villiams has been put on board the
Baltimore, the accommodations on the
Olympia being insufficient for passengers.
At 2 o'clock the Olympia raised her an
chor. The marines were drawn up on the
quarterdeck, and the band struck up the
inspiring march from "El Capitan." The
McCulloch started at the same time, and
the Raleigh took a position on the starboard
quarter of the flagship. The McCulloch took
a place about 100 yards almost abeam of the
stern of the Raleigh, and the Baltimore
moved rapidly up to the port beam of the
Raleigh. The Petrel took a position corre
sponding to that of the McCulloch, except
she was on the port quarter of the Balti
more. Prom the flagship a white flag with
red diagonal crossbars floats at the fore
mast, the commodore's pennant at the main
and the American flag at the main peak.
There is continual signaling from the Olym
pia, and the various vessels are acting in
response to these signals. There is no smoke
coming from the Olympia's funnels, but from
the Baltimore a heavy volume pours from
her afterfunnel. The flag flies from the
stern, and a line of sailors' clothing is hang
ing out to dry from the stem to the fore
mast. A single funnel, the forward one of
of the Raleigh, pours out a generous column
of smoke, and her decorations, even includ
ing the clothesline, are the same as the
Baltimore's. Her flag, however, flies from
the main peak. The other vessels fly their
flags from the main peak, with the exception
of the transports. Their flags fly from the
stern staff. From the foreyard of each ship
there is a funnel-shaped speed indicator,
which looks at a distance like a small black'
pennant.
The sky is dull colored and leaden and the
water is overcast to almost the same color.
There is a gentle swell and a soft breeze
blows in from the China sea. The big head
land that forms the northern side of Mirs
bay looks flat and purplish blue.
The formation is now changing gradually.
The McCullochhas advanced to a position op
posite the Olympia. There is a general
shifting of places, and after some time the
permanent formation is effected. There are
two lines, the Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh,
Petrel, Concord and Boston being in one line
in the order named. The McCulloch heads
the second line, which is formed by herself,
the Nanshan and Zafiro.
>n. Concord. Petrol. Kaleigh. Baltimore. Olympia
Zufiro. Naushan. McCulloch.
This design illustrates the permanent for
mation.
At 6 o'clock all hands on the McCulloch are
piped on the main deck. The crew, about
seventy in number, are all lined up on the
port side, except the men who have tc remain
below. The officers are lined up on the star
board side, and then, just a little before sun
set, Lieut. Elliott, who commands the auxil
iary squadron, announces that the commo
dore had signaled from the Olympia that the
proclamation of war issued by the Spanish
authorities at Manila should be read to all
hands on board the squadron. He then reads
the document. There is perfect silence and
only the strong voice of the reader is heard.
The proclamation is a wonderful thing. It Is
an inflammatory cry to the people of the
Philippines to unite against the sacrilegious
vandals who are coming over to loot their
churches and insult their women. It is an
appeal to the ignorant passions of an unlet
tered people. At the conclusion of the read
ing of the proclamation, which contained a
number of uncomplimentary things about
the American seamen and nation in general,
there is a second of silence and then the
crew breaks out in three ringing cheers for
the American flag.
To-riight the squadron is moving along to
the southeast at an eight-knot speed. The
vessels are marked only by their lights, and
it is so dark that even the outlines of the
hulls are lost entirely. The sight of this long
string of lights scattered for a mile on the
ocean, steaming on like a procession, is one
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
39
*%r
4^. £^L-^.
2>— ^
REAR-ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY.
[Sketched on board the Olympia.]
that cannot be forgotten. The seamen on the
McCulloch are lounging on the deck for
ward and there is a great deal of singing.
The flagship is signaling orders regulating
speed and other matters to the rest of the
squadron. The red and white lights of the
signals wink and glow like fireflies as they
send their messages out through the night,
and once in awhile a red rocket soars aloft
and floats off to the stern until it snuffs out
like the bursting of a bubble.
April 28 — At about 5:15 a. m. a ship was
sighted on the starboard bow of the McCul
loch bound toward the Philippines. It proved
to be the ship of a friendly power, and soon
disappeared. The squadron still holds the
same formation as yesterday. A fairly rough
sea is on, and during the early morning the
sky looked black and threatening. Toward
9 o'clock the sky begins to clear. There is
a general adjustment of men for the various
guns of the McCulloch, and the three-inch
ammunition is all being shifted forward. As
the crew on this vessel is comparatively
small, even the three civilians, including my
self, are assigned positions with the gun and
ammunition squads, and are drilled in the
use of sabers and small arms. A sick bay
is being arranged with an operating table on
the berth deck and four men are assigned to
assist the surgeon.
April 29 — Last night there was a heavy
sea. The Nanshan and Zafiro, both deep in
the water, the former with coal and the lat
ter with provisions, were rolling and pitch
ing fearfully. The McCulloch was also reel
ing and staggering along, making heavy
weather. During the evening the Olympia's
30
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
searchlights were whipping across the sky,
sweeping the horizon and searching for ves
sels that might approach. It was very dark
and the position of the different ships was
marked only by two or three lights which
were swung aloft. They looked like con
stellations in the sky, for no part of the body
of the ships was visible and every porthole or
crevice through which light might filter was
carefully and -effectually closed. A little later
there was signal practice among the vessels
of line of battle.
To-day men on the McCuuloch have been
working on the final preparations. The rig
ging has been "snaked" with zigzag ropes,
so that if a heavy wire rope is shot in two it
will not fall on the deck. The carpenter has
made a number of shot plugs which will be
used to stop up any holes made by shells in
the hull. He has also made a stretcher to
bear the wounded. This is the most un
pleasantly suggestive thing that has been
done. It has been arranged to have life-
preservers and every other buoyant object
lying where they will float in case the ship
goes down. In this way there will be objects
for floating men to sustain themselves on.
The mattresses of the cabin and wardroom are
buoyant, as well as the cushions of the life
boats. All the sails are taken from the sail
loft and banked up on the forecastle as a
protection against rifle bullets for the men
stationed in that exposed position. The decks
will be cleared for action some time to-day,
as it is expected that the squadron will reach
Manila early to-morrow morning. The life
boats are being wrapped in canvas to prevent
splinters flying if the boats are struck by
shells. There are frequent gun drills and
every man is being drilled in his particular
station.
It is expected that land will be sighted to
night or early to-morrow morning. There is
a heavy sea this afternoon and a great deal
of lightning to the south. In the evening
there is a signal drill. Cipher signals are
being sent from the Baltimore to the flag
ship. As Consul Williams is on the former
vessel, it is probable that some of his sug
gestions are being sent to the flagship.
The stars are out at 9 o'clock, but at 10
there is a fearful downpour of rain.
April 30— Early this morning a quarter
master announced land in sight. This is
Bolmoa cape, about 110 miles north of the
entrance to Manila bay. The Boston and
Concord are sent about six miles in advance
of the fleet as scouts. The land, which is the
northern part of Luzon island, on which Ma
nila is situated, is off to the east about five
miles. It looks green and beautiful in the
bright morning sunlight. It is strongly sug
gestive of the outline of Cuba, approaching
Havana from the north. There are faint
blue lines of hills and mountains, with little
patches of dark colored vendure on the coast.
A bluish haze "hangs over the land, and the
hills and mountains grade off in tints until
the farthermost ranges are only pale flat
tones scarcely darker than the sky.
The Boston and Concord are now so far
ahead of the fleet that only the smoke from
their funnels marks their position.
A sail was sighted off the starboard bow
about 9:30 a. m., but it proved to be a small
schooner. The Zafiro has just been dis
patched to intercept her. She steamed out to
the schooner and overhauled and examined
her. After doing this she resumed her place
in the formation. On the McCulloch they are
clearing the decks for action. Companion
stairways that are not absolutely essential
are being stowed away, fixed railings taken
down, and sails are being banked forward
for breastworks. There is no visible excite
ment so far, but there is a business-like calm
which portends something imminent. We
are now steaming about eight knots an hour
and it is growing oppressively warm. At this
rate of speed the fleet will arrive at Corregi-
dor island about 2 or 3 o'clock. Whether
hostilities will begin at once or whether
speed be increased is still a matter of uncer
tainty. The feeling seems to prevail that the
great struggle will not come before to-mor
row (Sunday) morning, but circumstances
may precipitate it this afternoon or evening.
The Baltimore has now her four boilers on
and has started forward to join the Boston
and Concord, which are about fifteen miles
ahead. It is believed these ships will enter
Subig bay, about thirty miles north of Ma
nila bay, to see whether any Spanish war
ships are there. It has been reported that
two Spanish vessels are in Subig bay, and it
will be necessary to dislodge and destroy
them before proceeding to Manila bay. In
the event of an engagement in the bay these
two reserve ships could follow and destroy
the provision and coal ships, and probably
the McCulloch>
At 11:30 a. m. the squadron is about eighty
miles from Manila bay. The Baltimore has
kept close inshore and is now below the hori
zon, only her smoke being visible. The flag
ship has signaled that the schooner over
hauled by the Zafiro had no information to
give. At 2 o'clock the distance to Subig bay
is ten miles, and to Corregidor, at the mouth
of Manila bay, about forty miles. The work
of lowering the after lifeboats of the McCul
loch down half-way to the water is going on,
with the object of getting them into the
water as expeditiously as possible if occasion
requires.
The Baltimore, Concord and Boston are
supposed to have entered Subig bay. They
cannot be seen. At about 4 o'clock a faint
column of smoke in the bay marks the posi
tion of one of the ships.
The sail of another small schooner war,
seen at about this time and bore down toward
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
s.j. DEL MONTE
MANDALOYO
B AY
OF
MANILA
MAP OF MANILA BAY.
the squadron. As it reached the mouth of
the bay the Boston and Concord were sighted
coming out. The Olmypia, Raleigh, Petrel
steamed toward the approaching schooner.
Orders came from the flagship for the McCul-
loch to send an officer on board the little
vessel for information. By this time the
boat was absolutely surrounded by war
ships, although this was not an intentional
maneuver. The Olympia, Raleigh and Petrel
steamed by, the McCulloch stopped and the
dinghy, with Lieut. Joynes and an inter
preter, was sent to the schooner. It flew the
Spanish flag, but in answer to questions the
captain said he had not come from Manila
and did not know where the Spanish war
ships were. The dinghy returned, and the
McCulloch followed the fleet to the mouth of
Subig bay.
At about 5:15 p. m. the squadron came
to a full stop at that point and signals from
the flagship called the captains of the differ
ent ships to conference. The final details
of the attack will doubtless be arranged at
this meeting.
A few minutes after 6 o'clock Capt. Hodgs-
don and Lieut. Elliott returned from the flag
ship. It was easy to see that something
definite and immediate had been decided on,
for the face of the one was white and set
and the other serious and grave. The order
was at once given to put on the battle ports
and not let a light be seen except the stern
light. Preparations for sailing are ordered
and the information is given out that it has
been determined to attempt the entrance to
Manila bay in the darkness that night. The
battle ports are put up, the chartroom sealed
and everything about the ship is darkened.
A small electric light has been fixed as a
stern light to show to the vessel following
our position. The groups of sailors on the
decks and the officers on the bridge look
shadowy and vague, and with all the hurry
of final preparation there is almost no noise.
Shortly after sunset a remarkable cloud
formation was observed on the western hori
zon. It represented absolutely and without
imaginative aid the gun deck and turret of
a warship with the gun sticking, black and
vivid, out of the turret. Coming at a time
like this, it was undoubtedly a marvelous
premonition for one of the combating powers.
The night is a good one for running the
forts of Corregidor, for there are masses of
gray clouds in the sky which hide the half-
moon effectually. Occasionally the moon
breaks through and if the clouds entirely
disappear it may be considered advisable to
wait until the moon goes down — about 2
o'clock in the morning.
The other vessels are darkened and at a
mile's distance it is impossible to distinguish
where they lie. It seems impossible that the
guns of the fort could find the correct range
even if the Spanish should detect the
maneuver unless searchlights are employed.
By the time the bay is reached all the ships
will be as dark as tombs and only the faint
glimmer of the stern lights will be seen, and
those only from the direct rear. The ships
will glide quietly in at a low rate of speed
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
and as noiselessly as possible in a single
line in the following order: The Olympia
loads, with the Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel,
Concord, Boston, McCulloch, Nanshan and
Zafiro coming after, separated from one an
other by 400 yards.
There is a good deal of lightning in the
southwest, - 1 it is only when one of these
flashes illun. tes the sky that the black
bodies of the ships are seen.
As it will take three or four hours to reach
Corregidor every one who can do so turns in
for a short rest, for .there will be no other
chance to sleep or lie down for a good while
after the ships go into action. Mattresses are
thrown about on the decks and with cutlasses
and loaded revolvers within easy reach the
men stretch out and try to sleep.
It was expected that the entrance to the
harbor would not be reached before 1 o'clock,
but in less than an hour general quarters are
called and every one of the ship's company
takes his station. Every gun is fully manned,
rifles are distributed and the ammunition
crews are assigned to their places. Now
there is nothing to do but to wait.
About 11:30 the entrance to the bay can be
seen. Two dark headlands — one on either
side of the entrance — show up gloomy and
absolutely darkened against the shifting, un
certain clouds. In the space between a
smaller mass shows where the dreaded Cor
regidor lies. A vivid patch of fire comes
slowly out from the black blackground and
the squadron bears down directly toward it.
It proves to be Greek fire, and was probably
a night life buoy dropped by one of the ships.
It dances and darts on the face of the water
and until we discovered what it was there
was a lot of suppressed excitement among
the crews.
At Corregidor it was understood the heav
iest guns of the Spanish were located. The
entrance was also said to be planted with
mines, and it was known that there were tor
pedoes waiting for the ships.
Everything is moving forward noiselessly
and only the dim gleam of the stern lights of
the ships in advance of the McCulloch are
visible. The Nanshan and Zafiro are quite
invisible in the blackness behind.
The Olympia turns in and steers directly
for the center of the southern and wider
channel. The Baltimore follows and in reg
ular order the rest of the fleet glide on
through the night toward the entrance. Still
there is no firing from the forts, and it is
hoped that the daring maneuver may not be
discovered. The excitement at this time is
intense. The somber Corregidor and the big
mass of hills at the south are watched with
straining eyes.
About this time the soot in the funnel of
the McCulloch caught fire and this circum
stance may have revealed the movements of
the fleet to the enemy. The flames shot up
out of the funnel like the fire of a rolling-
mill chimney. For a minute or two it burned
and then settled down to the usual heavy
black rolls of smoke.
A faint light flashed up on the land and
then died out. A rocket leaped from Cor
regidor and then all was darkness and still
ness again. The nervous tension at this
time was very great. Again the flames rolled
forth from the McCulloch's funnel and then
again they gave way to the smoke. There
was grinding of teeth on the McCulloch, for
of all times in the world this was the most
fatal time for such a thing to happen. While
it burned it made a perfect target for the
enemy. Still there was no firing.
Now we are almost in the strip directly be
tween two forts. The Boston is 200 yards in
advance of the McCulloch, but the Concord,
Petrel, Raleigh, Baltimore and Olympia are
well in the harbor.
Suddenly, just at 12:15 o'clock, a flash is
seen on the southern shore, a white puff of
smoke curls out, and for the first time in the
lives of nearly all ~n the McCulloch the
sound of a screaming cannon ball is heard.
It passed well clear of the McCulloch, toward
which it was fired. At the sight of the flash
of flame and the subsequent dull report we
waited in keen anxiety to see whether the
ship would be struck. Now came an instant
order from the bridge to load the after star
board six-pounder and fire five shells at the
point where the smoke was seen. There was
a short lull and the order was counter
manded. Then there came a sound like the
crashing of thunder and from the Boston
went an eight-inch shell from her after
gun. This was the first shot fired by the
Americans.
Immediately there came a whirring, sing
ing shell that seemed to go a little ahead of
the McCulloch's bow. The McCulloch now
stopped and sent a six-pound shot at the bat
tery, following it a minute later with an
other. The Spaniards answered thi and once
more the McCulloch sent a sLcll toward the
vague, indistinct cloud of smoke showing
against the dark hillside to th> soutK The
Concord at this poin* fired u, six-pound shot.
All this time there is no sound fr> i Corregi
dor, and it is a matter of surprise taat rhell-s
have not been coming toward is from Loth
sides. Then there comes quiet and the squad
ron gradually steams down the jay toward
Manila. The Nanshan and Zafiro hug close
to Corregidor while coming in and escape
being fired on.
During the, firing there was the )est of
order on the McCulloch, and no one seemed
to lose his head. Chief Engineer Randall was
overcome by a nervous shock, probably
apoplectic in character, and at a few minutes
after 2 o'clock he died. The orders have gone
out from the flagship to proceed at a four-
knot speed toward Cavite, the naval station,
which is seventeen miles away at the head of
the bay. This will put the fleet close to the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
33
PECULIAR CLOUD FORMATION SEEN BY DKWEY'S FLEET THE NIGHT BEFORE THE
BATTLE OF MANILA AND REGARDED AS AN OMEN.
Spanish squadron and the great battle will
take place in the morning.
The men are now stretched out everywhere
en their arms trying to sleep.
It is remarkable to see how little commo
tion is caused by the death of the chief en
gineer. The great dangers and thrilling
events about to happen so completely over
shadow the passing away of one man that
the sad incident has created no stir. The body
is sewed up in canvas and lies on a bier on
the quarterdeck and will be buried at sea
later in the day.
At 5:10 in the morning, just as dawn is
breaking, the battle begins. By this time the
American fleet has arrived off Cavite and the
brightness of the approaching day reveals to
both sides the position of the enemy. The
Spanish immediately begin firing, but at a
distance of nearly four miles. At the sound
of the first shot the Olympia wheels ana
starts straight for the enemy. From every
mast and every peak of the American squad
ron floats a flag, and the sight of all these
fluttering emblems arouses an enthusiasm
that, never was experienced before. As the
Olympia steams over toward the Spanish the
Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord and Bos
ton follow in line of battle. The McCulloch
is left to protect the transports.
. Through the dimness of the early morning
eight of the Spanish vessels can hardly be
seen, but as minute after minute passes the
ships and fortifications become more distinct.
The Spanish are meeting the advances of the
squadron with continuous firing from the
ships arid the forts.
So far there has been no answering shots
from the American ships. They are steam
ing on, grim and determined, and making
directly for the Spanish position.
At 5:23 the Olympia fired the first shot, and
at 5:40 the firing became incessant. A bat
tery at the mole, in Manila, and nearly five
miles to the east, has now begun firing, and
the Boston is occupied with shelling a fort
on the mainland beyond the arsenal of Cavite.
The Reina Cristina, which is the Spanish
flagship, shows up black and fierce in
front of the enemy's fleet. The Castilla is
nearly abreast of her and is protected by
large barges, which makes it impossible for
shells to penetrate below the water line.
The Don Antonio de Ulloa is a little behind
the other two vessels. From Bakor bay, the
naval anchorage, comes the fire from the Don
Juan de Austria, a cruiser; the Isla de Luzon
and Isla de Cuba, protected cruisers, and the
Marques del Ducro, Gen. Lezo, El Correo and
Velasco. These latter vessels steam back
and forth from the protection of the walls of
the arsenal. Other smaller vessels, evidently
torpedo boats, can be seen occasionally com
ing into view and then retreating behind the
arsenal.
The American fleet now forms in a line,
and, steaming in a wide circle, pours shells
from the port and bow guns as the vessels
pass. Then the ships swing around, and, con
tinuing in the long ellipse, turn loose the
guns of the stern and the starboard side. In
this way all' the guns on both sides of the
warships are kept in action part of this time
and the vessels are constantly moving. The
fleet makes three complete circles, each time
going in to shorter range, until a range of
about 1,500 yards is reached.
There are numberless exhibitions of daring
shown by the Spanish. At one time the Reina
Cristina alone steamed out at full speed in
the very face of the combined American
fleet with the intention of running the Olym
pia down. All the American vessels con
centrate their guns on her and pour a per
fect rain of shell through and around her.
34
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
-•'• -s,
CARRYING SHELLS TO THE AFTER MAGAZINE— DEWEY'S FLEET.
Still she comes on. As she approaches nearer
the terrible storm of projectiles becomes too
severe, and, realizing that the ship will be
annihilated, the admiral swings her slowly
around and starts for the protection of the
navy yard. Just at this momejit an eight-
inch shell from the Olympia strikes the
Reina Cristina in the stern and goes right
through her. In a few minutes clouds of
white smoke are seen coming from the ship.
The vessel is being pounded to death by the
shells; her whole inside seems afire, but
still she keeps on throwing shells. It seems
for awhile that she must go down or that the
Spanish flag must be lowered, but when
nearly a half-hour later we can see her
through the smoke the pennant waves
bravely from her main peak and she is still
belching forth flashes of flame and billows of
smoke.
Now two little torpedo boats start out in a
desperate effort to torpedo the Olympia.
They come on rapidly, exposed to the fire of
the American ships, and stop and wait for
the advancing Olympia. Officers on the flag
ship afterward say that at this time the ex
citement on board is the greatest during any
part of the engagement. The Olympia keeps
steaming on until within 800 yards of the
torpedo boats, and as the latter show no
signs of retreating the flagship stops and
signals the fleet to concentrate their fire on
those little terrors. The hail of shell is fear
ful. Finally they turn and retreat. At this
moment a large shell strikes one of them and
it is seen to dive headlong into the sea, en
tirely disappearing from view. The other
succeeds in regaining cover, but is reached
soon after.
A little while later, when the American
fleet is at the farthest point in its circle
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
CUTTING THE I LOT IX) GABLE— MANILA BAY.
of evolution, a gunboat slips out from the
Spanish stronghold and starts for the Mc-
Culloch, hoping evidently by this bold move
to destroy the transports. As soon as this
move is seen by Admiral Dewey the fire is
immediately directed on the gunboat, and it
returned to a safer place.
During the battle there are times when
the American vessels pass between the Span
ish forces and the McCulloch. This vessel
protecting the transports lies about two
miles from the fort and the Spanish ships.
At these times the McCulloch is in direct
range of the enemy's fire. Shots scream
through the rigging and fall into the water
all around her. One shot strikes about forty
feet in front of her bow.
During all this fearful cannonading Ad
miral Dewey with Flag Capt. Lambertson
stands on the bridge on the pilot house, abso
lutely exposed, while the Olympia goes
through the storm of shells coming from the
Spanish ships.
Now there are two vessels burning, the
Reina Cristina and the Castilla, although
both have their flags flying. The firing from
these ships seems to be decreasing, but
whenever the hope arises that they are com
pletely disabled they seem to renew it with
greater vigor. It is impossible to determine
what damage is being done to either side.
There seems to be no great destruction
among the American vessels, for each time
they revolve on that deadly ellipse the ves
sels all show up with flying colors and un-
diminished fire. Three times they make the
deadly round, passing five times before the
Spanish forces, each time drawing in closer
and closer.
Now the Olympia has ceased firing and it
is said her after turret is damaged. She
withdraws and is followed by the rest of the
squadron. The Spanish keep on firing with
almost as much vigor as ever. It is now
7:45 o'clock, and the fight has lasted two
and a half hours. During all this time there
has been incessant firing and the whole sky
is hazy with smoke. The tremendous resist
ance and striking courage of the Spanish is
a revelation. A feeling of profound gloom
comes over us as the American fleet with
draws for consultation. How much damage
has been done is yet unknown and whether
their decks are swimming in blood and their
cabins choked with the wounded and dead
and their guns battered are things that
cannot be determined until the commanders
return from the conference.
Then there comes a long wait. At last,
after feverish anxiety, the marvelous news
comes that not a single life has been lost and
not a single man is seriously hurt. Not a
single boat is badly injured and hardly a
scrap of rigging is cut through.
At 10:45 o'clock, after a conference of the
commanding officers, it is decided to attack
again. The object in withdrawing, it trans
pires, was to allow the smoke to clear away
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
MAP SHOWING THE SCENE OF ADMIRAL DEWEY'S VICTORY.
and to enable the admiral to determine what
damage had been done to the fleet. But when
the astounding report came that there were
no lives lost and no vessels damaged the en
thusiasm on the different ships is wonderful.
There are cheers on cheers from the decks of
all the ships.
The Baltimore now heads for Cavite, rush
ing on at full speed, and does not stop until
she is almost in the shadow of the forts.
There she begins to fire with her big guns,
mowing masts away and tearing holes in
everything in sight. The Olympia follows and
joins in the bombardment. The little Petrel
comes close behind, then the Concord and last
the Raleigh and Boston. Their firing is inces
sant. The Spaniards are answering vigor
ously, and the dull, muffled thunder of the
cannon comes with the regularity of drum
beats. It is easy to trace the effects of the
shells, for whenever they strike columns of
dirt and water ascend in tremendous upheav
als. The naval station is now full of burning
vessels. The Spanish flag still flies from the
fort, but the Spanish firing at this hour, noon,
has nearly ceased. The Reina Cristina is now
red with flames and heavy clouds of smoke
roll up from her. A minute ago there was an
explosion on her that must have been caused
by the fire reaching one of her ammunition
magazines. She is now almost a complete
wreck.
At 12:35 the Americans have ceased firing,
and for fifteen minutes there has been only a
desultory and scattering sound of guns. It is
believed the battle is over, although a Span-
ish flag still flies above a small fortification.
The Boston puts a shell over toward the per-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
37
INSURGKNTS CARRYING PLUNDER FROM CAVITE.
sistent and aggravating bunting. The Balti
more, which has dene such valiant work dur
ing this last action, has spread forth an Amer
ican No. 1 ensign, which is the largest in the
service. During the battle a Spanish mer
chantman lies over against the shore. She is
the Isle de Mindona. I saw her at Singapore
three weeks ago on her way to Manila with
stores and supplies. She has no guns mounted
and she lies helpless and apparently deserted,
near the beach. Finally fire is opened on her
and two shells are sent straight through her.
Immediately dozens of men appear in differ
ent parts of the ship, flocking to srriall boats
and making all haste to reach the shore. The
Concord now steams over and the ship is set
on fire.
Orders are now sent out to enter the small
bay back of the arsenal and Cavite and finish
the work. The little Petrel, whose gallant
conduct in the face of all the big guns that
blazed away at her during those long hours
of flying havoc should be sung by every one
who loves the American flag, steams bravely
on toward the very heart cf the Spanish
stronghold, occas:onally spitting forth a diell
as she goes. It makes the pulse beat fast and
the blood tingle to watch that little demon
drive into the Spanish the way she does.
The Raleigh and Boston are occasionally
sending a reminding ball into the burning
raises that so recently constituted the brave
A*-*»tic squadron of the Spanish.
At 12.47 it is signaled from shore that the
Spanish have surrendered.
Now there is great cheering on the victo
rious sh|ps. The rigging is manned and
there is a fluttering of banners, and from
every visible deck on every ship there are
white groups of cheering sailors. There is a
joy and exultation in every man's face that
shows how deeply and sincerely happy he is,
and a gallant waving of the flags that now
seem more beautiful and inspiring than ever
before.
There still remain the forts at Corregidor
and the battery at Manila to reduce, but it
is believed that they will surrender. There
has been no firing from the latter since the
early morning engagement. This fact and
the fact that we are now all within range of
their big guns l<ads one to believe that the
conquest of Manila is completed.
Admiral Dewey has sent Mr. Williams, the
late consul to Manila, to tbe English sailing
ship Buccleuch with th<= object of establish
ing communication with the Spanish captain-
general through the British consul. It is the
intention of our admiral to give forty-eight
hours for the captain-general to surrender all
the stores, supplies and war material, to
gether with the control of the islands. If he
j refuses to do this the city may be shelled.
It is believed, however, that the request will
be complied with, as the fleet could lay the
city of Manila, with all its beautiful public
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
buildings and cathedrals, in ruins in a very
short time.
During the night of May 1, after the battle,
the southern shores at and around Cavite are
bright with the flames of buring ships. The
Reina Cristina and Castilla are mere skele
tons now, with flames tearing through every
part of them and making their bones show
black against the white heat. There are con
stant explosions, either from the magazines
of ships or mines or ammunition stores in
the naval station. Back in the hills big col
umns of smoke are lazily lifting to the sky.
Some of the explosions at Cavite are fearful.
Flames leap hundreds of feet into the air
and tremendous volumes of smoke rise in
gigantic white billows. To the north and
almost in every direction the curling smoke
on the hillsides marks where the insurgents
are applying the torch to complete what the
Americans have left undone.
In Manila there is the soimd of cathedral
bells. It is reported that the Spanish have
all withdrawn into the walled portion of the
town and that the insurgents are coming in
to loot the houses and kill the defenseless.
At 8 o'clock the McCulloch is signaled to
approach within a few hundred feet of the
city and guard the entrance to Pasig river.
It is supposed that there are still one or two
small river gunboats in the river, and the
mission of the McCulloch is to intercept and
destroy any that may attempt to slip out in
the night. She advances and anchors di
rectly opposite the Mole battery, where the
big ten-inch Krupp guns are planted. The
Esmeralda, which is anchored a few yards
from the McCulloch, promptly lifts anchor
and quits the vicinity. Almost immediately
after the McCulloch's anchor is dropped two
faint lights are reported as coming down the
Pasig river. Guns are immediately manned
and general quarters called. There is a time
of almost breathless waiting, but as nothing
hostile appears the tense excitement relaxes.
General quarters is called later on in the
night, but this is also in response to a false
alarm.
May 2— The McCulloch raised anchor at the
mouth of the Pasig river, and in response to
a signal from the flagship returns and joins
the squadron. At about 7 o'clock the Petrel,
which has been at Cavite completing the de
struction of half-destroyed ships, returns
with six captured launches and small boats.
She steams by proudly, and as she comes
abreast the Olympia and McCulloch she is
greeted with rousing cheers from those ships.
Smoke is now seen rising from the town of
Manila, and it is thought that either the
Spaniards are destroying their supplies or
else the rebels have begun their burning and
pillaging. Smoke is also ourling from many
points in the outskirts of the city, and it may
be necessary for the fleet to land marines to
protect the Spanish and foreign residents.
No answer has yet come from the captain-
general in response to the message sent him
yesterday by Admiral Dewey.
At 11:40 in the morning a small tug flying
the Spanish flag aft and a flag of truce at her
bow comes up to the flagship. It is not
known what is its mission.
A little while after noon the Baltimore and
Raleigh, the latter having the tug in tow,
steams off toward Corregidor, seventeen
miles away. The McCulloch is now sent over
to Cavite with instructions to enter the har
bor at Canacoa bay. She takes a position in
the center of this little bay, where the bigger
ships of the Spanish did most of their fight
ing. The Reina Cristina lies 200 yards to the
right of us, the Castella the same distance
behind us, and the Don Antonio de Ulloa 150
yards to our left. Only the masts and bat
tered funnels and parts of shattered decks
are above water, and over on the shore there
are two smaller sailing boats toppled over in
the shallow water. A single Spanish flag is
still flying over a building at the head of the
bay, but there are a number of white flags
scattered around over the various govern
ment buildings, and several Red Cross en
signs wave above the hospitals and churches.
There is scarcely any sign of life on shore
and the day has a Sunday quiet that is im
pressive after the thrilling events of yester
day. A few figures can occasionally be seen,
and the sight of some nuns conducting a
funeral ceremony show that the shells of the
Americans were deadly and desolating. Men
can be observed carrying bundles and pack
ages as if preparing to leave the place. There
is a good deal of curiosity as to why that one
persistent Spanish flag still flies over the
town. Later a gig is sent from one of the
squadron and soon after the flag is hauled
down. The big guns of the battery are visi
ble on our right hand a few hundred feet
away. The walls of the fort on the left hand
show marks of shells and «re now still and
deserted.
During the afternoon I took a dinghy and
went among the wrecks in this bay. The
Castilla shows only one upright funnel and
two burnt and charred masts. The other fun
nel is leaning over against the standing
one, and only a few inches of shattered and
crushed rail shows above the water line. The
insides are burned completely out, only the
blackened iron work being visible. Eight
six-inch guns stare out a little above the
water and the breech ends are ruined by the
flames. Other small millimeter guns and six
pounders are standing on the bow and after
deck. The hull is still burning in one or
two places where little patches of woodwork
remain, and blue hazes of smoke lift lazily
from the smoldering embers.
The Reina Cristina, the proudest ship of
them all, and the flagship of Rear-Admiral
Patricio Montejo y Pasaron, as well as the
theater of some of the most daring fighting,
lies a little farther away, as completely de-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
molished as the Castilla. Her funnels are
perforated and her rigging is cut and big
gaping holes in the shattered steel frame
work show how accurate was the aim of the
Americans. Some large eight-inch guns show
above water and a number of small guns
still stand fore and aft. A little fire is burn
ing on her and the body of a Spaniard is
lying half-way out of a gun barbette, his legs
shot off and big slashing wounds in his hip.
He is absolutely nude except for a narrow
belt, and has apparently been untouched by
fire. It was in this ship that so many died,
and the hull must be choked with those who
fell before the sweeping gale of steel poured
into her. In a day or two the bodies will
be coming to the surface. A live chicken is
perched on a stanchion at the bow. How in
the world it lived through the fire is a won
der, for the vessel is absolutely gutted.
The Antonio de Ulloa is almost entirely
under water, but even then she has more un-
submerged parts than either of the other
two. Her forecastle is above water, as well
as her chartroom. The three masts still
stand and are splintered by shells. Her rig
ging is shattered in many places and two
small guns are visible on the forward deck.
Boatloads of officers and seamen have been
to her all afternoon searching for souvenirs
of the battle. Scraps of signal and boat
flags, charts, tooks, small anchors and dozens
of little relics have been eagerly seized.
Sailors have been diving down and bringing
up all sorts of trophies, from clocks and com
passes to chairs and capstan heads. A piece
of a guitar was found. Only the fretted finger
stock remained, and it was evidently smashed
by its devoted owner to prevent the invading
vandals of America from capturing it. The
Ulloa was a wooden ship and after the en
emy found her range she must have been
smashed to pieces in a very short time.
While I was there a fearful explosion oc
curred on shore 200 yards away. At first it
was thought fire had been opened again, but
subsequently it was learned that a boat's
crew from the Olympia had landed and were
blowing up the big guns at the battery.
The scene of complete desolation in this
bay was thought to be the very worst, but a
trip to the waters beyond the arsenal re
vealed even greater havoc and ruin. This is
Bakor bay and is the principal anchorage of
the naval station. There are seven warships,
ranging from 800 tons up to 1,500 tons, scat
tered about in this cove, all sunken, and
most of them charred by flames. One ship,
the transport Manila, still floats and is ap
parently uninjured. A number of live cattle
are on board, as well as some sheep and other
provisions for the Spanish. The name plates
of the wrecks are either gone or submerged,
but it is known that among them is the
cruiser Don Juan of Austria, the protected
cruisers Isla de Luzon and Isla de Cuba, the
gunboats Marques del Ducro, Gen. Lezo, El
Correo and Velasco.
These ships were among the finest of their
class in the Spanish navy and enough re
mains to indicate what excellently armed and
carefully cared for vessels they were. A
number of six-inch guns are still above
water and seem to be in good condition. Some
of these have lost their breech plugs and it
is probable the Spaniards threw them over
board before abandoning the vesels. All show
INTERNATIONAL CODE SIGNAL "DO TOO
SURRENDER?"
signs of the shelling, but it is doubtful
whether the cannonading sunk them. It is
thought they were fired when the Spanish
abandoned them, and it is known that the
Petrel set fire to some of them after the
battle.
Boatload after boatload of insurgents are
swarming into Cavite, and as the Spanish
army has fled to Manila they are free to pil
lage to their hearts' content. The bay is
dotted with outlandish-looking native boats,
40
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
loaded to the water's edge with mountainous
piles of plunder and manned by dozens of
broad-hatted and swarthy insurgents.
The Spanish officers and surgeons of the
naval hospital on Canacoa have appealed to
the Americans for protection from the in
surgents. To-day I went with a party of sur
geons from the Baltimore to visit the hospital
and help dispose of the dead and wounded.
We were met at the landing by the Spaniards I
and treated with the utmost courtesy. They |
conducted us to the hospital, and the signs
of awful suffering and misery among those
200 victims of the battle was something never
to be forgotten. The floors were covered with
hastily extemporized cots and the regular
hospital beds bore men with every conceiv
able kind of wound. Rows on rows of beds,
with men whose legs and arms had been shot
away, and whose bodies and faces were
sheathed in lint and reddened bandages, lay
stretched along on eithe: side of the various
wards. It was supposed that resentment and
hatred would be shown the men from the
ships that caused them all this wretched
ness, but such was not the case. There was
the languid and appealing look of sickness
and suffering on their faces that is seen in
every hospital, but there was no anger to be
observed. Those who had fared less seriously
than the very badly wounded looked at us
with curiosity and readily answered any
questions that were asked them. The sur- j
geons were apparently not inclined to tell |
the number of killed and wounded, but it was
stated that 120 wounded and eighty sick were
in this hospital and about 200 in the civil and
military hospital at Cavite. One hundred and
twenty are dead, not counting all of those
whose bodies are still in the wrecks. It is
thought that about 400 in all are dead and
about 600 wounded. The surgeons said the
sick and wounded were not ready to be
moved in safety, but that they wanted a
guard of marines to protect them from the
insurgents. They were fearfully afraid of
the insurgents, and were particularly ap
prehensive lest the powder magazines near
the hospital should be exploded by their
native enemies.
Over in Cavite there are hundreds of Span
iards and natives. We walked from Canacoa
to Cavite and passed dozens of carts and
hundreds of people loaded with their house
hold effects, seeking safety from the insur
gents. They freely gave up their small arms
and knives and were apparently eager to
have the Americans land, for it meant pro
tection for them. Every evidence of friend
ship that they could show us was exhibited.
These were the common people. The sol
diers had all fled to Manila. The streets
were littered with rubbish and the work of
stripping Cavite of every movable thing was
going on with unceasing energy. Admiral
Dewey landed some marines, and these were
distributed about to protect the hospitals and
occupy all the fortifications. There were
very few signs of shelling in the town and
I do not remember to have seen more than
two or three evidences of the battle. This
speaks well for the aim of the American
ships, for their fire was directed entirely
toward the Spanish fleet and the batteries.
Spanish rifles were scattered around, but
most of them had their breeches removed so
they would be unserviceable.
On May 4 a large number of the wounded
were conveyed from Cavite to Manila under
the Red Cross flag. The captain-general up
to this time has refused to surrender the
city, but the admiral is content to wait
awhile longer, for the surrender is inevit
able. It is the policy of the admiral to
accomplish by blockade what he would
otherwise have to do by bombarding the
city. In the latter event a tremendous loss
of life and property would result, while in
the former the same object would be ac
complished with no bloodshed, even if it
takes a longer time.
To-day it is learned that the wires be
tween Corregidor and Cavite .had been cut
by the insurgents before the entrance was
made at midnight of Saturday and that the
Spanish fleet at Cavite were not aware that
the Americans had entered until the ships
were seen at daylight on the eventful Sun
day. Two mines were then fired by the
Spanish, but it was after the squadron had
passed the location of the mines at least
two miles. The pilot of the Esmeralda, an
English boat, was in a small craft at Cor
regidor on the night of the entrance waiting
for his ship, which was expected from Hong
kong. He is authority for the statement
that when the signal lights were shown on
shore two torpedoes were launched from
Corregidor, but they fell far short of reach
ing the American ships. The reason Cor
regidor did not fire was because the moon
was in such a position that the gunners
could not see the ships.
The Raleigh and Baltimore, with the small
tug in tow, went to Corregidor and destroyed
the batteries at the forts with almost no
resistance. All mines that have been dis
covered have been blown up or separated
from the electric connection. All the guns
on shore at Cavite have been destroyed and
the work of demolishing the fortifications
and arsenal will be immediately executed.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
41
SAMPSON'S MEN AND GUNS.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
When the monitor Puritan dropped her
anchor this morning (April 9i in the harbor
of Key WTest three of the most powerful fight
ing machines afloat lay peacefully within the
toss of abiscuit of onean.ther. TheTerror and
Amphitrite completed this trinity of buoy
outforts, and around 'them lay the New York,
Marblehead, Cincinnati, Helena, Newport,
Detroit and Nashville. To the west, off Fort
Taylor, lay the battleships Iowa and Indiana
with their blue smoke curling lazily from
their immense funnels.
This formidable fleet has its steam up; it
is stripped to the waist, ready for the fight
which every jack tar on the steel monsters
hopes will come off next week. The great
warships, discolored an ugly drab, tug sul
lenly at their cables, refusing to bow to the
running waves which slap them across their
noses every other minute. The glitter and
glisten of a holiday dress have given way to
the dull, somber color which makes the
stately Marblehead resemble a tramp collier
and the lordly Cincinnati look like a phos
phate carrier.
Peeping over the docks which point out
into the harbor are half a dozen little craft
which would make even the vicious-looking
Puritan run for wider sea room if they flew
the Spanish colors. They are the torpedo
boats, with concentrated death aboard. Not
much larger than a private yacht, about as
broad amidships as the fireboat Yosemite in
the Chicago river, smelling of oil, with saucy
smoke funnels and mysterious little humps
here and there, the torpedo boats have the
respect of every warship off Key West.
Their hulls are as dainty, in line and mold,
as the swiftest yacht which sails out of New
York. Their bows are as sharp-pointed as a
stiletto and the most lubberly of landsmen
can see speed in every line.
Their decks to-day were anything but war
like, for the crew, in dirty canvas overalls
and jumpers, many of the sailors barefooted,
were scraping, filing, drilling and chipping,
preparing the pigmies for a fight with the
Spanish giants.
The cigar-shaped torpedoes, resting on
wooden benches, were scraped and polished
with emery powder. The tiny propeller
wheels were burnished until they shone like
California gold, and every square inch of the
torpedo tubes was rubbed down to a mirror
finish.
At the custom house dock the Helena took
on coal. It is a slow process, for a lazy mule,
driven by a lazier negro, hauls one dump car
of coal at a time from the yard a quarter of a
mile away. In the naval storehouse a hun
dred sailors, quartermasters, commissary of
ficials and spruce-looking ensigns ran around
sorting and checking out naval stores — the
liveliest and busiest place between Florida
and Cuba.
Key West is enjoying a veritable boom be
cause of all these preparations for war. The
streets are filled with seamen who have lib
erty ashore for a day, and the enterprising
Cuban is making hay while the war cloud
is yet on the hoiizon, too low to obscure his
commercial sun. Jack tar is much ashore
just now. Every half-hour or so a naphtha
launch, a yawl or a steam tender lands a
batch of blue jackets at the wharf, for there
is much fetching and carrying, and rowing
from this ship to that, and bringing in little
Japanese cooks to buy fresh fruits and vege
tables for the officers, and taking out marines
in white duck and cork helmets. This activ
ity has kept the blue waters of Key West's
harbor lively with brisk boats all week.
The men have nothing to say about freeing
the Cubans or feeding the reconcentrados.
Their frequently expressed wish is to "kill
ten d d greasers for every one of the boys
blown up in the Maine."
The American jack tar ashore is no diplo
mat. He does not cover the face of his
thoughts with a veil of soft words which
have a double meaning. He does not say
"the Maine was destroyed by an external ex
plosion, probably a submarine mine." He
believes, every inch of him, that the Spanish
cabinet ordered the Spanish officials in Ha
vana secretly to drop a torpedo or mine under
the Maine and b'ow her up, and he refuses
to believe anything else.
Some of them have secured rifle cartridges
taken from the Maine wreck, and they wear
them as precious jewels suspended from
cords which are braided and spliced and pat
terned as only a blue jacket can do it.
"Wait till Mike O'Neill draws a bead on
one of them Spaniards," remarked a man
from the Indiana to-day. "He only wants
one chance, and if he don't remind them
greasers of a Maine explosion I'll miss my
guess."
Mike O'Neill is said to be the most accurate
of all the gunners in the American navy. He
is a particular pet of "Fighting Bob" Evans,
the commander of the Iowa, and generally
is called Mike Evans. He is a sawed-off,
broad-shouldered Irishman, and has little to
say, but he never misses a shot. He came,
so he says, from New York, and it is hinted
by his mates that O'Neill is not his real
name, and that he was educated for the
priesthood. No one knows his history and
he takes no one into his confidence, but when
his keen eye sights a gun, big or little, the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
4:;
steel missile goes just where he wants it
to go.
The gunners of the Terror took a few
shots at a target to-day. It lay off about two
miles. They used the six-pounders, and the
reason they took but a few shots was because
there was nothing left of the target after
half a dozen steel shells had been fired at it.
Target practice the last three weeks has de
veloped the encouraging fact that the gun
ners aboard the ships of the war fleet an
chored at Key West are marvelously accu
rate, and this fact has given the blue jackets
so much confidence in themselves and their
guns that they will listen to nothing but
"one broadside and the whole Spanish fleet
goes down."
The blue jackets like Key West, for they
can buy plenty of good cigars here at a
small price, and Jack Tar would rather smoke
than eat. That is why he growls and
grumbles when the chief bosun's mate starts
to overhauling some magazine, for no smok
ing is allowed aboard ship when a magazine
is open.
The first chance to smoke aboard a man-of-
war comes after breakfast, generally about
7:30 a. m. For two hours before the
bosun's mate pipes "mess gear," the first
hint of breakfast, the men "wash down" the
ship. This, of course, is done on an empty
stomach. Breakfast is fairly bolted, for the
blue jackets look forward to their after-
breakfast smoke as the treat of the day.
The sailors keep their eyes on one of the
corporals of the marines, for he lights and
extinguishes the smoking lamp, an open
lantern which swings near the forecastle.
When the straight-backed marine lights this
lamp pipes, cigars, stogies and cigarettes are
brought out and the crew is content. But
when the lamp is extinguished smoking
ceases. About 10 o'clock, after drill, another
opportunity for a few whiffs is given, and
after supper comes the evening smoke — a
good long one.
At 5 o'clock in the morning bugles give
tongue from every warship in the harbor.
They blare and bray as though a cavalrv
regiment was waking up. With the brazen
tones is mingled the shrill treble of the
bosun's pipe, and ship answers ship with this
good morning. The men-of-war's men slide
out of their hammocks the instant the first
note is sounded by the bugler, for immedi
ately comes the roar, "All hands on deck!"
The men are given but five or six minutes to
respond to this order, and in that time they
dress themselves, "lash" their hammocks
and "stow" them away.
The officer of the deck signals the bosun's
mate, and the order "wash down" is given.
Steam pumps pour salt water over the decks,
the men, in their bare feet, scrub and rub
with swabs, brooms and sand, and holystone
the deck and clean, polish, _rub, scrub and
scrape it until even a Dutch housewife would
be absolutely and entirely satisfied.
The engineer's men, known as the "black
gang," because of their oil-stained clothing,
overhaul all the machinery while the deck
force is cleaning the decks. Fires are
cleaned and ashes removed, valves are
packed, boiler tubes are scraped and brass-
finished parts of the machinery are polished.
At 7 o'clock the bosun's mate sings out
"knock off," and the men get ready for
breakfast. The first roll-call of the day comes
at 8:30 o'clock in the morning; the petty of
ficers call the rolls of their respective di
visions and report to the division officers,
who Feport to the executive officer, who in
turn reports to the greatest man on the ship,
the commanding officer. He stands at his
cabin door to receive this report, and then
the men who have been mustered on the spar
or main deck are "dismissed from quarters."
But immediately the bugles sound the "drill
call," and for a couple of hours the men are
put through the setting-up drill, a violent
form of calisthenics; saber drill and the
manual of arms.
Dinner is "piped" at 12 o'clock noon, and
at 1 o'clock the heavy work of the day be
gins. This includes everything, from painting
to overhauling medicine stores for the sur-
geon^ and it is kept up for three or four
hours. The "evening quarters" comes at sun
down, and on this occasion the men and of
ficers wear their best and cleanest uniforms.
It is to the navy what dress parade is to the
army.
Then conies supper, the clean clothes are
laid away, the blue jackets get into their
"comfies" and playtime lasts until "ham
mocks" is sounded at 7:30 o'clock. "Pipe
down," equivalent to the army "taps," is
sounded at 9:30 o'clock, and jack tar, unless
he is to stand watch, turns in.
Key West, Fla., April 11. — Just now much
is heard of the rapid-firing guns, for they
are popping over Key West's harbor day and
night. Ever since the news came that
Spain's torpedo fleet had started for this side
the world the men who handle the guns of
the secondary batteries and the one, three
and six pounders have been sinking imag
inary torpedo boats every day but Sunday.
The Gushing, Foote, Dupont, Porter, Wins-
low and Ericsson frequently wait as mes
sengers upon the big battleships and moni
tors. When one of these slender torpedo
boats clips the waves at a twenty-four or
twenty-eight knot speed the rapid-firing guns
of every ship within torpedo range are
brought to bear on the little nautical
sprinter.
At night the searchlights sweep the sea,
picking up ten-gallon cans, barrels, boxes
and other floating rubbish lost in the dark
ness, which for the time play the role of
stealthy torpedo boats slipping quietly toward
44
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
a warship. The gunners follow the electric
beam, 'and when anything shoot-at-able is
sighted the rapid-firing guns begin barking,
and generally five out of six shots hit the
mark.
So accurate is this night shooting the gun
ners declare no torpedo boat will be able to
come nearer than 300 yards of a ship with
out having its vitals pierced by the steel hail
from the one, three and six pounders.
The smallest gun aboard a warship is the
Lee-Metford rifle, with which the crew is
armed, and it has a caliber of .236 of an inch.
One of the Lee rifle bullets will drive its
way through two and a half feet of oak
about three feet from the gun's muazle. A
Lee rifle bullet will make a clean-cut hole
in a man, and tests on a cadaver have shown
that it will pass through a bone without
shattering or splintering it, so it will not
necessarily kill a man unless it penetrates a
vital part. The old-fashioned navy 45 caliber
bullet, which will only penetrate three inches
of oak at the muzzle, left great, gaping
wounds and splintered bones, and naval offi
cers believe the navy 45 is more effective as
a man-killer than the Lee-Metford rifle.
The ammunition for the one, three and
six pounders is all in one cartridge, which
looks like a gigantic revolver cartridge. But
the missiles sent out by these guns are ex
plosive; they burst when they strike. The
cartridge consists of the shell, in which the
powder, each grain about three-quarters of
an inch long, as thick as a good-sized lead
pencil, with channels running lengthwise,
is stored. The shell is almost entirely filled
with this powder, which is packed with a
wadding of excelsior. The hollow steel pro
jectile, finely pointed at the striking end, is
packed down tightly on the excelsior and is
held in place by the compression of the brass
shell.
The armor-piercing projectiles are a highly
tempered steel. When the gun is fired the
projectile is hurled from the powder shell.
In the flat end of the projectile is the det
onating apparatus. This consists of a
plunger, which is held away from the per
cussion cap by a piece of wire until the vio
lent wrench consequent on the projectile's
leaving the powder shell breaks it. This
leaves the plunger free to move backward
on the recoil when the projectile strikes.
The infinitesimal space of time between the
impact and the recoil of the plunger against
the percussion cap gives the projectile time
to penetrate the object struck before it is
exploded, so that the maximum destructive
effect is gained. If the projectile exploded
simultaneously with the impact the steel
splinters would scatter outside the ship on
which the gun was trained and the shot
would be wasted.
The one, three and six pounder guns are
well named "rapid-firing," for when handled
by expert gunners they discharge 100 rounds
a minute. This rapidity, the small cost of
firing and the ease and celerity of manipula
tion which characterizes these steel hornets
make them invaluable as protection against
the darting torpedo boats, and they have
made boarding parties a thing of the past.
After the one, three and six pounders come
the three, four, five and six inch guns, all
classed as rapid firing, for the powder and
projectile are contained in one cartridge.
Guns larger than six inches are in the slow-
firing class, for the powder and projectile
are separate from each other and the
weight of the breech mechanism operates
against rapidity in loading.
The three-inch gun is really a howitzer,
which can be easily dismounted to be carried
ashore. The projectile of a four-inch gun
weighs thirty-two pounds, and the powder
charge weighs one-half the weight of the
projectile, or sixteen pounds.
It is easy to figure out the dimensions of
guns and the weights of charges by remem
bering that the length of the rifle of a big
gun is thirty times the caliber or diameter
of the bore. The projectile is three times as
long as its diameter. The charge of powder
weighs nearly one-half as much as the pro
jectile, and the weight of a projectile is
found by cubing its diameter in inches and
dividing the result by two — this will give the
pounds of weight. Thus a projectile for a
four-inch gun will weigh 4x4x4, divided by
2, or thirty-two pounds. One-half that is
sixteen pounds, the weight of the charge of
powder. The diameter of the projectile is
four inches, so its length is three times that,
or twelve inches, and the barrel of the gun is
thirty times four inches, or ten feet.
When a four-inch gun is fired the expand
ing gases generated exert a pressure of 30,-
000 pounds, or fifteen tons to the square
inch, and the armor-piercing projectile can
go through seven inches of "high-carbon"
steel. The gun weighs about 3,400 pounds,
and it can be fired twenty times a minute.
It has a range of about four miles, and the
projectile travels twice as fast as sound
travels. At the gun's muzzle the projectile
energy is 915 foot-tons — that is, it has
enough force back of it to lift 915 tons one
foot in one second.
The weight of a five-inch gun is three and
one-half tons and its projectile weighs sixty
pounds. A six-inch gun weighs seven tons
and throws a bullet weighing 108 pounds a
distance of six miles, and it can pierce
eleven and one-half inches of steel armor
plate at close range. A well-directed shot
from a four, five or six inch gun will sink
any torpedo boat afloat, and every such gun
in Admiral Sampson's fleet has a gunner who
is a sharpshooter.
The one, three and six pounders generally
are mounted in elevated parts of the ship
and in the military masts so they can be
used to clear the enemy's decks. Just as the
archers of years ago were wont to try for
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE U. S. CRUISER NEW YORK OVERHAULING THE SPANISH STEAMER PEDRO.
46
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
every opening and crack in the armor of a
knight, so the gunners of the smaller rapid-
firing guns are expected to send their deadly
shells inside the .turrets and gun ports of
the enemy's ship.
It is estimated that one of the huge ten,
twelve or thirteen inch guns is good for about
100 shots. Each shot will use about the one-
hundredth part of a second traveling through
the barrel from breech to muzzle. Thus the
active life of a thirteen-inch gun — which is
thirty-three feet long, weighs seventy tons
and uses 500 pounds of powder to hurl its
1,000-pound projectile from ten to twelve
miles — is just one second long. If this mon
ster is fired 100 times it will use up twenty-
five tons of powder, at a cost of $17,500; shoot
100 1,000-pound projectiles at a cost of $35,uuo,
and, as the gun costs originally $60,000, a
grand total of $112,000, or about $1,120 tor
each shot.
Some of the officers on the Iowa believe
a ten, twelve or thirteen inch gun is good
for 200 shots, but it will require a war 10
establish the wearing qualities of a modern
gun or a modern battleship.
MARINES AT CUSCO HILL.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
For the first time since the severe fighting
about Camp McCalla it was possible yester
day for an observation party to go over the
battlefield without the protection of a large
force. The defeat and rout of Gen. Pareja's
troops in the mountainous hills of Cusco were
effective in penning his entire army within
the fortifications of Caimanera and Guanta-
namo. Only an occasional reconnoitering
party of the enemy is met by our outposts,
and none of these has shown fight. From
present indications and reports that are
brought in by Cubans and given by Spanish
prisoners, the enemy realizes that he has re
ceived a severe whipping. He now stands
upon the defensive, and is preparing to make
a desperate resistance to hold the few square
miles of Cuban soil still dominated by Spain
in the western portion of the province of
Santiago de Cuba. Even this little foothold
would doubtless have been taken possession
of before this were it not that the brave,
hardy fellows of the marine corps were well-
nigh exhausted by continuous fighting during
five days to defend a position of no natural
strategic strength, into which they were
thrust by an impulsive naval officer. How
ever, the period of danger is past; the flag
flies where the marine corps first planted it;
and within the little graveyard at the foot of
the hill there are only six mounds to indi
cate what it has cost to repel a determined
enemy greatly superior in numbers and in"
knowledge of the country.
If better evidence than this were needed
of the fighting qualities of the American sol
dier and his adaptability to new conditions
it was supplied to-day by an expedition
into the hills, where the enemy had taken
position. What has appeared in previous
letters has related chiefly to the engage
ments of the first four days. These were
fought in the immediate vicinity of the camp,
and were the most desperate because the
attacks were made at night and under cir
cumstances altogether favorable to the
enemy. At any time during Saturday and
Sunday nights a moment of weakening or
of panic would have resulted in the annihi
lation of the command. The arrival of re-
enforcements of Cubans under Lieut. -Col.
Enrique Thomas on Monday brought a good
supply of native guides, placing it within
the power of the beleaguered corps to take
the offensive. The battle upon the hills of
Cusco the following day resulted, and the
result was decisive victory for the allied
Americans and Cubans.
The scene of the final engagement is
reached by a long, tortuous footpath extend
ing in a generally southern direction from
j the camp. A tangled brush of cactus, briers
and thorny vines, impenetrable except with
the aid of a machete, and so dense that an
object ten yards away cannot be distin
guished, pushes in from either side, often
hanging so low that it is possible to pass only
by bending to the knees. For about three
miles the trail doubles back and forth
through this tangled skein of semi-tropical
foliage, keeping to rocky gulches, but ascend
ing gradually to the first ridge of the Cusco
hills. The pass here is about 350 feet high,
200 feet above the summit of the hill upon
which Camp McCalla stands. From this on
the trail extends three miles farther south,
between two ranges of lofty, bush-grown
mountains 450 feet high, to the seashore,
where once stood the Cusco plantation, which
has given name and identity to this rough
promontory.
The general plan of the battle must be
known by this time. It was, in brief, a quick
movement about the enemy's left flank,
turning it and getting into a commanding
position in the rear. The enemy had opened
the attack upon our fortified camp at 8
o'clock in the morning of June 14, with an ad
vance column comprising the 3d, or Principe,
regiment of the Spanish infantry and one
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
47
regiment of guerrillas, the Ecuadeas of
Guantanamo. Coming down the main pass to
support them were the 64th, or Sunancas,
and the 35th, or Toledo, regiments of Span
ish infantry. Two more regiments of Span
ish regulars were on the way from Guanta
namo overland, expecting to arrive in time to
re-enforce the assault upon tb9 camp. The
Spanish were in full retreat before tbey ar
rived.
Lieut. -Col. Huntington had already strong
ly intrenched himself upon the hill, and had
his men been fresh he might have safely
stood upon the defensive against almost any
force. But the fighting had already been
going no for four days. Lack of sleep had
weakened the nervous strength of the men,
and indications were not wanting the night
before to show that the marines were in no
condition to do themselves justice in the
trenches.
Under these circumstances the colonel de
cided wisely to put it on the defensive. Im
mediately after the attack was begun upon
the front of the camp he detached Capt. El
liott of company C, a hardy old soldier and
fighter, to turn the enemy's left wing. Leav
ing the camp under the bluffs of the shore at
the western side, he marched his command
at quick time along the narrow path skirt
ing the shore seven miles around the outer
slope of the mountain in the enemy's left and
rear. Capt. Spicer of company D followed,
his objective being a point on the ridge on
the left of Capt. Elliott. Each was assisted
by detachments of Cubans, fifty in all, who
were to get around in the enemy's rear.
The plan of attack was almost completely
successful. The enemy did not discover the
flanking movement until Capt. Elliott and
his command were a mile on their way
toward the mountain top. Then the race
began for the lofty position — six miles
through tangled brush and cactus, two op
posing forces rushing at breakneck speed up
opposite sides of the mountain, and victory
the stake! It was a race to the death under
a torrid sun that threatened the same penalty
to victor or vanquished. Happily Capt. El
liott, despite his 60 years, had the lead and
won the position. He gained the summit of
the mountain just as the enemy reached the
top of a round knob in the center of the
main pass at its base. The enemy immediate
ly betrayed its inferior position by an ir
regular fire, and he answered with fierce
volleys.
In the meantime Capt. Spicer arrived just
in time to receive the enemy's hottest fire
as he appeared on the crest of the hill. It
was the signal for the men to lie down and
to augment Capt. Elliott's regular volleys.
Torrent upon torrent of burning hail swept
the knob where the enemy paused. The
marines, confident in their position, shot
with no more excitement than if they were
engaged in regular rifle practice, sometimes
commenting and advising upon the range
and the conditions of the shooting.
The enemy fought stubbornly from behind
rocks and bushes, but resistance in the in
ferior position was useless. He began to re
treat slowly up the gulch to the eastward.
Just then a company of Cubans appeared in
his rear, shouting curses and execrations
upon Spanish oppressors, and, brandishing
machetes, charged the fleeing column like a
pack of savages. A second later Lieut.
Magill, with one platoon of company A, ap
peared on the ridge over the gulch, having
forced the enemy's front back over the first
range of hills.
From this moment the enemy's retreat be
came a rout. He was caught upon three
sides, and his only escape was up the steep
sides of the mountains at the head of the
gulch. The slaughter here for a few minutes
was frightful. Volley upon volley was hurled
into the scattering ranks from Lieut. Ma-
gill's command, scarcely 300 yards away, and
the wonder is that any escaped. But, un
fortunately, at just this instant, when the
enemy was all but caught within a pocket
lined with rifles, the Dolphin, stationed near
the shore, began to fire straight into the
gulch. She was in no position to get the
vight range, and all of her shells went wild,
striking much nearer our own ranks than
the enemy's.
In the face of this fire it was impossible to
pursue the fleeing enemy. As he disappeared
over the mountains many were caught on the
run at long range and brought down like
scurrying hares. But once over the ridge he
was safe.
In the meantime the Cubans had driven
out the last Spaniard from the old Cusco
house and set it on fire. In the neighborhood
they captured Lieut. Francisco Batiste, a
commander of guerrillas, two of his com
pany and fifteen Spanish soldiers of the three
regiments engaged. At a well fifty yards
beyond the house the Spaniards attempted to
make a stand, and a lieutenant and several
soldiers were killed. Later an old windmill
over the well was raked by shots from the
Dolphin, and the well was filled up. By this
means the supply of water upon which the
enemy had relied in making his attacks upon
the camp was cut off.
The extent of Spanish losses, as estimated
by the Spanish and by Cuban scouts sent out
immediately after the battle, is 68 killed and
about 150 wounded. Our loss was but two
killed; and these were Cubans who fell in
their last intrepid charge for the Cusco
house. Both received wounds in the breast
and died shortly after help reached them, ut
tering with their last breath the dear words.
"Cuba libre." Two more Cubans were
wounded, one accidentally by the discharge
of Col. Scharde's pistol. He has since been
relieved of command by Gen. Perez, and is
retained on board the Marblehead as Capt.
4S
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
FRANCISCO REVERUGES, FIRST SPANISH PRISONER TAKEN ON CUBAN SOIL.
McCalla's interpreter and guide. His suc
cessor, Lieut.-Col. Thomas, is a much supe
rior officer, a truthful man, and one in whom
Americans can feel confidence.
Though five days had passed since the en
gagement when our party revisited the field,
it bore vivid and not altogether pleasant tes
timony of the conflict. The air was heavy
with the stench of decaying carrion, and
buzzards soared back and forth from hillside
to valley, suggesting at a distance the silent,
fugitive shades of the dead. In the gulch the
train of dead extended all the way from the
knob, where Capt. Elliott's fire first checked
the enemy's advance, up the the head of the
gulch. But the remains 'were decomposed be
yond recognition. The desiccating heat and
those revolting scavengers of warm coun
tries, the buzzards, had united to destroy
these emaciated frames jvithin a few days
until nothing remained of them but a dis
jointed pile of blackened bones. Arms and
ammunition had been stripped off immedi
ately after the fight, either by the fleeing
enemy or by the Cuban insurgents, who
scoured the field and brought fifty Mauser
rifles and armfuls of ammunition into camp.
A straw hat, such as Spanish soldiers wear,
was found, bearing the red and yellow cock
ade, and through it two bullet holes, into
one of which was plunged a lock of black hair
and a scrap of human scalp. Often the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
bodies were prone in the path. Sometimes
they lay in a cleft of rocks with a pile of
expended cartridge shells beside them to tell
the tale of a heroic stand.
The task of counting the dead was not
pkasant, although Surgeon J. M. Edgar of
the battalion and Dr. Ducky of Chicago were
present for the special purpose of making a
scientific investigation; and before the labor
was half completed we took up our march
back to camp. Enough had been seen to in
dicate that the enemy had not retreated
until driven back by an overwhelming fire.
Many of the dead had small holes in the
bkull, where the ball entered, and a large,
gaping opening on the opposite side, where
the missile emerged. A long fracture con
nected the two holes, indicating that the
skull had been practically cleft in twain.
In this connection it is due to say that
late investigation by Surgeon Edgar has re
lieved the Spanish of the barbarous charge
of mutilating the dead bodies. Privates
Dunphy and McColgan were shot at close
range by a volley from Remington rifles,
the arm of the Spanish guerrilla. The
wounds lacerated their heads frightfully, and
this led to the first inference that they had
been hacked by machetes. There is no evi
dence now to indicate that the Spanish are
guilty of the barbarous treatment of the
dead of which they have been accused.
Some interesting observations have been
made that will settle a long controversy con
cerning the efficiency of the small steel or
copper cased bullet now in general use in
modern small arms. It has been noted that
the six or seven millimeter bullet has, with
in a range of 500 yards, the same explosive
effect that the old-fashioned bullet of near
ly three times its weight. Within a range
of 750 yards, even, the hole of exit is a great
laceration about the size of a quarter. At a
range of 1,000 yards and over the holes of
entrance and exit are clear cut and of al
most equal size. By this it appears that the
small bullet is as effective in warfare as the
large bullet at short ranges, and has the
added effectiveness of many times longer
range. Moreover, there is a saving in sur
gical treatment. The wounds are easily
sterilized, because the bullet carries with it
no foreign substance or scrap of clothing, as
the old bullet did. Of the sixteen men
'wounded in action and by accident since the
corps was landed here only one, a Cuban,
has lost a limb. In not a single instance
have there been symptoms of .pus in the
wounds. Manifestly the days of surgical
mutilation or cure by amputation have gone
by. The hospital ship Solace, superbly ap
pointed and managed, lies in the bay and
receives the wounded as soon as they can
be carried from the shore. The attending
surgeons hold to the humane doctrine of sav
ing rather than destroying limbs. It is pos
sible this war may end without leaving be
hind an army of legless and armless men.
However, the Lee-Medford rifle, now used
by the marines, and an experiment in the
service, has been working dire havoc among
the men. Already nine have been accident
ally shot by their own guns. The blame
cannot be attached to the men. They are
for the most part veterans in the service.
But the mechanism of the gun is too com
plex, and when the magazine is loaded it is
too easily discharged.
Some interest may attach to the impres
sion made upon an intelligent Cuban by the
American soldier. Col. Thomas, in com
mand of the 132 Cuban insurgents now in
Camp McCalla, has supplied THE RECORD
with the following statement in Spanish.
The translation follows:
"On June 14 we started out in company
with the Americans to attack the column of
the Spaniards, 450 strong, who were occu
pying Cusco with a view to attacking us.
We went with but 300 men — 250 Americans
and 50 Cubans — with their officers, and at
tacked and routed them. The American sol
diers are well disciplined, brave and patri-
otic, but the climate has told on them.
Nevertheless they have endured the marches
and the work in the trenches as well as na
tive Cubans, though up to this time they
have had no news from the main force. But
the Cubans and Americans operate together
with perfect amity, and the weather is fine.
"ENRIQUE THOMAS, Colonel.
"June 18, 1898."
While Americans and Cubans will no more
assimilate than Irishmen and Italians, they
have thus far operated together in perfect
harmony. Cubans are absolutely necessary
to the army as guides, and there are not
lacking indications that the Spanish soldier
has a wholesome dread of them in the field.
The prisoners taken seem to regard the
Cuban a marvel of personal valor. Ameri
cans are a new problem to them. It would
seem they can hardly realize the Americans
did not run away at their first assault, so
thoroughly convinced were they when tne
war began that the "Yankee pigs" could be
herded like swine. Francisco Batiste, the
Spanish lieutenant captured in the engage
ment of Cusco and held as a prisoner on
board the collier Aberenda, is a fair sample
of his class.
"The Cubans are very brave," said he,
"and the Americans shoot very fast."
This is the extent of the concession he
would make to his conquerors until he had
written to his former commander at Guan-
tanamo asking him to care for his family,
and received in reply a liberal rebuke for
allowing himself to be captured. Since
then he praises America as a great and
charitable nation, and says he will renounce
Spain and take to the mountains as soon as
60
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
he is released. His letter was taken to Cai-
manero, under a flag of truce, and the reply
brought back from Gen. Pareja's adjutant
was as follows:
"June 18, Caimanero — Senor Francisco
Batiste: My Dear Sir: The general di
rects me to say to you he will not concern
himself about your family, which, however,
is innocent of the disgrace attached to you
for having allowed yourself to be made pris
oner, with seventeen men, a force sufficient
to have allowed you to open a way to join
your command. MANUAL AGUADO,
"Adjutant of the Regiment."
Lient. Batiste is cordially hated by the
Cubans, who say he is a native, but is try
ing to pass himself off as a Spaniard. The
fact that he commanded guerrillas is against
him, and if our marines had not been near
at the time of his capture his throat would
probably have been cut without the formality
of court-martial. However, his commander
did him an injustice in accusing him of sur
rendering seventeen men, and he was per
mitted to send back a reply, which may be
of interest as an echo of the first Spanish de
feat in Cuba. The translation follows:
"Guantanamo Bay, June 20. — In answer to
your letter of the 18th imt. I wish to say to
you that the general has misinterpreted my
previous letter. For in that I said I had been
taken prisoner, and, moreover, seventeen sol
diers of Simancas, Principe and Guerrillas,
but they were not under my orders, because
I had only some guerillas of my company,
and of the 1st company, 2d regiment — name
ly, Pedro Manuel Garcia and Luis Tabre —
who came to me after being left behind by
their force. We hid in the bush, and there
found four or five isoldiers of Samancas. The
other soldiers captured were taken in dif
ferent groups. They were not with me at
all, and in regard to cowardice with which
the general charges me, it is false. I have
always, and will always, prove it. The en
emy outnumbered us. The Cubans and Amer
icans, united, had the best position, in proof
of which is the fact that though we came
very close we could not dislodge them. Their
fire was exceedingly heavy; they had, be
sides their infantry, a great many machine
guns, and were supported by great guns
ashore and afloat. We were so badly beaten
that, though near our camp, we could not
carry off our dead and wounded. Still, if
his excellency (the general) thinks I was a
cowafd for surrendering I can't help it. It
is my fate.
"I beseech the general to look out for my
family, and I beg you, if you see any of
them, to tell them of my plight. I had never
thought to be so harshly treated by my own
people, giving me an unmerited reproach.
I have never known fear, and I only desire
to so conduct myself as to show this.
"FRANCISCO BATISTE."
It was reported in previous dispatches that
several Spanish spies had been captured by
Cuban scouts who patrol the roads leading
from Caimanero to Santiago. Already eight
have been taken and executed after court-
martial. An important communication ob
tained was a letter from Gen. Pareja to Gen.
Linares, in command of the Spanish forces
in Santiago.
To-day all is quiet at Camp McCalla.
Everything awaits the arrival of the army.
In case a few troops are landed here an at
tack will be made at once upon the enemy in
Caimanero and Guantanamo. The channels
leading to the towns have been dragged for
torpedoes, and three have been removed. But
wrhen the troops are ready for the attack
there will be no hesitation about sailing over
any that remain. It is the confident belief
of officers and men that before another week
has passed Caimanero and Guantanamo will
have fallen and the Spanish been driven
from this end of the is.and.
AFLOAT WITH AN ARMY.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
This is the sixth day "out" for the fleet of
troopships conveying from 18,000 to 20,000
armed men to some place in Cuba or on the
island of Puerto Rico. It seems absurd that
even to-day (June 20) well on our way to
the place of hostile landing, with no longer
reason for mystery or concealment, out of
reach of telegraph lines, far away from mail
service, we donotknow whether weare to land
before Santiago or San Juan. Of course, Gen.
Shatter knows, and probably the captains of
and navigators of the troopships know, but
the private and his officer and his officer's of
ficer and the doctors, chaplains and news
paper men are literally and figuratively "all
at sea." It is generally understood that we
are going to Santiago. This little uncertainty
as to destination is noted here because we
are at the parting of the ways; if we turn
to the south we go to Santiago; if we keep
on east by south we go to San Juan, and
over 18,000 men at this moment are keeping
close watch of the Indiana to note the direc
tion she will head when the "go ahead"
signal is hoisted on the Seguranca.
The fleet of transports with its guard of
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
LANDING AMERICAN TROOPS AT BAIQl'IRI. CUBA.
warships left the bar, or Egmont key, at the
entrance of Tampa bay, just before sundown
of last Tuesday, June li. The fleet stretched
out on its course almost due south in three
lines of ships, the battleship Indiana lead
ing the right line, the gunboat Castine the
center and the gunboat Annapolis the left.
Far to the right and left, at times so far from
the main body as to be below the
horizon, were the scout ships or "flankers,"
as the army officers call them. The scouts
not only flanked the moving column of troop
ships, but they steamed far ahead, and fol
lowed behind the triple line of transports.
The soldiers noted their formation and re
marked its close resemblance to Col. Wag
ner's model formation and organization of a
moving body of troops in a hostile and un
known country, known as "the formation of
security and information." Each transport
was assigned its place in the column and
was expected to keep that place, with the
Indiana setting the pace, and a slow pace it
was. The distance between transports in the
same line was 600 yards to 1,800 yards, and in
a general way this formation was main
tained. The first two days the little Ban
croft scurried up and down the ten-mile line
acting the part of grand marshal of the pa
rade; its executive officer "megaphoning"
snappy admonitions and peppery suggestions
to the captains of transports who failed to
keep their ships in the ordered positions and
hold them there regardless of screw-slip
winds, waves and other ships. But it was
found to be well-night impossible to maintain
the distance between ships, the spread of the
lines and the ideal formation, and in time
the fleet took what might be called its "nat
ural" form and shape, and strung out twenty
miles from the advance party to the last
scout ship.
The Seguranca, which flies the. flag of the
5th army corps at her foremast head, seems
to have no particular place in line, for she
moves from one end of the line to the other
and from one column to the other, its signal
officer "wigwagging" energetically all the
time, transmitting Gen. Shafter's orders to
the ships. The Olivette also is a free lance.
She flies the Red Cross flag, for she is the
hospital ship of the 5th army corps, and her
sole mission seems to be to signal "Have you
any sick aboard?" as she steamed in and out
and all around the fleet. Up to date only fif
teen sick men have been transferred to the
Olivette from the transports, and all came
i from ten ships. None of the sick men seems
to be seriously ill. As a matter of fact, al
most all of them are possessed of the ability
to eat three meals a day, and the doctors say
all are "good" cases.
The weather has been all that could be de
sired: a steady wind from the east cool
enough to temper the heat even when the
sun blazed directly overhead. The
course
%
52
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
lay almost southeast up to yesterday after
noon, so that the ships took the waves in that
slanting direction which made comparatively
smooth sailing, even for the torpedo boats.
Had the course been such that the transports
would have wallowed in the trough of the
sea the discomfort aboard the crowded troop
ships would have been increased fifty fold.
As it was, comparatively few of the soldiers
were seasick. On the Olivette only half a
dozen men missed any meals, although a
score felt "squeamish" at times. The sol
diers took great comfort in the fact that the
"seasickest" men aboard some of the trans
ports were the "middies," members of the
class of '99 at Annapolis, who act as signal
officers of the transports. The boys are on
their way to join their ships which are with
Sampson's fleet, and they are working their
passage. The lads suffered not only from
the pangs incident to seasickness, but from
the cheek-coloring mortification which
served to egg on the "dough-boys," whose
hardtack-lined stomachs were proof against
combers and rollers. They took malicious
delight in openly "guying" the suffering
middies whenever an opportunity presented
itself. It speaks well for the good physical
condition of the soldiers on the troopships
that each transport to-day reported that a
remarkably small number of the soldiers had
been seasick. But the old salts tell us that
when we begin wallowing in the trough of
the seas while making the Windward pas
sage to-night or to-morrow "Swab-ho!" will
be the popular cry on the ships. It is only
fair to say that before the troops embarked
at Port Tampa the boys in blue and brown
frankly admitted they dreaded "seasickness"
more than Spanish bullets, and a large ma
jority of them looked forward to the voyage
with considerable apprehension.
Just before the fleet of transports left Port
Tampa the Olivette was turned into a hos
pital ship, and when Maj. Appel, command
ing the 1st divisional hospital corps, came
aboard, the Red Cross flag was run up to the
mainmast head, and every man who car
ried a revolver, rifle, machete or other arm
was required to hand it over to Purser Deni-
son. The Olivette also was a water tender.
For a week it had been supplying the trans
ports with the clear spring water which it
tanked at St. Petersburg on Tampa bay. So
it happened that the Olivette was far too
busy allaying the thirst of the dry transports
to take on enough coal for her voyage to the
scene of the war, and when the Seguranca,
the last troopship to leave the dock at Port
Tampa, steamed south, following the fleet of
troopships, the Olivette was watering the
City of Washington well down the bay. Then
she returned to Port Tampa and spent the
night of June 14 coaling up. The fleet left
Egmont key at 6 o'clock p. m. June 14, so it
had ten hours the start of the hospital boat.
Capt. Stephenson of the Olivette had orders
to set his course for Rebecca shoals, off Dry
Tortugas, and he steered so well and handled
his craft with such skill that we picked up
the stern lights of a dozen ships at 10 p. m.
Wednesday night when abreast the red and
white flashlight, which warns ships off Re
becca shoals. This bunch of dancing points
of lights was followed all night, the fleet
steaming about six knots an hour, southeast.
Capt. Stevens of the signal corps of the
army stood on the bridge of the Olivette,
with Capt. Stephenson, to pick up any signals
which might be sent back. Shortly after 2
o'clock Thursday morning Capt. Stevens
caught a glimpse of something which was
black, low in the water and apparently head
ing directly toward the hospital ship. It
was 150 yards distant and almost dead ahead.
He touched the arm of Capt. Stephenson and
pointed toward the mysterious craft, for it
was plainly a boat of some sort. The Oli
vette was "sheered off" to the starboard, just
missing the floating object by less than 150
feet — a close shave, for it developed that the
boat was one of the bulky pontoon barges
which had broken away from the transport
that was towing it.
Daylight found every one on the Olivette
wide-awake and on deck, looking at the
fleet of troopships, which stretched so far
ahead that the leading ships could be dis
tinguished only by the haze of smoke that
lay to the southeast on the horizon. We
steamed ahead, passing and hailing the strag
glers, then the rear ships, and at length
drew up not a stone's throw from the Segur
anca. Our signal flags, asking "Have you
any sick aboard?" receive negative answers
from all the ships, and the corps of doctors
on the Olivette and the hospital men had
nothing to do but take a much-needed rest
and acquire a deep rich brown tan.
It is difficult to realize that the half-hun
dred transports, warships, water boats, pon
toon barges and other craft form an expedi
tion which is making history rapidly, al
though it is crawling over the water at little
more than a snail's pace. The latest figures
we were able to obtain showed that the army
of invasion quartered on the troopships has
an effective fighting strength of 18,000 men,
exclusive of the men on the warships.
Many of the troopships are crowded to an
uncomfortable degree, but from the replies
to inquiries put through the megaphone as
we passed down the line most of the troops
are as comfortable as circumstances permit.
The upper decks, roofs of deckhouses and
lower rigging of all the ships are black with
the men, in clusters and groups, for every
body who can do it is out on deck. The men
are in decided neglige; undershirts are the
proper caper, and thousands of the men, and
not a few officers, have discarded coats, vests,
shirts and trousers, and appear in under
clothing only. Here and there a rifle barrel
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
."
SPANISH RIFLE PITS AND BREASTWORKS AT DAIQUIRI.
is seen. It indicates one of the men on
guard, for a guard is set every day, more
as a matter of habit than of necessity. These
rifle barrels are the only visible signs which
serve to draw attention to the fact that we
really are on the way to scenes of bloodshed;
that we actually are an army of invasion,
with 500 rounds of ammunition for every
man who carries a gun; with thirty heavy
siege guns; with several batteries of light
artillery, with a couple of dynamite guns,
and 18,000 men who know how to shoot to
kill. These are the facts, but it is hard to
realize them.
The transports steam methodically and
doggedly ahead, making no sound save when
the bow splits a particularly saucy wave.
There is absolutely nothing in or about the
clothing (or lack of clothing) of the men on
the troopships to show the wearers are sol
diers. From the stern of every ship half a
dozen fishing lines string in the wake of
the steamer, each line serving to keep a score
of men on edge ready to yell when some
vagrant and infrequent fish nibbles at the
strip of red flannel or bit of salt pork saved
from dinner. Occasionally a brass band gives
tongue, or a lone bugler practices his calls
with the bell of his horn pointing out through
a lower porthole. A few bits of colored bunt
ing raised on the distant Indiana bring other
bits of colored bunting to the breeze on some
other warship, and all the soldiers on the
ships make bets and guess as to what the
signals mean.
The huge flagship, the Seguranca, can
raise a wave of excitement simply by turn
ing in her tracks and steaming back to the
Gussie, so that Capt. McKay may inquire
after the health and well-being of the 300
mules which the Gussie carries between
decks. Apparently mules rank men on this
expedition, for the mules aboard the Gussie
have been the cause of more signals, more
backing and filling, more anxious inquiries
and the recipients of more attention form
big-titled army officers than have been
wasted on half the troops. The Gussie's
mules brought the Helena, Olivette, Gussie,
Osceola and Hornet to Man-of-War bay,
Matthewstown, Great Inagua island, this
afternoon. The Olivette has orders to water
the City of Washington, which is straggling
somewhere far in the rear, but as soon as
the tanks of the Gussie are filled with drink
ing water for the mules we pull out and
chase the fleet again, for the City of Wash
ington hasn't any mules aboard. She only
has some troops, and they can wait a bit for
their water.
The mule episode is one of the few in
cidents which have served to break the
monotony of a six days' crawl over the gulf
stream. It is when the sun goes down, and
red, green and white lights bobbing mysteri
ously in the night serve to locate the phleg-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
matic transports, that the last vestige of an
armed expedition is removed, for then the
singing "begins.
By orders of Gen. Shafter no lights, save
those at the stern, masthead and on the quar
ters, are permitted aboard the transports.
Night seems to drop down suddenly in these
tropical waters. The evening is short-lived.
The sun goes down, and a few minutes later
the stars are blazing and we light matches
to find our staterooms. Excepting the lights
on the Seguranca, which seems to have been
made an exception to the "no-light" rule,
only the stay lights, red and green side lights
and stern lights of the ships are seen. But
out of the dark, sometimes near and some
times distant, the singing of men comes to
the Olivette.
Almost always the songs are the well-
known Moody and Sankey hymns, with per
haps "The Suwanee River" or an occasional
college chorus sandwiched between the re
ligious songs. These night songs have de
veloped the interesting fact that if you want
several hundred or a thousand men to sing
one song that song must be either a hymn,
a Sunday school song or "The Suwanee
River." If one of the popular songs of the
day is started on a troopship, perhaps a score
of men can sing the words and a hundred
may join in the chorus. Almost every man
in the fleet can sing the first verse of
"America"; nearly all can sing the first
verse and chorus of "The Suwanee River,"
but when the leading singer starts up "Rock
of Ages," Hold the Port," "Just As I Am
Without One Plea" or "Jesus Loves Even
Me," the chances are that every man on
the ship will lift up his voice and sing the
song with vigor, fervor and the delight which
comes to the ordinary man when he knows
the words as well as the tune.
The singing keeps up for an hour or more,
then "taps" are sounded and the men try to
sleep.
When at 5:30 o'clock this afternoon (June
22) the stars and stripes were given to the
Caribbean wind from a rock in front of the
Spanish fort on top of Altares hill, over 18,000
men, two score steam whistles and a dozen
brass bands gave Cuba an American demon
stration that it had never dreamed of. This
was after sturdy arms, steam launches and
saucy ships of the mosquito fleet had trans
ported nearly 10,000 American soldiers from
American troopships to Spanish soil. The
flag-raising was a fitting climax to the'events
of a day which will ever stand as a time-
mark in American history. At 10:24 o'clock
this morning the first boat carrying soldiers
of this army of invasion buried its keel in
Cuban sand, just as a score of armed men
sprung thigh deep into the water and turned
with leveled rifles to the shore.
The Spanish fort which was Americanized
this afternoon is one of the little square
blockhouses which are found all over Cuba,
particularly on the line of a trocha. It stood
on the very crest of the bold bluff which rises
west of this little iron-mining town. This
morning, when the warships were shelling
the hills and woods to drive out any au
dacious or foolish Spaniards who might be
lurking near the landing place, the little fort
was a target which tempted a dozen gunners,
but the elevation was too much for the six-
pounders and four-inch guns, and it escaped
injury.
A whooping-hurrah blast from the deep-
toned whistle of the Mattewan and a wild
jubilant yell from the soldiers on that trans
port caused every man in the expedition to
stop whatever he was doing and look around
for the cause of the unexpected demonstra
tion. The Olivette was the next to catch a
glimpse of the "red, white and blue" flying
from the staff where the scarlet and yellow
of Spain had fluttered a few days ago, and
its whistle began the "whoo-whoo-whc-o-
up" which was caught at once by every
whistle that had a pound of steam back of
it, and a quarter of an hour whistle shrieks,
cheers, yells, drum flares, bugle calls and
patriotic songs were sent up toward that lit
tle flag which snapped and waved as though
it knew 18,000 men, 500 feet below it, were
honoring its stars and stripes. Then the
noise ceased, and out of it came the strains
of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from the
regimental band on the Mattewan. The
soldiers ashore and the soldiers afloat were
quiet until the brasses became silent, and
then three full-lunged hurrahs crashed
against the hill, and the salute to the flag
was complete.
Half an hour afterward the flag received a
second ovation, when it was hoisted on the
flag-staff of the blockhouse itself.
When the sun rose this morning the fleet
of transports was ten miles out in the Carib
bean sea, due south of Santiago. For a dis
tance of twelve miles east from Morro castle
battleships, cruisers, gunboats, torpedo
boats and armed tugs patrolled the shore.
The extreme eastern end of this line of ma
rine videttes was a little cluster of red-
roofed houses, grouped around the shore end
of an iron dock, the property of an American
iron company. This is- Baiquiri, where the
army of invasion landed over half its forces
to-day. It looks from a distance of a mile
much like a Pennsylvania iron-mining town,
although no blast-furnace stack fills in the
foreground to dominate the surroundings.
The peaks and crests of the Altares hills,
which are mountains in fact, form the rim
of a cup at the bottom of which crouches the
hamlet. The mines are high above the dock,
and a gravity tramway adds another Amer
icanism to this tropical nondescript. Sev
eral miles north of Juragua is the pass
through which the road runs that leads to
the back country, and three miles west, on
the shore, is another village of the Altares
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
hills, Auguadores. Daiquiri (it is sometimes
called Altares) offered several inducements
to a military expedition seeking good land
ing and camping accommodations. The
water is of good depth well up to the shore
— a fine thing for transports and warships
drawing from fifteen to twenty-seven feet.
A dock fitted up for loading vessels with iron
ore extends out into the water a sufficient
distance to quiet the combers and smooth
the breakers, so that rowboats can be
beached without much danger of being
swamped. A railroad extends to Santiago,
and it can and probably will be used to
transport the heavy siege guns and ponder
ous field mortars which promise to play an
important part in this little affair. The
place is said to be healthful, and it should
be, for it. is high, dry and seems to have
good drinking water. Wide open to an at
tack from the sea, it is well situated to re
sist one from the rear and sides, and the
breaks in the hills and valleys and gulleys
which extend seaward afford abundant op
portunities for the guns of warships to cut
to pieces any body of troops having hostile
designs on the 5th army corps while it is
under its pup tents in this valley of the Al
tares hills.
The first troops landed at 10:24 o'clock this
morning, and when the line of boats started
for the breakers cheers came from all the
ships. Admiral Sampson's beauties gave the
army a realistic imitation of a bombardment,
for half a dozen warships opened on the
underbrush and hillsides with solid shot and
shell. For twenty minutes the rapid-firing
and machine guns beat the long roll, with
the heavy ones coming in with booms and j
thumps like a great bass drum. The shells j
ripped through the trees, smashed the cliffs, j
uprooted great palms and tore up the earth
with a vindictive vigor which delighted the
soldiers, many of whom had never heard the
roar of an eight-inch rifle before. This
shelling was simply a precaution. The Cu
bans had sent word to the flagship that the
Spaniards had left the town .as soon as the
first transports swung into view. In fact,
when the troops were in possession of the
place there was every indication that the
Spanish soldiers realized a condition and not
a theory was packed away in the thirty-five
troopships. Over 8,000 rounds of Mauser
rifle ammunition was left behind; many of
ficial papers were found in the house that
had been occupied by the Spanish com
mandant. But the enemy left several souve
nirs. To the soldier the most interesting
were the rifle pits, which ran in every direc
tion, and the dozen little forts which dot the
hills surrounding Baiquiri. The stockholders
of the Spanish-American Iron company suf
fered the loss of some locomotives and a
machine shop, for this town is an iron-min
ing town, owned by a company of American
capitalists. When the tacticians of the 5th
army corps, came ashore ana saw the natural
defenses of the place they breathed hard
for a minute, for they saw at once that a
more energetic enemy could have held off
the whole expedition, warships and all, with
a comparatively small force. But luck has
been with the Americans from the day the
last transport left Tampa. The surf ran
high, and it would have been ticklish busi
ness to have attempted to land a few men; it
was real peril when it came to landing a boat
crowded with heavily armed soldiers. Many
boats were swamped. Yet only two men were
drowned, and only one was injured seriously
enough to get him a billet to the hospital
ship, the Olivette. When taps sounded to
night scores of little campflres showed that
the invaders had pushed straight out into the
bills, so that no Spaniard could creep up
through the underbrush and pick off a north
ern man by shooting at him behind his back.
LANDING TROOPS IN CUBA.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
For people of retiring disposition who are
not willing to encounter the curious gaze of
strangers the couniry around and about San
tiago, from Baiquiri to El Cobre, offers pe
culiar advantages. In most places all that it
is necessary to do to escape observation is to
lie down. A few steps to one side from any
of the so-called roads and you are lost to the
world for just as long as you care to be, and
unless you are very badly wanted no ons
is going to spend very much time hunting
for you. There are dense clumps of bushes,
infinite tracts of cane growth interspersed
with knobby cactus, Spanish bayonet and
tough brambles with long curved thorns
that wrap themselves about the wayfarer
and hold to him like octopus tentacles until
they are cut to pieces. It is an ideal country
for guerrilla warfare.
As we in the transports stood off Baiquiri
June 22 and watched the dingy battleships
range up in line and deliver their thun
derous broadsides at the shores we wondered
in our ignorance what it was all for. At
first we experienced a thrill of excitement,
a fullness at the throat and a quick, cold
touch upon the vertebral nerve centers when
the white smoke burst from the sides of the
vessels, one following another; and we
cheered madly, not knowing exactly why,
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
when the shells struck the hillsides. Vaguely
we felt that this was war; that these shots
were being fired with stern and deadly pur
pose. Afterward came the inquiry: "For
what purpose?"
To cover the landing, of course, said the
initiated. That was in accordance with a
suspicion we had entertained. To the west
ward, where Siboney was half hidden be
hind a spur of the hills, flames rose and quiv-
erel like opal fires through the smoke;
houses were burning, and that was perfectly
natural and proper. We could understand
why they were shelling the blockhouse, that
looked like a bandstand or dancing pavilion
perched up on the peaks to the west of the
town — for we had been told that it was a
blockhouse. But why in the name of all
things wasteful were they 'throwing away
good ammunition on those barren slopes
in front?
Then came the landing, the long strings
of ships boats,. loaded down with men until
the gunwales seemed to be touching the
water's edge, looped together with towlines
and dragged through the bright blue, dan
cing, glancing water by sharp-nosed, anxious
little steam launches; there was the jam of
craft at the jetty, the momentary expecta
tion of being smashed like egg shells against
the slimy piles, and we were standing on
Cuban soil and looking about us. We could
see then that those innocent-looking hills
were covered with brush, in which an enemy
might have concealed itself, and that half
a dozen batteries might have been hidden in
one spot that had looked to us particularly
bare.
There had been gay talk aboard the trans
port of the Cuban senoritas. The susceptible
young officers had allowed their lively fancy
to paint glowing pictures of their charms.
They had dreamed of delicate oval faces,
with complexions of olive and sea-shell
pink, eyes jet black, flashing or languorous
in their glances, forms of voluptuous grace,
side curls, hammocks, lace mantillas and
fans. Their first sight of a Cuban woman
half an hour after landing was a disillu
sionment. She was sitting in an American
rocking chair, the splintered and broken
cane seat of which had been supplemented
by patches of greasy rawhide, on the porch
of a tumble-down 'building by a stagnant
lagoon. Her face, where the dirt allowed
it to be seen, was of a dingy yellow hue.
She was fat with an oily fatness, and she
smoked a cigarette with great composure as
she pressed a naked brown baby to her bosom.
Behind her chair stood a girl about 12 years
old, attired in a scanty calico slip, who
combed with a fine-tooth comb the whisps
of hair that hung over the back. Another
naked child rolled on the filthy floor at its
mother's feet.
Inside the house half a dozen Cuban sol
diers were chattering volubly and excitedly.
A shell from the fleet had pierced the side
of the building, tearing its way through
three partitions and wrecking a bake oven,
and their wonder at the force of the pro
jectile was unbounded. They thrust their
arms and their heads through the holes in
the boards as if doubtful whether to trust
their eyes, puffed out their black cheeks and
said "Pff — boom!" and then returned to the
oven and shook their heads dolefully. It
appeared that they had been getting bread
baked there, and the destruction of the stone
and stucco cooking place was a calamity.
A good handy man with mud could have
built one in half an hour; they said they
would repair it— to-morrow.
A little later, with Capt. O'Neill, I climbed
the hill to the still smoking ruins of the
roundhouse that the Spanish had burned be
fore evacuating the town. There were a few
charred timbers still standing over the mans
of twisted bolts, shafts and plates that had
been a locomotive. Farther back was an
armored car in good condition, and all about
were heaps of exploded cartridges that had
been thrown into the flames because the
owners were too much hurried to take them
with them.
Running eastward from the roundhouse
was a little straggly street of sun-browned
houses, thatched with cocoa leaves, in the
shade of which a few men were stretched out
asleep. It was evidently siesta time. E\en
the tiny mule hitched at the corner of the
panaderia, or bakehouse, half-hidden by its
immense panniers of woven grass, had its
eyes closed, and a dog that came trotting
down the road and suddenly sat down to
scratch himself seemed to be displaying an
energy and a directness of purpose that was
strangely out of place.
We, too, sat down in the shade, and then
it appeared that every one was not drowsing,
for we heard the pleasant clink of dishes
inside the houses. A door opened and a
woman came out and nodded a pleasant
"good-day." This one was darker skinned
by nature than the first; she was, in fact,
black, but comely withal. Her muslin gowrv
was spotlessly clean and freshly ironed, and
altogether she looked quite wholesome. She
went inside the house almost directly and
presently came out again with two steaming
bowls of exquisite chocolate, which she
offered to us with the prettiest grace imag
inable. The Cuban woman instantly went
up in our estimation by an incalculable
percentage. When we had finished the grate
ful beverage and had renewed our expres
sions of gratitude O'Neill asked if chocolate
could be purchased in the town. "In Cuba
[Santiago], yes," replied our hostess, "but
I think they will not let you in. This was
some that I had been saving for such an
honorable occasion. It enraptures me that
the senors have enjoyed it."
The women of the lower classes are here
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
r,7
UNITED STATES TROOPS GOING ASHORE AT BAIQUIRI, CUBA.
[From a photograph taken by Guy Cramer. J
almost without exception negresses or mu-
lattoes, and, aside from some differences in
customs and manners, of about the same
type as those at home. The Spanish polite
ness is with them almost exaggerated, and
their stock of magniloquent phrases is in
exhaustible. There is apparently no preju
dice against the negroes in Cuba on account
of their race, and the result is that they
have a freer bearing. Old and young, the
women love to go gaudily dressed. Gowns
of brilliant yellow, flaming red and a blue
that makes the eyes ache are the rule. The
matrons wear turbans and the girls the
reboza, a sort of scarf not unlike the woolen
"fascinator." The girl babies wear earrings
before they wear clothes, and flat band brace
lets of silver or copper are not uncommon.
They are a picturesque people. Some of the
women of the wealthier class I saw in Caney
were fair as Scandinavians — so fair that I
might have suspected chemical bleaching
had it not been for their blue eyes. The
majority, however, are dark, and the older
they are the darker they seem to get.
One of the greatest needs of the army at
the present time is a portable laundry. There
are thousands of men here to whom the
scarcity of rations or even the prospect of
a sudden and bloody death is a matter of
minor consequence to the scarcity of clean
underclothing. The soldier, officer or pri
vate, who has two suits is an aristocrat, and
yet two suits of underwear in a tropical
climate is not an excessive number. Some
hygienic authorities recommend as high as
two changes daily, though it is understood
as a matter of course that this would ac
company a hygienic dietary and baths and
things of that sort. A man can retain a
remnant of self-respect if he is prepared to
change upon an emergency, but if he is com
pelled to wear the same garments next to his
skin for three successive weeks he begins to
regard himself with unspeakable loathing.
The shirt famine began on the transports.
Some of the men bought in Tampa cakes
of what was called salt-water soap, with
which they confidently expected to be able to
remove the camp dust and dirt from their
apparel, but the soap was a delusion. In
conjunction with the water it produced an
oleaginous slime, which caked in the fabric
when it dried, and when worn had much the
effect of a mustard poultice.
The sight of the streams of sparkling
water later on revived the hopes of those
who had been longing for something clean,
but strict orders were issued almost imme
diately forbidding bathing or washing of
clothes therein. The water was needed for
drinking. About the largest vessel of any
kind% obtainable was a quart cup, so not much
laundry work was done for some time. Since
then some inventive genius has improvised
a washtub out of a rubber blanket, and his
example has been followed by all those who
had these articles. Rubber ponchos are plen
tiful, but they are not available, having a
hole in the center for the admission of the
head. The blankets have generally to be
filled with water from canteens, so that the
process is slow and discouraging. On the
whole, there is not much washing done. As?
for baths, the only chance is a heavy rain
storm. Then the men strip under shelter
58
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
and run out into the open with a cake of
soap and proceed to remove the Cuban soil
from their persons. A few days ago about
forty soldiers lathered themselves plentifully
and ran out into the wet. At that very Jn-
stant the rain abruptly ceased.
RED CROSS IN CUBA.
BY KATHERINE WHITE.
This morning by invitation from Com
mander Dunlap, Miss Clara Barton and the
Red Cross staff made a call on the United
States naval ambulance ship Solace, lying
in Guantanamo harbor. As we entered the
ship from the fresh sea air our nostrils
were greeted by that intangible odor so in
separable from hospitals and so suggestive
of clean disinfectants. We first visited the
ward, which occupies a large space in the
lower deck of the vessel. It is fitted up with
ninety-two immovable bunks, built in a
double tier, and the tiers separated by nar
row passageways.
The patients looked very comfortable and
well cared for as they lay in cool, white pa
jamas. There are forty now in the ward.
Most of them are marines who were wounded
in the skirmishes at Guantanamo, and there
are one or two Cuban soldiers, who fought
in co-operation with the marines. Some of
the men are only slightly and some are
very badly hurt. A shell had exploded
right in the face of one man, and his head
was entirely lost in bandages. The physi
cian in charge said he was doing well, and
would carry but few scars. Another man^
seemed to have wounds scattered all over*
his body. One arm was in a sling, the
hand of the other arm was plastered over
and one leg was swathed in bandages. Miss
Barton stopped to ask him a question. He
thanked her with a smile, and told her he
was doing well. Then she smoothed back
his hair in her tender, solicitous way, say
ing: "You are helping to make the history
of your country now, poor fellow."
Directly above the ward on the main deck
is the operating room. It is completely
equipped with all modern hospital appli
ances. The dispensary has telephone con
nections with every other part of the ship,
the bathroom has an automatic appliance
for turning on water at any temperature,
from ice cold to the boiling point. The
operating tables, the sterilizers — all are per
fect. The vessel is lighted with electricity
and electric fans spin in every warm corner.
There is an elevator which lifts the stretch
ers over the ship's rail, carries them up to
the operating room, and finally deposits the
patients at their bunks in the ward, and all
without the painful necessity of much han
dling. There is an emergency ward also
below ready to be filled with swinging bunks.
The hurricane deck is reserved for the iso
lation ward, and should a case of fever be
brought aboard the patient would be placed
on a cot out under the aw<ning.
Miss Barton in a conversation with one of
the physicians asked about the methods of
treating wounds, and spoke with much feel
ing of the wanton way in which amputa
tions were performed during the civil war.
I heard her describe how she had seen dis
membered limbs piled in heaps reaching to
the tops of the tents. The physician hur
riedly reassured her. "No, no," he said,
"we will have nothing like that; we have
j not yet found it necessary to amputate a
limb, and every effort will always be made
to save them."
"And when the enemy have done their
worst," Miss Barton said, "and when you
have done your best for the men, how many
will the ship accommodate?"
"Three hundred and fifty" he answered.
But the easy capacity of the vessel is
only 150, and if it becomes so overcrowded
the ship will make for some northern port
at once and transfer the patients to a land
hospital.
The Solace is 370 feet over all and has a
displacement of 3,000 tons. Her average
speed is fourteen knots. She is painted white,
with a dark-green stripe running around her
sides, and she flies the Red Cross flag, which
insures her protection.
Miss Barton was informed this afternoon
by a newspaper man that the battle fought
on Friday near Altares was much more seri
ous than was at first reported. The number
of killed is estimated at 100, and there were
a great many wounded. Much suffering is
reported among the disabled soldiers. They
were described as lying on the bare floor iu
an old warehouse. It seems that the army
is as yet but inadequately equipped for car
ing for its sick and wounded. After a con
sultation among the staff officers of the Red
Cross it was decided to go back with the
State of Texas to the scene of the 'conflict,
where their services seemed to be most in
demand. The ship was immediately put un
der way, and at 8 o'clock in the evening she
is lying in the midst of the transports in
Altares harbor and the men of the Red
Cross staff have gone ashore to learn the
| conditions and to offer the services of the
i Red Cross.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
The Red Cross steamer arrived at Key
West from Tampa Saturday afternoon, June
17, and lay at anchor in the bight close to
the Spanish prizes till Monday morning.
When we left Tampa and until a whole day
had been passed at Key West no one knew
how long the ship would be kept waiting
until orders came from the navy department
permitting us to proceed to Cuba. Late
Sunday evening, while I was talking with
friends on the veranda of the Key West
hotel. Mr. George Kennan came to tell me to
be aboard at 9 o'clock the next morning, as
orders had come for the State of Texas to
follow the transports to Santiago. The morn
ing of sailing was a busy one for the mem
bers of the Red Cross staff. Even the short
trip from Tampa had given them a taste of
what the hot weather had in store, and as
soon as the shops were open there was a gen
eral rush to buy all the available summer
comforts in the way of light shirtwaists,
cool pajamas and white green-lined helmet-
shaped hats.
The first day no living thing except the
dark porpoises springing up from the sea
appeared to break the still monotony of the
voyage. The next morning, however, we
sighted the low, indistinct line of the Cuban
coast, and traveled in sight of land all day.
Except for a brief glimpse of a white-sailed
schooner that appeared for a short time like
a speck upon the horizon, we might have
been the only ship on that wide desert of
water. No blockading squadron came to in
terrupt us, not even a patrolling cruiser was
anywhere to be seen. In the evening we en
tered Yucatan channel and the red revolving
light of Cape Antonia beamed out like a
friendly guiding star. There was a sugges
tion of home and comfort in being so near
the land, even though it was the unhappy
island in whose interest we were traveling.
Every one came to sit on deck in the cool
evening, and Mr. Kennan good-naturedly
sang some of his weird Russian songs. The
two days following this the Carribbean sea
breezes were not so kind, and most of the
Red Cross staff experienced all the unpleas
ant sensations of a rough day at sea. And
then on Friday we awoke in sight of Santi
ago de Cuba province and passed so close
to the coast that objects ashore could be
distinguished plainly with the naked eye.
This part of the country has always been
held by the insurgents, and it includes some
of the most valuable sugar land in Cuba.
The coast rises abruptly from tne sea in
bold terraces till finally the low hills mergs
themselves into the lofty Sierra Maestra
mountain range, dark-wooded and mist-
veiled and holding those mysterious fast
nesses wherein the insurgents have so suc
cessfully eluded the Spanish soldiers while
they subsisted upon the wild fruits and
game with which these friendly mountains
have so bountifully supplied them. In the
distance Mount Torquino looms up, cloud-
crested, 9,000 feet above the sea— the highest
peak on the island.
Friday night all on board retired in a state
of earnest anticipation of what the morrow
would bring. Perhaps we would find Santiago
in the hands of our own forces, and we could
land our supplies and begin at once the relief
work we had come prepared to do. Or we
might arrive in the midst of a great battle
and our ship would be turned into a hospital
for the wounded. At all events, every one
was prepared and eager to begin work, what
ever kind it might be. So the morning found
all on deck at a very early hour. An impos
ing and beautiful scene it was that opened
around us. We were lying in the suburbs,
as it were, of a great floating city, the war
\essels appearing like so many huge man
sions as they became more distinct through
the rising mist. Close guarding the harbor
lay the Massachusetts, and off to the right
was the New York, the flagship. In every
direction, extending up and down the coast
and far out to sea, those dark gray battle
ships loomed formidable and threatening as
they watched the harbor.
The sea, still and blue, lay smiling at the
foot of the towering green mountains — calm,
serene, superbly heedless of the turmoil in
the little hearts of men. As the sun rose
higher and we were able with the help of
our glasses to distinguish Morro castle
frowning from the bold bluffs a feeling of
disappointment was experienced on board the
State of Texas as the emblem of Spain
streamed out from the highest tower. The
battle had not been fought after all, and we
were in time.
WITH SAMPSON OFF SANTIAGO.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
To-day has been another time of waiting.
The New York, Iowa, Marblehead and some
of the other cruisers are at Guantanamo, and
Commodere Schley has been watching the
harbor entrance. The Spaniards are to be
seen hard at work repairing their batteries
on the hills, and are apparently in as good
condition to resist attack as when first bom-
I barded. They have succeeded in removing
one of the masts from the sunken Merrimac
and are to be observed daily working at the
wreck, their object probably being to rescue
the cargo of coal with which she was loaded
when blown up. Not only are officers and
men tired of the monotony of the situation,
but even Commodore Schley is showing signs
60
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
RAISING THE ENSIGN ON A UNITED STATES WARSHIP.
of impatience. To-day on the Brooklyn he
said:
"It seems to me as though we ought to do
something, as we are certainly wasting val
uable time. I must admit that while the
navy can destroy fortifications it cannot hold
them. Troops should be pushed along in
numbers sufficient to enable them to do the
work. It will be no child's play, and a force
of 20,000 mm in Cuba will be exterminated.
We ought to have 150,000 men on the island
now, and I venture the suggestion that 300,-
000 will be required before we see the end of
this struggle.
"The Spaniards are brave men and good
fighters. They have trained and seasoned
troops to meet our men, and you may set it
down as a fact that some of the hardest
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
GJ
fighting over cut out for soldiers is ahead of
the men who invade the island. History is
repeating itself in this war. We are a confi
dent people and beleve in our abilities, but
we have hard, blunt, cold facts to face in
war, and the quicker we awake to a realiza
tion of the necessities the better it will be for
us all. Before we drive the Spaniard from
Cuba we shall have to do hard fighting, and
to do the sort of fighting that is required we
shall need men, and thousands of them. Un
less we use the men, and use them quickly,
the war will drag along interminably.
"Spain is going to fight hard. She can't do
anything else. The capture of Santiago is
not going to end the struggle. Havana must
fall and other places must be possessed before
we make real headway. I may be laughed at
and pointed to as one with old-fogy notions,
but I know something of war. It is unpleas
ant businesss. It is cruel and harsh, but if it
is to be successfully prosecuted it must be
pushed, and the faster it is pushed the sooner
it will be over and peace restored. It is not
my place to judge, and I do not know what is
being done, but I hope that enough men will
be landed to make an efficient fighting force.
If but a few thousand troops are landed in
the island among men familiar with every
path and tree and gap, the first victories will
not be heavily American, I am afraid, and
certainly if Spain overcomes our troops in
any engagement, no matter what the odds,
the moral effect will be greatly in her favor.
"But it is not my business to discuss these
matters, although as an American I should
like to see some action which will prove
beneficial to our cause. I know that we can
whip anything, ;.nd I want to see the work
progressing and the end in sight. We have
the Spaniard penned up in this harbor and
we want to get him. I wish he would come
out, and in fifteen minutes there would be
no Spanish navy. But he will not. I would
be willing to make an agreement with Cer-
vera to fight ship against ship. If he will
send out the Vizcaya or the Oquendo he may
have his choice of the ships in the fleet to
tackle. If he wins, let him take our fleet.
If we win, let us have his. It would be a
good, easy way to settle the matter and the
rest could look on and see how it was done.
"Admiral Cervera is evidently reversing
all theories of war. He announces the navy
as the third line of defense. In the first rank
he places the torpedoes and mines in the
harbor; then come the fortifications, and,
lastly, the ships. We usually consider the
navy as the first line, with the others to fall
back on when the time comes. But whatever
the situation, we ought to do something, and
the sooner we do it the better for all con
cerned.
"I am inclined to believe that the Span
iards are having a hard time of it in San
tiago. I suspect that they are greatly
in need of provisions, and it is quite likely
that they are out of coal for their ships. In
going into the harbor we should have some
difficulty, as the channel is narrow, even
with the Merrimac out of the way. I have
been told that when Cervera went in he
found it necessary to have some of his ships
towed. If this is true, it will indicate what
there is to be considered when the word
comes for a general attack upon the place
and the capture of everything belonging to
Spain.
"However, we can get in and do the work
when we get the word. I think that the
enemy has a wholesome regard for our
shooting qualities, and the fact that the
big St. Louis went right in under Morro
last night looking for the cable convinces me
that the trenches are not occupied nor the
batteries served any more at night. Since
the dynamite boat has been operating at
night there appears to be but little disposi
tion on the part of the Spaniards to shoot
when our vessels close in to shore, and I
am of the opinion that they are lying low
and do not intend to answer our fire until
the time comes for the final struggle. When
that comes we shall take Santiago, and a
force of men from the army wrill hold it; but
we ought to have men enough to make a
lasting impression. Don't overlook the fact
that the enemy is a fighter; that he has had
experience and training, and, what is of the
greatest importance, is acclimated. It is
not to be a walk-over for us, although we
shall have victory in the end. And it cannot
be too strongly impressed upon the people
that we shall require good men, brave men
and lots of men before we see the end of this
war."
With their great twelve and thirteen inch
guns trained on the harbor entrance, the bi^
battleships of the blockading squadron are
awaiting the order which will mean the de
molition of the Spanish works. Half a dozen
times have they destroyed the defenses, but,
unable to follow up the advantage with a
landing force, ha,ve watched the restoration
of the batteries day after day, and to-day the
enemy is practically in as good condition to
resist attack as when Admiral Cervera's fleet
was first bottled up in the harbor.
The cruisers and auxiliaries are in their
places in the line, and, with the exception
of the vessels which steam to Guantanamo
bay now and then to coal, there is no change
in the situation. A few shots tossed into
Morro every day as notice that the blockade
is still effective are about the only things to
break the monotony of the tiresome wait.
Once beautiful as the "white navy," then
smart looking in the gray war paint, the
cruisers and fighting ships are fast losing all
claim to good looks. Salt water, saltpeter
and the effect of the smoke from the batteries
in action have sadly marred the beauty of
the ships. The paint has been burned or
washed off until the steel is exposed. To
62
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
prevent rust, red lead has been liberally ap
plied and the vessels look blotched and spat
tered. The navy is no longer beautiful, but
it is more terrible; its gunnery is better than
ever, and when a shell is fired these days it
strikes its objective and does as much dam
age in sixty seconds as may be repaired in
as many days.
Afternoon concerts have become the fad of
the fleet. The New York, the Brooklyn and
the battleships all have bands, and the music
of patriotic and popular airs is to be heard
here in the Caribbean sea from 2 until 4
o'clock every afternoon. It is a pleasing
break in the monotony, and is looked forward
to with as much interest as any one thing,
save, perhaps, an order to drop a shell into
the enemy's position — a suggestion which de
lights the men on the ship designated for the
service and sends the "jackies" of the other
vessels into rigging and up military masts
that they may watch the effect of the firing.
Memories are aroused when the music
begins at these ocean concerts. Recollections
of good things to eat appear to have the
first call. It is not to be wondered at, for
"ship's grub" has taken the place of the
luxuries, and no matter how much money
a man may possess he cannot exchange it for
stores in these waters.
As the band of the Oregon was discours
ing some of Sousa's music to-day one of the
naval reserves from Chicago, turning to a
comrade, remarked: "Say, old fellow,
doesn't that remind you of fresh lettuce and
a nice, juicy steak after a bicycle ride along
the Lake Shore drive?"
"You bet it does," returned his compan
ion, "but I would give $1 for a dish of
ice cream and $2 for a pound box of choc
olate creams this minute. I would give a
month's pay if I could break away from
beans for a day. It is worse than fighting
the Spaniards — a whole lot."
Some of the music appears to have a sig
nificance which, if understood by the enemy,
might advise him of things to come. The
other afternoon the Iowa steamed close to
shore as its band was playing "A Hot Time
in the Old Town To-Night/' and that same
evening the Vesuvius sent three dynamite
shells, each loaded with 200 pounds of gun
cotton, into the harbor. What damage was
done is, of course, not known, but from the
fact that the shock was felt on vessels five
miles out to sea it is fair to suppose that
the Spaniards must have been somewhat
startled when the bombs burst in their forti
fications.
There is just one' growl— a lack of "grub."
Rations are getting scarce and the little lux
uries are disappearing. The regular bill of
fare of a warship is not particularly inviting,
and the officers are complaining because the
wine mess is running dry and the sailors
complain of the scarcity of smoking and
chewing tobacco. No store ship has visited
these waters since Schley discovered Cervera
and his ships, and so, for the most part,
every one is down to "war feed."
All sorts of trades are being made. Yester
day the New Orleans gave the Texas twenty-
five pounds of tobacco for 100 pounds of ice
It is a great place to trade, and a sailor man
will do a day's washing for a plug of to
bacco. And, by the bye, washing is a rather
serious proposition. Even the newspaper
boats, which steam at full speed for twenty
hours whenever they wish to cable a bit of
news, do not find it possible to employ the
laundresses of the Jamaica ports owing to
the shortness of the stay and the uncertainty
of again visiting the same port. The laundry
scheme aboard the Hercules is to tie soiled
clothing along a line and hang the rope
astern so that it will tow in the wake of the
ship and be well churned by the rough water
stirred up by the screw. Then the washing
is hauled aboard, well covered with salt
water and soap and given another bath,
after which it is eventually hoisted into
the rigging and permitted to flutter in the
wind until dry.
Fear of Spanish gunnery has been dissi
pated to such an extent, thai all the ships
now lie within easy range in order that they
may take advantage of the smooth sea close
to land. It is almost amusing, this contempt
for the shooting abilities of the enemy, and
even the apprentice boys aboard the battle
ships scorn the suggestion that a Spanish
shell might land on an American vessel. The
little^yachts and tugs of the newspaper fleet,
looking like toy boats in a park pond as they
dodge around the great fighting ships, appear
to have absorbed some of the carelessness of
their bigger brothers, and cruise along the
shore entirely disregarding the possibility of
a shot from the ugly looking guns that pro
ject their black nozzles from behind the
sand works or hug close to the fighters when
the action is on, confident that no Spaniard
can hit anything at which he shoots.
But all the time a close watch is kept on
the harbor entrance. Admiral Cervera is in
side, and he may make a desperate fight to
get out. Every day the little steam tug Co
lon, belonging to a Boston man and seized in
the harbor of Santiago when war was de
clared, steams out toward the fleet with a
white flag at her house staff and the colors of
Spain aft. She carries communications be
tween Admirals Cervera and Sampson relat
ing to the exchange of the eight men who
went into the harbor on 'the Merrimac. The
other day she steamed out with a bulky doc
ument in which the Spanish admiral in
formed the commander in chier' of the Amer
ican fleet that he could make no terms of ex
change, as the entire matter had been re
ferred to Gen. Blanco at Havana for his de
cision.
When the Colon first came out of the har
bor the day after the Merrimac was blown
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
63
WATCHING THE FLAGSHIP NEW YORK FOR ORDERS TO THE FLEET.
[From a photograph taken by William Schmedtgen.]
up it was the good fortune of the Hercules
to be close in toward shore and to discover
her before she was noticed by the flagship.
THE RECORD'S dispatch boat started for her
and hailed her before the Vixen went to
meet the flag of truce. Admiral Cervera's
chief of staff was on board and replied to the
megaphone salutation in excellent English,
but before conversation had progressed very
far the rapid and spiteful Vixen came up at
a twenty-knot clip and prevented further
communication in a manner more emphatic
than polite. It appears to be the policy of
the government to attend to its own business
in these waters and to resent the kindly of
fers of assistance which more wide-awake
people proffer. Yesterday the Hercules
started for the Colon, racing with the bat
tleship Massachusetts for the honor of first
speaking her, but the big fellow bellowed
an angry "get out" on the steam whistle,
and the newspaper boat was obliged to "keep
cool and wait."
When the history of the present war is
written, honors piled upon military and
naval heroes and the new songs dedicated
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
to the fighting men, the unique part played
by the newspaper correspondent in the con
flict will be forgotten. His trials and trib
ulations in following the army; his troubles
in finding cable stations; his discourage
ments and the obstacles met in journeying
thousands of miles by sea in search of news,
and — greatest of all difficulties — filing it so
that it may reach its destination, will have
no place in the permanent record of the
campaign.
As luck would have it, but three dispatch
boats of the newspaper fleet were present
when Lieut.-Col. Huntington and his men
disembarked at Guantauamo bay, and the
first skirmish was witnessed by less than
half a dozen correspondents. On the second
night, when the Spaniards made a savage at
tack on the camp, killing four men, and
on the third, when two more marines were
victims of Spanish bullets, several news-
gatherers were in the trenches or marched
with scouting parties into the brush
Sylvester Scovill was there and so was
Stephen Crane. Beach from the Chicago office
of The Associated Press, Whigham of the
Tribune, and Billman of THE CHICAGO REC
ORD — these completed the roll of correspond
ents. Not a man of them but was glad that
the chance had come to him to see the "real
thing." Not only were the men there to
represent their newspapers, but every one
felt a personal interest in the outcome. The
firing became hot, a field piece at the foot
of the hill was wanted, the marines were
busy, so three Chicago men, Beach, Whig-
ham and Billman, volunteered to drag it in
to position. They did the work, and as they
sought the trenches again a Mauser bullbt
whistled between Beach and Billman and
ended its course only when it stopped tne
life of Dr. Gibbs, surgeon of marines. It
was exciting work for a moment, but not suf
ficiently stirring to interest Crane, who was
calmly sleeping in the main trench, while
marines were firing all around him.
When the scouting party marched five
miles into the country and destroyed the
well of the guerrillas. Beach and Whigham
accompanied the expedition. Both were fired
on at a distance of 100 feet, one bullet lift
ing Beach's hat and another grazing Whig-
ham's nose, at the same time throwing his
spectacles into the air and making it neces
sary for him to send to Port Antonio, Ja
maica, for another pair.
None of these men would admit that they
did anything more than any of the other
fellows wrould have done under similar cir
cumstances, and it is quite likely that they
are right, but when the day of reckoning
comes it will be found that the newspaper
crowd took more chances than the average
soldier or sailor, was exposed to fire more
times, and nad more to combat than the boys
wearing the livery of Uncle Sam, whose work
is done when the fight is finished and the
dead buried.
CAVALRYMEN AT GUASIMAS.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
It was a hasty breakfast that we ate at
Siboney on the eventful morning of June 23 —
the morning of the fight at Guasimas. Henry
Sylvester Ward, the negro headquarters cook,
wearied with the hard march of the afternoon
before, for the first time had snored through
reveille, and being vigorously kicked out of
his blankets by a man detailed for that pur
pose had staggered sleepily over to a half-in
closed garden patch, where the bean vines
had been trampled into the loose soil by the
hoofs of the Spanish cavalry horses, to begin
his usual preparations for the meal. But he
had to struggle with dew-wet kindling wood
and he was far from being thoroughly awake
even when the blaze was snapping the twigs
under the coffee pot; so that he drew down
upon himself the wrath of Capt. McCormick.
That officer had just come down from Gen.
Castillo's headquarters, where Col. Wood had
been conferring with Gen. Wheeler and Gen.
Young. Orderlies were standing outside the
gate holding the bridles of four or five horses
and half a dozen mounted officers were gal
loping up and down the road. This was
rather unusual at this particular time in the
morning, but everything lately had seemed
unusual, so that I did not attach any particu
lar significance to the circumstances. But
Capt. McCormick was in a hurry for break
fast. I noticed that, and Henry Sylvester
was so agitated that he cut a gash in his
thumb in opening a can of tomatoes and
dropped into the ashes the bacon that he had
sliced.
The muster rolls were being called by this
time, so I went back to where Capt. O'Neill
and I had slept and got my pipe and canteen.
When after a protracted search I recovered
those necessary articles and returned to the
mess I found that nearly every one had eaten.
Col. Wood asked me how I had enjoyed my
walk fr6m Baiquiri — refering to the march of
the day before — and I told him. He smiled in
a maddeningly superior sort of way and asked
me how far I thought it was. My estimate
was fifty miles. His was seven, which he was
good enough to extend to nine on pressure;
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
65
ROUGH RIDERS PITCHING THEIR TEXTS.
but then he rode all the way. "Wait till I
make you do twenty-five miles on end," he
said, and added: "You may have some walk
ing to do to-day."
He seemed particularly cheerful, and Maj.
Brodie, who was finishing his concoction of
bacon grease, tomatoes and hardtack, was
equally so. Dr. Church, with his twinkling
eyes and his- long, melancholy face, was
stuffing what he called "hay" into his stubby,
well-blacked brier. "We're going to toddle
into Santiago this evening, farrier," he ex
plained.
Col. Wood jumped up and snapped his
watch shut. "We start in five minutes," he
said. "Any one who isn't ready will be left
behind. Where's Capt. Llewellyn?"
He hurried off and the rougn riders formed
in their troops before I had finished my cof
fee. Henry Sylvester bundled his pans and
tin plates into a gunnysack without washing
them and began to pack up his mule. No
tents had been put up the night before, so
an hour after reveille had sounded half the
regiment was climbing the mountain. Wood
and Roosevelt were at the head of the long,
brown column. Troop L was in advance,
and as I stopped to fill my canteen I caught
sight of Capt. Capron's tall figure striding
over the bowlders in the steep ascent and
stopping now and then to beckon his men on.
Before troop A started I got the first definite
intimation that there was work on hand —
that there was to be a fight that morning.
It was a hard hill to climb, and there were
frequent halts. Two companies of the 22d in
fantry had started for the crest five minutes
before to relieve their pickets, who were sta
tioned about two miles along the ridge, and
one of these companies was overtaken by the
rough riders. They seemed to me to be al
most exhausted, and five or six of them were
stretched out at full length by the side of the
trail, their eyes half-closed, while their com
rades struggled on. Many of the men had
pitched their blankets and blouses into the
bushes, and in one place half a dozen or more
packages of coffee had been thrown away.
Lieut. Lehy of troop G remarked on this as
we passed and cautioned his troop to keep all
they had and reach out for more, for they
would need it. One of the men followed the
advice literally, and was filling his pockets
when the command "March" was given, and
he was obliged to take his place in the ranks.
Within a few days I heard half a dozen men
speak regretfully of that coffee.
At last the summit was reached. Looking
back I could see the little village still in the
deep shadow of the hills, the blackened ruins
of the houses which the shells from the fleet
had destroyed, the lagoon bordered by its
grove of pines where the white tents of the
7th and 17th infantry were pitched, the
pearl-gray beach and the gunboats and trans
ports lying at anchor in the bay. To the
southeast of the town on the upland mesas
along the Baiquiri road were the camps of
the 8th and 4th infantry, the 71st New York
and the 6th Massachusetts, the smoke of
their fires drifting up and mingling with the
mountain mists. Another column of men was
marching in close order down the valley road.
There was some speculation as to who they
were. "We're going to have company, any-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
way," said Lehy; "they're going in the same
direction we are." Then, looking anxiously
down at the road where companies were lin
ing up in the road by the camps he added
with a disappointed air: "It looks like a gen
eral in advance."
"That is a cavalry outfit," remarked Capt.
Lema. "There's Gen. Wheeler on the right
flank — you can't mistake him."
"Guns to the front! Machine guns to the
front!" came down the line, and almost im
mediately after a shrill "yip yip" was heard
from the rear, and four mules packed with
the barrels and tripods of the Colts came on
a quick trot along the trail, followed by the
gun detail. The troopers looked at each other
as they passed. "I reckon they've struck
some Spaniards," said one. "Don't you wish
you was back at Bill William's Forks?"
There was a blockhouse on the side of the
trail, where some officers of the 22d infantry
stood, among them Capt. Nicholls, who was
the first of the American advance guard to
see the retreating Spanish. He had some in
formation for Col. Wood. His outposts had
heard the Spanish felling trees all through
the night, and he believed they were in
trenching themselves across the valley about
three miles ahead.
Col. Wood had already heard something of
the kind, but he thanked his informant and
gave the command to resume the march.
While the column was halted I took the
opportunity to examine the blockhouse. It
was of the usual style — a structure about
twelve feet square and twelve feet high to
the eaves of the pyramid roof. It was banked
up with gravel to a height of about four feet
from the floor, where an aperture for firing
extended all around the building. The upper
walls were of double plank, filled in loosely
with stones. A heap of green rushes, evi
dently used for a bed, was in one corner, and
opposite it was a five-gallon tin can filled
with rice flour. There was a rough carica
ture drawn on the whitewashed wall with
charcoal. It represented a colossal American
soldier — recognizable by his long goatee and
expression of extreme terror and anguish —
fleeing from a small but resolute Spaniard,
who was prodding him behind with a bay
onet. The name of the artist, Jose Cuenpa-
gos, was scrawled below.
Outside there was the inevitable surround
ing barb-wire fence and a deep ditch.
There was another blockhouse on an emi
nence across the valley, and it occurred to me
that the two, occupied by well-armed men,
could have held a considerable force in check.
I learned, however, that no attempt had been
made to prevent the advance of the pickets
at this point.
As we left the blockhouse the trail led into
a heavy growth of maingua interspersed
with forest trees hung with broad-leaved
vines, some of which had been blown down
and obstructed the trail at frequent inter
vals. The ground was still moist from the
rain of the night before. There was a wel
come shade, and altogether the conditions
were favorable for a fairly rapid march.
Nevertheless, the progress was slow. At
times there was hardly room for more than
a single file in the trail and there would be
a halt to allow for this formation. There
were other halts to await the return of the
Cuban scouts sent forward to reconnoiter,
though these were seldom long. The column
seemed to be cautiously feeling its way.
Now and then we would come out of the
semi-gloom of the jungle into open spaces
flooded with an intense light that for a few
moments was almost blinding. These places
were covered with scanty turf, and the few
trees were stunted and sometimes leafless.
On the left through their gnarled branches
there were occasional glimpses of the blue
Caribbean, and the sight of the illimitable
expanse of water set the hot and already
wearied men half crazy with longing.
"How would you like to strip off and let
that slop up against you?" asked one.
"It would be all right as far as it went,"
was the reply, "but there isn't enough of it
to cool me off. Let me have a drink from
your canteen. I'd drink my own, only I'm
likely to need what I've got left later on."
In spite of the fact that the officers had
been reticent concerning the purpose of the
march, I am convinced that the men expected
a fight on the morning of their march from
Siboney. They may have been ignorant of
what was going on when they were at Bai-
quiri, but it did not take them long after
arriving at Siboney to learn that the enemy
had not retreated far when he evacuated the
town, and they knew that they were likely
to stumble on him at any moment. The
only anxiety they expressed was that, tired
as they were, they might not be able to make
as good a showing as they could have dona
if they had been allowed a day or two to
"get their land legs." For ten days they
had been cooped up on the transport, without
the slightest opportunity for exercise. There
had been a day of inaction at Baiquiri; then
they had been marched to Siboney under a
torrid sun through a road of alternate dust
and swamp — a march that would have re
quired extraordinary exertion of a man in
the pink of condition. There were wiry and
stalwart fellows in the ranks who, under or
dinary circumstances, would have tramped
steadily all day without turning a hair, but
who were almost completely exhausted by
that twenty minutes of hill climbing in the
morning.
There was no surprise, then, when after a
few minutes' halt word was passed along for
silence in the ranks. The men had not been
particularly noisy — in fact, Col. Wood said
afterward that Lieut. -Col. Roosevelt was the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
^ /// ^/f/i '/^^^l( • /C/Si^
»«'*'
IH
f>' -: 1
AMERICAN AND CUBAN SOLDIERS ADVANCING ON SEVILLA, CUBA.
chief offender, and his somewhat impatient
order was meant rather especially for him.
I was well back in the rear and missed
everything but the low-voiced command re
peated from file to file and the significant
glances.
It seemed a strange, weird thing, that si
lence. Forward and back, almost as far as
eye could reach, these troopers, standing or
lounging on the bank by the side of the trail,
each as the order found him, motionless, al
most breathless, listening.
A cidada suddenly struck up its sharp
whirring note in one of the trees, and I saw
a man who was half-kneeling start at the
sound as though a hand had been laid on his
shoulder. Then came a quick footfall on the
gravel and Adjt. Hall strode down the line,
stopping as he passed to speak to Capt.
O'Neill, who at once left Lieuts. Carter and
Frantz and hurried forward, returning al
most immediately to give the command,
"Column right, march!" The troop swung
off the trail in the rear of K troop, to whom
a similar order had been given, and the troop
ahead, which I think was Capt. McClintock's,
closed up to the front. D and E troops de
ployed to the left, leaving L and B troops a
little in advance upon the trail. It was all
done with wonderful rapidity, but before it
was done there was the sound of firing on the
right. The battle of Guasimas had begun.
A lieutenant of the 10th cavalry, whose
name has escaped me, afterward informed
me that as he emerged from a clump of
bushes in the valley with his advance guard
of four or five men he was fired upon by a
body of Spaniards who were intrenched be
hind a ridge, upon which he fell back on the
main body, who returned the fire. Almost
immediately there was a volley from the left,
where the rough riders were, and where L
troop — Capt. Capron's — had gone down into
the hollow. After that the crackling of the
carbines was continuous and to some extent
indistinguishable; yet it seemed that the fir
ing was heaviest to the left, both from our
lines and from the front, and I was glad to
have it so. I had not a good position for ob
servation, crouched iu the bushes as I was.
In front of me a few yards in the thicket
four or five of the Arizona men were shooting
at something, but what it was I could not
see. The smoke from their carbines blew
back into my face, and that made it more
difficult to see what was going on. After a
little while Lieut. Carter broke through the
bushes on a run, and catching one of the
troopers by the shoulder pointed to the slope
in front. Following the direction his finger
indicated, I noticed a succession of bright
red flashes at intervals in a sort of broken
belt round the hill. The troopers at once
changed their aim, and as they did so I rose
and started on a run through an open place
for the higher ground. I had not got fifty
yards when there was a quick splattering
like the first few hailstones of a storm a
little in front of me. I stopped and looked
back and saw that one of the troopers had
dropped his gun and was crawling off on his
hands and knees, but his comrades did not
seem to have noticed him. I went on and
presently had a good view of the 1st and 10th
cavalry, who were moving round apparently
68
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
with the intention of flanking the Spanish
position. The line of the roungh riders,
originally a crescent with the horns bending
inward, was now straightened out and was
swinging around on the right. Back of the
lines of the 1st and 10th cavalry a field piece
was banging away at short intervals and the
shells were plainly creating confusion on the
.Spanish left.
Slowly — ten, twenty, fifty feet at a time in
their skirmish rushes — our men were ad
vancing, and as they went on the Spanish
gave ground. The fire was now hottest on
the right, and the men detailed from the
troops to care for the wounded were all too
few. I saw five or six wounded men carried
back from this point and as many more lying
where they had fallen. Several staggered
along to the rear without any assistance,
and one I saw fall headlong with a second
and a mortal wound.
I ran down the slope, again with the inten
tion of making my way to the left, and strug
gling through a brake of branches and cactus
came upon an open place where a wounded
soldier of B troop was lying in the trampled
grass with empty cartridge shells scattered
about him. I did not see him until he called
to me. Then I went up to him and gave him
a drink from my canteen — he had thrown his
own away with his blanket roll, he told me,
when he went into the fight. "It's getting
pretty - - hot," he remarked. "Did you
see Capt. McClintock? He's down. I think
he was killed." I offered to help him to the
road, but he refused. "I'll be all right," he
said; they'll miss me first of anybody, and
Col. Wood won't he happy till he gets me."
The bleeding from his wound had sto'pped
and he really did seem to be fairly comfort
able, so I left him and hurried on until I
came to a barb-wire fence that had been
beaten down by the men as they went
through. One thing here that marked the
advance was a dead Spaniard with a thin,
unshaven face and closely cropped black
hair, who lay a few feet from where the
straggling line was firing. Two men whose
blouses were torn and blood-stained were
propped up against fence posts waiting until
the hospital corps could get them away and
one other was lying prone in the road, look
ing as if he was asleep. All this time the
firing was so constant and heavy that it
seemed a wonder that any one should escape.
Still the scattering ranks of the rough riders
advanced and still the Spaniards went back
and back.
I expected more shouting, more excitement
generally than there was in the rough riders'
battle at Guasimas. In the rushes of our men
as they drove the Spaniards back the "cowboy
yell" was rarely given, and the officers did
not seem to find it necessary to wave their
hats or swords to encourage their men to fol
low them. There was nothing in the manner
of any of them, from young lieutenants, like
gallant Frantz and Thomas, to the imperturb
able colonel, that betokened anything but the
most absolute ease of mind, and some of the
swords had followed the blankets of the
troopers, which had been thrown away on the
march that morning.
The men crouched and fired or rose and ran
with a grim intentness of purpose and a
beautiful responsiveness that left nothing to
be desired. There were a good many old
soldiers among them, such as Sergt. Walsh,
who had served with Custer, Crook and Miles
in Indian campaigns; Casti, the trumpeter,
who had seen service with the Chasseurs
d'Afrique in Algeria; Charley McGarr, with
twenty-eight years in the army behind him.
But one could not tell veteran from recruit.
Those who were hit in many cases refused
assistance rather than take their comrades
out of the fight.
I caught sight of Capt. Maximilian Luna,
and the face of the brave little descendant of
the Mexican conquistadores was positively
beaming. Lieut. -Col. Roosevelt, who was near
him, shouted some remark that I could not
hear, and they both laughed. I was rather
disgusted with their levity. I could not
imagine anything funny enough to make me
laugh. I could not help thinking, too, that it
would be a point of wisdom to allow the
Spaniards to keep their hill, since they
seemed so disinclined to give it up. There
were lots of hills around, and one more or
less would not have been missed so far as I
could see. I thought I might suggest to Col.
Roosevelt the propriety of going around it,
and stepped toward him. Then I wished that
I had stayed where I was and stood for a
moment considering whether I would get
shot most frequently while returning, keep
ing on, standing up or lying down. Eventu
ally I went on and had the pleasure of seeing
G troop make two or three of their rushes
under a fire that was cutting up the grass
and snipping the leaves and boughs of the
trees all around them. The grass was so
high that when they were lying down they
were almost entirely concealed from any one
on the same level; but from above they were
in full view, considering which circumstance
the Spanish marksmanship was decidedly
bad. Burly Capt. Llewellyn offered a par
ticularly good target, and he was extremely
careless about exposing himself, but he came
out of the fight without a scratch. Several
of the officers, among them Roosevelt, took
carbines and had a shot or two at the enemy
by way of relieving the monotony of direct
ing their men. Lieut. Lehy got two Span
iards to his own gun in this way. Still, ap
parently, there was not much to shoot at.
The smokeless powder that was speeding the
shower of tiny steel cones with such terrible
force betrayed nothing and the cavalrymen
all along the line were firing largely by
guess. They guessed well, nevertheless.
Those who buried the dead that the enemy
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
AMERICAN OUTPOST BETWEEN SEVILLA AND SANTIAGO.
[From a photograph taken by William Sehmedtgen. 1
had left on the field — forty-th.ee, and fifty,
according to some accounts — could testify to
that.
On the extreme right the 1st and 10th cav
alry were executing their part of the contract
to perfection. The Spanish position was origi
nally formed in a double crescent and the
regulars had driven the left wing back until
it was well on the left of the valley road.
There it was making a hard stand, knowing
that unless the persistent Yankees were held
in check the Spaniards would be hemmed in
with no avenue of escape. This negative suc
cess they achieved — no more. In a short time
the final charge up the hill was made, with
Roosevelt leading the left and Wood in
the center, and the last remnant of the
Spanish force fled before the impetuous as
sault.
There was no immediate pursuit. The
ground beyond was broken and in places
heavily wooded, and a headlong rush might
have resulted disastrously. The 9th cavalry
came up just as the fight was over and
pushed on, followed by the 71st New York,
almost as far as the San Juan river, but
there was no fighting for them that day.
The chagrin of the brawny colored troopers
when they found that the engagement was
over was almost pathetic. They had come
up over the trail on the double quick, their
dark faces aglow with eager excitement and
70
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
their broad chests heaving with the exertion
of the run. The last time I had seen them
before was some six years ago. Then they
were pounding along the pine-fringed old
Custer road in the Black hills, against a
flurry of snow that powdered their blue
overcoats until it was a matter of some con
jecture where their gray horses ended and
they began.
As they had come along the trail these men
of the 9th had met the wounded making their
way back to Siboney — either hobbling slowly
along with the poor assistance of a stick
picked up on the wayside or mounted on
one of the few mules that had been taken
to the front — and the sight of the white,
pain-distorted faces and blood-stained gar
ments had stirred them to a veritable battle
fury. But their chance was to come later.
The hospital had been placed on the brow
of the hill where the fight began, and Dr.
Church at the moment I reached it was dress
ing the shattered leg of a man who ground his
teeth and swore fluently and vehemently. It
seemed suddenly to occur to the trooper that
he was transgressing against military eti
quette and he jerked out an oath-punctuated
apology for his profanity. Church told him
he could swear as much as he liked if it re
lieved him, so that he did not set the grass
on fire. Two men who were awaiting their
turns silently watched the operation, and
Dr. La Motte was bending over a third, who,
stripped to the waist, was lying in the shade
of a large .tree, his head pillowed on a folded
coat. With a sudden shock I recognized this
prostrate man as Capt. Capron. I knelt and
took his hand; it was cold and nerveless.
Looking at the pale face, half buried in the
folds of the blue uniform coat, I saw that
he was unconscious. There was no need to
ask the surgeon how bad the wound was,
though I did so.
"He is dying fast," said Dr. La Motte,
sadly.
Then some one on the other side of the
narrow trail called me, and I found Maj.
Brodie with his arm bandaged, leaning
against a rock and smoking a corncob pipe
with quick puffs. Two bullets from one of
the Spanish machine guns had entered his
arm and broken it above the elbow, and he
was raging because he was too weak to go
back and get some more. He was very enx-
ious, too, about Col. Wood, who, it had been
reported, was mortally wounded. The sur
geons had sent some of the men from
the hospital corps to look for the colonel, but
up to that time they had not found him.
Later Col. Wood disproved the rumor of his
death by walking into the hospital to in
quire after his major, and there was great
rejoicing at the sight of him.
As I spoke to Maj. Brodie Dr. Church came
up, wiping his hands on the torn sleeves of a
blouse, and, sitting down, told me of the
death of Hamilton Fish. He groaned as he
spoke of Capron's wound, and, as we looked
over at the place where he was lying, Dr. La
Motte bent down and placed his ear to the
young soldier's breast. Then he laid the
hand he had been holding gently down and
nodded gravely at us.
Obtaining a list of the casualties as far as it
was completed, I walked back to Siboney
that afternoon to send back the news of the
engagement by THE RECORD'S dispatch boat
Hercules. I found that an exaggerated ac
count of the affair had preceded me, and
the officers of the regulars who had been
left behind were freely denouncing the "crim
inal rashness" of the commander of the
rough riders. The fact that the 1st and 10th
cavalry had lost even more men was not
then known; in fact, these regiments, which
fought so gallantly, were rather overlooked
generally, for a time, at least. But I noticed
that when Wood and Roosevelt came in the
next day they were overwhelmed with con
gratulations by the same critics.
ELCANEY'S BLOODY FIELD.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
It is the beginning of the second day of
the battle. This morning (July 2) Gen. Law-
ton's division, the right wing of Gen. Shaft-
er's army, is pushing on to the west of San
Juan within a mile of Santiago, having been
advanced by the battle of yesterday from be
yond El Caney, a distance of about four
miles. It is the net result of fighting that
cost the brigade about fifty killed and 250
wounded. The Spanish loss is not definitely
known. In the fort at El Caney, about
which the fighting raged for most of the
day, I counted twenty-eight dead and 147
wounded. Here 158 prisoners were taken.
Gen. Lawton's division, the 2d of the 5th
corps, to which my attention was entirely
devoted, began the battle at daylight yes
terday morning. The general scheme of
movement for the army was a grand right
wheel, the purpose being to place our right
wing as far as possible to the west of Santi
ago. El Caney, a fortified town lying on the
main road four miles northeast of Santiago,
offered the only formidable opposition, and it
kept Gen. Lawton's division occupied
throughout the day. At 3 o'clock the in
trenched fort upon the hill over the town was
stormed and taken, but it was not until 5
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
o'clock that the enemy's fire from the town
was stopped and the little remnant of Span
iards left to defend it was forced to sur
render.
At daylight yesterday morning Capt. Ca-
pron's light battery of four guns was placed
in position on a knoll 2,400 yards southeast of
El Caney. Gen. A. P. Chaffee, in command
of the 2d brigade, which comprised the 7th,
12th and 17th infantry, held the extreme
right and deployed his force in skirmish line
along the foothilis of the Sierra Madras
mountains. Gen. Ludlow, in command of
the 1st brigade, the 8th and 22d infantry and
2d Massachusetts volunteers, occupied the
center under cover of the battery, and Col.
Evan Miles with the 2d brigade, comprising
the 4th, 1st and 25th infantry, formed the
left wing.
Gen. Chaffee's brigade led off the fighting.
With about 200 Cubans under command of
Gen. De Coro he began a lively skirmish fire
upon the enemy's outposts as soon as the
dawning light defined his position. For the
first hour the firing was scattered and occa
sional. Buc it soon become evident the Span
ish were prepared to make a stubborn resist
ance. Even the most remote pickets fought
our advance with grimmest determination.
Only by paces was it possible to push them
back from the lines of thicket behind which
they shot with the deliberate aim of sharp
shooters. When driven from this shelter
they took up an annoying position in a block
house, one of the countless number that top
every third hill in Cuba, a thousand yards
north of the town, where it was almost im
possible to reach them effectively with rifle
fire.
In the meantime Capt. Capron's battery
had opened upon the fort at El Caney. Along
the road leading down to Santiago a long
line of refugees could be seen hurrying away
from the threatening storm. Mistaking them
at first for a column of the enemy evacuating
the town, two or three shots were fired near
them; but fortunatelv they fell short. And
yet there can be no doubt these accidental
shots, harmless though they proved to be,
had a oad effect upon the rank and file of the
enemy, in that they seemed to confirm the
frightful stories of bloodthirsty brutality
in Americans which Spanish officers circu
late persistently among the men in their
command, and impelled them to a resistance
against overwhelming odds that would be
heroic were it not a consequence of pitiful
ignorance. I am convinced by what I saw
yesterday when I entered El Caney that every
Spaniard taken — men, women and children —
expected to be instantly put to death.
But Capt. Capron soon corrected the mis
take into which an overzealous aid thrust
hira. At sunrise we had seen the Spanish
flag flung from the fort. It was a good mark,
standing out clearly with the full light from
the east upon it. A few preliminary shots
found the range at 2,450 yards, and then a
shell was planted fairly within the inclosure
and burst out a great section of the wall.
From this on the bombardment of the fort
and the brush on the side of the hill below
was constant until 10 o'clock. Gen. Chaffee
and the Cubans on the right pushed forward
steadily, the latter skirmishing on the ex
treme flank, and -moving to a position as far
as possible to the westward, so as to cut off
the Spanish line of retreat to the hills. Gen.
Ludlow's brigade supported the battery in
the front and advanced rapidly in the face
of stubborn opposition, going first to the main
Santiago highway and then to a position
east of El Caney, where he occupied a sunken
trail within fifty yards of the town. The
banks of the trail gave him an effective
breastwork in the event that he should be
placed upon the defensive, 'but it was not
deep enough 'to protect him from the fire of
the enemy's sharpshooters hidden within the
shambling houses of the town.
Gen. Ludlow's horse was shot under him,
and Col. Patterson of the 22d received a bad
wound. The 2d Massachusetts suffered se
verely, apparently because the Springfield
rifle with which the state troops are
equipped uses black powder that invariably
betrays its position and exposes the soldier
to well-directed shots from the enemy.
Col. Miles' brigade was moving meanwhile
along the left flank of our division. Holding
the 1st infantry in reserve, he threw the 25th
across the road at a point half way between
El Caney and Santiago, around an old Span
ish mansion known as the DuCrot house.
The 4th infantry, the last to occupy Fort
Sheridan, was pushed on to support Gen.
Ludlow.
Knowing the significance of these move
ments of armed men and the burden of suffer
ing pregnant in every one of the countless
shots that snapped and rattled now here ana
now there throughout the beautiful valley in
which El Caney seemed to slumber in peace
ful security, one could not prevent sad re
flections upon wars and the insanity of men
who make them necessary. A scene more
superb in natural beauty has not been offeree}
since the first soldier of the invading army
reached Cuba. From the hill where Capt.
Capron's battery poured shot into the little
Spanish fort, and where Gen. Lawton re-
mained most of the time directing the move
ments of his division, the whole valley, from
the DuCrot house north, was spread out
before us in a great panorama, framed by
Mount Cobre and other lofty peaks of the
Sierra Madras range. It is the highest land
in the island, and yet these mountains are
green to the top with semi-tropical growth,
only less luxuriant than the valleys. Here,
too, the timid mockingbird makes delicious
music, for the desolation of war that has
nearly depopulated the country districts has
left him unmolested. A strange mixture of
sound it was, surely, when the thrilling notes
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
. .
74
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
deep in the 'brush mingled with the clank of
the canteens of men moving off from the
trails in skirmish lines.
But the attention is not likely to remain on
these matters. Maj.-Gen. Breckenridge, who
was present as Gen. Lawton's guest, remind
ed me that it was the anniversary of the first
.day of the battle of Gettysburg; but even this
is not pertinent. Present events are rush
ing forward with too great rapidity.
By 9 o'clock the battle was in full heat
throughout the right. All three brigades had
advanced rapidly, Ludlow having pushed
within 100 yards of El Caney and drawn
fire from a score of outlying houses. This
led to sharp volley firing from the regiments
occupying the sunken road and a rain of
shrapnel from Capron's battery. Chaffee had
pushed the 12th infantry beyond the little
blockhouse in his path, and was giving and
taking volleys from the enemy's several
lines of defense as he slowly retreated upon
the fort. From this on until 10 o'clock firing
on both sides was ceaseless. The Spanish
having no cannon in the fort and the battery
upon the hill being beyond the range of the
enemy's small arms, our main position was
secure. But in the valley there was a con
tinuous rattle of bullets through the foliage
of the trees. To say it was like 'hail is put
ting it mildly; and yet there is no other
simile so expressive as this of the constant
play of bullets when they are pouring in
fusiliades over an intrenched position.
Having by 10 o'clock made his position
safe, in the face of opposition infinitely
greater than any one anticipated, Gen Law-
ton sent word forward to desist from the
attack for a short while to allow his tired
forces to gain a much-needed rest, after the
forced marches of the night before. Some of
the regiments on the reserve line were able
to prepare a cup of coffee, their first food
since an early breakfast of hardtack and cold
bacon. It was a moment to care for the
wounded who were able to get to the rear,
and to extemporize hospitals at points con
venient to the advance lines. A clump of
mango trees beside the main road, 200 yards
to the rear of Ludlow's position, was the
first hospital station, and here, where the
only defense was the lower level of ground,
the unfortunate wounded were brought to
receive the slight attention that a half-
dozen earnest surgeons could afford.
It was not until 1 o'clock that the battle
was resumed in earnest. Gen. Ludlow's
brigade in the sunken road started it with
blasting volleys directed at the enemy's
sharpshooters and a small blockhouse at the
edge of the town. Gen. Chaffee followed im
mediately with renewed activity with his as
sault on the fort. Though Capron's shells
had punctured it through and through, and
torn down its flagstaff and colors, still the
garrison fought with furious desperation.
From trenches below the fort, which cannon
shot seemed to have no effect upon, the3'
poured repeated volleys at every column
showing in their front. The battery struck
them repeatedly, but with no result except
to temporarily silence them. So persistently
was the firing kept up that the belief be
came prevalent that the enemy was shoot
ing from a covered way. However, it was
learned afterward, when the place was
taken, that the breastworks were narrow
trenches, with perpendicular sides, very sim
ple in construction, but affording perfect
protection to the men from exploding shells
and from shrapnel except when it burst di
rectly over them.
During Chaffee's last advance upon the
fort his brigade suffered most severely.
Stretches of cleared land along the hillsides
in his front exposed his men to a raking fire
from the fort and from a supporting block
house a little to the northwest. By quick
rushes the 12th and 17th got across these
dangerous passes, and at 2:30 the former
regiment reached the foot of the hill just
below the range of fire from the enemy's
pits. At the same time Col. Miles' brigade
reached the western side of the town and
was prepared to join in a united assault upon
the fort.
This was the only spectacular moment in
the day's engagement. The pause at the foot
of the hill below the fort was for but one
moment, to deploy companies for the charge.
The 12th stood to its perilous task heroically,
and the 25th, on the western side, pushed
on with the same intrepidity to clear out
the last troublesome enemy from his strong
hold.
The charge was a fine one of the old
style — a hurrah, then up the steep incline,
every man doing his best with gun and
bayonet to clear the path before him. From
Capron's battery, where the best view was to
be had, the gallant fellows seemed like mere
ants upon a mole hill. But every dot was a
brave man, willing to give his life to be
first to reach the summit.
The charge was rapid and soon over.
Fortunately for the garrison there was a
sufficient guard in the town to cover the
retreat of the greater portion, and only a
corporal and seven men were found within to
surrender the position which it had cost so
much effort to subdue.
But the fight was not over when the fort
fell. From windows and cellars in the town,
and even from a sprawling church of adobe
the Spanish kept up a fierce fire upon every
person showing himself within range. The
25th was especially hard hit. Lieut. H. L.
McCorkle was killed, Capt. E. A. Edwards
and Lieut. Murdock were wounded. James
Crealman, a newspaper correspondent who
followed the assaulting party, was struck in
the shoulder, and fell, badly wounded, on
the side of the hill. Capt. Walter Dickenson
of the 17th was shot through the neck and
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
A CUBAN INSURGENT— ONE OF GEN. GA'RCIA'S SOLDIERS BEFORE SANTIAGO.
fatally wounded. Three men from the ranks
of the 25th fell, killed instantly, >and many
were wounded.
It was not until 5 o'clock that firing in the
town was checked. A considerable force of
the enemy under its shelter was able, how
ever, to cover the retreat of the commanding
officer and most of his battalion. By de~
parting from the farther side of the town
they reached the cover of the brush without
detection, and no one knew of their de
parture until the Cubans under Gen. De
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Coro found. themselves opposed to them and
were called upon to check their retreat. Col.
Gonzales of De Coro's stau' tells me that his
general and countrymen made a hard fight
and that De Coro \vas wounded. It is feared
he was afterward made prisoner by the Span
iards, who seem to have cut their way
through without much difficulty and made
good their escape to Santiago. Twenty-five
Cubans were killed and foriy-five wounded
in the fight.
It was possible to go to the fort when the
1st was sent up to relieve the 12th and 25th.
Had it not been that the sight of death and
suffering for two miles back along the road
had hardened me to the fiercest hatred of
whatever is Spanish, and most of all toward
these men w'ho were the immediate cause of
it all, the sight would certainly have been ex
tremely revolting. On the slope, in the rifle
pits and about the interior of the fort dead
and wounded lay so thick that they seemed to
fill the place. And yet only the hopelessly
wounded were left behind. In a single house
in the town 145 more wounded were found.
We buried the dead in their own trenches:
the wounded were carried to our hospitals-
more kindly treatment than they deserved if
they were the same men who fired repeatedly
upon Red Cross stations and men bearing the
wounded from the scene of conflict. An
enemy such as this is hardly to be respected.
During the night the reserve of Gen. Law-
ton's division was advanced along the road
toward Santiago to a new position west or
San Juan. The formation of the three
brigades of the right wing remains sub
stantially the same as it was yesterday, ex
cept that the line now faces south, and Is
directed straight upon Santiago. Just beyond
its position is the San Juan river, and the
enemy has fortified positions on the farther
bank to impede our progress. The fighting
from this on is likely to be fierce and san
guinary. The Spaniards cordially hate us and
will fight us to the death.
In one of the little blockhouses passed yes
terday by Gen. Chaffee's brigade there is a
small company of men who say they will
never surrender. They are not altogether
harmless where they are; but they will not
escape alive. From this on frequent sorties
upon our position are to be expected. But
there is no doubt we can bold our own. More
heavy guns would certainly improve our
condition, but it is quite impossible to trans
port them over the road leading to our camp
from Siboney. Frequent rains and constant
use by supply wagons and pack mules have
made it impassable to anything except a
good walker or a sure-footed mule. But the
commissary department is laboring effective
ly, and the men are well supplied with bacon,
hardtack and coffee except when they are on
forced marches.
WITH GRIMES' BATTERY.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
Orders for the cavalry division to move on
to the front were received at 3 o'clock yester
day afternoon (June 30). Much to his cha
grin, Gen. Wheeler was confined to his Spar
tan hammock and stretched wagon sheet
with an attack of malarial fever. It was sui
cide, the division surgeon said, for him to
attempt to move. Nevertheless, the veteran
would have made the attempt but for an as
surance that a good rest would probably en
able him to travel the next day. Within an
hour the division was on the march westward
under the command of Gen. Sumner of the
1st brigade, and the sodden heaps of ashes
from the fires and the palm-leaf shelters and
wigwams were all that remained of the pop
ulous camps.
The rain had been pouring down half an
hour before, and the men trudged through
the mire and water cheerfully. They had
been encamped for three days without a
change, and the monotony was beginning to
pall upon them. Before them marched the
"doughboys," and behind them and througn
their open ranks the field guns ground
their way, the mules tugging at their
long traces as the drivers snapped the buck
skin thongs of their whips about their heads.
As far as eye could see the road was bristling
with the shouldered rifles and carbines,
marked off at intervals with the crimson
and white troop guidons and the mounted
figures of the regimental commanders.
Trains of wagons and pack mules trotting
patiently along after the jingling bell of the
lead mare brought up the rear.
At Gen. Shafter's headquarters, half a mile
past the swollen Aguadores, the cavalry divi
sion diverged to the left and struck across a
wide meadow that presently brought them
out upon a narrow road walled in with al
most impenetrable jungle. Along the side
of this were camped Cubans by the hundreds,
setting about their preparations for the even
ing meal. They grinned at once amiably and
ferociously as the Americans passed, and
cried, "Santiago!" pointing westward and
making expressive gestures with their black
forefingers across their throats.
"God help Santiago if those fellows get
in," said a young lieutenant, eyeing them
with strong disfavor.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE "SUNKEN ROAD"— ON THE SANTIAGO BATTLEFIELD.
Hundreds of other Cubans were on the
march, slouching along in their rawhide
sandals with bundles of provisions strapped
on their backs or balanced on their heads,
that would have taxed the endurance of a
pack mule. About dusk the advance guard
reached the old fort El Poso, where Gen.
Gonzales had already made his headquarters.
About 500 yards from the building — a red-
tiled, rambling structure of brick and adobe
— one of the hospital corps, noticing a strong
odor of decomposition, stepped aside from the
trail to investigate. He saw a patch of new
ly dug earth, from which protruded a human
arm and hand. A half-naked Cuban who
stood near by smoking a cigarette, explained,
"Espagnoles," he said, smiling complacently.
Then he opened and shut his fingers twice,
tapped the handle of his machete and made
the sign of the riven throat.
Col. Gonzales sent up a detachment of his
men to slash away the undergrowth on the
side of the ridge commanding the Spanish
fortifications, and here Gen. Suraner made
his camp, using for the ridgepole of his tent
the staff of a Spanish flag that had waved
above the fort a week before, and then occu
pied himself with the disposition of his com
mand along the ridge on the left. This took
up most of the night, and few of the men had
more than two or three hours' rest.
By 6:30 o'clock this morning Capt. Ca-
pron's battery was booming away and shells
were dropping into the blockhouse above El
Caney. About the same time a battery of
four field guns, commanded by Capt. Grimes,
took up a position on the crest of the hill at
El Poso and at 8 o'clock opened fire on the
fortifications of San Juan. Twenty-five hun
dred yards was the range at which the gun
was set, but the first shell fell far short in
the road that wound up the hill to the red-
roofed bastion. The gunners ran forward
and pushed the piece back from its recoil,
and Capt. Grimes, his shirt sleeves rolled up
to his shoulders, looked carefully along the
sights and elevated the muzzle a trifle. A
quick jerk of the lanyard, a deafening crash
and the shell went rushing over the treetops
with a roar that gradually diminished to
a whistle and then died away. Then came
the distant sound of the explosion, but
nothing could be seen.
"Away over," shouted a lieutenant; "try
her again."
This time the shell plumped fairly down
among the roofs of the barracks, and a big
cloud of red dust, speckled and barred with
black objects, rose from their midst. The
artillerymen waved their hats and cheered
wildly, and the Cubans, clustering about the
old fort below, yelled their everlasting "San
tiago" in sympathy and brandished their
machetes.
From that time the shots went in quick
succession, now falling to the right and now
to the left, but in no case missing their
mark. Twenty shells at least were landed
where the men behind the ugly little guns
wanted to put them.
"I should think they would tire of receiv
ing these," said the Swedish military at
tache, Capt. Gette. "Have they, then, no
artillery?"
The answer came as he spoke. There was
a swift rushing, shrieking sound in the air,
and a shell burst thirty feet behind the bat
tery and as many yards to the left, scattering
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
a hail of shrapnel around. There was instant
confusion. The Cubans came scampering up
from the creek bed, huddled behind stumps,
jumped into the great dry cistern in the
courtyard, and, struggling into the port it
self, filled it to overflowing as though any
thing that could shut out the sight of the
deadly missile would prevent its danger.
There were some infantrymen of the 71st
New York, raw, untrained, passing along the
road to the right of the stream, and their
bearing was in marked contrast. Most of
them certainly stooped when they heard the
terrible sound above them, but it was an in
voluntary movement. Not one broke ranks
or halted in his onward march, and when
the danger of the moment had passed they
laughed as if it had been a particularly good
joke.
Up on the hill the horses of the orderlies
were struggling and rearing madly. Some
of them had been hit slightly by the shrapnel,
and one of the poor little sore-backed beasts
ridden by the Cubans was stretched out
upon his side, his fore shoulder nearly blown
away.
But the gunners were not disconcerted for
a moment. Two of the four pieces were
pushed into position in an instant and
sighted as deliberately as though they were
being fired for target practice, champions up,
and the score was even with one to decide.
Crash went the report of the foremost, and in
quick response — almost before the echo had
died away — a second Spanish shell and then
a third burst, one in front of the gun that
had just been fired and 'the other in a hol
low to the left. Private Helm, who was stand
ing at the breech, dropped the sponge he had
ready in his hand and fell forward between
the wheels dead. George Roberts, his com
rade, clapped his hand to his shoulder, wheru
a dark stain was spreading through his blue
flannel shirt. A party of Cubans who had
been lying in the hollow started out of the
brush and ran behind a ruined wall, leaving
two men dead and half a dozen wounded and
shouting frantic appeals to those within the
fort to grant them a little room inside.
Then the second American gun spoke and a
wall of a house in San Juan went toppling
down; but the concealed battery within the
Spanish lines seemed to have gunners no
less sure of aim. A shell struck the low
earthwork in front of another gun and Pri
vate Underwood of A battery pitched for
ward, killed instantly, just as Helm had been
a minute before. Another shell crashed
through the tiled roof of the fort, burst in
side and killed six Cubans.
For half an hour this duel of artillery
lasted, and when it was over the little court
yard before El Poso was strewn with the
splinters and slugs of the Spanish shells, and
on the ridge to the left, which was occupied
by the rough riders of Roosevelt's regiment,
half a dozen wounded men were groaning
with pain. There was no inaccuracy about
the Spanish fire in this instance. The gun
ners evidently had the range perfectly be
forehand. Nor were their guns silenced, for
the situation of the battery was not discov
ered until much later. The reason why the
fire ceased when it did is not yet explained.
About 10 o'clock the rough riders on
the left received orders to close in to the
right and advance along a road descending
into 'the plain and leading to El Caney. They
marched in column for some little distance,
the 9th cavalry on their right and the 16th
and 6th infantry on their left. Half a mile
from the Marianaje 'blockhouse, which it was
the intention to storm, they deployed into an
open field, and under a terrific fire, took their
position in skirmish line. Col. Wood and
Col. Roosevelt were both mounted and made
no attempt to shelter themselves and their
men. Roosevelt, still on horseback, led the
first charge— a rush of thirty yards — and his
voice encouraging his men was heard through
all the din of the guns above and the crack
ling rifle volley below.
Just as the men had lain down after a rush
Capt. W. O. O'Neill of Troop A, who was
standing in front of the line, faced to his
command. "Close in to the right, men, at
the next rush," he called. "You will have
a better chance there." Then he turned to
speak to Capt. Robert Sewall, Gen. Young's
adjutant, who had just come up. As 'he did
so a bullet struck him in the mouth and
killed him instantly. Lieut. Franz ran up
and bent over him for a moment, but there
was no time for him to do more than to
assure himself that life was extinct. He
took command and the regiment swept on.
The fire all the time had been constant, and
in spite of the extended order in which the
regiment was formed the loss was heavy.
Early in the action Lieut. Horace Devereu
went down with a bullet in his breast.
Ernest Eddy Haskell, the young West Point
cadet who was with the rough riders on
leave, was next severely wounded. Twelve
men in troop A alone were carried to the
rear. A final rush brought the 1st, 6th and
1st volunteer cavalry into the blockhouse
together, and the position was won.
In the course of the fight Gen. Wheeler,
who was carried to the field on a litter, rode
by, sitting erect on his bay horse. He was
one of the few who did not deign to stoop
to the flying shells or pay the least heed to
the bullets that whistled thick about him.
He seemed particularly in his element. At
one time he called: "Keep at 'em! The
Yankees are falling back." Then he cor
rected himself. "I mean the Spaniards,"
he said. But a great laugh went up and the
good old general joined in it heartily.
By night the headquarters of the cavalry
division was established on the ridge before
San Juan. Capt. O'Neill, who was killed in
the fight, was the officer who at the Daiquiri
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
79
ISSUING RATIONS TO CUBAN TROOPS— SIBONEY.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
landing imperiled his life in the effort to
rescue two troopers from drowning. He was
mayor of Prescott, Ariz., and long ago es
tablished a reputation for the highest cour
age. At the World's Fair he was at the
head of the Arizona commission. In the
whole regiment there was not a man more
universally loved.
THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
This has been a great day for the Ameri
can soldier. He has demonstrated the glori
ous fact that he can fight equally well on the
skirmish line, in a fierce charge up a bullet-
swept slope, at bushwhacking and before
well-placed and skillfully constructed in-
trenchments.
The odds were against us to-day, for the
enemy had the choice of position; was on the
hills while we were in the tangled jungle of
the valley and bottom land; lay behind in-
trenchments, while our boys were in the
open; were invisible while the Americans
were compelled to act the part of living tar
gets. And yet when the forward movement
began it continued steadily until the stars
and stripes floated over El Caney and over
the blockhouse on the crest of a hill which
rises in the southwestern outskirts of San
tiago de Cuba.
But these advantageous positions were not
gained until 300 Americans gave up their
lives and 1,500 tad been pulled, dragged,
shouldered and carried back to the field hos
pitals.
From the top of the hill at the foot of
which cowers the red roof of El Poso is
Grimes' battery, and standing on this crest
the battlefield of to-day is within easy and
comprehensive view. With my glasses I
could see all points of attack and defense,
and with the assistance of an officer in the
engineer corps, who has requested me not to
"drag me into print," I made a sketch map
of the territory embraced in to-day's opera
tions.
To designate in this crudely drawn map
the locations of the regiments or even bri
gades is a matter 'beyond the power of any
one at present. That map must wait until
each of the commanding officers has made his
report and has marked on an accurately de
signed map the several positions held by his
command' from early this morning when the
bugles sounded the reveille.
Fort San Juan, El Poso and the hill on
which Capron's battery was planted this
morning form the three points of a triangle
of which each leg is about two miles long.
El Caney is 2,400 yards (about a mile and a
third) from Capron's battery. The country
between San Juan, El Poso and El Caney is
heavily wooded, with tangled underbrush
and acres of meadow, in which the rank
grass grows four feet high. Magnificent co-
coanut palms, mango and lime trees and a
tropical jungle conceal the land from view,
and regiment after regiment crossed El Poso
ford, disappeared in this natural labyrinth
and was lost to view until maimed, bleeding
and woefully diminshed in numbers some
of them suddenly sprung out upon the slope
of the hill crested by Fort San Juan, poured
over the smoke-hidden intrenchments and
stood under Old Glory and over a deep
trench filled with dead Spaniards, most of
whom were shot through the head, and gave
three times three and a tiger for the Ameri
can soldier.
El Poso lies about due east from Santiago,
El Caney a little to the east of north, and
Capron's battery was northeast of the city.
Gen. Shafter's headquarters are a mile and a
half to the east of El Poso. The cables have
told in condensed form .the plan of opera
tions, how Lawton's division — made up of
the brigades of Lucllow, Chaffee and Miles,
with the assistance of Capron's battery and
3,000 Cubans — was sent to take El Can^y, so
that our men could hold a position north of
Santiago; how Kent's division and Wheeler's
independent cavalry division, backed by
Grimes' battery, were to "feel" the enemy,
and if the "feel" disclosed any weakness in
the Spanish lines to push ahead. As a mat
ter of fact, the "feel" failed to find anything
but strong positions, held by Spaniards be
hind embankments which shielded rifle pits
and strong fortifications; but the boys pushed
forward, advancing nearly three miles and
holding the ground th"s gained. I have just
been told by a staff officer that to-morrow
morning Lawton will advance on the north
of Santiago and Kent and Wheeler will hold
their positions pending the naval fight which
is schedule.d to come off to-morrow.
All seems to be quiet at this hour (mid
night) except the occasional bark of a rifle
along the picket line and the moans and
sighs which burden the heavy air around
the field and divisional hospitals, where the
tireless surgeons and Red Cross-marked hos
pital arid ambulance men are caring for the
wounded. The merciful clouds which took
the sting and death out of the Cuban sun
most of the day have passed away and a
glorious moon is flooding the battlefield with
its light — a blessed illumination, for the
search for the dead and wounded is sending
groups of soldiers into the guerrilla-infested
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
81
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
jungle. The melancholy procession of the
wounded, themselves slowly and painfully
seeking the surgeon's probe and bandages,
still creeping eastward in the sunken road;
but those who escaped Spanish shells and
Mauser slugs are sleeping on their arms,
worn out, hungry and thirsty, but victorious.
Back of us wagon trains are hurrying for
ward ammunition and food; the aids and
orderlies are racing their weary horses from
one headquarters to another, and Gen.
Shatter, in physical pain and suffering from
the heat of the day, is stretched on a camp
cot in the open air, dictating orders and re
ceiving reports by the light of the only
candle burning in the headquarters tent.
The advance began last night, for the
regiments forming the three divisions were
marching to their positions all through the
darkness. Those who were held in the road
by blockades of pack mules, wagon trains and
artillery took to the sides of the road, where
the men snatched a few minutes sleep. It
was a march that tested the endurance and
tried the nerves of the officers and men.
Late in the afternoon a heavy rain flooded
the roadbed and and turned the stiff clay to
slippery, mushy mud, which clung to shoes,
growing in bulk and weight at every step.
Some of the regiments began moving before
supper, and until morning their soldiers were
forced to quiet rebellious stomachs by nib
bling hardtack. It was known that the road
to the front was lined by Spanish sharp
shooters, who roosted in trees at a safe dis
tance, ready to slide to the ground and take
cover in the underbrush. Canteens were
emptied early in the march, the men taking
the chance of an opportunity to refill them at
the streams and small rivers which cross
the road. But the leading regiments mud
died the waters, and the order, "Move to
your positions as rapidry as possible," gave
the thirsty men scant time to pick up a sup
ply of water.
So it was that thousands of men stretched
themselves flat on the ground this morning,
their clothing wet through with the tropical
dew and their tongues so dry they were
dusty. Scores of men in each regiment "fell
out" on the march with reeling brains and
throbbing temples, choked by the suffocating
heat and humidity. Men threw their blanket
rolls away, cast canned meats, hardtack and
haversacks into the bushes, rid themselves
of everything save the 100 rounds of ammu
nition, rifle, canteen and mess kit — the most
precious belongings of the soldier. The
Cubans reaped a full harvest, for they went
foraging early this morning and laid in
clothing, blankets and provisions such as
never before gladdened the eyes of the in
surgents.
This morning reveille found almost the
entire 5th army corps in assigned position.
Capron's battery opened the ball against the
blockhouse near El Caney, and at 8 o'clock
the first gun of Grimes' battery sent a shell
toward San Juan. All this time the cavalry,
infantry and Gatling gun battery were slow
ly making their way over sunken roads and
obscure trails, through Spanish bayonet — the
wickedest of vegetation — finally arranging
themselves into an irregular crescent-shaped
line, with wide breaks here and there, the
bow of the crescent toward Santiago and
each end almost touching a battery.
From the stories told by the wounded the
hottest fight of the day came when the 6th
and 16th infantry, the rough riders and the
Gatling gun section stormed the Spanish in-
trenchments at the top of Marianaje hill.
Twice the Americans made the attempt, and
succeeded the second time. This is the way
one of the 6th infantry boys described that
fight to me:
"We didn't have . any show, for the hill
was cleared and the Spaniards peeped over
the rifle pits and potted us right along. We
were in plain view, and they had us at their
mercy. Those Mauser rifle balls came down
that slope zipping and spitting, while we
lay on our bellies giving them shot for shot.
We were in front, and then the 16th, or what
was left of it, came up by rushes, just as
we did, and we were ordered to go up the hill.
I hear that the rough riders were there, too,
but I didn't see. All I know is that when I
looked up that gulch and then up that hill
and knew I was going to cross that open
space in the face of that hell fire, I got cold
all over. I could feel my hair move on my
scalp and my teeth chattered. I tried to
pray, but I couldn't. I didn't think of my
mother or anything like that. I only tried to
think of some way to get out of going up
that hill. You see, we had scooped out holes
where we could, and had piled the sand and
clay up in front, but it wasn't any use. The
bullets came at you just the same. While
I was trying to make up my mind what to
do our sergeant jumped up and hallooed:
'Come on, boys; give 'em hell!' and it felt
as though he had grabbed me by the shoul
ders and yanked me out of my cover, for the
first thing I knew I was at the bottom of
the hill and beginning to go up. Then I
heard my lieutenant's whistle, and knew we
had to go back for a fresh start, and I lost
my nerve and turned and jumped for my
cover, but just as I did the man who had
been behind me jumped at me, threw his
arms around me and we rolled on the ground
together. He was shot plump through the
head, for I saw the blood belching from his
mouth. I don't know why I pulled him
back, but I did. He was a 16th man. and
was dead when I got him back under cover.
So I just lay down behind him.
"Good God! how those bullets did come!
It was 'zip-zip-zip' faster than you could
count. There rigrht over my head I heard
a different kind of bullet singing, and soon
I knew they were going from us to the Span-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
83
iards. Then I heard the roll of the Gatling
gun, and soon the 'zip-zip-zip' didn't came
quite so fast; and then I heard some kind of
an order hallooed; then I yelled because thy
other fellows yelled, and then I jumped for
that hill again, and we kept going up, shoot
ing from our magazines. I don't know when
we came to the rifle pits. I didn't see a
single live Spaniard. No, sir, not one all
day. That's Goof's truth. "When I shot I
just blazed away where I thought one of 'em
was. But I saw a stack of dead ones. They
were lying in a ditch near the top of the
hill, and every one was shot through the
head. I heard our fellows shooting at some
thing on the other side of the hill, and I
started to go ahead, and then I got hit right
here in my neck and shoulder. You see, I
was stooping down, and I dropped, I was so
winded and scared."
The Spanish prisoners who were brought
in to-ni.ght complained that the Americans
did not fight fairly. Said one of them, a
lieutenant: "When they fire a volley only
half fires, and the other half comes ahead,
and then they fire and the rest come ahead,
and they keep doing that."
The Spaniards, it seems, have become ac
customed to the Cuban method of warfare in
these lands. The Cubans have a way of sud
denly appearing, firing a volley, and then
as suddenly disappearing. The Americans
advanced by rushes from the first firing line
and gave the Spaniards a distinct shock
MAJ.-GEN. JACOB F. KENT.
every time. Every rush meant a gain of
from ten to fifty yards, and the only check
to our advance during the day came when
the 6th and 16th infantry and rough riders
tried to carry Marianoje hill.
After the first unsuccessful trial the Gat-
lings were brought forward, and while our
boys were rushing up the slope the Gatling
guns swept the intrenchments, weakening
the Spanish fire materially. The Spanisn
MAJ.-GEN. IIEXRY W. LAWTOX.
ran down the slope back to their rifle pita
when our men got close to them, and scores
of them were shot in the back by our Krag-
Jorgensens. Over sixty-five dead Spaniards
were found in the rifle pits and many wound
ed. That is the report brought back to
night, but the account probably is exag
gerated, as all reports are at this time, while
the blood is still hot and the scent of blood
!s in every man's nostrils. It is evident,
however, that our riflemen must have seen
the tops of Spanish heads, for the majority
of the dead Spaniards were shot in the face,
forehead, chin, throat or thorax. Neverthe
less our men continually cried, "Show us
those — — ! For God's sake don't
keep us here to be shot without giving us a
show." And they cursed and raved because
they could see nothing to shoot at — nothing
but the cleared hilltop, and what looked like
a long pile of freshly thrown-up earth.
In the field hospitals and divisional hos
pital the surgeons noted the fact that a
large proportion of the wounded were shot
in the head and shoulders, the balls ranging
downward, as though they came from an
elevated position. Inquiries developed that
most of such wounds were got while the men
were in the bottom lands, and soon reports
came in that Spanish sharpshooters posted
in trees were picking off our men. The
smokeless powder used in the Mauser car
tridges made it extremely difficult to locate
the riflemen, for the little dustlike cloud
which came from the rifle barrel is so nearly
the color of the leaves that the Spaniards
were located only when some sharp-eyed
84
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
American rifleman caught the flash of the
gun.
For hours some of the regiments lay on the
side hill, or in a sunken road leading toward
Santiago, without the chance to fire a shot,
exposed to the bullets from the Spanish firing
line, and the sharpshooters in high branches.
The carrying power of modern rifles was well
shown to-day. The 13th and 9th infantry
were held back as reserves until late in the
morning, yet many were wounded, although
the Spanish firing line must have been 2,000
yards distant. The men were not struck
b,y spent bullets, but were wounded by Mauser
steel slugs, which came with enough force
to go through the fleshy part of one man's
shoulder and deep into the thigh of the man
standing behind him.
The Spanish sharpshooters apparently
made special marks of the wounded men,
who were limping or were being carried
along the road. One of the 71st New York
men, Scovill by name, brought a wounded
comrade to the field hospital. He stooped
over to aid the surgeon when a Spaniard in
a tree 200 yards away, put a bullet in Sco-
vill's head, and he fell dead. This same
Spaniard wounded two of the ambulance
corps who stood under the tree in front of
the hospital tent, and he put a bullet into
the arm of a wounded man an inch from the
spot where the first bullet had drawn blood.
Then he was driven out by a rough rider
who happened along, and who winged him.
Two Spaniards in a palm tree dropped
eight of the 10th infantry before they were
brought down by American bullets.
While some wounded men were crossing
the stream not far from one of the hospitals
a squad of guerrillas who had crept down the
banks opened on them. The wounded men,
weak from loss of blood, exhausted by the
long and painful walk (some had limped
three miles) and almost prostrated by the
heat, fell down in the water when the bul
lets came at them. Two of them fell face
down and, too weak to rise, were drowning
in a foot of water. Their wounded comrades
tried to save them, and all the time the
merciless guerrillas were shooting at them.
But a dozen men from the 9th infantry, not
far away, came to the rescue, and while half
raced up stream for the Spaniards the rest
lifted the wounded men from the water and
carried them to the hospital.
The balloon had a checkered career to-day.
It was sent up back of Gen. Shafter's head
quarters, and then was pulled forward along
the road by a score of signal men. Maj.
Maxfield of the signal corps was in the basket
with an officer of the engineer corps. The
balloon was hauled far to the front, and as it
went bobbing and swaying over the tops of
the trees it was in plain sight all the time.
"Follow the balloon, boys," was the cry, and
the word was passed back to the rear guard.
When almost up to the first firing line the
balloon was sent up 600 feet and the wind
blew it over the Spanish line. The cable
held, however, but the Spaniards began
shooting at it, and soon the firing became
too hot for comfort. It was hauled down,
and when it reached a lower level the
Spaniards sent scores of bullets into the
inflated bag. The anchor was dropped and
the balloon hauled down, and it came to the
earth between the American and Spanish fir
ing lines. The aeronauts found themselves in
most dangerous quarters, so they abandoned
the balloon and crept to a place of safety.
A report came back that the Spaniards had
captured the balloon, but it was the Ameri
cans who did it, for by a series of rushes
the first firing line was pushed beyond the
balloon, and then its Mauser-riddled gas bag
was safe from the enemy.
The dynamite gun carried by the rough
riders pro->TQd a disappointment. It was fired
several times, but no one seemed to know
how to use it, and it was sent to the rear.
The Spaniards fought well. They have a
number of excellent shots who know all the
bushwacker's tricks and to-night the Ameri
cans entertain large respect for the "yellow
canaries."
The fighting began about 7 o'clock in the
morning and it was supper time before the
roll of volleys, the bark of the light artillery
and the crack of rifles ceased. Then orders
went back to Si'boney to hurry forward every
man capable of shouldering a gun and the
Michigan men began marching to the front.
They should arrive early to-morrow morn
ing.
The hospital corps began getting ready day
before yesterday and the 1st division hospital
was located a few hundred yards east of
Gen. Shafter's headquarters. The first field
hospital was established back of Capron's
battery. The first wounded man to be
brought to the divisional hospital was a
Cuban. The first wounded American was
taken to the field hospital at the foot of the
hill back of Grimes' battery and while Span
ish shrapnel was bursting within 100 feet
of them the surgeons looked after their
wounded in utter disregard of self. Regi
mental chaplains carried wounded men from
the firing line and newspaper men found time
to help carry shot cavalrymen out of the
sunken road to a safe place beyond.
Urgent cable messages went to the United
States to-day calling for more nurses,
Doctors, medicines, bandages, nurses, am
bulances—everything and anything that will
relieve the sufferings of men wounded by
Mauser rifle bullets, jagged pieces of shell,
stone and wood splinters knocked off by chain
shots, are imperatively needed here. The
surgeons have worked enthusiastically,
ceaselessly and rapidly ever since the first
wounded man was carried into the field hos
pital tent back of El Poso Friday morning.
From the firing line back to the Siboney
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
85
THE "BLOODY BEND"— THE AMERICANS ADVANCING ON SAN JUAN, SANTIAGO.
hospital the men who wear the Red Cross of
Geneva on their left coat sleeves have done
all that men can do to repair the damage
done by Spanish bullets. But the wounded
came in too rapidly. The roads from the
firing lines, batteries and rifle pits were too
long and rough for rapid transportation, and
at one time a large proportion of the 5th
army corps was employed carrying wounded
men to the field hospitals.
This procession which led to the surgeons
left a trail of blood, and little pools of blood
lay in the trail. The way was lined with the
recumbent forms of men who gave out and
who quietly and patiently lay down, waiting
for death or a litter. But that which made
heavy the heart of every man who viewed
the sad spectacle was the sight of the
wounded helping wounded; the maimed aid
ing the crushed; the shattered attending the
mangled. Slowly, every step heavy with
misery, every foot of advance taken at the
expense of physical anguish, the wounded
defiled down the trails and roads, helping
each other find the Red Cross flag which
told where aid and relief could be had.
Ambulance drivers, hospital men and sur
geons were heroes that day. They plunged
into the very thick of the fight to carry men
struck by bullets to a place of comparative
safety. I myself saw three hospital stew
ards — I could not get their names — walk,
erect and slowly, into the direct line of fire
at the "bloody angle" of Friday's fight, stoop
over fallen men, pin on the white tag which
showed slight wound, blue and white which
marked more serious injuries, and the blood-
red tag which meant "urgent case." All
around these three hospital stewards soldiers
were lying flat, ready to advance with the
rush; twigs, leaves, stones and dirt struck
by the Mauser bullets floated in little clouds;
death was everywhere, and officers were con
tinually urging their men to keep down
under cover. But the three men with green
stripes on their trousers and a red cross on
their arms lifted up the urgent cases and
carried them back to the sunken road, where
they were safe from further injury for a
little while. A dozen times these three un
named heroes entered that death zone, and
then the 16th infantry advanced and com
pleted the work of giving the first help to the
wounded.
I mention this instance to show the breed
of men who are here without arms and am
munition, incapable of firing a shot, whose
duty is such that the wild enthusiasm of
the moment cannot spur them to desperate
charges or gallant advances, and yet who
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
calmly and coolly walk hand in hand with
death in the discharge of duty.
After a wounded soldier has had his injury
temporarily dressed he is sent back to the
firing line if the wound does not incapacitate
him for duty, or he is sent to the field hos
pital for further treatment. Farther to the
rear is the divisional hospital, where the
wounded are sifted out and permanent dress
ings are put on. The hospital is near Gen.
Shafter's headquarters, on the road leading
back to Siboney, where the general hospital
is located. Every wounded man who coulft
has been sent to this hospital. It is a walk
or ride of eight miles. The road is half
quagmire and the rest rough and hard. Over
this road wounded men have crept, limped
and walked, or have been transported in
ambulances and springless army wagons.
They have been drenched by the tropical
downpour of water called rain; they have
been chilled to the bone by the cold of the
early morning; they have gone twenty-four
hours without food, while on this "hell's
boulevard" (as the soldiers call it), and have
tasted the agonies of the damned. Some
one, somewhere, is responsible for most of
this useless suffering. Wagon trains, jerked
and yanked over rough mountain roads by
six mules, are not the easy-riding, smooth-
going ambulances which figure soothingly in
general orders and the medical department's
reports. Yet these big, lumbering vehicles,
designed to carry commissary supplies, am
munition and feed, have been packed with
suffering men, who were rattled and banged,
tossed and tumbled over rocks, clay lumps,
ruts and tree stumps from eight to twelve
miles because some one, somewhere, figured
it out that we would have a "soft snap"
down here, and failed to provide enough
ambulances for the tough proposition which
we have run into. I am quoting a soldier,
who said: "We thought we bad a soft snap
and we got a tough proposition."
The medical department's quality is way
above par. The surgeons, doctors, nurses
and hospital attendants are of the best; the
appliances are modern; the system and or
ganization are excellent, but the demand is
so much greater than the supply that it
seems as though inefficiency and disorganiza
tion ruled. As a matter of fact, the medical
department has done the work of half a dozen
departments; otherwise the jungle and hill
sides, roads and trails, fields and underbrush
between Siboney and San Juan to-day wrould
be dotted with graves and figures of dying
men. As it is the wounded have been cared
for, and the percentage of deaths in the
hospitals will be astonishingly low when the
officials reports are made up.
THE DESTRUCTION OP CERVERA'S FLEET.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
The Maine is remembered. Spain's fleet
in these waters has been annihilated. Five
modern cruisers and two torpedo boats are
battered, hopeless wrecks along the coast,
Admiral Cervera is a prisoner, as are his of
ficers, 600 sailors who swore allegiance to
the house of Castile are dead, 1,200 more
have surrendered and nearly $15,000,000
worth of maritime property has beer, de
stroyed. Our loss on this day (July 3) is one
man killed on the flagship Brooklyn and the
long, monotonous blockade off Santiago de
Cuba has ended in cue of the greatest of
naval achievements. The unexpected hap
pened when the enemy came out of the har
bor. It was met by the expected — the valor,
steadiness and wonderful gun fire of the men
who wear the colors of Uncle Sam and fight
his ships. The navy has simply obeyed or
ders and the flag which knows no defeat
floats proudly in the breeze on this even of
the great national holiday.
Sixty miles to the westward lies the Cris
tobal Colon on her beam ends; fifteen miles
from the harbor entrance is the wreck of the
Vizcaya, while the Almirante Oquendo and
the Infanta Marie' Theresa, flagship of Cer
vera, are beached nine miles away, sorry
reminders of once formidable cruisers. The
Pluton and Furor have been demolished,
evidence that "Dick"' Wainwright, late ex
ecutive officer of the Maine, but now com
manding the saucy Gloucester, did not forget
that night in the harbor of Havana, while
keeping company with the Merrimac, made
famous by Hobson, is the Reine Mercedes,
sunk in the "S" shaped channel of Santiago
beyond the old Morro.
"Two bells" had gone when the New York,
flagship of Admiral Sampson, signaled "pay
no attention to the movements of the com~
mander-in-chief," and accompanied by the
torpedo boat Ericcson steamed eastward
toward Siboney, leaving the fleet in command
of Commodore Schley. THE RECORD'S dis
patch boat Hercules started after, but be
cause of some happy intuition it was decided
to stay with the blockading squadron, and so
changing course steamed toward the harbor
in time to meet the Spaniards coming out,
witness the opening of the engagement by
Ships and land batteries and follow the fight
to the finishing point on the firing line, or
rather between the opposing forces.
It was just 9:35 o'clock in the morning
when the Infanta Marie Theresa cleared the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ADMIRAL W. T. SAMPSON, COMMANDING THE NORTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON.
harbor, fired her forward battery and started
'to the west. Our ships were bunched some
distance to the west of the harbor entrance
and the Sunday inspections were in progress
as the land batteries opened. Almost in
stantly came the signal from the Brooklyn.
"Clear ship for action," and the buglers sang
the thrilling call which sends brave men to
quarters where is gained ever-living fame or
heroic death, and the fight was on.
Into the open sea, their big guns playing
under the turtle-backed turrets, rushed the
Marie Theresa, Colon, Vizcaya and Oquendo.
Coming to meet them, slowly at first, but
with "bones in their teeth," and they gained
rpeed and fairly leaped to accept the chal
lenge, were the Brooklyn, Oregon, Iowa,
Texas and Indiana. The converted yacht
Vixen was ready for any emergency, and the
Gloucester cleared for the fight which will
give her and her commander worthy mention
in American history when the story of the
day's doings shall have become a part of the
national record.
Four great battleships began to rain a
terrible tonnage of twelve and thirteen inch
shells, the eight-inch ammunition of the
Brooklyn shrieked and wailed and howled
as it flew on its awful course of destruction,
the starboard side of Commodore Schley's
68
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SPANISH WARSHIP INFANTA MARIA TERESA.
flagship was a continuous line of flame as
secondary batteries and rapid-fire guns spit
their murderous contents with such terrible
rapidity that the heavy smoke from the
frightful broadsides seemed to be burned up
in the dreadful volume of fire as though it
was the purpose to consume the smoke in
order that its density might not interfere
with precision of aim.
As the great ships of the contestants raced
away to the west, pounding at each other
as ships have never pounded before, the
sea churned into immense geysers as the
projectiles plunged into the water, the sky
darkened by smoke, the atmosphere heavy
with saltpeter, out from the harbor steamed
the torpedo boats Pluton and Furor. The
Gloucester alone was on guard. Her guns
seemingly too heavy for her, the chances
were favorable to the escape of the long,
low black craft as they sped toward the yacht
whose unprotected sides and decks appeared
to make her easy prey. .
It was 10:02 by the clock in the pilot house
of the Hercules when Wainwright "rung up"
and started for his adversaries. Before his
intention was understood by the enemy he
was in between the boats, starboard and port
broadsides playing furiously, while the Colt
machine guns were swung so as to bring
their continuous discharge of missiles upon
the decks of the enemy. For ten minutes a
running fight was kept up, during which
time the Spaniards made half a dozen inef
fectual attempts to torpedo the Gloucester.
The shells from the land batteries fell all
about, heavy, black and gray clouds of
smoke hung low on the decks, spra-y cover
ing everything as the projectiles exploded in
the seas and sent up great columns of water
on all sides. At 10:25 the enemy was silenced
and had been driven on the rocks. At 10:35
one torpedo boat exploded and sunk, while
the magazine of the other blew up at 11:02.
In one hour Wainwright completed his work
and furnished proof that his memory was
good. He had remembered the Maine.
With the giants of the opposing squadrons
the battle, though comparatively short, was
furious throughout. Steaming to the west,
Commodore Schley had seen to it that the
Brooklyn's mark was indelibly stamped on
every cruiser of Spain. The flagship alone
had five-inch guns, and the scars of their
projectiles on Spanish armor plates indicate
how well they were aimed. Leaving the
Oquendo and Maria Theresa to be handled
by the battleships, he sent the Brooklyn
speeding toward the Vizcaya. Closing in the
Brooklyn started halt a dozen eight-inch
shells toward the ship, which was rated her
superior by some, following them with tons
of metal from five and six inchers and one-
pounders. Half a ton of steel a minute was
hammered against the Vizcaya's sides, the
Spanish gunners, unable to withstand the
terrible fire, were driven from their pieces,
and an evident attempt to ram the Brooklyn
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
89
SPANISH ARMORED CRUISER ALMIRANTE OQUEXDO.
proved futile. The Oregon came on the
scene early, adding to the punishment which
proved to be so destructive that the Spanish
colors were lowered shortly after 11 o'clock.
From the wrecked and helpless Vizcaya
the Brooklyn sped on toward the Colon,
which was making a desperate effort to
escape down the coast. The chase was astern
and the chances appeared to be in favor of
the Spaniard. Skillful maneuvering, how
ever, and the loyal, energetic work of the
stokers enabled the flagship to overtake the
enemy, which surrendered some sixty miles
beyond the starting point, at about the place
where the never-to-be-forgotten Virginius
tried to land its expedition.
While the Brooklyn and Oregon were pur
suing the Vizcaya and Colon, "Fighting Bob"
Evans and good "Jack" Philip were busy.
The Iowa, Texas and Indiana, slower than
the cruiser commanded by Cook or Clark's
speedy battleship, devoted their attention to
rounding up the Oquendo and Maria Teresa.
Nine miles west of the harbor they encircled
the flying cruisers. Outclassed from the start
the Spaniards fought like demons. Brave
men were serving the guns, and had their
aim been as effective as their courage was
sublime, some of our men might have missed
their mess numbers and a ship or two charged
to the price paid for liberty.
At 10:15 this particular part of the battle
started in vigorous fashion, the enemy at
tempting to turn about and retreat to the
harbor. The fighting was fierce until 10:40,
when both ships of the enemy were set on
fire by shells from our ships, driven ashore
and wrecked. White flags were displayed ten
minutes later. Spanish sailors from all the
ships attempted to swim ashore, and some
of them reached the land. The majority of
the officers, including the Spanish Admiral
Cervera, were taken prisoners, together with
1,200 sailors. Six hundred of the enemy were
killed.
When the fight began the New York was
bound eastward. She put about when ten
miles away and returned to the scene, al
though not in time to participate in the
battle. Admiral Sampson reached the Brook
lyn just as Commodore Schley signaled that
the victory had been won, and soon after
sent a dispatch boat to Guantanamo to file
the first official bulletin of the event. Early
in the afternoon the ammunition ship Reso
lute signaled that another Spanish battleshi.j
had appeared, information which caused
some alarm. The fighting ships were away to
the west or in the harbor of Guantanamo,
while the fleet of transports off Siboney was
unprotected. Many of them put to sea and
steered a course to the south under full
90
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SPANISH MAN-OF-WAR CRISTOBAL COLON.
steam, but the excitement was allayed when
it was found that the supposed enemy was
none other than the Austrian battleship
Maria Teresa cruising in these waters with
out hostile intent.
It was the fortune of war that the Hercules
should be the only newspaper dispatch boat
on the fighting line to witness the engage
ment from beginning to end, and then start
with the story to a cable station before other
dispatch boats were apprised of the battle.
In writing this account I fully appreciate the
fact that any other correspondent in these
waters would have taken the same chances,
but it so happens that no other correspondent
did, because the Hercules was alone on the
scene when the fight began and during its
continuance.
AFTER DEWEY'S VICTORY.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
Admiral Dewey is receiving hundreds of
letters, bales of newspaper clippings, invita
tions to "Dewey days," copies of Dewey songs
and Dewey poetry, and a good many cable
grams. There are many postcards and a great
mass of short notes, all very congratulatory
and all very enthusiastic. Some nominate
him for president in 1900 and others con
tribute equally glowing prophecies for the fu
ture. One man writes: "Dewey, you are a
peach. I'll stick to you till freezes over
and then I'll stick to you on the ice." Another
advises him to keep his health until 1900.
A piece of poetry has come from the Topeka
Capital which starts out "Dewey was the
morning, and Dewey was the man," and fol
lows this brilliant line with others of the
same sort. The song "What Did Dewey Do
to Them?" has arrived, and if the music
comes the song ought to have a good run
out here in Manila bay. The other versions.
"How Did Dewey Do It?" and "Dewey's Duty
Done," have not made their appearance, but
they are undoubtedly on the way. A cartoon
printed by a San Francisco paper, entitled
"Dewey smoke? Yes, Manilas," amused the
admiral a good deal. Every mail brings new
evidences of the popular enthusiasm that has
sprung up in America over him.
What pleased him more than anything else
.was an account of how his son received the
news of the great victory. Capt. Mahan's
statement 'that the battle of Manila bay was
the most wonderful ever recorded in history
was particularly gratifying to him also, com
ing as it does from such an eminent naval
authority.
Through all this bombardment of compli
ments and congratulations the admiral has
not changed in 'the least, or indicated by his
manner that the tremendous hit he had made
is affecting him other than pleasantly. He
said this afternoon that while the battle was
going on he didn't feel that he was doing
anything wonderful. The most trying time
was the night trip past Corregidor, for there
was then no way of knowing just where the
Spanish were or how they would strike. On
the morning of May 1, when he could see
the Spanish, he felt cheerful and pleasant.
The work of leading his six ships in and
cleaning out everything in sight was a detail
which at the time did not seem so impressive.
In years to come, if the fond hopes of
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
91
the Filipinos are to be realized, the 12th of
June will be an occasion of rejoicing and
jubilee. It will be to the natives of these
islands what the Fourth of July is to the
Americans. The declaration of independ
ence will be read to the school children,
every house will be gay with Filipino flags,
and the sounds of parading bands will share
the honors with the noisy firecracker and
the soaring skyrocket. It will become such
an institution that the daily papers will speak
familiarly of it as the "Gloribus Twelfth,"
and on the morning of the 13th there will
be a great deal of fire news.
On the afternoon of June 12 the formation
of a provisional government was officially
proclaimed in Old Cavite. A large crowd
of natives, numbering between five and six
thousand, were gathered in the wide streets
of the village, and the principal avenue was
gay with triumphal arches. Hastily ex
temporized flags of the country were liberally
displayed from the windows and on the
housetops, and a band of music enlivened the
eventful occasion. Delegates from the eight
provinces of Luzon island were present to
represent the Filipinos of those districts.
Nearly a thousand insurgent soldiers were
drawn up in long columns near the old church
and the presence of these added a touch of
military impressiveness to the scene. A
stand had been erected from which the dif
ferent addresses were made, and promi
nent leaders of the movement were on hand
to add the necessary oratory to the occasion.
A declaration of independence was read
and Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected pres
ident of the new republic. Nearly all the
official addresses were made in two lan
guages, Spanish and Tagala, and there was
a generous sprinkling of applause during
their delivery. The general was not pres
ent at the time. It was not considered wise
to expose him to the possibility of being as
sassinated, and so he remained in his head
quarters in Cavite. Col. Johnson, an Ameri
can army officer, who is now in command
of the ordnance of the insurgent forces, was
greeted with the greatest enthusiasm. He
was borne aloft on the shoulders of demon
strative natives, and on account of his na
tionality was taken to symbolize the co-
.operation of the United States in the new
movement of independence. Marian Ito
Trias was elected vice-president, and Bal-
inero Aguinaldo was proclaimed minister of
finance. Daniel Pirondo was made minister
of war. During the forenoon Gen. Aguin
aldo held a reception at Cavite to the dele
gates of the provinces and to prominent of
ficers of his army.
The insurgent operations are still being
carried on with the greatest vigor and with
unvaried success. San Fernando and Maca-
baebe, in Pampangas province, has been
captured after a long and obstinate resist
ance. Gen. Ricardo Monet, one of the best
fighters on the Spanish side, was killed.
Forty officers and soldiers of his force were
also killed and between 1,000 and 1,200 cap
tured. The insurgent loss was less and has
not been given out at Aguinaldo's head
quarters. The wife and children of Gen.
Monet were taken prisoners. This decisive
fight results in the absolute overthrow of all
the Spanish force in that province and its
complete acquisition by the insurgents.
Nine hundred of the captured prisoners will
be brought to Cavite this week.
The subjection of the Spaniards in Pam
pangas province has taken nearly three
weeks of hard fighting. The insurgents
under command of Maximo Hisson defeated
the Spanish forces at Angeles and Bacolor
and finally surrounded them in the two towns
of San Fernando and Macabaebe. The latter
place was assailed so vigorously that the
force attacked attempted to join the other
force in San Fernando. The decisive battle
took place on Wednesday, the 15th inst., on
the road between these two places.
The wife and five children of Gov.-Gen.
Augusti were captured near Macabaebe.
They will be brought to Cavite and be de
tained. Vice-Admiral Vcm Diederichs, com
manding the German fleet, has sent a re
quest that the governor-general's wife and
children be freed. The request is unofficial.
Gen. Aguinaldo has refused to grant this, and
it is doubtful whether he could do so if he
desired.
The insurgents feel that under the circum
stances there will be a cessation of Spanish
cruelty to insurgent prisoners of war. Gov.-
Gen. Augusti would hesitate to inflame the
Filipinos by unnecessary cruelty so long as
the fate of his wife and children rests with
the insurgent leader. Gen. Aguinaldo says
that the kindest treatment will be accorded
these prisoners, and justifies himself in de
taining them by the thought that the Span
iards will be more merciful to Filipinos pris
oners hereafter. He had sent word on more
than one occasion that he would kill a Span
ish officer for every insurgent prisoner exe
cuted by the Spaniards in Manila, but this
threat has not been effective. Sympathizers
with the rebels have been executed in Manila
with hardly any provocation. The uncle of
Mr. Arivelo, one of Aguinaldo's staff, was
shot in Tondo within the last week, and as
a consequence the feeling against the Span
iards is very bitter at the insurgent head
quarters.
On the evening of June 20 the insurgents
succeeded in taking some trenches near
Malate. This position has been assailed for
several days, and as it commands the road
and approaches to the fort it is of great
importance. It was given out that all the
insurgent force would attack Tondo, a suburb
of Manila, on the same day and would be met
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
PLAN OF THE CITY OF MANILA.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
93
by 4,000 Spanish troops. This engagement
was not fought, and has probably been de
ferred until later.
Gen. Aguinaldo has removed his headquar
ters from where he first established them to
larger and more commodious ones. The build
ing he now occupies was formerly the official
residence of the governor of Cavite. It is a
beautiful place, with an immense courtyard.
When the governor occupied it Aguinaldo
was engaged in a bushwhacking warfare
against Spain out in the country back of
Cavite. The conditions are now reversed.
The governor, Brig. -Gen. Penas, is a prisoner
only a few doors from where the insurgent
headquarters are, while the former rebel
leader sits in the governor's palace, sur
rounded by his staff and followers. When I
visited the new headquarters yesterday there
were twenty or thirty officers there who had
just come from Hongkong to engage in the
revolution. These include many of those who
were paid by Spain to lay down their arms
and leave the Philippines some months ago.
Forty-two men came down on the Kwang
Loi last Saturday and will at once be as
signed to different posts at the front or on
Aguinaldo's personal staff. It is expected
that internal dissensions will result from the
introduction of these newly arrived insur
gents, for among some of the more prominent
ones a feeling of jealousy and rivalry toward
Aguinaldo is said to exist. The chief concern
of many of them is what will become of the
insurgent cause if America decides to hold
the Philippines. On this question Gen. Agui
naldo has been absolutely silent, but his cau
tion is not observed by some of his followers.
The governor-general at Manila refuses to
treat with Aguinaldo in any way or ac
knowledge his leadership of the insurgents.
An instance of his pride and haughtiness was
shown last Saturday. He wished to have the
wounded Spaniards in Cavite removed to
Manila, but he did not wish to be put in the
position of asking a favor of Aguinaldo. So
he got the British consul at Manila to make
the request in his own name, and sent three
surgeons under a Red Cross flag and witn
this order to Cavite.
Two steam launches towing two barges
came from Manila to Cavite last Sunday.
The Spanish doctors in charge of the mission
were Don Juan Domingues Borrajo, Don
Jose Balderrama and Don Luis Ledesma.
Their crews were Spanish, and natives from
Manila. When the surgeons presented the
letter from the British consul, Aguinaldo re
fused to consider it. He felt that such a re
quest should come from some one in Spanish
authority, and realized the motives that
actuated the governor in refusing to give
the mission an official character. He finally
agreed, however, after a long discussion, to
send the wounded Spaniards to Manila. One
hundred and eighty-five of these were placed
on the barges and preparations were made to
return to Manila. It was then discovered
that all the Spanish and native crews had
deserted, probably with the intention of join
ing the insurgents. They had had enough of
Manila, for the suffering in the city has be
come extreme since the rebels have sur
rounded the city. The Spanish doctors were
obliged to return to Manila without their
crews. It was further noticed that only the
most desperately wounded were allowed to
be taken, and those who gave promise of an
early recovery were held in Cavite.
On June 9 the governor of Batangas was
captured. At the same time Col. Blasques
and one commandant, 39 officers and 500 sol
diers laid down their arms to the Filipinos.
This surrender is remarkable from the fact
that only 240 insurgents, under Col. Eluterio
Malasigan, effected the capture. Three hun
dred and thirty-nine of these prisoners were
transported to Cavite on the rebel steamers
Bulusan and Faleero, and are now impris
oned here.
In Pampanga there was a good deal of
fighting. The Spanish force of 300 men was
driven from Angeles and Bacolor, and re
treated to San Fernando and Macabaebe.
When they left Bacolor they burned the
town. At Angeles the Spaniards placed
women and small children in front of their
ranks to prevent the insurgents firing on
them, but they were eventually routed. In
all the operations in this district there have
been only 200 insurgents engaged. The com
mander of this force is Col. Maximo Hisson.
According to Gen. Aguinaldo's statement
on June 14 there were 6,500 insurgents under
his command. Of this number 6,000 were
armed with rifles and 500 with machetes.
Nearly 4,000 are now in the neighborhood of
Manila, and all the fighting is converging to
that point. The city, as stated in a recent
dispatch, is now practically surrounded, and
very little, if any, food is getting through
their ranks and reaching the people in Ma
nila. On the 13th the insurgents arrived
at Caloocan, a suburb of the city, and at
tacked it. This division of Aguinaldo's force
numbers 300 men, and on the day previous
to the attack on Caloocan they had captured
the three towns of Tinangeros, Malibon and
San Jose de Navatos.
The insurgents' force around Manila and
the approaches to it number nearly 4,000
men. Gen. Aguinaldo on June 14 gave a
list of towns where his troops are stationed,
with the number of men at each place.
Those mentioned in the first section are sit
uated around the city of Manila, the dis
tances varying from two to six miles:
Novaliches, 100 men armed.
Mariquina, 50.
San Felipe de Neri. 200.
Pasig and Pateros. 200.
Pineda. 300 men and two field pieces. It is this
last detachment that has been assailing Malate.
San Petro Macati, 200.
On the southern and southeastern ap-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
EFFECTS OF THE BOMBARDMENT OF CAVITE ARSENAL AS SEEN IN ONE OF THE
AMMUNITION ROOMS.
preaches to Manila the troops are disposed
as follows:
Malibay. 200.
Paranaque, 100.
Las Pinas, 100.
Bakor, 500.
Imus, 400.
Old Cavite. 200.
San Francisco de Malabon, 400.
In addition to the insurgents included in
this list there are between 2,000 and 3,000
operating in the provinces in other sections
of the island.
The prison life of the Spanish soldiers now
confined in Cavite is not a hard one. They
are quartered in clean, commodious barracks
and have an ample allotment of rations.
They have been allowed to keep what money
they had and are permitted to buy anything
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
95
to eat that they care to. Little fruit shops
have sprung up all along before the prison
windows, and the natives do a flourishing
business in selling chickens, tobacco and fruit
to the prisoners. The Spaniards feel tolerably
sure that so long as no attempt to escape is
made they will not be harmed.
The quarters occupied by these men are
very different from the ones intended for the
Americans. It was confidently expected by
the Spaniards that they would be -victorious.
Preparations were 'made for the reception of
prisoners. It was arranged that these should
be placed in a series of dungeons under the
outer walls. These dungeons are built of
solid rock, with arched ceilings, and except
for a small window on the water front no
light whatever enters. They are damp and
ill-smelling. On the walls are large spiders,
which give a sharp realization of the horror
of being imprisoned in one of these dungeons.
I saw one spider that was at least eight
inches across from tip to tip of its legs. The
windows are double-barred, and admit hardly
any light on account of the thickness of the
walls. Little pools of stagnant water lie in
scattered patches on the stone flags. A
wooden bench six feet wide extends along the
side of the room, and is meant to afford sleep
ing accommodation. It was in such a place
as this that sixty insurgent prisoners died in
one night at Manila during the last revolu
tion.
Two topics are now absorbing all the curi
osity and gossip on the American ships. One
is the arrival of the Charleston and the
troopships from San Francisco. They are
expected every day, and unless heavy weather
delayed them on the Pacific they will be
anchored off Cavite within a week. The
other topic is the gradual concentration of a
powerful German fleet here in Manila bay.
Five German warships and one provision ship
are now here. Two more of their cruisers
are expected on Thursday, at which time
seven ships out of eight that Germany now
has in the far east will be in Manila bay.
Vice-Admiral Von Diederichs, who com
mands the Asiatic squadron, is already here,
and Prince Henry is expected on the Deutsch-
land on Thursday. The significance of this
demonstration has created a good deal of
speculation and concern.
When it is considered that Germany,
Austria and Portugal delayed their expres
sions of neutrality to an alarming limit, the
massing of German ships here at this critical
time is regarded as being significant. Ac
cording to an unwritten law of international
courtesy it is unusual for more than two or
three ships of a foreign power to gather in
a blockaded port. The German interests in
Manila are not so extensive as to require a
great force to protect them. It is equally
improbable that the Germans are here merely
to witness the last act of Admiral Dewey's
brilliant tragedy. The theory of curiosity
could hardly justify them in leaving Kiou-
Chou at a time when the Russian and Eng
lish relations are so strained.
Vice-Admiral Von Diederichs says Germany
is making a demonstration here in Manila
bay for the purpose of benefiting the trade
relations between Manila and his own coun
try. The exact connection between cause
and effect in this instance is somewhat ob
scure.
The Spaniards in Manila, according to the
Diario de Manila, look on the Germans as
being their friends and sympathizers, and
seem to regard the advent of Germany's fleet
as encouragement to Spanish interests. The
Germans have saluted the Spanish flag on
several .occasions since Admiral Dewey has
established his blockade. This is either an
evidence of friendliness to Spain or an exhi-
INTERIOR OF THE FORT AT MALATE, SHOW
ING WHERE AN AMERICAN SHELL EX
PLODED.
bition of great indifference to propriety, for-
all foreign Sfrips in a blockaded port are al
lowed to enter and remain through the suf
ferance and courtesy of the admiral com
manding the blockading fleet. Neither the
English nor French have saluted the Spanish
flag, and only in one instance did the Japa
nese salute it.
The relations between Admiral Dewey and
Admiral Von Diederichs, so far as known,
have been very friendly. Social calls have
been exchanged, salutes have been given and
returned, and the American admiral has ex
tended every courtesy possible. When the
Kaiser arrived three days since she anchored
near the Olympia until noon on Sunday. One
of the petty officers had died on the trip
down and it was arranged that the body
96
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
should be taken to the catholic cemetery in
San Roque for burial. The officer was a vet
eran of the Franco-Prussian war, and the
funeral ceremonies were very impressive.
All the German and American flags were
lowered to half-mast during the morning.
A German launch towed three pulling boats
containing the funeral party to the landing
at Cavite, and from there the body was
borne by pall-bearers to the cemetery, two
miles away on the outskirts of San Roque.
An escort of German sailors followed the
casket as it was carried to the burial place,
and fired a salute of three volleys as the
body was committed to the grave.
After the ceremonies at the cemetery the
Germans returned to the Kaiser. Directly
afterward the ship steamed over and joined
the rest of the fleet off Manila.
It is known that the German emperor is
greatly interested in the war now being car
ried on, and is probably anxious to have his
officers obtain as much experience as pos
sible during the operations at Manila. He
is having them take photographs of the
wrecks here and has instructed his repre
sentatives to forward him personal reports
in addition to the official ones they are re
quired to send.
While the German officers have been ac
corded the friendliest treatment on shore,
the English officers have been treated with
much less regard. Two Englishmen were
insulted by some Spanish officers, and the
former immediately complained to Gov.-
Gen. Augusti. As a result the Spanish of
ficers were reprimanded, and it is said with
doubtful veracity that the chief offender was
given a term of imprisonment as punishment.
Another incident relating to the attitude
of the Spanish toward the English occurred
a few days since. A steam launch flying the
insurgent flag stopped at the English man-
of-war Immortalite and one of the insurgents
went aboard. This was taken by the Span
iards as implying a recognition of the insur
gent flag. A protest, or rather an inquiry,
was sent to Capt. Chichester asking why he
.allowed the launch flying a rebel flag to
come alongside. The captain sent word back
that he knew his business, and' if any in
formation was desired explaining why the
insurgent flag was flying in Manila bay it
could be obtained from Admiral Dewey.
The fact that American interests in Manila
are being attended to by the British consul,
Mr. Rawson Walker, and all communications
between the American fleet and the Spanish
authorities have been conducted through the
same channel, probably has given the Span
ish the impression that the English are par
ticularly friendly to America. The further
fact that there have been frequent inter
changes of courtesy regarding the taking of
dispatches to Hongkong might imply that an
understanding existed. This, however, be
sides indicaung a friendly spirit, lias no sig
nificance. The same invitation to carry mail
has been extended by every foreign ship that
has gone out of the bay.
Early yesterday morning Admiral Dewey'a
white launch left the flagship and started
toward Manila. Flag Lieutenant Brumby was
on board and had been commissioned by
the admiral to visit the English ship Im
mortalite. The launch steamed alongside
the ship and Lieut. Brumby mounted the
gangway and disappeared within the vessel.
Very soon after a launch flying a red and
yellow flag was seen leaving the river at
Manila, and was thought to be steaming
toward where the Immortalite lay. From
the Olympia, the flag she flew looked like
a Spanish flag, and it was thought an
attempt was being made to capture the ad
miral's barge and Lieut. Brumby. The Mc-
Culloch was at once signaled to get under
way. Ensign Scott was sent aboard from the
Olympia with instructions to capture the
steam launch if it flew a Spanish flag, and
to protect Lieut. Brumby. The McCulloch
immediately steamed toward where the Im
mortalite lay, only a few hundred yards
from the battery on the Manila lunetta.
There was a good deal of peril involved in
the movement, for an attempt to capture a
Spanish vessel right under the big Krupp
guns of the enemy would certainly provoke
a heavy protest from shore. The steam
launch had advanced well within the cir
cle of German vessels lying near the Im
mortalite. General quarters were called on
the McCulloch. guns were hurriedly manned
and small arms quickly strapped on the
crew. In this state, the American ship
steamed well inside the big group of for
eign ships so as thereby to intercept the sus
picious launch if an attempt were made to
return to the river. At this time the McCul
loch was hardly 1,200 yards from the shore
battery. The boat that had created the stir
was cruising among the German ships. She
flew an Austrian flag, which closely re
sembles the Spanish flag. The Austrian
consul had come off to pay an official call on
the German flagship, and what might have
been a thrilling episode ended very peace
fully.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ROUGH RIDERS AT SEA.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
At daybreak to-morrow seven of the trans
ports will line up before Daiquiri, about
sixteen miles east of Santiago, to land
6,000 of the invading army upon Cuban
soil. The welcome intelligence was brought
to Shipmaster Robertson of the Yucatan
by a smart young ensign from the
Bancroft, who swarmed nimbly up the ves
sel's side and vaulted over the rail as the
2d regiment band was finishing its usual
evening course with "The Star-Spangled Ban-
crowded to the side to hear what the message
was. "Be ready to land at daybreak," yelled
the commander of the little gunboat. "The
Castine will lead the column." A simultan
eous whoop of delight burst from the throats
of the delay-sickened men and every hat
was swinging around its owner's head. "Good
luck to you all, and all our regards to Col.
Roosevelt." Col. Roosevelt waved his hat
and shouted his acknowledgments. Fol
lowed by a storm of cheering the Castine
passed on. Then the excitable lieutenant-
colonel of the rough riders executed another
dance and broke into song:
"Shout hurrah for Erin go bragh
And all the Yankee nation."
he chanted. "Come along, you old quaker,"
seizing Capt. Capron by the arm; "let's go to
supper."
The Yucatan reached Santiago and the rest
of the fleet yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock,
THE UNITED STATES AUXILIARY CRUISER
MAYFLOWER.
ner" and soldiers and sailors, bareheaded,
were standing facing the colors. (June 21).
It was not a public announcement. The
young officer made his way quickly to the
bridge, where he drew the master aside and
delivered his message. Then he saluted the
group of officers and hurried away, jumped
into his boat and was pulled rapidly off to
his ship. Long before he reached her Lieut.-
Col. Roosevelt, who with Col. Wood had been
questioning the master, was dancing a
jubilant heel-and-toe dance on the swaying
deck and beaming through his spectacles on
the expectant crowd. "We land to-morrow,"
he said. "Hooray!"
There was a general demonstration of joy
for five minutes later, when the little Castine,
flying what looked like the five of clubs at
her signal halyards, drew near. Her officers
were at the megaphone and everybody
or, rather, she reached a point from which
we on board could barely make out the nar
row opening to the bay. By the aid of glasses
we could distinguish Morro castle and the
funnels of Admiral Sampson's fleet keeping
watch and ward about this gap. Over the
mountain and the town rain clouds hung
darkly and at times obscured everything
from view. Now and again came a faint
booming sound across the water. Was it
firing? We watched with strained eyes, and
presently, as the somber rain curtain lifted
for a moment, we saw the quick flashes of the
guns of the blockaders, and then, after a few
98
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
moments' interval, again the sullen booming
sound. Then signals went up on the flag
ships and the transports slowly moved west
ward and out to sea.
A morning landing was confidently ex
pected, but instead the vessels moved slowly
about, rocking in the heavy ground swell, and
then took a northeast course. In the after
noon they put about and went back to San
tiago, where the yellow and red flag was
still floating above Morro and where Samp
son's squadron was still lying in wait. Then
came the order to make ready.
TLe column that is to make the landing is
as follows:
The Allegheny, having on board Gen.
Wheeler and his staff; the Leona, with Gen.
Young and the 1st and 10th cavalry; the
Mann, with the 9th cavalry and 6th infantry;
the Breakwater, with the 3d infantry; the
Matteawan, with the 20th infantry; the Rio
Grande, with the 3d and 6th cavalry, and the
Yucatan, with the 1st volunteer cavalry and
part of the 2d infantry.
To-night every preparation nas been made
for the landing. The men are in the highest
possible spirits. They are now lying about
the deck, rolled in their blankets, but they
are not ready to sleep yet. Instead they are
chorusing an absurd doggerel that is im
mensely popular with them:
"I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there;
The little raccoon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
The monkey he got drunk
And sat on the elephant's trunk,
The elephant sneezed and went down on his knees
And what became of the monk?"
The voyage from Tampa had many delight
ful features. The Cuban hills for many miles
stretched along our starboard quarter, so
near that in places where the purple haze
had cleared away the rocks imbedded in the
barren slopes could be clearly discerned.
The southern coast fifty miles east of Santi
ago has a homelike appearance. There is no
expanse of yellow sand and there are no co-
coanut palms or anything else suggestive of
the tropics. It rather recalls the approaches
of the Rockies, for the hills are of a dull
sage green in hue, with here and there
patches of scrub timber and winding trails
belting their scarred sides. It is the first
good sight of land that we have had since
we left Tampa, and it is land that is beau
tifully solid and real. Golden beaches and
palm groves we might distrust, but there can
be no mirage or deception of any kind about
such a shore as this. We are elated — unmis
takably elated — at the prospect before us,
none the less so that we expect the landing
which we are to make within a few hours
will be, in all probability, under a storm of
shot and shell.
With the sight of land come tidings of vic
tory. From Guantanamo bay, where we have
seen as we passed three tall-masted trans
ports lying at anchor, comes the Bancroft
steaming at full speed. Presently she is al
most alongside, and Commander Richardson
Clover hails the bridge through the mega
phone. "A thousand marines under Col.
Huntington landed in that bay," he shouts.
"Been fighting three days without sleep.
Hundred and sixty Spaniards killed "
A wild cheer interrupts him here and the
rest in unintelligible in the tumult. Word
is passed along for silence and the trumpet
tones continue: "Two hundred Spaniards
wounded, eighteen captured and the enemy
driven off. We go to Santiago to the rendez
vous."
Then the Bancroft sheers off and the men
on board the Yucatan cheer until they are
hoarse.
The Yucatan and the City of Washington
had been alone for the last two days. The
latter transport had been towing a schooner
loaded with water or ammunition, and in con
sequence had retarded the progress of the
fleet to a considerable degree. On Friday
afternoon Gen. Shafter's ship, the Segu-
rancea, came alongside the Yucatan and gave
her masters orders to stay in the rear with
the City of Washington. Then the rest of
the fleet steamed on and by Saturday morn-
Ing were out of sight.
On Sunday afternoon the smoke of two
vessels was seen off Cape Maisi and there
was an anxious ten or fifteen minutes on the
bridge of the Yucatan. The leveled binocu
lars and telescopes made out that the fore
most vessel was a battleship, but no one
could decide whether it was Spanish or
American. The general impression was that
a Spanish fleet was coming up and the men
began to examine their carbines and buckle
on their cartridge belts and the gun details
rolled up their sleeves and hurried forward
in readiness for a call. Closer and closer
came the strangers, then the first officer
closed the long tube he had been looking
through. "It's the Indiana," he said. The
other vessel proved to be the Olivette and
the two had been waiting to see that the
stragglers did not get lost.
The weather throughout the voyage was
perfect and the sea so calm that there was
hardly a case of seasickness on board.
Through the day the ships steadily plowed
along, scattered over the bright blue sea
in loose array, and at night they gathered
together, their lights turned low or entirely
extinguished and the indicators on the
bridges marked dead slow.
Drills in the manual of arms have been
constant and every evening the officers of
the rough riders have assembled in the sa
loon for school. Outpost duty, fighting in in-
trenchments, scouting, every method of har
assing an enemy, discovering his designs,
destroying his magazines, evading, attacking
and exhausting him have been discussed at
these nightly meetings. Capt Allyn K. Ca-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
99
JACKIE-S OF THE NEWPORT AND THEIR PETS.
pron, formerly in command of Indian scouts
at Fort Sill, has been instructor at these
nightly meetings and Lieut. -Col. Roosevelt
has been one of his most attentive pupils. At
the last session Capt. Capron found fault
with the many provisions "in case of retreat"
found in the regulation book of tactics.
"There is too much of that and I don't be
lieve in it," he said. "If you go into action
you want to go in to win and this eternal 'in
case of retreat' has a bad effect on the men.
I have heard officers say in the presence of
their troops that soldiers cannot live in the
face of a direct fire from the modern rifle.
You had better impress on your men that the
only way for them is to charge through it
and to charge through it quickly."
"I quite agree with you," said Lieut. -Col.
Roosevelt. "There should be no retreat. It
is possible that the exigencies of the situa
tion may demand that we fall back occa
sionally, but our men must understand that
we are simply falling back, and that falling
back was part of our original intention."
No veteran troops could bear themselves
more coolly and carelessly in the face of an
approaching action than do the rough riders.
Except for an occasional jest, usually in the
nature of a cheerful promise to take charge
of the personal effects of a comrade, in
cluding his "best girl," and to see that he
has elbow room on the top row in the burial
trench, it is hardly alluded to, but is taken
entirely as a matter of course. Yet there is
an evident realization of the grim work that
is to be done. That can be seen as the men
are drilling on deck, facing the shores they
are soon to tread.
"Load, aim, fire!" calls the sergeant, and
the muscular hands jerk the levers of their
carbines up and down with lightning speed.
The weapons fly to the shoulders of the
troopers, whose faces become curiously in
tent and full of purpose as they sight along
the gleaming barrels, and with the snap of
the lock it becomes evident that every man
has a Spaniard in his mental vision. In a
few hours they will have enough of them in
reality.
The departure from Tampa had some pic
turesque aspects as seen from the Yucatan.
The start was made on Sunday morning,
June 12, but not more than a few hundred
yards' advance was made that day. At 5:30
o'clock the thirty-one transports, with their
freight of 18,000 men, one by one cast off
the great hawsers that moored them to the
docks and slowly moved out into the open
water. The regimental bands struck up
their liveliest airs and the men who
swarmed on the decks and clustered like
bees on the ratlines cheered lustily. They
were off at last. Here was an end to the
heart-sickening delays, and only a few hun
dred miles of water lay between them and a
glorious fight.
But after awhile the cheering stopped, for
the vessels, instead of forging ahead with
blazing smokestacks, began to spread out
100
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
TORPEDO BOATS FOOTE AXD PORTER.
through the gray haze and stop and turn and
even back. At noon they came to a dead
standstill and a strong-lunged man on the
deck of the foremost could still have suc
cessfully hailed the shore.
An hour's wait and the drab gunboats be
gan to bustle about, and a string of bright-
hued signal flags fluttered up to the peak of
the Seguranca, Gen. Shafter's flagship. An
swering pennons were displayed and the en
gines once more began to thump beneath
the vibrating planks and the water boiled
into white foam astern. Some of the men
began to cheer; but one, with the wisdom
born of experience, exhorted then to save
their breath. "Let's see how far we are go
ing first," he said.
It was not far. Ponderously and cau
tiously, to avoid the shoals and sand
banks, the transports by degrees formed
themselves into a long V-shaped line, the
gunboat Helena at the head, and her smaller
sisters, the Castine, the Annapolis, the Mor-
rill and the impertinent little converted
yachts, the Wasp and Hornet, hovering about
the wings. Then they stopped again and
anchored for the night.
In the maneuvering a collision that would
have resulted in the instant annihilation of
at least two of the transports was narrowly
averted. The Mattewan was about to cross
the course of the Yucatan, which was coming
on at about half-speed, but reconsidered and
tried to stop half a cable's length away. Her
headway and the force of the tide swept her
on, and for an anxious minute it seemed that
a crash was inevitable. There was a long
brass tube in the bows of the Yucatan, a
harr^Ps-looVing thing that might easily
have been mistaken for an astronomical tele
scope, and around it stood an exceedingly
uneasy-looking squad of men. The officers
on the bridge looked down at it and then at
the Mattewan, now almost broadside on, and
officers and men held their breath, for the
tube was a dynamite gun, and it reminded
them that about a ton of explosive gelatin
bombs was stored immediately below it.
Still there was not a cry of alarm and not a
man left his post. The motion of the Matte-
wan almost ceased, for her engines were
fighting with the current; then she began to
back, and at the same time the Yucatan an
swered to her helm and swerved aside just
enough to leave about a foot's space between
the two hulls as they passed. Some of the
officers laughed, and one or two took out
their handkerchiefs and wiped their fore
heads. "As good as a mile," remarked Col.
Wood, laconically. "I don't know," said
Lieut. Woodbury Kane; "I think I'd have felt
better if that confounded thing had been a
mile away."
All night the transports remained at
anchor under the blood-red, unwinking eys
of the lighthouse on the starboard side, and
when morning came there was no indication
of leaving. The men took their morning
bath, got out their fishing tackle, their
books, pipes and letter paper, and proceeded
to amuse themselves a?, usual. Boats went
ashore and everything was as it had been
for a week past. Pessimists predicted a re
turn to the dock. But at 2 o'clock in the
afternoon hope revived. The little Hornet
was coming down the line, and some one on
board was bellowing through a megaphone.
At last he reached the Yucatan, and the
men strained their ears to listen. "You will
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
101
sail in columns of three," called the stentor
in the white uniform. "Follow in the wake
of the Helena." A storm of cheers greeted
the announcement, and presently the whole
fleet was in motion. The shores gradually
receded, soon becoming mere lines of white
fringed with a faint green that melted im
perceptibly into the tilue of the sky, and as
the mouth of the harbor was neared a gentle
swell lifted the vessel up and down. The
lighthouse, surrounded by its clumps of
palms, came into sight, drew nearer and was
passed, and then the square battery and the
narrow tongue of sand running out into the
gulf. Straight ahead across the bar the
transports steamed in one long line reach
ing as far as eye could see, rounded the buoy
and steered due south. The expedition was
fairly off.
Once clear of the harbor and with plenty
of sea room, the fleet was formed into the
column of threes originally directed, and
this order was afterward maintained. The
battleship Indiana headed the column and
the cruiser Detroit brought up the rear. The
Bancroft, the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius ani
the gunboats before mentioned were placed
at intervals along the line. Every nignt
lights were ordered out at 7 o'clock.
SOLDIERS IN THE TROPICS.
BY KATHERINE WHITE.
There have been so many articles written
since our army was sent to Cuba giving ad
vice and information to the soldiers it would
almost seem that the catalogue would be ex
hausted. The dissertations concerning the
care of the health and the recommendations
of different kinds of wearing apparel would
fill volumes. I read an exhaustive article the
other day on the subject 'of "What the Sol
dier Must Take Into Carnp" — as if he was
going out on a summer vacation. No doubt
the anxious feminine relatives would be de
lighted with the simple, substantial com
forts set forth for the benefit of "dear Harry
or Tom." But if "dear Harry" would take
half the articles named as absolutely neces
sary he would be obliged to take a commo
dious trunk in which to keep 'them, and on
the march through the Cuban sand and cac
tus I am afraid the object of so much solici
tude would feel inclined to consign the of
fending baggage to the blue waters of the
tropical sea.
When the boys start out in heavy marching
order, with their rifles, 100 pounds of ammu
nition, their tents, blankets and canteens, it
is about all with which they care to be in-
cumbered. I talked with one of the soldiers
yesterday — a United States regular who is
accustomed to marching — and he said: "When
I left home I had a trunkful of clothes, which
I sent back when I reached Key West, and
now when I start over that hill to Santiago
to-morrow I shall abandon everything except
the clothes I have on." His uniform con
sisted of a rough blue flannel shirt, blue
trousers, slouch hat and shoes.
Aside from traveling luxuries, however,
there are some practical suggestions that
might go far to mitigate the real hardships
of the camp if care would be taken to follow
them. The medical staff of the Red Cross has
given me some suggestions for the mainte
nance of the health by northern soldiers
when in the tropics. They are the results of
its own observations, coupled with the opin
ions of the most eminent Cuban medical au
thorities. Dr. Egan of the Red Cross staff
has had wide experience in the treatment of
yellow fever. He was for several years in
the Pacific Mail service, and he 'himself suf
fered with a severe ease of chagras fever in
Aspinwall, Panama. He is thoroughly fa
miliar with tropical climatic conditions.
Dr. Egan has repeatedly assured me that
too much stress cannot be placed upon the
importance of sleeping dry and above the
ground. Where hammocks are provided there
will of course be no difficulty, but in the ab
sence of them it would be practicable for the
soldiers to improvise hammocks by swinging
their blankets by ropes between trees or
stakes driven in the ground. The next best
thing is to build up a bed of boughs from
trees or of palrn branches. A bed one foot
from the ground is better than one that is
directly on the ground, and the higher it can
be the safer it is from the miasms that arise
from the earth. Camps should always be
pitched on ground as elevated as possible and
back from the sea or stream. When coming
into camp from the battlefield or a long
march don't lie down without changing the
clothing. Take a 'bath and a brisk rub with a
dry towel. Use salt water for bathing when
on the seashore, or use clear running water,
but never use stagnant water unless it has
been boiled. If very tired a sponge bath Is
better. Never go to sleep in damp clothes.
The temptation is very great for the soldier
when coming in from a weary march to roll
up in his blanket and go to sleep, but it will
be an economy of strength in the long run
and probably will insure an escape from a se
vere attack of malaria or typhus fever to take
the precaution of retiring for the night In
dry clothes.
At night one should always sleep under
102
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
.
ADVANCE TROOPS MARCHING ON SANTIAGO.
[From a photograph by William Schmedtgen.]
cover. After the extreme heat of a tropical
day the dewfall is heavy and impregnated
with fever germs that are carried from the
decaying vegetation into the dry air to fall
again with the dew. Consequently it is un
wise to sit or lie down in the evening out
side of shelter of roof, tent, canvas or tree.
Avoid the sudden checking of perspiration by
sitting in draughts. Colds are as likely to
overtake one in a hot climate as in a cola
one.
In the first weeks of coming into the trop
ics it is extremely necessary to observe mod
eration in food and drink. Have the meals at
regular hours, if possible. Eat only when
hungry and the food is needed. Until thor
oughly acclimated very little meat should be
eaten, and no fats at any time. It is better to
go hungry for a time until the proper kind
can be procured than to take food indiscreet
ly. Everything should be freshly cooked ex
cept bread. Hard breads are the best, and
they can be made very palatable by toasting.
When first coming into tropical countries
where the fruit is abundant it seems a very
"welcome change from the regular army ra
tions, and when eaten in moderation and only
with meals it may be very beneficial, but
discretion should be exercised or a severe
case of dysentery may follow. Carefully
avoid all unripe and overripe fruits, and
should any symptoms of that very dangerous
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
103
disease appear quit all solid food at once and
drink only boiled water and let the food con
sist of boiled milk or some mild gruel until
the stomach reaches its normal condition. A
light-weight woolen bandage worn over the
abdomen is an excellent protection and gives
almost instant relief.
Unless the drinking water is known to be
absolutely pure it should be boiled thirty
minutes. Drink as little water as possible,
and only with meals. Water taken on an
empty stomach rapidly diffuses itself through
the system, and then, if impure, the most
serious results are bound to follow. Never
take water from below camp — always above.
Water, even after boiling, should be kept in
perfectly clean, closed vessels. The canteens
should be scalded out frequently. If the tea
left from meals is saved in the canteens,
to be used when cold instead of water, it will
be found very refreshing, as will also lemon
ade, or any mild acid drink. Alcoholic
drinks of all kinds should be avoided in the
tropics. It is very necessary always to wash
the hands before eating, as impure germs
might be carried directly into the stomach.
Avoid the promiscuous taking of drugs.
The safest plan is to consult the physician
if one suspects anything amiss with one's
health. A slight indisposition may develop
into a serious illness where the climatic con
ditions are so favorable to the progress of
disease. The camps should be kept in a per
fect sanitary condition, even if the stay is
short. Burn all refuse, otherwise bury
deeply.
The importance of caring for the soldiers'
feet cannot be exaggerated. The reasons are
obvious. In the German army the soldier
who allows his feet to get sore is severely
disciplined. The socks should be changed
every day, or if it is impossible to have sev
eral pairs they should be washed out in the
evening and dried ready to be put on clean
the next day. Unbleached balbriggan socles
will keep the feet in much better condition
thaa the colored ones. If the feet are bathed
in cold water well impregnated with witch
bcfzel it will reduce the inflammation and be
fo'md wonderfully refreshing.
For mosquito and other insect stings an
application of di'nted ammonia will give the
quickest relief.
Many of the soldiers are already suffering
from heat prostrations. I was told yesterday
of one poor fellow who dropped out on the
march, and his comrade carved with his
knife on a palm tree his initials to mark the
spot where he lies buried under the tropical
sun. Wet leaves worn in the hat will afford
great protection. Care must be taken, how
ever, in the selection of leaves where there
are many poisonous plants growing. Palm
leaves are usually obtainable and perfectly
safe.
There are numberless prescriptions for pre
ventives and curatives, many of which are
no doubt excellent, but the remedies and pre
cautions that are simple and convenient are
in all probability the only ones for which
our soldier boys will find time or room in
this hot, hurried campaign.
AFTER A BIG BATTLE.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
I have been asked to relate the adventures
which befell me during the night following
the battle of July 1 before Santiago de
Cuba. On that day Gen. Lawton's division,
supported by Capt. Capron's battery, had
taken the enemy's fortified position at El
Caney, and Gen. Joe Wheeler's cavalry di
vision, uniting with Gen. Kent's infantry
division and the remaining three batteries
of artillery under Maj. Dillenbeck, had
driven the enemy back from the line of
intrenched hills they had held at San Juan.
Seventeen hundred and fifty-two of our men
had been either killed or wounded.
I had passed the entire day watching the
course of the battle at El Caney. When the
fort fell and the last hostile gun in the
town had been silenced the fleeting tropical
twilight enveloped the battlefield, and we
knew that but a few minutes remained be
fore night and its heavy, miasmatic damp
would be upon us. And yet Siboney, where
alone it was possible to reach THE RECORD'S
dispatch boat, the Hercules, and send to the
cable station an account of the day's great
achievements, was eighteen miles away by
the shortest road, running through a coun
try that we knew to be still infested with
the enemy's sharpshooters. The report must
be sent to THE RECORD; but how? A dif
ficult undertaking, to be sure; and the ride
it necessitated was one I am not likely soon
to forget.
It is essential for me to explain at this
time how at this crisis in the affairs of a war
correspondent J Tiad come by a mule, a
Spanish mule, and almost the first of the
spoils of war taken from the enemy. During
the whole of the Santiago campaign mounts
of any kind were at a phenomenal premium.
The army had brought scarcely enough
horses to supply the commanding officers,
their aids and a troop of cavalry. The na
tive horses had been long since appropriated
by the Spanish army; and if any poor, starv
ing brute remained in the hands of a Cuban
104
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
it could not be purchased without offending
a law proclaimed by the Cuban government
making it an act of treason to the cause of
"Cu'ba Libre" to sell or otherwise dispose of
a horse or mule.
As time went on the correspondents at th^
front were supplied either by buying the
horse of a dead or wounded officer or by
importation from Jamaica. However, at the
time of the battle those who wished to fol
low the course of events had, with one or
two exceptions, to march to the front carry
ing their canteens and blankets.
I had gone forward early in the morning
with the first movement of the advancing
column and had trudged painfully under
the hot sun from point to point while the
battle was in progress, getting into the fort
shortly after it was taken by that superb
charge of Gen. Chatfee's brigade. It is re
membered that the victory was not complete
for two hours afterward. Then there were
other interesting events happening. The
enemy's dead in the fort were collected and
buried in the trenches they had so stub
bornly defended, and their wounded were
to be cared for. On the side of the hill lay
motionless figures in blue — men of the val
iant 24th, 12th and 3d infantry, who had
perished in the charge. Among them, too,
were many wounded; one man in the agony
of death was torn by the most violent con
tortions, and each time he moved he rolled
a little farther down the hill. To add to the
grim terror of the scene there was for all
of us in this exposed position constant dan
ger from scattered groups of the enemy, still
lurking in protected places about and in the
town, holding out with the insane courage
of despair. While I watched this remarkable
scene sink into the soft gray of twilight I
was suddenly reminded of my reporter's
task, and that it was undone until my report
was safely on its way to its northern goal.
A sense of extreme weariness fell upon me,
due largely no doubt to a slight reaction
from the excitement of the day and the
nervous tension one always experiences
when the sharp, metallic "ping" of flying
bullets has become so familiar one ceases
longer to dodge them.
While standing in this perplexity an in
fantryman rode up the hill to the fort on a
fine-looking yellow horse, somewhat larger
than the common run of Cuban stock.
"That there horse belonged to the Spanish
commandante," suggested a rugged cavalry
man beside me. "The old man was killed
and the horse is shot in half a dozen places,
but I reckon the fellow that captured him
can sell the saddle and bridle for some
thing."
Saddle and bridle to be sure! In my frame
of mind just then I would have given $100
for a wounded goat that could carry me to
Siboney. I pushed into the crowd, but I
was too late. The horse had been sold for
four times its worth the moment the lucky
musketeer offered him for sale.
My reflections of the succeeding moments
were not pleasant. Very much chagrined, I
strolled back to a part of the hill where I
had not been before. It overlooked a low
depression in the contour of the ground just
back of the town, and there, sheltered from
the hail of. bullets and shrapnel that had
poured over the place since daybreak, were
two cows, two bony horses and a mule.
Seized with a new impulse, I hurried up
to a squad of soldiers standing well out of
the hearing of their officers.
"I'll give any man who will go into that
town with me and help me capture a horse
$25."
No one moved or spoke. They looked at
me as if they thought I was mad. Only a
few moments before they had been taking
long shots into the town at Spaniards skulk
ing in the shadows of buildings.
"I'll give $40," I urged. "I must have a
horse to-night, and there are horses to be
had for the taking. Will any man go with
me?"
No answer, except that each man began
to speculate on the possibilities of getting out
alive.
"I'll give $50," I said at length, almost
desperately.
"You're my man." A stout young trum
peter, evidently of German parentage, though
his accent was but slightly foreign, had
spoken, and without saying another word he
started down the hill at a smart run, loosen
ing his pistol in the holster as he went. By
his action and words as well he gave me to
understand he purposed to boss the job, and
I was willing to consent and followed.
We reached the first street of the town
after crossing a narrow brook and mounted
a steep, stony bank. Drawing our revolvers
we moved at a sharp pace through the near
est lane leading to the back of the 'town.
My companion and leader in horse theft was
for bolting straight through the center of
the town, "because," he said, "we may find
something there better than the crowbaits
you have in mind." We went as he directed.
What notion the inhabitants formed of us I
cannot say. The greater number seemed to
De weeping over the deaths or wounds of
members of the family, and hardly noticed
us. It was, indeed, a hard necessity that
compelled Gen. Lawton to fire upon the
town, but the blame for the deaths of in
nocent people rests upon the Spanish. They
had fortified themselves there, and before
noon it was learned that nothing less than
a merciless fire directed at the town could
dislodge them. And volleys and shrapnel
make no choice of victims.
As we hurried about our errand we were
constantly confronted by evidence of the
severity of the fire delivered at the town.
In strange, out-of-the-way places we ran
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
105
LIEUT. JOHN D. MILEY, AID TO MAJ.-GEN. SHAFTER.
upon wounded Spaniards, most of them help
less. One with a shot through the abdomen
scowled at us as we passed and drew toward
his rifle. But he thought 'better of it, far
the odds were against him. Another was
dragged hastily into a hut as we approached
and the door was barricaded.
But horses were scarce, though Spaniards
were much too plentiful for the ease of our
operations. The first horse we came upon
was standing saddled and bridled in a stable
and I almost shouted for joy at the find.
A minute later my attention was attracted
by the wheezing of escaping wind like one
might create by wrorking <a leaky bellows.
On investigation I found the poor brute had
been shot twice through the body by shrap
nel. We relieved him of his saddle and bridle,
and started on like good Samaritans, having
done what we could for the brute and our
own comfort. One or two picketed horses
and mules were found in the street farther
on, but all of them were more or less torn
by shot and shell. But, when we well-nigh
despaired, we came upon a trim little mule
no bigger than a donkey, but wearing a
Spanish pack saddle. To catch him and
swap saddles was the work of but a few min
utes. We were then near the edge of the
town. I whipped out at the first opening
between the houses, and soon joined our
troops coming to occupy the place for the
night. I paid my brave trumpeter, and with
the exultation of a conquerer started Jenny
at her best for Siboney. I do not say that
my pride was justifiable, but the truth is
that with that little mule under me I felt
competent to match all the dismounted road
agents and sharpshooters in the island.
But triumphs, big and little, are short
lived; and even so was mine. It lasted only
while I kept to the main thoroughfare, the
familiar postroad leading direct from El
Caney to Santiago. At this time it was
crowded with soldiers — several regiments ly
ing in scattered lines along the road's edge
306
CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
waiting for orders, others moving forward to
fill up the dangerous gap in our front which
the day's fighting had left between San Juan
and El Caney. Just enough Light remained
above the darkness, gathering momentarily
thicker in the gloom of the lowland thickets,
for the waiting regiments to recognize the
command passing them as the one that had
made the assault upon the fort and in
trenched hill above the town. It was not a
time for cheering when the enemy's advance
posts might be but a few hundred yards
away, and yet the muffled clapping of hands
and kind words of commendation, given with
the soldier's forceful if not elegant simplic
ity, was for these brave fellows who had left
behind them upon the battlefield from 8 to
15 per cent of men and officers, a reward of
merit more welcome and timely than wreaths
of laurel.
A few moments carried me beyond the
moving columns and into a worse confusion —
the interminable, hopeless confusion of men
massed and scattering without a leader.
Men separated from their commands moved
about aimlessly and wearily, seeking a word
of information that would aid them to find
their regiments. Most of them had come
from the field hospitals after bearing a cher
ished comrade to a place of safety or to his
last bivouac. I myself stood in direct need
of information as to the present location of
Gen. Shafter's headquarters; but none could
give me more assistance than I could supply,
for they had been no farther toward the rear
than their duties had required. More than
once I came upon a staff officer, and he, too,
seemed to be groping about as blindly in his
efforts to regain his chief as were the en
listed men.
The helpless perplexity of ignorance began
to have a dreadful significance for me. The
night before it had been a part of Gen. Shaf
ter's plans to move his headquarters forward
to the De Coro house, then plainly visible
outlined upon the horizon a mile distant
down the road. This he had not done, and
with fearful misgivings I reflected on what
could have been the cause. I had heard
cannonading on the left throughout the day,
and knew what had been the purpose of the
advance upon San Juan. But of the results
of the day's battle in that quarter no one
knew anything, and now that I began to see
evidences of failure it was not difficult to
imagine that our own good victory at El
Caney had been more than offset by defeat
at San Juan and the consequent turning of
our left wing — a contingency which was
certain to bring utter defeat to the army by
penning it up in a narrow valley, where it
must famish unless it could cut its way
back to its base at Siboney or make a new
exit to the seashore by way of Aguadores.
Revolving in my mind that news of defeat
might be of even greater importance than
news of victory, I determined to communi
cate with the first commanding officer I
could find. After making two experimental
trips for several miles into blind trails, I at
length found Col. Evans Miles, commanding
the 2d brigade of Gen. Lawton's division
bivouacked under a low bush beside an
abandoned road.
I inquired if he had heard anything con
cerning the action on the left, and he replied
he had heard nothing except the cannonad
ing. Could he tell me how far forward Gen.
Shafter had moved his headquarters? No;
though he believed the general had come
forward some distance, perhaps as far as El
Poso.
He knew nothing more; in fact, he was as
much in the dark as I, for at the time his
division commander even had not deemed it
expedient to inform him of 'his whereabouts.
Still, with the uniform courtesy which is a
common virtue with ntarly all regular-army
officers, Col. Miles directed me with great
care along the trail leading to the rear, and,
the moon having risen full and radiant over
the blue mountain top fcr away beyond the
dark borders of the valley, I set out once
more, putting down my misgivings and bless
ing the good luck that haxl given me a mule.
Into the bush and on through the dark
shade I hastened as fast as my little servant
could go. I reflected that the trail was prob
ably clear, and with the stars for my com
pass I must sooner or later find the familiar
Sevilla road, which passes through El Poso
and on to Siboney by the route the army had
taken in its advance.
Suddenly my mule stopped short. I looked
about me and saw dark, silent figures mov
ing about under the trees.
"What regiment is this?" I asked.
"The 25th, sah," came in familiar African
accents from the ground near the mule's
feet. "Don't stop; keep right a-goin', an'
get that mule's feet out o' my face."
True enough, I had come upon the 25th
regiment in bivouac — the regiment which I
had seen charge a hill in the face of a fire
that had mowed down one in ten of them.
Great, muscular negroes though they were,
and inured to constant service on the plains,
the labors of the day had exhausted them,
and at the command "Break ranks" they had
fallen upon the ground where they stood,
and supperless and without blankets had
dropped asleep almost immediately.
Carefully we picked our way among the
prone figures. Scarcely one moved, except
to draw in a leg that was threatened or
accidentally touched by the mule's hoofs.
But by this time the mule and I were on
good terms, and for my part I was willing to
trust her little legs to any task, and she was
not likely to have a more difficult than the
one before us then.
On through the brush we hurried, break
ing down our way where the trail had been
impeded" by falling brush, and shortly we
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ior
came into 'the open, where the moon shone
clear and bright over the trail, though it
had by this time dwindled to a narrow foot
path, winding over a mile of low meadow in
a thin dark line until it was hidden again
in the thicket that bounded a mountain
brook.
I was aroused by -the quick pat-a-pat of
bare feet approaching over the soft earth
in the path. Looking ahead I could at first
see nothing. Then I discovered beyond a
thicket two or three slouching straw hats.
Soon I reached an opening, and as far as
the vision extended there was a line of
lightly clad figures in straw hats and with
guns swung at every angle hurrying toward
me at a smart dog trot. There was a possi
bility they were Spanish guerrillas, but all
doubt was removed when the head of the
column came up and a dark figure sang out
merrily:
"Good night."
The salutation was greeted by a chorus of
laughter and raillery carried on in Spanish,
and I joined in, guessing that they had rec
ognized me as an American and were making
a jest at the pretensions of their companion
to "talk Americano."
From this on my way was no -longer lonely.
Mile after mile this file of half-clad, hair-
armed men hurried by me, though, for the
most part, as silent as a train of ghosts. I
surmised I had come upon the main body of
the Cuban army and that it was being pushe.l
as rapidly as possible toward our right. But
even this was a revelation, for I had been
told Gen. Garcia and 3,000 of his men had
been on Gen. Chaffee's extreme right during
the day and had engaged the Spaniards west
of El Caney. Failing after repeated inquiries
to find an;, one in the line who could speak
half a dozen words of English, I pursued
my way in the hope of coming upon the com
manding officer and his staff, who: keep them
selves near the rear in Cuban tactics.
It was near 10 o'clock and I had traveled
an unconscionable distance when I came upon
a Cuban cavalry troop halted near a strag-
ling ruin. In the center of the cleared
ground was a Spanish blockhouse. I had
never before seen the place and was not
aware the enemy had held a position of even
this strength here between El Caney and
San Juan. But there was good news in its
abandonment and the presence of the Cubans
here reassured me, and I began to hope the
enemy had been beaten on the left as well as
the right. Hoping to obtain more positive
information I renewed my search for a man
with whom I could converse. But I found
only a negro, from whom I could get nothing
except that the road to Gen. Shafter's head
quarters led in a direction that he indicated
with his hands.
Again I resumed my journey, but not in
the best of spirits, for I had already lost a
third of the night in a hopeless quest and
had reached no locality I could recognize or
identify on any map I posssessed. But the
road I had been turned to soon broadened
out to a wide, well-beaten thoroughfare and
I hoped for the best. I pushed on at a sharp
trot, watching closely for something that
would mark the place. The road bent gen- '
tly, almost imperceptibly, to the westward. I
noticed the change in direction, and, while
I believed El Poso lay to the east, I had suf
ficient confidence in my guide to think for
a time that headquarters were perchance
advanced well on toward Santiago in conse
quence of the day's battle.
I had gone two miles in the new direction
along a road that was utterly deserted. I
had seen nothing to arouse my suspicions,
until suddenly I came upon a line of empty
breastworks and entanglements at the side
of the road. They were plainly Spanish and
they had not been long deserted.
My attention was at this moment called to
a figure in dark clothes that moved slowly
toward me out of the shadow of the hedge.
I approached the man and found him to be a
soldier of the 12th infantry, who had been on
detached service with the Gatling-gun bat
tery, He still clung to his poncho, gun and
cartridge belt, but he was so weak he could
barely raise one foot above the other, and
though my questions were kindly meant he
seemed to expect no favors and asked no
assistance.
"Do you know where you are going?" I
asked at length.
"To the hospital," he said.
"Do you know where it is?' The question
was one that interested me as much as him,
for the hospital was near headquarters. ,
"No," he answered weakly. "The truth
is I don't know where I'm going; but I must
keep moving. If I lie down I — I won't get up
again."
The poor fellow felt — and he was doubtless
right — that his life hung upon that slender
thread; to give up would be the end.
I put him at once upon the mule and by
further questioning learned he had been left
very near the enemy's lines in a sudden
retreat of Capt. Parker's busy Gatlings, and
that I would probably fall into a Spanish
outpost if I went farther along the road.
Not wishing to supply a subject for testing
Blanco's latest order, according to which
newspaper men captured within the lines
were to be given the short shrift of spies and
hanged, I retreated with my new acquaint
ance back to the place where I had seen the
Cuban cavalry. My inquiries this time were
more successful and I found a courteous
gentleman, evidently an educated man of
Spanish blood, who spoke good English. He
informed me Gen. Garcia was but a few
yards away and at my request took me to him
so that I could make request for a guide.
The general readily consented and a Cuban
vvas brought to me for the purpose. At
108
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
'FIGHTING JOE" WHEELER IN HIS HAMMOCK, SAN JUAN, SANTIAGO.
first I had to hold my soldier upon the
mule, for he fell off twice, and I feared my
undertaking was nearly hopeless. But we
got along belter as we proceeded; our Cuban
guide took a lively pace over the narrow
path and before midnight we reached El
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
109
Poso. Later I learned I had passed the
Cuban army at Marianaje and that my blind
excursion westward from there to the place
where I found the sick soldier took me dan
gerously near the enemy's lines.
El Poso — what a scene of horror and hu
man misery it sugests to any one who re
members it on that night!
We had pursued our path at the heels of
our Cuban guide for a full hour with heavy
hearts; for the stillness of the night and
thoughts of the desolation about us had
grown steadily more oppressive. Then a
clump of bushes opened and before us lay
the fords of El Poso. Against the white
background of the moonlight the picture
stood out like a silhouette upon a canvas —
men and horses crowding to the brink of the
water; mule trains and ammunitio'n wagons
pushing on toward the road that led to the
front; the wounded straggling in, sometimes
in the arms of comrades, often on stretchers;
one cavalcade moving onward toward the
scene of the day's conflict, the others going
backward, and all as silent as death. Off to
the right a group of tall cocoa palms stooped
their spreading tops as if in sympathy with
the rest; beneath them were the ruins of a
sugar mill, and seated there were three staff
officers with drooping heads, their horses
standing as motionless as they beside them;
each figure outlined perfectly in black
against the glistening sky.
But our delay was of shorter duration than
it requires to relate my impression of a scene
that moved me as no other has ever done. A
question, and a terse answer, and we push
across the river, to find the field hospital
known to be located somewhere upon the far
ther bank.
The familiar white flag and red cross was
hanging from the bending limb of a bush be
side the narrow road, but before I could
reach it with my burdened mule a heavy am
munition wagon pushed by me and I saw it
was filled with wounded, the greater number
so nearly dead they were thrown about from
side to side in the box as helplessly as bags
of meal. The wagon passed on and I hurried
toward the first opening in the brush beside
the Red Cross flag. Several long, dark
bodies lay beside the roadway, so near I won
dered the wagon had not crushed them.
"Hold, there, you with the mule."
I stopped and looked about me.
"There's a man lying in front of you," the
same voice continued out of the darkness.
"He's dying, but don't run over him."
Grim scenes these were, but the time for
sentiment had passed. I inquired for a sur
geon and hurried to help my sick soldier dis
mount. The surgeon responded, but his first
salutation glued the soldier to the saddle.
"Don't let that man get off here," came in
commanding tones. "Take him to the divi
sion hospital at headquarters."
I protested; the mule was my own; I had
picked the man up, and being nearly ex
hausted I asked that I be relieved of the
burden. The surgeon was not in good humor
and demurred, but I was convinced he would
take such care as he could of the soldier
once he was consigned to him, and giving my
charge a quick dismount, as quickly mounted
and rode away.
WitJvn a week, as I passed along at the
rear of our firing line, I was hailed by a fa
miliar voice, and glancing up recognized my
sick soldier.
"You're out again?" I inquired.
"Yes."
"Seen any fighting?"
"You bet."
"What did the surgeon say was the matter
with you?"
"Malarial fever."
The "field hospital at El Poso was but a
small clearing in the underbrush, where men
might be laid upon the ground, though for
the most part without blankets or even
shelter tents to keep off the dew and rain.
But the surgeons there were brave, consci
entious men, who worked hard and did what
they could with none of the appliances com
monly deemed necessary. They were able
to give temporary relief in most cases, and
in some instances, as in the one I have men
tioned, they certainly saved life.
As quickly as my tired mule would allow
I left this distressing scene and the smell
of iodoform, and passed over the three miles
to Gen. Shafter's headquarters. It had not
been moved forward, according to plan.
As I turned from the road I saw a group
of officers sitting about a small fire. I rec
ognized Col. Wood of the 1st volunteer cav
alry, otherwise the rough riders, and in
quired if his command was encamped there,
for it was late and I was sure of a welcome
wherever they were, though they might have
but a yard of canvas and a mouthful of bacon
to share.
"No," said the colonel— sadly, I thought.
"They are up there," nodding up the road.
"At San Juan?"
"What's left of them. Capt. Buckie
O'Neill was killed."
Capt. O'Neill killed! Alas! I had spent
the night previous in his tent and only a
minute before had thought gratefully of him
and how his generosity might again be called
upon to rest my tired limbs. But the scenes
of the day had made me callous to sorrow.
I only felt more than ever wearied by the
news that a good friend had died and hav
ing long since given up as useless any effort
to get my report to Siboney that night, lay
down under the first covering I found and
had two hours of sound sleep before the carnp
was again on the move for the second day's
battle.
110
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
IN THE TRENCHES BEFORE SANTIAGO.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
Between the rifle pits of the opposing army
a white flag is curling from a staff planted
in the middle of the road over which our
troops will pass before many days. It is just
950 yards from this line of works, thrown up
last night by the men of the 9th infantry, to
the Spanish line on the opposite hill. At
least that is the killing range to which the
sharpshooters of the crack 9th adjust their
sights. Hundreds of men are lying flat on
their faces in the bottom of the trench try
ing to snatch a little sleep, although the hot
sun is sending its stinging rays straight
down on them. Others are watching some
Spanish officers walking around back of the
Spanish white flag, for there is a lull in the
fighting while the foreign consuls in San
tiago are trying to prove to the commandant
the utter folly of holding out longer. The
truce is not a military one in the strict sense
of the word; we have no white flag flying,
and the Spaniards can take theirs down any
minute and open fire immediately if they
desire. So our men are wary. The com
manding officers have warned regimental
commanders to keep their men inside the rifle
pits or back under cover of the hill, for fear
the Spaniards may open up on us unex
pectedly. But not a shot has been fired to
day on either side, except a few from some
bushwhackers on the road a mile back.
Yesterday a couple of our bands played
patriotic airs because it was the "Glorious
Fourth," and every note was heard by the
Spanish soldiers.
I had the pleasure of chatting with a Span
ish officer this morning, one who spoke Eng
lish fluently. We stood near the flag of
truce, and he borrowed every one of my
precious store of matches. I had a copy of
THE RECORD in my pocket, and he grasped
it eagerly, reading and translating it aloud
to his fellow-officers. I asked him if the
army would surrender.
"No," said he, "we cannot unless we get
permission from Madrid."
"But your fleet is destroyed. Cervera is a
prisoner. There no longer is need of our
killing each other."
"That's so," he replied; "but we have been
ordered to fight to the last. I would rather
be shot by the Americans than by a pile of
Spaniards." Then we shook hands cordially
and he carried my matches, tobacco and
RECORD back to his own line.
Our men have built a strong practically
impregnable, line of works. It is said the
American intrenchments are seven miles
long. They are deep enough to permit a
man to stand almost erect when shooting
without exposing more than the top of his
head, and wide enough for a soldier to .lie
down crosswise. When Wykoff's and Haw-
kins' brigades carried the hill last Friday
they found rifle pits around the blockhouse
and to the right. In addition to these de
fenses the natural formation of the crest of
the hill and three lines of barb-wire en
tanglements made the Spanish position ex
ceedingly strong. Almost as soon as the
Spaniards had run down the hill the Ameri
cans threw up hasty intrenchments with bay
onets, tin cups, mess pans and bare hands.
That night some picks and shovels were sent
to the front, and men who had marched all
the night before and had fought all day
worked until dawn digging rifle pits. Then
the Spanish batteries opened on them, and
for nearly thirty-six hours shrapnel and
eight-inch shells burst over our boys in the
trenches, and not a man budged. Gen. Kent
sent word to the brigade commanders to
hold their lines, and the brigade commanders
passed down the line, saying: "We are
ordered to hold our lines, and we are going
to hold them."
"We will hold them," replied the men in
the trenches.
To-day one regiment hailed another with
"Are you holding your line, fellows?" Back
came the reply: "You bet we are."
Whenever a little spur juts out from the
backbone of the ridge an intrenchment has
been thrown up, and woe to any body of
Spaniards who attempt to carry such works,
for they will find themselves "crossfired" and
raked fore and aft and on each flank.
Every night the men sleep in the trenches,
with pickets thrown out from 150 to 250 yards
and sentinels posted in the pits. Just when
the east begins to show a bit of gray the
officers and men are awakened, and soon the
pickets are called in. Every eye keeps a
sharp lookout until the day is far enough
advanced to enable us to see plainly the
works of the enemy. Then a dozen or more
men are sent down the slope back of our
works to fill canteens and make coffee.
Until the works were completed the men
built bomb-proofs — little huts in the side of
the hill, covered with earth, heaped up to
form a conical roof three feet thick — and dug
trenches at night, but that work is about
over now, and the boys are devoutly thank
ful. While under fire, before the white flag
of truce was raised, the men in the trenches
lived as they could. They slept on the damp
earth without blankets, nibbled hardtack for
breakfast, chewed hardtack for dinner and
bit into it for supper, easing the operation
by swallowing tepid water. But they bore
their privations cheerfully, and the blessed
sense of humor which enables Americans to
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
111
-
MAJ.-GEN. NELSON A.
pull through a tough proposition came brave
ly to the front, and the boys "guyed" the
bursting shrapnel and the wasted Mauser
bullet, and sent all sorts of Americanisms
toward the Spaniards with every crack of the
Krag-Jorgenseu.
Sergt. Mclnerney of E company, 9th in
fantry, was peeping over the edge of the
trench Saturday morning; near him stood his
MILES AT SIBONEY.
lieutenant. The 9th had received orders from
its colonel not to fire unless so ordered.
"Lieutenant," said the sergeant, "there's
a Spaniard on a white horse, with staff offi
cers around him. I think he's a general
officer. The distance is 1,000 yards. Can I
pick him off? The word was passed along
and permission came back. Mclnerney rolled
his cartridge over his tongue (a soldier's
112
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
superstition) and loaded his rifle. Then rest
ing his rifle on the edge of the pit he aimed
and fired.
"I undershot just 100 yards/' said he,
drawing another cartridge from his mouth.
"But it didn't scare him."
When Mclnerney's rifle cracked again he
cried, "I got him," and the officer on the
white horse fell over wich a shot in hi3
shoulder. It was Gen. Linares, the Spanish
commandant.
Before Mclnerney could get under cover a
Mauser clipped the dirt an inch from his*
par. "A little too far to the right," he cried,
waving his right arm as though he were a
target-marker on a rifle range.
"That was a lulu," cried one soldier when
a ball passed through his hat, "and lulus
roost high."
"Here comes another Spanish fly," yelled
another when he heard the scream of a
shrapnel.
"Keep off that grass!" shouted a burly
colored trooper of the 9th cavalry, when he
shot into a mass of retreating Spaniards.
"Whoop! They're throwing stoves at us,"
was the remark of a veteran in the 16th,
when an unexploded 8-inch shell dug a great
hole not ten feet from him.
"Hear the yellow canaries sing!" meant
that Spanish bullets were coming thick and
fast.
"How do you like our coffee-grinder?"
was the derisive inquiry shouted after the
flying Spaniards when the Catling gun sec
tion, after a rush up the hill, unlimbered and
turned a stream of bullets loose on the re
treating enemy.
Even when the men wero failing on all
sides in the "bloody angle" soldiers bandied
jokes and exchanged the rough repartee of
the camp. A man would let fly a side re
mark intended to be funny while his lips
were white and his chin quivering with
fright.
I have asked probably 100 men if they
were frightened when they found themselves
under fire and each one assured me in em
phatic language, garnished with classical
profanity, that he was never so scared In
his life as he was last Friday morning. They
generally closed by saying: "And the man
who says he wasn't scared is a blankety
blank blank liar."
Walter R. Kitchell, well known as a young
society man in Evanston, who for year-o was
a leading spirit in the Evanston Boat club,
being stroke of a four-oared gig, and known
as "Bob" Kitchell, enlisted in the 16th in
fantry, and he was one of the first four sol
diers to reach the crest of San Juan hill.
I asked "Bob" to describe his sensations
when he found himself a mark for thou
sands of Spanish bullets.
"I was good and scared," he replied (his
captain had just said to me: "Kitchell is
one of our best men. He is a brave fellow!").
'just so long as we lay in the road with the
shrapnel bursting over us and the bullets
coming down on us from some place we
couldn't see. The mental agony was awful.
There we lay, without firing a shot, \vithout
knowing where to shoot; men being struck
on all sides; we were helpless. Then our
captain said: 'Come, men, come this way.'
And we moved down the side of the road
n column of twos. The sense of relief when
I knew we were moving was indescribable,
although we were passing through a very
hell of fire. Then we suddenly came out of
the underbrush into the open, and we looked
up and saw the line of Spanish fire, and I tell
you it was like taking a great long breath.
Then I forgot my scare, and when we were
told to go up that hill I simply kept running
forward, not even stopping to load and fire
until we were on top looking at the backs of
running Spaniards.
"In what seemed to be a minute the top of
the hill was jammed with 6th, 16th, 9th,
13th, 24th and 10th regulars and 71st New
York men, all of us pouring bullets into the
yellow canaries. That's all I can remember,
except I was so thirsty that my tongue was
covered with dust, and I didn't have a drop
of water in my canteen."
Matches are few and precious in the
trenches, and it is not uncommon for an
officer, or a man with an officer's permis
sion, to slip out of the pit, walk dowrn the
hill, 300 feet or more, light his pipe or ciga
rette and bring back the fire to his com
rades. Officers and men lie together in the
trenches, share each other's canteens, hard
tack, tobacco and lights. The relationship
between superior and subordinate becomes
very close when men face death together.
In a military post an officer, by reason of
years of precedent and t dition, is widely
separated from his men, so far as personal
relations go. hut here before Santiago, in
the trenches or under the pup tents at the
base of the hill, an officer is more of a big
brother than a commander. Most of the
post etiquette is disregarded. Nevertheless
the soldier never fails to show that his of
ficer is his commander; the officer does not.
"mix up" with his men, although he may
sleep on the ground with them- and take his
turn to light his pipe from a glowing brand.
The men seem to have unbounded personal
confidence in their officers, and they are
continually bragging of the pro\vess and
courage and dash of "my captain," "my
lieutenant" or "our colonel." On the other
hand, the officers never weary of praising the
sturdy courage and steady bravery of their
men. Say the soldiers: "We go with our of
ficers." Sav the officers: "Spain hasn't enough
men to drive our boys out of these trench
es." And thus mutual confidence, es
teem and appreciation performed almost a
miracle last Friday morning when San Juan
hill was carried by the Americans.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
113
SHRAPNEL, DYNAMITE AND SHELL.
BY KEXXETT F. HARRIS.
We are giving the enemy another chance to
surrender. He has been metaphorically on
his back all morning, either incapable of
serious retaliation or unwilling to provoke a
vigorous fire. At five-minute intervals the
American guns and mortars have been send
ing their missiles crashing into his trenches,
but it has been in a perfunctory sort of way
— a kind of gentle cuffing meant to assure
him that we retain our position on top,
rather than a desire to inflict mortal damage
upon him. The American commanders real
ize his predicament fully. They know that
he would joyfully "holler 'nuff" if he dared,
and they sympathize with him to such an
extent that they are now sending him an
other flag of truce and a message. The gen
eral tenor and effect of the message is: "Are
you ready to quit yet, or have we got to kill
a few thousand more of you to satisfy your
honor?"
The probability is that Gen. Toral will
continue to reject the proposals of uncon
ditional surrender, in which event the desul
tory bombardment will continue until the
siege guns are brought up and planted. At
present (July 11) an assault would be mad
ness, the available artillery being altogether
inadequate to the task of reducing the stone
fortifications and earthworks behind which
the Spaniards are sheltered.
The first truce ended at 4 o'clock on Sun
day afternoon. At that time Gen. Shafter
had declared the American batteries would
open fire on the city if there was no sur
render. At 3 o'clock the Spanish general sent
his reply. His choice was to fight. So the
artillerymen, who had been crouching under
shelter from the rain that was beginning to
fall, threw aside their dripping ponchos and
took up their stations by their pieces, and the
supports in the roads below moved up to the
batteries. The men in the trenches jerked
open the magazines of their rifles and threw
in the complement of bright silvery car
tridges, and their comrades of the relief, who
had been walking about in plain sight, re
tired behind the crest of the hills.
The hour arrived, but still the silence in
the opposing camps was unbroken. Five, ten,
twenty minutes passed, and not a shot was
fired. "Capron's battery must be the first,"
had been the order. "Do nothing until you
hear from Capron." The officers, no less
anxious and impatient than their men,
leveled their fieldglasses at the knoll to the
northward, where, screened by dense thicket,
Capron's battery lay. Still nothing. Was it
another truce? They looked westward,
where the outer fortifications of Santiago
stood out in bold relief against a golden
patch in the dun sky, but no cavalcade of
Spanish seekers for truce showed along the
j winding road. Ten minutes more, and from
a cloud-wrapped hill within the enemy's lines
broke a little puff of white smoke, followed
a few seconds later by the distant sound of
the report. A second and a louder report,
and a Spanish shell, sailing well over our
lines, burst harmlessly in the wooded valley
below. Our move now.
Two bright flashes and a double detona
tion from Capron, a roar from two of the
four mortars at his front; crash from Dillen-
bach's batteries on the left below El Poso
and an answering crash from the right,
where Lawton's brigade, holds the line. Then
the hoarse lowing of the shells overhead, the
sound rising to a harsh crescendo, dying
gradually away and ending in a sullen boom
beyond the walls of Santiago.
The Spanish were not terrified into silence,
but their return fire was weak and ill-di
rected. A battery they had posted well upon
the mountain side to the north opened fire,
but after two or three shots was silent,
though it was well out of range of our artil
lery. A battery opposite Gen. Wheeler's po
sition succeeded in throwing some shrapnel
below and over the trenches, but the Gatling
guns operated by Capt. Farkhurst and Sergt.
(now lieutenant) Tiffany's rapid-fire CoUs
silenced them effectively. For an hour the
cannonade was constant, battery following
battery in rapid succession. At intervals
the heavy boom from the big guns from the
fleet could be heard, and then the long cur
tain of smoke that shrouded the line would
shiver with the concussion of the air. Then
would come the sharp rattle of the Catlings,
like a stick drawn sharply along a row of
palings, and then sounds of an unusually
loud explosion in the direction of the city
would tell where a shell from the dynamite
gun had burst. About 6 o'clock the inter
vals between the shots were longer and more
frequent, and half an hour later the order to
cease firing was given.
Of the effect of the bombardment it has
been almost impossible to judge. Those
shells that fell in the trenches must inevi
tably have killed and wounded large num
bers of the enemy— if the enemy was there
to be killed. A theory that most of the
Spanish troops had been withdrawn into the
city to make their escape northward by
crossing the bay finds supporters, and it is
believed by many that the best of the artil
lery has been taken also. One of the shells
from the dynamite gun was pitched neatly
into a Spanish battery, and, it is thought
blew it up. In any case, nothing has been
heard of it since, and Sergt. Alsop Barrows
of the rough riders, who pointed the gun
is convinced that it blew up. The shells
114
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
contributed by the fleet fell in the town, and,
as nearly as could be seen, wrecked things
pretty completely where they settled. Still,
not many were fired. Tiffany's little bat
tery, in conjunction with the Gatlings
operated by Capt. Parkhurst, operated splen
didly in discouraging the Spanish gunners.
Three times from behind their earthwork
the little men in tte blue-striped coats
strove to point their field pieces at the
American trenches, and each time the long
cartridge ribbons slid and clicked into the
breeches of the Yankee guns and the bullets
flew out of the muzzles at such a rate that
panic seized upon the army and they fled
precipitately.
Nevertheless they succeeded in working
some mischief. Capt. Charles W. Rowell of
the 2d infantry, standing in the trenches,
was struck by a fragment of a shell and
killed instantly, and one of his men was so
badly wounded that he died within an hour.
Two other men were wounded. That was
the full extent of the casualties on the Amer
ican side. Gen. Lawton, who with Gen.
Breckinridge was visiting Capron's battery,
had a narrow escape from a shell which burst
within thirty feet of where he was stand
ing. There was a brisk fire from the Span
ish trenches about sunset, but nobody was
even inconvenienced.
Lieut. Henry Moore of the 2d infantry did
rather a plucky thing by advancing into the
open with a detail of men to drive back some
Spaniards who were constructing an earth
work. He succeeded in his purpose, the
enemy, with the exception of the officer di
recting their operations, beating a rapid re
treat. The officer stayed alone in the work
for two or three minutes, though he did not
disdain to duck the bullets and kept con
stantly in motion. At last he turned and
fired two shots from his revolver at Lieut.
Moore, and then walked away — very calmly,
considering the circumstances. Under cover
of night, however, the work was completed.
The cannonading recommenced at daylight
this morning and continued, in a languid
sort of way, until an hour ago, when Gen.
Shatter sent out his flag of truce. The dyna
mite gun got in a few shots, but most of
them fell short, and their only effect was to
excite a spiteful sputter of Mauser balls
from the Spanish sharpshooters.
A little while ago Barrows reported to Col.
Roosevelt that he had hit the corner of a
building and that they heard yells for five
minutes after. "Most likely they were yelling
with glee over our poor marksmanship,"
observed Col. Roosevelt, sarcastically. This
was undeserved, but the chief of the rough
riders is chafing under the delay. He does
not seem to consider that four shots an
hour are going to reduce the enemy to a state
of abject submission. His plan of battle is
beautifully simple, and so far he has found
it as efficacious in the Spanish campaign as
in municipal warfare. It is "Hit 'em, hit 'em,
hit 'em."
The rough riders glory in "Teddy." "It's
a sight to see him in a fight," said an F
troop man. "You'd think his hide was
double-chilled steel in three thicknesses, an'
that he knowed it, to watch him runnin'
around wavin' his gun to bring the boys up
and takin' a crack at the Spaniards now and
then jes' to show us how. I don't never trust
no man with gold-rimmed glasses and a
beamin' smile no more. When I seen him at
San Antonio I figgered he was raised a pet
an' wouldn't kick if you tickled his heels
with a toothpick. I wouldn't undertake to
harness him with a pitchfork."
Up to the present time the rough riders
have lost fourteen of their number killed
outright and seventy-seven wounded. Three
are missing. Dr. Henry La Motte, the chief
surgeon, was struck on the head by a spent
ball the morning after the capture of El
Caney and has been sent home. This left
Dr. James R. Church to care for the
wounded alone— a task he is struggling with
heroically, though he himself is suffering
from malarial fever.
Gen. Wheeler is still weak from the effect
of fever, but his energy is undiminished, un
conquerable. He is a little uneasy about the
Spanish army, fearing that they may escape
by the back way. "When they are so anxious
to be allowed to go," he said this morning,
"it is only reasonable to suppose that they
will go if they can without our permission."
SCHLEY'S UNFOUQHT BATTLE.
BY HENRY BARRETT CIIAMBERLIN.
Every officer and seaman in the naval service
of the United States believes, with good rea
son, that our fleet is invincible. Expert gunnery
has made it so and the quick destruction of the
Spanish squadron under Admiral Cervera has
justified the prediction of Commodore Schley
that "good gunnery is worth more than heavy
armor if a choice must be made between
the two." When the official reports are filed
at Washington and the final deductions
drawn, it will be found that the famous
engagement of July 3 was won by American
gunnery. Our fleet suffered the loss of but
one man killed and eight wounded — no ships
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
115
COMMODORE W. S. SOHLEY.
disabled — not because the Spaniards were
such poor marksmen, but rather owing to
the fact that our fire was so rapid and ac
curate that the enemy could not properly
serve its guns. Had it been otherwise some
of our ships must have suffered, and the
Brooklyn, which engaged every one of Cer-
vera's squadron, must have been seriously
crippled, if not permanently disabled or
sunk.
Every Spanish ship had orders, when the
word was given to sail from the harbor of
Santiago on that memorable Sunday morning,
to ignore, so far as possible, every American
ship but the Brooklyn. It was the intention
to sink the flagship if nothing else was ac
complished. Every Spanish ship had a chance
at the cruiser, as her scars show, but that
awful line of flame which stretched fore and
aft without cessation for an hour tells the
story of her escape from annihilation. Every
vessel of the destroyed fleet bears the marks
of shells from the Brooklyn's guns, and once
during the battle, when the Vizcaya attempt
ed to ram her, the fire was so incessant and
true that her captain was unable to stay in
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
the conning tower and ran his vessel ashore
rather than longer face such a terrible bom
bardment. Had the Brooklyn's fire been less
active she might have fallen a victim to the
enemy's attempted maneuver, the Vizcaya
being in a good position to strike her square
amidship.
So impressed are the men of our navy with
their expertness at gunnery that not a ship's
company would hesitate to attack an antag
onist no matter what the superiority of his
rate. Wainwright and the crew of the Glou
cester showed this to be true when the con
verted Corsair, former yacht of Pierpont
Morgan, added luster to naval achievement
by defeating two torpedo boats, engaging
both at the same moment and accomplishing
what theorists in the art of war have held
to be impossible.
But here is an incident which shows more
clearly than anything else just what the
navy is ready to do and how delicately bal
anced is the chip on the shoulders of our
sea fighters. When Schley had enriched our
history on July 3 and every ship in these
waters under the royal banner of Castile
had been shattered, he was sailing east to
resume station before Santiago. Word came
to him that the Pelayo, pride of the Spanish
navy, had reached the Carribean and he was
directed to engage her as soon as found. To
naval experts the suggestion that a cruiser
fight a battleship is insanity gone mad, but
nevertheless the Brooklyn started on her
errand.
Near Santiago a battleship was sighted,
heavily armored and turreted, but at such a
distance that her colors could not be dis
tinguished under the glass. Toward her
the Brooklyn started. Commodore Schley
and Capt. Cook stood on the forward bridge
as the big cruiser fairly leaped forward to
give battle.
"She is white — an unusual thing in war
time," said the commodore, watching the
stranger through his glass. "I don't believe
she is Spanish," he remarked a moment
later, and then, consulting the picture of a
sister ship to the Pelayo, suddenly ex
claimed: "By Jove! It is the Pelayo, after
all!"
"On the signal bridge!" shouted Capt.
Cook. "Can you make out her colors?"
"Not yet, sir," came the answer, followed
a moment after by: "We have raised her
colors, sir, and she is Spanish."
"Send your men to quarters, Cook," said
the commodore, "and start an eight-inch
shell for her when I give the word."
On went the Brooklyn, fast closing the dis
tance between herself and the stranger — a big
battleship of modern type and with her flag aft
— two stripes of red on each side of yellow, as
it appeared, and the crown in proper place.
The bugle sung "To quarters!" and the men,
although they had been fighting all morning,
rushed to their guns with a cheer. For a mo
ment the commodore hesitated. "On the signal
bridge!" he called. "Are you certain the
stranger is a Spaniard?"
"Certain, sir," came the reply. "I can see
her colors distinctly."
The commodore had his glasses on the bat
tleship. Turning to the captain of his ship he
said: "Cook, that fellow is not at quarters.
His guns are turned away from us. He is not
up to snuff. WTatch him closely, and the mo
ment he sends his men to quarters or moves a
turret, let drive. Give him everything you
have. We will sink him in twenty minutes,
unless he gets a shot under our belt."
Just then the officer on the bridge reported
that the battleship was signaling with the in
ternational code, and soon translated the mes
sage: "This is an Austrian battleship."
Half an hour later the commander of the
Maria Theresa (Austrian) was seated in Com
modore Schley's cabin.
"If you had sent your men to quarters or
moved a turret I should have raked you; it
was a narrow escape," said the commodore,
during the conversation. 'Your flag is so like
Spain's, saving that you have a white stripe
where she has yellow, that it is hard to tell
them apart at any considerable distance, aud
I came very near letting drive at you."
"We know that," returned the Austrian,
"and we were much worried. We signaled
long before you answered. W« had no wisn
to be troubled. We have seen the wrecks
along the coast. But," he inquired, as he
arose to leave, "do you send cruisers to meet
battleships?"
The commodore smiled as he answered:
"We always make a fight with the first ship
we have at hand. We never wait because we
are outrated. We try to win with what we
have."
"You Americans are very remarkable,"
said the Austrian, as he went over the side
to his boat.
Plans for a speedy commercial invasion of
Cuba are already being formulated by in
vestors in Jamaica, and as soon as the
United States army is actually in control of
the province of Santiago ds Cuba merchants,
manufacturers, planters and speculators will
march to the conquered portions of the isl
and. So open is the preparation and so san
guine are those interested that the United
States will retain the territory as a colonial
possession that the Cuban rsfugees in Kings
ton and Spanish Town are beginning to talk
of the prospects of an American government,
while advocates of Cuban independence in
the literal sense are already evincing an
tagonism to Americans and saying that the
conquest of the country is to prove a mere
change of dependency from Spain to the
United States.
Some of the more radical go so far as to
assert that the intent of the Americans is to
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
117
provide a political system which will, in ef
fect, disfranchise the native Cubans, mak
ing their position but little better than that
of the Indians of our own country. This ele
ment among the Cubans is even now advo
cating the desirability of prompt action on
the part of the revolutionary government,
pressing the necessity for immediately curb^
ing the desire of Americans and others to
obtain political and commercial control, and
even going so far as to hint that when the
Spaniards are driven from Cuba notice
should be served on Americans to keep their
hands off until the native government is
properly in control and prepared to admin
ister affairs.
While the English in Jamaica generally
accept as a fact and applaud the idea of Cuba
as an American colony, they are soberly re
flecting as to the effect it may have upon
British possessions in the West Indies.
Jamaica is practically dependent upon the
United States. Her commerce with us is
large and her fruit trade is almost exclusive
ly with us. Cuba as an American colony
might leave Jamaica in a state of commer
cial coma.
As an example. The Boston Fruit company
at Port Antonio practically supports the town
and surrounding country- It sends steamers
loaded with bananas, cocoanuts, oranges and
limes to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and
Baltimore almost every day in the week. It
circulates more money than any other con
cern in the island, controlling vast fruit
estates and employing thousands of people.
Already this company is anticipating a
movement to Cuba. It has purchased and
secured options upon an immense acreage in
that island, and expects to begin a transfer
of its business just as soon as the conditions
will permit. The loss to Jamaica in this
instance alone will be incalculable, as this
market cannot compete with the Cuban, pro
vided an advantage in customs dues is af
forded the latter.
LIFE ON A TORPEDO BOAT.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
Fat men are not wanted aboard torpedo
boats, nor men who tower head and shoul
ders above the average crowd. Space is so
valuable on one of these little marine sprint
ers that the cook sleeps in the pantry and the
men have to go ashore to salute their offi
cers. The torpedo boat consists of an en
gine out of all proportion to the craft it
drives, a powerful propeller, three or four
Whitehead torpedoes and a hull, covered
with a turtle back, just wide enough to
carry essentials and long enough to get the
greatest speed possible from the engine and
propeller. This hull is of steel only three-
eighths of an inch thick, and it is pushed
through the water at the rate of thirty to
thirty-seven miles an hour — the speed of an
express train.
The torpedo flotilla in the war fleet lying
off Key West is a little fleet of itself, com
manded by Lieutenant-Commander W. W.
Kimball. It consists of the Foote, Lieut. W.
L. Rogers commanding, Ensign R. H. Jack
son; the Gushing, Lieut. A. Gleaves com
manding, Ensign F. P. Baldwin; the Erics
son, Lieut. R. N. Usher commanding, Passed
Assistant Engineer O. W. Koester, Ensign
L. A. Bostwick; the Winslow, Lieut. J. B.
Bernadeu commanding, Ensign W. Bagley;
the Porter, Lieut. J. C. Fremont command
ing, Assistant Surgeon M. S. Elliott (for the
flotilla), Ensign I. V. Gillis; the Dupont,
Lieut. S. S. Wood commanding, Ensign F. H.
Clarke, Jr.
There are six torpedo boats, any one of
which is capable of sending to the bottom
the strongest, stanchest, largest ship in the
fleet, and any one of which will curl up like
hot paper if the gunner of a six-pounder
draws a bead on it and sends a few armor-
piercing six-pound shells into it. The men
who serve on these little marine porcupines
with their explosive quills are not paid extra
money, as their class in some of the foreign
navies are rewarded for the extra-hazardous
duty, but there is an eager rivalry to draw a
billet on a torpedo boat. The space restric
tions, nature of duty and character of the
boat make it impossible to maintain on a
torpedo boat the rigid discipline of a battle
ship or cruiser, both as regards uniforms and
the thousand and one details incident to the
daily routine of a large warship.
Torpedo-boat crews are made up of picked
men, especially selected as to physique and
character. Their uniform is not white and
natty, but consists of a knit watch cap and
a suit of blue Dungoree. The men at a
short distance look like high-priced ma
chinists in a first-class railroad shop, for
mechanics and machinists wear jumpers and
overalls made of blue Dungoree. But the
men aboard a torpedo boat are active as
cats, alert and enthusiastic, and from their
118
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
hearts believe a torpedo boat, and the iden
tical torpedo boat on which they sail, is the
greatest war vessel afloat.
Torpedo boats are divided into three
classes. The third class now is considered
obsolete. They were small enough to be
carried aboard a ship, for they were thirty-
tonners. The second class were about sixty-
jive tons. They were intended for harbor
service only, and were not sea-going. The
first-class boats are sea-going craft, but are
intended to operate from a base, for the coal
and water storage capacity is limited. This
precludes a torpedo boat from cruising more
than seventy-five to eighty miles from its
base of supplies.
First-class boats vary in tonnage from 115
to 175 tons, in length from 140 to 190 feet and
in draught from five to eight feet. They are
perfectly seaworthy and can ride out the
heaviest gales. But there is no sleep aboard a
torpedo boat in rough weather, for it pitches
rolls and prances around to a degree which
gives every man under the closed hatches an
acute attack of insomnia. The armament con
sists of three to four 18-inch Whitehead tor
pedoes and three or four one-pounder rapid-
firing guns. In addition there is a revolver
and two or three rifles for each of the twen
ty-two to thirty men, the rifles supplied with
sword bayonets to repel boarders.
The Gushing is one of the best known of
the torpedo boats in the navy. It has the
longest cruising record and is known all the
way from Galveston to Bath, Me. Its engines
of 1,820 horse-power, can drive it 23 knots (a
knot is one and one-sixth miles) an hour. To
do this its twin screws, each 4 feet 2 inches In
diameter with a pitch of 8 feet 4 inches, must
make 450 revolutions a minute. Each of its
engines has five cylinders, increasing in di
ameter from 11 y2 inches for the high-pres
sure cylinder to 22^2 inches for the low-pres
sure cylinder, with a stroke of 15 inches. Each
of the two water-tube boilers has 950 tubes.
Steam is used at a pressure of 250 pounds to
the square inch (100 pounds is a good pres
sure on an ordinary boiler) and the boilers
develop 1,820 horse-power.
Coal economy doesn't enter into the opera
tion of torpedo boats. They are like fire en
gines — when needed expense is no object. But
on an economical speed of 11.3 knots an hour
the Gushing consumes but five tons of coal a
day, and her bunkers can carry thirty-nine
tons. When running at maximum speed the
stokers must shovel nearly five tons of coal
an hour into the boiler fires.
But two officers are required on a torpedo
boat. In the flotilla there is a surgeon and a
passed assistant engineer, but they might be
called "fleet" officers. The commander of a
torpedo boat is a lieutenant of the line, and
his assistant generally is an ensign. The
lieutenant is called captain on the boat he
commands.
Life aboard a torpedo boat in fair weather
is as cozy as existence in a five-room flat. On
the Cushing Capt. Gleaves and Ensign Bald
win have snug quarters in the after part or
the boat. Folding bunks, which are laid up
against the sides of the room like the upper
berths of a sleeping car, are separated by
curtains when down for the night. With
bunks and curtains out of the way, there is a
tight, tidy room, with leather-covered divans
running around it, suspended lamps and elec
tric lights over a square reading table, a
folding desk for the captain, some easy
chairs and a stub-tailed dog.
Leading aft from the captain's quarters is
the pantry, in v/hich the cook sleeps, over a
box of fixed ammunition for the one-pound
ers. Up against the wall of the captain's
quarters are two innocent cupboard boxes;
in one are the wet and in the other, which is
on the opposite wall, are the dry gun-cotton
primers. There is enough explosive force in
each box to blow the whole internal economy
of the Cushing all over Key West.
Forward of the aft conning tower is a small
square compartment, occupied by the four
chief petty officers — the chief gunner's mate,
the gunner's mate, first-class, and two-chief
machinists. Forward of that is the after fire-
room, containing the after boiler; next
comes the miniature engine room, its two en
gines filling it almost entirely; then the for
ward fireroom; then comes the galley, the
kitchen of the boat, and the ship's nose, in
which are berths and hammocks for th*
eighteen men who compose the rest of the
crew. Half the crew belong to the engineer's
force, for the entire boat is but a mobile
machine, and is filled with machinery
and intricate mechanism. The magazine i«
under the after conning tower. In it ar*
stored the ammunition of revolvers, rifles
and rapid-firing guns, and in times of peace
the war heads of the Whitehead torpedoes
each war head containing seventy pounds of
gun cotton. But there are now no war heads
in the magazines of the torpedo flotilla.
Each is on the business end of a cigar-
shaped steel cylinder, which is stowed away
in a torpedo tube, ready to be sent on its
frightful errand.
Of more than ordinary interest are the six
young ensigns who are billeted on the six
torpedo boats, for they are the men who
will start torpedoes toward a Spanish
man-of-war if the dons and Yankees ever
"mix up." No range-finders or spiderweb
sights are used to draw a bead on a hostile
warship from the deck of a torpedo boat.
The sighting is done with the eye of judg
ment and experience gained from practice.
It is an exaggerated case of wing-shooting,
for when the torpedo is launched the boat
is traveling rapidly, and the ensign, hanging
over the off side of the boat, sights his big
prey much as a duck hunter brings his shot
gun to bear on a winging mallard.
When a torpedo boat goes into action
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
110
POLISHING THE PROPELLER OP A TORPEDO
[From a photograph bv James Langland.]
everybody is ordered below except the man
at the torpedo tube and the executive of
ficer, who "sights" the self-moving missile.
The captain is in the forward conning tower.
The engineer and his crew are in the fire
and engine rooms. The cook stands ready
to hand up ammunition for the one-pound
ers. There is 250 pounds pressure of steam
in the boilers. The engine is spinning the
propeller wheel around 450 times a minute.
Not a light is seen on the boat, and it drives
straight through the night toward the black
shape which sweeps the water with the
luminous fingers of the electric searchlight,
feeling for just such deadly pests as a tor
pedo boat. The little craft has no puffing
steam to betray it, for every bit of steam
goes to the condenser, to return as water to
the trembling boilers.
The captain in the conning tower steers
the torpedo boat on a course which brings
it in line with the forward quarter of the
ship he is after. On the turtle-back deck
the two men crouch — the ensign on the side
farthest from the ship and the gunner at the
torpedo tube, training it as directed. When
within 500 yards one torpedo is launched;
the boat sheers around, and as she points
directly at the ship she sends out her bow
torpedo, if she has one, as the Gushing has.
By this time the boat is within 300 or 200
yards of the ship, and as she swings around
to show her stern to the ship she sends out
the torpedo on the other side. Then the lit
tle craft gives a leap and scuds away for
dear life. That is, if no dazzling electric
beam discloses her and holds her in the full
radiance of the searchlight. Then the rapid-
firing guns on the warship spit out explosive
shells, and if enough hit the mark the
chances are that torpedo boat will not fire
any more Whiteheads. An impression
has gone abroad that a torpedo is shot
under water. The fact is the torpedo is
ejected from a tube which is mounted on a
standard bolted to the deck. The tube may be
swung around and has a vertical motion, so
that the inclination may be varied. The tor
pedo is ejected by a charge of four ounces of
black powder, just enough to throw the auto
mobile projectile into the water. When once
in the sea the screw propeller drives it to
the mark at the rate of twenty-nine knots — •
nearly thirty four miles — an hour.
The Whitehead torpedo has a shape some
what like a Londres cigar. It is 11 feet 8
inches long, and, to be exact, 17.7 inches at
its greatest diameter. When loaded it weighs
180
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
839 pounds. The shell is of steel, and is built
up in five sections. Propulsion is effected by
compressed air, 7,154 cubic feet of which are
stored up in the "air flask" under the
enormous pressure of 1,350 pounds to the
square inch. Although built up in five sec
tions, the torpedo is divided into three parts —
the head, or the exploding end; the "air
flask," the central part, and the "after body,"
in which is the propelling and steering ma
chinery.
There are two heads — the "exercise" head
and the "war" head — and they are inter
changeable. The exercise head is used for
practice; it is of steel and is ballasted with
lead and water. The war head is made of
phosphor bronze and contains ninety pounds
of wet gun cotton and a "primer case" for
the dry gun-cotton primer. The "war nose,"
which contains the firing mechanism, occu
pies the forward end of the primer case.
While the principal object in "firing" a tor
pedo is to blow up a hostile ship, it is equally
important to prevent the torpedo exploding
near the torpedo boat. So the firing mechan
ism performs a double service. It keeps the
torpedo a harmless shell until it is at least
seventy-five yards from the launching point,
and it explodes the gun cotton when the war
nose rubs up against the bottom of the
enemy's ship. The device which does this is
regulated by a small four-bladed screw-fan
on the extreme bow point of the war nose.
The fan is revolved by the resistance of the
water as the steel fish darts ahead. When
the prescribed distance is covered the
mechanism driven by the screw fan sets the
"firing pin" in a position to strike the de
tonating cap of the primer case when the
torpedo comes in contact with the target.
Air pipes lead from the air flask to the
engine and suitable valves reduce the storage
pressure to the required working pressure.
The "engine room" of the torpedo contains
the main or driving engine, the "valve
group," the "steering engine" and sinking
and locking gears. The ingenuity displayed
in condensing and compressing this nested
mechanism so that it has working room in
the torpedo seems little short of marvelous
when it is remembered that the indicated
horse-power of the engine is sixty. The en
gine is a three-cylinder single acting one, the
cylinders arranged around the crank shaft
at an angle of 120 degrees apart. The engine
begins working at low speed, while the tor
pedo is in the air between the ejecting tube
and the water. But the instant the shell
enters the water a steel flap is swept back
ward by the resistance of the water, and the
throttle is thrown wide open.
The torpedo is driven by two two-bladed
twelve-inch propellers — one is keyed to the
main shaft and the other to a hollow shaft.
By means of bevel gears these screws are re
volved in opposite directions, and other
things being equal the torpedo is kept on a
straight course without the use of vertical
rudders.
By a combination of horizontal rudders, a
pendulum and a hydrostatic piston, too com
plicated to describe without the use of un
familiar technical terms, the torpedo can be
made to swim horizontally at a required
depth, generally five feet below the surface.
Provision is made to sink a torpedo carry
ing a war head, in case it misses its mark, for
if left to float around a friendly ship might
foul it and never know what it struck. So
holes are bored in the walls of the buoyancy
chamber. During a run little or no water
enters the holes, but when the torpedo stops
the water fills the chamber, the torpedo sinks
and $2,500 is lost.
ON THE EVE OF BATTLE.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
The Asiatic squadron is getting ready for I
war.
When the McCulloch left Singapore we had
department cable orders to hurry on to Hong- J
kong and join the fleet under Admiral Dewey. ,
Consequently Capt. Hodgson pushed her all
the way up, and the ship trembled so from |
the jar of the engines that it was almost im
possible to draw or write. We made an aver- j
age of 13.6 knots coming up, which means
over sixteen miles an hour. The instructions
were to avoid Spanish ports and war vessels
during our trip up the China sea, and the
fact that we passed comparatively close to
the Philippines gave the last five days a con
siderable interest, especially as no one knew
whether or not war had been declared. Every
vessel we saw was studied anxiously until
her identity was established.
The first three days were rough, and the
speed of this small ship battling against the
big waves kept a procession of heavy seas
piling over the forward part of the ship.
Of course we were all very eager to hear
the news at Hongkong, for we expected that
the crisis had been reached.
Since our arrival here last Sunday there
has been the greatest activity among the
American warships. Last Monday, April 18,
the situation at Washington seemed so criti
cal that orders were signahd from the flag
ship Olympia commanding that no shore
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
121
ADJUSTING MOTOR MECHANISM OF A TORPEDO.
[From a photograph by James Langland. 1
liberty be granted and that the ships must
be ready to go to sea on the shortest notice.
Early Tuesday morning the work of painting
the squadr.on a battle color was begun. This
color is a dark drab or gray, contrasting very
slightly from the color of the deep-sea water,
and is intended to render the vessels as in
conspicuous as possible. In the civil war the
blockade runners used nearly the same color.
By 10 o'clock the Boston had put a coat of
paint on every spar and boat and mast and
funnel, as well as the entire hull itself, there
by absolutely changing the ship in appear-
ace in less than four hours. During the
day the McCulloch, which has now become
one of the squadron here, completed her
painting, and before night the Raleigh and
Concord and Petrel were transformed. The
flagship Olympia remained white until the
last, but by Wednesday she became one of
the "gray squadron."
The Baltimore had been expected on
Wednesday with a cargo of ammunition, but
on account of very heavy weather outside
she was delayed until yesterday, the 22d.
About 7 o'clock in the morning she entered
the harbor and an hour later came to anchor.
The work of distributing the cargo of ammu
nition will be begun to-day. Her arrival
makes the list of available fighting vessels
in these waters complete, as the Monocacy,
which is stationed now at Shanghai, is hardly
thought to be serviceable in a battle. The
fleet now includes the Olympia, Baltimore,
Boston, Raleigh, Concord, Petrel and McCul
loch, and the two cargo ships Zafiro and
Nanshan, purchased by Admiral Dewey for
$54,000. When the squadron leaves this port,
which it may do before any declaration of
war is made public, it will proceed to some
bay on the China coast and go through neces
sary naval tactics for a day or two. Then
the ships will proceed to Manila and begin
the work of destroying the Spanish fleet and
capturing the valuable supply of coal which
is stored there.
In the action, if one takes place, it is un
derstood that the Olympia, Baltimore, Boston
and Raleigh will take the front line, the
Concord and Petrel supporting it in the rear.
The McCulloch will guard the cargo boats
and be held as a reserve. She is insufficiently
armed to be a good fighting boat, as her gun*
consist of only four six-pounders, Hotchkiss
rapid-firing guns, and she'has no armor. Her
crew is small and the probable use she will
be put to will be dispatch-boat work and feel
ing for torpedoes. It is possible she may be
used for the latter purpose on account of her
light draught.
122
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
COMMODORE. DEWEY'
FLAGSHIP, OLYMPIA, SIGNALING TO THE SQUADRON THAT
WAR HAD BEEN DECLARED.
The German warship Kaiserin Augusta
probably will go to Manila with the Ameri
can fleet, to be on hand to protect German
residents at Manila. It is understood that
an English ship will also accompany the fleet
for the purpose of similarly guarding the
British residents.
There are now living in Hongkong about
forty native Philippine islanders, who were
leaders in the rebellion and who were bought
off by the Spanish government for $400,000.
This sum was paid them to surrender their
arms and cease fighting. The arms were sur
rendered and the leaders were paid and
shipped to Hongkong. The money is now in
a Hongkong bank here, and is tied up in liti
gations among themselves. In the meantime,
the profession of leadership having proved to
be so remunerative, other leaders have suc
ceeded them on the islands, and it is said
that 8,000 natives are only waiting the ar
rival of the American fleet to descend on
Manila in all their force. About 8,000 Span
ish soldiers are located in Manila, but much
resistance can hardly be expected of them.
An entire company brought from Spain de
serted only a short time ago and joined the
rebels. The rest have been denied their pay
since April 1, and are said to be discontented.
It is said that an awful massacre will take
place when the rebels descend on the city.
At present the rebels hold nearly all points
in the islands except the city of Manila and
some smaller ports. The forty rebel leaders
will return to the Philippine islands if war
is declared between Spain and the United
States and resume their fighting against
Spain in spite of the fact that they have sold
out.
There is lots of gossip here in the fleet
about the probable outcome of the assault on
Manila by the American forces. Reports
have come from Manila of such varying col
ors that there is room for a good deal of
speculation. It is said that the Spanish ships
will not attempt open resistance, but will
scatter among the small islands and elude
the Americans, only showing themselves
when a chance to take a single American
ship is seen. In this way it is thought that
they could not be very troublesome. It is
also said that they have not sunk torpedoes
or mines in the harbor there because they
would not be able to do that in less than a
year, and besides they have not got the
money. In regard to the ships stationed
there, it is said that they are poorly manned,
and that the largest one, the Reina Cristina,
has not been in dry dock for two years and
that she is in great need of repairs. Some
of the American officers prophesy that not a
gun will be fired, while others more con
servatively prefer to look forward to a hot
and stubborn fight.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
At any rate, preparations in the fleet will
be based on the latter assumption. Every
day there is a succession of drills on all the
ships and at night there are signal drills
with searchlights and colored lights. The
sight of half a dozen searchlights whipping
across the sky and traveling up and down
the side of the peaks here is a beautiful and
memorable one.
The news came day before yesterday that
President McKinley had issued an ultimatum
giving Spain forty-eight hours to begin to
leuve Cuba. Consequently it may be reason
ably expected that by to-morrow the answer
to the ultimatum will arrive. Rumors come
every day of sensational blockades being es
tablished at Havana, and that the Spanish
Meet has left Manila for the western coast
of America.
This is considered a bad time for opera
tions in the China sea, as the southwest
monsoon is now coming on and the season
of hurricanes is at hand. A fearful gale was
blowing night before last and all day yester
day, making shipping even in the harbor
dangerous and the usual traffic by small
boats impossible.
The bubonic plague is now raging here
and in Canton. In Hongkong there are about
twenty deaths a day. In Canton three nights
ago I saw a long Chinese procession going to
a temple to invoke the joss to suppress the
plague. They had all kinds of banners and
beat gongs and exploded firecrackers. As I
went into the native prison a body was car
ried out, which was an evidence of some
epidemic. It was thrown in a rough sack
and carried by two men. In the bay of Hcng-
kong as our ship passed out there was the
body of a small child floating in the water.
It had evidently been dead some time, and
no attempt was made by the passing boats
to pick it up. A ship came in port two days
ago from Bangkok with cholera on board.
Thirty people died on the ship.
News comes to-day that Havana harbor
has been blockaded, and that practically
settles the question in the minds of the naval
officers here. I understand from the fleet
paymaster that we leave here Monday for a
bay about thirty-five miles north, to ma
neuver. United States Consul Williams,
from Manila, comes Monday, and it will be
necessary to see him before a leave is taken
for the Philippines. He will have valuable
information about the force there.
GLIMPSES OF A BELEAGUERED CITY.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
The truce — or more properly the suspension
of hostilities by mutual agreement — was to
have expired at noon to-day. But the Span
ish within the intrenchments at Santiago sent
in at the last moment a proposal of surren-
der, and the truce was extended. With the
purpose of the proposal and with all the facts
concerning it every one must be quite fa
miliar now. To-night we await the instruc
tions from Washington that will decide the
fate of Gen. Linares and his army. Our
men, thoroughly seasoned to war, are lying
by their guns, eager to push forward and
complete the work set before them when they
were disembarked in Cuba.
But the time of waiting is not being lost.
•To-day I went 10 the extreme outposts on the
right of our position, now held by the insur
gents under Gen. Garcia, and I was impressed
as never before with the strength of our lines
and the utter hopelessnes of the cause of the
Spanish within Santiago. The eight days that
have passed since our troops drove back the
enemy from the hills about Santiago at such
awful cost have been used to some advantage,
if not the best, in making the position almost
impregnable. Each day a regiment or battal
ion has been a little advanced, a battery lo
cated or an intrenchment made more formi
dable.' This work has been done for the most
part at night, to avoid drawing the enemy's
fire, so that if he went to bed discouraged the
sight to greet him when he arose would not
be of a kind to put him in good spirits. This
morning he awoke to find that the whole line
of earthworks, wherever it is not concealed,
was piled with sandbags, a perfect protection
against shells and bullet fire, and affording at
the same time convenient portholes through
which the men behind them can fire with the
least possible exposure of their bodies.
This was a part of what I could see and
appreciate, very nearly, I have no doubt, as
a Spaniard in the trenches opposite me must
do, when I was with Gen. Garcia this after
noon. It shows extreme confidence in him
that it has been given him to hold and defend
this position of utmost tactical importance.
It is known that he asked the privilege of
leading the assault on San Juan and El Caney
on July 1, and was refused. It has been
hinted his present service was allowed as a
form of palliation.
This position now held by the Cubans is
upon the crest of the last wave of undulating
foothills that roll down from the lofty Sierra
Maedras range. Between them and the con
fines of the city, two miles away, there is a
sweeping valley, dotted here and there with
trees, but for the most part tilled land or
meadows. Not more than 1,500 yards from
Garcia's extreme right is the shore of tie
124
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
harbor of Santiago — by only so much space
does the investment at this moment lack of
being a completed line of guns and rifle
pits. There is everything to indicate that
the position is secure from attack, and if the
Cubans should prove to be good marksmen
they probably could prevent a formidable
force from passing this open space, it being
easily within the range of their guns.
Standing upon these commanding hilltops,
one seemed to look into the beleagured city
through the skylights. In fact, this is not a
climate for skylights, and really it is possible
to see only countless roofs and red tiles
thrown together helter-skelter, with not a
distinguishable line to indicate the locality of
street or thoroughfare. In one place, near
the center of this indistinguishable mass, the
monotony is relieved by two tall and stately
Spanish towers. Even from where I stood
they seemed stained and grimy. But they
are majestic blocks, superb, massive senti
nels standing at either side of the great open
portal to the cathedral. A more modern
church building, with newer tiles and cleaner
paint, thrusts up its tower not far away,
but though the fine old lines of Spanish ar
chitecture are imitated, a weaker hand
turned the task, and it is puny and trivial.
One feels instinctively that one sees here
represented the old Spain and the new.
Looking toward the harbor, which lies di
rectly southward, the view is uninterrupted
for its entire length, and is checked only by
the high promontory upon which Morro cas
tle stands. Now it is possible for me to
understand the insuperable difficulties of
making a forced entrance. The lofty point
upon which Morro stands folds back upon
a correspondingly high promontory on the
west shore, completely locking the channel.
In front of the passage where it turns into
the harbor stands Cayo Smith, steep and for
midable, and just the place for a battery to
deliver a raking fire head on upon an en
croaching vessel. Cevera could not have
chosen a place where he could be more se
cure from attack, and he would be there still
had not the army smoked him out.
But the harbor is almost vacant now. Two
large merchantmen with black hulls float at
anchor, and another lies at the wharf. Still
another vessel, a white hull not unlike the
Spanish steamers engaged in West Indies
trade, lies close to the shore at the head of
the harbor. All the vessels seem abandoned.
No smoke comes from their funnels. The
Cubans tell me the Spanish commander has
impressed every sailor left in port and set
him in the trenches.
But all of Santiago is now at arms in the
trenches. There is no life discernible else
where. The eye searches in vain for a moving
figure along the water front, by the wharves
which were the center of the community's
thrift and business not many months ago, at
the open portal of the cathedral, about the
deserted locomotive roundhouse at the city's
edge and on the broad yellow highway wind
ing down beside us into the city. It is pos
sible to see only a few men in groups upon
the intrenchments beneath us. Here, it
would seem, "Spanish honor" is determined
to be satisfied; and yet, if I may judge any
thing from the stories told by Spanish pris
oners and deserters, the men upon whom the
burden of the penalty will fall are heartily
sick of the whole business. A good meal
and the assurance that they are not to be
put to death is much dearer to them than
Spanish honor. One cannot blame the poor,
ignorant fellows; they must realize that they
are overpowered, if not outnumbered, and
that if their commanders insist upon further
hostilities a plunging fire from our works
above them must result in slaughtering them
like rats in a basket.
"Americanos fight like Turks," say these
thin, blue-gingham clad fellows when we
talk to them. "They fire, then they come
right on and never stop."
It has been said frequently that if the ad
vance of our men had not been checked on
July 1 they would have driven the enemy
into Santiago and taken the city. The Span
ish army was at the time badly demoralized,
and some persons from Santiago say that
after being driven from San Juan there was
no more fight left in the Spanish troops; that
they ran back to the town trembling with
fear. There may be an atom of truth in this
report, but I am convinced our thinned ranks
would have had some difficulty in breaking
the last line of defepnse, in which the enemy
now stands at bay. The wise move was made
when that wiry and valiant soldier, Gen. Joe
Wheeler, and one or two other officers said
"Stay," and, though some counseled retreat
to the position of the morning, insisted that
the position captured was the one that should
be held, and they were well able to hold it,
though it cost Gen. Linares 500 men the
night before Cervera deserted him to learn
our army meant to release nothing they had
got and paid for with blood.
From where I stood this afternoon I could
see these lines from our extreme left, toward
the high hills that extend along the sea-
coast to Morro, to the extreme right. They
are naturally irregular, for they follow the
contour of the hills. But wherever they go
is a narrow ribbon of yellow earth upon the
green grass. Where the face* of the hill is
smooth, as at San Juan, the strategical cen
ter, the line makes a clean curve over the
crest, running away down the slopes on
either hand. Elsewhere there are sharp,
claw-like spurs shooting out over a point
that affords a chance to enfilade the enemy.
For three miles north and south these in
sidious fortifications spread about the enemy.
They suggest the arms of a huge spraw
ling cuttlefish, the fort at San Juan, .with
its peaked top, being the diminutive head of
the monster.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
125
Gen. Shafter was able to go to the front
last Thursday, and this was the first oppor
tunity of viewing the works. He is still very
lame from gout, and moans painfully, but
everything along the fighting line has since
shown the good results of the personal atten
tion of the commanding general. The men
are now getting rations regularly, and in
consequence are in infinitely better spirits.
It is a happy change, and the morale of this
courageous, spirited army has been improved
immensely.
• "Merci!" exclaimed a little woman, a fugi
tive from Santiago, talking in her own lan
guage to a friend beside her, as they passed a
squad of tanned and bearded cavalrymen in
the road. "What great men; what big, fat
horses; they could eat our people alive."
So, indeed, our men seem beside the small
Spaniards arid emaciated Cubans. Some
times I have thought we are again doing
what our cousins the Visigoths did in Spain.
An inferior race is meeting constant defeat
at the hands of a superior.
SUNDAY IN CAHP AT CHICKAMAUQA,
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
Eight thousand soldiers, artillerymen, cav
alrymen and infantry, the pride of the army,
the admiration of the nation, were in camp
in the great Chickamauga park when the
trumpets sung retreat to-night. Maj.-Gen.
John R. Brooke has established headquarters
in the field, brigades are being formed, and
to-morrow's reveille will warn the troops
that the rigorous duties of the biggest camp
of instruction since the time when Bragg and
Rosecrans faced their men in a terrible death
struggle on this very ground are begun.
Fifty thousand visitors have spent Sunday
on the reservation. Union and confederate
veterans have exchanged fraternal greetings,
fought again the fight of those bloody days
of September, '63, and told of deeds of won
derful heroism and unequaled bravery.
Then the wearers of blue and gray have
shaken hands and with brimming eyes, with
voices that rang with patriotism, vowed to
each other loyalty to the flag of a people
united to preserve it unsullied from defeat.
Young officers barely graduated from West
Point, old soldiers who have spent their lives
on the plains, younger ones whose knowledge
of the civil war came from school histories,
all these have to-day 'been interested stu
dents of the historic field. They 'have read
the records of courage told in iron and stone
at the points where brother fought against
brother. They have marveled at what now
seems impossible. They have had their blood
stirred at the relation of stories told by men
who were factors in the conflict. The regi
mental bands have played solemn anthems,
national airs and thrilling marches. The
whole atmosphere has breathed with en
thusiastic patriotism. It is the very essence
of being on the national battlefields of old
Georgia, and the fighting men of the country
are under its spell.
From Chattanooga and back in Tennessee
for fifty miles people have been pouring
toward Chickamauga. Trains with excur
sionists from Cincinnati, Nashville, Hunts-
ville, Atlanta, Knoxville and Memphis have
j unloaded at this place, and the government
i road between Tennessee and Georgia has
1 been crowded, packed and jammed with
civilians and soldiers. Every vehicle in the
city has been in service to-day. A thousand
wheelmen have pumped their machines over
the hills. Elegant carriages of the aristocracy
have mixed with the queer mule wagons of
the negroes. Cavalry squadrons have gal
loped through Rossville gap in heavy order.
Batteries of light artillery have pursued at
a breakneck pace. Wagon trains have filled
the turnpike from dawn until dusk. Aids
and orderlies have dashed along Lafay
ette road as furiously as did their prede
cessors when messages to Missionary ridge
were marked "rush." Country people in
wagons built a score of years ago have urged
their tired, unwilling horses to scenes of
activity and confusion. And there old people
have cried as they looked and were reminded
of the days when they were vitally inter
ested. The battle monuments were sacred to
them. They thought of the fifty-nine com
mands which Tennessee had in the fight of
years ago, fifty-seven of them heroes in gray,
two regiments gallant wearers of the blue.
Maj.-Gen. Brooke, wearing the service uni
form of a general officer, was actually in the
field to-day. His twenty-three-foot Sibley
tent went into place at first mess-call this
morning. It faces east, overlooking the
famous Dyer field, and here the troops will
drill.
On the commanding general's right is the
I tent of Gen. Sheridan, adjutant-general of
this army corps. To the north Capt. Rich
ards, chief of staff, is quartered, and then
comes the canvas shelter of Lieuts. Dean
j and McKenna. Quartermasters, commissa
ries, medical, signal and ordnance officers
have their appointed places, while to the
rear is the tentage to be occupied by the
clerks and other attaches of the official
family. Pacing slowly back and forth is a
gigantic sentinel with ebon skin, one of the
i men of Col. Burt's command. As he glances
120
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
CL.
THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
to the west he sees Lytle hill, and looks with
reverence upon the monument marking the
spot where Brig.-Gen. William H. Lytle,
United States volunteers, commanding the
1st brigade of Sheridan's division, gave his
life just as the sun reached the meridian on
Sept. 20, 1863, in order to insure the freedom
of the black man, and gave him the right
to wear the uniform of his country.
All day long Capt. Daniel McCarthy, field
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
127
quartermaster from Fort Sheridan, has been
riding about. He is working hard these days
and is one of the busiest men on the field.
He has exchanged his natty uniform for a
dress which betokens service, and the ha
bitual cigar has been traded for a short brier
pipe. A tobacco bag dangles from his right
wrist, and "he is prepared to refill his bowl
while at a gallop. To-night he is working in
his tent by candle light. "Taps" are sounded
from the cavalry camp and the deeper-toned
trumpets of the artillery are ordering "lights
out," but the quartermaster pays no atten
tion. He must be ready for 2,000 more men
in the morning, and his ingenuity is being
taxed to accomplish this task. The govern
ment has failed to send enough quartermas
ters, and as a result Col. Lee and Capt.
McCarthy are doing double duty without ade
quate supplies. Some of the soldiers are
grumbling, but their complaints are good
natured and they are promised the comforts
of a modern camp within a day or two.
At the north end of the immense acreage
named after the renegade tribe of the Cher
okee nation is quartered the artillery. The
Bedford stone memorial to the 88th Indiana
infantry marks the entrance to the camp
which occupies McDonald's field, the field of
confusion on the second day of the battle of
Chickamauga, where union and confederate
soldiers were tangled in deadly embrace. It
was here that Illinois planted her batteries
and had a duel with the guns of a sister
state, the firing distance between opponents
being but 500 yards.
The artillerymen are dressed for business.
The field dress has replaced the ordinary
service uniform. Blouses have been rele
gated to the tents, and the blue flannel shirts
are worn when the "assembly" is sounded.
The long rifles are in "park," but even the
coverings fail to entirely shroud their deadly
length, and the visitors shudder when they
think what happened here when the old-
fashioned cannons were used, and speculate
as to fatalities should these movable vol
canoes begin to send forth their destructive
steel.
Almost four miles away is the cavalry
camp. Marking the position of Armstrong's
confederate brigade is the Tennessee monu
ment, where a bronze cavalryman stands at
guard to remind all who pass that that state
had heroes in two great armies, that For
rest's cavalry corps had once charged along
the path, and that three confederate and one
union general had sacrificed their lives for
their cause.
Before the troopers' camp is reached a
road turning to the east leads to the house
of Widow Glenn, where Rosecrans had his
headquarters, and Gen. Arthur C. Ducat of
Chicago, then a lieutenant-colonel of volun
teers, served as inspector-general of the
army. The turn is marked by a stone which
tells that the Chicago board of trade battery
gave a good account of itself that day, and
100 sons of Illinois gave their lives with their
faces to the foe.
Farther along is the infantry camp, with
the black veterans of Col. "Andy" Burt, 25th
United States infantry, guarding the en
trance. A famous soldier is the colonel, and
in a day or two he will have command of an
infantry brigade made up of the 7th, 8th,
12th and 25th regiments. His command is
the most picturesque in camp, the men are
giants in stature and the discipline is rigid.
The colonel loves the men and the men re
turn the compliment by adoring the colonel.
But there is more than admiration back of
it all, for its fighting record is unsurpassed
in the army.
It is progressive, too, is this Nubian bat
talion. The trumpeters can blow the Morse
telegraphic alphabet and send messages along
the line effectively, whether the day is still
or the noise of battle drowns the sound of
the human voice. Every man knows the
torch and flag signals; every one can read
and write, and not one would miss a man if
instructed to put a bullet into him at 1,000
yards distance. The colonel came from Ohio
as a private soldier and fought at Chicka
mauga. He won his "eagles" by hard work
and meritorious service, and is as busy with
his command to-day as when a subaltern
lieutenant. He is proud of the fact that six
of the nine general officers of the army com
manded colored troops — Maj.-Gen. Miles and
Maj.-Gen. Merritt and Brig.-Gens. Shatter,
Wade, Merriam and Otis.
An incident which happened in Chatta
nooga to-day tells something of the personnel
of the men of the 25th. Deputy County Reg
ister J. P. Pemberton, who came here from
Virginia after the civil war, was walking
through the union depot, when a big black
soldier hailed him with "Hello, Mars Jim."
Turning and recognizing the speaker, Mr.
Pemberton called out, as he grasped the
negro's hand: "Why, hello, Washington Pem
berton, I have not seen you since the old days
when we were boys on the old plantation."
After a few moments' conversation Mr.
Pemberton told the soldier that it was his in
tention to give a little reception next week
and he wanted the soldier to get him a lot of
cartridges for use as souvenirs for his guests.
The colored man hesitated a moment and
then said:
"I'd like to do it, Mars Jim, and I will
if I can get some of the white boys to give
me some ammunition, but I can't get any
cartridges for you in the 25th. You see with
us every cartridge counts a man, so the
colonel says, and out on the plains we had to
bring back the cartridges or bad Indians for
the ones we used."
Another soldier of the 25th asked for a
glass of beer at a bar in Chattanooga last
night. He was refused by the white bar
tender, who taunted him as a coward and
said that he couldn't fight. The black man
128
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
reached over the bar, grabbed the saloon
keeper, lifted him bodily across the room and
then, shaking him like a child, dropped him
to the floor with the remark: "You are just
poor white trash, and I don't want anything
to do with you."
On Col. Hurt's camp table stands the
picture of a beautiful child, and it is known
throughout the regiment as "the good fairy
of the colonel's tent.' The subject of the
likeness is Dorothy Burt Trout, the colonel's
granddaughter, and her father is Lieut.
Harry Trout of the 2d cavalry. Besides his
son-in-law, a son of the commander of tLe
25th is an officer in the regiment. .
Col. Burt is a believer in the national
guard, and has always been an advocate of
it as an auxiliary to the regular army. He
is as eager as "Fighting Bob" Evans to get
into Havana, and he paid a compliment to
the citizen-soldiers when talking of the pos
sible operations in Cuba. He said:
"I wish that I could have a contract to
take Havana. I could do it if I had my way.
I would take the black brigade of the army,
a few batteries of artillery and pick some
men from the national guard of Ohio, Penn
sylvania, New York and Illinois. From the
latter state I would take Col. Turner and
the 1st regiment of Chicago, make him a
brigade commander, and run every Spaniard
out of Cuba in short order. I believe that I
could do it, but at any rate I am willing to
stake my life and commission on the result."
Other officers than Col. Burt are looking
upon the national guard with especial in
terest at this time. All of them say that
the citizen-soldiers are to see hard service,
and the men from Illinois who wear shoulder-
straps in the federal service are wiring Gov.
Tanner that they are willing to accept com
missions. They see chances of promotion
in the volunteer service and are anxious to
take them.
SAMPSON'S PICKET LINE.
BY MALCOLM McDU\YELL.
Prizes drawn from the Spanish grab-bag
by Admiral Sampson's ships are growing
common in Key West. When the Nashville
came in with the Buena Ventura, which was
the first Spanish merchantman to be picked
up, Key West moved to the wharves, docks
and seawall. But after the advent of the
Pedro, the Miguel Jover and the Catalina the
novelty wore off and few people, compara
tively, saw the pudgy little lighthouse ten
der Mangrove bring in the best prize of all,
the mail steamer and Spanish auxiliary
cruiser Panama.
The harbor is full of Spanish merchant
men steamers and schooners, and they are
visible and unquestionable evidence of the
airtight blockade which the North American
squadron is maintaining off the north coast
of Cuba.
The irregular line of warships stretches all
the way from Bahia Honda, west of Havana,
to and beyond Cardenas," east of Havana,
more than 125 miles, blockading the ports of
Bahia Honda, Mariel, Havana, Matanzas and
Cardenas — cruisers and gunboats isweep the
Florida straits with long-distance eyes glued
to powerful glasses on the lookout for Span
ish colors.
The flagship New York goes to the chase
like a fox-hunter, for torpedo boats, like a
well-trained pack of hounds, scout in front
and on the sides. No particular order of
alignment seems to be observed and the
ships are constantly changing their posi
tions. One day the Helena paces the water
back and forth before Mariel, the next day
she may be hunting, single-handed, miles
from her nearest neighbor. To-day the mon
itor Puritan sprawls on the ocean within
tantalizing range of the gun? mounted in the
shore battery which guards Mantanzas har-
j bor. To-night she slips out and before dawn
I her shotted guns are "peaceably" blockad-
• ing Cardenas.
The fleet has its picket line which stretches
across the straits from Havana to Key West
like an immense seine, and nothing which
floats in salt water can pass the line without
being held up. Men who have grown gray-
haired in the navy say that never has a
blockade been maintained with such marked
success. It is skiff-proof, for several times
small rowboats have been "picked up" by
the searchlights and rounded up.
The line of blockade is of such length that
the newspaper obeservation yachts can see
but little at a time. The panorama must be
taken in sections, and while a dispatch boat
is at one end of the line the warships at the
other end may be fighting duels with Span
ish men-of-war, unnoticed by observing non-
combatants.
WThen a prize is captured it is taken to the
flagship New York and reported. Then it is
brought to Key West to lie alongside the
other ships which did not pass in the night.
The prizes are known in Key West as "re-
concentrados," and the name is well given,
for the United States must feed the crew
and passengers until they can make arrange
ments to leave the island. The people aboard
I the prizes are not held as prisoners of war;
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
129
SPANISH STEAMER PANAMA— A PRIZE SHIP.
they all could leave on the afternoon boat
but for the quarantine regulations and lack
of money to pay transportation.
A captain of one of the prizes burst into
tears when the ensign in command of the
prize crew clambered aboard the captured
ship. Then he fell on his knees and begged
piteously to be spared. It seems he was
told last week by a Spanish officer that if he
were to be taken by the "American hogs" he
should commend his soul to the saints and
prepare to die, for the Americans at once
would cut him open.
A member of a crew 'of another prize at
tempted to commit suicide when he saw the
shipping at Key West, for he imagined he
was to be taken ashore and hanged. The
<cprize masters," as the officers in command
of prize crews are called, have much dif
ficulty in convincing the affrighted Span
iards that they are perfectly safe and need
have no fears as to their personal safety. A
day or so at anchor calms thsir fears, and
they accept the cigars and cigarettes thrown
up to them by sightseers in boats and
launches and chat with all comers, provided
the "comers" speak Spanish.
The harbor is well stripped of warships,
and the only signs of defense are the anti
quated brick walls of old Fort Taylor. This
excites the derision and scorn of the Span
iards. They count the ancient muzzle-load
ing smooth-bores which peer over the top
of the fort, and then, with much gesticula
tion, shrugging of shoulders and animated
finger calisthenics, they describe the "huge
monsters" in Havana, and tell of shore bat
teries and "impregnable castles." They did
not know they were giving out information
of immense value to the United States at
this time. Some of them were in Havana
only a few days ago, and the. have betrayed
the location of some batteries and "blind"
forts, built since Gen. Lee left the city.
Admiral Sampson, of course, is in possession
of complete and detailed information of
130
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Spanish fortifications, but the "reconcentra-
dos" have added materially to this infor
mation.
It is difficult to believe that war actually
has been declared between the United States
and Spain. The prize ships come into the
harbor as any other steamer or schooner
would. No dead and wounded men are
brought ashore, and no gaping holes or bat
tered hulls tell of destructive projectiles or
steel-ripping shells.
Yet Key West is a frontier post, right on
the danger line. Close to its doors is a
great fleet, waiting eagerly for another great
fleet to challenge it to a finish fight. If the
Spaniards should win the battle nothing but
the mines laid in the harbor could keep
Spanish warships from blowing Key West
off its parent coral reef. It is destined to
become a vast hospital when the armies and
navies meet, and it is the birthplace of some
of the wildest rumors and reports which
ever startled a nation.
Key West takes it all quietly. Last night
the young folk danced in the beach pavil
ion, which looks out on the straits toward
Cuba. The street-car company is leisure
ly changing the mule motors to electric mo
tors; the sponge fleet rakes its porous
catch from the reefs; people go to sleep
every afternoon and drink coffee in the
cafes every morning, as though nothing out
of the ordinary is happening.
The occasional press bulletin posted in the
hotel tells of great excitement in the states;
of enlisting booths being erected in the
streets of large cities; of special trains rush
ing troops to gulf harbors; of great crowds
awaiting late war news before the news
paper offices; of riots in Madrid and Porto
Rico; of calls for volunteers and enthusiasm
like to that which sprung up when Sumter
wras fired upon; but here the hot sun sends
everybody indoors at 2 o'clock, and a fight
between two cur dogs brought the crowd
looking at the Panama back to the custom
house.
But the soldiers on duty here realize that
they are on a war footing. A sentinel who
was posted near a gun nearly went to sleep
on duty. He mentioned this to his sergeant,
and the man with the chevrons started cold
chills down the soldier's backbone by saying:
"It's lucky you didn't go to sleep. You'd
be a dead man now."
The soldier gasped, for the sergeant spoke
seriously.
"Why," he said, "I wouldn't be shot,
would I? I would get three months in the
guardhouse."
Then the sergeant gave his men a hint of
what war meant. He said: "That would
go in time of peace, but see what the regula
tions say, 'A sentinel on post in war time, if
found asleep or neglecting his duty, shall
suffer death or such other punishment as the
court-martial may direct,' and, look you, if
any of you desert now you will be hanged."
The soldiers in Key West now are so wide
awake they have hard work dozing when off
duty.
A well-known man here, who has been in
the habit of walking out toward the new
fortifications and chatting with soldiers
who might be there, is certain that a state of
war exists. Last night, with a long, fat
cigar between his teeth and a few more in his
pocket for a chance companion, he strolled
down the familiar road toward the derricks
and dirt piles which in a few days will form
a strong fort. He took the familiar turn to
the right and was about to walk up the fa
miliar dirt heap, when a sharp "Halt! Stop
where you are!" came from the dusk.
"It's me, Billie," said the man, advancing
a couple of feet.
"If you make another step I'll shoot," re
plied Billie. and the click of firing mechanism
made a suggestive period to the terse sen
tence. The man fell back, and to-day he met
Billie on the street. He chided him with
considerable warmth for threatening his life.
"It's orders," said Billie. "And just bear
this in mind — there's a war on."
"By George! That's so!" cried the Key
West man, and he remained strangely silent
all morning.
Bulletins announcing Dewey's victory
reached here at midnight. There were few
people out at the time. They read the bulle
tins and then ran down the street yelling,
pounding on doors to awake the sleepers, and
shouted the news and ran on, spreading the
glad tidings. Naval officers ashore ran to
their boats and hurried on board with the
news.
Cubans in the cafes left their coffee and
crackers and raced home. Soon nearly the
whole town was awake, shouting and yelling.
The first report early in the afternoon had it
that two of Dewey's ships were sunk and
that 500 American sailors had perished, while
2,000 Spanish were killed and Manila was
taken.
This was pronounced false at the time and
the later reports of a crushing defeat for the
Spanish were at first received with caution,
but when the later bulletins confirmed them
the demonstration of enthusiasm began.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
131
ROUGH RIDER O'NEILL.
BY KENNKTT F. HARRIS.
"Any one who wants to go back to the
United States when this cruel war is over
can go; for my part, I intend to stay."
Capt. W. O. O'Neill of troop A, 1st volun
teer cavalry, leaned back against a roll of
blankets beneath a stretched square of can
vas after the fight at Guasimas, and, blowing
a thin stream of cigarette smoke from his
lips, made this declaration. From Where he
reclined he could see a wide stretch of open
ground covered with waist-high grass blown
into far-reaching ripples by a rare breeze; a
border of dark-green manigua, from whicii
arose broad and leafy mango trees, grace
fully drooping crowns of palms; cedrelas,
with trunks like polished bronze, and here
and there the well-named flamboyants, bear
ing their masses of blossoms of flaming scar
let. Beyond were the hills, meeting the in
tense blue of a cloudless sky, and within
hearing, when the first sergeant ceased
pounding coffee with an ax handle in his tin
cup, were the musical plash and ripple of a
brook clear as one of his own Arigonian
streams. Like many another man, Capt.
O'Neill was well pleased with Cuba. The
possibiilties of the fertile soil and the hid
den wealth of the mountains appealed to
the practical side of his nature as the pic
turesque beauty of the landscape did to his
well-developed artistic sense.
"I'm going to stay," he repeated.
Cuban ground holds the dust of many high-
souled and brave men, patriots and war
riors, who, counting honor and freedom above
all things earthly, lightly risked and heroic
ally lost all else, that their country might be
redeemed from tyranny and oppression, but
it holds the dust of none braver, kinder, more
generous than Capt. O'Neill.
I like to think of him now as I saw him
then — a picture of robust manhood and per
fect rest. He had thrown off his blouse for
greater comfort, and his blue flannel shin,
was unbuttoned at the throat; his hands
were clasped behind his head and the brown
cigarette between his lips was burning even
ly and well. He was at peace with all the
world and was inclined to be charitable even
toward the Spaniards, concerning whom one
of his brother officers had spoken unkindly.
"They can't help being Spaniards any more
than a skunk can help being a skunk," he
said. "God made them that way. Did you
ever get close to a skunk and watch him —
when nothing has occurred to irritate him —
going to get his evening drink, for instance,
gliding over rocks and logs with a beautifully
easy, undulating movement and dipping his
sharp little black nose daintily in the water?
There's the true poetry of motion for you.
j Their pelts are worth something, too, and so
is their fat. Skunks have their good points,
and so have Spaniards. They made it inter
esting for us yesterday." Then, after a
pause, "I'd hate to have to die in Cuba for
fear of being reincarnated as a Spaniard."
.There was some desultory talk, and then
O'Neill began, half in jest, half in earnest,
to tell of the enterprises he was going to
start in Cuba — after the war.
"I'm lucky," he said. "I can make money
anywhere. Any one could make money here.
I tell you, boys, we are going to have a new
set of millionaires — Cuban millionaires — and
I am going to be one of them. The Klondike
fellows won't be in it."
But if he had made millions he would have
given them away. He was absolutely unself
ish, caring for everybody but himself. He
looked after the well-being of his troops with
almost fatherly solicitude; there was no com
fort he could obtain for them that they did
not have, and he had the rare faculty of
treating them as equals without losing their
respect in the smallest degree. When occa
sion demanded he would rate them in a
good-humored, hectoring sort of way that
was very efficacious, but he had a dread of
even seeming to take advantage of his rank,
and it was always as one comrade to another.
It rather vexed him to have them pre
sent arms or rise to salute him as he passed.
"They're just as good as I am," he would
say. That was not true, but he was modest
enough to believe it was. When he jumped
from the dock at Baiquiri among grinding,
tossing boats, to save the two drowning
troopers of the 9th, it was in obedience to a
perfectly natural impulse. And he could not
understand why any one should make a fuss
about it.
O'Neill and I were "bunkies." Our ham
mocks were hung together at San Antonio;
we had a stateroom together on board the
transport when we sailed from Tampa, and
after the landing I shared his blankets in the
field. I have wakened in the night more
than once to find him spreading the whole
of the scanty cover over me. When we ar
rived at Siboney on the night of the 24th,
after the fatiguing afternoon march, and
camped down on the hard coral road, O'Neill
was the most cheerful man in the regiment.
He was not going to bother about supper, be
cause the man who usually cooked his ra
tion for him was dead beat; but a sergeant
who adored him brought him some coffee,
which he insisted I should share.
I honestly didn't want the coffee or any
thing else but just to rest, for I was utterly
exhausted, and I think there were few men
132
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
A TYPICAL SPANISH BLOCKHOUSE IN CUBA.
in the regiment who were not. Ten or twelve
dropped out by the wayside and came stag
gering in at intervals through the night.
Then it began to rain, and O'Neill must
needs drag out a canvas wagon cover — "to
keep the bedding from getting wet," he
said. "Don't imagine it's on your account,
you irritable brute, and stop swearing or
I'll put you under arrest." Then he crawled
in beside me and thrust something delicious-
ly soft under my head — a real pillow! "I've
got another here," he said. Knowing him,
I had my suspicions, and groping through
the darkness I found that his heaJ was
resting on a canteen carefully adjusted on a
coiled cartridge belt.
As a popular man he had, of course, to
have a nickname. The Arizonans called him
"Buckie" on account of his having in his
unregenerate days "bucked th& tiger" in a
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
133
very royal and audacious style, leaving the
beast scarcely enough sinew to wriggle out
of town with. On the muster roll after that
fatal fight I read his name among the killed
-" 'Buckie' O'Neil, captain."
His belief in his luck was invincible and
he looked on the bright side of everything.
One thing he said impressed me at the time:
"I have never had a friend go back on me."
I am sure that he spoke the truth. He was
a man to inspire loyal friendship. He firmly
believed, too, that he would come safely
through the campaign. He felt it, he said.
This feeling, I think, may be accounted for
by the fact that he had so often escaped a
violent death at the hands of border outlaws,
Indians or Mexicans. Capt. Capron was
another who had encountered innumerable
perils of the same description, yet he was
nearly the first to meet bis death. Custom
had made both reckless.
I saw O'Neill last an hour before he fell.
From Grimes' battery I was going to the left
as troop A moved up to the right. Once in
awhile a Spanish shell would drop uncomfort
ably close, and' two or three of the rough
riders were already down, wounded by the
flying fragments. O'Neill was directing his
men to march at intervals of twelve feet.
"There will be fewer of you hurt," he said.
We talked a minute or two, and then parted,
to meet no more. His first sergeant, himself
wounded in the foot, told me the next day
how he fell, and twice as he told me he bent
his head and hid his face in his arms. "After
we left you," he said, "we went north and
then went down a sunken road. It was pretty
bad there, but nothing like it was when we
got out of it. Then there was an open field,
and the bullets from the blockhouse and the
trenches in front swept it from end to end.
There was a barb-wire fence there, but we
beat it down with the butts of our carbines
and scrambled through. Then we lay down
and fired, but Capt. O'Neill stood up as
straight as could be and told us not to get
rattled, but to fire steady. Then we made a
rush and troop K came up behind us, and
then we lay down again, but Capt. O'Neill
walked along the line. Lieut. Kane called
to him and says: 'Get down, O'Neill; there's
no use of your exposing yourself that way.'
Capt. O'Neill turns around an' looks at him
and laughs. You know how he laughed.
'Ah,' he says, 'the Spanish bullet isn't molded
that can kill me.' Two minutes afterward
one struck him in the mouth and he fell
dead."
A DAY OFF BLOCKADED MANILA.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
The story of a day in a blockaded port is
an interesting one. Sometimes it may
become dull and monotonous, but there
always exists the possibility that something
exciting m. y suddenly happen. In the
blockade that exists before Manila now
there are a number of features which make
it unique and alone. The warfare that is
being waged between the Spaniards and in
surgents on the shores around the bay gives
constant touches of excitement, while the
frequent squalls incident to the commence
ment of the southwest monsoon make life on
the fleet full of interesting danger. Nearly
every day the sound of skirmishing comes
from the fringe of trees that lines the
shores, and nearly every day come those
fearful torrents of rain that mark the be
ginning of the rainy season. The Philip
pines are the birthplaces of the dreadful
typhoons which have made navigation on the
China sea so full of danger to mariners.
Manila is the home of the earthquake and j
the abiding place of the hot weather. Added
to these natural perils is the constant men
ace of torpedoes which overhangs the block-
aders. There are two torpedo boats in the
Pasig river, which render every precaution
necessary on the American ships, and make
every night fraught with the possibility of
an attack from one of them. As a conse
quence the nights are always interesting,
and the thrilling call of general quarters
may at any time be expected.
The American ships lie clustered near
Cavite. The Olympia is a mile off shore,
and the Concord, Boston and Baltimore are
in line with her. The Raleigh and McCul-
loch lie a few hundred yards nearer the
shore, with the Nanshan, Zafiro and Cyrus
near by. Farther in and nrarly abreast of
the Cavite arsenal is the Petrel, while be
tween the Raleigh and the arsenal are the
Honolulu and the big four-masted bark
Crown of Germany. These two ships are
part of the number of sailing vessels that
were off Manila the morning of the battle.
The former has part of her cargo of coal, and
is waiting until it is all taken by the Ameri
can ships before sailing for her home port.
The Crown of Germany, which was empty
at the time of the engagement, has been
waiting in the hope that she might take on
a cargo of hemp before leaving the bay. The
Callao and Manila are anchored back in
Canacoa bay. From where the McCulloch
is stationed the shattered sunken hulks of
the Reina Cristina, Castilla and Don Antonio
134
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S AVAR STORIES
de Ulloa are visible, relieved against the
dark stone walls of the 'Cavite fortifications.
Behind the arsenal, in Bakpr bay, are the
other sunken Spanish ships, but they can
not "be seen from where we lie. A low fringe
of trees extends from Bakor bay around to
the city of Manila, five miles east of the
Olympia. It is a mere strip of dark verdure
and stands out strongly at the base of the
long slopes that are behind it, and which
extend gradually up until they merge into
the foothills of the mountain ranges that
mark the eastern and southern horizons.
Manila, with all her domes and steeples
and her Water-front batteries, always looks
the same, and from this distance shows
nothing to indicate the suffering and priva
tions of the people within its boundaries.
The faint smoke of a volcano away off to
the south makes a distinctive spot on the
sky line. Beyond Manila, to the northward,
are the foreign warships and the merchant
vessels with Manila refugees on board. There
are over twenty of them now, and they
lie there, waiting, like the spectators in a
circus, for something to happen. Corregi-
dor is a mere blue lump on the western
horizon, with a spot of blue to the south of
it, marking where Caballo lies. The high
peaks of the Mariveles mountains are just
across the Boca Chica from Corregidor. It
is behind these peaks that the sun sinks in
the evening, lighting the western sky with
every shade of brilliant tropical splendor
and dipping down in the China sea in inde
scribable grandeur. Nowhere in the world —
not even in the Indian ocean, which glories
in its magnificent sunsets — are there such
beautiful and varied ones as are to be seen
here in Manila bay. Every night brings one
that is absolutely unlike any that has been
seen before. Sometimes the sun goes down
in an explosion of color and sometimes in the
most delicate variations of tints. The Manila
sunset is a great institution, and if it were
not indescribable it would be worthy of a
long description.
Every day begins about the same. At 5
o'clock the reveille sounds out from every
one of the government ships, and the shrill
thrill of the bo'sun's whistle follows closely
the last blast of the bugle. Companionw'ays
'become lively with white figures, and the
work of putting away fat folded hammocks
begins. At 5:30 coffee is served out, and
then the work of scrubbing down the decks
is started. For an hour the sound of splash
ing water and scrubbing brushes is heard,
portholes are closed and barefooted sailors
drench every inch of Oregon pine that lines
the whole decks. This is the house-cleaning
time of day, and by the time the bugle
sound's "mess formation" — at 7:20 — every
thing is shipshape for the day. Between
that hour and 8 o'clock the crew eats and
rests. Then comes "colors." At the sound
of the first notes of this inspiring call the
flag of every ship is run up. The bands on
the Olympia and Baltimore play "The Star-
Spangled Banner," every soul on deck comes
to a rigid attention, and when the red, white
and blue ensign breaks out from peak or
flagstaff every cap is raised in salute. Eight
o'clock marks the beginning of the day. A
launch loaded down with marines pushes off
from one of the large men-of-war and puts in
toward the arsenal at Cavite. These marines
go to do guard duty for twenty-four hours
and relieve the men who were sent the morn
ing before. Every man is in white and car
ries a Lee-Metford rifle. They will be di
vided in shifts when they reach the head
quarters of Camp Dewey in Cavi'te arsenal,
and one shift will begin at once pacing back
and forth on the different beats thai are
prescribed.
During the morning there is a sense of
absolute peacefulness and tranquillity about
the bay. From every ship comes the domes
tic cackle of chickens. Flocks of native out
riggers crowd up along the gangway ladders,
and the broad-belted and scantily clad Fili
pinos offer for sale big yellow mangoes, boxes
of Manila cigars, wicker crates of chickens,
baskets of eggs and bunches of delicious
bananas. There is nothing to indicate that
the lazy ships and calm waters of the bay
had so recently been part of a great naval
battle and that now the vessels are on the
verge of another struggle which may be more
terrible than the first. The country around
the shores is beautiful and smiling. With all
the varied mountain peaks, the green up
lifts that stretch away for miles from the
waters of the bay, the low Spanish buildings
and ancient fortifications of Cavite, the white
clusters of houses that mark where Bakor,
Paranaque, Old Cavite and other little vil
lages lie, the domes and steeples of Manila,
and, lastly, the vast fleet of foreign and
American ships and native fishing boats that
are scattered between Cavite and Manila,
combine to make a panorama that rivals the
beautiful Bay of Naples.
There is usually a little visiting from one
ship to another of the American vessels, but
that is only when it is necessary. Although
lying but a few hundred yards from one an
other, and barely a mile from shore, the of
ficers very seldom get away from their own
ships. Occasionally the launch from one of
the foreign fleets comes across toward Cavite
and groups of foreign officers visit the wrecks
around the arsenal or explore the picturesque
quarters of the town or the very interesting
native settlement of San Roque. The Eng
lish captain of the Immortalite is a frequent
visitor on the Olympia. He calls to see
Admiral Dewey and to help him and Capt.
Lamberton pass away part of a monotonous
afternoon. Every two or three days the white
barge of the admiral may be seen running in
toward the arsenal, and that is an almost
unfailing sign that the admiral is taking a
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
135
MOUTH OF THE PASIG RIVER, MANILA, SHOWING SUNKEN VESSELS OBSTRUCTING
THE CHANNEL.
trip to the American possession of Cavite.
On these little excursions the bronzed face
of the hero of Manila is shaded by a white
sun hat, and he looks like the ideal warrior.
His face is very brown, his hair and heavy
mustache quite gray and his eyes and eye-
prows black. The admiral is a man of strik
ing appearance, and much better looking than
the mct.ures that have been printed of him.
His face is full of character and firmness,
usually very amiable, but sometimes, as the
oTicers of the Olympia testify, as fierce and
glowering as a thunder cloud.
Just abreast of the Olympia, 200 yards
away, is the dispatch boat McCulloch, which
has been my home for so many months. She
is always under steam, ready to start out
and intercept any vessel that may be seen
entering the bay. This is an interesting
duty, for there is always the possibility of
the stranger being a Spanish merchant ship
which has been for months away in the Caro
lines, or else it may be a ship direct from
Hongkong with mail or late news. No sooner
does the first faint smudge of smoke show in
Boca Chica, seventeen miles away, than the
flagship signals the McCulloch to "communi
cate with the stranger." Instantly there is a
hurry and rush on the fast dispatch boat, a
sound of grinding anchor chains, the rumble
and jolt of the engines, and almost before the
signal on the Olympia is fairly up the water
at the stern of the McCulloch is being
churned white by the propeller and the spray
is falling away from her keen stem. The
McCulloch holds the record for swiftness in
getting under way. She did it to-day in a
minute and a half. The best record attained
by any of the other ships is held by the Con
cord, which did it in eight minutes.
Away out near Corregidor the smoke of
the stranger is distinguished. In fifteen
minutes the McCulloch has gotten well out
in the bay and is bearing down toward the
west. Gradually the faint streaks of masts
are made out, then the funnels and then the
hull. It is still too far to determine her
character and the glasses are held on her
until the significant fighting tops are dis
cernible and she is known to be a warship.
Her colors are too faint to be made out and
her nationality then becomes the subject for
betting. Later it is probable a wager is
made whether or not she brings news of an
engagement in the Atlantic in which at least
six ships are involved. The greater part of
the men-of-war which have come into Manila
bay have been English and Germans, and
these two nations paint hull white and fun
nels yellow, and as their ensigns are almost
identical it is hard to distinguish between
them. If the ship is a light gray it may be
freely predicted that the flag of Japan will
be found at the peak, and if she shows her
self to be squatty and Short, with a fero
cious ram bow, you will know th'at she is
French. The ram bow is an unfailing charac
teristic of the French vessels that I have
seen in the far east. In the meantime the
McCullodh has borne down toward the ship
and her nationality has been determined.
A boat's crew is at the whaleboat falls, and
Lieut. Ridgely, the "boarding officer," is get
ting on his cleanest white and strapping on
136
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
his sword. The stranger comes on at slower
speed, he McCulloch's engine-room bell
gives a clang and the propeller stops its
hurried throb. The ropes and tackles of the
whaleboat fall, creak and strain, and the
boat, with a crew of five men, is lowered at
the port quarter. Then it swings beneath
the gangway, Lieut. Ridgeiy, dazzling in stiff
duck, takes his place at the tiller, and away
the boat goes, tossing and bobbing on the
long waves. The two ships are now abreast,
200 yards apart, and there are almost simul
taneous bugle calls on each vessel, calling
everybody to "attention." Long lines of
white appear at the rails and every man in
the line is straight- and rigid. The boarding
boat has arrived at the gangway ladder of
the foreign ship and the American officer
ascends to tlie landing. He salutes the of
ficer of the deck, passes between the side
boys and sroes to the commander of the ship.
Here he obtains the name of the vessel and
of the captain and of the last port from which
she sailed. If she came from Hongkong the
commander usually has some letters or
cablegrams for Admiral Dewey, and if she is
an English ship she probably has a bag of
papers and letters for the American ships.
When Lieut. Ridgely returns he is greeted
with anxious eagerness. "What is the news
from the Atlantic?" "Did they bring any
mail?" "Where is the Spanish fleet that
started for Manila?" "When did the Monte
rey and Monadnock sail from 'Frisco?" and
a dozen other questions. Perhaps one small
bag of mail has come, but it must be taken
to the flagship before being opened and dis
tributed. Suddenly the saluting battery of
the stranger begins its salute to the Amer
ican admiral. The starboard side opens like
a clap of thunder, and even on the McCulloch
the concussion of air is distinctly felt. There
is a ten-second pause and the port gun breaks
loose, but with a greatly diminished report,
owing to its being pointed away from us
and being on the opposite side of the ship.
Now the loud starboard and now the muf
fled port go smashing away alternately un
til the admiral's salute of thirteen guns is
fired. The American flag, which has been
floating at the fore during the salute, is now
drawn down, and every eye turns to where
the Olympia lies, five or six miles away, to
ward Cavite. The McCulloch has signaled
the stranger's nationality and a dark spot
of bunting breaks out from the Olympia's
fore, and almost immediately a white burst
of smoke shoots out from the side of the ship
and unfurls and floats away. Then from the
other side there is a similar cloud of smoke;
and then comes another, at a five-second in
terval, from the starboard gun; and just
about as the fourth billow of smoke is seen
the dull boom of the first shot rraches the
McCulloch. The guns on the farther side of
the Olympia give no sound at this distance,
and so only every other shot is heard.
The foreign warship sieams slowly over
toward the anchorage off Manila and the
McCulloch returns to her position near the
flagship. An officer reports to the admiral
the result of the trip, delivers any dispatches
or mail that may have come and returns to
the McCulloch. Then, after half an hour
of impatient waiting, a signal is run up on
the Olympia which reads: "Send boat for
mail." Half a dozen pulling boats are soon
on the way and several hundred officers and
sailors are counting the minutes until the
boats return with the welcome letters from
home. The man who gets a newspaper is
immensely popular, and every line of news
in it is read by nearly every one on ship
board.
The trips that the McCulloch makes are
not always peaceful daylight trips. She has
had a number of night cruises, searching for
any boats that might be trying to run the
blockade or slip out of the Pasig river. On
several occasions she has quietly drawn in
her anchor, under orders from the flagship,
and started out at midnight for a tour of the
entire harbor. All the lights are put out
on an expedition of this kind, and every
thing is in readiness to fire on any boat that
may try to run away from her. She goes
out to Corregidor, explores Mariveles bay,
steams back along, the northern shore, taking
careful notice of all the little rivers that
empty into the bay, and finally circles in to
ward the foreign fleet in front of Manila.
All the ships here are counted and a care
ful observation made that none has slipped
out in the darkness of the rainy nights. It
was suspected at one time that two small
gunboats which have been in the Pasig river
since April had slipped out under cover of
darkness and were concealed in some of the
rivers along the north shore. When this
report was started it was almost the nightly
work of the McCulloch to cruise out and
watch for them. Every boat, even the native
fishing boats, were overhauled and examined.
At daylight the ship would resume her an
chorage in the fleet, with steam always up,
and ready at five minutes' notice to get under
way. The most notable exploit of the reve
nue steamer was her mission the night of
May 1. When darkness had come over the
bay she was sent into the mouth of the Pasig
river to intercept any torpedo attack that
might be attempted. All night long she lay
there, only a few hundred feet from the
Krupp gun battery. Twice there were calls
to general quarters and every gun was
manned and every one on the ship had
strapped on his side arms. Beyond the
alarms, however, nothing happened. This
part of the harbor was said to be well pro
tected with mines, and it was afterward
positively asserted that the McCulloch had
anchored almost in the heart of the danger
ous district.
Twice within the last week she has been
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
137
sent over in the shadow of the Lunetta bat
tery — once as an escort of Admiral Dewey,
who was making an official call on the French
a •Imiral's flagship, Bayard, and once to pro
tect Flag Lieutenant Brumby. The latter
incident was rather an exciting trip. The
lieutenant had been sent over to the Eng-
li; h ship Immortalite and had gone in the
admiral's barge. Soon after he had gone on
board the Englishman a steam launch came
out from Manila and bore down toward the
admiral's barge. It was supposed to be a
Spanish boat, and it was suspected an at
tempt would be made to capture Lieut.
Brumby. The McCulloch was instantly or
dered to steam across, and if the suspected
boat proved to be a Spaniard capture it
and rescue the American officer. The Mc
Culloch advanced well within the range
of the shore battery, the decks were cleared
for action and every preparation was made
for the fight that would be undertaken if
the steam launch carried a Spanish flag. It
was known that the capture of a Spanish
boat right under the enemy's guns would
immediately precipitate a hot fire from shore.
It was some time before the identity of
the launch could be ascertained, for it had
disappeared behind some of the German war
ships. When it was finally overhauled the
flag was found to be that of Austria. The
close resemblance of the Austrian ensign to
the Spanish flag had caused the mistake.
The incident, however, was an exciting one
while it lasted, and the fact that the launcu
turned out to be the Austrian consul's
spoiled a good story.
When Admiral Dewey goes to return of
ficial calls in the fleet of foreign warships
he is always escorted by either the Mc
Culloch or the Concord. The anchorage of
the different men-of-war sent here by other
nations is so close to Manila that it is
considered inadvisable to expose the admiral
to the possibility of capture. One of the
umall gunboats in the river might easily
steam out, overhaul his barge, tow it into
Manila and be safe before one of the Ameri
can ships could prevent it. Consequently a
gunboat always accompanies the admiral
when he visits the foreign ships.
During the day there is usually sub-caliber
target practice on one or more of the Ameri
can ships. A steam launch with a small
boat in tow is the most common target used.
A flag is stuck up in the small boat, which
if. several hundred feet behind the launch,
and the gunners direct their fire toward the
little patch of red bunting. The accuracy
cf aim which has been developed shows what
a perilous undertaking it would be for a
Spanish torpedo boat to attempt to get within
striking distance of one of the ships.
As the rainy season is now on, hardly a
day passes without sudden and heavy rain
storms. The bay may be calm and placid at
1 o'clock, while a half-hour later it may be
rough and tumbling in a drenching storm.
Boating in small craft is very uncertain and
in a measure dangerous because of these
sudden and unexpected squalls, which come
up nearly every day. There is some com
fort in knowing that the temperature is cool
and pleasant in this season, even if there is
too much rain. It rains much less, how
ever, in the bay than it does on shore, and
it is much more healthful on shipboard than
it is on land.
The most enjoyable and interesting time
of the day is in the evening. The Olym-
pia's band begins its concert at 6 o'clock,
"colors" is sounded at sundown and at 7
the band finishes with "The Star-Spangled
Banner." Soon the long water front of Ma
nila begins to twinkle with its row of elec
tric lights, and bright constellations a little
to the northward mark where the foreign
ships lie clustered together.
The American ships are darkened, and the
searchlights begin traveling across the
waters of the bay. Easy-chairs on the
quarterdecks hold white-clothed, shadowy
figures, and the curling smoke from many
cigars floats off into the night. This is the
time for gossip. Every topic that has been
suggested during the day is discussed and
thoroughly digested. The operations of the
insurgents, late rumors from Manila, specu
lation about the Atlantic squadron, prospects
of new mail, the news of the Spanish fleet
being sent to the Philippines, what the Ger
mans are up to, all come in for calm con
sideration at nearly every session. Just now
the arrival of the Charleston is a popular
theme. Before many minutes one of the
armed sentries breaks in with the sharp cry
of "Boat ahoy," and the answering cry of
"Olympia" comes faintly out of the dark
ness. A dark, puffing mass creeps up, and a
voice shouts out that the password of the
night is "Boston." This will be the word
that must be answered by every boat hailed
during the night, and any boat not answer
ing will be stopped with a shot. The pass
word, of course, is different every night, and
is always announced to the officer of the
deck of all the ships soon after sunset. This
interruption is only a short one, and the con
versation that has been disturbed goes on
lazily until something new happens. If it is
drizzling and rainy the deck awnings are
housed and the uneasy columns of dazzling
light from the searchlights become more
vigilant. Small native boats are picked out
of the background of water and clouds over
a mile off, and as long as they are within a
mile of any American ship the light is kept
on them. Suddenly comes again the sharp
hail of "Boat ahoy," but there is no re
sponse. The hail is repeated with the same
result. The sound of a rifle shot comes im
mediately, and an instant after the picket
boat gives the password. Quite often the
picket boat is warned by a shot, for the noise
of its engines drowns the sentry's voice, and
138
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
139
it takes a loud report to call its attention.
All during the night the picket boat
steams around the fleet, keeping a most
vigilant watch. Nearly every night there is
a good deal of cannonading and musket
firing near Manila. The flashes of the big
guns and the faint sputter of rifle volleys
come distinctly out to where the ships are
lying. This periodical warfare, which almost
always occurs in the evening, has become so
common that only a lazy interest is taken in
it. It is on such a night as the stormy one
we had a week or so ago that real excitement
comes. The flagship signaled that there
was reason to expect a torpedo attack that
night and cautioned every one to be ready.
The report that the two gunboats had left
the Pasig river led to the alarm. There
was extra vigilance that night, but nothing
happened besides a heavy rainstorm. These
touches of excitement are what relieve the
monotony of this blockade.
Just now the harbor is full of German
warships, and there is considerable specula
tion as to the intentions of William in this
war. The Charleston and the transports
are expected any hour. A Spanish fleet is
expected in a few weeks, and we are getting
into the typhoon season. The insurgents
and Spaniards are fighting every day, and
the news comes that France has forbidden
its ships entering Japanese waters, and we
are guessing what it signifies. So, taking
everything into consideration, a day in a
blockaded port is very interesting.
THE DARING TRIP OF THE UNCAS.
BY TRUMBULL WHITE.
Lieut. F. R. Brainard, a stalwart Chi-
cagoan who commands the converted boat
Uncas of the mosquito fleet, returned this
morning (May 16) from a daring journey
to Havana. He is the first American to hold
direct communication with the Spanish au
thorities in Cuba, except by way of the rapid-
fire guns and heavier artillery, since the war
began. Lieut. Brainard has been making a
good record for himself ever since he worked
his way through the Chicago high school
and was appointed to Annapolis by Carter
Harrison in 1876. This little expedition will
be rr-membered with the other one from the
Roncador reef, when he volunteered and
took eight sailors in an open boat 200 miles.
Th^ errand of the Uncas was one of hu
manity. As soon as the capture of the news
paper artist, Hayden Jones, -and Correspond
ent Thrall became known a movement was
begun to effect their rescue. With Lieut.
Brainard went Correspondent Knight of the
London Times, who had credentials from
Madrid permitting him to go to Havana, and
he sought this method of reaching the Cuban
capital. The Uncas came in sight of the
entrance of Havana harbor yesterday morn
ing. The persons aboard began to realize
that their mission was a ticklish one. The
orders of Commodore Watson to go in under
a white flag of truce were simple enough,
but their reception was still doubtful, be
cause the distance at which signals can be
read is not as great as the range of the
guns.
A little personality on board the Uncas
was of a character to please the commander
and showed the temper of his men. The only
white flag available, something not expected
to be used by the American navy, was a
sheet from Brainard's bed. That was brought
up, and Lieut. Brainard ordered Quarter
master Kelly, a splendid big Irishman, a
great favorite of the commander and crew,
to run up the signal. Kelly seemed to have
some difficulty, and the work was progress
ing slowly. Lieut. Brainard finally became
impatient, as the Uncas was drawing nearer
to Havana. "Hurry up with that sheet!"
ordered Brainard.
Kelly's face got red. He straightened up,
dropped the sheet and promptly said: "I'll
not do it."
Brainard was secretly immensely pleased,
but he repeated his command, this time
more sternly.
"I'll be darned if I'll do it," reiterated the
Irishman. "I never sailed under a white
flag yet, and I'm not going to begin by
raising one meself." And Kelly didn't raise
the flag, nor is there any suggestion that
he will be disciplined for disobedience. That
is pretty good sort of timber to have in a
crew, even if it is not very tractable at times.
But that sheet was raised by some one.
The Uncas war? wi.hin three miles of the
entrance to Havana harbor. Signal flags
were hoisted upon the stafj of Morro castle,
but they were still too far away to be read.
The Uncas hoisted the signal, "We wish to
communicate with you," and steamed on, not
knowing the nature of the Morro signal,
which might be saying: "Come no nearer
or we will fire on you."
The Uncas got within two miles, when an
other signal was run up at Morro, reading,
"Wait there; we will send a ship," and the
Americans stopped. In about an hour a little
Spanish first-class gunboat came steaming
out. After proceeding a little way a signal
was run up telling the Uncas to come on.
The latter steamed forward, following the
140
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Spaniard till within almost half a mile of
Morro castle, when both stopped, the Span
iard evidently expecting the conversation to
be carried on by shouting through a mega
phone. This did not suit Lieut. Brainard.
"Never mind; I'll take you aboard my own
boat," said the Spaniard. Lieut. Brainard
and Knight were rowed to the Spanish gun
boat. There was much evident amazement
aboard the latter. All this time the rapid-
fire guns on deck were uncovered, and the
crew, leaning over the rail, watched events.
The guns on the Spanish gunboat were
manned by a gun crew, and the muzzles were
sweeping back and forth, raking the Uncas
at close range constantly. One fine gun was
a Gatling, evidently throwing one-inch
shells.
When the boat was almost alongside the
Spanish vessel the Spaniards made a show
of confidence by throwing canvas over the
guns, but really only over the barrels, the
muzzle and firing mechanism being left care
fully uncovered.
Once on board the gunboat, there was an
effusive welcome of hand-shaking. The two
men were taken down to the little cabin
where they were kept all through the oyage
into the harbor. The gunboat steamed shore
ward, leaving the Uncas to drift back and
forth in the shadow of Morro.
When they reached the dock at Havana an
aid of Gen. Blanco came aboard in response
to a request and Lieut. Brainard made known
his communication with Blanco. The Span
iards were very civil and courteous in their
conversation. Gen. Blanco's officers said the
two captured Americans should be treated as
prisoners of war and promptly exchanged for
two Spanish officers when the latter wen,
sent with a flag of truce and the proper of
ficial papers.
Mr. Knight of the London Times had an
exciting experience. The Spanish were will
ing to receive him and he was landed at
the Havana mole, but a great crowd of ex
cited people facing the mole declared them
selves ready to mob him, and the guns of the
gunboat had to be turned on the crowd.
Knight saw that it was impossible to land
safely in such circumstances. Inasmuch as
he expected to stay there he did not want
to land under guard, because of the threat
of future danger, so he came back to the
gunboat. By this time the commander of the
latter had become very friendly and invited
Lieut. Brainard on deck for refreshments,
but Blanco's aid countermanded the invita
tion and required Lieut. Brainard to return
below deck for entertainment. The gunboat
then started out of the harbor, transferred
Brainard and Knight to a small boat, and a
few minutes later the Uncas was steaming
northward toward Key West.
MILITARY STATION NO. 1
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
There is now a postoffice of the United
States in Cuba. From "Military Station No.
1," Baiquiri, Cuba, soldiers, sailors and ma
rines may send letters to their wives, sweet
hearts, relatives and friends; postage stamps,
postal cards and stamped envelopes may be
purchased, while money orders are to be had
at the usual fee, the postmaster being pre
pared to cash other orders and conduct the
business of his department as methodically
as any of his brother officers in the states.
Omcially this office is known as "United
States Postoffice, Military Station No. 1,
Cuba," and is in charge of Eben Brewer,
United States resident mail agent for Cuba.
It is a substation of the New York post-
office, with Louis Kempner as superintend
ent and Sergt. Claude I. Dawson chief clerk.
Occupying a neat frame cottage on the hill,
this new postoffice commands a view of the
harbor, where the transports swing at the
mooring buoys, while between it and the
water lies the great pier and plant of the
Spanish-American Iron company, still intact
with the exception of the machine shop, the
latter having been burned by the Spaniards
when they evacuated the settlement. The
house is known as No. 5, and was formerly
occupied by an officer of the company. It
contains six rooms, is painted white, and
from the balcony a beautiful view of the
harbor, the sea and the great mountains is
to be had.
This new postoffice was opened for business
last Friday morning (June 24) at 10 o'clock.
Mr. Brewer had landed the day before and
rented the building from Frederic Poppe,
Cuban military governor of the town and
superintendent of the iron works, and by
dint of hard work had the place in condition
the following day. At 5 o'clock in the after
noon of the opening day 8,000 letters were
on their way from the army and navy to the
United States. At 5.30 o'clock Sunday morn
ing a second mail of 4,000 letters was sent
from the dock, and to-morrow morning a
third will leave in a government dispatch
boat for Key West. This mail is to be car
ried by the ex-liner City of Paris, now the
Yale, and the vessel's orders are to take the
Yucatan channel and look out for blockade
runners while en route. Arriving at Key
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
141
FIRST UNITED STATES MILITARY POSTMASTER ON FOREIGN SOIL.
West the Yale is to convoy the prizes from
that port to Hampton Roads and then pro
ceed to New York. She will embark addi
tional troops and bring them and the mails
on her return trip to these waters.
In its money-order department our new
postoffice did a rushing business yesterday,
more than $600 in orders having been issued.
J. A. McDowell of the Red Cross society was
the first to invest, and he bought an order
for $1, payable to himself. The next cus
tomer was a private of battery H, 4th ar
tillery, who took $400 worth of orders, paid
the cash and sent them to his family. The
sale of stamps, postal cards, stamped en
velopes and special-delivery stamps has been
large and is increasing daily, while the busi
ness of the registry division has been so
heavy that the office is already a money
maker instead of an expense to the govern
ment. But no one begrudges it success, for
it is the most popular institution in Cuba
to-day.
Eben Brewer, the resident mail agent, is
the author of the service as at present con
ducted. When war was declared he sug
gested his plan to William S. Shallenberger,
second assistant postmaster-general, and
was appointed mail agent for Cuba and
Puerto Rico on May 3. He was assigned to
the 5th army corps and came here from
Tampa with the troops.
142
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Mr. Brewer was born in Barnett, Vt., in
1849, but has lived in Pennsylvania since his
third year. He is a son of ex-Congressman
Francis B. Brewer of the 33d congressional
district of New York, who organized and
was secretary of the first petroleum com
pany in the United States. He it was that
employed Col. E. L. Drake to bore the first
oil well at Titusville, Pa., in 1859. Brewer,
senior, was a surgeon during the war, and
Eben went to Washington in 1864 as a volun
teer nurse in the army hospitals at the capi
tal. Mr. Brewer was graduated from Dart-
postal station in Santiago on the Fourth of
July and to have half a dozen offices scat
tered throughout Cuba within a few months.
That his work is satisfactory to the depart
ment is shown by the following message
from the postmaster-general, which was
brought by the Hercules from Guantanamo
this morning:
"Washington, D. C., June 25.— Ebon P.re\ver,
Resident Mail Agent with Gen. Shaf tor's Army,
Playa, Cuba: Cablegram received. Your handling
of mail service very satisfactory. You need not
cable reports of army operations. All mail at Key
West for Shafter's army and lleet was dispatched
yesterday by collier Lebanon. More to follow Sun
day by army dispatch boat and authorized to
make regular trips to and from Key West.
"EMORY SMITH, P. M. G."
Louis Kempner, superintendent of mails
and in charge of the money-order and regis
try divisions, came here from the New York
postoflice. He was born in New York city
Aug. 4, 1862, and has been in the govern
ment service since 1886, when he entered the
registry division of the New York postof-
THE FIRST UNITED STATES MILITARY
POSTOFFICE, BAIQUIRI, CUBA.
mouth college in 1871 and visited Europe in
the fall of that year. He there became
acquainted with and investigated the work
ings of the Nord Deutscher Feldpost, which
was and had been forwarding two mails daily
from France from the time of the German
invasion.
On his return to the United States in 1872
Mr. Brewer was appointed secretary of the
United States commission to the Vienna ex
position of 1873. Returning, in 1874, he
bought the Erie (Pa.) Dispatch, and engaged
in the newspaper business for twenty-one
years, disposing of his interests in several
publications in 1895. In 1890 Mr. Brewer
came to Chicago as first assistant secretary
of the World's Columbian commission, and
in the fall of 1891 became chief clerk to the
director-general, Col. George R. Davis. He
practiced law in Pittsburg for a number of
years, and at the time of his appointment
was in Washington prosecuting several
claims against the government for his cli
ents.
It is Mr. Brewer's hope to establish &
fice. In 1891 he was appointed chief clerk
of station H, and during six years has been
in charge of stations H, P and B, the
largest and most important in New York.
He went into the money-order division in
1898.
Sergt. Claude I. Dawson, chief clerk to
the mail agent, was born in Burlington,
Iowa, in 1877. His father is Capt. N. E.
Dawson, confidential secretary to Gen.
Miles. He held the same position under
Gen. U. S. Grant when the lalter was com-
mander-in-chief of the army. Sergt. Daw-
son is a member of company G, 1st regiment
District of Columbia volunteers, his com
pany being well known as the Morton ca-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
143
dets, one of the crack drill organizations of
the east.
To-morrow Mr. Brewer will go- to the
front to collect mail from soldiers along the
line. He is working enthusiastically and
performing carrier work himself in order
that the men here and along the coast may
have the best service.
In order to facilitate the service all per
sons writing to men in the army should add
the company letter and regimental number,
and designate whether the person for whom
the letter is intended is in the regular or
volunteer service. Be sure and give the
name of ship when sending letters to sail
ors or marines. Writers of letters intended
for Cuba cannot be too explicit in the matter
of direction. Here is a good form to follow:
SERGT. CHARLES S. WILLIAMS,
BATTERY X, GOTH ARTILLERY, U S. V., I
5TH ARMY COUPS.
MILITARY STATION NO. 1, CUBA. 1
Mail addressed to sailors will be deliv
ered as quickly as possible, but there is
likely to be delay owing to the movements
of the ships.
REFUGEES FROM SANTIAGO.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
El Caney, whose normal population does
noi exceed 500, contains to-day 8,000 or more
people — residents of Santiago, who have fled
from the threatened bombardment. All of
them are hungry; many of them on the
verge of starvation. For famine had stared
them in the face for weeks before their
flight. There are sick among them, who
have been borne along on litters by men
whose enfeebled limbs are now hardly able
to support their own wasted frames, and
aged men and women who have tottered
painfully over the five miles of rough and
miry road between here and the beleaguered
city. Frightened, helpless, not knowing
whither to turn for sustenance and safety,
the constantly increasing multitude are cow
ering beneath the shell-rent roofs of the
little village or wandering aimlessly through
the narrow, rocky streets, waiting for what
may happen, praying that help may come.
El Caney is eight miles from Gen. Shaf-
ter's headquarters, whence I rode early
this morning:, meeting no one on my way
but a party of half a dozen insurgents.
Within a mile of the village there were
streams of people moving about the roads
and in the fields by the side of the road, with
strange patches of color among them — scar
let, saffron and blue — which presently re
solved themselves into parasols and the
dresses of the negro women. A family party
of perhaps a dozen persons were the first I
'met. There was a very sallow, middle-aged
man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, a freshly
laundered suit of white duck and a straw hat.
Leaning op his one arm was a gray-haired
old lady in black, who seemed very much
exhausted, and by his side his wife walked,
holding a big umbrella over her liberally
powdered complexion. Two girls of 14 and
16 years of age followed their parents, and
last of all came a fat negress with the baby.
The rest were negroes, apparently servants.
The man said his name was Martel and that
he was a French merchant of Santiago, but
his French was not convincing. He inquired
the way to Siboney and whether there was
anything to eat there.
"We have net eaten since midday yester
day," he said, "and the fatigue of the journey
has 'been excessive."
I told him that provisions for the refugees
were then on the way. "That is very good,
very kind and charitable of you Americanos,"
he returned; "but I should have been better
satisfied if you had left us alone. We were
doing very well. I have two houses already
smashed by your shells and I may have noth
ing when I get back."
All along the road up to the town men and
women, were passing bearing bundles and
baskets of mangoes and green cocoanuts —
ragged negroes, smart young clerks, staid
business men, women in dainty gingham
gowns and lace mantillas, negresses in gaudy
calicoes and blazing rebozas, all bearing the
same burden and most of them devouring the
fruit as they walked along.
El Caney was formerly a sort of summer
resort for the people of Santiago. Before the
insurrection they used to come out in excur
sion parties over the little railroad and dance
in the glorieta in the grand square to the
music of military bands and hold picnics in
the surrounding woods. But to-day the glory
is departed from the place. The main street
leading from the gate in the barb-wire fence
by which the town is surrounded is a steep
declivity of bowlders washed naked by the
rains. On either side are decaying houses of
brick or adobe thatched with palm leaves
and covered in patches with faded stucco of
once brilliant hue. The verandas are railed
with curiously wrought iron and massive iron
bars corroded with rust and heavy wooden
144
THE CHICAGO 'RECORD'S WAR STORIES
shutters protect the unglazed windows.
Within the rooms are bare — the barer per
haps that the town was looted by the Cubans
the day after it was taken — but at no time
can it be imagined that there was comfort
there. A few beds, an earthen arroya or
water jar, a brick cookinc place with a re
ceptacle for burning charcoal and a few
heavy chairs upholstered with bald rawhide
and brass nails seem to be about all they
have ever contained. It is pretty certain
that the insurgents carried off no furniture.
Now these rooms are crowded with people
— the women either dressing their hair or
cooking what scanty provision they may have
gathered from the field or brought with them;
the men discussing the situation animatedly,
smoking cigarettes or thrusting their fingers
into their ears to shut out the continual
wailing of. the children. Not all the children
CHURCH AT EL CANEY U II ERE 15,000 REFUGEES FROM SANTIAGO WKIIK FED.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
145
are crying. There are swarms of them nude
and unabashed playing in the streets outside
as gleefully as though the whole exodus hac
been arranged for their especial benefit anc
amusement. The negroes for the most par
seem as happy and care-free as the children
It is the "better class" — the men who as
proof of their station wear wilted linen col
lars and shirts and coats whose cut shows
a cunning tailor's hand — who are the mis
erable ones.
Even these delicately nurtured women
tired, hungry and somewhat bedraggled as
they are, show occasional flashes of gayety
and flirt their fans at want and fatigue with
a brave effort. At the top of the street is
the plaza, where, in front of the abandoned
church of San Luis de Caney, a great space
was fenced off with wires wound about
broken Mauser rifles stuck in the ground
The church is now the hospital and for
months it has been used as a fortification.
The sacred vessels are gone and its walls of
shabby brick and stucco are perforated with
loopholes for rifles. On the steps before the
great doors two burly troopers of the 9th
cavalry, white bandages wound about their
heads, smoked their pipes, their carbines
laid cross their knees and they themselve?
keenly alert in spite of their easy attitudes,
for those within were Spaniards.
They were not capable of much harm,
poor fellows. They lay groaning along the
aisles on the tiled floors or slung in their
hammocks from the wooden pillars, even
within the altar space from which a figure
of Our Lady of Sorrows looked compassion
ately down upon them. One of them was
dying and a comrade near him alternately
called to him words of consolation and
prayed fervently with his eyes fixed on the
Mater Dolorosa on the wall. There was a
Cuban surgeon ostensibly in charge of the
hospital, but he had done little to relieve
the sufferings of the wounded Spanish sol
diers. He was rather in favor of letting na
ture take its course with them until the
arrival of the American hospital corps.
Then he bustled about with a show of doing
something and eventually the men were got
into ambulances and taken to the divisional
hospital.
About noon a Cuban officer mounted the
balcony of one of the houses and stood in an
oratorical attitude and there was an instant
rush from all parts of the village to hear
what he had to say. It was good news.
Wagon loads of hardtack and of canned beef
were on the way and would arrive within
two hours. It was particularly desired that
the senores would refrain from crowding
when the happy moment came. Cheer upon
cheer, vivas and "heep hoorays," hand clap
ping and hat waving followed the announce
ment, and the Cuban officer got down with
the gratified air of a man who has struck
the keynote of popular approval.
In the meantime a troop of Rafferty's
mounted squadron of the 2d cavalry — the re
doubtable Rafferty himself at the head — was
drawn up in the plaza and a detachment of
the troop was scattered through the village,
accompanied by two or three Cuban lieuten
ants, who conducted them through the houses
and questioned the occupants. Every once
in awhile a man would be seized by a couple
of the troopers and bundled off to the hos
pital. One well-dressed "pacifico" started t)
run, but three carbines thrown up to aim and
a sharp command brought him to a stand
still, and he was likewise arrested and hur
ried away. Seventeen suspected of being
Spanish officers were at last garnered in the
hospital, and three of them acknowledged
that they were officers in the Spanish volun
teers. One was a captain and the other two
lieutenants. They said that they were really
peaceful individuals, but they had been
forced into the war, of which they were
heartily tired. Now they wanted to get out.
A fourth man was held on suspicion of being
a spy. The rest were turned loose.
Down a side street, near where a crowd of
people were staring wistfully at a baker's
sign, the British jack waved over the con
sul's tent. The consul, Mr. Ramsden, after
exhausting every effort in conjunction with
the other representatives of foreign govern
ments to induce the governor to surrender,
and after getting off most of his compatriots
on the warships sent by Commodore Hen
derson, decided to leave Santiago to be bom
barded without him. Mrs. Ramsden was
with him and seemed to have suffered acute
ly from her experiences of the last few days.
The consul told me that conditions in San
tiago were such as to make successful re
sistance impossible. This, in fact, has been
acknowledged during the truce by the Span
ish officials themselves.
^ From other sources I learned of the scar
city of provisions, the sickness among the
"roops and the overwhelming sentiment in
tavor of a surrender. On the day of the
irst bombardment of the outer works several
of the American shells burst in the city, and
the panic created was indescribable. Men
and women clutching their children by the
hand ran screaming from the blazing ruins
of their houses, and as they went they were
oined by other terror-stricken beings, who
grew presently into a crowd that the soldiers
'ound impossible to disperse. The house
•f the regional governor was besieged with
multitude, clamoring madly for surrender
and to be allowed to leave the city, but in
half an hour the firing ceased and order was
eventually restored.
On the morning of July 4 the governor
ssued his proclamation, permitting those
vho desired to do so to leave the city. The
ame night the soldiers raided the residences,
carrying off everything eatable they could
ay their hands on. It was a simple choice
146
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
before the people — either to stay and starve
and run the risk of the American shells or
to leave and trust to the tender mercies of
the dreaded "Yankee pigs."
It was nearly 5 o'clock before the pro
visions arrived, and then, In spite of all
admonitions, the crush at the distribution
was terrific, and at last the thing was ac
complished, and every man, woman and child
in the place got his little ration of hardtack
and pork. To-morrow ILe refugees will be
removed from Caney — most likely to Siboney.
Capt. Finley, with troop L of the 9th cav
alry, has been left in charge of the village,
and Maj. Rafferty has taken his Spanish
prisoners back to Gen. Shatter's headquar
ters.
WAINWRIGHT'S MEN.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
Safely anchored before St. Thomas in the
snug harbor of this beautiful island of the
Danish West Indies, the picturesque town of
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER RICHARD WAIN-
WRIGHT.
Charlotte Amalia, with its romantic old
towers of Bluebeard and Blackbeard sur
mounting the hills above, the saucy Glouces
ter is awaiting orders as to her further move
ments. The cruiser Cincinnati, gray in bat
tle color, is coaling from a schooner off the
port quarter; the flags of Denmark, Ger
many and France are flying from -the war
ships which represent those nations in these
waters, visited by Columbus on his second
voyage to the West Indies in 1493.
Built as a yacht, designed for the pleas
ure and recreation of a rich man, the
Gloucester, formerly the Corsair, possesses
no lines to suggest the fighting ship. There is
no armor to disfigure her graceful sides; the
comely freeboard is for speed, not resistance,
and the overhanging stern is more suggestive
of delicate construction than substantial
purpose. Only when the deck is viewed does
the impression of the Gloucester change from
that of the peaceful pleasure craft to the
murderous nian-of-war. Then one glance at
the batteries is sufficient to tell how the bat
tle with the Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers
was won on that memorable Sunday in July
off Santiago. Eight heavy rapid-fire pieces,
four to each broadside, with the Colt ma
chines of death fore and aft— an armament
too heavy by half according to naval
theorists, but one which has proved the wis
dom of its selection.
The big German warship here at anchor,
five times the Gloucester's size, does not
mount so many or such heavy guns. The
Frenchman and Dane, either one twice as
large and much more substantially built,
have together a lighter battery strength.
Six months ago any one of them would have
been considered the Gloucester's superior,
but to-day the three combined would hesi
tate before giving battle to the trim yacht,
because they know what she has accom
plished and have been taught that American
gunnery is a terrible and destructive force
when playing upon an enemy.
When Lieutenant-Commander Wainwright
was seeking an assignment which would en
able him adequately to remember the Maine
he was offered command of the Gloucester,
one of the mosquito fleet. He accepted, and
the navy department suggested that the ves
sel be given an armored protection before
going into commission. "Never mind the
armor," he said. "The boat is fast; give me
guns and men — they will be the best pro
tection." He was permitted to have his way.
The former executive officer of the Maine was
known as a safe man, but even his stanch ad
mirers looked askance when they saw the
guns he placed aboard. Those guns seemed
heavy enough to sink the craft when she
rolled in a heavy sea. It was predicted that
the discharge of a. broadside would tear the
boat apart. What did happen is now a mat
ter of record.
Having his ship and his guns, Wainwright
looked about for the proper men to serve
them. His choice has resulted in adding to
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
147
THE UNITED STATES AUXILIARY CRUISER GLOUCESTER.
the luster which is shed on the American
volunteer, for the men who commanded the
guns on the day when Wainwright and the
Gloucester were names indelibly written on
the page of history were there to serve them
for their country's sake in time of need, and
now that the work is done they are impatient
ly awaiting the word which will permit them
to lay aside their uniforms and return to their
vocations of peace. Not only did these offi
cers direct the fire, but they fought the guns
as well. One of them, Dr. Edson, after per
forming hir duty as ensign during the fight,
went into the operating room when the bat
tle was finished and assisted the ship's sur
geon in caring for the wounded Spaniards
picked up by the Gloucester's small boats.
Lieut. T. C. Wood was in charge of the
second division. He was with Wainwright
at the naval academy, from which he was
graduated in 1871. Then he went into busi
ness instead of following the sea. To-day
he is the president of the Ball & Wood en
gine company of New York, a man 40 years
of age, possessed of wealth, but who, remem
bering his early training, entered active
service when told that his country needed
him. In charge of the first division on the
port side was J. Tracy Edson, also of the
class of '71 at Annapolis, but known in New
York as Dr. Edson, medical examiner in chief |
of the Equitable Life Insurance company and
enjoying a large income from a lucrative
practice. To the starboard in the same divi
sion was Lieut. George Norman. In Newport
he 'is rated a successful man of business, and
at the age of 35 is in control of immense
properties. Since he was graduated from
Harvard he has been a sportsman, yachtsman
and polo player of international reputation,
to which he added a laurel or two for gun
nery on the 3d of last July. Assistant Pay
master Alexander Brown commanded the
two Colt guns during the engagement. He
is but 26 years old and was graduated from
Yale in 1891. He has rowed at Henley, has
held the record for throwing the hammer ana
is well known as an amateur athlete. He is
a son of the senior member of the Philadel
phia banking house of Alex. Brown & Sons.
Dr. Bransford, who is an ensign in command
of a gun, was formerly a surgeon in the
navy, but during the last ten years he has
been devoting himselt to practice in the east.
One of the guns was in charge of a petty
officer named Bell. In civil life he superin
tends a mechanical department of a great
bicycle concern. During the great fight the
firing-pin of his piece became clogged and
the gun was temporarily out of commission.
Despite the fact that shells were flying in
dangerous proximity, Bell sat down on the
deck, took the gun apart, inserted a new
pin and was soon active in the work of throw
ing shells into the enemy.
Dr. Edson has a brother in Chicago, ex-
Aid. Manierre. Lieut. Norman has a brother
serving as a volunteer under "Fighting Bob"
Evans on the Iowa; while another brother
fought with the rough riders. It is also a
coincidence that Norman's lawyer is Secre
tary of the Navy Long. Officers and men on
the Gloucester are suggesting that he in
struct his attorney to advocate the sending
home of the vessel now that war is at an end
and muster out the ship's complement de
sirous of resuming the business of life ashore.
This is but a glance at a part of the per
sonnel of an American fighting ship hastily
recruited when hostilities begun, but it tells
the reason Wainwright succeeded. His crew
was thoroughbred.
1 1
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE ROUGH RIDERS.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
One hundred and eighty men, fresh from
the heat-gendering wildernesses of Arizona —
men keen of eye and prompt in action — ar
rived in San Antonio on the 7th of May, 1898.
They were the advance guard of the 1st reg
iment of United States volunteer cavalry,
already known as Roosevelt's rough riders.
One thousand more like them from the ranch
es and ranges of the southwest were then on
their way to the rendezvous, and within two
weeks they were all gathered together.
The regiment was discussed by a group of
"old-time" frontiersmen — taciturn, gnarled
and scarred ex-sheriffs and ex-rangers — at
the Southern hotel the night before, or, rath
er, isome one mentioned it. The rest rocked
easily back in their chairs and puffed at
their well-blackened corncobs. Now and
again there was a short explosive chuckle
from the circle, then an old sunburned man
whose wrinkled neck was traversed by the
long, livid mark of a "greaser" bullet, ex
pressed the general sentiment. "Them boys
will make the Spaniards hard ter ketch," he
said.
There was a popular misconception of the
character of the men who were to compose
the "cowboy regiment." They were not of
the long-haired type, who are, in their own
vernacular, "wild and woolly and hard to
curry," the kind whose special delight it is,
or, is supposed to be, to compel the tender
foot to perform a pas de seul to the cracking
accompaniment of a gun. On the contrary,
the "puncher" addicted to riding his pony
into a barroom and to smashing the bottles
and the mirror was counted distinctly
ineligible. The officers who were en
gaged in recruiting the men chose the best
morally as well as physically. Good riders,
able to sit the most vicious brute in the
string and to bear any hardship of camp life.
They were to be marksmen of note even
among their fellows and of approved cour
age. Their officers believed, and had reason
for believing, that they would be more ef
fective than any other volunteer regiment
that could be raised. They were not to re
ceive much preliminary instruction. They
were to be kept in camp for a week or two,
during which time they would be able to fa
miliarize themselves with the bugle calls
and the more simple evolutions. For the
rest they were to be brought into shape on
the march. As soon as their equipment was
completed it was expected that they would
take the road for Galveston, from thence to
be transported directly to Cuba.
Col. Leonard Wood, who was to command
the unique regiment, arrived in San Antonio
two days before, and at once set about his
preparations for the rendezvous. He was ac
companied by Maj. George M. Dunn, who
was to head one of the battalions.
The day following Col. Wood went down
to Fort Sam Houston to buy horses. On his
arrival he had found a number of eager deal
ers awaiting him and the stock they had was
about what he wanted. The only thing was
that the market had boomed and prices were
soaring skyward. Eventually, however, the
horse dealers were made to understand that
the colonel of the rough riders was not a
man to submit to any imposition and the
meeting at the fort was arranged.
There were about 100 horses brought up for
inspection to start with when the colonel
arrived. First of all the saddles and bridles
were taken off and a preliminary examina
tion was made. Saddles were then replaced
and the trials of speed began.
The first to start was a man who wore a
fuzzy steeple-crowned Mexican hat gorgeous-
Iv adorned with silver-bullion braid and a
big pair of bell spurs. His horse was a good-
looking, well-groomed bay, that looked fit
for anything, but nevertheless did not jump
at the slackened rein. One of the big spurs
went into its flank, and then it made a credit
able bound and scudded off over the white
road in style. At 400 yards it was pulled up
for the turn, but there was another percepti
ble halt, and, though it came flying back
scattering gravel behind, its sides were heav
ing fast when it stopped and there was blood
on the big spurs. Col. Wood glanced at'
Capt. Stevens of the 5th, the post quarter
master, who had come to assist him, arid
shook his head. The regimental farrier thrust
out his under lip and Maj. Dunn said: "No
good." So the rejected bay trotted off.
The next horse was a flea-bitten roan,
whose ribs showed through, and its rider was
a dirty little man with his "chaps" patched
and cobbled in a hundred places. The raw
hide was half curled off the tree of his sad
dle and his bridle had been so often repaired
that it was more buckskin string than tanned
leather. He wore no spurs and he had no
need to. The roan, straining at the bit, was
off like a flash the instant the rein was
slackened, and the little man, his elbows
Papping, was round the course and back be
fore the man in the Mexican sombrero had
reached the sallyport. The roan was ac
cepted. Then came a chestnut ridden by a
Mexican. This one bucked half of the way,
but made good time the other half and found
favor in the eyes of the judges, and so it
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
149
COL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN THE ROUGH RIDER UNIFORM.
150
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
went through the afternoon, until at least
fifty sound, mettlesome and speedy beasts
were tied up in a row back of the quadrangle.
*******
Two hundred and eighty men exclusive of
those who were to attend to the pack train
were in "Rough Riders' camp" at Riverside
park by May 8, and, according to expert
opinion, a hardier, handier lot never set foot
in stirrup.
Standing in line before their extemporized
barracks they did not show to advantage for
they were of all sizes and all shapes and
their pose at "attention" would have made
a drill sergeant rave, but they were the pick
and the flower of the ranges for all that.
Their walk had a sailor-like slouchiness
about it, but it was full of spring and if
many of them were a trifle bowlegged they
had, they said, so much the better grip of
their saddles. Their faces had a pink glow
showing through the clear tan, telling of
perfect health, and there was a generally
self-reliant, alert look about them that was
very impressive.
The Arizona boys came first, under charge
of Maj.A.O.Brodie, formerly of the 1st United
States cavalry. The Southern Pacific train that
brought them in was switched from the main
line and brought to the fair grounds at River
side park, where Col. Wood was already in
waiting. It took the 200 about two minutes
to disembark. They began to leap from the
platforms where they had been standing and
swinging their hats as soon as the engine
began to slow up and as they leaped they
yelled. By the time the train had stopped
every man was out and Col. Wood was al
ready beaming with pleasure as he looked
them over. He shook hands once more with
Maj. Brodie.
"I congratulate you," he said, "I don't
believe there's a man among them I would
not trust for scouting. We shall have a
regiment of scouts."
They had brought their mascots with them,
one a small hairy dog, half Scotch terrier and
half French poodle, with a bunch of tri-col-
ored ribbon at his neck and another tied on
his stump of a tail. He answered to the name
of "Cuby." The other was a 4-month-old
mountain lion cub with fierce golden yellow
eyes and an innocent pink nose which was
spitting and biting viciously at a piece of
brush with which one of the men was prod
ding him through the bars of the cage.
"What do you call him?" asked Col. Wood.
The man who was squatting, cowboy fashion,
before the snarling little brute did not rise
and salute — his military education was not
sufficiently advanced — he just nodded in a
friendly way at his questioner. "We call
him 'Teddy,' " he answered. "He's shor a
fighter from Bitter Creek; see him show his
teeth."
A few days after an animated discussion
arose as to whether the name of the moun
tain lion mascot should be changed. It had
transpired that the cub was really a lioness
and the name "Teddy" was therefore deemed
by some inappropriate. They proposed Juan-
ita or something of that kind as a substitute,
but the original sponsors were unwilling to
abandon the compliment to their lieutenant-
colonel. The name, however, was never
formally changed.
That night the Arizona men showed what
they could do with horses. Fifteen of them
were detailed to bring down twice that num
ber of half-broken animals from Fort Sam
Houston. It was dark when they got there,
but each man dived into the line and brought
out his pair without a moment's hesitation.
No saddles or bridles had been provided, but
there was the all-sufficient rope, and halters
were speedily fastened about the heads of the
"leads."
For the mounts a simple hitch of the rope
about the lower jaw was bridle enough, and
while veteran cavalrymen stood by and won
dered the boys leaped to the bare backs of
the rearing, plunging beasts. As nearly as
could be seen, not a horse failed to "buck";
two reared and fell backward. The leads at
their ropes' ends "milled" and wound one
about another in apparently inextricable con
fusion, but, dark as it was, not a man in the
struggling mass was dismounted. One after
another they disentangled themselves, and
following their colonel's shout rode through
the sallyport, halting there for a minute or
two to form, then with a simultaneous whoop
they sped away, headed for camp.
During the afternoon a troop of eighty
came in from Oklahoma, under Capt. R. B.
Houston, who under normal conditions prac
tices law in Guthrie. The first lieutenant of
the troop, S. A. McGinnis, is also a lawyer
in times of peace; and the second lieutenant,
Jacob Schweisser, is an insurance man. In
the ranks, however, there were few who
were not either cowboys or horsemen of high
degree. With the Arizona men c^me W. W.
O'Neill, the adjutant-general of the state
militia, who was to ride as captain of troop A.
The regiment was divided into three squad
rons, the majors of which were Brodie, Hur-
sey and Dunn.
The new life the cowboys led seemed to
them a huge joke. They laughed to find
themselves going here and there in orderly
couples at the bidding of some "common
waddie" like themselves, just because he was
called lieutenant or sergeant, and to have to
keep step and get a pass to go down to the
town, just like the stiff blue-bloused un
fortunates they had watched pityingly at
the frontier posts. The humor of the situa
tion appealed to them constantly.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
151
One night the boys gathered around the
cracking camp fires quite early, for it was
then unusually cool at San Antonio, and some
of the men had come from places where the
mercury had already registered 110 in the
shade. Pipes and cigarettes were lighted
and- the boys stretched themselves out to
take their ease. After a little the inevitable
story telling began, There were personal
recollections of Cherokee Bill and Three-
Fingered Jack. Anecdotes concerning the
big black Mexican who married a white
woman at the Needles, and, "beating her up
a mess" one day, was found strung up there
for, or of Col. Follansbee's branding and the
dance that followed, where Pete Jones and
Sam Rickard "shot it out" and a bullet went
through Matt Bargham's cherished fiddle.
A story in which a spotted heifer, a
deputy sheriff and an unauthorized "flying
U" branding iron were the principal fea
tures was just approaching the appalling
climax and the dark eyes under the broad-
brimmed hats were shining in the firelight
with excitement when tattoo sounded, or
would have sounded if there had been a
bugle in camp, and a newly made sergeant
approached the group. "Fellers, you've got
ter quit and hunt yer bunks," he said. There
was a general chorus of expostulations. The
privates explained that they were much more
comfortable where they were and rather pre
ferred the night air; that tne smoke kept off
the mosquitoes.
"Go and tell Brodie not to be skeered
about us hurting our dilikit constitutions,"
said the man who was telling the story of
the spotted heifer; but the sergeant was in
flexible. "There ain't no monkey business
about this," he said; "it's orders. Come,
hump yourselves, now." And laughing at
themselves for doing it, but yet without a
thought of disobedience, the boys proceeded
to hump.
Without taking their military obligations
into consideration anything that Maj. Brodie
said would have been law to this tribe. Many
of them knew him personally. Some remem
bered when he was the lieutenant of the 1st
cavalry under Crook. All had heard of his
record as an Indian fighter, for in every
campaign of the stirring '70s against the
Navajos, Sioux and Apaches Brodie was in
the hottest cocners.
The equipment of the men consisted of
the ordinary brown- duck blouse and trou
sers, with blue flannel, army shirt and duck
leggings. For arms they were to have the
Krag-Jorgensen carbines, revolvers and ma
chetes. The rifles and revolvers were dis
tributed, but the revolvers were afterward
taken away. The machetes were shipped,
but went astray, and never arrived at their
destination. The idea of furnishing the men
with machetes was in conformity with the
original plan of sending the regiment to
Cuba as an independent expedition, to co
operate with the insurgents. If this design
had been carried out the weapons would
have been useful for cutting through brush
and to some extent as a cavalry arm of of
fense. As it was abandoned and the troop
ers were dismounted the machetes were
never missed. The distribution of the uni
forms and arms was completed within two
weeks, and the old weather-beaten, buck
skin-laced sombreros, fringed chaps and big
roweled spurs were discarded, together
with the trim khaki uniforms and elab
orate camp outfits brought by the men from
the clubs and colleges. The men assumed
an appearance of sober, monotonous, red-
brown regularity and were picturesque no
longer.
To carry out the idea of uniformity a party
of the cowboys started out with a lariat and
a United States branding iron as soon as
they had received their new outfit, with the
avowed purpose of imprinting the govern
ment mark on the left hips of all. They got
one victim; he ran away when he saw them
coming, and with a wild whoop they started
after him, chasing him as far as the pack
camp, where the packers lined out to in
tercept him; still he kept on until he was
almost up to the saddle line, then he doubled
neatly and was almost past his pursuers,
when the loop of rope shot out from the
racing line and he rolled headlong in the
dust. He was ready to submit then, but this
did not suit his tormentors. One took a
hitch with the lariat around his ankles and
then wound the slack about the pocket-line
post, while fourteen or fifteen others held
the rest of the line as if apprehensive that
the post might not hold. Then, while a bulky
individual feigned to sit heavily on the
head of the captive, the man with the brand
ing iron poked him in the ribs until he roared
for mercy.
*******
The rough riders' camp had been estab
lished nearly a week before Lieut.-Col.
Roosevelt could get away from Washington.
When he came he had the beaming aspect of
a schoolboy on the first day of vacation, and
fifteen minutes after he arrived at the hotel
he had his portmanteaus carried up to his
room and exchanged his suit of civilian gray
for the full uniform of fawn with canary-
colored facings. His service hat was set on
his head with just a suspicion of an inclina
tion sideways. In the afternoon he drove
out to the camp with Col. Wood.
The officers of the rough riders had de
layed their luncheon until they could wait
no longer, and had eaten and returned to
their duties, so that the tents at the quar
ters were nearly deserted when the long-ex
pected buckboard drove up and the chief
jumped nimbly out.
Maj. Brodie and Capt. O'Neill were the first
to greet their new superior, and the trum
peter sounding officers' call he was soon sur-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
rounded by an eager welcoming crowd, to
whom Col. Wood introduced him. There was
a rapid fire of questions after the introduc
tions were completed, such as: "What news
from Washington?" "When are we going to
start?" "What do you think of the men?"
Col. Roosevelt laughed. "Well, we have
got the arms and ordnance here at last," he
said. "I had to take them off the freight and
send them on the express, but we were
bound to have them. I hope and think that
we will move soon now, within a few days.
I want this regiment to be in advance of any
other volunteers."
"Yes," interrupted Maj. Hersey, "and we
don't want too many regulars ahead of us,
either."
"I think," resumed Col. Roosevelt, smiling
appreciatively, "that we shall see service.
Of course I can't tell how we are to be as
signed, but we are fit for outpost work and
scouting, and I think we may have an oppor
tunity to get into action all together. You
see, we are in a peculiar position. The other
fellows have reputations to make, but we
seem to have one to sustain. It has been
thrust upon us. We have got to do some
thing. As to the men, I am pleased with
them in advance. I know pretty well what
they are and what to expect of them. Do
you know we could have raised a division
just as easily as a regiment? I wish you
could see some of the agonized telegrams I
have been receiving."
*******
The social leaven in the unconventional
lump in the persons of the New York club
men and the delegations from Yale, Prince
ton and Harvard arrived in detachments of
twos, threes and dozens up to within the last
two or three days of the regiment's stay at
San Antonio.
These "dudes" were rather a disappoint
ment to the cowboys. They assumed no
"airs" and they looked, most of them, as if
they had muscle. One of them, the afternoon
of his arrival, had occasion to go downtown
and obtained leave to ride. The Arizona
men were delighted to observe that he se
lected a Roman nosed claybank with a ret
rospective eye for his mount, and they gath
ered round to see the beginning of their en
tertainment.
Contrary to general expectation the New
Yorker approached the animal on the near
side and gathered up the rains as if he had
done something of the kind before. Then he
raised himself easily into the saddle and
kicked the claybank in the ribs. There was no
bucking. The horse would have been pleased
to have furnished that part of the exhibition,
but its rider kept its head well up and did
not give it a chance. A few jumps and
plunges were all that it could manage, and
though the New York man easily kept his
seat, he could have done so probably if the
horse had bucked its worst, for he was Craig
Wadsworth, one of the best polo players in
America.
Among those who came in with him and
spread down their blankets on the barrack-
room boards that night were Basil Ricketts,
a son of the late Gen. Ricketts, who served a
two years' apprenticeship on a Colorado cat
tle ranch; Hamilton Fish, Jr., Horace Dev-
ereux of Colorado Springs and the Princeton
football team; William Tiffany, Kennetb
Robinson of the Knickerbocker club, Reg
inald Ronalds, half-back in the Yale football
team, and Hollister, the Harvard sprinter.
There were about fifty of these college and
club men in all, but their wealth and influ
ence secured them no special consideration
in the regiment. Their dinner that evening
was boiled beef and beans and bread baked
in a camp oven.
And they were soon cooking and cleaning,
fetching and carrying, doing orderly duty
and all the rough work of a camp as cheer
fully as if they had never done anything else.
*******
The endurance of the men composing the
"cowboy" regiment was put to a severe test
under a sun that sent the mercury up to 100
in the shade. The wind was sometimes like
a furnace blast, sending the light dust in
whirling clouds about them.
They drilled on horseback and on foot as
if their lives depended upon their energy.
They formed into solid masses and trampled
the hot crumbling clods of the plowed land
into powder, swung into columns, deployed
into line and charged up hill and down hol
low. Then at the word of command they
threw themselves flat on the ground to avoid
imaginable bombs, scrambled to their feet
and charged again, returning to camp with
masks of mud on their faces and with their
brown uniforms changed to gray.
The men from Arizona and New Mexico
came to the conclusion that "this soldiering
ain't what it's cracked up to be," and the
Oklahomans and the boys from Indian terri
tory cordially agreed with them. Still there
was no complaint. There were few who were
not inured to hardship and some who had had
experiences which made their life in camp
seem luxurious by comparison.
Some of the most typical frontiersmen in
the regiment, though by no means all of
them, were to be found in the Arizona squad
ron. One was Sergt. Samuel Rhodes, who
had lived his thirty years as a cowboy, miner
and deputy sheriff in the worst part of the
territory. In the cause of law and order he
had had more desperate encounters with out
laws and Indians than any other man of his
age in the west. He is one of the few sur
vivors of the Tonta Basin vendetta, and has
never counted it worth his while to notch the
butt of his six-shooter for Mexicans.
Before he enlisted Rhodes was employing
150 men to work a rich mine, of which he 13
the sole owner. When he found that he would
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
153
ROUGH RIDERS AT SAN ANTONIO, TEX.
be accepted he shut it down, flooding it to
prevent any one from stealing the ore, and
postponed the making of his fortune till such
time as he might return.
Then there were Henry Sellers, an old
scout of Crook's in the Geronimo and Vic
toria campaign, a wiry little man, with mild
blue eyes, who, according to the Apaches, is
possessed with ten malignant spirts; Daniel
Hogan, who followed Gardenas and Powell in
the exploration of Grand canyon of the Colo
rado; King C. Henley, whose specialties are
Sioux and Comanches, and Jeff Laforce, of
old voyageur stock, who, like his father be
fore him, has done nothing but hunt, trap
and fight all his life.
154
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Another celebrity was a slight-built,
smooth-faced lad of 20, whose companions
said he feared nothing on earth. His name
was George Younger, and he talked of his
"pap," Bob Younger, and of his Uncle Jesse,
In the course of time there came a period
of waiting, not idle waiting, for the drills
were unceasing, but it was felt that it was
about time for the regiment to start out and
do something. The anxiety of the men was
shared by the officers, but nothing satisfac
tory could be learned from the war depart
ment.
One afternoon Lieut. -Col. Theodore Roose
velt, waving his hat aloft with one
BAG USED BY GEN. WHEELER AS DIVISIONAL
FLAG.
hand and with the other placed gracefully
on his hip, executed a joyful jig-step in front
of regimental headquarters. Col. Wood, hold
ing an open telegram and smiling a smile of
mingled gratification and amusement, looked
on and half a dozen of the officers hurried
up to ascertain the cause of the demonstra
tion. When Col. Wood explained they waved
their hats, too, though they refrained from
dancing.
It was a telegram from the adjutant-gen
eral, asking how soon the regiment would be
able to start.
"At once," was Col. Wood's reply, and he
added a few words, reminding the quarter
master of the promises he and Col. Roosevelt
had received, that their regiment should, if
possible, be the first of the volunteers to
touch Cuban soil.
As soon as an orderly had dashed off with
the dispatch, Cols. Wood and Roosevelt
jumped into an ambulance and drove over
to Fort Sam Houston to enter into negotia
tions with the quartermaster stationed there.
That night the fires were roaring in twenty
forges and glowing iron was being beaten
into extra horseshoes for the troop horses, in
anticipation of the order to start. When the
two chiefs of the regiment returned they
gave the men a treat.
Two hundred and forty of the cowboys,
favored by fortune and the colonel, were
privileged to ride at full speed round the re
maining 600 and empty their revolvers in a
glorious, blood-stirring series of "pops." All
the 600 had to do was to keep their seats, and
this they did. The maneuver was decided
upon as a means of accustoming the horses
to the sound and smell of warfare.
Col. Roosevelt watched the 240 as they
passed and twice his hand went to his holster.
When the last man had passed he succumbed,
jerked out his revolver, shook his bridle rein
and was off in hot pursuit, firing on left and
right with the abandon of the wildest of his
troop. For ten minutes the firing was kept
up, by the end of which time the horses
hardly started at the noise. Then the squad
rons formed into fours and trotted from the
field where the scene was enacted back to
the stable line.
*******
On the afternoon of May 27 yells loud
and prolonged burst from a thousand
thoats in camp, greeting the announce
ment that the 1st volunteer cavalry,
otherwise Roosevelt's rough riders, had re
ceived its marching orders. Col. Wood re
ceived the dispatch from Gen. Miles at 5
o'clock and summoned the majors to his
tent and told them the welcome news. The
first shout came there. The captains who
were off duty hurried up to find out the cause
of it, and being informed shouted likewise
and hurried off as fast as their dignity and
dangling sabers would permit to tell the
men. Then came the grand demonstration —
a whoop arose that rang and echoed from end
to end of the camp. Hats, tin cups and even
saddles went sailing in the air. The cowboys
danced, they waved their blankets, they
Jeaped at each other, dealing mighty stag
gering blows in their delight, joined hands
and hopped around in furious gyrations.
Tents were wrecked in the frantic haste of
the occupants to get out and join in the cele
bration. The packers came rushing down
the hill from their camp at a pace that sent
many of them rolling headlong in the dust.
The cooks, the sentries, the negro camp fol
lowers >and the visitors within the gates all
became involved in the swift contagion of
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
155
excitement and cheered and whisked their
headgear skyward.
The order read:
"You will proceed to Tampa at once and report
to Gen. Shatter for duty with cavalry division.
Transportation will be by train."
When the first excitement died away and
the officers began to discuss the news some
disappointment was expressed. It had been
their hope and belief that the regiment would
be assigned to separate duty in Cuba. The
prospect of being brigaded did not please
them. The order considered was an indica
tion that the war department had satisfied
itself that Gomez had not force enough at his
command to permit of the co-operation of a
single regiment of United States troops. Still
the peculiar adaptability of the rough riders
for scouting work led their commander to be
lieve that the regiment might yet be de
tached.
Two days after reveille sounded at 4
o'clock in the rough riders' camp, and at its
first clash the regiment sprung at once into
activity. By 10 o'clock the 1st squadron was
required to be at the Union stockyards, four
miles away, with bag and baggage, ready
for embarkation, and there was no time to
lose. All the packing that could be done had
been done the night before, but that was not
much. The tents were still standing. Piles
of boxes of the supplies and munitions of
war were ranged back of the quartermaster's
tent. The cooks had breakfast to get and
their utensils to box up. There were horses
and mules to feed and water and a thousand
and one details that would keep even man
working his hardest.
The men were equal to the emergency.
Stable duty came first, and they set about,
currying and brushing and feeding the stock
with such unusual vigor that they had nearly
time to get their equipment sorted out and
blankets rolled before the perspiring cooks
had the coffee boiling. It did not take them
long to eat. They were too anxious to get
away and they were soon swarming back in
the company streets. Tents came down as
if by magic, bales and bundles were pitched
into wagons, packers backed their unwilling
mules from the lines and began to load, or
derlies rushed hither and thither, and in four
hours from the time the men tumbled out
of their beds the first section was mounted
and a string of heavily loaded wagons was
rolling through the dust on its way to the
point of embarkation.
A little later Maj. Brodie rode to the front
of his command and gave the signal for the
march, and the long line swung around into
a column of fours and passed out of the gates
at a walk. Then the sound of bells and
cracking whips came from the packers' camp
and the pack mules trotted down the hill
with their white double burdens and brought
up the rear.
It took two hours for the first section to
embark. When the yards were reached
packs and saddles were quickly stripped
from the backs of the animals, and they
were driven up the chutes into the cars.
The packs were stowed away in the box cars
and the saddles the men took with them.
At noon the first section started. The sec
ond section left at 5 o'clock and the third
at midnight. Col. Wood and Lieut. -Col.
Roosevelt went with the last section. Maj.
Hersey was in command of the second.
The rough riders were off to the war.
PARKER'S CATLINGS AT SAN JUAN,
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
Maj. -Gen. "Joe" Wheeler, the yougest old
man in the country, the liveliest "ancient"
that ever straddled a war horse, and as
courtly, gracious, daring and astonishing a
general as ever wore shoulder straps, has a
long list of things he wants congress to do
for the army. He intends to succeed himself
as a member of congress, if for no other
reason than to introduce and push forward
to the presidential signature bills intended
to increase the efficiency, strength and vigor
of the regular army. Up toward the top of
the list is an item — "Gatling guns" — and this
means that Gen. Wheeler believes the use
of Gatling and dynamite guns in the battles
before Santiago has proved beyond question
that the machine gun is of immense value
as an offensive and defensive weapon. So far
as I can gather, it is Gen. Wheeler's inten
tion to agitate for the creation of an indi
vidual and independent arm of the service
to be known as the "Gatling gun corps."
This organization is to be flexible in its
character, so that the Gatling can be used in
conjunction with cavalry, infantry or light
artillery, or by itself. A bill on these lines
is to be introduced by Gen. Wheeler — for the
latest reports from his district show no
doubt that he will be returned to congress
— and when he gets back to the United States
will take with him a draft of a plan of the
organization and formation of the corps of
the army.
The following are deductions drawn by
trained military men, of infantry, cavalry
and artillery, based on the actual fighting
156
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
experience of Lieut. Parker's Gatling gun
section from and including July 1 to July
11: First, the problem of controlled, concen
trated and dirigible small-arm fire at critical
moments of the engagement has been solved
in this Santiago campaign by the Gatling
gun battery. Second, machine gun and high
explosive gun service hereafter will and
must constitute a separate and distinct arm
of the service; more nearly independent,
more nearly able to take care of itself under
all circumstances and more effective at crit
ical moments than any existing arm, possess
ing all the mobility of cavalry, all the ini
tiative of the hussar (light cavalry of Ger
many); all the fire action of infantry; carry
ing its own means of transportation. Third,
this new arm of the service, now in embryo,
has before it in the future a wider field of
usefulness, a greater tactical possibility on
the battlefield than any other arm of the
service. It can go with the rapidity of cav
alry wherever an infantryman can follow
and can stay where the most effective light
artillery is compelled to retire from the
enemy's fire.
These are strong predictions to make, but
they represent the consensus of opinion ex
pressed by officers who watched the career
of Parker's Gatling gun battery from the day
it landed until the days of the white flag set
in. For the first time since the machine gun
was invented it was used as an offensive
weapon, even participating in a charge up a
hill to carry the Spanish intrenchments. It
also was used as a defensive weapon, and,
dismounted, was worked in a rifle pit. No
one who saw the Gatling gun going forward
to an advanced position on July 1 ever will
forget the ringing cheers which applauded
its passage when the galloping mules whirled
the light gun carriage along the rough trail.
The cheer broke out again when the soldiers
heard the Gatling's coughing and chuckling
in the gap at the side of San Juan hill.
In action each gun fired from 400 to 500
shots a minute, using the regulation Krag-
Jorgensen cartridge, so that each gun in
firing efficiency was equal to a full company
of infantry firing five volleys a minute. The
effective range of the guns was up to 2,500
yards. The guns were the regulation Gat
ling model of 1895, long ten-barrel guns,
drawn by two Missouri mules each. The
battery was under the command of Lieut.
John H. Parker of the 13th infantry, who has
made a special study of machine guns and is
regarded as high authority on Gatlings. The
Gatling gun detachment consists of four
pieces, each manned by a sergeant, corporal
and six men. In addition there are a first
sergeant, company clerk and cook.
The history of the detachment began at
Tampa, Fla., May 26, when, on the recom
mendation of Lieut. Thompson of the ord
nance department, Gen. Shafter detailed
Lieut. Parker for duty and gave him two
sergeants and ten men. Lieut. Thompson
gave Lieut. Parker four Gatling guns and he
proceeded to instruct his small detachment.
On June 1 Lieut. Parker was placed in
charge of the issue of ordnance material
for the expedition then fitting out and re
mained on this duty, in addition to duty on
his detachment, until June 6, when he went
aboard the transport Cherokee without
orders, his detachment having been omitted
in the embarkation order. About ten tons of
regimental stuff were piled in the hold of the
vessel on top of the guns, making it impossi
ble, under the circumstances, to send them
ashore. A few days afterward Lieut. Parker
went to Gen. Shafter and confessed, and the
general not only forgave him but asked him
what he wanted, telling him he could have
all the men he wanted and could have any
man in the 5th army corps. With this back
ing and encouragement from the general
commanding, made more effective by "special
order 16, 5th army corps," Lieut. Parker se
lected his men and the Gatling gun detach
ment became part and parcel of the army of
invasion.
Lieut. Parker to-day consented to tell me
the story of the detachment in Cuba. He
said:
"We disembarked June 25, and on that day
had to procure all the necessary outfitting
for the battery and organize the detach
ment, with an eighteen-mile march ahead
of us, over a road which had never been
traversed by a wheeled vehicle. This battery,
organized in a hasty manner, was to demon
strate the practicability for military service
of the road from Baiquiri to Sevilla. My re
maining twelve men reported for duty June
26, and on the same day we reached the ex
treme front and halted until July 1. Those
four days were employed in drill and inspec
tion, the only opportunity we had for this
kind of work.
"On the morning of July 1 we received
orders to take a position back of Grimes' bat
tery, which was in position on El Poso hill
under cover. We got there ahead of the bat
tery, and the second shell fired by the enemy
broke in the midst of our battery, but fortu
nately did no harm to the guns. We remained
under shrapnel fire and then were ordered
to the rear. We returned later to our former
position, and received orders to take the best
position we could find in order to make the
best use of our guns.
"Soon afterward firing began at our front,
and I rode forward on a mule to reconnoiter
and selected a favorable position for firing.
We moved forward to the advanced position
at a gallop. When about 200 yards from the
spot we were stopped by Col. Darby, who
told me that our troops were not sufficiently
deployed to take advantage of our fire, and
advised me to wait, promising to let me
know when the proper time came. We lay
down under our guns, swept by a perfect hell
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
157
of fire, both from the enemy in front and
sharpsLooters in trees around.
"At 1 :15 p. m. we got the order, 'Go in,' and
we went at a gallop to our position. This
was about 100 yards ahead of the line of
skirmishers in a fire-swept gap; we went into
battery, I gave the range from 400 to 600
yards, and ordered 'Commence firing.' Two
men fell at the right piece, leaving only one
man to operate the gun, and I took the gun
ner's place. At the same time firing began
from all our guns, and the enemy at once
concentrated his fire on us, thereby relieving
our other troops for the time. About two
minutes after we began firing I heard the
cheering of our own men around to the right
and left, showing they recognized the sound
of our guns. Five minutes after we began
firing the Spaniards began to clamber from
their trenches. We concentrated our fire
upon the fleeing groups thus presented and
could plainly see them melt away as 1,600
shots a minute went through them. Eight
and a half minutes after we started in our
troops had climbed so far upon the hill that I
gave the order to cease firing.
"I took stock at once of our losses, and
found one-third of the detachment had been
put out of the fight. Limbering up, we
started to the front at a gaHop. Climbing
up the captured ridge, we pushed our guns
into action on the skirmish line, compelling
the skirmishers to give way right and left to
make room for us. They were lying down
for cover and protection, but my men had to
stand up and fight it out on that line.
"We did fight it out, in spite of the fact
that the enemy turned his Id-centimeter gun
on us, to which we replied by driving his
gunners away from the piece with Gatling-
gun fire at a distance of 1,500 yards, the first
time such artillery ever was silenced by ma
chine-gun fire. The gunners left the piece
loaded and we devoted our attention to it
during all the remainder of the engagement
with such effect that the piece is still loaded.
A Spanish officer told me after the surrender
that they lost fifty men trying to man that
16-centimeter gun and had not succeeded.
"On the night of July 4 we put all our guns
in the trench, taking off the wheels, and
they participated in all subsequent fights,
keeping silent a battery of seven pieces of ar
tillery, and firing upon the enemy's trenches
every time a head was seen.
"From July 4 to July 11 the two Colts rapid-
fire guns and the rough riders' dynamite gun
were placed with my Gatlings, and were used
together thus: The dynamite gun threw a
shell of dynamite at some predetermined
point, which invariably resulted in a scat
tering of the enemy at or near that point.
All six of the machine guns immediately were
concentrated on the fleeing groups with terri
bly effective results. The dynamite gun with
the expedition was a hastily constructed piece
and in some minor details of mechanism is
faulty, but in principle it is all right, and I
should call the gun a success. It certainly
terorrized the Spanish soldiers. It threw a
shell containing four and one-half pounds of
explosive gelatin, equal to nine pounds of No.
1 dynamite. It was in charge of Sergeant H.
A. Barrowe of the rough riders, and the Colts
were in charge of Lieut. Tiffany of New
York. In this campaign the Gatling guns
were used on theoffensive and defensive, in
the trenches and on the outposts, and in
every way proved their sterling worth as a
most efficient and potent arm. Its future is
assured, for it has successfully passed
through the test of a battlefield."
WHEN SANTIAGO FEtX.
BY HOWBERT BILOJAN.
This has been a day of great and novel
events. Over the palace of the Spanish gov
ernors in Santiago de Cuba a new flag is
floating. In the Plaza de Reina, beneath the
august, frowning towers of the cathedral,
there are American riflemen. The legend
"Vive Alfonso XIII.," on a panel inside the
balcony of the governor's palace, is dark
and indistinguishable — a mere framework of
rusty gaspipe, unilluminated and meaning
less. And the army of the king, now become
a mob of hungry, dirty men, without arms
or equipment, lies out upon the hillside be
neath our line of intrenchments waiting for
rations to be given them as prisoners of
war.
How all these things have been brought
about will be very familiar to readers of
THE RECORD before this letter can reach
them through the countless obstacles neces
sarily encountered in getting it forwarded.
And yet, if I may judge from my own ex
perience, there are in the innumerable little
incidents of this memorable day as much, if
not more, real meaning and interest than in
the single event" it consummated — the capitu
lation and evacuation of a fortified strong
hold of the enemy.
It has been three days since Gen. Shafter
brought from between the lines the first
news of the approaching end. Thirteen days
only have passed since he sent in the first
flag of truce by Col. Dorst, with a demand
for surrender before beginning the siege and
investment. Rapid, effective work has no
doubt been done during the brief period, as
158
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
results are here to prove, but to men im
patient of the least delay it has seemed
wearying and monotonous. One day brought
forward little different from the preceding,
only changes in the front of the line, a
movement of a division or a brigade to the
right, or the advancement of a line of in-
trenchments to a more commanding position
or nearer by a few hundred yards to the
beleagured city.
This clear, bright Sunday morning (July
17) there came a sudden, enlivening change
upon the whole scene. Before the sun was
two hours high six Spanish officers, mounted,
came to our picket line on the Sevilla road.
One carried a silver-incased sword in addi
tion to his own. A squad of cavalry met them
and they were escorted to Gen. Shafter's
tent. The sword was Gen. Toral's. Gen.
Shafter received it and gave it in charge of
an aid. Along the slope of the hill groups of
mounted officers appear. The major who has
ridden in front dismounts and reports to the
commanding general. A bugle sounds, a troop
of cavalry forms in the trail below; Gen.
Shafter mounts his great bay horse, and
with Gen. Joe Wheeler by his side, the Span
ish envoys, the division and brigade com
manders and their staff officers following,
rides off to the Sevilla road.
The place chosen for the ceremony of sur
render was a gentle slope a little way in
front of the Spanish intrenchments and
about 200 yards beyond our picket line, on
the main thoroughfare leading eastward
from Santiago and known as the Sevilla
road. The cavalry was drawn up in line
extending to the left of the road, Gen. Shafter
and the escorting generals taking position
at the right. Their horses were hardly
brought to a stand before Gen. Toral ap
peared at the head of a Spanish column on
the road. The Spanish commander and his
escort reined their horses , opposite Gen.
Shafter, and a battalion of Spanish infantry,
with buglers at their head, marched before
him and on down the line of American cav
alrymen at quick-step to the music of the
Spanish bugle salute. When at the end of
the line they countermarched, and our
buglars chimed in with their salute. It was
an odd medley of blaring notes, but extreme
ly thrilling, that lasted until the Spanish
were formed in line facing the cavalry. Gen.
Shafter rode forward a few paces and was
met by Gen. Toral. A few words of greeting,
with the aid of an interpreter, and the aid
holding the latter's sword was summoned to
restore it to its owner. Gen. Toral then pre
sented his junior in command, Gen. Escarol,
and Gen. Shafter presented in turn the gen
erals of the corps. The bugle salutes were
repeated and the Spanish column marched
back to the city, Gen. Toral and his staff fol
lowing.
There was a moment of delay, and the
column of disarmed Spanish soldiers began
to file past toward the fields assigned them
for their camping ground. They were a sad-
looking lot, more wretched in appearance
even than the scrawny little fellows we have
sometimes found astray in the woods, though
there was distinguishable in the faces of
most of them a lurking malignity such as
I have never before seen common to a com
pany of men except in prisons or peniten
tiaries. Their light uniforms of striped blue
hung about them in limp and dirty tat
ters; their shapeless chip hats drooped to
their shoulders, and when their thin forms
were bent under burdens of foraged prov
ender they seemed as little like the com
ponent parts of an army as anything one
can imagine. But the officers, though they,
too, are pygmies beside our big West Point
ers, wore their swords and held their heads
up very proudly. Eve.ry four-footed creature
in the town, however badly broken down,
was levied upon to carry out the supplies
and personal effects. Later in the day I
saw two Spanish soldiers driving a pack
mule with a broken leg that hung by a few
shreds of clotted hide. If he put the bleed
ing stump to the ground and staggered from
pain they prodded him on. An officer passed
them on the road and made a humorous re
mark in Spanish, which all three enjoyed.
Such brutality is disheartening, but it is
part of the same savage, implacable char
acter that made these thin-chested, dirty
conscripts fight at El Caney and San Juan
like demons.
The delay was of only a few minutes dura
tion to permit this straggling procession to
pass. Gen. Shafter, his staff and escort then
proceeded on into the captured city. At the
edge of the city Senor Leonardo Ros, the
civil governor, met him and conducted him on
toward the palace, once the proud home of
the royal governors of Cuba when Santiago
was its capital city, and now representing
all that is left of Spanish authority in the
easternmost province.
Our ride into the city was like the opening
of a worn, decayed and worm-eaten book. At
each turn, indeed wherever we looked, in the
narrow streets, the low, lattice-windowed
houses, painted blue, pink or yellow, the
old, dismantled plazas and half-ruined
churches, there w%re stories just distin
guishable, but only partly told. What a mul
titude of great events they suggest! And
yet how little of all that has happened here
is even faintly divined. For we are in the
oldest city in the new world, the city whence
Cortez 'sailed to conquer Mexico and the be
ginning of Spanish dominion in the west.
It is a passing thought that perchance it is
historic irony that has directed the first great
power to arise in the west to come here
to Santiago, where Spain first exercised and
abused her authority, and humble her. But
the memory of other events crowd upon the
mind. Over there by the seashore — we catch
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
159
MAJ.-GEX. SHAFTER AT SIBOXEY STARTING FOR THE FRONT.
[From a photograph taken by Kathorine White.]
scarcely more than a glimpse of the place
as we go on toward the city— is the spot
where the crew of the Virginius was shot
in 1869. We pass directly under the long,
narrow buildings of the military hospital.
There are 1,739 sick men confined there, and
all the grated windows are now full of pale
faces eager to see what sort of men the
conquerors are. As we go on the streets be
come narrower and dirtier, the houses more
gloomy and more forbidding without. Some
are of two stories, with a balcony above, but
those showing evidences of greatest respecta
bility are upon a single floor elevated a few
feet above the pavement. The windows are
generally above the reach of peeping passers-
by and are provided with heavy grating or
lattice-work. Wherever there is a door or
window open one sees through a single room
into an inner court, provided with a fountain
and a bower of grfen plants. But the foun
tains are all dry, for the water supply from
the mountains was cut off a week ago..
The head of the column of invaders has
reached the governor's palace in the Plaza
de Reina. It is the proudest spot in Santi
ago de Cuba, but to-day it is deserted, except
by the poor people of the town and a dozen,
scarcely more, civil officials. Even the great
portals of the cathedral opposite are closed
and the place is vacant. The portico of the
Club de San Carlos, on the east side of the
square, is deserted, and the fashionable Cafe
de Venus, on the west side, entertains none
except a few men of manifest station grouped
about the main entrance. They gaze sullenly
at the strange trespassers. WTe had passed
through crowds in some of the humbler thor
oughfares, where were heard sometimes ex
clamations of pleasure — "Good!" "Good
Americans!" "What big men!" "What fine-
horses!" "Giants; they could eat us up!"
But in the faces of these men there was in
dicated only hatred.
The .civil police — soldiers indistinguish
able from the rest of the Spanish army ex
cept that their uniforms were trimmed with
red— prepared the way for Gov. Ros and his
guests. At the door of the palace they all
dismounted and passed into a large audi
ence room, an imposing apartment. Appar
ently it belonged to his own suite of living
rooms, for there were bedrooms adjoining it,
and evidence was not lacking of recent occu
pation, although everything was in the most
perfect order. But in the great hall where
the governor conducted the general and
his staff was centered all the good taste and
160
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
elegance I was able to discover anywhere in
Santiago. And yet its decoration was sim
ple. The floor was of tesselated tiling and
the walls were plain, except for a soft tint
of pale blue and trimming of gilt. On
either side of the room and extending to
the lofty ceiling were long mirrors of finest
material. The doors and windows were hung
with heavy Turkish tapestries, and the fur
niture was of a superb old pattern and of
solid mahogany.
Here, where Spain has made merry for
more than two centuries, our soldiers were
conducted. Their sabers clanked on the
stone floor. Some were thirsty and without
further ceremony hurried to the water jug
standing in a shady corner of the inn€r
court. Others, wearied by days of ceaseless
labor, betook themselves to the fine big-
armed chairs and lit cigars.
GEN. WHEELER'S ROADSIDE SIGN.
In the meantime Gen. Shatter at the head
of the great room was receiving the local
council and other civic officials. As the last
of them passed in to address him a little old
man, with the purple robe and round cap of
a bishop, accompanied by three priests in
black gowns, entered the main door. Those
who stood at the entrance made way rever
ently and the prelate advanced through the
crowd of officers toward the head of the
room. He was of no small importance in
this Spanish community, Fray Francisco
Saenz de Virturi y Crespo, archbishop of the
province. He was immediately given a seat
beside the general, and with the aid of an
interpreter they conversed with apparent
satisfaction. Then when he rose every man
in the room stood with military precision
at attention until he had passed and gone
out.
It was now near 11 o'clock in the morning.
The governor, seeking to do the honors prop
erly, had prepared a luncheon for the gen
eral and his principal officers. Members of
the staff put in the time strolling about the
captured city. At 11:45 every one was at
his station for the raising of the stars and
stripes where no flag save Spain's had ever
before floated. Ilafferty's squadron of the 2d
cavalry stood in a formidable line before the
palace. On the broad flag walks bisecting the
little square were marshaled all the com
manding and staff officers in the order of
their seniority, Gen. Shafter standing at the
front. Behind was the 6th cavalry band and
two battalions of the 2d infantry in line in
command of that tall, grizzled Indian fighter,
Gen. McKibben. Back of the square in the
narrow street in front of the cathedral the
remaining battalion of the 2d infantry was
drawn up.
All stood at attention. The hands on the
clock in the cathedral tower indicated five
minutes of 12. Lieut. Miley, Lieut. Wheeler
and Capt. McKittrick were at the base of the
flagpole, Lieut. Miley, tall and commanding,
in the center, holding the halyards and ready-
to hoist at the first stroke of 12.
It was a moment of thrilling suspense
which can never be forgotten by any one who
witnessed the scene. Every window and por
tico at every side and corner of that little
quadrangle was filled with dusky faces; the
great stone steps leading up from either side
to the wide portals of the cathedral were
packed, and yet not a sound could be distin
guished. It was the hush of awe. We felt,
and the crouching Spaniard in the shade of
the street corner must have had the same
feeling instinctively, that a great power was
moving there before us. We wratched the
slowly changing hands of the clock. The
cloclc strikes. The flag jumps to the top of
the mast above the legend "Vive Alfonso
XIII."
"Present arms!" came from the throat of
Gen. McKibben.
There was a rattle of saber links and rifle
locks. The opening strain of "The Star-
Spangled Banner" filled the air.
Every hat came off, and we watched our
handsome banner float in the breeze, the
world's token of P people's government. Un
til the end of the anthem we watched it
silently, lovingly. Then came the merry
notes, "Rally Round the Flag, Boys," and
we eased our full hearts with rousing cheers
repeated again and again.
The day's work was done, and it remained
only to make proper military disposition of
forces to prevent subsequent outbreaks. The
2d infantry was left in charge of the city,
Gen. McKibben being given temporary com-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
161
mand. Gen. Shafter and his staff,' escorted
by the cavalry, returned at once to their
headquarters. The next problem confronting
us was as difficult even as the first. The
Spanish army, unarmed, was assembling in
its camping grounds and must be fed. There
is food enough, but the roads from Siboney
are still impassable.
HOBSON'S HEROIC DEED.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
Eight men of the navy performed the most
daring deed of the war this morning (June
3), having sunk the collier Merrdmac in the
harbor entrance to Santiago de Cuba under
the fire of the Spanish batteries. Lieut.
Richmond P. Hobson, naval constructor as
signed to the flagship New York, with a crew
of seven, took the big coal-carrier into the
channel just before the dawn, pushed her
through the guarding line of torpedoes, and
under a perfect 'hail of shot and shell sunk
the vessel in a position which it is believed
wd-11 prevent the outcoming of Admiral Cer-
vera's squadron.
The affair has been an exhibition of cal
culating courage and indomitable energy, the
men who performed the task entering upon
their work in the firm belief that death and
glory would -be the end of their endeavor
to perform a signal service to the country.
These are the Tierces:
Lieut. Richmond P. Hobson, naval con
structor, flagship New York.
Daniel Montague, master-at-arms, flagship
New York.
George Charette, gunner's mate, flagship
New York.
J. C. Murphy, cockswain, Iowa.
Oscar Deignan, cockswain, Merrimac.
John P. Phillips, machinist, Merrimac.
John Kelley, water tender, Merrimac.
H. Clausen, cockswain, flagship New York.
Naval Cadet Powell of the New York, with
a picked crew of six men volunteered from
various ships, also shares in the glory, for
he went close in to the mouth of the harbor
in a steam cutter, awaiting an opportunity
to rescue any of the men who might escape
alive, and remained pluckily at his posit un
til daylight, when he was driven away by a
terrific fire from shore.
Hardly less remarkable than the act itself
is the news that Hobson and his men es
caped alive, a messenger from the Spanish
admiral, under a truce flag, advising Ad
miral Sampson that every one of the eight is
alive, well, and being treated as men who fol
low the profession of arms treat prisoners
whose bravery they are compelled to ad
mire.
It was Hobson's idea to block the harbor
by sinking a ship across the channel. He
submitted his plan to Admiral Sampson some
days ago, and after much consultation It was
decided to allow him to try. Death to those
engaging in the enterprise seemed certain,
and after great hesitancy it was decided to
LIEUT. RICHMOND P. HOBSON. U. S. N.
reduce the number of men participating to
the minimum.
Having formulated the scheme, volunteers
were called for the service. But eight men
were required. Two thousand offered them
selves. Not only did American sailors show
that they were ready at a moment's notice
to answer any call, but they pleaded, begged
and importuned commanding officers to use
tlu.-ir influence to secure the desperate but
coveted detail. Those who were chosen con
sidered themselves lucky. Those who were
refused declined to be comforted, and openly
averred that they were being treated badly
and that the navy was no place for a man
who wished to get ahead. Three men from
the flagship New York swam from their ship
to the Merrimac after being denied per
mission to enlist, were apprehended and re-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
turned to be punished because they violated
a discipline which interfered with their wish
to be numbered as part of a forlorn hope.
Another, H. Clausen, became a member of
the Merrimac eight despite peremptory or
ders to remain aboard his ship. He stowed
away on board the collier and went to the
channel, and is now a hero, a prisoner and
a deserter. Heroism in the navy is so com
mon that service of extreme danger must be
executed secretly in order to prevent an
exodus to the point of peril.
When Admiral Sampson reluctantly gave
his consent to the execution of a plan which
appeared to mean certain destruction for all
engaged upon its execution the Merrimac was
made ready. Torpedoes were strung along
her sides, with connections to the firing point
on the bridge. Her anchors were lashed.
The remaining cargo of coal which she car
ried was shifted so that she would promptly
list to port when anchor lashings were cut,
sea cocks hammered open and bulkheads
torpedoed. All in readiness, the start was
made Thursday morning; but ere the ob
jective point was reached the dawn was here
and it was seen that the Merrimac must be
discovered by the enemy before she could
make her destination.
Facing the deck of the New York, anxiously
watching the movements of the collier, was
Admiral Sampson. Alongside was the tor
pedo boat Porter. For a moment the com
mander in chief watched the sky; then, shak
ing his head, sent the Porter to recall the
daring Hobson. That officer, protested and
asked permission to proceed, but he was
denied, and the first attempt resulted in the
Merrimac coming about and resuming place
in the fleet.
During the day the naval constructor was
aboard the New York, and when he left that
evening he was almost jubilant. The final
orders had been given. He was not to be
recalled again, and the men, whose nerves
had been keyed to the highest tension for
twenty-four hours, were to be afforded the
chance to do the daring act.
It was about 3 o'clock this morning when
3,000 pairs of watchful eyes saw a sight they
v/ill never forget. The guarding hills of the
harbor began to spit fire. Shells shrieked,
solid shot bellowed and the thunder of the
cannonade broke against the hills and re
verberated in deafening roar. The Merri
mac bad reached the harbor.
In five minute's came darkness and silence.
TOLD BY HOBSON'S PILOT.
BY DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
"The Merrimac was within 500 yards of
Morro castle when our launch sheered off
and stood out to sea. Three minutes later
we lost the black, creeping ship in the dark
ness. Fifteen minutes— and Santiago channel
was a giant pin-wheel, with the sinking
collier for its pivot. Rifles spat fire from
every point of the compass, but no man saw
the Merrimac go down except the seven
dare-devils who took her in."
That is the story, in brief, of Capt. B. C.
Munson, once master of a Ward line steam
er, the plucky pilot who showed Hobson the
way into Santiago harbor. He came in from
duty with the fleet this morning on the am
munition ship Armenia, and when the rheu
matism gets out of his old bones he will go
back to lend bis knowledge of Cuban waters
to Admiral Sampson again. He is past 50,
and had given up the sea until Sampson
raised his two-starred flag and asked for
Cuban pilots. Munson went out on the Indi
ana, went through the first bpmbardment of
Santiago on the New Orleans, watched the
second from the bridge of the New York,
took the Merrimac up to the entrance of
Santiago channel and gave Hobson his course
—"northeast half north till Estrella battery
is on your starboard bow" — while the moon
light was gleaming on Morro's crest a short
half-mile away. And this is Capt. Munson's
account of the sinking of the Merrimac.
"The plan to block the channel with the
collier was Hobson's, and, of course, he got
the chance to carry it out. Capt. Miller, the
commander of the Merrimac, wanted to go,
but Hobson was chosen, and early in the
morning of June 2 he started for the en
trance. The New York, with the admiral on
the bridge, kept within a cable's length of
the Merrimac, but the sky lighted up while
we were still three miles out and Sampson
decided to wait till the next night. He
hailed the Merrimac and ordered Hobson to
put out to sea again. Hobson kicked, but
the admiral was firm, knowing that the col
lier could never pass the batteries, and we
all went back to the blockade line, five miles
off shore.
"Hobson tinkered with his torpedoes all day
and at 6 o'clock came aboard for a final con
ference with the admiral. He had picked a
new crew, and to keep them fresh for tne
last ten minutes Sampson sent a relief crew
aboard the collier to keep up steam until 2
o'clock, when Hobson expected to make his
second attempt. I went aboard the Merri
mac with him to take charge of the ship un-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
(63
til 2 o'clock and to pilot him into the chan
nel entrance. Hobson went to bed at 7 as
cool as a cucumber, and he was asleep when
I sent a sailor to his door at 2 o'clock.
"We started for the shore under half speed,
making about four knots, for fear of displa
cing the torpedoes Hobson had hung over the
siaes. I asked Hobson what his plan was.
'I don't know,' he told me. 'It will depend
on circumstances. I'm going to take her
straight in past the Estrella battery and as
far up the channel as I can, drop her bow
anchor, catch her straight across the chan
nel as she swings round on the flood tide, and
trust to luck.'
"He had his plans, nevertheless. There
was a seaman forward ready to cut the
anchor ropes, another aft for the same pur
pose, a man in the engine room, one in the
fireroom and one in the pilot house. Except
the man at the wheel, they all had light
lines tied to their legs, and Hobson was to
give them a jerk by way of signal when he
was ready to sink her. The sailor in the'
fireroom was to open the sea valve when the
ship passed Morro castle, so that she'd be
sure to sink, even though the torpedoes
failed. The New York's steam launch, with
Cadet Powell in command, followed us in
to take off the relief crew.
"Three-quarters of a mile off Morro we
made out the crest of Estrella battery, for
which Hobson was to steer. Then I gave
him his course — 'northeast, half-north, till
the battery is on your starboard bow, then
straight in, keeping the right bank fifty
yards away.' 'I understand perfectly,' Hob-
son said. He was as unmoved as though he
were going to a parade — not almost certain
death. 'There's nothing else?' I asked.
'Nothing, pilot,' he said. 'Good-by.' Then
we shook hands and I scrambled down the
Jacob's ladder and dropped into the launch.
"The relief crew had Left the ship half an
hour before, every one shaking hands with
every one else, as they went over the side,
and when I got aboard the boat Mr. Powell
oast off immediately. We were horribly
close to shore. Morro was frowning right
over us and the outlines of the Estrella bat
tery were clear in the moonlight. The ship
was churning softly ahead, and the men in
the launch spoke in whispers. As we
dropped astern the sailor at the after anchor
hailed: 'You left an engineer aboard. Come
back.' And so we ran back, the cloud
hiding the moon just as we started. When
we got that man aboard we were within
500 yards of the cliff Morro is built on, but
the Spaniards didn't see us and we got away
safe. Three hundred yards away from the
Merrimac the gloom swallowed her. That
was the last any sailor now in the fleet saw
of the collier.
".Cadet Powell put straight for the Texas,
which had stood in to the two-mile line to
pick us up. He put the relief crew aboard
the warship, and went back to help Hobson
if he could. I was on the bridge of the
Texas when the Spaniards found the Merri
mac. There must have been a thousand
Mausers spitting fire at her, besides the guns
of Morro and the batteries. It was gorgeous
and horrible. That Hobson and his men
lived through it is a wonderful thing. Until
the middle of the afternoon, when Cervera
sent out his flag lieutenant — the most nerv
ous officer I've ever seen — to tell us they
were safe, we feared the worst. Powell hung
to the entrance till morning, when the bat
teries opened on him, but there was no sign
of the seven and we had almost given them
up. I saw both bombardments of Santiago
and the pounding Sampson gave San Juan,
but it was all play to that snail race with
death into Santiago channel."
SHAFTER'S FLAG RAISING.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
Soldiers who wrote home this afternoon
dated their letters "Santiago, U. S. A.," for
the stars and stripes are flying from the flag
staff where Spain's scarlet and yellow were
streaming this morning. The narrow, cob
ble-stoned streets of this old place are pa
trolled by American soldiers, and an Ameri
can brigadier-general sits at the desk used
only this morning by the Spanish governor-
general and dictates orders and directions
to his secretary. And the Spaniards, mili
tary and civilian, seem to like it all. They
have learned to say "Hello" and "How do?"
and they smile and bow and wave their hands
from balconies and grilled windows and cry
"Americanos, muchos, buenos," as the
"brownies" pass by. There has been much
effusive hand-shaking, many toasts to the
United States and Spain, to Gen. Shafter and
Gen. Toral. to a speedy and amicable end of
the war, ancl much exchanging of buttons,
cigars and shoulder straps between the
American and Spanish officers. This may
have been genuine good-fellowship and it
may have been simply the smile which only
shows a glint of teeth.
But there is no mistaking the genuineness^
which gives a true ring to the pretty, cour
teous speeches and kindly words which come
from the lips of the common people. They
have been starved and robbed by the Span
ish soldiery in Santiago; mistreated, robbed
164
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
and wounded by the insurgents outside the
city; their homes have been broken up; their
children have grown thinner and thinner,
until their emaciated bodies show every
bone, process and sinew. They have been
told repeatedly that the Americans, if they
captured Santiago, would turn the city over
to Garcia's men, who would slay, loot and
outrage. All these lies and more were
poured into the ears of Spanish soldiers and
the people of Santiago.
This morning (July 17) the dreaded Amer
icans, a little party of less than 200, entered
Santiago. Not a Cuban soldier or officer was
in the column. The archbishop of Santiago
was received with all the honors and cour
tesies a victorious general could give; the
people saw with their own eyes big, broad-
shouldered, straight-backed, bearded Amer
ican soldiers insist on paying for cigars and
rum, chuck the native children under their
chins and give them hardtack and biscuits,
the first bread the little ones have eaten for
weeks.
Then the common people of Santiago came
out on the streets and crowded the little
square, where the 6th cavalry band played
"The Star-Spangled Banner," Sousa's
marches, "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old
Town To-Night," "Let Me Off at Buffalo"
and other American music, and embraced
each other and patted the boys in blue and
the boys in brown on their shoulders, and
produced huge bundles of big, black, fat
cigars and globular bottles of wine and rum,
for they knew then that their superiors had
lied to them, and they called the Americans
"Amigos."
And the lie was nailed and clinched on the
under side this evening when Gen. McKib-
beu, the military governor of Santiago,
turned over to the civic authorities a score
of Cuban soldiers who had entered the city
from the north disguised as refugees, ap
parently for the sole purpose of starting a
row. They were very brave, for they knew
the Spanish soldiers had turned over their
Mauser rifles to us, and every Cuban had a
machete and revolver. But the men of the
9th infantry threw their brawny arms
around the Cubans, took away their cane-
cutters and pistols, gave each of them a few
kicks just for luck and marched them to the
jail.
This little exploit was noised around the
entire city within an hour, and when San
tiago went to bed to-night it slept in peace
for the first time since Admiral Cervera's
fleet steamed up the tortuous channel of the
bay.
The chimes of the o!d cathedral which
forms the south side of the Plaza de Armas,
where the simple little ceremony of raising
"Old Glory" over the Spanish governor's
palace took place, gave the signal to Lieut.
Miley, Capt. McKittrick and Lieut. Wheeler,
who stood at the foot of the' flagstaff on the
red roof tiles, and just as the twelfth stroke
sounded the stars and stripes rose to the
top of the staff, and the band in the center
of the square sent "The Star-Spangled Ban
ner" up and down Santiago's slopes, and
was answered by the national salute from
Capron's battery, stationed on a hill to the
north. That instant all the eastern half
of Santiago province — 5,000 square miles —
became part of the United States. The ne
gotiations which in time will lead to peace
between the two warring nations may take
this beautiful part of Cuba from us, but to
night every American soldier in Santiago
and on the hills around firmly believes that
he is standing on his country's soil.
Yesterday Gen. Shafter's programme did
not contemplate a triumphal entry into the
capitulated city. He and Gen. Toral and
their staffs were to meet below the lines;
the king's guard, representing the Spanish
army, was to give up their arms; a detach
ment of mounted cavalry, representing the
American army, was to pay the honors of
war to their defeated opponents, and that
was to be all.
Bu't it chanced that this morning was
cloudy, and yet no rain fell. It was cool for
this country. The medical officers had re
ported but little yellow fever in Santiago, and
Gen. Toral himself invited Gen. Shafter to
luncheon in the governor's palace. This in
vitation was enough of itself to 'take any
American here into Santiago, and Gen.
Shafiter, who has been living on campaign
fare little if any 'better than the rations
served to the soldiers, accepted Gen. Toral's
invitation; so we all went into Santiago on
the spur of the moment, as it were.
The ceremony which sealed the capitula
tion of Santiago was simple and short.
Promptly at 9 o'clccck this morning all
division and brigade commanders and their
staffs reported to Gen. Shafter laJt his head
quarters. With Maj.-Gen. Wheeler at his
left, Gen. Lawton and Gen. Kent behind, and
the other officers, according to rank, fol
lowing, the little Cavalcade, escorted by a
detachment of Rafferty's mounted squadron,
rode around the base of San Juan hill and
west on the royal road 'toward Santiago.
Just about midway between the American
aind Spanish lines of rifle pits stands a lordly
ceiba, 125 feet high to the crown, nearly ten
feet in diameter at the trunk and spreading
fifty feet each way from the polished tree
shaft. Under this tree Gen. Toral and a
score of his officers awaited the Americans.
As Gen. Shafter came down the slope toward
the tree Gen. Toral advanced a few feet and
raised his hat. Gen. Shafter returned the
salute, and then the quick notes of a Spanish
bugle, marking the cadence of a march,
sounded on the other side of the hedge whicn
bordered the road, and the king's guard, in
column of twos, came into view. Before they
arrived on the scene the American cavalry
men had lined up with drawn sabers at a
carry, each man and horse motionless.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
165
The Spanish soldiers came through a gap in
the hedge in quick time, the Spanish flag
leading the column and two trumpeters
sounding the advance. The soldiers marched
in excellent order, but as they passed Gen.
Shatter their eyes moved to the left and
they glanced curiously at the men who had
served as their targets only a few days be
fore. About 200 soldiers and officers were
in the king's guard, and the little command,
after moving down the entire front of the
detachment of cavalry, countermarched, and,
swinging into line, halted facing the Ameri
cans, about ten yards distant.
For a few minutes Americans and Span
iards faced each other, silent and motionless.
Then the two trumpeters gave tongue to
their horns again; a Spanish officer shouted
a command; the Spanish colors dipped in a
salute; the Spanish soldiers presented arms
and the Spanish officers removed their hats.
Capt. Brett's quick, terse command, "Present,
sabers!" rang over the hillside, and American
swords flashed as the sabers swept down
ward. Gen. Shafter removed his hat, and his
officers followed his example. For half a
minute — and it seemed longer — the two little
groups of armed men, each representing an
army, remained at "the salute." The Span
ish officer in command of the king's guard
was the first to break the silence. His com
mands puts the Spaniard « in motion, and they
again passed before the Americans, who re
mained at "present arms" until the last of
the guard had marched by. The Spaniards
marched back toward Santiago a few hun
dred feet, halted, stacked their Mauser rifles
and then, without arms or flags, filed back
of the American lines and went into camp
on the hill just west of San Juan hill.
The formal part of the proceedings came
to an end with this little ceremony, then
Spanish and American officers mingled,
shook hands and exchanged compliments.
While the king's guard and the American
cavalrymen were saluting each 'other the
5th army corps stood on the crest of the
parapet of the rifle pits, forming a thin line
nearly seven miles long. Only a small part
of the army could see the groups of Spanish
and American soldiers under the ceiba tree,
but every one of the men who had been fight
ing and living in our trenches strained his
eyes to catch a glimpse, if possible, of the
proceedings which put an end to hostilities
in this part of Cuba.
After a few minutes of informal talk Gen.
Toral and his officers escorted Gen. Shafter
and his military family to Santiago. Only
half a dozen of all the Americans in the
little procession had ever been west of the
"surrender tree," as the boys call the beauti
ful ceiba, and we examined with consider
able interest the advance line of Spanish
rifle pits, which crossed the royal road in the
shape of a deep trench. The intrenchments
were much like ours, but the second line, a
quarter of a mile nearer Santiago, was fenced
in with a double line of barb-wire entan
glements — nasty things for man or horse.
The road became a street near the group of
military hospitals and barracks, and the
barricades of barb wire, earthworks, barrels
and bags filled with sand, overturned carts
and deep ditches gave visible evidence that
Gen. Toral had made preparations for a
last-ditch fight. The narrow thoroughfare,
lined on each side with flat-roofed, one-
story houses, squatty and mean in appear
ance, turned to the right or left every few
hundred feet. The topographical conditions
were admirably suited for defense, and the
American officers marveled the more that
the Spaniards had surrendered without one
more fight.
Gen. Shafter's entrance was hardly the tri
umphant march of a victor, for the proces
sion of Americans and Spaniards ambled
quietly and unostentatiously over the cobble
and blue flag stones, around the little public
circles and squares, past ancient churches
and picturesque ruins of what once were
the homes of wealthy Spaniards, through
narrow, alleylike streets to the Plaza de
Armas, with the cathedral, the Cafe de
Venus, the governor-general's palace and
San Carlos club facing the square.
Gen. Toral was the first to spring from his
horse, and he held out his hand and wel
comed Gen. Shafter to the "palace." This
was a few minutes after 10 o'clock. The
cable dispatches have told of the luncheon
and reception which preceded the flag-rais
ing, of the studied honor paid the old arch
bishop, who a few weeks ago .in responding
to a toast at the banquet given Admiral Cer-
vera, predicted that the Spanish flag would
be flying over the dome of the American cap-
itol before the Fourth of July, and of the
quiet, almost informal way with which Gen.
Shafter took up the reins of government and
made Santiago an American city for the time
being.
By the time the luncheon was over and
the papers had been witnessed and signed
the 9th infantry had marched into the square
and formed two lines, facing the palace, and
the band had taken its station in the center
of the broad walk, with the American officers
grouped in front. Just five minutes before
noon Gen. Shafter, Gen. Wheeler, Gen. Law-
ton and Gen. Kent came from the palace and
joined the officers, and Lieut. Miley, Gen.
Shafter's chief aid-de-camp; Cept. McKit-
trick and Lieut. Wheeler, Gen. Wheeler's
son, swarmed over the red roof tiles to the
flagstaff. Then followed five long, ex
pectant, silent minutes. Some of the officers
held watches in their hands, but most of
them kept their eyes on the little ball of
bunting which cuddled at the foot of the
flagstaff. Gen. McKibben, his long, slim
figure erect, stood before the 9h regiment,
and when the first stroke of the cathedral
clock bell sounded from the tower he
166
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
whirled around and gave the command "Pre
sent arms." The final word was spoken just
as the flag fluttered up toward the tip of
the staff, and the swish of sweeping sabers
came with the opening notes of the "Star-
Spangled Banner," and every American there
saluted our flag as the wind caught the folds
and flung the red, white and blue bunting
out under the Cuban sun and over a con
quered Spanish city.
And when the last notes of the national air
died away and the rifle butts had come to
an "order" on the pavement, and the sabers
had been slipped into tneir sheaths, men
whose faces and throats were deep brown,
whose cheeks were thin, whose limbs trem
bled with fatigue and Cuban fever, whose
heads wore bandages covering wounds made
by Spanish bullets, but who had stood
straight, with heads erect, were not ashamed
to wipe from their eyes the tears which came
when "old glory" spread its protecting folds
over Santiago.
The band turned itself loose and for two
hours gave Santiago a characteristic Amer
ican band concert, with grand opera, sacred
music and rag-time jingles mixed up in a
medley, which brought thousands of San-
tiagoans to the place. As it was Sunday but
few shops were open, ancl almost the first
order issued by Gen. McKibben was one
forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors for
three days.
This order was strictly obeyed, and the
Americans, who had been "dry" for a month,
had as hard a time getting drinks as though
Santiago were a Kansas town. Guards were
stationed, but all arrests were turned over
to the civil authorities, and, save for the flag
of the United States flying over the governor-
general's palace and a few American sol-
r'^rs apparently loafing on the shady side of
1 street, there was nothing to indicate that
lue Americans were in full and complete
possession of the principal city of one of the
largest provinces of Cuba.
RED CROSS IN THE LEAD.
BY KATHEKINE WHITE.
The Red Cross ship State of Texas, filled
with food and clothing for the suffering Cu
bans, was the very first vessel to enter San
tiago harbor after the city had fallen into
the hands of the United States army.
Miss Barton had reported to Admiral
Sampson that the State of Texas and her
staff were ready to enter the long-closed har
bor as soon as it was possible for him to
grant permission. Those of us who had been
working with the Cubans in Siboney knew
the depths of their needs, and were sure that
conditions in Santiago must be even more
distressing. The Red Cross had been work
ing under extreme difficulties, unloading
supplies and sending them to relieve the
distress of the Cubans wherever it was un
covered by the operations of the army. But
without a port to enter or warehouses in
which to store the goods, the cargo could be
unloaded only by small bits, and many arti
cles of food were fast deteriorating from ly
ing in the hold. So it was a great cause for
rejoicing the day it was learned aboard the
State of Texas that Santiago had surrend
ered and the ship would soon be able to enter
port and begin the real work of food dis
tribution.
It was midafternoon on Sunday, the 17th,
when the admiral sent a pilot from the New
York and told the Red Cross vessel to go
ahead.
The black Red Cross vessel slowly steamed
past the warships, crept by Morro castle and
we were facing the Estrella battery, sur
rounded by the dozen fortified points, which,
manned by Americans, would make the place
a Gibraltar for defense, when we came upon
the sunken Merrimac. Nothing shows above
the water except a few feet of her funnel
and her two masts. Another wrecked vessel
lies close to the one which Hobson risked so
much to destroy. It is the Spanish cruiser
Reina Mercedes, with which the escaping
admiral attempted to block the channel
against American entrance after his own
flight. The Reina Mercedes lies well upon
shore, careened in shallow water, with her
decks at an angle of 45 degrees and her upper
decks half awash. The galling fire which
was poured into the mouth of the harbor by
the American vessels when the cruiser was
maneuvering for position was simply intol
erable, and her crew beached her to save
their lives. Neither vessel obstructs the
channel in the least, and the Merrimac re
mains but a monument to brave endeavor.
After we passed the intricate curves of the
entrance channel and the view opened before
us the whole of Santiago harbor was visible,
extending in a curving, cove-indented course
for five or six miles. The shore is marked by
a range of green, palm-covered mountains,
with little valleys cutting through the hills,
down which come the sudden summer thun
derstorms, as in every tropical country that
I have seen. The mountain sides show marks
of cultivation .and the luxuriant foliage Is
sufficient testimony that when peace reigns
plantations will be prosperous.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
RED CROSS SHIP STATE OF TEXAS.
Along the shore line of the harbor many of
the projecting points are dotted with little,
low, quaint cottages, and as we passed them
the occupants came running to wave their
enthusiastic welcomes. As we made our way
farther down the harbor the specks at the
olher extremity began to take form, and the
city was really in sight. Soon the brown-
tiled roofs appeared. Next the inevitable
Spanish blue of the houses made itself more
pronounced — that color which is the domi
nant tone in every Cuban city. The tops of
the cocoanut palms waved above the houses
like great, soft bunches of plumes. Just as
the ship came to anchor the mist lifted like
a white veil from the mountains and the sun
went down in a rosy light.
It was impossible to escape a realization of
the impressiveness of the occasion. The Red
Cross was at last in reach of its mission and
organized systematic work. The president
and her staff stood on the bow of the vessel
and the voyage of the State of Texas was
ended as they sung the doxology.
Across the bay on the farthest shore we
could see the 'brown tents of our soldiers
pitched on the outskirts of the village of El
Caney, and on beyond was San Juan hill,
where the rough riders met with such terri
ble sacrifice of life. Over the government
palace in the city the stars and stripes were
floating. The curious Cuban crowd came
swarming down to the docks to see the first
American ship to enter the harbor of the
fallen city. They are a sorry and most unat
tractive looking people. In the midst of all
their beautiful natural surroundings I could
not restrain a feeling of pity and sympathy
for them, and an almost fierce hope came
over me that our country may deem it proper
to act with a sublime justness and kindliness
toward the oppressed people of this heaven-
blessed, man-cursed island.
Two men from the State of Texas went
ashore to make arrangements for the secur
ing of warehouses and the unloading of the
cargo. Every courtesy was shown them, and
6 o'clock the following morning saw eighty
stevedores at work. At the end of that first
day 300 tons of food had been taken from the
ship and placed in warehouses.
That morning Admiral Sampson and Com
modore Schley, with a staff of officers, came
up in the Vixen and docked their vessel be
side the State of Texas. Miss Barton went
to the side of her ship to thank the admiral
for his courtesy in giving her precedence
in entering the port. He laughed good-
naturedly and said: "Oh, we wanted you to
test the harbor to find if it was safe for us
to come." He complimented her most high
ly for the work her men were doing, saying
he had not believed it possible to accomplish
so much in so short a time. The work had
been managed so well that at that early hour
168
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
the dock was piled high with boxes and bar
rels, and details of men were hurrying away
great carloads over the dock railways to the
warehouses. It was interesting to see those
hungry Cuban men at work earning their
food. The conditions here have been dis
tressing in the extreme. The city has been
practically swept clean of food. Men with
plenty of money came literally begging for
anything with which to feed their starving
families. Crackers have sold for 40 cents
apiece, tinned beef for $4 a can and con
densed milk has actually been selling for $2
and $3 a can. Chickens are said to bring $8
apiece. So great has been the dearth of food
supplies that these exorbitant prices were
gladly paid by people who had money. One
of the Red Cross assistants, whose former
home was in Santiago, has gone among his
old friends and come back with the most
pitiable reports of distress. He told how one
man with his hands full of money came and
implored him for food to relieve the actual
hunger of his family. Rice, coffee and sugar
were still to be had, 'but aside from these
articles the stores are empty. The steve
dores who are unloading this ship are paid
$2 a day in rations, and when the day's al
lowance is dealt out to them there is a
scrambling and talking and quarreling
worthy a flock of magpies. It is amusing
and pathetic to watch the waifs who crowd
the docks, eagerly waiting a chance to
pounce upon any stray article which may
escape from the boxes. Every crumb is
carefully gathered into their little ragged
hats and triumphantly carried away. The
very cornmeal that spilled from the sacks
was scraped clean from the ground and taken
home. One poor black fellow filled his hat
with beans, and it would have been difficult
to decide whether the hat really contained
more beans or black dirt. But it meant
something to eat, and nothing could be al
lowed to go to waste.
The Cuban peon seems naturally inclined
to pilfering. These people understand that
this food is for their use; they know that soup
kitchens are to be established and that they
will be fed, and yet it requires a strong and
constant guard to make sure that anything
will be left in the warehouse. To-day a little
fellow scarcely more than a baby came peer
ing around to discover if he was watched, and
then when he was satisfied that no eye was
upon him he deftly proceeded to fill his little
cotton trousers — his only garment — from a
barrel of hardtack that had been left uncov
ered. The little trousers were buttoned tight
ly around the knee, and at the waist he
stuffed the crackers until he could scarcely
walk with his bulging treasure. Then he
pinned the belt closely around his waist and
strolled demurely away. It was very funny
and no one would have had the heart to in
terrupt him for the world. These little fel
lows will fish out every scrap of bread or
meat that chances to be thrown overboard
and devour it like hungry little wolves.
The dock is crowded with curious spec
tators, who are more interested at present in
bacon, beans and bread than in any other
object in the world. The stevedores are
doing splendid work and in three or four
days the cargo will be discharged and the
State of Texas will sail for New York.
The State of Texas, the steamship which
the central relief committee chartered for
conveying its food supplies to the reconcen-
trados in Cuba, is not a hospital ship, as a
great many persons suppose, but is to be
used solely for carrying relief to the starving
people in Cuba. It is not expected that any
sick or wounded will be taken aboard. There
is no arrangement for caring for any such.
The ship is filled with all kinds of food sup
plies and clothing, aggregating 1,400 tons.
There is everything, from the smallest table
luxury to the staff of life among the poorer
classes in Cuba — a goodly supply of jerked
beef. The provisions were collected by the
central Cuban relief committee and were
contributed by the people of the United
States from Maine to California. There are
wholesale supplies from large firms literally
down to the widow's mite. The members of
the Red Cross staff, who have handled the
provisions, have many an amusing and pa
thetic incident to tell of individual packages
that have come under their notice. Side by side
lay an elaborate teagown and a pram calico
wrapper, the former, perhaps, given by some
tender-hearted society woman, and the latter
mute with sympathy of a daughter of toil.
There lay one small cake of maple sugar
carefully wrapped in paper, and one could
imagine that a generous childish heart had
shared his favorite dainty, while just beside
ft was an attractive-looking red barrel that
was the object of a lively discussion between
the mate and one of the staff of distribution
as to whether it contained rice or coffee, and
then along came a sailor and declared it was
beans.
It is interesting to note the disproportion
of some of the contributions. For instance,
there is a surprising lack of sugar and coffee,
such ordinary staples that would seem to
have been considered first by almost every
one. And perhaps that accounts for the ab
sence of them — each person naturally sup
posing that those articles would be supplied
in quantity. I heard some one say that there
was not enough soap on board to wash thb
babies. But there are plenty of other things,
and once the Red Cross gets into Cuba the
relief will begin promptly.
A recent act passed by congress recognizes
the national status of the American Red
Cross and will protect its exclusive use of
its insignia for the work it was organized
to perform.
The State of Texas is a large, comfortable
old vessel built about twenty-five years ago
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
169
for the Mallory Steamship company for its
passenger service. The ship is 250 feet over
all and has a displacement of 1,700 tons. She
has not been in recent regular service. Be
fore she came into the use of the Red Cross
she was a tramp steamer plying between
Galveston, Key West, Mobile and Brunswick,
Ga. The average speed of the vessel is twelve
knots, but two months of idleness in tropical
waters has pretty well covered her hull wltli
barnacles, and it is doubtful if she will be
able to reach near her best speed. She car
ries a crew of forty- three, commanded by
Capt. P. G. Young, a pleasant, genial young
officer. He is a Maine man and has been with
the Mallory company for ten years. He has
served as either first or second mate on every
vessel in the line but one, and is the tallest
man in the service. The first mate is Harr>
Grater of Brooklyn. He has been a sailor
since he was 9 years of age, and has sailed
all the waters of the globe. Chief Engineer
E. A. Isberg has been but a short time on
the State of Texas. He was formerly with,
the Mallory line steamer Colorado.
Staff, steamer and crew are alike well se
lected for the work, and the public will find
its benevolences properly distributed to the
people for whom they were intended wnen
once the distribution is permitted to begin.
USE OP THE MEGAPHONE IN WAR.
BY DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
The use of the megaphone in war is un
dergoing its first test. Grandchild of the
old speaking trumpet, through which the
last-century admirals roared their challenges
and commands, the megaphone has taken a
fresh grip on our warships since the Cuban
blockade began. No quarterdeck, from that
of Capt. Sampson's stately New York to the
bridge which plays the same role on the
little Mangrove, is without one of the big
three-foot funnels of papier-mache, and most
of the short distance signaling between ships
is done by magnified word of mouth instead
of the slow telegraphy of the "wigwag"
crew or the slower message-making of the
signal flags at the mastheads.
Any one who has heard the results of
an intercollegiate meet or suburban horse
race bellowed across a forty-acre field knows
just why the megaphone is the dearest unof
ficial treasure of a sailor's life. Two hun
dred yards — even 1,000 feet — are as nothing
to the megaphone, and the jackies love the
odd machine because it saves them more
than one seance with the signal flags and
unfamiliar messages or hot pull under the
sun when the captain wants to ask a brother
commander if he will take dinner with him.
News, gossip, orders — questions touching a
thousand things — are roared back and forth
between ships as they lie at anchor or plod
up and down off Havana watching for a foe
that never shows himself. And "Jacky"
has learned a new trick of the thing — when
he shouts a message he claps the mouth
piece to his ear and gathers in all the vol
ume of the answer. On the blockade the
megaphone has been of peculiar value. Ships
halted by that unceremonious shot across
the bows have had speedy explanation of the
shell, instead of the slow torture of the
signal flags. And even the worst-frightened
skipper of the Spanish fishing fleet would
understand the bad Spanish current among
the mosquito fleet, roared through a mega
phone, backed up by a Hotchkiss peeping
over the port bow. The Panama passengers
confess that Lieut. Cornwall's command to
halt, coming through his megaphone, had
quite as much to do with their surrender as
the glitter of the Mangrove's guns.
It was a megaphone message that brought
the little Hudson churning into the rain of
steel in Cardenas harbor last Thursday as a
rescue for the helpless Winslow. When the
Spanish shells had wrecked the steering gear,
hand and steam, the boilers and engines of
the torpedo boat, there was no time to wig
wag a distress signal to her consort; no man
could be spared from the guns. Lieut. Ber-
nadou caught up the boat's megaphone and
shouted, "We're disabled — give us a line,"
and the Hudson was plunged into the zone
of death before a signal flag could have
spelled out Commander Newcomb's address.
Just what the megaphone can do amid the
clangor of battle is unknown, but there are
many sailormen who believe that the smoke
will obscure the signal flags which are not at
the main truck and that the megaphone will
earn an official place for itself in the coming
battle between the Spanish and the Ameri
can fleets.
"Wigwags and signal lights have had
their inning; the steam whistle is the key to
the new telegraphy of the sea." The junior
lieutenant stepped to the middle of the bridge
as he spoke — his ship is the smartest gun
boat of the blockading fleet— and pulling
down the front of a small japanned box
clamped to the rail disclosed just such a key
and sounder as clatter in every telegraph
office in the world. The key itself was fixed
to the drop front: sounder and battery were
stowed in the shallow square of the case.
"Look, now!" my friend of the silver bar
170
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
USING THE MEGAPHONE TO GIVE ORDE11S
FROM SHIP TO SHIP.
commanded, snapping over a small switch
and pounding furiously away at the brass
for perhaps forty seconds. "I've repeated
that statement of mine to the ships all
about us here— only they know it already—
and when I turned that switch I cut the
ship's whistle off from the key. If I hadn't
broken the circuit it would have taken me
about a minute and every vessel in the har
bor would have read it off. Quick, wasn't
it? A wigwagger would have spent six
minutes sending it and signal lamps can't
blink and glow fast enough to keep pace
with a whistle. That's why the signal flag
and red and white flags are doomed as soon
as all our ships can put this whistle con
troller in. Its speed is one point; its cer
tainty is another. You can't tell a red light
from a white one when there's a fog on and
you are a cable's length away. But you can't
mistake the dots and dashes of the Morse
code piped out on a steam whistle.
"Most of our warships could go in for
steam telegraphy to-morrow, but many of
y
the auxiliary gunboats are without the con
troller, and we'll have to wait until they
get it before we pass up flags and lights.
The apparatus is very simple — just this key
and little battery here and an electrically
controlled valve on the supply pipe of the
whistle. It is worked by powerful springs
and a pair of magnets connected with the
ship's dynamo, and its action is almost as
swift as that of a camera shutter. In fact,
it is built on the same plan, and is so rapid
in opening and closing that one-twentieth of
a second's pressure on the key here makes
a signal that can be heard a mile. The roar
comes full-throated from the whistle— there
is none of the crescendo effect you get with
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
171
an ordinary whistle valve, where the racket
grows from a growl to a shriek and takes
a minute for the ascent. With an electri
cal valve the shriek pops out the instant you
touch the key and close the circuit. It stops
just as quickly when you lift your finger.
That makes the dots and dashes of the Morse
code easy for the whistle. And the white
puff of steam that shoots away from the cap
at every dot and dash gives you a perfect
way of checking the signals — eye corrects
ear; ear, eye, you know.
"The controller is a development of a de
vice to sound the five-second fog signal re
quired by law of every vessel under way.
This other switch" — the lieutenant touched
a small brass cylinder with a horizontal
handle, clamped by its mahogany base to the
rail beside the keybox — "controls an auto
matic device which sounds the whistle five
seconds in every minute as regularly as
clockwork can tick them out. That is when
you swing the handle full over, so as to de
press this little pin beside the switch.
Turned half way, it keeps the whistle
screaming until you push it to either side.
That was the primitive use of the controller
— to sound fog signals. Then some observ
ant chap saw the chance lying in the sharp
make and break of the calls and the tele
graph key was switched into the combina
tion.
"Wait a minute and I'll show you the
whistle at work." The lieutenant ran down
the bridge ladder and dropped a command
down into the engine room, while I made
note that there were three of the fog-signal
switches at different points on the bridge.
"I've reduced the steam pressure in the
whistle pipe to almost nothing, and now I'll
hammer out that message again."
Click— click, chu— chu. I looked aft to
where the whistle raked up beside the gun
boat's one funnel. Ghost jets of steam, so
thin as to be almost intangible, volleyed out
of the shining cap a low-pitched cough in
the wake of every jet.
"That's half the beauty of the machine,"
said the lieutenant, when he had finished
his message. "We could gc right up to the
mouth of Morro's rifles and signal to a con
sort without waking the guards. With
lights showing even for an instant they
would spot us and send twelve-inch shells
to talk to us. I can manipulate that whistle
so that it will carry a hundred yards or a
mile. And not the least of its advantages is
that when you signal a strange or suspicious
craft you can question it without betraying
your own position, as you would with lights.
At sea a sound, cannot be located with any
degree of precision, and a vessel could make
the peremptory private signal of the navy
without laying herself open to the broadside
of an enemy as answer.
"More than the speed or secrecy of the
steam signal, its certainty is its vital ad
vantage. You know we have a private signal
that requires an instant answer, under pain
of a broadside from the inquiring vessel.
That signal cannot always be given — the
oil lamps many of our auxiliary gunboats
use blow out, the red light is mistaken for a
white, or vice versa, and the shotted guns
break loose. The Manning opened on a bat
tleship off Havana less than a month ago
because the private signal was bungled, the
Woodbury sent a broadside at another gun
boat two weeks ago, and before the fleet
moved round to Santiago the watch officer of
a battleship turned on every light in his ves
sel to avoid a broadside from the Hamilton.
His signal lamps missed fire when the reve
nue cutter queried, the wrong answer
hashed out, and his parade of lights saved
him by a second's space. The Hudson and
tne Bancroft got into just such a fix outside
feand key two weeks ago and the Bancroft's
megaphone saved a disaster. You know we
have no choice in the matter of firing into a
vessel which does not give the countersign
and only navy luck has saved us from two or
three catastrophes. When our whistles be
gin to talk — that will be another story."
REGULARS AT SAN JUAN, CUBA.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
When the military statistician completes
his work and military experts analyze the
totals, showing the number of men engaged
and those killed and wounded, it will be
found that the battle of San Juan was one of
the bloodiest on record. At this writing it
is not known with certainty how many men
actually were in the engagement or how
many were killed and wounded. It is esti
mated, however, that the average of disa
bilities will rise above 10 per cent. Gen.
Kent's division, it is said, suffered to the
extent of 13 per cent, an average higher than
many of the now famous battles in history.
Although the battle of July 1 was properly
one engagement, nevertheless there were
two distinct and separate though interde
pendent fights going on at the same time —
that which pave us the stone fort and town
of El Caney, taken by the men of Lawton's
division, and that which advanced our left
(Kent's division) four miles and gave U3
172
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
San Juan hill and blockhouse and command
ing positions for our batteries.
The two engagements were interdepend
ent, for if the left wing had been repulsed
and driven back the Spaniards could, and
probably would, have swept down and
flanked our right. Had Lawton's division
been driven back the Spaniards would have
come between Kent and our base of sup
plies — Siboney — and starved Kent out. The
artillery opened the engagement in each
fight (treating El Caney and San Juan as
separate engagements), but it was the in
fantry and dismounted cavalry, assisted to
some extent by the Catling section, that se
cured definite results.
Ever since the San Juan fight I have been
at work trying to get a definite, accurate
and comprehensive report of the engage
ment. But the adjutant-general, staff of
ficers and line officers have been too busy
bringing forward commissary supplies and
ammunition, building roads through the al
most impenetrable jungle, strengthening po
sitions and readjusting our line to meet new
conditions, to analyze reports and study
maps. I was fortunate enough to see the
fight, but when a spectator's field of view is
narrowred down so he can see but one com
pany at a time at close range he may get the
local color and feeling, but he cannot grasp
the whole situation at once. It required
much coming and going, comparison and
correction, time and patience to group to
gether the facts, incidents and campfire gos
sip which finally enabled us to sketch the
plan or map which accompanies this story.
San Juan hill is within the outskirts of
Santiago, in front of Campo de Marti. On it
is a blockhouse and line of rifle pits, the ad
vanced line of Spanish intrenchments. A
triple line of barb-wire entanglements sup
plemented the natural and constructed de
fenses which cres .ed the hill. It may be put
down as a fact that the charge which swept
the Spaniards from this hill and blockhouse
was made, not against orders, but without
orders from any officer commanding a di
vision or brigade. It was the spontaneous
forward movement of two brigades which
could not be stopped or checked until the
troops halted, breathless but victorious, on
top of San Juan hill. From the best infor
mation obtainable it was not planned to ad
vance the left wing of the army so far. The
right wing (Lawton's division) was ordered
to capture El Caney. and it was on paper for
the left wing (Kent's division) to make a
demonstration and locate Spanish batteries
and works on the east and south of Santiago.
Lawton's division carried out its orders to
the letter, but parts of Kent's division
pushed ahead without any general order
from headquarters and more than carried
out instructions.
In making the demonstration the 6th, 16th,
9th, 24th and 13th regiments found them
selves in the river bottom; behind them the
narrow road by which they had come, an
impassable jungle on either side, when tho
enemy discovered their presence and opened
on them with shrapnel and infantry fire.
Their position became untenable, and it was
necessary to advance at oner or to retire by
the one road. It was at this critical time
that the 3d brigade of the 1st division lost
three commanders within ten minutes — Gen.
Wykoff killed and Col. Worth and Col. Les-
comb wounded. The 6th and 16th infantry
of Hawkins' brigade had already advanced
and deployed as skirmishers, and were mov
ing across the plain toward the hill, firing.
Before Col. Ewers was notified that the bri
gade had fallen to his command, by concerted
movement of the regiments the 3d brigade
swept forward and made the charge with the
6th and 16th, and this charge was made
without an order, and the five regiments
reached the crest about the same time — all
in time to fire on the fleeing Spaniards.
While this was going on the 21st infantry
moved out by the left flank, passing in rear
of the advancing regiments, skirted San
Juan hill, advancing to the front, carried the
hill to the left and front of the one occupied
by the other troops, bringing a crossfire on
the Spaniards.
In order that the layman may understand
how a regiment goes into action it will be
necessary to start at the beginning with an
individual command and follow it through to
the end. On the afternoon of June 31, the
day before the battle, the 9th infantry was in
camp at Se villa, three and one-half miles
from Siboney, where it had been for several
days. At 3:30 o'clock that afternoon the
"general" (bugle call), the signal for break
ing camp, was sounded. Camp was struck at
once and the men moved in light marching
order (carrying shelter tents, blankets, can
teens, 120 rounds of ammunition, one day's
rations in havorsack and the rifle) in the di
rection of Santiago. No one in the regiment
knew at the time what was up, where they
were going or anything else, except that the
officers were told they would have a short
march that night.
As the regiment moved ahead it i'^uncl
other troops moving along in the same dirto-
tion, and from the general air of activity and
bustle the officers and men realized some
thing serious was going to happen soon.
That night about 11 o'clock the regiment
bivouacked in an open space by the roadside,
having marched about four miles. Th^ ma-ch
was very slow because of the passage of ar
tillery and wagon trains with ammunition.
The rain flooded the road and turned part of
it into a swamp. Soon after midnight the
command was aroused to draw three days'
rations. This still further confirmed the
opinion that a battle was imminent. A few
hours after reveille at daybreak the booming
of guns was heard in front, a messenger gal-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
173
loped up and the "general" was sounded im
mediately. In five minutes the regiment
again was "pounding the road." Frequent
halts occurred, and it was about 9 o'clock
when Wykoff's brigade, composed of the 9th,
13th and 24th, formed in line of regiments,
column of fours, in an open space on the
banks of San Guama creek.
At this time there was no sound of firing.
In a few minutes the brigade moved forward,
the 13th leading, then the 9th and 24th, in
column of fours up the trail.
From this point on the story of the regi
ment is told by Lieut. Wise of the 9th in
fantry, who give-; his personal experience:
"Our brigade halted and filled canteens at
the ford. Grimes' battery was up on a hill to
our left front, playing on the Spaniards. No
body that I saw knew where we were going
or anything of what was going on in front.
We only knew we were going where we were
told and that those in command understood
if we didn't. We marched up the road almost
half a mile, halted and laid off everything
but canteens, arms and ammunition. Just at
this time the wounded men began passing
us going to the rear, many of them badly
shot and bleeding, others, supported by com
rades, staggering along, some carried on
stretchers, some in blankets. Some were
groaning and moaning. Others were cheerful
and still defiant. Many as they passed to the
rear encouraged us to go in and expressed
regrets that they had to leave. A bit farther
on up the road we passed under the fire of
the Spanish battery and Grimes' battery.
Right here the road became blocked ahead of
us and we laid down at the side of the trail.
The Spaniards were cutting their fuses too
short to reach Grimes' battery and we got the
full benefit of their shrapnel, which burst
right in our faces. This was the worst part
of the battle for us. The Spanish infantry
on the hills beyond had the road located and
was firing on it. Men were hit on all sides
of us. We couldn't see where the bullets
were coming from behind the brush. The
trees were filled with sharpshooters, who
picked our officers off, and altogether it was
a severe test of the courage of our men.
"In fifteen minutes, which seemed that
many hours to us, Col. Ewers called down
the column: 'Rise and move forward on the
run.' The command was repeated down the
column, and we found ourselves shuffling
down the road. In a few minutes we reached
the ford of the San Juan river. The men
plunged into the water up to their waists
and got across. This ford was in plain view
of the enemy and was swept by a terrific
fire of infantry. Many men fell. Some of
the wounded succeeded in gaining the other
bank. Others fell in the water and were
pulled out. Some were drowned.
"On the other side of the ford there was
a little shelving plateau in the shape of a
semicircle. Here we lay down again, some
what protected, but the shrapnel and the
sharpshooters in the trees continued to pick
us off. Right here Col. Worth was shot. As
we lay here I had a chance to look over
the bank and see in front of us for the first
time the enemy. Immediately in front of us
was a long grassy plain about half a mile
wide, perfectly level, with a few large trees
scattered over it. At the other side was a hill
which seemed to have sides almost perpen
dicular and about 200 feet high. On top of
this were two houses prepared for defense
and trenches occupied by the Spaniards, and
the whole crest of the hill was covered with
little puffs of bluish mist.
"The 6th and 16th pushed out, deployed as
skirmishers, and began to advance by short
rushes, lying down and firing at the halts.
The 24th came up and formed behind us.
The 13th moved out from the river bottom,
deployed, lay down and began to fire volleys
at the hill crest. Our hearts were in our
mouths as we watched our skirmish line
move forward. Sometimes it looked as if they
could go right along. At other times it
seemed that they must come back. All at
once my battalion got our command to slide
down the bank and form in line in the river
around the bend. Then came the command
'Forward,' and with a sigh of relief we
sprung over the bank, up the slope through
some thin underbrush, pushed over a barb-
wire fence at the edge, rushed out into the
open, deployed as skirmishers, and moved
forward in quick time. We were not allowed
to fire a shot, as the skirmish line was in
front.
"The 24th followed our regiment through
and deployed on our right. The 13th deployed
and moved forward. The bullets were zip
ping the grass around us, but, as" we were
moving forward, no one now seemed to mind
it, and the whole brigade marched straight
ahead in quick time, as though we were on
drill. After a few hundred yards the brigade,
with a wild cheer, broke into double time.
Near the foot of the hill we ran into some
wire fences, which we broke down in various
ways. Some officers had fence posts in their
hands breaking the wire. Men used their
rifle buts; others rushed against the posts
and bore whole sections down. The hill rose
at an angle of nearly 45 degrees, but the men
went up like antelopes, pulling themselves
up by bushes, clambering over rocks, and the
whole brigade reached the top about the same
time. When we had nearly gained the sum
mit of the hill the Spaniards jumped out of
the trenches and ran away, some of them
gallantly and defiantly shaking their fists at
us and yelling: 'Espana!'
"As soon as we reached the top of the hill
we held up our flag to let our troops in the
rear know that we had the position. We then
opened fire on the fleeing Spaniards. Our
Gatling gun, which had stood in the open
174
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
before the charge, pouring a rain of bullets
on the blockhouse, limbered up, galloped up
the end of the hill where the slope was easier,
went into action and began to grind out
shots at the 'canaries.'
"As soon as the Spaniards had uncovered
the hill their batteries in the rear opened
upon us with shrapnel. Our men drew their
bayonets and at once began with tin cups,
meat cans and hands to dig like gophers. In
spite of the hard, rock ground we soon had
some protection from the deadly missiles.
Then it was that the command came down the
line to hold that position. As it passed along
men and officers shouted: 'We'll hold it.'
"The Spaniards took refuge behind some
strong intrenchments, about 800 yards away
from us, on their second line, but we had
them cut off from San Juan river. We lay
fiat on our faces until dark. Then picks and
shovels came up. We rectified our line and
dug our intrenchments. We had nothing to
eat all day until after dark, and then only
hardtack and water, for our pack trains could
not come along the road during the day.
Every man was hungry, parched with heat,
drenched with water from the river, tired
out and weak from the nervous strain of the
day, but we had San Juan hill; we have
it now, and we are going to keep it."
AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN CAV1TE.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
Cavite is one of the busiest places in the
world just now. Twenty-five hundred sol
diers have been dropped down in the town,
and there has been a hard struggle to find
quarters and establish order out of chaos.
Boatload after boatload landed, with big
boxes of supplies and cases of ammunition,
and men have dumped them down near the
landing. The soldiers have been assigned to
different quarters in the old Spanish bar
racks, the officers have picked out choice
headquarters and things are rapidly getting
settled down to a business basis. But com
pared with those other days, when a handful
of marines represented the American force
of arms in Cavite, the present situation is
tremendously lively. On every hand are sen
tries marching back and forth, little squads
of men are cleaning up and distributing
boxes of provisions, the band is playing in
the little plaza near the commandant's resi
dence, target practice has been inaugurated
and there is getting to be some system and
regularity about meal hours.
The insurgents crowd around and watch
wonderingly the deliberate preparations for
active service that are going on in Cavite
and marvel at the size of most of the Cali
fornia and Oregon giants. The Americans
out here are truly a ferocious-looking lot,
with their unshaven faces, rough brown
service uniforms and wild-west hats. One
would imagine one's self to be in a western
mining camp. Down near the landing wharf
the soldiers are cutting up beef for distri
bution. Crowds of them are lounging around
smoking or trying marvelous Spanish on the
natives. Some of them are reading, and
in nearly every window of the barracks can
be seen men writing letters to go by to
morrow's steamer. A little farther along is
the commandant's palace, where Gen. Mer-
ritt will probably be quartered. Across the
way is the boat slip and repair shop, where
there is now a force of men engaged in mak
ing waterspouts to catch rainwater for drink
ing purposes. Down a long line of trees in
front of the commandant's palace are the
low, typical Spanish quarters, used originally
by the officers of the guard, but now occupied
by Col. Smith, Col. Duboce and other of
ficers. Just in front of these quarters is the
little plaza, with the statue of El Cano in
the center.
There are beautiful trees scattered about
in the plaza, and through the branches can
be seen the wreck- specked waters of Bakor
bay. In this plaza the United States regu
lars' regimental band plays in the afternoon
to delighted audiences of scantily clad na
tives and big, husky soldier boys. Over at
the corner of the plaza is Gen. Anderson's
headquarters, formerly the Ayudante mayor's
home and office. It is, like all the govern
ment buildings in Cavite, very beautiful and
cool-looking. Immense shade trees surround
it, and the spreading leaves of palm trees
give it an absolutely tropical appearance.
Farther down the avenue of trees is the gate
separating the officers' quarters from the
"Enfermeria," or hospital, and infantry
quarters. Only a few men are now on the
sick list. In the infantry quarters there
are several hundred men established, and
little detachments are almost constantly
marching back and forth from drills or
camp work.
On one side of the avenue, or walk, is the
immense and massive wall of old St. Philip
fort. The wall is forty feet across and makes
a good parade ground when the big plaza
outside the arsenal grounds is too wet or is
occupied by other companies. Then comes
the big gate, where armed sentries are al
ways posted. This is the official dividing
line between the navy yard and the town of
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Cavite. It opens out on the eastern corner
of the big parade ground and just at the
edge of the walls of the old fort. From this
point it is hardly more than a stone's throw
to the wrecks of the Austria, Cuba, Luzon,
quarters and the headquarters of Col. Sum-
L.ezo, Argos, Duero and Velasco out in Bakor
bay. Just outside the gate are more soldiers'
mers. These occupy the entire southern
front of the parade ground. The eastern
front is occupied by the gate of the arsenal
and the walls and sally port of Port St.
Philip. The northern front is occupied by
AMERICAN SOLDIER'S UNDRESS UNIFORM IN
THE PHILIPPINES.
the dungeon and a row of barracks formerly
filled with Spanish soldiers' quarters.
These latter buildings have lately been the
prisons of Aguinaldo's Spanish prisoners.
These have now been removed to Imus and
Bolucan, on the south and north shores of
the bay, respectively. On the west side
of the parade ground are a number of Spanish
and native dwelling houses, and the old
church of Santa Domingo. This western
facade of the square marks the line sepa
rating the American soldier quarters from
the insurgent residences and the business
part of Cavite. Soldiers are not allowed
to pass beyond this line except when on leave.
As there are usually 50 or 100 men with
liberty leave, nearly every shop in Cavite
has one or two big, rough-looking soldiers
sitting in it, learning Spanish by associa
tion, and flirting violently with scantily clad,
brown-eyed Filipino girls.
Out. in the parade ground there are drills
twice a day, between 7 and 8 in the morning
and 5 and 6 in the evening, weather permit
ting. All drilling and heavy work is sus
pended in the middle of the day on account
of the heat. However, the weather has not
been disagreeably warm during the last two
COMPARATIVE SIZE OF AMERICAN SOLDIER
AND PHILIPPINE INSURGENT.
weeks, but the exertion of carrying heavy
Springfields and drill accouterments would
be very trying on men who are not equipped
with light tropical uniforms. A hundred or
more tents have been put up on one side ot
the parade ground to dry and clear out the
must. Everything becomes musty and mil
dewed here in a day or two, and clothes
must be constantly aired to prevent their
spoiling. For several days before the re
moval of the Spanish prisoners these men
could look out of the windows of their prison
and watch the business-like preparations on
the parade ground. Up in the windows of
the sally port of Fort St. Philip are the
176
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
governor of the Ladrones and some of the
higher officers brought from Guam. They
are regular spectators of the drills.
Gov. Mariana was at one time gorernor
of Cavite province, with his headquarters and
home in the building now occupied by
Aguinaldo. During an uprising of the na
tives this same governor had fifty-four in
surgents lined up against the ^ 3ry walls of
Fort St. Philip and shot. That was several
years ago. He was in course of time returned
to Spain, and later was sent as governor
of the Ladrones. The Charleston stopped at
Guam, captured the islands and brought the
governor here. He is now confined within
the same walls where years before he had
ordered fifty-four natives mercilessly shot.
When he was arrested he expressed the
greatest terror of being delivered to the
insurgents, and was particularly eager to be
held as prisoner of the Americans.
Out on the wreck of the Don Juan de Aus
tria Col. Smith has had placed six silhouette
targets, the size and shape of a standing
man. The distance is about 200 yards and
the soldiers are now having target practice.
The Spanish private soldiers brought from
Guam have been detailed to "police duty."
This is a sort of housecleaning work. They
sweep up the walk; clear out the leaves and
old paper and do all kinds of cleaning duty.
j A guard constantly accompanies them, but it
is doubtful whether they would ever attempt
to escape if the opi >rtunity offered.
A lamentable thing connected with the cap
ture of Guam is the fact that the only Euro
pean physician was brought away as a pris
oner. He is a Spanish surgeon. There was
considerable indignation when the circum
stances came out.
In these daj^s, when comparisons of
strength are made, the great difference be
tween the size of the American soldier and
the Filipino soldier is marked to a laughable
degree. The average insurgent soldier is
about half as big as the American.
A number of stowaways came out on the
transports, and that is probably why there
are occasionally to be seen young boys about
18 years old in the ranks. They are now
doubtless writing letters to the folks at home
telling them where they are.
On the Fourth of July Gen. Aguinaldo was
invited to review the American troops, but
he begged to be excused on account of sick
ness. It is not known that he has at any
time visited the quarters of the Americans.
Several companies have been sent out to
ward Malate for practice in road work. They
start out early in the morning and return in
the evening.
THE GUSSIE EXPEDITION
BY TRUMBULL WHITE.
The north coast of Cuba from Matanzas
west to Bahia Honda or farther, a distance
of 100 miles across part of Matanzas prov
ince, all of Havana and the eastern part
of Pinar del Rio, is patrolled by Spanish
sentries who are stationed within sight of
each other all the way. This explains why
the steam transport Gussie returned from
Cabanas bay to Key West to-day (May 15),
her expedition virtually a total failure. This"
does not mean that failure was due to any
delinquency on the part of Capt. Dorst, in
command, or to any one else with the expe
dition, but that the Spanish are doing some
thing to protect • j coast from invasion, and
their arrangements at least are effective to
prevent communication with the insurgents
on this part of the coast.
When the Gussie left Key West with a car
go of rifles and ammunition for the insurgents
it was not anticipated that there would be any
obstacle to a succesful completion of that
mission. The 100 regulars on board expe-cted
to protect the landing when the insurgents
were met to receive the cargo. The first ap
proach to the Cuban coast was made Thurs
day afternoon, when three Cuban couriers
were landed with horses in order to com
municate with the insurgents and have them
at the coast next day to receive the cargo.
Soon after this landing came the skirmish
of regulars with the Spanish in which the
Spanish were dispersed with the loss of
four killed, including a lieutenant. The
Gussie then steamed out of the bay and
coasted back and forth till morning, expect
ing to finish the work Friday. When Friday
morning dawned the transport began coast
ing along near enough to shore to see the
signals if any were made, bu+ all to no
avail. The blue-uniformed Spanisb soldiers
were distinguished in constant succession for
many miles at short intervals, sometime' a
single sentry and sometimes moving ir
squads of considerable size. Many times
some sanguine Spaniard fired a rifle shot at
the Gussie, but the range was far enough to
prevent any effective shooting.
At last the Gussie reached a place a few
miles from Mariel, where two correspondents
had been landed from a newspaper tug early
the day before. The men on the Gussie did
not know then that they had been captured
and were probably already in Havana as
prisoners of war, and so they watched the
coast closely, hoping to pick them up. In-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
177
LANDING HORSKS FROM THE GUSSIE OFF THE COAST OF CUBA.
stead of the American correspondents a squad
of Spanish soldiers appeared in a consider
able number and a few moments later bul
lets began to fly toward the ship. There was
no danger from that source, but their next
was a move more effective. A field battery
of six-pounders ashore began action and the
shot from those little weapons struck so near
that they warned the Gussie that there was
no place in that vicinity for landing arms for
the insurgents. The Gussie replied with her
rapid-fire guns, mounted on deck, and the
Manning, which was near on the blockade at
the time, came up and threw shells into the
bushes where the Spaniards were concealed.
The shells soon scattered the coast guard
and stopped their guns, but there wras no
certainty of any damage being done them.
Night came on and no progress had been
made. It was evidently impossible for the
insurgents to reach shore or to signal the
ships, and as the landing of the arms would
be simply handing them to the Spaniards,
even if it could be done at all, there was
178
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
nothing left to do but to come home. At
10 o'clock last night the Gussie dropped
anchor off Sand Key light, where she lay
till morning. She came into Key West
harbor to-day, a good deal disgusted at the
failure of the expedition. She will probably
sail for Port Tampa to-night.
Capt. Dorst feels disappointed at being
unable to communicate with the insurgents.
"I believe we might have done as we in
tended if too much publicity had not been
given the expedition before it started from
Tampa," he said to-day. "The newspapers
printed what they could learn of the plans
of the undertaking; those facts reached
Madrid and then Havana, and the patrol of
the coast was the result. It was never in
tended for the small force of 100 regulars to
land troops and guard them against the
attack of the Spanish. That would be fool
ish. What we wanted to do was to com
municate with the insurgents and tell them
to come and get what we had for them.
"We accomplished the former in landing
the three couriers and dispersing the Span
ish who tried to stop them on that first day.
I have no doubt the couriers reached the in
surgent camp all right. The insurgents
were then unable to come to the coast on
account of the strong patrol, and we could
do no more."
I talked with another prominent member
of the expedition. "That coast is patrolled
as well as Broadway is by policemen," he
said, "and it was utterly impossible that
any landing could be made without detection.
If the landing force is large the sentries
keep out of sight till they see what is hap
pening. It is easy for them to hide in the
bushes, and as soon as the landing force
sails away the sentries can take whatever
or whomsoever is left ashore. That is proba
bly what happened to the correspondents.
"It is likely they were taken soon after
they landed — almost before the vessel which
brought them was out of sight. I told them
and their chief before they landed that it was
almost certain they would be captured, the
patrol of that coast is so perfect now. There
is no reason to think the patrol is more strin
gent because of any publicity given the
Gussie expedition. The Spanish calculate
that the American invasion will be on the
north shore, at some place between Cardenas
and Bahia Honda, and have concentrated
troops all along that shore so that they may
be prepared as well as possible for any
emergency. That is why we found Spaniards
all along that coast and we could see no pos
sibility of making a landing elsewhere. In
the other provinces there is no difficulty in
getting ashore at any time and landing any
arms, ammunition and supplies necessary."
Lieut. Brainard, with the Uncas, left last
night for Havana to make an effort to com
municate with the Spanish officials under a
white flag of truce to arrange for the ex
change of the correspondents for the Span
ish officers captured on the Panama, now at
Fort McPherson. It is believed that Col.
Cortejo, Weyler's brother-in-law, and one
more will tempt Spain to let the correspond
ents go. A telegram has just been received
here by the chief correspondent of the news
paper to which the captured men belong from
the press censor in Havana, who is a friend
of his. In answer to a query the censor re
plies that the men are in Cabanas and are
well treated with the usual Spanish hos
pitality. The names of the co-respondents,
as wired from Havana here, are Thrall and
Jones.
SANTIAGO'S WORTHLESS CANNON.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
The wonder is that Santiago "has been cap
tured. And yet our officials allowed them
selves to be persuaded by their Cuban allies
that it would fall at a trumpet blast like the
walls of Jericho. Those Cubans were sorely
disappointing in many respects. Col. Wagner,
one of the most cultured men in the army,
has called them "an aggregation of mango-
bellied degenerates," and every one who has
seen them in their native haunts is thor
oughly satisfied with the epithet. But we
have grappled with the hard facts and mas
tered them, so that misrepresentations and
falsehoods are of mere historic value.
Since the evacuation of the city by the
Spanish it has been possible to go over some
of their works and estimate their strength
here at the time of the surrender. That
Gen. Toral's condition was hopeless no one
could deny after having seen the force of
men and the arms at his command. And yet
had not his army been demoralized by fac
tional strife and mismanagement on the part
of the home government, he doubtless could
have held out for a month longer, or have
compelled us to make another assault that
would have cost many more lives.
It is to this day an unsettled question how
many men the Spanish had in Santiago on the
day of surrender. Lieut. William Brooke
of the 4th infantry, the ordnance offi
cer of the corps, took me to-day through the
arsenal, a fortress-like structure in the cen
ter of the city, and showed me cords of old
rifles, mostly Mausers, stored up like fire
wood. He informed me there were 10,000
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
179
turned over to him. This may indicate the
maximum strength of the original force
placed here to defend the city. It has, how
ever, been very considerably reduced by
sickness and campaigning. There are now
1,720 sick soldiers in the military hospital, the
long yellow structure under Red Cross flags,
which I had remarked on one or two occa
sions at the edge of the city facing our in-
trenchments. There are also over 400 wound
ed men surviving the engagements of the
last three weeks. Over 250 wounded have
died, I am told, and about 600 were killed on
the battlefield. While I am compelled to ad
mit the latter figures are not authentic, hav
ing been constrained to get them from Span
ish estimates and hearsay, they are near
enough to truth to convey an idea of Span
ish losses and the force remaining under Gen.
Toral's command, which is undoubtedly less
than 8,000. Gen. Shafter has maintained all
along that there were 12,000 Spaniards be
hind the works of the city, but his estimate
is not justified by such facts as come under
our observation. At the same time, it must
be remembered, that he has the credit for
the capture of 3,000 men in Guantanamo, and
as many more scattered throughout other
towns of the eastern military district of
Cuba. At the present moment Lieut. Miley,
the general's chief aid-de-camp, is making a
tour of these stations to rective their surren
der, and when he returns something more will
be known of their exact numbers and condi
tion. Nevertheless, there is nothing to indi
cate that these outlying pests are more nu
merous than is allowed in this estimate.
Now the question the strategists are asking
is: Why did not the Spanish seriously oppose
the advance of our army before it came under
the eaves of the city? They say that had the
enemy taken positions on the hills over the
road from Siboney and fought as desperately
as he did at El Caney and San Juan he must
have made our advance almost impossible. It
is also pointed out that even after our army
was advanced to within five miles of Santiago
the enemy had a way open from Aguadores
to fall upon our rear and cut off our line of
communications.
But none of these embarrassments or pos
sible disasters befell the army. Gen. Shaf
ter has certainly been very lucky, if the crit
ics are to be believed — very lucky to have
bagged the game quickly and without ex
traordinary loss of life.
But to return to the arsenal. There was
an immense store of small-arm ammunition
in the enemy's possession. Here are great
piles of it — rooms stacked full of unopened
boxes — enough for weeks of continuous fir
ing. It is estimated at a million rounds. No
wonder, indeed, that the enemy's fire was
terrific. With a supply of cartridges behind
that was practically exhaustless there was
no disposition to spare the fire when an op
ponent approached. But one may ask: How
aid Spain, in her impoverished condition,
acquire so much ammunition? It bears the
stamp of a German manufacturer. That is
all that is known.
In the arsenal are also a large number of
mountain howitzers, some of which were
doubtless used by the enemy in the fight with
the cavalry division under Gen. Joe Wheeler
at Los Guasimas — the one for which the
"rough riders" have rather unfairly been
given most of the credit. All of these are in
good condition. There is one peice of field
artillery, a rifle gun of 3.6 inches caliber,
that belonged to the battery opposite our
right, and was very troblesome until silenced
by two well-directed shots from Capt. Ca-
pron's battery. It is possible now to see how
well that sturdy old gunner did his work.
One of his shells exploded just below the
muzzle of this piece, injuring the bore and
putting the gun as completely out of action
as if the bore were entirely closed. I am told
that the next shot disabled the gun next to
it by throwing it from its carriage. The gun
here will be sent to Washington as one of the
trophies of the war.
But there are some rarer trophies than
this. Among the piles of guns we found an
antiquated brass cannon, one of the fine old
type that were the pride of armies in the
early part of the last century. In size it was
about equivalent to a nine-pounder, and, like
all the guns of its period, was named and
bore the date of manufacture — "Marquis de
Austrian, 1733." The workmanship was
superb. But that such a piece should be
used in these days against modern arms al
most passes comprehension. Nevertheless
this was done. Far off to the left of our po
sition there was a blockhouse defended by
breastworks and a battery of three guns.
Two were of small caliber, but modern. The
third was a counterpart of this antiquated
brass cannon.
There being no ammunition made for it
nowadays, the Spanish manning the gun
used a shell much smaller than the bore. The
result was comical, though not until after
we had learned the meaning of its unearthly
noise. When we first heard it from behind
our intrenchments it was easy to imagine the
enemy was sending an immense aerial devil-
chaser after us. The whistle of the shell
as it came over us was like the shriek of a
siren. A more terrifying sound it is quite
impossible to imagine. But at length we dis
covered the cause. The shell always went
high and so slowly that it was possible to
follow it with the eye. Oddly enough, its
course was never straight, but in a curved
line to the right or left. This was for rea
sons easy to appreciate. The shell being
much too small for the gun was given a
rapid revolving motion as it left the muzzle,
and would describe a curve in the air just as
a baseball leaving the pitcher's hand, gen
erating at the same time the frightful sound
180
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
we heard. It is needless to say that the
enemy did no damage with any of these guns
about the city, so far as we are able to dis
cover, although they had several of them
mounted at commanding points after the bat
tle of El Caney and San Juan when they were
driven back to their last line of defense.
When we began our bombardment the
afternoon of July 10 they replied with them
at first very spiritedly. But one or two
shots from the batteries on our left and
right and the dynamite gun at the center
cleared them out; and although the bom
bardment continued all the next day not
another shot was fired from them. It is more
than probable that this convinced the Span
ish general of his utter helplessness under
artillery fire. A fact within his easy reach
that may have had some weight with him
was that thirty guns more of light artillery
belonging to Gen. Randolph's command were
at Siboney, and with continuing dry weather
could be trained upon him within twenty-
four hours.
Bui what is to be said of an admiral who is
held in check for a month by a few batteries
of these old relics? Indeed, it is the great
fiasco of the war. Admiral Sampson enacted
a little farce which he took seriously, and for
the time persuaded every one else to take
similarly, by his manner of blustering and
boasting over everything he does. Unfortu
nately for him and the fame he got out of his
bombardments of the batteries about Morro
at the expenditure of $2,000,000 in ammuni
tion, everything was left quite intact after
the evacuation. All the guns are there that
ever fired at one of his big ships, and — think
of it! — there is nothing in Morro or on the
ridge east of it except a half-dozen of these
ancient smooth-bores! Yet this is where Ad
miral Sampson always directed the fire of
his flagship, the New York, and the stories
of slaughter and devastation authorized in
his "squadron bulletin" would have done
credit to a Spanish commander. But there
is nothing to indicate that his shooting did
any damage except to dismount one gun and
tear down a portion of the lighthouse.
The only modern battery at the entrance to
the harbor is the one located on the west side.
It was supplied with three Krupp guns
mounted on cement. This is the battery
which Commodore Schley repeatedly engaged.
It shows much hard usage and must have
been frequently hit.
While it is not pleasant to deprive a brave
man of even a fraction of the honor accorded
him, truth demands that the public know how
utterly futile was the sinking of the Merri-
mac in the mouth of the harbor. Even be
fore Cervera sailed merrily out with his
squadron there were those who expressed
doubt that Lieut. Hobson had accomplished
his purpose and closed the entrance. Now
ocular evidence is not required. And yet up
to the time I sailed by the wreck of the
sunken collier I was loath to believe he had
failed so completely in locating his vessel.
He could not have put her more completely
out of the way of navigation had he beached
her in one of the numerous coves of the inlet.
The Reina Mercedes, which the Spanish tried
to sink in the entrance for a similar purpose
is in a much better position. Had she been
sunk forty feet more to the westward not a
vessel would yet be in the harbor of Santiago.
As it is, the entire fleet of transports were
able to steam by as soon as the mines were
destroyed, leaving the projecting smokestack
and masts of the Merrimac twenty yards to
starboard, monuments to one of the most ab
surd plans ever invented by a sea captain for
protecting an enemy he could have overpow
ered three to one.
In this connection it is interesting to recol
lect that Cervera showed infinitely more as
tuteness. There was the strategy of an old
fox in sending out a flag of truce the day after
the Merrimac was sunk, complimenting
Hobson on his success in closing up the har
bor. Sampson seemed at the time to believe
him, but good fortune kept our fleet con
stantly before the entrance, else some fine
morning would have seen Cervera steaming
safely into Havana harbor.
While it is ever a matter for surprise that
the defenses of Santiago are so nearly worth
less, it is always to be remembered that the
most formidable weapon in the Spaniards'
hands was a system of mines and torpedoes
at the mouth of the harbor which could hard
ly have been improved upon. I have heard
it said that an American was responsible for
them; but even this particle of information
may be doubted, so little besides is known of
their origin and mechanism. We have
found three stations from which they were
operated by keyboards, all of them situated
in protected positions behind the promonto
ries at the entrance to the harbor. From
them it was possible to see whatever entered
the harbor, and once a ship came within
range it remained only to wait for the right
moment and touch a button. The Merrimar-
was wrecked by one of these mines, and with
apparently the same ease as a rocket is ex
ploded. It is said these mines and torpedo
stations might have been captured and de
stroyed by a daring night attack by marines;
but to have attempted to force a passage
without it would have meant the destruction
of the fleet.
The other defenses about the city, so far a?
I went, were not strong. When the Span
iards lost San Juan and El Caney they lost
their best and most securely fortified posi
tions. After that they were forced back to a
new line of defense, and this was infinitely
weaker because hastily constructed. In
passing through yesterday 1 found all the
trenches shallow and of just the character to
expose the soldiers to our fire. Where we
had advanced our line and enfiladed them
they had been withdrawn in a protected di-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
181
rection. It was typical of the Spanish that
wherever they had been the ground was reek-
iiig with filth and the air was foul with de
cayed carrion. They are scarcely better in
this respect than the Cuban; and the Cuban
is as bad as the Indian.
MOONSHINERS AND ARMY MULES.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
One hundred hardy mountaineers of mid
dle Tennessee marched into town to-night
and tendered their services to Maj. J. Perry
Fyfi'e, commanding the national guard bat
talion. When these men marched from the
train to the armory the young men of the
city saluted them with cheers. Half the
number were old in years, and the grizzled
marcher who bore the colors has seen three
score and ten, although his step is as elas
tic as that of his three sons who plodded
along toward the rear. Fathers and sons
were in the ranks, and perhaps every man is
in some wise related to his comrades. They
have lived in the same neighborhood and in
the same houses for years. Their fathers
settled the country, fought Indians and
named this the volunteer state. Moonshine
whisky has been made where these men hail
from, and revenue officers have been marked
by their bullets.
Every man, young and old, can send a rifle
ball into a squirrel at 1,000 yards. Every
man can pull a revolver and empty its con
tents into an adversary before he can count
ten; every man is expert with the terrible
knife which Col. Bowie named; can throw
it fifty feet and land its blade in the jugular
vein of a bear or deer.
Fifty of these men followed the fortunes
of the confederacy, and at Chickamauga
fought with a valor that compelled the praise
of the men opposed to them. Ten of them
wore the old gray jackets of the southern
army as they marched through the streets
to-day, and until a week ago every man was
an "unreconstructed rebel" and glad of it.
To-day every man is pledged to the flag of
a common country and anxious to fight in its
defense.
"We moughtn't be very purty," said one of
them to-night, "but we has seed some ragged
wah bizness done in our time, and kinder
reckon as though we mought be able to do
some harm to them Spannyards if we is druv
to it. We reckon like we mought be handy
in Cuba a-helpin' out uv them fightin' fel
lers, and so we hev came to enlist for the
wah."
The mountaineers will be mustered into
the state service, armed and equipped as
soon as possible and sent to the rendez
vous at Chickamauga. A cavalry regiment
is also being raised in middle Tennessee.
The valley people are as enthusiastic as their
brothers in the highlands and propose to pro
vide twelve troops of horse which will not be
duplicated in the army. Every trooper has
ridden since he was able to do so, every
trooper owns his mount, and every animal is
a thoroughbred.
The cavalry was out for practice marching
to-day and the troopers trotted and galloped
along the roads, through the gaps and, up the
passes. Many troops dashed along the crest
of Missionary ridge and some went as far as
Lookout Mountain. These troopers, who were
excused from duty, spent the day visiting and
in every traversable part of the reservation
cavalrymen were to be seen. They lounged
easily in their saddles, smoked while riding
and enjoyed a general view of the country.
Studious ones galloped along the battle
lines of 1863 and studied the iron and stone
tablets which tell of deeds of valor.
Four and six mule wagons were in evi
dence everywhere, and the army wagon mas
ter, as painted by the war correspondents of
the civil strife, was discovered on the Lafay
ette road when a big wagon of the 12th in
fantry lost a wheel, and the sextet of black
"jack rabbits" refused to respond promptly
to his call to "get ap."
The rain held the artillerymen in camp
and the guns "in park," with 'the horses tied
to the long lines of picket ropes. The great
tarpaulins of the "brown terrors" were in
service, and the only work done by the wear
ers of the "red stripes" was to exercise the
horses.
Hucksters and truck farmers invaded the
camp in force to-day and found ready cus
tomers among the men, who are tiring of the
ration known as "government straight." One
old darky came in with a crazy wagon con
taining a coop in which fluttered nearly 200
live chickens. He did a lively business. He
had an interview with Gen. Brooke before
he left camp and complained that a squad of
colored troopers had visited his chicken house
the night before to his disadvantage. When
leaving headquarters he said earnestly to the
general: "I hopes dat dem brack soldiers
will be moved befo' watahmelon time."
The colored population of Chattanooga
have gone wild since the advent of the "black
brigade," and just as soon as a recruiting
station is opened in this city there will be a
large enlistment. Some of the troopers and
infantrymen came from this town, and when
they appear in the streets their former com
panions endeavor to stir them to anger by
182
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
chanting a song the chorus of which is "I
know'd yo' before yo' hair got straight."
Troop H of the 6th cavalry has been se
lected as the escort to headquarters and to
day moved its quarters from the regimental
camp and took station at the foot of Lytle
hill. It is on historic ground and Capt.
Craig's tent is located where sons of Illinois
did battle. The 44th and 73d regiments of
the 2d brigade, commanded by Laiboldt of
the 3d division, Sheridan and McCook's 20th
army corps, did hard fighting at this point in
company with the 2d and 15th United States
mounted infantry. It was here that the con
federate division of Maj.-Gen. Alexander P.
Stewart, in Buckner's corps, was stationed
Sept. 19 and 20, 1863. On the first day Gen.
Negley turned the left flank of Stewart and
caused his withdrawal to the woods east of
Brotherton's, after sharp fighting. Brig.-
Gen. Henry D. Clayton, C. S. A., was here
with his brigade, opposed to J. Beatty's
brigade in Negley's division of Thomas'
corps, which forced him to move at 6 o'clock
in the afternoon.
The boy troop choseta for escort duty is
one of the crack troops in the crack regi
ment of the army's cavalry. It is one of the
famous squadron stationed at Fort Myer,
Va., troops A, E, G and H, and is known
throughout the army for its ability to drill.
The men are young, the majority of them
native Virginians, the rest of the command
being completed by men of Maryland. The
horses and equipment are the best in the
service. Officers and men are considered the
aristocrats of the mounted service, while the
dash and1 daring of the escort is recognized
and admitted in camp. The 6th cavalry is
Col. S. S. Sumner's command, his brother,
Col. E. V. Sumner, being in command of the
7th cavalry. Both officers are sons of the
famous Gen. Sumner. The troop was orig
inally organized in Philadelphia in 1861, ancl
in that city to-day is an organization of vet
erans of the 6th cavalry which looks after
the welfare of this particular troop. Its
war service was with the army of the Po
tomac, it being brigaded with volunteer
troops in the Valley of Virginia and fighting
there and in the Shenandoah. The regiment
was with Gen. Miles in the Indian territory
in 1873, had a tussle with the Apaches from
1875 to 1884, and from then to 1890 cam
paigned through New Mexico and Arizona.
Chattanooga was awakened this morning
by a sound the like of which has not been
heard since Gen. Bragg deployed his col
umns to oppose the army of the Cumberland
thirty-five years ago. The noise began away
off to the west with a shrill, piercing note,
followed by a wail that startled the civilians
and awakened the army officers from their
slumbers. Then it increased in intensity
with the characteristic shriek of a steam
calliope playing soprano, tenor, contralto
and bass at the same time.
Veteran officers who had served on the
plains were reminded of the war cry of
murderous Indians about to atttack a camp;
men who had served here with Grant shud
dered and thought of that terrible assault on
Bragg's headquarters at the crest of Mis
sionary ridge, when thirteen regiments of
Illinois made the most remarkable charge
of the war and the "19th" was the first
to plant its colors on the enemy's works.
Inexperienced "shoulder straps" marveled
and were dazed. The "West Pointers" re
called a time when they were "plebs" await
ing the shock of an attacking party of first-
class men, but no one dared to venture an
opinion. It was admitted that trouble was
coming, and Chattanooga braced itself for a
struggle.
Nearer, clearer and deadlier came the
noise. The furies of the inferno were not
half so strenuous, as every note of the scale
was run in every key. Then came a tre
mendous finale, in which shrieks, wails,
groans and cries of rage and despair were
intermingled in hopeless confusion. Silence
for a moment, to be broken by a heavy voice
commanding attention, the clank of sabers
and the worst was known — four carloads of
mules belonging to the 10th cavalry had
reached town. Not since the troops were
ordered to rendezvous at Chickamauga has
there been an incident which commanded
the attention occasioned by the arrival of
the "jack-rabbits," and to-night bets are
being made that a similar entry into Ha
vana would drive Blanco and his soldiers in
sane with fear.
Chickamauga is a great school of war to
day. Officers off duty are studying history.
Those detailed with their commands for drill
are advancing, retreating, deploying and
moving by the flank over ground which has
been wet with the blood of thousands. The
atmosphere of the place is heroic and the
school of the company, troop and battery is
made interesting because of memories of the
brave men who fought here in '63.
On McDonald's field a battery is rushing
into mimic action, postilions swinging their
long "blacksnakes," horses on the gallop,
men hanging to guns and caissons, while
commanders of sections are riding furiously.
Cavalry is dashing through the woods, the
trained horses taking ditches and stumps
without hesitation, the troopers mounting
and dismounting on the run, or at the quick
call of the trumpet pulling their steeds to
haunches, unslinging carbines and flattening
themselves on the ground to take aim at an
imaginery foe. Infantry is deploying from
column into line, skirmishers are spreading
out and closing in as the bugles sound the
orders. Bands are playing, aids and order
lies are flying along the well-made govern
ment roads — the camp is commencing busi
ness.
The signal men under Capt. W. A. Glass-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
183
CUBAN VOLUNTEERS DRILLING AT TAMPA.
[From a photograph by Malcolm McDowell.]
ford, chief signal officer of the department
of the Colorado, are in camp. They are
mounted on bicycles and carry their kits
awheel. The merit L f the rubber-shod steed
is to be decided in this campaign. Bicycles
are in evidence everywhere. Orderlies of the
infantry regiments use them; messengers
from headquarters spin along the govern
ment roads, outdistancing the fastest horses
of the cavalry; daring riders coast down the
steep gaps or pump up through the by-paths,
where horsemen hesitate to follow, to the
delight of the colored visitors, one of whom
remarked to-day, as a man from the 25th
came tearing down the Rossville gap: "You
sure kin railroad wif dem bicycles."
Flags are displayed everywhere. The city
and country is literally covered with bunt
ing. Over on Missionary ridge the old man
sions of the aristocrats whose kinfolk wore
the gray are splendid in their colors. On
the top of Lookout mountain, the guardian
of the valley, old glory floats defiantly in the
breeze. Grant's old headquarters at "the
knob" are marked by the stars and stripes,
while the red, white and blue answers the
patriotic signal from the tower marking the
spot where Gen. Bragg commanded the con
federate line.
Society turned out in force to-night and
assembled at the opera house to listen to
the opera "Mascotte." Army officers es
corted the belles of Chattanooga; daughters
of confederate sires bestowed their smiles
on the wearers of union blue, and the
playhouse was packed to its utmost capacity.
At th« conclusion of the opera the company
sung "The Star-Spangled Banner," the audi
ence rising and joining with fervor. When
the song was ended some one started a cheer
for the flag, and for five minutes the people
shouted and cheered, men swinging their
hats, women waving their handkerchiefs and
the singers waving small flags. As the
house was cleared a young woman, looking
up into the eyes of a big cavalry lieutenant,
remarked, softly: "Yo' may call us rebels,
but we ah all Yankees now down heah, I
reckon."
184
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
WHILE THE WHITE FLAG FLEW.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
There is nothing of bloodthirstiness pure
and simple about the American soldier; he
does not revel in carnage or feel an intense
and all-consuming desire to plunge his
bayonet into the person of a fellow-being
or to riddle an entire stranger with Krag-
Jorgensen bullets further than necessities
of the occasion demand. But if there
is one thing above 'another that he detests
it is a truce. A day's respite from the
strain, mental and physical, of fighting in
the trenches, a brief opportunity to cook
and eat a meal or smoke a pipe undisturbed
by the shrill, spiteful whistle of bullets, and
the demoniacal roar and shrieks of shells is
not unwelcome, but a prolonged truce, a
truce of a week adjourned from day to day,
tests hi-3 patience and endurance to the ut
most. Such a test came to the officers and
men of the army before Santiago from July
to July 10, <and when in the afternoon of
that gloomy Sunday the Spanish guns broke
the dead, oppressive silence there was a gen
eral feeling of relief. For there had been
time to think, and thinking was not pleas
ant; there had been time to feel, and the
more dulled and numbed feeling is the better
for the soldier.
As I rode from Gen. Shafter's headquarters
to the front on July 7 I noticed the effect of
the inaction on troops particularly. It was
early in the morning and the sun had not
yet dried the heavy dew from the rank herb
age; the jungled manigua was deep in shad
ow, and the land crabs still stirred among
the fallen leaves and backed in ludicrous
alarm from the path; a few bright-plumaged
birds twittered and chattered in the branches
of the stately cedrelas and the faint click of
a hammer beating on iron sounded in the
distance. From a bend in the trail a few
mules laden with provisions jogged along
the road to the left about a mile away, urged
by a couple of packers, who seemed to be
having some difficulty in preventing the self-
willed beasts from breaking off into pleasant
pastures; otherwise the road seemed de
serted. There were signs enough of human
occupation when the road was reached — mel
ancholy signs some of them. There were
blood-stained garments, where some tempo
rary hospital had been established, flutter
ing in shreds on the bushes, broken litter
poles and empty vials labeled "chloroform,"
with the torn yellow wrappings of gauze
packets and tightly rolled ends of bandages
trampled into the moist earth. Then there
were battered mess tins and cups flattened
out of all usefulness, and here "and there lit
ters of cartridges spilled from some hastily
adjusted belt, and here and there — surest
token of desperate haste— an abandoned
canteen.
A little below the ruined sugar house at
El Poso a company of the 71st New York
regiment was encamped. The men were
lounging about in the shade in little groups
munching at their hard-tack and bacon and
sipping the steaming coffee in their smoke-
blackened cups — a grim and warworn crowd,
with sun-reddened and long-unshaven faces
and garments soiled and torn They were
probably hungry enough, but their breakfast
seemed to lose attractiveness as I ap
proached.
"What news from headquarters?" they
shouted. "When are they going to let us
do something besides loaf around here?"
Owing to the unconfiding disposition of
Gen. Shafter I was unable to inform them
and they resumed their repast with gloomy
and discontented looks. Some of them had
finished their meal and were writing letters,
which for lack of envelopes they presently
sewed up with coarse thread in long, unskill
ful stitches and directed on the back. One
man was picking up big white stones and
throwing them into a sack which he dragged
behind him. I concluded that he was smooth
ing the ground for his bed. Another ener
getically dug up the sod in a long, narrow
strip with his bayonet, evidently making a
trench for a cooking fira. A little farther on
a red-bearded private sat with his back to a
palm stump smoking a short black pipe and
apparently writing a letter, the lid of a hard
tack box serving him for a desk. Every once
in awhile a comrade sauntered up, looked
over the shoulder of the writer for a minute
or two and passed on, saying nothing. Some
times two or three men at a time inspected
the work and then crossed the road and sat
down by a little oblong mound of earth.
" I had dismounted, and as I walked over to
the shade the red-bearded private looked up.
"Are them — — going to surren
der?" he asked. "I'd like to know what they
are going to do and how long they want to
make up their minds. I'd like to take an
other crack at them, but I've got to go to the
hospital if this keeps up. I've got this in
fernal fever in my bones and it's going to get
away with me. I can keep going while I'm
going."
"Same here," said a burly fellow who had
just come up. "I'm getting stiff." He put
his hand on his left arm as he spoke, and I
saw that his shirt was torn above the elbow
and that the edges of the tear were clogged
with blood. "I got it in the fight on the
1st," he explained, "and one of them Michi
gan chaps fixed it up for me with that handy
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
185
package they give out to us. I thought I
wouldn't bother the doctor — he's got enough
to do anyway— but it's beginning to swell
now, and if they don't get to fighting pretty
soon I'll drop out to the rear."
Just then the red-bearded man pulled a
big jackknife from his pocket and began to
whittle off the corners of the cracker box lid.
I looked across the road and saw that the
mound of earth was half sodded over with
green grass and that two of a half a dozen
men were piling white stones in a border
around it. Then for the first time I saw
that there were letters on the pine board
printed with an indelible pencil.
The red-bearded man nodded gravely as I
looked at him inquiringly. "He was a h — 1
of a good fellow," he said. "I'm sorry for his
folks." Then he knocked the ashes from his
pipe on the heel of his shoe and handed me
the board. It was inscribed:
Here lies the body of
JAMKS J. Sl'llAOL'E
of Fishkill. X. Y.. ayed 22.
Killed iu action July 1, 1898.
(iod rest his soul.
His comrades in company K, 71st
New York, placed this monument.
"That's all we can do now," said the com
poser of this simple epitaph, "such as that,
and thinking of the rest of the boys that's
gone and of the fever that's going to get
those that ain't shot."
The sun was well in the heavens by this
time and its rays beat down fiercely on the
gray line of road and glanced back in daz
zling flashes from the rippling San Juan;
they caught the sloping barrels of the rifles
carried by a squad of men marching north- I
ward and made the dingy shelter tents I
pitched on the hill show like patches of
snow. The freshness of the morning was
gone and there seemed to be a blight upon
everything. As I rode on the buzzards
hopped clumsily along before, tame as barn- I
yard fowl; not deigning to stretch their broad
pinions in flight, but merely dodging into
the bushes until I passed. In places the
trees by the roadside seemed alive with them
and the sky above was darkened by thair
outspread wings. There was a pestilential
odor in the air from the decomposing, half-
emptied cans of meat left by the waysile
and from not too well-buried mules. After
the last rain boughs of trees had been thrown
into the mire to prevent the wagons sinking
hub deep and now, denuded bf bark and
leaves, they had stretched and warped them
selves from the bed into which they had been
ground and arched out, bare and bleached,
like the ribs of skeletons.
The men shuffling on ahead were colored
troopers of the 10th cavalry. They had the
same query as the men of the 71st: "When's
we gwine ter git ter fightin', boss?"
No, they had not had fighting enough, they
said; they wanted to "s'how them Spanyuds
there wuz a few of us lef." "Dey'll be er
hot time in 'e ol' town ef we all gets er
chanst at it," said one, with a grin. "I got
ter have one er two er dem Spanyuds fer my
bunky yit. Yassir, he's daid; dey done killed
him. Wish ter Gawd thishyer truce business
wuz over." So it was everywhere — a brood
ing over the death of comrades, a feverish
desire to "get at it and to have it over," a
gloomy anticipation, realized every hour, of
sickness to come.
Gen. Wheeler was in his tent (he had
picked out the most dangerous spot on the
line to pitch it, of course), and he was walk
ing nervously up and down, his hands crossed
behind his back. I asked him what 'he
thought of the chance of a surrender and
found him despondently hopeful. He seemed
to realize that the chance for another of the
good, hot fights, such as his soul delighted
in, had passed, and that a bombardment was
about the only alternative to a surrender.
"If it was only the Spaniards," he said,
"there would be no question of waiting, but
you see the Spaniards don't care a conti
nental what becomes of the city if they can't
hold it, and we would be simply destroying
the property of our allies. So," resignedly,
"I suppose there is nothing for it but to
wait."
Gen. Lawton expressed himself to about
the same effect, but the staff officers gener
ally were less inclined than their chiefs to
consider the incidental damage to Cubans in
Santiago. "How long, how long!" they ex
claimed. As I returned a wiry little ser
geant of the 17th infantry was peering over
the breastworks at the Spanish trenches, in
front of which an officer was walking slowly
along. "There would be a pretty shot," he
said; 'a bee-utiful shot. If it wasn't for
them blamed white flags." He wore a bronze
"distinguished marksman's" badge, and his
interest was intense and enthusiastic. "I
never saw a better light than we have got
here," he continued. "The shooting's per
fect. But it's a horrible thing to shoot a
man down that way, just as if he was a clay
pigeon."
On Monday morning the sergeant got his
pigeon and he did not seem to be troubled
much with remorse when he told me about it.
"It was just in the same place where I was
when I saw you the other day," he said,
"and this officer was walking across that
open place. The first shot struck a little
to the right and he stopped and looked over
to where I was. Then, says I, 'I've got you,'
and I took him about an inch to the left and
he went down in a heap. It's good to get to
work again."
186
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SANTIAGO AFTER THE SURRENDER.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
Santiago bay presents a lively spectacle
this afternoon, for the harbor is full of
transports. The State of Texas, tied to one
of the two principal wharves, is discharging
its cargo of food and supplies, and half the
population of the city is massed around the
big iron freight shed which has been turned
into a Red Cross depot. Three transports
are lying at the docks and several hundred
stevedores are carrying, trucking and rolling
out the cargoes which have been stored away
in hulls since the latter part of May. The
shops and stores are opening their doors,
and seem to be well stocked with everything
but food.
The friendly demonstrations of the towns
folk, which began yesterday afternoon, con
tinue, and an American is sure of cordial
salutes and frequently effusive and affection
ate embraces wherever he goes in this Span
ish-American city.
Gen. McKibben has the situation in a firm
grasp, but if he continues to work with body
and mind as he is doing to-day and did last
night he will be a fit subject for a hospital
cot in a few days. He has a problem to solve
which will call into play all his executive
ability, diplomacy, tact and mental and
physical energy. Gen. Shatter promptly de
cided he would make no attempt to disturb
the local civil government unless develop
ments showed that government to be inimical
to the welfare of American interests in San
tiago.
We are under martial law, but every proc
lamation and announcement relating to the
conduct of citizens has been signed by the
city authorities. I have not seen Gen. Shaf-
ter's name in any of the posted proclama
tions. The Spanish judges, except those
known as liberals, intend resigning, and
some members of the city administration
already have written their resignations, but
these are details which do not concern the
American authorities. Gen. McKibben's first
business, so he said last night, is to clean
the city. Except in the immediate vicinity
of the barracks, and in a few spots which
would be called slums in Chicago, the streets
are clean. Santiago has no sewers in the
true sense; gutters run under the narrow
stone sidewalks, and the house sewage drains
into these gutters. A heavy rain flushes the
gutters, and as Santiago is all up hill and
down hill, everything goes to the bay. I
have ridden all over the town, talked to mer
chants, Spanish officers, priests and officials,
and they tell me Santiago has never before
been so clean. But they referred to the
streets — there are no alleys — and not the in
terior of houses. A large proportion of the
houses and court yards are clean, but the
larger part will require the plentiful use of
soap and water and disinfectants to bring
them anywhere near a sanitary condition.
The citizens will make no objection when
we begin street and gutter cleaning, but it
is probable there will be more or less trouble
when the medical officers begin inspecting
house interiors and laying down sanitary
law. The civil authorities have promised to
co-operate heartily with Gen. McKibben in
the work of cleaning and putting the city in
as healthy condition as possible, and if they
keep their word Santiago ought to be in good
shape before the week is out.
WThile every one hopes we will be able to
leave this part of Cuba before the yellow
fever becomes epidemic, few are sanguine
enough to believe our troops will sail for
home before September at the earliest, al
though the volunteer regiments may get
back the middle of next month. Local phy
sicians tell me there is little fear of yellow
fever before Aug. 20. About that time the
temperature drops 10 degrees, and this de
creases the evaporative efficiency of the sun;
the rainfall increases, vegetation rots, and
the sickly season is on. The medical staff
seems to have a clear and comprehensive
understanding of the situation, and is plan
ning an active and aggressive campaign.
Some American troops will be held here, if
for no other reason than to keep the Cubans
from carrying out threats to seize the city
on the first opportunity. But as soon as
possible every officer and soldier who can
be spared will be sent north.
Gen. Shafter said this morning that none
will go until after the Spanish prisoners
have started for Spain. This afternoon the
report was current that the Spaniards would
begin leaving July 25 in English ships, but
no one in authority in Santiago will vouch
for the authenticity of the report. Officers
leave to-morrow to bring in a detachment of
Pando's men at San Luis, and Spanish sol
diers above Guantanamo and other places
east. Gen. Toral to-day sent Spanish couriers
to these places to tell the commanding of
ficers of the surrender, and ordering them
to "come in" peacefully. According to the
census taken for the commissary department
there are 11,300 Spanish prisoners in camp
west of San Juan hill. Adding to this force
1,700 sick and wounded in the military and
city hospitals, gives a total of 13,000, the
number of Spanish regulars and volunteers
who manned the forts and intrenchments.
Of this number 2.500 held the forts and
shore batteries guarding Santiago bay, leav
ing 10,500 to fight in the intrenchments.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
187
MAJ.-GEN. JOSEPH WHEELER.
Yet less than 12,000 American soldiers drove
these 10,500 Spaniards out of their intrench-
ments. This figure, 12,000, is an estimate of
the effective fighting force of our army July
1, 2 and 3.
The problem of feeding the Spanish soldiers
is simplified considerably by the unloading
facilities offered by the Santiago wharves, for
four transports can tie up at the same time.
The roads between the docks and Spanish
and American camps are boulevards com
pared with the frightful apologies for roads
which hindered and all but balked every
movement made and contemplated by the 5th
army corps before Santiago fell.
To-day the big lumbering army wagons,
each hauled by six mules, brought rations
to the Spanish prisoners of war, and they
ate American hardtack, bacon, canned toma
toes and beans and drank American coffee for
the first time. It probably is true that for
two weeks or more past the Spanish soldiers
ate nothing but rice, with an occasional feast
of horse or mule meat. If that was their diet
it agreed with them. I was prepared to see
thin-faced, emaciated, barefooted, tattered,
starvation-marked men when I rode into the
Spanish camp this morning. But most of the
soldiers looked better than our own men so
far as physical condition was concerned. Here
and there a sickly-looking yellow-faced Span
iard was a conspicuous object because of
the striking contrast to the sleek-looking
men around. The Spanish officers, immacu-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
lately neat, astride "stunning" mounts,
dashed here and there, very much after the
manner of little boys who are "showing off,"
and our officers with their dirty, ragged uni
forms, brown or blue shirts, mud-daubed
leggings, croppy beards and general air of
dilapidation looked like a superior class of
"hoboes" alongside the Spaniards.
It was noticeable that every private soldier
in the Spanish camp was well supplied with
wine, rum and brandy. The jugs and bottles
offered circumstantial evidence which went
far to prove the charges made by Santiago
merchants that the night before the sur
render the Spaniards looted stores and
houses. I saw private Spanish soldiers who
had enough liquor stored away in their tents
to start a small saloon, along with whole hat-
fuls of cigars, and the same soldiers told me
they had received but $3 in cash in nine
months. They have a dozen ways of cooking
rice, and it was interesting to see the Span
iard teaching the American how to cook rice
a la Espanol, and the American showing the
Spaniard how to fry hardtack in bacon
grease and cook tomatoes with meat and
hardtack in the original tomato package.
One group of soldiers, four Americans and
five Spaniards, held a love feast under the
"surrender tree"; the Americans ate nothing
but rice cooked with meat and red pepper,
and the Spaniards stuffed themselves with
canned roast beef and fried hardtack; each
side enjoying a novelty. The Spanish soldiers
are particularly in love with canned roast
beef, and they swap machetes, hammocks,
buttons, badges and even medals of honor for
the coveted delicacy which our men frequent
ly refuse to eat.
Your Spanish soldier is a philosopher.
When it rains — and it rains every day — he
wraps his blanket around and over him in
such a manner that the woolen protector
forms a pointed hood over his head and
spreads, umbrellawise, to his hips. Then he
squats on his heels, with his back to the
wind, lights a cigarette and waits till the
clouds roll by. The shelter tents of the
Spaniards are built of the light linen ham
mocks they carry, and afford scant room for
two, but half a dozen will crawl under the
flimsy roof, and while the tropical rain pours
down they smoke the ever-present cigarette
and chatter like a lot of magpies. When
they have anything to eat they eat it all
and go hungry the next day. But so long
as they are able to shrug their shoulders,
smoke and chatter they take things good-
humoredly. These are the private soldiers.
The officers live and sleep in Santiago, where,
U appears, they have some mysterious sup
ply of food and wines. They are always
riding at breakneck speed in and out, wear
ing their side arms, with nothing to show
they are in fact prisoners of war. They greet
American officers courteously, even cordially.
Most of them speak French, in which
language many American officers are pro
ficient, so the language of Paris is the com
mon tongue in Santiago.
Admiral Sampson, Commodore Schley and
a number of naval officers came ashore to
day to pay their respects to Gen. Shafter.
Admiral Sampson had little to say, but Com
modore Schley, who is a good "mixer," was
in fine spirits and really was the center of
attraction. Naturally conversation drifted
around to the destruction of Cervera's fleet,
and among other things Commodore Schley
said:
"That fight knocked a good many textbook
theories and hobbies on the head. It proved
beyond question that belted ships now be
long to the past. What is the use of protect
ing machinery when the men who man the
guns are left unprotected? As soon as I saw
the Spanish ships coming out of the harbor
I signaled 'Close action,' and we ran up to
within 1,200 and 1,100 yards. That is point-
lUank range for our guns, and I told my men
to shoot at the personnel. 'Hammer away at
the personnel,' I said; 'never mind the ma
chinery shoot at the men. That will ac
count for the great loss of life on the Span
ish ships. We didn't waste any shots trying
to perforate armorplate, but we aimed to
make every shot tell above the protected belt.
The Spaniards seem to have laid their guns
at 3,000 yards, so as we were shooting at
them at 1,200 yards we were under the fire.
"Another thing that fight settled was the
bugaboo hysterics over torpedo boats and
torpedo-boat destroyers. To tell the truth,
I never had much fear of torpedo boats. Be
fore I left Washington I offered to bet $100
that no ship, American or Spanish, would be
sunk by a torpedo sent from a torpedo boat.
But it was beautiful to watch the way the-
big guns worked. Naval writers and theorists
have been crying down twelve and thirteen
inch rifles, but it's the heavy shots that tell,
and our men handled their big babies as if
they were rapid-fire guns. Good Lord, how
the boys did shoot! I never in my life ex
pected to see and hear such terrific cannonad
ing."
Turning to me, Commodore Schley said in
his energetic way: "And that dispatch boat
of THE RECORD'S, the Hercules, was right
in it, too. I was very much afraid it would
go down, for it was in the line of both fires.
The Hercules was the talk of the navy after
the fight."
I asked the commodore how long it would
take our ships to pound San Juan into a
"surrenderable" condition.
"Just about half an hour; perhaps less,"
was the prompt reply, and the popular sailor
was surrounded by another group of admir
ing officers.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
189
A BATTLE IN THE NIGHT.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
The fighting of the land forces is on and
the work of the chaplains and doctors has
begun.
As a result of the first clash between the
Americans and Spaniards near Malate three
nighls ago (July 31) nine dead Americans
are now lying buried in the convent yard at
Maricaban and forty-two wounded soldiers
are in the hospital tents at Camp Dewey.
How the Spaniards fared during the terrific
struggle in the rain and darkness is not
known, and only uncertain rumors have
reached us regarding their losses.
It was the baptism of fire for nearly every
man engaged in the American trenches, and
the stories of grit and nerve that are told
about them show how courageously they
stood the sweeping blasts of Mauser bullets
that sung through their lines for over two
hours of stormy darkness. As to the begin
ning of the firing there are conflicting sto
ries. When the Americans took possession
of the old insurgent trench they were or
dered not to fire on the Spaniards or to an
swer Spanish firing unless an attack was be
ing made. But almost from the beginning
the sharpshooters on the American side be
gan a desultory shooting toward the Spanish
positions, and it is thought this precipitated
the general engagement three nights ago.
Early Friday morning Gen. Greene ordered
two battalions of the 1st Colorado to occupy
the most advanced insurgent trench, near
Malate. They at once took their position in
the trench and the insurgents vacated it.
This trench is about 150 yards to the rear of
the old Capuchin monastery, which stands
between it and the Spanish trench, 350 yards
farther on. Soon after the arrival of the
Colorado troops Lieut. -Col. McAvoy and an
engineer of the 1st Colorado advanced be
yond the intrenchments and laid out a new
line just beyond the monastery. At about 1
o'clock a force of soldiers advanced and be
gan the work of throwing up an embank
ment, reaching from the road to the beach
and just taking in the monastery. During
this work there was almost no firing from
the Spaniards, and it is barely possible that
they did not appreciate what was being done.
All of Friday night the Americans worked,
and when daylight came the Spaniards saw
that a formidable embankment nearly seven
feet high extended completely across their
front and hardly 200 yards away. There
were occasional shots from the Spanish
sharpshooters, but only one man was struck.
He was William Sterling of the 1st Colorado,
and was wounded in the left arm while on
the road 400 yards from the American trench.
He was shot while leaving with the Colo-
radoans after being relieved by the 1st Neb
raska regiment at 9 o'clock Saturday morn
ing, and it is thought that the slight wound
he sustained was caused by a mere chance
shot. This was the first man wounded on
the American side. He was from Canton,
O., and enlisted from Colorado.
When the 1st Nebraska took its twenty-
four-hour duty in the trench it is said that
its sharpshooters began firing at everything
that moved over in the vicinity of the Span
ish lines. The Spaniards returned this firing
in the same way, but no one on the Amer
ican side was struck. This firing by the Ne
braska troops was in direct violation of Gen.
Merritt's wishes, for both he and Admiral
Dewey did not want any offensive move to
be made until the time arrived when it was
considered opportune to demand the sur
render of the city. But it was evident that
two armed forces 200 yards apart, with
sharpshooters eager to begin their work,
could not long remain passive when good
targets were visible in the enemy's lines.
The Spaniards began a sharp fire when dark
ness fell, probably expecting by this plan
to prevent any further advance of the Amer
ican lines. During this firing the Nebraska
troops did not return the fire, but sat safely
behind the embankment and let the Span
iards waste their ammunition in blind firing.
Early Sunday morning five companies o-f
the 10th Pennsylvania— A, C, H, I and K—
with batteries A and B of the Utah light
artillery, took their places in the trench for
twenty-four hours' duty. Two other com
panies — E and D — were stationed 200 yards
behind the breastworks, to act as reserves.
They took their place in the shelter of the
trees near the beach. Maj. Cuthbertson of
the 10th Pennsylvania had command of the
forces in the breastworks and Maj. Bierer
commanded the two companies of reserves.
Capt. Young commanded the two Utah bat
teries of four guns. About 600 yards to the
rear of the American lines was company B of
the 10th Pennsylvania, and a short distance
to their rear was Lieut. -Col. Krayenbuhl
with the 1st platoon of the 3d artillery, num
bering about ninety men, armed with Krag-
Jorgensen rifles. Across on the road leading
to Pasai Lieut. Kessler was posted with
the 2d platoon. During the day the Spanish
kept up a desultory firing, chiefly by sharp
shooters, endeavoring to pick off men who
exposed themselves near the trench. This
firing was responded to by the Pennsylvania
sharpshooters stationed at the dirt loopholes
of the breastworks.
Occasionally the Spaniards would direct a
few shots down the road leading from Camp
Dewey to the breastworks, but no injuries
have been reported as resulting from this
190
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SCENE IN THE NAVAL HOSPITAL, CANACOA.
aimless blind firing. Late in the afternoon
I visited the breastworks and found the
Pennsylvania and Utah men busily working
en shelters to protect them from the rain,
and several sharpshooters were lying against
the breastworks occasionally responding to
the sharp snap of the Spanish Mausers. At
that time the earth had been thrown up to
a height of six feet in some places and near
ly seven in others. A man was thereby per
mitted to stand at his full height when near
the breastworks. The rain was falling in
sudden, drenching showers and pools of
muddy water were standing in the depres
sions near the embankment. Just midway
between the road and the beach is the old
Capuchin monastery, which has been de
serted since the insurgent and Spanish hos
tilities have been on. The American em
bankment intersects the farther end of this
building, thereby including it within the
American lines. The building is shattered
with shells and riddled with bullets. It is
not safe to be above the ground floor, for
the Spaniards occasionally send a shell into it
to prevent Americans from getting up and
firing down on them from the second story
or roof. It was in this house that Col. Jew-
ett of Indiana, judge-advocate on Merritt's
staff, was fired on while looking out of its
windows two days before and narrowly es
caped being shot. On the right-hand side
of the monastery two of the Utah guns are
stationed at their emplacements and on the
left farther along toward the beach the other
two are located.
When the darkness fell — and with it came
a fearful rainstorm — five Cossack posts were
-sent forty or fifty yards forward from the
breastwork as sentries. A force of company
K then went outside the embankment with
shovels and began throwing up dirt to
strengthen and heighten it. Presently there
came the sound of firing from the Spanish
direction, which was replied to by the out
posts. Company K returned and got their
rifles and started out to reconnoiter. In the
darkness they stumbled on a small squad of
men, who fired on them from a distance of
less than twenty-five yards. Several of their
number were injured in this fire. Then the
general alarm was given that the Spaniards
were attempting to flank the American
trench in the swamps to the right of the
breastworks, evidently with the intention of
enfilading the Americans. The strength of
the Spaniards was of course unknown, but
the Americans in the trench immediately
began a hot, incessant fire toward the Spanish
position. The men of company K came in in
groups at a time, apparently disconcerted at
the suddenness of their encounter in the
darkness of the night. Maj. Cuthbertson im
mediately sent word to Maj. Bierer, com
manding the reserves, to proceed to the right
flank and repel the Spaniards. To do this
the men of companies E and D were com-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
191
pelled to cross from the beach to the road,
nearly 200 yards, absolutely exposed to the
sweeping storm of bullets that passed over
the breastworks, and on into the exposed
fields beyond. By this time the musket
firing from the two opposing trenches was
like the rapid roll of a drum, with no pause
and not the slightest cessation. The Spanish
machine guns were being directed like a hose
along the full length of the American breast
works, and their heavy guns were sending
screaming shells along the beach and road,
making those two approaches, the only prac
ticable ones leading from the camp at Tamko
to the breastworks, almost certain death to
any one of them. The Americans were keep
ing up a terrific fire absolutely without aim,
excepting so far as they were able to judge
from the flashing line of fire that sprung out
from the Spanish stronghold.
It was the gallant march of the E and D
companies across the open field through the
blast of bullets that laid so many of them
low in death and injuries. When they
reached the right flank the Spaniards had
withdrawn, and the only firing came from
the customary place of the Spanish firing.
Ammunition on the American side was run
ning low, each man having only fifty rounds
when the firing began, and even the shells
of the Utah guns were growing dangerously
few. Then a kind of consternation over
took them as they saw their supply dwindle
down to ten, then to five and in some cases
to not a single cartridge. A courier was
sent to camp, and others who were not sent
started back for re-enforcements and ammu
nition. It was as dark as pitch, and it was
impossible to tell a Spaniard from an Amer
ican ten yards away.
Col. Krayenbuhl, as the firing became
steady and terrific, hurried his men up from
their reserve position, sent word to Kessler
to come on with the other platoon, and
dashed through the storm of rain and bul
lets into the breastworks, where he found
the soldiers fixing their bayonets prepara
tory to a final stand. Some were eager to
dash over the parapet and charge the Span
iards with the steel, and others were firing
without order and system at the leaping
flames and flashes 200 yards beyond. Krayen
buhl drew his revolver, sprang up on the
parapet and threatened to shoot any one
who fired without orders. This had the ef
fect of settling the firing down to deliberate
careful volleys, which were much more ef
fective and less disastrous to the ammuni
tion supply. Sergt. McIIrath, a regular of
fifteen years' experience, in attempting to
restore confidence, jumped up on the breast
works and tried to show how ineffective the
Spanish firing was, but unfortunately he
came tumbling down with a bullet in his
head. After the arrival of the two platoons
under Krayenbuhl and Kessler the firing
obtained order and system and a stampede
was averted.
In the meantime in Camp Dewey, two
miles away, Capt. O'Hara of the 3d artillery
lay trying to sleep. When the firing began he
realized that the Americans were in it. He
judged by the prolonged firing that their am
munition must be running low, so he called
out his orderly and a bugler and gave hurried
instructions to Capt. Hobbs to follow him
with battery H if he heard the sound of the
bugle. He had gone but a few hundred feet
before he encountered the first of the excited
couriers who were starting back to Camp
Dewey for re-enforcements. They hastily
explained the extremity the men at the
breastworks were in and O'Hara sounded the
alarm, and Hobbs dashed out of camp with
his battery of 175 regulars armed with deadly
Krag-Jorgensens. On went O'Hara, and
whenever he met a group of men who were
excitedly returning for ammunition the bugle
rang out "forward," and the men fell in
behind and started back with the relief. It
was a regular Sheridan's ride, for O'Hara
and the shrill blast of the bugle that rainy
night turned many a man from retreat to
a valiant advance.
And on came Hobbs just a short way be
hind and the Spanish bullets were tearing
wide swaths down that muddy mango-lined
road. One bullet smashed through Hobbs'
thigh, but on he went and never noticed it
until the following morning. When the 3d
artillery reached the breastworks new heart
was taken and it would have needed only
a word to set every man in the breastworks
clambering over them, yelling like an Indian,
in a wild dash toward the night fighters hid
den 200 yards beyond. It was a moment that
stirs a man from his heels up to his hair
and sends his blood jumping through his
veins.
In Camp Dewey the bugles were blowing
the assembly, and hundreds of men were
tumbling into boots and soggy uniforms.
There was the wildest desire to be off. The
courier from the front staggered up to Gen.
Greene's headquarters and gasped that all
was lost, the Utah battery wiped out and all
the ammunition gone. He was excited to
within an inch of his life. The general
calmed him, and as soon as the story could
be obtained clearly he ordered the 1st bat
talion of the 1st California forward to re-en
force the breastworks, the 2d battalion to
proceed half-way up the road to the trench
and act as a reserve and the 3d to remain
in camp ready to respond to a call. Word
was sent to the Raleigh, lying a mile off
shore, to stand by for a signal and if one
came to open fire on the fort at Malate. This
was in accordance with arrangements be
tween Greene and Dewey.
Private J. P. Finlay of company C, 1st
Colorado, was sent out to the lines with
ight caromattes loaded with ammunition,
and he went with a vengeance. The driver
of one was shot and a horse was shot down
192
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SEARCHING FOR THE AMERICAN DEAD AND WOUNDED BEFORE MANILA.
in the shafts, but on he went, clear up to
the very brink of the trench, and delivered
his goods. Then he returned, picking up
wounded men on the way and finishing by
getting some more caromattes and starting
back for the rest of the wounded. Private
Finlay certainly did work that night that
will make his friends proud of him.
But the advance of the 1st battalion of
the Californians was magnificent. When
their men bvegan dropping in the bullet-swept
road the battalion took to the rice fields,
and, waist-deep in water and mud, they
pressed on through the drenching torrents,
while the spattering Mausers sent water
leaping in their faces and clipped the leaves
in the bamboo jungle that lined the rice
fields. In front the line of fire was like a
continuous flame, and the bursting of shells
filled the gloomy night with momentary
lightning-like flashes. Shells were splitting
in the air, and everywhere the bullets were
singing through the rain and ripping fur
rows in the swamp grass. When it became
too hot to stand they crawled, and when the
gale of bullets was too much for them they
dropped and fired lying.
One company on reaching the old insur
gent trench became confused about the po
sition of the Americans, not knowing that
the battle had advanced their lines, and
pumped three volleys into the American
breastworks. They were speedily notified of
their mistake and pressed on to the breast
works and with the rest of the Californians
did valiant work. Fortunately no Ameri
cans were killed by the volleys fired by mis
take, although it is said one man was wound
ed. Col. Smith and Col. Duboce, dripping
with mud, the former with a rubber coat and
boots and his night shirt on, were the busi
est men in the trench, and the arrival of the
Californians must have given the Spaniards
a new idea of American fighting. The Penn-
sylvanians were eager to avenge their gal
lant comrades in E and D who had fallen
in their ' courageous advance to the right
flank in the face of a murderous fire, and
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
193
only wanted the word to start out and mow
a path five companies wide clear through
Malate into the walled city.
But the Spaniards were ready to quit. Only
a desultory firing remained of what was a
magnificent exhibition of noise and havoc.
Once in a while during the two hours fol
lowing the close of heavy firing at 1:30 there
were sputters of musketry from their
trenches, but the heavy work was over.
Then came the sad searching in the
swampy grasses for the dead and wounded.
In the early light of morning they bore on
rough bamboo litters the muddy remains of
those who had gallantly fallen before the
enemy. Their rubber coats were thrown
over their faces, but the white stiffened
hands and the crimson stains on the rough
brown drenched clothes told that it was not
a wounded man who was being borne
solemnly along through the stretches of
muddy road between the front and Camp
Dewey. The natives looked on from the
dripping nipa huts along the road with sleepy
interest. In the brigade hospital camp the
surgeons were moving about among the cots
and men with red-stained bandages and
faces wretched and strained looked vacantly
at them as they talked in low, grave voices.
This was the first real sight of war and its
results that we have seen. The flag on the
high bamboo staff in front of Gen. Greene's
headquarters was at half-mast. Some of the
wounded men were cheerful and asked that
their names be not sent to America, as they
didn't want their mothers worried. Others
were joking and laughing and several of the
great company were walking about.
In the middle of the afternoon the dead
were buried across in the convent yard at
Maricabau. The chaplain of the 10th Penn
sylvania conducted the ceremonies and there
were appropriate military observances.
Up in the trench' a new regiment — the 3d
California— ha established itself for a
twenty-four-hour siege in the flooded de
pressions. They were more cautious than
the Pennsylvanians had been the day before
and the lesson of the night had taken lasting
hold.
There is a general feeling here that the con
flict was absolutely useless, and some criti
cism is expressed that Gen. Greene should ad
vance his troops to a position where it would
be impossible to prevent an exchange of fir
ing. It was Admiral Dewey's hope that by
avoiding hostilities until the Monterey came
the city could be induced to surrender without
losing a man, and he counseled that every
precaution be taken by the army to prevent
a premature engagement. The Americans
had nothing to gain in a strategic way in the
fight Sunday night. They are now in a posi
tion which could have been gained easily
whenever they chose to take it; consequently
there was no urgent need for bringing the
two forces face to face before the supreme
moment came to "touch off the whole bunch
at once." In the battle it was so dark that
not a Spaniard was seen, and the supposi
tion has been expressed that the alarm of
the flank attack was a false one. It is felt
that the movement forward was the work
of an ambitious general who preferred to
make a record before giving the city an op
portunity to surrender.
DOGGED PLUCK OP AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
BY GUY CRAMER.
It was the fierce conflict waged about the
blockhouses and rifle pits of Caney in the
intervals of wilting heat and sultry rains of
July 1 and the terrible charges over the
fortified ridges and gun-clad slopes of San
Juan that brought the first test of fire to
American and Spanish soldiery.
The former added to the history of brave
men and heroic deeds which dedicate the
wars of the revolution and the rebellion.
The Spaniard again proved himself an un
tiring and relentless enemy so long as his
movements are screened by a protecting
shelter, fighting with the ferocity of a rat
when cornered, having become beast rather
than man, as a result of the lash held over
him by his officers.
Our men struggled with an enemy who
fought not by rule or in the open, but after
the manner of wild beasts along lines in-
soired by desperation. A curious fact of
these engagements — a fact which has drawn
some criticism — is that the rifle intrench-
rnents and stone forts were stormed by our
infantry and dismounted cavalry almost
wholly unaided by artillery — a practice di
rectly contrary to military precedent.
Our approach to Santiago was achieved by
our men adapting themselves to conditions
which army tactics had never considered.
It is not the recital of the shifting of
brigades and of divisions of soldiery which
conveys the story of the first defeat of the
Spaniards. The weary marches along half-
hidden trails, the struggle through jungled
thickets, through great reaches of tangled
grasses concealing marshes with ankle-
deep water, overgrown with laced vines
which preyed upon the feet of exhausted
men, prostrating at full length the one who
made a careless step, the wading of creeks,
the slipping upon muddy banks and the lying
194
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
in the trenches supported by a rude road
under a baking sun. All this had to ?->e
contended with, as well as the volleys of
Mauser bullets from fortifications and from
row upon row of rifle pits located with mur
derous cleverness and skill.
When Capron's battery of light artillery
rattled out into the muddy roadway leading
from the camp of Shafter's forces to the hills
about Santiago it was supposed that the
town of Caney, the outpost guarding the
big city's water supply, would capitulate
with little more than the asking. Instead,
500 Spanish soldiers held an army division
under a terrible fire all day, precipitated the
fight at San Juan to a premature conclusion,
rendered necessary two desperate charges of
our men against fearful opposition, but,
though attended by a high percentage of
mortality, placed our army at the very works
of Santiago.
Capron's battery made its tedious way to
the hills east of Caney by following a road
upon which the men worked like demons in
order to provide a passage for the guns.
Through mudholes hub-deep horses floun
dered and strained at the chains of the car
riages, smarting under the lashes of the
drivers. Again and again the four guns in
turn were all but stalled on the steep ap
proaches to streams, only to be dragged on
after tireless effort of horses and men. It
was just before daybreak that the battery
was halted on the edge of the hill, the three
miles of advance having required almost a
dozen hours. Off toward the west more than
3,000 yards distant lay the stone fort and the
rifle pits of Caney.
In the meantime the branches of Lawton's
division — the brigades of Chaffee, of Ludlow
and of Evan Miles, with the independent
group of regiments commanded by Gen. Bates
— had assumed position after hours of terri
ble marching. Under the direction of Cuban
guides soldiers had actually fought their
way over natural obstacles until it was pos
sible to form a firing line near a rude road
running parallel to the thoroughfare afford
ing communication with Santiago and Gen.
Linares' forces.
The shells from the battery continued to
fall short or, tearing over the objective
point, burst high in the air over the town.
The hour of 8 found our men under Spanish
fire. In true Indian fashion our firing line
sought protection afforded by any chance
object or depression of the earth, and the
return of the Krag-Jorgensens was fearful.
The Spanish trenches were constructed of
such a depth that guns were rested upon the
heaps of earth along the front, and thus but
small parts of the heads of the men pump
ing the Mauser rifles were exposed.
Our advance was reckoned by inches dur
ing the morning hours and few, indeed, were
even these slight gains. There were numer
ous breaks in the lines of men lying in the
heavy underbrush, when a new source of
danger was discovered. rihe files of soldiers
posted back of the firing line were made the
objects of bullets of unseen flankers, whose
guns popped in the treetops.
At intervals the heavy firing ceased, a re
frain of thunder being taken up by the fleet
off the bay. Then the battle settled down to
a dogged test of endurance. Hospitals were
established under the big trees off the San
tiago road.
When the shells from Capron's guns began
their crashing about the stone fort on the
hill the infantry fire checked itself and
preparations were made for a most important
redistribution of forces. Gen. Chaffee's brig
ade and the men under Bates came into con
flict. Mounted messengers from other regi
ments hurried about, charging that other
detachments of Lawton's brigade had fired
upon their own lines. There is no doubt
that some deaths were caused in this
manner, owing to the rough country through
which operations were necessary and be
cause of the overpowering suspicion that a
crunching of the underbrush marked the
hiding place of Spanish sharpshooters.
During the lull at 11 o'clock three brigades
began the march calculated to intercept the
Santiago road to the south of Caney, but this
flank movement Miles' men did not carry to
completion. On the ridges lying to the north
and even to the west of the stone fort Gen.
Chaffee's men formed and then the signal
came for the fierce assault which marked the
afternoon. Food had been all but lacking
among our men; the lucky possessor of a few
hardtack dividing with his comrades. Prom
the hills far off to the south came the roar
of the battle which had been opened by Kent
and Wheeler before the field guns, pits and
the fort of San Juan.
At Caney a continuous rattle of lead was
on. From our line, lying along the hollow
of a would-be road, the volleys were flying as
rapidly as fingers could pull triggers and
reload. Chaffee himself was on the firing
line uttering the command to "Give it to
'em! Fire every cartridge in your belts and
we'll turn the Spanish out of Cuba!"
The breech-locks of the rifles became so
heated by the continuous firing that the men
all got blistered fingers when slipping cart
ridges into position. During that raking fire
of the afternoon several men of the 7th in
fantry lightened their ammunition belts by
sixty-five rounds, not in continuous fire, how
ever, as in that case the soldier would have
been exhausted and the rifle rendered use
less.
All this time the Spaniards in the trenches
sent forth their deadly projectiles. At either
end of each pit a Spanish officer, revolver in
hand, threatened to shoot any who should
leave the shelter and seek to escape. At in
tervals a couple of men — volunteers, as de
noted by their white ga.-ments — leaping from
the pits ran toward *h« fort, probably to se-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
1<J5
REGIMENTAL BLACKSMITH AT WORK— TAMPA.
cure more ammunition. This maneuver
caught Gen. Chaffee's eye and he shouted:
"Up on your knees there, two men, and
pick off that delegation!"
The afternoon had well advanced when,
across the open field before the D'Danney
house, two regiments shot into view and in
the very teeth of the Spanish fire the men
hurried on, now stumbling over the uneven
soil, but, despite all this, keeping formation.
From the trees to the rear branches were
flying in every direction, shorn by the steady
fire. Up the slope the lines of blue advanced
at a run, officers striving to shout out en
couraging commands, each man replying
with a yell that gave assurance that he
needed no spur to exertion. There was a
wavering in the Spanish volleys, officers clad
in the peculiar uniform of blue hurled oaths
at their small group of riflemen and then
giving way wholly a hasty retreat was made
to the houses of the town.
With this maneuver the 4th infantry from
Fort Sheridan and the 25th regiment, which
is composed of negroes, had swept away one
of the most dangerous centers of opposition
which had raked our men during the day.
The company of Capt. Levering had been in
the very front of the advance and when the
broken lines of blue-clad men surged in a
swirl about the white walls of the square
structure the report was passed that his
company alone had lost twenty-two men.
Our mortality, however, was surprisingly
small, considering the unobstructed fire to
which our ranks were exposed.
From the hills to the north, pressing to
ward the stone fort with the shattered wall,
the 12th infantry made such a determined
advance that the opposition tumbled into
nothing. Spanish officers and men fled in
confusion.
From the hills of San Juan came the fur
ther sounds of battle. In this desperate
fight the Infantry had not the least support
of artillery. During the early morning
Grimes' battery had been located on a hill
to the left of the road, lying almost 3,000
yards from the fortifications of Santiago.
It was at this time — shortly after 8 o'clock
in the morning— the regiments began to ad
vance along the road toward the Spanish
lines ahead. The 6th infantry, which suf
fered such extensive losses, headed the col
umn, followed by the 16th and the New
York volunteers of the 71st regiment.
Amid the moving blocks of blue came the
great war balloon — from which our signal
men had viewed the city of the enemy on the
afternoon preceding — the bobbing mass
towed by great ropes, while a detachment
cut away tree branches and other obstruc
tions.
Our plans had contemplated the speedy
capture of Caney, the throwing of the di
vision of Lawton forward to the confines of
196
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
San Juan and then an attack from front and
flank by practically our entire army. The
all-day struggle before the town to the
north caused a hurried shifting of opera
tions and the seizure of the fort of San
Juan was attended by a loss of life double
that swept from our ranks at Caney. Sliding
about in the tall grasses the men were
formed for one of the bravest charges which
has ever been made against an enemy's
guns. Led by Wykoff's brigade, racked by
the exhaustion of hours of exposure to the
burning sun, a mass of American soldiers
clambered at a run to the lines of carefully
constructed burrows, which had thrown their
cloak of safety about the Spanish soldiers,
just below the crest of the hill, over the
brow of which bullets were clattering from
the intrenchments on the very limits of San
tiago, to which the Spanish soldiers had re
treated in good order. Even to this point
the rough riders pressed, but, unsupported,
the firing became too effective and they were
forcedy to seek shelter below the hill.
The number of men who fell before the
Spanish rifles at this point has already been
stated, but the loss of officers is impressed
by the statement that at next muster the
6th cavalry had only one officer to a com
pany, the further loss of men of shoulder
straps rendering necessary the assignment
of noncommissioned officers to company com
mands.
The Spanish rifle-pits served as the resting
place for their dead, the volunteers tumbling
body after body into the graves which only a
few hours before had sent clouds of death
into our lines and then slowly covering the
bodies with earth.
A detachment of infantry, crossing the
brook which flanked the rough path of de
scent, entered upon the search of Caney.
Revolvers in hand, we crept from house to
house and extremely exciting were the mo
ments of suspense as doors were pushed
slowly open and the weapon thrust into the
dark corners. Volunteers and privates were
gathered in by the dozens, but officers were
few. The men were marched back to the
hill-top crowned by the fortifications and
corralled with the standing army already lo
cated there.
In the town the utmost excitement reigned
all night. The Cubans, who flocked the
woody trails by the thousands during the
day without rendering one salient stroke of
aid to our men, overflowed Caney, as usual,
after their Spanish enemies had been driven
out.
With the taking of Caney Law ton began
immediate execution of the order to join the
lines which had been thrown about the hills
of San Juan. Regiments were reformed and
the weary marches in the chill of the night
were started.
Later fires were lighted and half-warmed
meals prepared at the midnight hour. Nine
out of ten men, however, fell in their tracks
and then to sleep, leaving but few who con
sidered stomachs first.
Over the hills before San Juan pick and
shovel were busy, and morning found a long
line of rude trenches, uncomfortable because
of the slight depth, but affording protection
to our men, extending just below the crest
of the hill beyond which Hobson and his
men were looking through the windows of
their chambers of confinement near San
tiago's military hospital. It was against this
line, where all our forces were concentrated,
that the Spaniards waged the storm of the
second day.
THE FLIGHT FROM A BESIEGED CITY.
BY JAMES LANGLAND.
From 5,000 to 10,000 women and children
and several hundred old men left Santiago
de Cuba yesterday (July 7) to find uncertain
refuge in this already overcrowded village
of Daiquiri and in adjacent places. To-day
the hegira continues, for to-morrow, accord
ing to the programme, the city gates will
either be closed and war be resumed or a
surrender will be made, so that departure
will be unnecessary.
For twenty miles the narrow road through
the woods is crowded with these involuntary
pilgrims. Paths which a few days ago were
filled with marching men, now resting on
thei* arms, are to-day trodden by an army
of an altogether different sort. It is a pro-
cossion not without a parallel, for there have
doubtless been many such flights in the his
tory of the world, yet this one is deeply
and pitifully interesting to the looker-on.
The exodus from the besieged city began
at dawn yesterday morning. It had been
made public by the authorities that persons
who so desired might leave, as by agreement
they would be permitted to pass through the
American lines to any place beyond they
might choose. The Spaniards declared that
they would fight to the last; that a bombard
ment of the city was almost certain and that
therefore women and children and aged men
ought to get out of harm's way. The hint
was quickly taken. Families began to pack
up articles they could carry and place others
in the care of friends remaining behind. It
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
197
o
MAP SHOWING FORTIFICATIONS— SANTIAGO BAY.
did not take long, as the greater number of
those taking part in the flight had but little
property of any description. Years of war
and oppression had made them desperately
poor.
They were not, in most cases, sorry to go.
Food was getting scarcer every day in the
city. Rice was the chief article of diet,
varied by such fruit as was brought in from
the surrounding country before the lines of
the invading army had been closely drawn.
Coffee, dear to the palate of all Cubans and
Spaniards, was high priced and hard to get.
Flour, bacon, sugar and other staples were
running short. As a matter of fact, if the
siege of the city were to continue a week
longer the inhabitants of the city would be
on the verge of actual starvation. On the
other hand came reports to them that in the
towns held by the foreign soldiers there was
an abundance of food, which was being dis
tributed without money and without price.
198
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
So the impelling forces of this great pil
grimage were starvation, misery and danger
behind, and peace, liberty and plenty ahead.
It is to be feared, though, that the evils
they sought to escape found many of them
all the more quickly because of their hasty
flight. Preparations had not been made to
feed and shelter such a multitude.
By noon yesterday the first families to
leave Santiago had reached the hill where
the rough riders had their fight. Prom there
back to the city was an almost continuous
line, ten miles long, of slowly moving people.
The sun beat down upon them fiercely when
they passed the open stretches; it was hot
and oppressive as they made their way
through the forests. They could not walk
far without stopping. Under every large
tree where shade and a breath of fresh air
could be obtained were large parties resting.
Fortunately the roads were dry. It had not
rained the day before and it did not rain
yesterday or last night or the suffering would
have been increased a hundred-fold. For
tunately, too, there was plenty of good water
to be had along the way. Beyond this for
tune did not favor them. They had a weary
march, with a night on the ground and little
or no food at the end of it.
The refugees were of the most varied de
scription imaginable. They were of every
gradation of shade, from white to deepest
black, and of every age, from the infant in
arms to the octogenarian hobbling along on
cane or crutch. They were dressed in
cheap, light-colored calicoes or ginghams,
some looking clean and neat and others un
kempt, ragged and dirty. Many of the chil
dren were almost naked, few had shoes and
stockings and not one in fifty had a head-
covering, unless it was a burden of some
kind. Little boys and girls, barely able to
stand, toddled along, many of them crying,
but the majority wearing the patient, stolid
expression of their parents. Old and young,
with rare exceptions, carried burdens. It
was common to see a woman with a large
bundle of clothing on her head, a basketful
of household articles on one arm and an in
fant in the other. Occasionally a man could
be seen on top of a small mountain of goods,
underneath which appeared the ears, nose
and legs of a small mule.
While by far the greater number were
people accustomed to poverty, there were
scattered among them others who had evi
dently seen days of comparative prosperity.
They wore no expensive clothing, but their
general appearance and manners bespoke
refinement and some degree of education.
Here was a mother who had lived some
time in Jamaica and could speak a little
English. Her four young children had
clean faces, hair neatly combed and clothes
which had been freshly washed and ironed.
Two or three red and blue parasols carried
by young women seemed incongruous in a
procession otherwise lacking in color. A
touch of romance was added by a young
Cuban officer on horseback carrying on the
saddle before him a handsome young lady,
both entirely oblivious of the attention they
were attracting.
It would not be true to say that the pro
cession was a mournful one except to the
observer who reflected upon the hardships,
past, present and future, which had fallen
to the lot of these people. They bore some
marks of suffering, most of them being more
or less emaciated; but they did not look
unhappy. Those who did not seem indiffer
ent clearly anticipated better things when
they reached their destination. They were
smiling and chatting, and cheerfully re
turned the salutes of those whom they met
on the road. Consciously .or unconsciously
the fact that they were now virtually
under the protection of the great American
republic was having its influence upon their
spirits. For the time being they had found
security, if not prosperity, and that was
enough.
Spanish refugees who could talk a little
English said that most of the people in
Santiago had been ready to surrender for
some time, as they recognized the hope
lessness of continuing the struggle. The
soldiers in the ranks, they said, had had
enough of it, "but," they added, "the
senoras, senoritas and the officers taunted
them, called them cowards, and so com
pelled them to fight."
WITH THE FIRST ILLINOIS.
BY C. D. HAGERTY.
The 1st Illinois at this writing (July 12)
is holding a line of intrenchments on the
right wing of the semicircular line forming
the position of Gen. Shafter's forces east of
Santiago. They are drenched to the skin.
There is scarcely a dry article in the whole
regiment. Fourteen miles from the source
of supplies, they have for thirty hours sub
sisted on such a scanty supply of hardtack
and canned beef as each man could carry
with him from Siboney, the base of supplies,
along with his poncho and blanket. Abso
lutely they have nothing more, from Col.
Turner down. They have no way of cook-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
199
ing, even if there were anything calling for
the application of culinary talents about the
camp. The single road leading to the front
is almost impassable and any amelioration
of their distressing condition seems far off.
They have no mules and no wagons, which,
perhaps, is no misfortune, as the single road
open to traffic is littered with floundering
mule teams now.
The commissary is established about four
miles east of the firing line, and in the ex
act proportion that this depot gets food from
Siboney the troops will be fed. The arrival
of re-enforcements has thrown more work on
the quartermaster's department, and it will
be easily a week before it is able to cope
with any degree of success with the increased
demand from tired, water-soaked and raven-^
ously hungry volunteers.
The rainy season is upon the island of
Cuba with a force that no one unless ac
quainted with tropical storms can picture,
and the Chic'agoans are in it, with no
escape. Col. Turner has no tent; the three
majors, the twelve captains, to say nothing
of the lieutenants, have none. They own
great Sibleys, with cots, blankets and other
comforts galore; but all are on the sands
of the Siboney shore, and there they are
likely to remain, probably to be lost in the
change of events. G company carried its
dog tents along on the march, but they are
practically useless. The rain goes through
the light canvas with ease and streams in
along the ground. G is no better off than
the other companies with their blankets and
ponchos.
It is said and believed that if one keeps
dry, d-ocs not sleep on the ground, drinks
nothing but boiled water, etc., he will not
suffer from maladies peculiar to the island.
To follow this advice, excepting that with
regard to the water, has been found by the
Chicago boys to be impossible. They are
grateful for a piece of ground to rest on,
for any water to drink and for anything to
eat. If they remain in the field during July
and August they will be drenched to the
skin a good part of the time. To carry
changes of clothing on the march is im
possible, so the only thing they can do and
have been doing is to let their clothes dry
on their backs. By the time this has been
accomplished it will rain again — not one of
those sprinklings which sometimes flood
basements along Clark and Madison streets,
but a deluge of hours — and the boys will be
fixed for crawling into their blankets —
these probably wet, too — with soaked cloth
ing. During the night more rain will fall.
There will be few hours of the day when
the sun shines.
This weather forecast is agreed upon by
men who know, or should know, from long
experience whereof they speak. Thirty
hours of it has sickened the boys of it,
stiffened their joints and given them woeful
forebodings. They wonder how long human
endurance will last.
Many a poor fellow following the fortunes
of the "Dandy First" — they are "dandies" no
longer — has lain in his camp, footsore, wet,
ravenously hungry, more fit for bed than
anything else, and groaned, "Oh, when will
this end?"
Col. Turner's men reached their new posi
tion about 8 o'clock on the morning of July
11, and were immediately ordered by Gen.
Lawton, in whose division they are, into the
intrenchments on the hills northeast of San
tiago. The sun was hot, but despite this and
the exhaustion attendant upon lack of food
and sleep, the boys marched with some dis
play of eagerness into the pits, bending to
keep their heads below the bags of sand
crowning the ditches.
Col. Turner, Lieut. Hart and Lieut. Olson,
the latter now the colonel's personal aid,
made an inspection of the position, search
ing for a place to riant the colors. Eight
hundred yards away, on a small flat-topped
hill, they could see dimly the pits occupied
by the Spaniards. By the aid of glasses
the Castilian flag could be seen. There was
no sharpshooting going on at the time, and
Lieut. Hart straightened to his full six feet.
A Mauser bullet struck the sand in front
of him almost instantly, testifying to the
watchfulness of the enemy. No reply was
made, as the smokeless powder of the don
makes it impossible to tell the quarter from
which a bullet comes.
Camp was pitched immediately back of the
firing line, and far enough below so that
the crown of the hill might interpose be
tween it and Spanish bullets. Those who did
not go on duty sprawled out in such scanty
shade as offered or in the sun and slept, or
else ate the little they had. Col. Turner and
his staff ate some ill-tasting canned roast
beef and a little hardtack, and were grate
ful for it. They had less for supper.
About 1 p. m. the rain began, and in two
minutes there was not a dry rag in the ag
gregation. The hillsides became so slippery
that walking was almost impossible for any
distance. It was much like trying to walk
up a toboggan slide, only the boys say
Cuban red clay is not as pleasant as ice.
From 3 o'clock till about 6 the heat was
distressing, the sun a dazzling ball of fire
which enhanced the beauty of the green
mountain sides and ravines. But it took the
life out of the soldiers to such a degree that
the beauty of the great tropical valley had
no charms for them.
The great hills ran away up into the clouds,
the latter white and beautiful; a creek
threaded its way through a valley of shim
mering green-like velvet, with here a preci
pice of alpine abruptness and again a long,
rich slope like the sun-kissed ones of Italy.
Altogether it was a grand picture, one to
be drunk in and remembered with reverent
awe forever. The boys didn't care for it,
200
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
UNLOADING CATTLE FOR THE NAVY— KEY WEST
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
201
but they would have liked some coffee or dry
clothes.
There was little sleep that night. The
rain was appallingly heavy and paused but
little for breath, despite the violence of its
exertion. Col. Turner sat huddled under a
tree, with a poncho over his shoulders and
his officer? about him. The ponchos leaked
and everything and everybody was blue and
miserable. Even the distinction of being the
first Illinois troops at the front, when called
to mind by somebody who could think of
nothing else cheerful to say, could not pro
voke any jubilation, and Capt. Steele, usually
irrepressible, had nothing to say.
Capts. West and Wigham, with a detail of
175 men, nearly all recruits received at Port
Tampa, are guarding the isolation hospital,
which now has 140 yellow-fever patients.
They are the lucky people of the regiment —
not the patients, but the guards. They have
tents to sleep in and three meals a day and
are so situated that no breeze which passes
through the sick wards misses them.
Capt. Wigham has caused the floors — for
these fortunate ones have floors — to be laid
on railroad ties a foot above earth. The
floor proper is made by laying poles across
the tents resting on the ties. Under this
there is generally a breeze which is delight
ful. This is the best camp any of the Chi-
cagoans have had since leaving home. They
are always eager for news of their com
rades at the front and long to be there,
though appreciating the hardships of the
boys in the trenches.
Sergt. Brewster is in charge of the regi
mental supplies at Siboney. Sergt. Boedecker
is also behind, much against his will, keeping
an eye on the great pile of personal baggage
belonging to the officers.
As to those of the regiment not in the
hospital some have colds, some have slight
disorders and all are a little out of joint
with the world. A feeling of stiffness and
lassitude is with many.
On July 11 Lieut. Hart and a companion
walked back to Siboney over a miserable
road about thirteen miles, six miles of the
trip being made through mud and water up
to the knees in many places. It was dark,
pitchy dark, and when Siboney was reached
both were nearly fagged, hungry as wolves
and scarcely able to stand. Sergt. Boedecker
brought forth some beans and hardtack, out
of which a bountiful meal was made, with
many a thought of the delight with which
the boys in the trenches would sit down to
such a repast. This morning Hart succeeded
in getting a wagon to carry intrenching
tools to the front — more breastworks are
to be made — and on horses packed about 200
pounds of canned meat, beans and hardtack
for the officers.
Col. Turner sits at this moment on a
blanket under a rude shelter of branches cut
from the trees. The whiskers are getting
the better of his usually smooth cheeks, his
shirt is open and his clothes dirty. Ever and
anon he pauses in his writing to slap some
insect which persists in profaning his per
son. •
The yellow fever is the great bugaboo. Of
the 140 cases in the hospital nearly every
one has come from the trenches. The med
ical men in the army predict, with ominous
voices, that within a week, when the rain
will have had plenty of time to undermine
the health of the army, 100 cases of the
yellow pest will come into the hospitals
daily. It is now possible to care for the
patients with a diligence which will bring
nearly all back to convalescence. More
over, the fever now is not as virulent as
it will be, the doctors say, when with the
advancement of the season the rains increase
in frequency and intensity.
THE TAKING OF MANILA
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
As the time approached marking the ex
piration of the forty-eight-hour respite
granted to Manila by Gen. Merritt and Ad
miral Dewey before the attack the enthusi
asm on the ships was tremendous. Men on
the sick list begged to be taken off and
those who were unfit for heavy work asked
to be assigned to lighter duties. Men who
would have been hopelessly ill if the ship
was to be coaled now developed wonderful
vitality and convalescence. A few thought
ful ones got their farewell letters written,
but the great majority prepared for a pic
nic.
It was announced that the navy and army
would get under headway Wednesday noon,
Aug. 10. General orders were issued and the
refuge ships and foreign war vessels an
chored off the city began to move away to
positions of safety. Ten or twelve refuge
ships thronged with women and children
from Manila were taken down the bay and
anchored in Mariveles bay, safe alike from
vagrant shells and scenes of flying havoc.
The foreign war vessels moved out of range.
The German admiral sent word asking Ad
miral Dewey where he should anchor, and
was told that he might anchor any place he
chose so long as he was not in range. Then
came a curious thing. The English ships —
202
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
the Immortalite, Iphigenia, Pygmy and Plov
er — and the Japanese ship, the Naniwa,
steamed over and joined the American ships
at their anchorage off Cavite. The German
and French warships withdrew in an oppo
site direction until they were well out of
range. There could hardly have been a more
eloquent exposition of the sympathetic lean
ings of the different nations, and the Eng
lish, American and Japanese alliance which
has been so frequently mentioned of late
seemed a reality here in Manila bay.
Through the kindness of Admiral Dewey
and Capt. Lamberton I was permitted to
watch the subsequent operations from the
flagship Olympia. At 9 o'clock on the morn
ing of Aug. 10 all was suppressed excite
ment, and, as the accounts of country lynch-
ings read, little knots of men were gathered
around discussing the forthcoming conflict.
The ships were stripped and only the work
of taking down the awnings remained. This
was soon done and the steam in the engines
was strengthened for the work of turning
the heavy screws.
Shortly before 10 o'clock Gen. Merritt
came aboard and asked for a delay, stating
that the army was not ready. The disap
pointment that this caused was extreme and
the line that is said to be drawn between the
navy and army was never before so sharp
and vivid. The last dispatches had indi
cated that peace was so imminent that al
ready every ship that came into the bay was
apprehensively regarded as a probable bear
er of the unwelcome news that hostilities
should cease. To those who had lived on
shipboard for months just in sight of the
city lights the thought of being denied the
pleasure of riding up and down the Lunetta
wras something very dire.
The fleet was signaled to bank fires and
the commanders and captains were told that
twenty-four hours' notice would be given
before a general movement would be made.
The Baltimore then began coaling from the
Cyrus, and the situation seemed to have re
laxed from the critical to the commonplace
routine of the old blockading days.
On Friday, Aug. 12, orders were sent out for
all ships to prepare to get under way at 9
o'clock the following morning. The army was
ordered to be under arms at 6 o'clock, with a
day's rations in the knapsacks. The fact that
both army and navy were ready convinced
every one that nothing less than a very rough
sea or the arrival of orders from Washington
to suspend hostilities could prevent the at
tack the next day, and the gratification that
finally the crisis had come filled the Olympia
with a sense of eager anticipation. One of
the most exciting events of the whole cam
paign occurred that evening. Soon after 7
o'clock, when the officers were still sitting
around the mess table of the wardroom and
steerage, there rang out through the ship
the furious blast of the bugle sounding all
men to quarters. The bugle fairly screamed,
and the men who were tilted back from the
tables in the comfortable complacency which
comes after dinner were thrilled as by an
electric shock by the sharp notes that rang
through the silent ship. In an instant every
corridor and gangway was crowded with
rushing men; the lights went out as quick as
lightning; the clatter of side arms and the
rattle of muskets snatched from their rests
and the surging of shadowy figures through
the darkened passages and up the gangways
was about the most stirring thing that could
happen near a peaceful citizen. There was no
idea what caused that wild alarm to sound,
and the suddenness with which the bugle
pierced into every corner of the vessel carried
the conviction that the entire Spanish fleet
had arrived. The first thought that came,
however, was that the Manila batteries had
opened fire and that the Spaniards, worn out
by the delay, were precipitating the engage
ment in order the sooner to finish it.
When the deck was reached after tearing
through the hurrying sailors it was seen
that a strange ship had approached the side
of the Olympia. An insurgent officer was on
the deck, scared and excited as he saw
these ominous preparations, and frantically
asking to see the admiral. The vessel was
the Filipinas, with 200 men on board. It
had approached the Olympia without warn
ing .or notice for the purpose of obtaining
permission to leave the bay, and as she
made no sign of stopping orders were given
to man the guns and sink her if she at
tempted to approach nearer. Within a min
ute every gun was loaded, and four eight-
inch, five five-inch and a number of six-
pounders were ready to plow all kinds of
hardware through her if she hadn't stopped.
The admiral told the insurgent officer
that in another minute he would have sunk
the ship, and when the officer, trembling
and frightened, left the Olympia he real
ized what Aguinaldo has long since found
out — that it is not wise to fool With Ad
miral Dewey.
It had been a matter of common gossip
that several of the insxirgents had made
the boast that 200 men with machetes could
capture the Olympia if taken unawares.
The admiral probably didn't intend to sink
the Filipinas, but it furnished an object
lesson which will be rated at least an in
teresting experience in the future historical
reminiscences of one insurgent officer.
At 8:30 o'clock the following morning—
Aug. 13 — Admiral Dewey, Flag Lieutenant
Brumby, Ensign Scott, the aids and signal
boys took their places on the after bridge
of the Olympia. Capt. Lamberton, Navi
gator Calkins, Lieut. Rees, Ensigns Butler
and Cavanagh took their places on the for
ward bridge. The awnings were again taken
down and stored away. Chief Engineer
Entwistle, who has predicted with prophetic
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
203
WHERE THE SPANISH BURIED THEIR DEAD DURING THE SIEGE OF THE! CHURCH
OF THE MAGDALEN, CAVITE.
certainty everything that has happened
since the fleet left Hongkong, stated that
there would be about an hour and a half
of firing and the city would surrender.
Gen. Merritt,- on the Zafiro, with Capt.
Case's company F of the 2d Oregon volun
teers as his personal escort, got under way
soon after 8 o'clock and was closely followed
by the Kwonghoi, with nine companies of
the 1st Oregon, under Col. Summers.
At 9 o'clock sharp the Olympia's engines
began to throb, and as the flagship moved
slowly forward the knotted balls of bunting
that clung close to the topmost masthead
and peak of all the ships were broken out
and the national ensign burst forth in all
the radiance of new and virgin color.
The Charleston, which had ben lying near
Malate for several days, steamed slowly over
and joined the squadron, and a few minutes
204
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
more saw the Olympia, Baltimore, Monterey,
Charleston, Boston, Petrel, Raleigh, McCul-
loch, Callao, Barcelo, Zafiro and the Kwong-
hoi bearing off toward Malate. It was a
magnificent sight, and the big lead-colored
ships maneuvering for their permanent for
mation, with their streaming banners, must
have furnished topics for the Spaniards in
Manila to write home about. When the
Olympia passed the Immortalite the band
on the latter struck up a few bars of "See,
the Conquering Hero Comes," swung into
the swell of "Star-Spangled Banner" and
then broke into the lively, inspiriting "El
Capitan." It was great. As the American
ships left the ships in the Cavite anchorage
the Immortalite and Iphigenia got under
way, and, steaming swiftly across to the
German and French ships, took up their
stations directly between the German flag
ship and Admiral Dewey's ships. The Ger
man admiral as promptly got under way,
and took a place in line with the English
men. It was only an incident, but the sig
nificance of the British move was tremen
dously apparent.
When the troops on the Kwonghoi passed
the Olympia the soldiers on the former and
the sailors on the latter exchanged cheers.
Every man was at his quarters at 9:02
o'clock and eager to begin the bombardment.
As Admiral Dewey's ships approached Ma-
late for the bombardment the Olympia led,
with the Raleigh, Petrel, Callao and Bar
celo steaming along on her starboard quar
ter. The Monterey followed the Olympia,
but, instead of heading for Malate, took a
position directly off the heavy batteries of
Manila. The Charleston, Baltimore and Bos
ton were behind the line, and were not to
take part in the shelling of Fort Antonia at
Malate. They, with the Monterey and Mc-
Culloch, were held in reserve to engage the
Manila batteries if the latter opened fire.
The Concord was stationed off the mouth of
the Pasig river, about three miles to the
northward.
The Zafiro and Kwonghoi steamed across
and took a position just off Camp Dewey. They
were soon followed by the Callao and Barcelo,
the latter with a broom sticking in her stack,
evidently the humorous method of one of the
crew to signify an intention of making a clean
sweep. The Callao and Barcelo were detailed
to go close inshore and enfilade the trenches
with their machine guns.
As the Olympia drew nearer the low black
fort at Malate there was painful silence on
the ship. At the slighest sound of conversa
tion the sharp voice of the admiral would
come from the after bridge, "Stop that noise."
Men were passing about distributing cotton,
which was tucked away in the ears of the
crew to protect the eardrums from the con
cussion. A slight drizzle of rain began fall
ing, almost obscuring the land line, but it was
succeeded presently by a burst of sunshine.
The steady cry of the man heaving the lead
came at intervals, and was about the only
sound that was heard, "Seven," "Six half,"
"By the deep six," calling out the fathoms
as the ship approached shoal water.
Every moment it was expected that a burst
of white smoke would rise over the fort, but
none came. From the navigator's perch in
the crow's nest came the announcement of
the range.
At 4,000 yards the order came to commence
firing when ready, and at 9:35 o'clock the
Olympia opened with a six-pounder, and al
most simultaneously one of the forward eight-
inch guns crashi d and every glass was turned
toward the target. The shots fell short, dub
to a mistake in the range, which was caused
by a miragic effect, making the shore line ap
pear closer. The order was then given to get
the five-inch guns ready, and the range was
made for 4,200 yards. Two five-inch guns from
Ensign Taylor's battery blazed out, then one
of the Stokely Morgan's eight-inch forward
guns and then another five-inch gun. Then
came the order to cease firing.
Up to this time — 9:50 o'clock — the Spaniards
had not returned the fire, and it was sus
pected that they were reserving it for a closer
range or else, as appeared probable, the fort
had been deserted. The Raleigh and Petrel
had joined in, the Raleigh's magnificent bat
tery of quick-firing five-inch guns and the
Petrel's six-inch guns plowing holes in the
landscape and altering the sky line of the
fort.
At 9:50 o'clock the army, which was ad
vancing toward the fort, began firing, and the
smoke from their volleys hung in white
clouds over their position. Five minutes later
there was almost incessant firing from the
army, and masses of white smoke were seen
leaping out from the fort and the Spanish
trenches" in answer. At 3,500 yards the order
was given again on the Olympia to com
mence firing, but before a gun was fired the
order was given to cease firing. At 10 o'clock
she opened again, but the shots fell short and
to the right. The rain had now fallen into a
steady drizzle, and the admiral and Lieut.
Brumby had put on raincoats and the former
changed his naval cap for a cloth traveling
cap.
At 10 o'clock the Callao, very close in shore
and moving along parallel with the army's
advance, was raking the Spanish trenches
wi,h a deadly fire from the machine guns.
Lieut. Taopan was doing wonderful work
with the little gunboat, and several Spanish
volleys were fired on him as the vessel ad
vanced. A number of bullets struck her,
but no one was hurt, and she kept up with a
steady grinding out from her Nordenfeldt and
Hotchkiss. The little Barcelo, close behind,
was pumping her machine guns in with mag
nificent effectiveness. Like the little Petrel
in the battle of May 1, the Calloa and Barcelo
seemed to be in the thickest of the fight, and
on account of their nearness to shore to be
most aggressive and daring.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
205
SPANISH PRISONERS AT CAVITE COOKING THEIR DINNER.
The shells from the ship were dropping in
and around the black walls of the old fort,
but there was apparently no response from
it. The effects of the shells were watched
with great interest and low murmurs in
comment were passed on each shot. Some fell
short and many passed to the right of the
fort, striking in the swamps and streams be
hind and sending great columns of spray high
into the air. Several times during the bom
bardment a ripple of applause sprung up
among the men who were crowded near the
rail watching the shots as a shell would
strike the fort and send stones and showers of
dust leaning upward. There was a tendency
to shoot too far to the left of the fort, as the
gunners were afraid of firing into the land
forces, which were swiftly approaching the
fort from the right. Several shells penetrated
the walls of the fort, shattering the heavy
masonry and crushing down the stonework.
After the army took possession four men
were found in the fort, three of whom died
almost immediately, and one will die. One
shell striking in the trenches cut a Span
iard's head off and killed several others.
The Utah battery from its- position in the
trenches near the old Capuchin monastery
was heaving in 3.2-inch shells with almost
unerring accuracy. One or two of the shells
from the battery went over the fort and
struck buildings far down near the walled
city.
Dense clouds of smoke hung around the
Olympia, Raleigh and Petrel, and firing
would often cea?e to allow the smoke to
clear. On the flagship the word was passed
to use smokeless powder, but the substitu
tion of this did not better matters much, for
the smokeless powder was very smoky in
the heavy, damp atmosphere. The Olympia
was now lying 3,000 yards off the beach
and at 10:30 o'clock the order was passed to
cease firing. Capt. Lamberton looked anx
iously toward the walls of Manila and said,
"It's time that white flag was up. They
were to hoist it over the southern corner of
the walled city."
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
From the Olympia the movements of the
land forces now became distinguishable.
Where a few moments before their position
was marked only by the smoke which rase
above the trees from the batteries and vol
ley firing, now it was plainly seen that a
great number of soldiers were boldly ad
vancing up the open beach and straggling
forward in the heavy surf. It was a gallant
sight to see the long line of brown uni
forms streaming up the beach, some waist
deep in the surf and dashing out along the
unprotected strip of sand which lay between
them and the old fort, where the Spanish
guns were expected to blaze out any min
ute in their faces. A scattering fire cam
from the Spanish trenches, and at 10:45
o'clock the troops on the beach stopped and
answered with three volleys. When they
crossed the little stream about 200 yards in
front of the fort, holding their guns high
in the air to keep them from being soaked,
with the regimental flag and national ensign
flying bravely at the fore, with their regi
mental band valiantly following and playing
for dear life, there were thousands of eyes
watching them from the ships with silent,
almost breathless, anxiety. Slowly they
drew nearer the fort, with the Mausers spat
tering along before them and the band play
ing. The admiral said that it was the most
gallant advance he had ever seen. The Colo
rado regimental band was playing "There'll
Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-Night."
Just before the troops reached the powder
magazine there was a tremendous explosion
and a dense column of black smoke sprung
up behind the fort. It was thought that a
mine concealed in the road had been ex
ploded. The smoke hung in the air and it
was seen that the explosion was followed by
a fire. The fort was now deep in smoke
from other explosions and the Spanish firing.
As the troops advanced along the beach
and approached nearer the fort the army
signaled the fleet to cease firing. The fort
was still silent.
At 10:58 a storm of cheers broke out from
the Olympia, for the soldiers had passed the
zone of fire and were clambering over the
Spanish trenches and swarming into the
fort. Hardly a moment passed before the
yellow and red flag was seen to be coming
down, and the next minute the American
flag was raised in its place.
This was evidently the time agreed upon
for the city to surrender, for an order was
at once given by the admiral to fly our in
ternational signal, "Do you surrender?" At
11 o'clock it was fluttering from the forward
signal halyards of the flagship. With the
hoisting of this signal came a general shift
ing of the positions of the fleet, and all the
vessels, with the exception of the Callao,
Concord and Barcelo, took their positions
before the heavy batteries of Manila. The
Monterey steamed to a very close range and
waited. Every gun in the fleet that could
be trained in that direction was pointed on
the Manila guns. If any one of those four
9.2-inch Hontoria guns had let loose at least
a hundred shells would have been launched
in on them in less time than it takes to
read about it.
At 11 :22 the formation before the city walls
and batteries was this:
MANILA. MALATE.
Monterey. Callao. Barcelo.
Olympia. Raleigh. Petrel.
Baltimore.
Charleston. Boston.
McCulloch.
The Concord lay off to the left two miles.
A huge Spanish flag was floating bravely
over the city walls near one of the heavy bat
teries and it did not seem to come down with
any particular haste. Nearly every one was
watching that gorgeous piece of bunting and
hoping that it would be hauled in, but in its
persistent wavering there was certainly no
indication of surrender or weakening.
The Zafiro, with Gen. Merritt, approached
the Olympia, and as if by a preconcerted
agreement the flagship signaled that Flag
Lieutenant Brumby would report on board
the Zafiro. At 11:45 the admiral left the
bridge to meet Consul Andre, the Belgian
representative, whose launch had just reached
the flagship. Lieut. Brumby took the largest
American flag on the ship and went aboard
the launch. Gen. Whittier of Gen. Mer-
ritt's staff came over from the Zafiro in a
pulling boat, and also went aboard the launch
Trueno. A few minutes later the launch
steamed away toward Manila, 1,500 yards
away.
At 12 o'clock the international signal "C.
F. L.," meaning "hold conference," was
hoisted over the city walls.
Then followed a long wait. Lunch was
given the officers and men on the ships, the
guns were kept trained on the Manila bat
teries, and the big Spanish flag still swung
in the breezes above the beleaguered city.
Soon after 2 o'clock the Belgian consul's
boat was seen to be returning. This seemed
to mean that an agreement had not been
reached, for the presence of the Spanish
colors certainly did not look like capitula
tion.
At 2:23 Lieut. Brumby, climbing up the sea
ladder at the Olympia quarterdeck, called out
to the admiral: "Well, they've surrendered
all right."
The admiral quickly answered, "Why don't
they haul down that flag?"
"They'll do that as soon as Merritt gets
600 or 700 men in there to protect them," ex
plained Lieut. Brumby.
The admiral then said: "Well, you go over
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
207
IN THE SHELTER TENTS AT CAMP DEWEY— BEFORE MANILA.
and tell Gen. Merritt that I agree to any
thing. Can we get those ships into the river
to land men?"
As the news passed that the city had sur
rendered the rigging was manned and tre
mendous cheers broke out over the dull sea.
The other ships were now cheering as the
news was signaled.
At 3 o'clock the Zafiro and Kwonghoi
steamed closer inshore to the breakwater
and the work of landing the troops began.
The ships of the fleet came to anchor just
before the city. The Belgian consul, with
Lieut. Brumby and Gen. Whittier, returned
to the city.
A tug flying the insurgent flag approached
the Olympia and attempted to pass her, but
a rifle shot brought her to. One of her of
ficers came aboard and stated that he was
carrying a message from Maj. Pope to the
Kwonghoi, and the launch was allowed to
proceed.
The Spanish transport Cebu, which lay in
the mouth of the Pasig river, was set on
fire by the Spaniards and was burning
furiously at 5 o'clock.
At 5:45 the Spanish flag in the city was
seen slowly coming down, and a minute
later the enormous American flag was hoist
ed in its place. Just as the huge flag went
up the sun, which through the greater part
of the day had been obscured, now burst
through the clouds hanging over Manila's
mountain and illuminated the new flag with
a blaze of light. It was as opportune as
the calcium light in the theater which falls
on the center of the stage when the star
enters.
208
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
The ships of the fleet saluted the new flag
with twenty-one guns each. In ten minutes
nearly 180 saluting charges were fired.
At 6 o'clock the band on the flagship
struck up "The Victory of Manila," and the
officers relaxed into a riot of speechmaking
and gayety. Manila was ours, and peace
could be declared at any minute. The Cal-
lao came in for the conspicuous success of
the day, and the health of Lieuts. Tappan
and Bradshaw was drunk amid cheers.
But it was with the land forces that the
most exciting scenes were enacted. There
were many exhibitions of courage, and such
spirited resistance in one or two instances
that the army operation did not seem the
mimic battle that the bombardment ap
peared to be. A battle must have an enemy
that resists, and as far as the latter goes
the fort at Malate might just as well have
been absolutely deserted, for not a shell- was
turned on the fleet, and, excepting for vol
leys of Mauser bullets that spattered around
the Callao, the ships were not answered.
The army was divided into two brigades.
Gen. Greene had the 2d brigade and his men
were strung along on the extreme right ex
tending to the beach. As his advance fighting
line he had the Utah light artillery, with
Capts. Grant and Young; the 1st Colorado,
under Col. Irving Hale, and a battalion of the
3d artillery. The last-named, although in the
firing line, was not under fire. Back of the
firing line, in immediate support, was the 2d
battalion of the 1st California, under Col.
Smith and Maj. Sime. As reserves there were
the 18th United States infantry, 1st Califor
nia, 1st Nebraska, 10th Pennsylvania and a
battalion of United States engineers.
The 1st brigade, under Gen. MacArthur,
further inland, was distributed in a similar
manner as firing line and reserves. The
Astor battery, 13th Minnesota and 23d infan
try were in front, with one battalion of the
14th infantry, two battalions of the 1st North
Dakota, two battalions of the 1st Idaho and
one battalion of the 1st Wyoming as reserves
and support.
The Spanish line of defenses consisted of a
continuous intrenchment, broken by three
strongholds — the fort at Malate, blockhouse
14 and the fortified English cemetery. Gen.
Greene's brigade was to attack and take the
first and strongest, while Gen. MacArthur's
brigade was to attack the blockhouse and
cemetery. The entire field of operations
hardly covered more than a square mile, but
the Americans had a fearful country to fight
in. Barb-wire fences, bamboo jungles, paddy
fields, swamps, streams and sharpened pick
ets had to be passed before reaching the
Spanish line. The taking of the trenches and
fort at Malate by the 1st Colorado was the
most brilliant and spectacular act of the day,
but a savage ambuscade over at Singalon,near
blockhouse 14, was the most deadly, for four
men were killed in the Astor battery and 13th
Minnesota and 23d infantry, while nearly
thirty were wounded. Had it not been for
the timely advance of the 13th Minnesota
and 23d artillery the Astor battery would
have been almost wiped out.
The most striking features about the
character of the land fight of Aug. 13 were
the advance of the Americans through the
almost impassable country, the ' routing of
the Spaniards from the trenches and the
driving of the latter back into the city in
face of a house-to-house potshot resistance,
and finally the stand taken by the Ameri
cans and Spaniards to prevent the insur
gents entering the city. There probably
was never a case in history before wher3
two opposing forces combined on the over
throw of one to make a common defense
against a third.
Early in the morning the two brigades be
gan the advance from Camp Dewey. Every
man carried rations for one day and went
in light marching order. The story told by
Maj. Bell of the bureau of information, who
acted as one of Gen. Greene's aids during
the day, gives a good idea of the operations
of the 2d brigade. The men in the camp
were up at 5 o'clock, ready for the start.
Gen. Babcock arrived from the Newport
soon after the main body of troops had ad
vanced from the camp, and he and Maj. Bell
followed on horseback, soon passing the
.troops. Maj. Bell, sheltered by clumps of
bamboo, crept up from the farthest Ameri
can trench, where the Utah artillery, the l,st
Colorado and a battalion of the 3d artillery
were waiting the order to attack, along tli3
beach to a position barely 500 yards from
the fort at Malate, to make a reconnoisance
of the Spanish guns. Two days before he
had done the same and had reported that
one of the Spanish guns had been removed.
On this latter reconnoisance it was his ob
ject to determine where that gun had been
placed.
Orders were then given for four companies
of the 1st Colorado to begin an advance. Two
companies, C and D, were sent out in front of
the trenches, and two others, I and K, were
sent along the beach under cover of the fire of
companies C and D. As C and D took their
places out in a skirmish line in front of the
trench, I and K, advancing from the rear of
the trenches, proceeded along in the surf at
the beach, wading an intervening steram and
boldly entering the fort. Companies C and D
fell in behind; then came the 2d battalion of
the 1st California, under Col. Smith and Maj.
Sime, who were in reserve behind the firing
line, but who advanced directly behind the
Colorado troops. Maj. Bell was ahead of the
Colorado soldiers, bent on reaching the fort
first to take down the Spanish flag, but, the
Spanish opening fire from their intrench-
ments, he was called back to allow the Colo-
rados to fire several volleys. This cost him
the flag, for Col. McCoy and Adjt. Brooks, in
the van of their troops, reached the Spanish
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
209
position, dashed over the trenches, followed
by a rushing mass of Colorado men, plunged
into the old fort and took down the Spanish
flag and hauled up the American. Just be
hind the Colorado men came the regimental
band, wading the stream and playing their
instruments with wonderful persistence and
questionable harmony. The 'band made the
hit of the day. The Colorado troops then began
an advance toward the city, but the 1st Cali
fornia, by not stopping at the fort, had passed
{.hern and were carrying everything before
them in a rush down through Malate, \\jith
the Spaniards retreating in broken order and
firing from dooryards and windows and from
the protection of houses. A heavy fire met
the 1st Colorados after passing the fort and
seemed to come from the marshes over to the
right or' the road. It was in this fire that
Charles Phoenix of company I was killed and
several others were wounded.
The four companies of the 1st California
proceeded on through the Calle Real in Ma-
late, Col. Smith dropping guards at every
house flying the English flag, to protect, it
from the insurgents, who were scrambling
along in the wake of the Californians' vic
torious advance. The insurgents were firing
as they came along. It was here that Maj.
Jones of the transportation department and
Interpreter Finlay distinguished themselves.
The insurgent firing had become hot for even
the Americans, and Maj. Jones took an Amer
ican flag, planted himself in the middle of the
road and with drawn revolver stopped the
entire advance of the insurgents.
Capt. O'Connor, with a small guard, ad
vanced to the very city walls in the face of
large bodies of Spanish soldiers and posted
himself on the Puente Espana, the principal
bridge of the city, leading from the business
section to the walled city.
The Californians advanced to the road
leading around the walled city and inter
cepted the insurgents who were flocking in
along the road from Santa Ana. The latter
were firing on the retreating Spaniards,
and the Californians came in direct line of
the fire. The Spaniards were returning the
insurgent fire, and the Americans were be
tween the two forces. It was here that Pri
vate Dunmore of company B, 1st California,
was killed and H. Ammerson wounded. The
California men held their fire, and by doing
so avoided a general conflict which would
have been as disastrous as it would have
been useless. The insurgent advance was
stopped. Col. Smith then advanced to the
road leading from Paco and stopped another
troop of insurgents who were attempting to
enter the walled city. One pompous insur
gent in a gorgeous uniform announced that
they were going on, but when Maj. Bell drew
his revolver and threatened to kill any one
attempting to pass the insurgent officer
became submissive and polite. The Ameri
cans then formed in line and forced the in
surgents up the street and into a side street.
They next attempted to get in by another
street, but were forestalled.
Gen. Greene came up under a scattering
fire with his staff and met a Spanish official
who awaited him at one of the gates of the
city. The general entered the city alone with
the Spaniards and the arrangements for the
occupation were made. Over to the north of
the city there was hot fighting between the
insurgents and the Spaniards, but the latter
held them back. The Spaniards in those
trenches remained at their guns resisting the
insurgents until 7 p. m. the followirrg day,
and were among the last who gave up their
arms. They complained at being compelled
to fight after the city had surrendered.
Gen. MacArthur's brigade was having a
hot fight over in the Singalon district. The
Spanish deserted their trenches at the ad
vance of the Americans, but retreated to
dense clumps of Damboos and ambuscaded
the Americans as the latter advanced. It was
in this ambuscade that August Thollen of
the 23d infantry, Sergts. Cremins and
Holmes of the Astor battery and Archie Pat
terson of the 13th Minnesota were killed
and a great number wounded. The Minne
sota men, the Astor battery and the 23d in
fantry did brilliant work in this section, and
their record in the fight is the most brilliant
of the day.
As MacArthur's brigade in regular order
swept the Spaniards out of blockhouse No. 14
and the English cemetery, driving them back,
the brigade fell in behind Gen. Greene's bri
gade and entered Malate from the east.
By 10 o'clock 10,000 soldiers were in the
city. The 2d Oregon patrolled the walled city
and guarded its- nine entrances. Gen. Greene
marched his brigade around the walled city
into Binondo. The 1st California was sent
east to the fashionable official residence dis
trict of Malacanay, the 1st Colorado was
sent into Tondo and the 1st Nebraska was
established on the north shore of the Pasig
river. MacArthur's brigade patrolled Ermita
and Malate.
In the walled city the Spaniards had sur
rendered their arms at the governor's pal
ace. By nightfall over 7,000 rifles had been
surrendered, and by the following evening
nearly 1,000 more were turned in. The big
American flag was hoisted by Lieut. Brumby,
and as 'the Oreg'onians entered from the
Kwonghoi the afternoon of the fight their
band struck up "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The women wept as the Spanish ensign went
down, and the soldiers cheered as the Ameri
can flag went up.
The night of the battle was quiet. Except
for a few cases reported of the insurgents
looting the houses of Spaniards, there was no
disorder. The American soldiers at once be
gan to fraternize with the Spanish soldiers.
The Escolta is thronged to-day with Spanish,
210
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
HIDDEN CHAMBER IN A WALL,, FORT ST. PHILIP, CAVITE.
American and insurgent soldiers, the latter
without their arms. The Spanish also are
disarmed, except the officers; but the Ameri
cans have their rifles ready for any emer
gency.
Former G-ov.-Gen. Augusti, with his wife
and children, left the city on the German
steamer Kaiserin Augusta directly after the
surrender of the city, with the permission of
the American authorities. Gen. Merritt es
tablished himself in the governor's official
palace in the walled city and made his home
in the summer palace at Malacanay.
All during the night of the 13th the Span
iards were surrendering their arms. Ten
thousand Mauser rifles were found stored in
Malate and 20,000 in Manila, hardly any of
which had ever been used. Several new mod
ern field pieces were also found which had
never been made use of. Three magazines
full of ammunition were captured, and the
four big 9.2-inch converted Hontorias and
about twenty-five rifled cannon were taken.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
211
AMERICAN SHARPSHOOTERS IN CUBA.
BY WILLIAM SCHMEDTGEN.
After all that may be said about the mod
ern rifle, arguments on smokeless powder,
rapid-firing guns and their penetrating pow
ers, the fact cannot be set aside that the
man behind the gun, when he can get within
rifle range of the enemy, is the man who
wins or loses the battle.
While the statesmen of Europe, our pos
sible future opponents, are counting our
rifles, weighing our powder supply and meas
uring the thickness of our armor, the great
factor will always remain prominent to those
who know and who have to do the fighting
that the American soldier is as a rule a
good shot. The foreign attaches at Santiago
will report this fact to their countries, and
it will alone give to the United States a high
rank among the nations which are constantly
prepared for war.
The fighting in Cuba before Santiago and
other places gave many instances of the ac
curacy of the shooting on both sides. There
is no doubt that the Spaniards scored first
and shot close and well in the fight with the
rough riders at Guasimas, when they caught
the boys where they wanted them — bunched
in a little hollow on a narrow path, with no
possible chance for a skirmish or a retreat.
In this case the Spanish had the advantage.
Their aim was for a certain place and height,
through the thick growth of trees, and not at
the individual men. Their machine guns
were placed and aimed long before the rough
riders came. Where the killing was done
the small trees and twigs are cut to pieces
about three feet from the ground, as though
the work was performed by a hundred Gat-
ling guns. The cactus back of where the
rough riders lay also shows the effect of the
hail of bullets. Trees of three inches in
thickness had as many as twenty bullets
holes in the space of eight inches up and
down. Twigs half an inch in thickness were
cut and broken in half a dozen places. This
shows that the bullets must have come very
fast. The shooting stopped when the rough
riders advanced. The graves of many Span
iards who were in this engagement show that
Col. Wood's men could shoot when they
caught sight of the men they wanted to hit.
The Spaniards shot where they thought a
bunch of our men were, while our men shot
at the Spaniards individually.
There is an iron .door in the old stone
fort at El Caney which measures 2V2 feet
by about 5 feet. This door was open at the
time of the fight of July 1 and the attack
on the hill. Spanish soldiers shot from be
hind this door. The return bullets which
struck it show the accuracy of the shooting
done by our men. The door shows marks
where over 300 bullets struck. It would be
hard to estimate the number of bullets which
went through the opening. Most of these
shots were fired while our men were running
up the hill and when they were under heavy
fire from the fort.
The ground around the rifle pits and the
walls of the fort near where the Spanish sol
diers were firing on the Americans show the
marks of hundreds of bullets. The shots
that marked the iron door and that crumbled
the walls did not kill, but they prove the gen
eral accuracy of the shooting. If the enemy
had come out and fought so that the boys
had had something to shoot at, it would have
taken a long time to count the dead Span
iards that would have resulted.
The Spanish blockhouses stand as other
signs of the close shooting that caused their
capture. The only opening through which
the bullets could get at the Spaniards was
a small slit around the houses under the
eaves. Ten men could hold a blockhouse
against 300 if they were able to shoot well.
When Spaniards in the rifle pits were the
objects of attack the Americans had targets
to shoot at that were only about eight inches
square — only the head and part of the shoul
der of an enemy which showed over the
earthworks. The target frequently was con
cealed by brush and shrubbery. These diffi
culties had to be overcome mostly by running
Bhots.
At San Juan hill on July 1 the Spanish had
a hidden battery to the right of the block
house. This did some very accurate shoot
ing before it was silenced by Grimes' battery
stationed on the hilltop at El Poso. Alniost
the first shot from the Spanish battery struck
the old mill back of the hill and killed a
dozen Cubans. Another shell followed and
struck the earthworks just in front of the
first gun of Grimes' battery. It tore up the
earth and then rose in the air over the gun,
but did not explode. The shell was so well
placed that had the range been a foot and a
half higher it would have entered the muzzle
of the American gun. Then came the shrap
nel that burst over the second gun, killing
two men and wounding several more. This
was about the best battery which the Span
iards had at Santiago. However, the Spanish
had the range and did not have to find it.
The blockhouse on San Juan hill shows the
work done in return by the gunners of
Grimes' battery. The battered roof and per
forated wall show where many shells struck.
All around the rifle pits and the side of the
hill are broken pieces of shells thrown by
Grimes and Capron over the heads of the
advancing troops. These pieces of broken
212
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
4
IRON DOOR IN STONE FORT— EL CANEY.
iron will be picked up for years to come and
will be held as souvenirs of the shooting at
San Juan hill.
The Spanish sharpshooters at first had an
easy time picking off our men. Every method
was employed by them to conceal them
selves, and all their methods were new to
our men. They would wrap themselves in
bark and lie in the thick growth of mango
trees, which sometimes have masses of foli
age forty to sixty feet in diameter. There
a sharpshooter could pick off American sol
diers for hours, using smokeless powder, be
fore he could be found and brought down.
The high palm trees also made splendid hid
ing places for the sharpshooters, who would
wrap the long, green leaves around them,
making it very difficult to distinguish them
from the bunchy tops of the trees. They
would shoot at everybody, sparing no one.
Many a man who was helping a wounded
comrade away from the firing line was picked
off by these lurking Spaniards, as also were
the wounded themselves while they lay in
the roads waiting for death or to be taken to
the field hospitals.
These sharpshooters did the shooting into
the hospitals. There was no general shooting
of this kind except by the sharpshooters, who
were nearly all guerrillas.
Just outside of Gen. Shafter's head
quarters, at a creek where the road sends out
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
213
branches to San Juan and Caney, an outpost
had been placed. On the night of July 2 three
sentries were shot and killed inside of half an
hour by the sharpshooters. They simply
stepped out into the moonlight and were
shot down. Extra guards were placed to
warn troops in passing. Men were sent to
drive out the sharpshooters, but they could
not be found. Gen. Shafter's camp was shot
into many times, but the sharpshooters very
likely did not know that the big man was ths
one they should shoot at.
At Guasimas one of the rough riders shot
a sharpshooter in a tree and shot him again
as he was falling to the ground.
During the time of the truce, while the
white flag was on San Juan hill and over the
defenses of Santiago, the Spanish sharpshoot
ers kept up their work, shooting every time
they had a chance.
On the road from Grimes' battery to San
Juan hill, at the "Bloody bend," three of
Gen. Wheeler's men were standing in the
road with their carbines ready to shoot.
They changed their position somewhat, going
around a bunch of bushes. Then the crack
of their rifles was heard. They had found
the Spanish sharpshooter for whom they
were looking. His cartridge belt now hangs
in THE RECORD'S window, among other
souvenirs of Santiago.
HEROISM IN THE RANKS.
BY HOWBERT BILLMAN.
The men of the rank and file will make this
war notable. When it is over there will be
critics who will point out unmistakable mis
management and even flagrant incapacity,
but no one will be able to detract from the
superb record of heroism made by our men
in the field. At least, no one could do so who
has seen what I have seen, first in the bay
before Santiago, then at Guantanamo, and
more recently in the advance and attack
upon the enemy's first line of defenses in
front of Santiago. Possibly the errors and
blunders of commanders will be left out of
the final reckoning or palliated by plausible
explanations, and yet it is sad beyond ex
pression that the devotion of brave, patriotic
men is so poorly merited by the officers given
charge over them that these errors in man
agement and strategy must be repeatedly
corrected by individual sacrifice. The men
who do these acts of magnificent heroism are
the men who deserve all the praise for our
victories.
This is no time to criticise anything for
which the government is responsible. Here
lies the great issue of human welfare pend
ing settlement. There are 16,000 men, the
pick of our country people, lying in narrow
intrenchments under a sun that makes them
as uninhabitable as earthen ovens. They
have been lying here since July 1, when the
positions were taken by a display of almost
superhuman courage and shattering all the
rules of offensive warfare relative to at
tacking intrenched positions. All this time
they have had nothing to eat but hard bread,
bacon and coffee and most of the time but
half-rations.
Gen. Kent is a hardy old fighter, who in
sists that his headquarters shall be in the
intrenchments with his men. The night after
the battle, when three regiments in his com
mand were decimated in the attack on San
Juan, he sent an orderly to a squad of sol
diers bivouacked near him, and obtained
three hardtacks for his supper.
Yesterday I learned that Col. Wood's bri
gade of Gen. Wheeler's cavalry division had
been subsisting on one day's rations for
three days. This brigade comprises Roose
velt's volunteer regiment, the 1st and the
10th cavalry, all dismounted. With only
their carbines — and this means they were
without that traditional weapon of the
charge, the bayonet — they captured the
blockhouse of El Poso, thus opening the way
to San Juan and making it possible for our
forces to gain their present advanced posi
tion.
Both of these commands, to which my at
tention has been especially drawn, are hold
ing the center of our present line. Gen.
Lawton's division, which holds the extreme
right, extending far west of El Caney, was
faring better day before yesterday. And yet
even in this division, which is commanded
by the best soldier in the field, there are
frequent delays, and often the men have to
satisfy themselves after a hard day in the
trenches with a supper of stewed mangoes
and hard bread. To be sure mangoes make a
palatable dish; but they are not "filling,"
and the conscience is never quite easy when
eating them, because of repeated warning
from members of the hospital corps that
they cause illness. The hospital corps has
proved its contention; but hungry men, not
otherwise provided for, have had something
to eat.
Since the first soldier went ashore at
Baiquiri there has never been a moment
when there was not plenty of wholesome
food to be had, either at Baiquiri or at
Siboney. Both have been bases of supply,
and from the latter it is only a distance of
214
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
'
WHERE SPANISH SHELLS STRUCK AT EL POSO.
eight miles. For three days after the army
marched to the interior there was no single
head and no headquarters except three inde
pendent division headquarters.
There may be armies in the world where
the common soldier is not a thinking creature
and where he is but an assimilated part of
a machine and does not remark these things.
This is not the American plan. Our soldiers
are the sons of their revolutionary sires, men
who know very well when a commander is
plunging them in error, but who will use their
own wTits to fight it out until they have won
a victory even for the man who blundered.
I may not be speaking by the card, but this
brief, costly campaign convinces me that
such citizen soldiers deserve the best gen
erals that systematic training can produce.
I have written about the fight of El Caney
at the right of our lines on July 1, for I was
able to witness it from first to last. But an
other battle equally severe was being fought
and gloriously terminated in the meantime
at the left and center of our position, and
under circumstances more unfavorable to the
men. These two assaults, conducted quite
independently, drove the enemy back to his
last line of intrenchments and were, perhaps,
responsible for Cervera's desperate effort
to escape from Sampson's blockading fleet
and the consequent destruction of his ships.
And yet San Juan was taken by the men of
the 24th, 6th and 13th regiments without or
ders from the commanding general. The po
sition into which he thrust them was uten-
able and they had the courage to drive the
enemy rather than retreat from him.
The position of San Juan is almost as
easily defensible as that of El Caney. Where
the fort stood is an old one-story residence
with heavy plaster walls. One side was ex
tended in the form of a blockhouse, with
portholes from which to fire. Intrenchments
extended along the face of the ridge north
and south from the fort. Men placed in these
pits could command the entire valley and
the main road extending off to the eastward,
the only one available for reaching their
positions.
Whether or not it is wise military tactics
to throw two divisions under two generals of
equal rank along a single road on the same
attack is something that may perhaps be
settled by common sense. Had Gen. Shafter
been on hand to provide for emergencies as
they arose the confusion might have been
avoided. But the responsibility fell wholly
upon brigade and regimental officers, and it
is greatly to their credit that the outcome
was so fortunate, though it was costly in
precious lives.
At this point the first heavy loss of life
fell upon Roosevelt's regiment, now wholly
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
215
his own since Col. Wood's promotion to the
command of the 2d, or what was Col. Young's
cavalry brigade. Moving along the road in
the early morning the regiment first drew
the fire of a small outpost blockhouse on a
hill east of San Juan fort and commanding
the ford of the San Juan river. Here Capt.
O'Neill of troop A, one of the bravest and
most generous men who ever lived, was
killed as he stood in the road. A little later
Col. Roosevelt, still riding his horse, started
to lead a charge up the hill toward the
blockhouse. On the way up a thoughtful
sergeant took the horse's bridle and insisted
that the colonel dismount. He went the rest
of the way on foot. Men from the 10th cav
alry separated from their command in the
bushes fell in with him, and the enemy was
driven from his position. In this brigade of
the 1,043 men who entered the fight 233 were
disabled.
While the cavalry division was advancing
thus along the right of the road Gen. Kent
was presumed to send his division along it,
directly upon the San Juan fort. His three
brigades were deployed in the road and to
the left, under such shelter as the bushes
in the low lands by the San Juan river af
forded. But the fire here from the enemy's
elevated position was furious. Volleys upon
volleys were hurled down from the heights
of the fort and to remain standing under
such a fire was utterly impossible. Some of
the commands got a temporary shelter by
lying in the creek below its banks and the
rest lay in the tall grass and among the
bushes of the bottom.
This was scarcely a moment of rest, for
the storm was increasing by the addkion of
two heavy batteries from distant hills op
posite our left, which enfiladed our lines
as soon as they appeared in the open ground
at the foot of the slope to San Juan.
The first advance in the charge was made
by Capt. Brereton of the 24th infantry. With
a part of his company he came into the
cleared ground about 200 yards south of the
road. At first he moved forward slowly,
meaning only to take shelter and wait for
a more favorable opening. Fifty yards away
from the brush he came upon a barbwire
fence. By this time the fire about him was
too hot to stand under and too deadly to
retreat from. Rallying those of his men
whom he could see he ordered the charge.
No general was there to give the order and
nothing else could save the day.
Once begun the charge grew by contagion.
The rest of the dusky 24th swept out of the
brush with a shout, the 6th filing on their
left and the 13th on their right. The 13th
had the main path and was first to rteach
the summit. Only two Spaniards were left
in the trenches, but thirty-five dead were
there. The flag was still flying. It was the
13th's prize and was torn up to make trophies
for the men.
This was the charge that won the day at
San Juan. The foreign representatives with
the army say it was wonderful. They hardly
understand how men could take so strong a
position in the face of a well-directed fire
from the modern magazine gun. "But," say
they, "it is not justified in the books."
The loss suffered by the three regiments
participating in this charge was very heavy.
Capt. Brereton was shot in the shoulder as he
started the charge. Along the slope Col.
Liscum of the 24th was wounded. As he
reached the crest Capt. Arthur Ducat fell
with a bullet in his leg. Lieuts. Guerney and
Augustin were killed. In all, fifty men of
this single regiment were either killed or
wounded. In the 13th the loss was corre
spondingly great. Col. Worth was wounded
while he was in the bush; four other offi
cers were wounded and two killed, and 109
men were either killed or wounded. Accord
ing to these reports, the regiment was much
worse than decimated.
This reminds me that a regiment is, ac
cording to "the books," unfit longer for serv
ice when it has lost 8 or 9 per cent of its of
ficers and men. Yet our regiments were not
disqualified by this loss; moreover, even in
a case where every officer was disabled —
there was an instance in the 10th cavalry —
the company stood together, taking every op
portunity to fight that was offered. This is
the superb spirit inspiring our soldiery, and
which is responsible for our victory July 1.
Gen. Ludlow, in command of the brigade of
Lawton's division that holds our extreme
right, and the man who was in the midst of
the splendid fighting about El Caney on
the same day, is enough of a soldier to recog
nize the valor responsible for most that we
have accomplished. Yesterday he published
the following general order to his brigade:
"Headquarters 1st Brigade. 2cl Division. 5th
Corps.— The brigadier-general commanding desires
to congra tul ate the officers and men on the gallantry
and fortitude displayed by them in the investment
and capture of El Caney on Friday, July 1, in
conjunction with the troops of the 3d brigade. In
fantry attacks on fortified positions well defended
are recognized as the most difficult of military un
dertakings, and are rarely successful. The defense
was conducted with admirable skill behind an
elaborate system of blockhouses, intrenchments and
loopholes. Nevertheless, after a stubborn and
bloody combat of nearly eight hours, the place was
taken and its garrison practically annihilated. The
exploit is the more notable that the affair was
entered upon and carried through by men most
of whom had never been under fire. The high per
centage of casualities shows the severity of the
work, viz.: Officers' loss, 14 per cent; enlisted
loss, 8 per cent. The action, though of relatively
minor importance, will take its place as one of the
conspicuous events in military history, by reason
of its success under conditions of great difficulty,
and all who contributed to our success may con
gratulate themselves on having tak'n pnrt therein.
"LUDLOW, Brigadier-General."
In the light of these sorrowful, if triumph
ant, facts it must not be forgotten that the
216
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
enemy has likewise suffered. In a fatuous
sortie upon our position the night of July 2
Gen. Linares, commanding in Santiago, was
wounded in the foot and shoulder and 500 of
his soldiers are said to have fallen. Scarcely
a man in our intrenchments was hurt. Of the
Spanish 29th battalion defending El Caney
not 100 men survive. Gen. Vara de Rey, its
commander, was buried with military honors;
his sword and spurs are in Gen. Ludlow's
possession. What the total loss on the Span
ish side has been will not be learned for
weeks. It was terrible — of this there can be
no doubt. Moreover, it has served to instill
a wholesome dread of American bullets in the
Spanish breast. This morning two con
scripted companies comprising about 200 men
deserted in a body and came into our lines.
FEEDING HAVANA'S STARVING THOUSANDS.
BY DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
Ringed round with Spanish warships, a
target for hundreds of guns afloat and ashore,
the American schooner Ellen Adams is dis
charging, as I write, the first cargo of food
which has entered port since Admiral Samp
son drew his iron line across the entrance
all but four months ago. With the stars and
stripes at the main peak, the Adams trailed
up past the flagless fortresses of Morro and
Cabanas at 10 o'clock this morning (Aug. 17)
between banks of blue with cheering men
and women, who saw in the schooner the
herald of peace. Potatoes and onions — 800
barrels of them — make up the lading of the
Adams, but onions have been selling at 10
cents each and potatoes have commanded 50
cents a pound within the last fortnight.
In spite of the scarcity of food few persons
have died of starvation in Havana. Fer
nando de Castro, the civil governor of the
city, has fed 25,000 people daily at his soup
kitchens, and the middle classes have mort
gaged or pawned all their belongings for
cornmeal and yams, which have been the
chief food of the beleagured citizens.
"We have suffered, yes," said Capt. Perez,
chief of the harbor police, before he went
over the side after an official visit of in
spection, "but we could have held out for
two months more. We had no potatoes, no
onions and very little rice or flour, but we
should not have surrendered. The reconcen-
trados? Oh, yes, many of them died, but our
brave people are still in good spirits and are
ready to die in defense of the sacred flag of
Spain."
I quote Capt. Perez because he was the
only official except the customs officers with
whom we had speech. From the moment the
Adams slipped by Cabanas behind the snort
ing tug Blanco the whole city watched the
tubby old schooner. The cutters from the
cruiser Conde Vendida, each with three offi
cers aboard, sailed back and forth around
the schooner from the minute her anchor
was dropped, and two police boats, one
manned by officers of the palace guard,
stormed through flights of shore boats which
swarmed down upon the schooner, threaten
ing vainly imprisonment and fines if they
approached the Adams, while four customs
officers flung maledictions at the heads of the
boatmen who pushed through the crush and
lay alongside. The wharves and docks about
the bay from the custom house to Regla
were outlined in the blue of army uniforms
and the light frocks of women and children.
After the first whirlwind of cheers from
the throng at the foot of San Los Oro street
silence fell upon the watching men and
women. Up past Morro, the carcel or prison,
and the straggling pile of Cabanas the Adams
drew after the tug without rousing more than
a faint cheer or furt've wave of a handker
chief from the vine-hidden windows. Two
wicked ten-inch rifles in the turret of the
cruiser Alfonso XII., anchored up the bay,
poked their black muzzles over the grassy
emplacement at the inner angle of La Punta,
the antique fort at the right of the entrance.
La Punta itself is a ludicrous fortress, with
a dozen muzzle-loaders of vintage as antique
as the stone pile itself. The water battery
in the inner angle of Morro has eight fifteen-
inch muzzle-loaders, which would do terrific
execution on any vessel in the channel. On
the right and left smaller batteries grin
down from the sea wall and sand emplace
ments, and on the other bank Cabanas bris
tles with the short brass guns that you see
in the picture of eighteenth-century sea
fighters, while two or three red guns in the
lofty side of Casa Blanca command the inner
anchorage.
On the right side, where quays and custom
houses are, there are three or four masked
batteries of mounted and quick-fire guns.
Just to the right of the custom house the
Spaniards have mounted five fifteen-inch
muzzle-loaders on the ground floor of an old
stone house, the gaping muzzles showing
from behind the curtains of ivy.
Once around the custom house the next
masked battery emphasized the silence of the
inner harbor. The rattling of the Adams'
anchor chains broke the quiet, and the shore
boats swept down upon the schooner, the oc
cupants begging for bread and rice. The
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
217
cigar merchants stopped their trafficking
over the schooner's rail to ask for biscuit,
girls in torn frocks dropped their cigarettes
overboard to ask in turn for bread, flour,
rice or spare stores. They climbed over the
rail before the customs officials boarded her
and until the police boats drove them away
with threats and blows the boats hung to
the schooner's sides and waited for any
scraps of bread that might fall to them.
The men, women and children showed few
signs of the straits laid on them by the block
ade. Their checks were plump, many of them
came singing to the ship's side. Flour, po
tatoes and onions have been all 'but priceless
for two months. A customs official tells me
that the only flour in the cfty was in the
hands of the 'authorities, who dole it out to
the bakers once a fortnight, and the sign
"Pan manana" (bread to-mcrrow) in the
bakers' windows would collect sometimes a
crowd of a thousand men, women and chil
dren, who waited through the night for a
chance to buy a ten-ounce loaf for 2 pesetas
in the morning. The bakers at first made a
list of their customers and tried to divide the
bread equally, but the crowds looted the
shops and beat the owners into insensibility
when denied admittance. Mangoes, pineap
ples and cabbages, which were long the main
stay of the poor, have 'altogether vanished
from the gardens in the protected zone under
Havana's guns.
Lifting the blockade has knocked the bot
tom out of prices, speculators throwing their
reserve stores of rice and beans on the mar
ket, anticipating a rush of provisions to the
city. Still prices are yet beyond the dreams
of avarice. The Adams' potatoes will bring
$20 a barrel, and the profit of the owner,
William Barker, a young Tennesseean, will
be counted in tens of thousands of dollars.
The Adams brought only two-thirds of its
Key West stock of potatoes.
The schooner Tilley, from Key West, which
followed the Adams, carries 600 barrels of
potatoes. The pilot boat Kate ran bow and
bow with 'the Adams past Morro this morn
ing, but the schooner won at the anchor buoy
and was the first boarded by the customs of
ficers. The English sloop Wary, which was
picked up oft" Manzanillo by the Nashville
six weeks ago and released by the Key West
prize court, made port at 1 o'clock with the
identical cargo she had started with for Man
zanillo.
The British consul sent off a note to Capt.
Adams advising against permitting any of the
crew to go ashore. No mention was made
of the passengers, but after consulting with
Madrid, Capt. -Gen. Blanco decided to permit
no one to land. For three hours before we
had flown our ensign union down to attract
the attention of the British consul, but the
distress signal brought no response from
shore and the pilot and clearance papers have
just come aboard. The Tilley is already
under way. The Kate has orders to hurry
lightering.
Six Spanish warships swing about us as we
lie— the Alfonso XIII., white and stripped of
guns, on our starboard quarter; Cone Vena-
dito on our starboard bow; two splendid,
clean gunboats with two torpedo tubes in
their bows. Farther inshore, between the
Martin Hinzon, which Gen. Blanco has used
for all his flag of truce conferences with his
blockaders, and the Alfonso XIII., lie the
armed tugs Aguilar and Mercedes. Abreast
us, on our starboard broadside a tangled,
woeful mass of riven ribs and beams, over
topped by the forlorn military mast, lies the
sunken wreck of the battleship Maine.
HOW PONCE RECEIVED AMERICANS.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
Rumors of peace are in the air. The story
goes that fighting is to end, and enthusiastic
Americanism is the sentiment of the people
of this beautiful city of Puerto Rico. Since
the day our troops entered Ponce in peaceful
triumph, citizens of every class have vied
with one another to make the welcome com
plete. The first ovation at the port of Ponce
was emphasized here, and our own people
have not shown greater reverence for the flag
than the Puerto Ricans. Heads are uncov
ered when regiments march through the
streets with colors flying, and at the music
of "The Star-Spangled Banner" the people
give ceremonious attention. It is to them
the melody of liberty, notice sufficient that
the island is at last free after centuries of
Spanish oppression and misrule.
Proclamations enjoining the acceptance of
American domination as the greatest bless
ing granted by God to the inhabitants of the
country are frequent, and emanate from the
civil authorities, as well as political, social
and commercial leaders. The citizens have
gone fairly delirious with joy. Last Sunday
night, when the band of the 3d Wisconsin
infantry gave a concert in the plaza, 5,000
people cheered themselves hoarse as the
strains of patriotic music were heard, and
stood at attention when the soldiers shouted
in thunderous chorus: "Hurrah for the Red,
White and Blue."
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
feared sudden innovations, are delighted.
For the present the Spanish mediaeval sys
tem of courts will continue as it has during
a period of 400 years.1 provided no obstacle
is placed in the way of American occupation
of the land. All that is required is the oath
of allegiance and the Puerto Rican may go
about his business as usual. The Anglo-
Saxon idea of putting men on their honor
is a new one in this place, but it is immense
ly popular, and the Puerto Ricans themselves
are its strongest advocates. Every man who
subscribes to the simple oath at police head
quarters seems to be imbued at once with a
kind of enthusiastic Americanism which
makes him urge all his friends to follow his
example.
A systematic administration of the oath to
-
DOCKS AT PORT TAMPA WHERE THE 5TH ARMY CORPS EMBARKED.
But there is more than mere lip service.
Earnestness of purpose marks the new era.
Loyalty to the stars and stripes is evidencing
itself in many ways. The civil authorities, di
rected to resume their functions by the mili
tary commanders, have recommenced their
work with extraordinary vigor. The depart
ment of public works has set hundreds of la
borers to the task of cleaning the thorough
fares, and the streets are in as good condi
tion as are our boulevards in Chicago. Gas
and electric-light companies have their
plants in operation, the volunteer fire de
partment, the pride of Ponce, is on duty,
while everywhere is shown a disposition to
do that which will prove by deeds the new
spirit of American patriotism.
The policy of Gen. Miles not to interfere
with the local institutions of Puerto Rico is
most popular, and the people, who at first
all officials in the surrendered towns has
been ordered, and to-day (Aug. 2) the three
judges of the highest civil and criminal court
of Ponce were sworn. For the first time in
the history of the United States judges in a
foreign and supposedly hostile country
swore, with God's help, to support the consti
tution of the United States. The situation
was novel. In all legal literature of our
country no form of oath exactly fitted, so
the judge advocate on Gen. Miles' staff,
Lieut.-Col. Klous, extemporized this:
"I, — — , do declare upon oath that during
the occupation of the island of Puerto Rico
by the United States of America I renounce
and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to
every foreign prince, potentate, state or sov
ereignty, and particularly to the queen re
gent and king of Spain, and that I will sup
port the constitution of the United States
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
against all enemies, foreign or domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to
the same; further, that I will faithfully sup
port the government of the United States as
established by the military authorities of the
same on the island of Puerto Rico, and yield
obedience to the same, and 'that I take this
obligation freely, without mental reservation
or purpose of evasion, so help me God."
The ceremony this morning was an exam
ple of American simplicity. The native
judges, accustomed to Spanish ceremonial,
appeared at 10 o'clock. They found the
judge-advocate in a small room with an in
terpreter. The judges were standing, and
the colonel stared at them through his spec
tacles as the interpreter read the translated
oath. "Raise your right hands," he said.
The judges obeyed. "Do you swear?" he
inquired. "Si!" came from the 'three men,
and the ceremony was over.
The priests of the cathedral here are of the
order of Vincent de Paul. One of them,
Father Janices, speaks English fluently. He
it was who delivered the sermon in New
York on the occasion of the Spanish memo
rial services after the death of Canovas.
Speaking to-day of the church in Puerto
Rico he said:
"We are neither cowards nor liars! We do
not deny that we have always been loyal
Spaniards, but we realize that the chief duty
of the church is to save souls, not mingle in
international quarrels. With all our hearts
we welcome the Americans. Your constitu
tion protects all religions, and we ask only
for our church that protection which it has
ever enjoyed in the United States. The arch
bishop of Puerto Rico is now in Spain. The
vicar-general at San Juan is now acting. We
shall no longer look to him as the eccle
siastical head, but so soon as possible will
communicate with Cardinal Gibbons and
await his wishes. Should any American sol
dier desire the ministrations of a priest we
shall always be at his disposal. We have
determined to become loyal Americans."
Throughout the entire interview Father
Jauices never once referred to Puerto Rico
in any other way than as irretrievably lost
to Spain.
Gen. Wilson met the local newspaper ed
itors at his headquarters this afternoon and
told them that he would not interfere with
publications so long as they contained noth
ing hostile to the United States. He assured
them that our country would do all in its
power to increase the commercial industry
and agriculture of Puerto Rico.
In the streets to-day boys are distributing
handbills containing the proclamation in
Spanish of the commission recently returned
from the United States.
The soldiers and people are most friendly.
All shopkeepers are protected and a militarv
patrol affords ample protection against mis
doing. One of the significant signs of the
times is the sale of Spanish-American lex
icons to the natives. American rule is an
accepted fact, and business men are prepar
ing for the new order of things.
GEN. BROOKE AT SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO.
BY TRUMBULL WHITE.
Spanish arid American officials in this
island have exchanged preliminary formal
ities and assurances of their distinguished
consideration and regard. All that is left
to do is to settle the arrangements for evacu
ation by the former for the place to become
the property of the United States in fact.
The new tenant is not disposed to ask the old
one to move out too hurriedly, but the proc
ess will not be long delayed.
For the last few days I have been about
the palace of the captain-general a good deal,
on various personal and official errands, and
it has been impossible not to feel the pathos
of the situation as it affects many persons
when one stops to consider the personal
equation in it. This phase of the matter was
brought most forcibly to mind yesterday
(Sept. 6) when the first formal call was
made, the victors seeking the vanquished in
the halls that were so soon to be trans
ferred. Not many were favored with a sight
of this particular event in the progress of
the history of reconstruction, and those who
were present will not forget it.
Gen. Brooke arrived at Rio Piedras Monday
afternoon and waited at that suburb after
his trip across the island, not coming into
the city that day. Early the next morning
the Seneca steamed into the harbor with Ad
miral Schley and Gen. Gordon aboard, thus
making the American membership of the
commission complete. Before noon it was
arranged that at 4 o'clock the Americans,
with their staffs, would call upon Capt.-Gen.
Macias at the palace to pay their respects.
The latter sent word that he would be
pleased to offer them a welcome at that time,
and the affair was settled. All day salutes
were being fired in honor of the various
magnates, and crowds of the citizens gath
ered at the mole and at the sea wall of the
town to see the American vessels firing
heavy charges of gunpowder in honor of the
governor whom they were about to supplant.
Admiral Schley, Gens. Brooke and Gordon
220
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
and Capt.-Gen. Macias all had their turn at
being honored with salutes from the New
Orleans and from Morro castle, Macias get
ting the highest nu-mber of guns because
his rank is highest of them all.
At 3:30 o'clock I went to the palace to hav.e
a cable message passed by the censor — a
privilege which the Spanish officials still re
serve. The official interpreter first reads the
message when this form is to be gone
through, and having familiarized himself
with what is desired to be sent takes it to
the secretary of the local island government,
virtually a cabinet minister in local attairs,
and reads it to him in Spanish, translating
as he goes. Once approved, the message
is stamped on the back of each sheet over
which it extends, the last one is signed
by the secretary, and the formality is over.
The secretary is not exacting now and little
is forbidden to be sent, but the labor of
the journey to the palace and the delays of
waiting there are sometimes annoying.
Yesterday the interpreter told me that the
British consul was with the secretary and it
would be necessary to wait. Meanwhile we
talked of those things in the United States
and those books in English which the inter
preter knew from his travel and study, and
we were having a very pleasant visit of our^
own when the rattle of carriaee wheels was'
heard on the pavement outside. It was the
arrival of the American commissioners.
Out of the office bolted the secretary, down
the hall and up the stairs to reach the grand
saloon above before the Americans should
enter. The interpreter followed in haste.
The clerks and the under secretaries lined up
in the entrance hall to see the distinguished
visitors, who were halting at the entrance
until they should all be out of their car
riages and arranged in proper order of prece
dence. The under secretary turned to me in
haste.
"Do you kijow which is Admiral Schley?"
he asked, hurriedly, anxious, like all the
others here, to see the man who destroyed
Cervera's fleet. I pointed out the admiral
and then the other members of the com
mission and the distinguished officers who
accompanied them. As the last of the score
of Americans in uniform passed down the
hall and turned up the stairs, the sentries
closing in behind them to prevent the en- ]
trance of any one else to the palace, he j
turned to me again with a signal to advance,
and we walked up the stairs behind them.
The suite of rooms in which the captain-
general received the eminent callers consisted
of three lofty chambers, connecting by wide,
arched doorways and extending all the way
across the west face of that wing of the
palace. The first was an anteroom into which
we were ushered, and from it the commis
sioners, with their staff officers and inter
preters, passed* into the middle one, where
Capt.-Gen. Macias awaited them with his
own staff. There was a significant circum
stance visible at once. The moment the
Spanish officers saw the throng of Americans
crowding the anteroom, preparatory to enter
ing the next apartment, they moved on into
the next room, the third and last of the
suite, nor did they again enter the chamber
where the call was actually in progress.
Capt.-Gen. Macias waited alone with his
interpreter in the middle room of the three
for the Americans to advance. They were
ushered toward him, the introductions were
made formally but rapidly, and the crowd
formed into groups for conversation. On the
west wall of the chamber and between two
windows hung a great portrait of the queen
regent of Spain. Under this stood a sofa,
with room for three to be seated on it, and
this was the center of attraction. Maj.-Gen.
Brooke sat in the center, with Capt.-Gen.
Macias at his left and his own interpreter
at the right. In a chair at the end of the
sofa and next to the Spanish commander was
Rear-Admiral Schley. Brig.-Gen. Michael
Sheridan, Gen. Brooke's chief of staff, was
next beyond, and beside him Senor Panyagua,
the official interpreter. Brig.-Gen. Gordon
was seated at the right of Gen. Brooke's in
terpreter, and with this crescent as a center
of interest the other Americans were seated
facing them.
During the fifteen minutes through which
the call extended the anteroom was occupied
by half a dozen Spanish officers, who sur
rounded me and sought information concern
ing the identity of the various Americans.
Admiral Schley was the one of greatest inter
est to them, and he was studied so keenly
that they will all know him the next time.
There remained no doubt as to what they
thought of the relative work of American
ships in the destruction of the fleet of Cer-
vera and where the credit belonged. They
were exceedingly interested to know that
Gen. Sheridan is the brother of the Gen.
Phil Sheridan whose name they knew so
well. They were generous in their compli
ments concerning the fine-looking men in the
staff and were in every way civil and friend
ly. One of the officers said to me that he felt
sorry for those who had withdrawn into the
third room, because they had no one in reach
who could name to them the different Ameri
cans in the party.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
221
IN HAVANA DURING THE ARfllSTICE.
BY DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
There is a deal of sickness in the Spanish
army in Havana (Sept. 14). As nearly as I
can discover there are 27,000 infirms in the
hospital. There are at least 70,000 regulars
and volunteers available for the defense of
the city. Seaward Havana is all but impreg
nable, and the continuous line of breast
works, blockhouses and forts which girds the
city on the land side would make an assault
costly and hazardous, and were all the ap
proaches taken 10,000 determined men could
barricade the narrow streets with their cob
blestones and defend it from any quarter of
the city against all but siege guns.
The knowledge of all this makes the Span
ish officers, who seem to be half the popula
tion of the city, very loath to talk of the
terms of evacuation. I have chatted with
majors and colonels who still hope that the
Paris negotiations will fall through and
that the dispute will come again to a settle
ment by the sword. I know of others who
cabled to Madrid, when the protocol was
signed, that they would not be bound by any
treaty of peace and that they would leave
Cuba only as prisoners of war.
Many of the line officers will resign rather
than return to the narrow stage of the
mother country and the pittance pay of sol
diers serving at home. Scores of captains
and lieutenants are ready to offer their
swords to the United States if they are as
sured of acceptance and a corresponding
rank in our army.
"Spain's sword is broken," one of them
said to me the other day, his voice choking
with emotion, "and nothing we can do will
save her. The double blight of age and pov
erty has fallen on her, and the treason of
her sons has put her beyond hope. Spain
cannot recover her ancient position as a
great power in our lifetime. What use has
she of soldiers, her credit gone with her
colonies and the money to buy military
stores and build a new navy lacking? We
would embarrass her by our return, and I
for one will cast in my lot with Cuba,
whether Cubans or Americans rule."
The general officers are more conservative,
but the root and branch of the Spanish army
in Cuba is smarting under what they believe
to be a disgraceful peace. The abuse which
has been heaped upon them in the Spanish
cortes has not soothed their wounded honor
and it is quite within the range of possibility
that Havana will know the clash of arms
before the blood and gold ensign flutters
down from Morro's staff.
The few common soldiers with whom I
have spoken knew nothing of the terms of
the peace protocol and believed that the
American commission had come down to ne
gotiate the surrender 'of the island at some
enormous price, including their eight months'
pay now in arrears. The Spanish army is dis
posed to exact that eight months' pay as a
bribe for the peaceful evacuation of Havana.
Disappointment may mean mutiny and all
that comes after it.
The insurgents are another disturbing
factor in the game the American commission
must play. The hand of Blanco is as heavy
upon them as it was before the signing of
the protocol, and they grow restive under its
weight. They are destitute and hungry, for
the armistice has stopped foraging, and the
Cubans of Havana are quite unable to feed
them. The United States transport Comal,
with 1,000,000 rations in her black hull, has
lain three weeks over near Regia waiting for
the Spanish government's permission to give
away her bread and meat and beans.
Clara Barton sought vainly for a fortnight
to land milk and medicine for the starving
thousands of Havana, but the pride of Fer
nandez de Catro, the civil governor of the
city, stood in the way, and the multitudes
are still hungry.
For the Cubans the armistice does not
exist. Cabanas still has its political pris
oners and four women who schemed and suf
fered to free Cuba have cells in the Recoji-
dos. The suspects of the city are still under
surveillance, and only yesterday a meeting
of the Havana junta was postponed because
the police got wind of it and sent a detach
ment of the civil guard to arrest the whole
party.
Cuban demonstrations have been checked
summarily. Since the establishment of the
insurgent hospital at Mariano there have
been one or two outbreaks of Cuban enthu
siasm on Sundays, the regular visiting days.
Last Thursday, which was a great feast
day, Gen. Arolas, military governor of Ha
vana province, rode out to Mariano at the
head of four troops of cavalry, and the order
of the day was to fire into any crowd that
shotited "Viva Cuba Libre" or "Viva Los
Estados Unidos."
There were no cheers and no bloodshed,
but on Sunday seventeen young men were
arrested because the "vivas" rang out. They
were released, however, on Monday.
It was the menace of the shotted guns
of Havana's garrison that was responsible for
the city's quiet greeting of the American
commission.
For two days before the Resolute trailed
up and passed Cabanas with a white flag at
her forepeak every soldiers or volunteer was
under arms, and a hurrah when the commis-
222
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
FORWARD DECK OF THE UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP OREGON.
sion really did appear might have meant a
massacre, but there was none. In silence
absolute and profound the ungraceful trans
port lumbered up the bay and bumped her
nose on an anchor buoy. There were no
salutes, no dipping of flags, and it required
twenty-four hours and the softening influ
ence of that breakfast at the insular camara
to unlock the breeches of the Resolute'sguns.
The American has not yet been saluted, but
the Princess d'Asturias, sister of Alfonso
XII., got the royal round of fifteen guns at
noon last Sunday, which was her birthday.
Three thousand insurgents are encamped
within a day's march of Havana, and hunger
may drive them to some overt act which may
embarrass the American commission. They
have no stores, and foraging is forbidden,
but starving men with arms in their hands
cannot always be expected to be patriotic
and philosophic. Some arrangement should
be made by which the Com'al's cargo can
be landed, if not for Havana's 40,000 hungry
men and women, at least for Roderiguez'
forces and the gathering army of Gomez.
Maj. Lanistern, who has charge of the
Comal's stores, has reported to Gen. Wade,
but nothing has yet been done toward land
ing the rations.
Clara Barton gave up in despair ten days
ago and sailed back to Tampa with the Clin
ton, though she had promised Gomez half a
million rations for his tattered troops. But
much as the insurgents need food and medi
cines, the cry of Havana's starving multi
tudes is louder and more insistent. There is
no escaping these hunger-tortured thousands.
You meet them at every stride, whether
it be in the swagger Prado, with its care
fully swept parades and modish gowns, or in
any of the nameless streets that toil zigzag
over the slopes below. Brown, misbegotten
shapes of rags and woe, they start out from
the shadows of every pillar and lurk in every
doorway, it seems, as you pass. They huddle
in weary groups at the entrances of the the
aters, watching for a face that promises
pity. They push themselves in and out be
tween the shifting ranks of the promenaders
in the parks, themselves a tenth of the
throng.
They storm the grilles that shut in the
cafes, clamorous for the crumbs from your
table. Your hackman pulls his horse sharply
up at every alternate crossing to avoid run
ning down a woman hunger-deaf and pain-
blind. You wake at night trembling at the
horror of a shriek beneath your window.
Lucky you if you do not see the black litter
of death go by, borne by four men, when two
would find a light load in the skeleton corpse
beneath the pall.
But Fernando de Castro, a Cuban and a
blood brother to these starving ones — for
nine of every ten are Cubans — shuts out the
Red Cross and the succor the Red Cross can
bring. The delicate foods and medicines
these Cubans must have in order to live are
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
223
not to be had in Cuba. Clara Barton had 400
tons aboard the Clinton to fill the first need.
It would take ten times as much to help these
women and children to a new grip on life.
The Comal's 1,500 tons of hardtack, salt
pork and beans are next to worthless at the
present stage. It was a mistake to load
the Comal with army rations. It was a
greater mistake to send transports to Ha
vana without more than a casual notice to
the Spanish authorities. Blanco, De Castro
and Montero are but human, and Washing
ton's calm assumption that they were ready
to receive whatever Washington chose to
send them touched every official of the in
sular government, Spaniard or autonomist,
to the quick.
It is hard to sit still under such tactless
bungling as the dispatching of the Comal
showed. The transport lumbered down from
Tampa without invoice, manifest or clear
ance papers of any sort. The administra
tion did not even ask Havana's consent to
land provisions after she arrived, though
the Spanish officials are in charge of the
customs here and the complexion of the city
government is perhaps more intensely Span
ish than it has ever been before.
Nominally the government's vessel, the
Comal is in effect a merchantman, and it is
an open question, according to Spanish ideas,
whether the usual fines imposed on mer
chantmen neglecting their clearances cannot
be lawfully imposed upon her. That conten
tion was waived by Secretary Montero, but
the fine was imposed on the Clinton, Miss
Barton's ship, which was also ordered to
Havana by Secretary Alger without formally
warning Havana.
The customs officers insist upon their
pound of flesh, however, and as one way out
of the difficulty the autonomist cabinet two
weeks ago subscribed a sum sufficient to pay
the duties on the Comal's cargo. The excuse
offered was that the civil government should
have the distribution of the stores. If any
proof were needed that horrible want pre
vails in Havana the action of the cabinet
would be convincing. The Comal has wound
ed their feelings by her unceremonious ap
pearance, but the cry of the hungry in Ha
vana cannot be drowned by official phrases.
FORTS OF SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
Awaiting the word to enter the harbor of
San Juan, the Cincinnati, New Orleans and
Frolic are anchored close in-shore this after
noon, less than a mile from the Morro, and in
such a position as to enable those aboard to
obtain a splendid view of the capital city of
Puerto Rico. The Cincinnati, flying the blue
pennant of Capt. Colby M. Chester, senior
officer of the station, arrived last night, Aug.
14, accompanied by the dispatch boat Frolic,
and joined the New Orleans, which has been
continually on blockade duty here of late, ex
cept for a few days, when, owing to an error
in assignments, no ships were cruising along
this coast.
When the Cincinnati came Capt. Chester
was not aware that hostilities had been sus
pended, and was both surprised and sus
picious when the Spaniards signaled from the
Morro that he might anchor close to shore.
After a long conversation by means of the
international code, however, he was con
vinced that all was well, and so the three
ships cast anchor near the shoal to the north
east of the Morro and just east of the harbor
entrance. A white flag was set on the forti
fications and the Cincinnati replied by send
ing a similar signal to the foretop. Soon
afterward a small boat put off from shore,
bearing messages from Capt. -Gen. Macias to
Capt. Chester. In a very courteous note the
Spanish commander assured the captain that
he was prepared to extend every privilege
within his power to grant. He suggested
that cable communication between San Juan
and the outside world was uninterrupted and
offered to send such messages as the squad
ron commander might wish to forward to his
government or friends. The proffer was ac
cepted and cables were exchanged between
Capt. Chester, the navy department at Wash
ington and Admiral Sampson. Capt.-Gen.
Macias went even further, and said that he
would be glad to have the Americans use
the land telegraphs in order to communicate
with their friends at Ponce, provided they so
wished; and as a result our forces at all
points on the island are in easy touch with
one another.
At present it will not be possible for the
ships to enter the harbor. In the channel
several ships have been sunk by the Spanish,
and the place is, according to the captain-
general, well studded with mines. These he
expects to remove as soon as definite instruc
tions are received from Madrid, at which time
he says he will be glad to furnish pilots and
welcome the sailors ashore. In the mean
time the best of feeling appears to prevail,
and both parties are comfortably awaiting
the end of the negotiations. Not to be out
done in politeness, Capt. Chester sent word
that he would be glad to place the Frolic at
the disposal of the captain-general if the lat-
224
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ter wished to send for mail or supplies to St.
Thomas. He also intimated that he would
gladly send for the families of Spanish offi
cers, at present refugees in the Danish West
Indies, in order that they might return to
begin the work of packing preparatory to the
change of abode which is to follow the sign
ing of a treaty of peace. This brought forth
the profuse thanks of the Spanish command
er, who declined the use of the Frolic, but
asked that the Spanish steamer Ibo Bosh
be permitted to visit St. Thomas, get mail
and supplies and communicate with the
Spanish consul there. This request was im
mediately granted, and this morning, under
the flag of Spain, provided with a safe-con
duct, the Ibo Bosh steamed out of the harbor
and eastward along the coast, the first craft
to fly the flag of Spain in these waters for
some time. She is expected to return within
three days, and her papers require all Ameri-
ican vessels to facilitate her voyage to the
utmost of their ability.
From the upper deck of the Cincinnati
this afternoon almost every nook and corner
of San Juan may be seen under the glass.
Citizens and soldiers are watching the ships
with interest, Red Cross flags are flying
from all the hospitals and public buildings,
while only from the big fort to the east is
to be seen the Spanish flag. Very pictur
esque and beautiful appears this city, built
on a long and narrow island, separated from
the mainland at one end by a shallow arm
of the sea, over which is the San Antonio
bridge. At this point on the north coast is a
sandspit, about nine miles in length, run
ning apparently to join the small islets and
keys, while at the other end the island ends
in a rugged bluff more than 100 feet high and
nearly a mile distant from the main island.
The principal fortification of the city
crowns this promontory, the form of the
castle being that of an obtuse angle, with
three tiers of batteries, placed one above the
other, toward the sea, their fires crossing
one another. Toward the city it has a wall
flanked by two bastions of heavy artillery,
which dominate all the intermediate space,
covering the city thoroughly and indicating
an intent to prepare for trouble from the
land side, as if danger was to be feared from
the people who professed allegiance to the
flag which floated frqm its staff. The usual
barracks are here, large water tanks may
be seen and several warehouses. The cross
on the spire of a small chapel shimmers in
the sunlight. A mine descends from the
castle to the seashore through the entrance
of the port, its issue being defended by a
battery. Troops may enter and leave the
works by this means, protected from the fire
of an enemy.
The site of this fortification has always
been regarded with preference by officers de
tailed to construct defenses for the city. Orig
inally it was but a single battery, although
as far back as 1584 the plan of the fortress
was drawn and gradually developed until
reaching its present state of perfection.
When remodeled and armed with modern
rifles, behind which are stationed American
artillerymen, it will be impregnable. On the
top of this castle is a revolving light rising
to a height of 370 feet above the level of the
sea and sending its rays eighteen miles across
the waves of the Atlantic.
San Juan harbor is at the western end of
the island on which the city is built. On
the right bank in San Juan de la Cruz castle,
erected on the Cenedo shoal, very dangerous
during a north wind. The channel is narrow,
with a rocky bottom, so close under the head
land that two vessels may not pass. In some
places the water is thirty feet deep, but
owing to obstructions placed when war was
declared navigation is impossible for the
present.
Facing the ocean and northeast of the city
is the castle of San Cristobal. It defends San
Juan on the land side, occupying the entire
width of the islet from the bay to the outer
sea. It has two large bomb-proof barracks
upon which is the Caballero fort, with twenty-
two cannon, more imposing than useful
in this day of rapid-fire guns. Below the
castle is the drill ground, and a number of
Spanish soldiers could be seen to-day going
through military evolutions.
Three large ravelins follow the scheme of
defense: San Carlos, occupying the hilltop;
Principe, on the slope of the Ceusta, and
Principal, where is the drawbridge of the
second fosse, giving issue to counter
trenches, the covered way and the field
reached through the gate of Santiago. For
the most part all these fortifications are cut
from solid rock, and the tiers of batteries as
viewed from the sea give the impression of
immense power, although we know that they
are inadequate in modern warfare.
Starting from the southern part of San
Cristobal castle and following the edge of
the bay a line of bulwarks is encountered,
being those of Santiago and San Pedro, the
curtain being interrupted by the Espana
gate, after which follow the bulwark of San
Justo and a gate of the same name, which
forms an arch under the curtain. Then
comes the half-bulwarks of San Justo, the
bulwark of La Palma or San Jose, the plat
form of Concepcion. to the half-bulwark and
fortress of Santa Catalina. From here to
the half-bulwark of San Agustin to the west
is the gate of San Juan and then the plat
form of Santa Elena.
These fortifications were begun in 1630 and
finished in 1641. but not until 1771 were the
castle of San Cristobal and the outworks
built. There are many minor works, but the
majority of them need not be considered as
adequate defenses, their value being more
artistic than military. On the extreme east
of the islet and near the San Antonio bridge
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
225
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
is the small fort of San Jeronimo, which de
fends the passage. Between Morro castle and
the north coast near Palo Seco, and in the
middle of the entrance to the bay, is a small
fort called Cannelo.
The bay, entered after rounding the bluff,
is broad and beautiful, landlocked and with a
good depth of water. It is said to be the best
harbor in Puerto Rico, although during the
winter months the northerly winds make it
impossible for sailing vessels to clear, and
they frequently detain steamers.
San Juan island is shaped much like an
arm and hand. It is two and one-half miles
long and averages less than one-quarter of a
mile in width. The greatest width is half
a mile, and here the larger part of the city is
located.
With its portcullis, moat, gates and bat
tlements San Juan is a perfect specimen of a
walled town, while the mountains of Bayo-
mon, commanding the city to the southwest,
lend grandeur to a scene of great beauty as
viewed from the se?.. It is of especial inter
est to those who have lived their lives in a
prairie country.
SOME ROUGH RIDERS STORIES.
BY KENNETT F. HARRIS.
"I looked around an' there was Jim, about
the color of a chiny nest egg, an' his jawbone
stickin' out below his ear like he'd dislo
cated a chew of tobacker, he was setting his
teeth down so hard to keep 'em from rat-
tlin'. I seen him snap his gun twicet before
he noticed the magazine was empty, an' his
hair had lifted his hat plum off'n his head.
I notice he hasn't found it yet."
"You're a liar," retorted the person re- j
ferred to, calmly. "You never was anything
else but a liar an' you never will be. You
was too busy makin' up what does you for a
mind whether you had sand enough to dodge
the bullets an' run to notice me; but you've
accidentally got in shoutin' distance of the
truth this time. I was good an' scared."
A group of rough riders of troop G were
discussing the events of the fight at La
Guasinas as they were camped on the plateau
they had so dearly won. It was bright moon
light, but there was already a slight chill in
the air, and the handfuls of fires dotted here
and there among the shelter tents looked
cheerful. Most of the men were sleeping
soundly, and their deep breathing sounded
curiously distinct in the pauses in the con
versation. One could hear, too, the tread of
the sentry on the gravel in the road below
and the rattle of the thickly lying cartridge
sh°"s as he kicked them aside in his walks.
"I'd have given six months' pay and a
pound of smokin' tobacker to have been in
the milk cellar on my ranch." said a third.
"George Roland was near me when he was
hit, an' I thought my time had come, sure.
Then we passed that L troop trumpeter the
next rush. Who's seen Heffner? Some one
said he was wounded."
"Killed," said the first speaker, and there
was silence for a minute.
"I was never scared so bad but once be
fore," remarked a slightly built, boyish-look
ing young fellow. "That was when I was
working for the Turkey Tracks two years
ago last September. I'd been huntin' horses
over in Peabody's canyon, an' hadn't found
a hoof, an' along about sundown I come to a
little 'dobe house with a slab corral. I didn't
reckon there was any one in, for I hadn't
seen no smoke as I come along. So I put my
cayuse in the corral an' shook down a fork
ful of hay for him to bite on, an' then opened
the door an' walked in.
"I made for the flour barrel first thing an'
I found it was empty, all but a couple of
stale biscuits. There was some coffee on the
stove, though, an' it smelt tol'able fresh, so
I built a little fire in the stove an' warmed
it up. That made me a supper, an' when that
was done I prospected around some more an'
found a bundle of illustrated papers an' the
best part of a candle. That was a puddin'. I
d'no when I'd seen so much readin' matter
before. Well, befor I turned in to read 'em
I started to look for a lantern so'd I could go
out an' look after the cayuse, but I couldn't
find one high ner low. Then it occurs to me
that the feller that owned the ranch might
have put it under the bed, an' I took hole of
the foot an' hoisted it around, an' there un
der that bed was a man lyin' with his throat
cut.
"No use talkin', I was stampeded. I didn't
stop to open the door — I went straight at it
an' busted it off the hinges. I hadn't time to
get my pony. I lit out on the keen run an'
never stopped till I got to Santa Clara.
"Then I began to feel that I had acted like
a locoed hen, an' I reckoned at first that I
wouldn't take no one into my confidence, but
when I got into Henry Marty's place I seen
Charley Simmons, the sheriff, an' I took him
outside an' told him. He thought the best
thing to do was to go out to the ranch an'
investigate, an' invited the crowd to go with
him. All their horses was tied outside, an' I
never thought for a moment, but started to
hunt for mine. Then I remembered. 'Where's
your pony?' says Charley. 'I left him in the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
227
corral at the ranch,' I says. 'He was tuck
ered out,' an' there wasn't no hurry, so I
concluded I'd walk in."
"Charley didn't say nothin', but he com
menced to holler an' laff, an' the rest of them
joined in an' I iust had to take it.
"Well, I got another horse an' we started
out, but when we got up to the top of the
hill we saw a red light in the sky over by the
ranch.
' 'The kid's set the place afire," says
Charley. Well, sir, that's just what I'd done.
I'd thrown the candle over on the bed or
somewheres, an' when we got there there
wasn't nothin' but the four 'dobe walls left.
There wasn't enough of that dead man left
to hold an inquest on. Maybe they didn't
amuse themselves with me good an' plenty.
They got out a story that I'd killed the man
an' then burned the house to cover up my
crime, and a darned fool prosecuting at
torney they had in that county wanted to
take it up. I had my troubles over that."
"It was a good joke on you," said Trooper
Jim. "Who's got any water in his canteen?"
"There's a good cold spring about a quarter
of a mile down the road," observed the "kid."
"You can't miss it; there's a dead Spaniard a
rod above an' the walkin's good."
Around headquarters there was no story
telling that night. Everybody was thinking
about the battle and of those who had fallen.
Forgetfulness had not yet come. Allyn Ca-
prou's death seemed a personal loss to each
one of his brother officers. Each one had
something to say that showed his admiration
and affection for the gallant young soldier.
Church broke down as he told of his last mo
ments. "I'm done for," he had said, when
they raised him up. "You can't help me.
Old man" — to Dr. Church — "won't — you —
please write to my wife?" Then, as he was
suffering intense pain, the surgeon admin
istered cocaine, and he became mercifully
unconscious.
"It was the death he would have chosen,"
said one. "He was a soldier through and
through."
But a few days later the dead appeared to
be forgotten. I say "appeared." They were
held no less in affectionate remembrance in
one sense, but amid such scenes as are en-
.acted in war one lives years in a few days.
The events of a week ago seem wonderfully
remote, and one's sensibilities become dulled.
It is well that it is so.
I believe that there is more story-telling
around a soldier's campfire than in any other
place in the world. I am sure that I have
heard more told since I have been in Cuba
than ever in my life before. Perhaps it is
owing to the soldier's desire to divert his
mind from his present surroundings and by
recalling the past to convince himself that he
really was at one time— to use his own ex
pression — "on earth." Perhaps it is because
it is about the only form of amusement. Col.
Roosevelt is a good story-teller, and whether
he is talking of his little Missouri ranch ex
periences or of the humors of a New York
police court he always has a large and inter
ested audience. One night he was speaking
of the Marquis de Mores. "It was like living
with a cotton-mouthed adder to be with
him," he said — "exciting and interesting, but
not pleasant. An intensely spectacular man
— dramatic. He would receive an anonymous
note warning him not to go by a certain
butte, where he could never by any possi
bility have had any intention of going; that
assassins were concealed there waiting for
him. Forthwith he would festoon himself
with pistols and knives, mount his coal-black
horse and ride round that butte, glaring into
the darkness. People fleeced him and hum
bugged him right and left. He wanted to
join the Apaches at one time. They appealed
to him as a noble and oppressed race. They
would have eaten him."
Describing one of his western neighbors,
Col. Roosevelt said: "He was a man of large
and liberal views. He had no foolish and
puerile prejudices against virtue. 'Some peo
ple didn't believe in arson," he would reason.
'Well, that was entirely their own affair.
No reason why I should quarrel with them
on that account or hold myself above them.' "
An anecdote he told me with keen relish
was of two "bad men" who "shot it out"
with Winchester rifles in the main street of
Medora. One of them fell with a bullet in
his hip, his rifle dropping out of reach. His
antagonist was aiming for the coup de grace
when he felt a touch on his arm. Looking
round, he saw a meek and venerable old per
son called "Uncle Billy," who gained his
livelihood by sweeping out a saloon, cleaning
the cuspidors and serving an occasional
drink.
"Jake," said the old man, imploringly, "let
me finish him; I never killed a man yit."
Beyond a few shots exchanged between out
posts and one or two unimportant skirmishes
between Cuban scouting parties and Spanish
guerrillas there has been no fighting since
the engagement of Friday (June 24). The
army is still encamped along the Santiago
road west of the Rio Guama, with Gen. Law-
ton's brigade in advance. It is practically
in column, though strong outposts occupy
the country for two or three miles on either
flank, in order that the advance can be made
at an instant's notice, when everything is
in readiness. Just now there is delay, two
of the reasons for which are the arrivals of
unexpected re-enforcements and the difficulty
of getting provisions and ammunition to the
front. Gen. Lawton is unwilling to continue
the advance on Santiago while fresh troops
are coming in, reasoning that he can operate
more effectively with a larger force and with
less loss, and so long as the means of trans
portation are only sufficient to get one day's
rations at a time to the troops a forward
movement Is manifestly impossible. This is
the condition at present.
228
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
GEN. WHEELER RECONNOITERING FROM A TREE BEFORE SANTIAGO.
The department of transportation and the
commissariat have been in unavoidable con
fusion. There have not been enough boats
to get the provisions to the shore, some of
the mule trains are without pack saddles, the
road has been almost impassable and a hun
dred other things have added to the difficulty.
The men have been taking the inaction philo
sophically and have been consistently violat
ing every known hygienic rule, apparently
without the least ill effect. They have slept
in wet clothing, drunk unboiled water and
eaten unripe fruit continually, but nobody
seems to get sick. The confinement to camp
is of course irksome when an uninviting
country is spread out before them, but then
there is outpost duty to look forward to, and
this gives them plenty of opportunity to
range the woods and morass and to gather
mangoes and limes to their heart's content
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
229
Then there is the pleasant excitement of
watching occasional blurs of white, which
may be Spaniards or may be Cubans, skulking
along the summit of some distant, hill, or of
running upon some interesting evidence of
Spanish occupation. One of these was a rusty
pair of fetters and a five-foot chain found
stapled to a tree near one of the blockhouses.
Inside one of the massive iron rings was the
bleached remnant of a human leg bone. An
old macnete, the horn handle almost dis
integrated by the action of the weather, was
lying in the rank grass close by.
Scouting at night is less agreeable. There
are mountains to climb and dense thickets of
Spanish bayonet and fish-hooked brambles to
scramble through. The tall grass and under
brush is dripping with the heavy dew and
drenches you to the skin. You almost hold
your breath to preserve the strict silence de
manded and then stumble on a dead branch
that snaps like a pistol shot. There is a
into a hammock, which creaked so alarmingly
under his weight that he quickly abandoned
it for the ground. In the course of the con
versation that followed the venerable ex-
confederate officer alluded to the tree-climb
ing incident.
"You climb a tree!" exclaimed Gen.
Shatter.
"Certainly; why not?" replied Gen,
Wheeler.
"How old are you, general?" inquired the
portly commander of the invading forces.
"Sixty-one, but I don't feel it," said Gen.
Wheeler.
Gen. Shafter eyed the spare figure before
him silently and enviously for a moment and
then he said: "Well, I wish I could do that."
This morning the Santiago road was in
fairly good condition. Parties of brawny
soldiers have been at work for the last two
days plying picks and shovels unceasingly,
while detachments of Cubans went ahead and
CAMP OF THE 25TH INFANTRY-KEY WEST.
white object ahead — something that moves
and looks like a Spanish uniform. Then if
you are a prudent and soldierly scout you
conceal yourself behind a tree, pull the lever
of your carbine back noiselessly and after
a moment's pause peer carefully round.
Now it is still. Now the wind sweeps through
the trees and it moves again. You have a
horrible suspicion now, and advance, though
still cautiously, to find a dead drooping palm
branch swaying in the breeze. Several of the
sentries have alarmed their camps by halting
the red and black land crabs that swarm
through the woods. These grotesque, goggle-
eyed crustaceans have a nerve-shattering
way of scuttling backward through the brush
and dry leaves at night, and the sentries are
certainly excusable.
Gen. Wheeler is particularly addicted to
scouting. Yesterday this kindly, mild-looking
little veteran, who swung his hat and jumped
like a boy when the first Hotchkiss shell
struck the Spanish breastworks, went out on
a reconnoissance that took him within four
miles of Santiago. There happened to be a
handy palm tree at this point, and up the
trunk the general swarmed, perching in the
branches and calmly surveying the outworks
of the enemy through his field glasses.
Gen. Shafter reached Gen. Wheeler's
quarters last evening and dropped breathless
mowed down the bushes with keen-edged
machetes. Last night it was possible to
wheel the field and Gatling guns to the
front, and wagons loaded down with pro
visions supplemented the mule trains. But
this afternoon conditions are again changed.
The second rain of the season, with a crackle
and crash of thunder and a flashing of
jagged spears of lightning across the low-
hanging sky, burst over the encamped army
a little after 12 o'clock. In a minute, it
seemed, torrents of yellow water were rush
ing along the road, washing deep gullies in
the soft earth, swelling the little Rio Guama
to a veritable river and driving the laden
mules in a stampede for the higher ground.
The sheets of water beat down on the shelters
with a force that drove it through the heavy
canvas as though it had been mere cheese
cloth. There was no escaping it, and every
thing and everybody is wet to-night. The
storm did not last long, but the dark, heavy
THE CHICAGO RECOllD'S WAR STORIES
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
clouds and the white mist wreathed about the
mountains gave promise of more rain to
morrow. Moreover, the roads are already in
a state that will greatly impede the progress
of the army and its equipment.
Gen. Young called at the rough riders'
headquarters this afternoon and compli
mented Capt. W. O. O'Neill on his gallantry
in attempting, at the imminent risk of his
own life, the rescue of two drowning soldiers
at Baiquiri. It is more than probable that
Capt. O'Neill will receive a medal of honor
for his bravery, a recommendation to that
effect having been made. He is now acting
major of the 1st squadron of the rough riders
in place of Maj. Brodie, who was wounded in
Friday's fight.
The siege guns brought from Tampa have
not yet been unloaded from the transports,
and it will take nearly ten days to get them
to the front and mount them. It has there
fore been decided to attempt the capture of
the city without them, using the field and
Gatling and dynamite guns alone. This will
make the assault possible within two days.
If the resistance offered is too stubborn the
army will settle down for a regular siege and
the big guns will be brought up.
IN CUBAN HOSPITALS.
BY KATHERIXE WHITE.
When the Red Cross nurses landed through
the surf yesterday morning to offer their
services to the United States army hospital
corps at this base they found ample oppor
tunity for work. The first battle had been
fought on Friday, three days before, and the
list of wounded and sick was a long one. As
fast as possible they were being brought
down from the hills and placed in the avail
able buildings in this village which afforded
shelter. No hospital had been established
on land in advance, and the Olivette, which
had been hurriedly fitted up as an ambulance
ship at the last moment, when the trans
ports were sailing from Port Tampa, was the
only place equipped for caring for disabled
soldiers. The most seriously wounded were
taken out to the ship, and when that was
full one of the transports was also given for
their use. But there still remained on share
nearly a hundred unprovided for. They were
taken to an old warehouse and deposited on
the bare floor, with only their blankets for a
bed.
The Red Cross physicians first went to that
place and offered the services of the Red
Cross. The surgeon in charge declined to
accept them, saying that the army hospital
corps was thoroughly organized and did not
require any extra assistance. The Red Cross
then went to the Cuban hospital, where they
were received with the warmest gratitude.
But the physicians in charge said: "We can't
let the sisters come here now; it is no fit
place for ladies. Wait until to-morrow, when
we have put things in a little better order,
and then we shall be glad to have them come
and nurse these poor fellows."
Dr. Egan hastened to assure him that the
Red Cross sisters did not come to Cuba for a
holiday, adding, jocularly: "They belong to
the help-yourself society."
"Oh, well," the physician then said, "if
that is the case they may come in. We have
belonged to that society for three years."
They did go in, and in a very short time
those unhappy Cuban insurgents learned that
real iriends had come to them. Some were
shockingly ill. There were two cases verg
ing on pneumonia, one of pernicious fever,
and all were more or less suffering.
The hospital is one which the Spanish sol
diers had used before their departure for
safer parts. It was supplied with cots, so
that the patients were not obliged to lie on
the floor. But the house, a little, vine-
covered shanty, and the men themselves were
in a pitiful condition of uncleanliness.
The sisters of the Red Cross needed only
permission to go to work, and soon the clean
white aprons were pinned back and sleeves
rolled up, and they were in the midst of a
very palpable relief occupation. As soon as
a room was put in order the men were moved
into it and bathed, put into clean nightshirts
and given gruel. The Spaniards evidently
had pretty well equipped hospitals, for the
sisters found chests containing blankets,
linen, nightshirts and medical supplies. With
those and the bed linen brought from the
State of Texas the men were soon enjoying
all the comforts of civilization. Their grati
tude was sincere. One poor fellow, after he
had been comfortably established in his bed,
reached up his hand affectionately, patted
little Sister Minnie's cheek and said: "I love
you so much." It was the best way he knew
of expressing his appreciation.
When I called there again at 4 o'clock I
found a neat, clean hospital and most of the
men quietly sleeping.
On the veranda I met Maj. B. J. Bueno, a
major of artillery on Gen. Rabi's staff. One
of the gentlemen of the Red Cross had
known Maj. Bueno in happier days in Cuba,
and very pertinently described him as one
282
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
THE NEW YORK'S WHALEBOAT AND ITS CREW.
of the young Cubans who used to part his
hair in the middle. The major good-na
turedly protested. "No, no," he said, "I
never was a dude; but now" — he glanced
ruefully at his dress; it consisted of a soiled
white linen coat and trousers, with an un
dershirt peeping out at the neck, top boots
and a battered Panama sombrero; at his side
dangled a long machete — "my own mother
wouldn't know me." He looked up with a
laugh. "I am engaged to be married to a
young lady in New York," he continued. "I
am afraid' if she saw me1 she would say this
was not what she contracted for. I have not
had on a shirt for two years and I am
afraid my evening dress suit wouldn't fit."
His eye twinkled as he went on: "I wonder
how I would look." Then he dropped his
head and repeated in an absent way: "I
wonder how I would look."
I asked him if they were glad to see the
Red Cross sisters. His face beamed. "Glad
to see them?" he said. "We were never so
glad to see any one. When men have tramped
for three years, starving, sick and wounded,
with no hope of help, with not one grain of
medicine, with no place to stop in safety,
we know how to appreciate such friendship
as this. Now they will have some courage
to go on. When they know there is some
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
233
one back here ready to care for them if
they fall wounded, ready to give them food
and medicine, they can fight with a new
strength. Oh, it is wonderful!"
He told us that he had been wounded four
times — three times with Mauser bullets, and
they were not so bad, he said, as they go in
smooth and clean and the wound heals rapid
ly. But the last time he was struck in the
leg with a piece of shell, and that was bad.
He was taken to a hut and the negroes
dressed his wound and treated it with herbs,
and after a long time it got well; but he had a
serious illness and came near losing his leg.
Maj. Bueno has lived the greater part of his
life in New York and Paris. He enlisted
as a private when the Cuban rebellion first
broke out and he has been in the field ever
since, except for a short time two years
ago when he was sent to New York with
dispatches and narrowly escaped arrest.
He was asked if he enjoyed the adventure
of the army life. "No, no," he said, quickly;
"we have had enough. It is fearful. We
have lived like savages. For months at a
time we have had nothing to eat but mangoes.
We have gone barefooted and in rags. Our
bodies have become so accustomed to hard
ship that civilization does not agree with us.
Believe me," he went on, "I was invited to
a supper by one of your naval officers and it
made me ill. The ice actually hurt my teeth.
But wait till we get to Santiago." His eyes
took an expression that boded ill to his ene
mies. "Oh, we have suffered! The Spanish
are savages — it will be a hot day when we
capture that town. And the Cubans who
have not come to fight with us, but have
lived there, friends with the Spanish and
paying taxes to their government — we shall
treat them as if they were traitors."
Some one said to him: "And you have no
fear of the Spanish fleet? What if they
shell you?"
"We will fight," he said, earnestly; "we
have our guns and we have our strong will —
we will fight." As he turned to go he hesi
tated and said: "I wish I had a card to
give you, but we are not using cards just
now." Then he went down the steps with
his machete clanking behind him.
I saw a troop of insurgents starting to the
front. A picturesque company it might have
looked viewed from a distance or through a
picture. But at such close quarters it was
simply heart-sickening. If one could lose
sight of the awful reality of it all they would
look grotesque and absurd. It was a strange
panorama as they marched along in all
their filthy tatters, emaciated, limping and
bending under the burden of their packs.
There were no warwhoops such as our boys
gave as they started on the march — there
was not the slightest indication of mirth.
I did not even hear a word spoken. They
just tramped along in silent, miserable apa
thy. Many of them looked so pitifully
young. There were boys scarcely taller than
the long machetes dangling at their sides.
We found Gen. Garcia sitting on the ve
randa of one of the most substantial houses
in the village. He is a fine-looking old
warrior. A deep bullet wound in the center
of his forehead gives him a rather fierce
look, but when he spoke his voice was very
kind and his manner most cordial. He was
very enthusiastic over the prospects of the
campaign. "But it is a pity," he said, "that
the government of the United States did not
recognize us sooner and let us do our own
fighting. We are sorry to sacrifice your
soldiers. It is a great pity."
It indeed seemed a great pity to us who
went to call on our soldiers in the warehouse
called by courtesy a hospital. It was then 5
o'clock Monday afternoon and they had been
brought there on Friday after the battle.
The warehouse is a miserable shakedown old
building with one long room in front and two
smaller ones in the back. There were sixty-
four men lying on the floor. All were sick or
wounded. Some had only their blankets be
tween them and the bare floor and some had
not even that comfort. In all the place there
was just one cot. A number of the men looked
painfully ill. It would be impossible to con
vey a correct idea of the appearance of the
place. The building was reeking with filth
and vermin. The floors were broken and
rough. The heat was intense. The head
nurse, with whom I talked, said he had only
four nurses to look after the men and they
were overwhelmed with work. The most
serious cases had been sent to the hospital
ships, but there were not accommodations
for all. In another building there were
twenty cases of measles. In all they had
eighty sick on shore and they could not get
around to attend to them. Some of the
soldiers with whom we talked complained
bitterly of the treatment. One who had been
in the regular armv thirteen years said: "It
is hard to be sick in this place and be so sore
from contact with the hard boards that we
can scarcely move."
They have had no food but army rations,
no change of clothing, no baths and no beds,
and they are lying in the midst of flies, ver
min and dirt. It is a discouraging blow to
patriotism. As long as they are well they
are willing to take any hardship that comes
and bear it like men and soldiers, but when
they fall sick and wounded and find no pro
vision made for their relief it will not take
long to dampen their enthusiasm.
I was told by the surgeon in charge that
the army was adequately equipped with hos
pital supplies, but that they had been unable
to land them. But a consignment of bl-ankets
and pillows had been sent by the Red Cross
early in the morning and they had lain piled
in the corner all day waiting for some one to
give the order to distribute them. No order
had come and the men were suffering for the
want of them. From what I was able to
234
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
*s mil
'f
£»*
THE D. S. S. MANGROVE CAPTURING THE SPANISH AUXILIARY CRUISER PANAMA.
learn it would appear that the army has not
neglected to provide hospital comforts for its
men, but there seems to be a woeful lack of
management.
The landing from the transports was still
in progress, and it was being done under the
most trying difficulties. A heavy surf was
running and the boats were almost swamped
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
235
at every trip. Many of the men landed wet
to their waists. Inspector-General Breckin-
ridge said: "I am sorry to say that in war
this is the first thing we land," and he
pointed to a huge stack of ammunition boxes.
"We have not enough boats to attend to the
landing of the hospital supplies at the same
time, consequently they must wait."
When the Red Cross sisters came from
their first day's labor in the field it was with
the satisfaction that they had been able to
accomplish so much. "We have made twenty
men comfortable to-day," they said, "and
our one regret is that our first work could
not have been given to our own boys instead
of to the Cubans." The four sisters with
Sister Bettina — Mrs. Lesser — at the head
have the distinction of being the first Red
Cross nurses to give their services with the
army of -the United States in Cuba.
FIGHTING AT MALATE.
BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON.
In company with Gen. Mariana Noriel and
some other insurgent officers, I visited the
trenches near Malate yesterday, where fierce
fighting is going on between the Spaniards
and Filipinos. The insurgents at this place
have advanced their trenches to within 1,000
yards of the fort at Malate and within 200
yards of the Spanish intrenchments protect
ing the road leading to the fort. There is
constant firing from the two opposing forces
intrenched there, almost within hailing dis
tance from each other, but in the daytime it
is the scattering and desultory work of the
sharpshooters. At night the firing is in vol
leys.
Early in the morning of July 6 I went by
boat to Paranaque, where the insurgent head
quarters for that district are situated. The
town is on the shore of the bay and about
half way between Bakor and Malate. The
American fleet, with reference to the posi
tion of Paranaque, is about four miles to
the west, just off Cavite. Gen. Marian No
rtel's headquarters are in an old church near
the landing, and it is from there that he
directs the movements of his forces farther
to the front. A little river runs into the
bay at this point and an old bamboo bridge
crosses it near the center of the town. Sev
eral days ago a barge with three old cannon
which Admiral Dewey permitted the insur
gents to take from the Cavite navy yard was
towed to Paranaque and the guns removed.
These have been dragged along the muddy
roads until they are now within 600 yards
of the most advanced trench. This work
drew a constant and fearful fire from tne
Spaniards and the road over wrhich the guns
were dragged was swept with shells and rifle
volleys, but the insurgents finally got them
safely to their present position.
The trip from Paranaque to Pineda, the
last little village within the rebel lines, was
made in caromattas over roads that showed
the effects of the fearful rains that have fall
en in the last ten days. At Pineda there is
a garrison of soldiers which relieves the men
in the trenches a mile farther on. The road
from Pineda on is lined with natives going
and coming, every one with his rifle, either
on his way to take his turn in the trench or
else returning to the village to rest. In the
soldiers' barracks at Pineda there was great
activity in preparing ammunition and re
pairing damaged firearms. A rapid-fire gun
which had been captured from the Spaniards
was ready for removal to the front. Big
piles of grape shot in bags and stacks of am
munition and iron balls for the newly
mounted guns were being arranged for im
mediate forwarding as soon as the big, old-
fashioned Cavite cannons were mounted.
The Spaniards are only a comparatively
short distance from Pineda, and the sound of
their cannon farther up the road toward
Manila came at frequent intervals. The
Spaniards at this time were shelling Pineda,
but with no visible effect.
When I expressed a desire to go to the
trenches Gen. Mariana took great pains to
discourage the project. He said that in
making the trip it would be necessary to
pass over exposed portions of the road, where
the Spaniards would be easily able to see a
person and could pick him off. At this time
a young boy came in with his hand bleeding.
He had been hit by a stray bullet while
coming down the road from the trenches.
The bullet had struck him on the back of
the left hand, and was still buried in the
fleshy part of one of his fingers. It was
evidently fired from some distance and was
nearly spent when it struck him. The gen
eral agreed to go to the front, but would
not be responsible for our safety. It was
very dangerous, he said, and the trip would
have to be made at our own risk.
With this understanding a fresh start was
made, through the drenching rain, toward
the first trench, about three-quarters of a
mile farther on. The roadway was lined on
either side with dripping mango and bamboo
trees, and there was a string of pools stand
ing in the roadway. An occasional shct was
heard either up the road or else to our left.
After a ride of half a mile we reached the
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
DECK WATCH ON A VESSEL OF DEWEY'S FLEET HAILING SMALL BOAT AT NIGHT.
first line of trenches. A heavy barricade had
been built in the roadway, and a long trench
about four feet deep, with dirt banked up
on the enemy's side, ran at right angles from
this barricade. A few native Nipa huts were
clustered along the road, and about fifty or
sixty soldiers were lounging behind the bar
ricade or scattered along under the eaves of
the huts. As the general approached the
insurgents presented arms. Here were two
of the guns that had come from Cavite, and
the trees above the trenches and barricade
were mowed down by the shells that had
swept through them during the preceding
three or four nights. Nearly every one of
the huts showed signs of the enemy's fire,
but there was nothing to indicate that it had
damaged anything besides the trees and
houses. It had been reported in Cavite that
forty men had been killed along this road
three nights before, while they were moving
forward the two guns, but the insurgents de
nied this and said that only one had been
killed. At intervals along the trench there
were little shelters, like lean-tos, propped up
against the embankment of the trench.
Whenever the rain becomes too severe the
men take refuge in these rickety shelters.
A few mats and blankets and several sleep
ing soldiers showed how they improved every
moment when the fighting was not too severe
for repose.
The last trench is about 200 or 300 yards
farther on, and it is necessary to walk along
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
237
the road approaching Malate to reach that
defense. This is considered the most dan
gerous stretch, for it is in easy range of the
Spaniards, and, although a fringe of trees
partially hides a man walking, the Spanish
fire either a shell or a volley every half-hour
or so down this road, in the hope of catching
some insurgents who are exposed. When we
started down this road the general called us
back and advised that no attempt be made
to approach any nearer the Spanish trenches
than we were.
At this time there was no firing except an
occasional shot from the trench where we
then were, but nearer the water's edge. Two
or three soldiers started down the road to
the farther trench, and it could be seen that
they did not draw any shots toward them,
and it was assumed that Gen. Mariana, in
his desire to prevent the possibility of our
being shot, had exaggerated the danger. So
we started down the road and reached the
second and last barricade safely. The gen
eral had remained behind. The roadway here
was barricaded in a similar way as it was in
the trench we had just left. A few soldiers,
hardly more than 100, were behind the barri
cade and in one or two shelters that were in
the trench oft' to the left. As we approached
they lined up and presented arms and sa
luted the general's aid, Capt. Guzman, who
had come with us. Among the trees and al
most hidden on the side facing the Spanish
position was a crib or fortification about
twenty-five feet long, made of bamboo poles
and packed in with dirt. There were two or
three open spaces left for the cannon, which
were to be brought on and placed in position
the following day. This rudely constructed
but effective protection is about nine feet
high and eight feet tbrck. By standing on it
and looking through the screen of foliage the
fort and guns of Malate are distictly visible.
The Spanish trenches could also be seen, 200
yards aw-ay and partially hidden by a row of
trees. According to the statement of a Span
ish soldier who deserted and joined the rebels
the night before there are 240 Spaniards in
trenched in this ditch. When the insurgents
have mounted their guns at the point where
they have built their earthwork shield it will
be possible to pour a fearful weight of metal
against the fort at Malate, for the Spanish
fort is only 1,000 yards away.
During the day there is only a scattering
fire between the two forces, and the Fili
pinos move heedlessly about from one part
of the trenches to another, absolutely ex
posing themselves. As the trench is half
filled with water they frequently walk boldly
from one shelter along the side of the
trench to the next shelter. The constant
presence of danger and a contempt for Span
ish marksmanship have made them indiffer
ent to the peril of showing themselves. From
the fort to the shelter at the trench is a
distance of fifty feet, and to get down to the
edge of the bay it is necessary to walk either
in the half-filled trench or along the exposed
edge of it. There were several insurgents
walking along in apparent unconcern, and
so we struck out from the friendly protec
tion of the barricade, walked across the
open field and wondered just when the shoot
ing would begin. The soldiers behind the
barricaded shelter, which was first reached,
arose and saluted, and tnen dropped down
again. Up to this time there had not been
a shot fired from the Spanish trench, and we
walked along the edge of the ditch down to
ward where the trees fringe the beach. When
we reached here it was noticed that there
was a good deal more caution. The insur
gents were careful not to expose themselves
and advised us to take off the white hats
which we wore. By stooping low the water's
edge was reached, and a clear view of the
end of the Spanish trench could be ob
tained.
It is probable that a glimpse of our move
ments was had by the Spaniards, for there
was a rifle shot from their position and a bul
let struck a bamboo tree just a few feet from
where we were crouching. This was the only
shot that came in our direction, but there
were several fired by the insurgents in
trenched behind us in the first ditch. These
shots were fired over our heads and along the
stretch of beach. Just back of the trench
where we were is the house formerly occu
pied by an Englishman named McCloud, now
entirely empty, except for a piano. The
walls are simply peppered with bullet holes
and it. is no exaggeration to say that there
is not a square yard of the entire building
that has not been penetrated by a Mauser
bullet. The piano is full of boles. As the
walls are thin the bullets have passed clean
through the four walls of the house, with
hardly any decrease of velocity or force. This
house has come in dirr jt range of most of
the furious volley firing of the Spanish, and
the balls, passing over the trench, have
struck the house, showing more than any
other evidence what a.i enormous number of
shots have been fired l.y the Spaniards.
Over beyond the insurgent trench is a
house formerly occupied by an order of Capu
chin padres. It is now deserted, the priests
having fled to a safer place. When we left
the English house there was again that
nerve-trying walk across the open field. Gen.
Mariana was at the gun barricade to meet
us, he having come up in the meantime from
the second line of trenches. There were
several shots fired from heavy guns over far
ther to the southeast and we were told that
these were the cannon firing on Pineda. The
trees around the insurgent barricades were
slashed by shells, and the foliage .showed
where many a shot had ripped through, cut
ting swaths of leaves away and breaking
down the bamboo stems.
When we arrived at the second line on our
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SLEEPING ROOM IN SPANISH COMMANDER'S HOUSE, CAVITE, SHOWING EFFECTS OF
DEWEY'S SHELLS.
way back the insurgents were engaged in
preparing to move the heavy guns down that
fearful strip of road to the barricade built at
the advanced trench.
The insurgents claim to have 1,300 troops
near Malate, but there were hardly more
than 200 in or near the trenches. In Pineda
there were probably 100. While we were
there two companies of about 100 each ar
rived from Santa Cruz, where they had been
fighting. A number of soldiers were seen in
the roads and houses along the way, but,
taken as a whole, I do not think the total
number more than 600. It is probable that
many of them go to their homes for rest in
the daytime and go to the front at night.
Assuming this to be true, it may be that
the insurgent force available numbers 1,000.
Very few of them are drilled or disciplined,
but they seem to love to fight and in their
way of fighting are effective soldiers. There
is no order in their work. Every man fires
when he feels like it and it is probable he
may fire cften when there isn't a Spaniard
showing above the trench, just for the moral
effect and to hear his rifle go off.
In the evening Gen. Mariana entertained us
here at his house in Paranaque. The simple
people of the town are immensely fond of
Americans just now and there are throngs
who greet us at every side with "Vive Amer
icanos" and friendly smiles.
The news has just come this morning that
an insurgent was shot and killed at the
farthermost trench. He showed himself be
yond the trench on the beach and was in
stantly killed. Another insurgent, in at
tempting to drag in the body, was wounded,
and had to get back to the protection of
the trench without the body. The insur
gents opened fire at once on the Spanish
trench, and claimed to have killed five
Spaniards. The work of moving the two guns
was completed last night, and they are now
safely placed in their positions near the
last trenches.
What seemed most apparent to me when
at the trenches was that the Spaniards
could easily storm the insurgents out of
their positions, although at a cost of a good
many lives. As it is, however, the Spaniards
are acting on the defensive. They have no
object except to prevent a further advance
of the insurgents toward Manila. Malate
is the last position standing between Manila
and the rebels. When that falls the rebels
can mount their own guns in the fort and
shell the city. The Spaniards are in bad
condition and have no heart in the fight,
but their pride stands in the way of their
surrendering the last outpost to Aguinaldo's
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
239
A ROOM IN THE COMMANDANTE'S HOUSE, CAVITE, WHERE ONE OF DEWEY'S SHELLS
STRUCK.
men unless there ceases to be any hope of
holding it.
In the insurgent headquarters at Pineda
there was a Spanish soldier who had de
serted from Malate to join the rebels. He
had just come in the night before. Accord
ing to his story, which was unreserved to
the extent of being garrulous, there were
a great number of the Spanish privates who
had been so brutally treated by the of
ficers that they were constantly looking for
a chance to escape. He himself had been
struck by an officer and reduced from the
rank of corporal to that of private. He
gave his name as Manuel Rodiroso B>ages,
and said he belonged to the 13th infantry. He
wore the Spanish uniform, but his chevrons
had been torn >away. He did not want to
join the insurgents, because he didn't wish
to fight against his fellow-soldiers, but he
expressed an eagerness to kill as many
Spanish officers as he could.
He said that in the Spanish ranks there
was a general expectation that the Filipinos
and the Americans would be at war before
long, and there was also a belief that Ger
many would help out the Spaniards. He
made the remarkable statement that the Ger
mans had brought into Manila two rapid-
fire guns and 250 bags of flour. The guns
came in packed with pieces of furniture
and were given over to the Spanish authori
ties. The flour was brought in a little at a
time, so that the attention of the other
warships would not be drawn to it. It was
generally believed among the Spanish sol
diers, he said, that Germany would fly her
flag in various parts of Manila and forbid a
bombardment. The Spanish force in Manila,
as he gave it, is 10,000. Of these 5,000 are
Spanish regulars, 1,500 are on the sick list,
1,500 are native volunteers, and 3,000 are
Spanish volunteers. This statement corre
sponds so closely to other reports that have
come from authentic sources that it is be
lieved he was telling the truth in this
particular at least. The soldiers are expect
ing a Spanish fleet here soon and there was
a supposition that it was coming around Cape
Horn. He substantiated the report that Capt.-
Gen. August! had been displaced in military
command by the second in rank, Col. Fer-
min Guadenez, who wa$ in favor of fighting
it out to the bitter end. It has been posted
in the soldiers' quarters that five battalions
were on their way to Manila, these being
from Madrid, Vittoria, Barcelona, Valencia
and Burgos, respectively.
In reply to a question regarding German
officers having been paying visits to the
Spanish trenches and fortifications, he re
plied that the story was true. Officers from
the German warships had been frequently
seen in the fort at Malate and had even
been in the intrenchments. This story is
now believed to be true, as it has come
in the same form from three different
'240
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
A TRIP TO MORRO CASTLE
BY HOWBEBT BILLMAN.
At Santiago, as at Havana, it is about the
old ruins of Morro castle that the imagina
tion of the Americans has been most ac
tive. They have stood for the gloomy mys
tery of the inquisition and torture and typi
fied the centuries of oppression for which we
persuade ourselves we are making Spain
pay the penalty. In short, Morro represents
all the crimes of which we are pleased to
believe our enemy stands accused before the
world, and to the romantically inclined is
symbolical of that nation's departed glory.
Bearing these things in mind, I used the
But the promenade was always deserted
when we passed. Only a few sailors from
the docks a few yards away walked about
idly, and when we spoke to them they re
turned our "bueno dios" with broad grins.
They were the few lucky fellows who sur
vived the destruction of Cervera's fleet.
Leaving the city behind in the hollow of
the hills by the seashore, we pushed on up
the first ascent toward the blockhouse that
guarded the entrance to the town by the
Morro road. It stands at the summit of a
barren hill many feet above the highest
MORRO CASTLE AND ESTRELLA BATTERY— SANTIAGO.
first opportunity after the city of Santiago
was opened to make a visit to Morro. It is
a long ride along a mountainous trail that
climbs over the hills at the east side of the
harbor, but the view extends to the right
and left and behind far away to the dim,
blue background of the Sierra Madras moun
tains. Every object in the landscape I had
marked before from another viewpoint. The
blockhouses upon the tops of the hills, the
abandoned lookouts and signal stations, even
the little villas left alone among groves of
cocoanut palms, looked familiar; but the pic
tures were none the less interesting.
The road to Morro leaves Santiago on the
water front at the foot of a boulevard about
300 feet wide, and the only thoroughfare in
the whole place entitled to a name better
than alley. Rows of trees divide driveways
and paths for pedestrians, and at either end
is a pavilion for a band of musicians. Here
the wealth and beauty of Santiago show
themselves on Thursday and Saturday after
noons, the time when fashion decrees San
tiago may come out in its best gowns.
point in the city. Possibly this is the site of
that first fort that Columbus built and gar
risoned with thirteen men "famous for valor
and probity," and whose graves he found
green upon his return.
Beyond this hill the road dips toward the
valley in which the Juragua Iron company,
an institution owned by Pennsylvania capi
tal, has its docks, warehouses and the termi
nus of its railroad from Siboney. The
Yankees were not slow in asserting their
ownership and are already operating the line.
However, their pretty little cottages on the
hills above, formerly built for their employes,
are now occupied by vagabond Cubans.
From this point on the road winds over
hills that are barren of any but rugged
mountain vegetation. As it advances it be
comes rougher, and in places my mule, a
faithful and surefooted native of the island,
had to pick his way through the rocky wash
outs with painful care.
At length we reached the hill above the
historic castle. Oddly enough, one comes to
Morro by way of the roof. But the road,
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
241
which is here a bcoad level way hewn from
the rock, leads around it on the north, wind
ing downward close to the western side on
the steep declivity that forms the eastern
shore of the narrow entrance and arrives at
the castle gateway through a dismantled
lodge that seems to nestle in the face of the
rock like a swallow's nest.
Leaving the mule outside, I crawled
through this dismantled gateway and reached
a broad winding stairway that rises here
along the outer face of the promontory to
ward the main portions of the castle above.
These stairs may have been once a fine
specimen of masonry, but how long ago I
have been unable to learn. They are crumbled
now under the weight and wear of the ele
ments, and only a few stones here and there
along the ascent remain of what was a great
winding balustrade. Where it bends from
the lodge below, and again above where it
turns into the main entrance to the castle, it
spreads out into a broad promenade overlook
ing the sea. Towering above are the blank
walls, with only small grated windows at ir
regular intervals to interrupt the gray,
prison-like monotony. Where they break the
skyline they are straight and fiat. At the
seaward exposure a tower once stood, but
this fell to dust when struck by a small shot
from the Brooklyn. One of the lower walls is
ornamented by two round sentry towers,
now in ruins, and upon the highest point of
the main wall are two embrasures for can
non. One old brass piece of the last century
still points its muzzle skyward from a bat
tered parapet like a blind eye.
The interior of the castle would, I doubt
not, be very interesting if one had a tutor in
the history chronicled in its scarred and bat
tered stones. I am not even informed how
many years old this structure is. And yet
there are in these damp, cell-like chambers
the possibilities of centuries of human suffer
ing. Some go down into the jaws of the sea,
where are slimy lizards and all the foul ex
cretion of darkened water. From above they
seem like black pits out of which comes an
unearthly roar, the drumming of subter
ranean waves upon the hollow walls.
The chambers above were only less in
viting, though most of them were dry, in
spite of the fact that sunlight had never en
tered them except for the few seconds that
the sun's slanting rays fell into the little
windows. One of the highest and most sani
tary was occupied by the crew of the Merri-
mac. They might have been worse accom
modated. And yet these were narrow quar
ters for nine men, and no wonder if the
hardy, active fellows of the sea grew thin and
pale for want of air and exercise.
But one chamber within the castle is a
counterpart of all. They differ only in de
grees of filth and loathsomeness. The fresh
air from the sea is much more wholesome,
and as for myself, having suffered severely
from short rations and protracted labor in
field and camp, a very short visit sufficed.
A tedious ride through the heavy, tropical
damp of the early night brought me back to
our little camp, where beans boiled in onions
after a manner much praised by our Cuban
man-of-all-work awaits us, the best reward
available for tired and hungry men.
TYPES OF SPANISH PRISONERS.
BY KEXXETT F. HARRIS.
Judged by Mr. Lillyvick's standard, Span
ish is not "a cheerful language." Its accents
as spoken by the prisoners at Siboney are to
the full as doleful and despondent as those
of 'the French captives at Spithead soirj led Ha
the ears of Mrs. Kenwig's uncle, the collector.
It is only by a strong effort of the imagina
tion that one can associate the tongue with
love and chivalry and bacchanalian ditties
after standing for ten minutes by the puson
pen. It seems rather fitted for funer-il ora
tions and translations of Schopenhauer.
There are 150 at least of the late defenders
of Santiago huddled up within a four-strand
barb-wire inclosure a fewhundred yards from
the hospital, and the number is increasing
hourly. They are beginning to come in volun
tarily now, some who were taken in the at
tacks on El Caney 'and who were exchanged
escaping from their own lines and seeking
captivity as other men might seek freedom.
Captivity means to them safety and three
meals a day, whereas within the city or in
its defensive trenches they might get one
meal and they might not; while, if they take
to the woods, there the Cubans await them,
cheerfully anxious to carve them into little
pieces. If their generals choose to conduct
themselves like triple pigs and mules that
reason not, they say, it is well for them. It
is not hard to be defiant with champagne
and flesh to drink and ea.t daily, as these
gold-lace ones have, but with two ounces of
those accursed lentils and four ounces of
the rice bread it is different.
They are little men and lithe for the most
part, these Spanish prisoners, with closely
cropped hair and skins varying from a light
olive tint to a jet black, for there are many
negroes among them. Their hats are of
242
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ADMIRAL CERVERA, COMMANDING THE SPANISH FLEET IN WEST INDIAN WATERS.
coarse straw ornamented by a dingy cockade
of red and yellow, and their uniform consists
of a blue and white striped blouse and
trousers of light cotton material. Many of
them are without shoes, and their uniforms
are generally ragged and dirty. A company
of the 33d Michigan is keeping watch and
ward over them, but their task seems to be
an easy one, and the sentries yawn drowsily
as they pace to and fro. There may be some
in the lounging, hopeless-looking crowd who
would like to make a bold dash for liberty,
but it is doubtful if there are. They seem
to regard the stalwart proportions of the
Michigan men with simple wonder. "It is no
marvel that you succeed," they tell them;
"you are so big." So, too, they compare the
American horses with the little fox-terriers
their own cavalry bestride, and again they
find justification for their position.
Generally the prisoners seem content to lie
basking in the sun, though that is hardly
a matter of choice, for there is no shade in
their 100 feet square of space for them to
lie in. Some of them are stretched out on
their backs, their hats tilted over their eyes,
sleeping so soundly that the long-bodied,
agile ants, scurrying and dodging about over
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
243
RUINS OF ANCIENT SPANISH FORT-SIBONEY, CUBA.
their faces, hardly make the muscles twitch.
One or two groups have packs of cards —
quaint, gayly painted pasteboards of unrec
ognizable suits, with full-length figures in
baggy breeches and flowing gowns for the
"pictures." They play for coffee beans, and
some of the lucky gamblers have won enough
for a brewing — veritable "pots" — but there
are apparently no funny situations in the
game and no exaltation over a winning.
There are little circles standing or lounging
about as they talk, and their conversations
or discussions are usually animated — fiercely
so at times — and there is abundance of ve
hement gesticulation, but there is never a
laugh.
Near the gate a sturdy, dark-skinned
Basque is washing a shirt, which he pulls
dripping from the old gunpowder can that
serves him for a washtub and surveys with
a bitterly vindictive expression as a shirt re
sponsible for all his misfortunes. Then he
grasps the garment with sudden and savage
energy and wrings it as though it were a
neck. Close by him is a lad of 19 or 20 years
of age, who sits with 'his chin buried in his
hands, gazing vacantly and miserably before
him. His features are pinched with famine
or weakness, or both, and he shivers from
time to time, though in the full glare of the
sun. The Basque shakes out his shirt and
sprinkles him with water, but he does not
notice it. His eyes still stare blankly over
the white line of breakers and into the blue
of sea and sky beyond.
Moodiness, melancholy, despair or anger is
on every face. Four strands of barb wire
surely never fenced in so much gloom before.
Not all of the prisoners can pass the time
as they please within the inclosure. Woe to
the vanquished! They must work. Fifty of
them, divided into sullen squads of ten, each
squad guarded by two vigilant privates with
loaded rifles, are policing the village. With
rakes and shovels they are gathering up the
decaying refuse that the livid land crabs
have proved unequal to, raking and scraping
the foul accumulation of years of Cuban neg
lect into loathsome heaps, presently to be
burned, with a stench indescribable and
abominable. The Cubans, when requested
to perform some light and agreeable task
for the accommodation or assistance of their
American saviors, often respond with more
or less hauteur that they are not servants,
porters or hospital attendants, as the case
may be, but fighters. It is generally admitted
by our men that the Spaniards are fighters-T
in their poor, weak way — so that it is quite
likely that they object to becoming scav
engers, Spanish pride being no less than
Cuban pride. This may account for the
gloom.
However, the work is a necessity, and if
the Spanish prisoners were not available it
is certain that the Cu'ban "fighter" could not
be induced to undertake it — he would sooner
have yellow fever — so that the task would
devolve upon Private Thomas Americanus.
Moreover, it is more disagreeable than ardu-
244
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ous, and though it may hurt Castilian pride
a little it raises no blisters.
Then there is the all-compensating ration
— the full ration as issued to the American
soldier — corned beef, bacon, hardtack, sugar
and coffee to repletion or to something very
near it. Small wonder that the half-starved
wretches declined to be exchanged.
The presence of the Spanish in this partic
ular situation is evidently a source of high
gratification to the insurgent soldiery, though
it is evident that they do not approve of the
consideration with which the prisoners tire
treated. They are not allowed by the guards
to approach the inclosure or to annoy their
former oppressers in any way that can be
prevented, but they make the most of their
privilege of gazing from afar. It is a huge
joke for these black men. It is good to see
the Spaniards work, they tell each other.
Still, there might be better things. A black
Hercules, his polished shoulders and brawny
arms glistening through the wide meshes of
his undershirt, pokes a Michigan boy in the
ribs, jerks his thumbs over in the direction
of the pen, grins, and makes believe to sever
his jugular in eloquent pantomime. He seems
rather astonished when the Michigan boy
walks on with no further response than a
look of profound disgust.
Back of the inclosure and 'half way up the
hillside a blockhouse has been converted into
a hospital for the Spanish wounded. There
are seven of them in there now under the
personal charge of Dr. Lesser, who pours
carbolized balm and sterilized oil into their
hurts with an unsparing hand. It is touching
to witness the expression of surprise and
gratitude on their wasted and pain-drawn
faces when they realize for the first time that
they are not going to be slaughtered, but
cared for with skill and kindness. On the
whole they are more cheerful in the block
house than in the inclosure below — which
is to say they are occasionally cheerful.
HEROES WHO SHOVELED COAL.
BY RICHARD LEE FEARN.
That a man's enemies are sometimes
"they of his own household" finds apt
illustration in the severe conditions which
surround, in their own vessels, the gal
lant defenders of our flag on southern
seas, in blockade duty off Cuba, at Puer
to Rico and even in the Philippines. To
the flood of heat poured down by tropic sun
there are added the temperatures, almost
beyond belief and seemingly beyond human
endurance, produced by the roaring furnaces
in the firerooms. One of our war poets, in
describing the fierce rigor of the stoker's
toil, has written:
"While the fighting fierce is waging
And the cannon overhead
With their screaming shells the enemy surround,
To the stoker down below
Not a word is ever said:
To his ear is borne no echo of the sound,
When they open wide his door
Down below;
And they cry, 'Your work is o'er,
Down below!'
There they find him weakly lying
- On a pile of coal and crying
Out in madness, for he's dying
Down below."
Poetic license has made the description
somewhat strong, and yet its story seems not
wholly romance when we read the following
extract from a naval officer's letter home
with regard to one of our monitors:
"The scene in the fireroom thnt morning was not
of this earth and far beyond description. The
heat was almost destructive to life; tools, lad-
dors, doors and all fittings were too hot to touch,
and the place was dense with smoke escaping from
furnace duors, for there was absolutely no draft.
The men collected to build up the lires were toe
best of those remaining fit for duty, but they were
worn out physically, were nervous, apprehensive
and dispirited. Rough, tough Irish firemen, who
would stand in a fair fight until killed in their
tracks were crying like children and begging to be
allowed to go on deck, so completely were they un
nerved and unmanned by the cruel ordeal they had
endured so long. 'Hell afloat' is a nautical figure
of speech often idly used, but then we saw it."
It is both just and pleasant to announce
that before this ironclad, the Amphitrite,
began her service in the existing war changes
were made in her ventilating system which
gave a marked improvement in the tempera
ture below. Her latest reports give the al
most frigid temperatures for her of 120 de
grees Fahrenheit in the engine room and 148
degrees in the fireroom. The monitors es
pecially are sinners with regard to excessive
heat, which may be regarded as almost an
element of their being and of service upon
these low-lying 'bulldogs of the sea. The
figures for the Amp'hitrite have been quoted.
The latest temperatures reported from her
sister, the Terror, are 155 degrees in the fire-
room and 140 degrees in the engine room,
while on the Miantonomoh these tempera
tures are, respectively, 149 degrees and 138
degrees. A bare recital of these facts gives
but scant idea of the steadfast fortitude of
our men "under the tropic," of the heroic re
sistance with which Anglo-Saxon and Amer
ican human nature is opposing in this war
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
COALING A WARSHIP.
[From a photograph by William Schraedtgen.]
to the adverse conditions which environ it.
It is, however, not only the men behind
the furnace fire who suffer. The "man be
hind the gun" toils also in the sweat of his
brow, bathed in the tropic heat, with reck
less courage and in "sunburnt mirth," to
prove, in this war for humanity's sake, that
"Our country is the world; our countrymen
are all mankind."
The commander of one of our monitors,
who, it is sad to say, was later stricken by
apoplexy, arising doubtless from his ardu
ous service, reported some months since
that his ship was almost unbearable for her
crew; that there was no place on her for
weary men to rest. With the sun's rays from
above and the roaring fires beneath, her deck
was but an oven plate, which, it is true,
supported her crew, but only in the ever-
changing attitudes of the traditional "hen
on a hot griddle." Without a superstruc
ture to interpose a blanket of air between
them and the baking deck, their suffering
was something which the layman in naval
matters cannot measure. The conductivity
of the hull carries the heat into the living
quarters of the officers as well. It is re
ported that the chief engineer of the Terror
was able but twice in fifteen months to
sleep in his berth, owing to the unendurable
temperature of his room.
On our battleships life is more worth liv
ing. They have greater freeboard, are loftier
between decks, have a superstructure be
tween the turrets, and, finally, the mistaken
policy which has restricted their speed has
limited also their engine power and the num
ber and volume of their furnace fires. As a
result there is, relatively speaking, less heat
to be conducted through a greater mass,
with, as a consequence, a lower temperature
throughout. Even in these ships, however,
the spectacle is daily presented of the blowers
pumping "cooling" air at a temperature of
100 degrees into the firerooms.
The greatest terror of our navy, calorically
speaking, is the cruiser Cincinnati. In his
report for the year 1895 the surgeon-general
of the navy referred to this ship as follows:
"In the firercoms the average temperature
under the above conditions [badly arranged
and closed ships] may range from 124 degrees
in ships, with onlv one set of fires in each
fireroom, like the Charleston, to 189 degrees
[within 23 degrees of the boiling point of
246
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
water], when the fireroom is between two
sets of fires, like the Cincinnati and Amphi-
trite. In the case of the Cincinnati, when
only one set of fires is used in each fire-
room, the average temperature is reduced
from 181) degrees to 159 degrees."
These, it should be noted, were the tem
peratures of "ordinary cruising conditions,"
with all possible done to reduce them. Since
the balmy days of peace have passed, this
ship has shown what she is capable of, in
registering a temperature of 205 degrees, or
seven degrees from the boiling point, in the
fireroom — a fact easily explainable when one
notes that she has 10,000 horse power on a
displacement of 3,213 tons, was at full speed
in a tropic sea and is inadequately venti
lated. She is now undergoing repairs at
Norfolk, and it is hoped that before her prow
again cleaves blue water means of lowering
her excessive temperatures will be found.
In reviewing not only the dangers in ac
tion, but the absolute suffering in the long
days between, which our seamen, both of the
fireroom and turret, endure, the nation may
well be proud of the stern and steadfast men
who drive to victory our floating fortresses of
the sea.
LOG OF THE DISPATCH BOAT HERCULES.
BY HENRY BARRETT CHAMBERLIN.
After a cruise of 110 days, during which
has been witnessed the destruction of Ad
miral Cervera's fleet, the bombardment and
capitulation of Santiago and the capture of
Puerto Rico, the Hercules is again safe in the
harbor of original clearance. Since starting
on her mission of news gathering THE REC
ORD'S dispatch boat has traveled 35,000 miles,
has entered twenty-one ports, circumnavi
gating the West Indies, entering harbors in
Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, St.Thomas
and Santa Cruz. The routes of Columbus
during his first and second voyages of dis
covery have been sailed over, two hurricanes
have been weathered, and a more extended
view of the war, afloat and ashore, has been
obtained than has fallen to the lot of any
sailor or soldier in the service of the United
States.
From beginning to end the cruise of the
Hercules has teemed with interest. She was
the one fortunate newspaper boat to be
"mixed up" in the great sea fight of July
3, at which time she was the first boat fired
upon by the Spanish flagship Infanta Maria
Teresa when Admiral Cervera emerged from
the harbor of Santiago. She remained in the
fight from first to last. She had the honor
of being saluted for bravery by three cruisers
and five battleships of the United States
navy. She had the distinction of being first
to meet the truceboat Colon when it came
from Santiago harbor with word from Ad
miral Cervera to Admiral Sampson that Hob-
son and the heroes of the Merrimac were
safe. She was the first to meet Gen. Shaf-
ter's transports arriving off the Cuban coast
and to send the news of the arrival to the
United States. She was the first to file the
story of the first bombardment of Santiago.
She was the first newspaper boat to carry of
ficial dispatches of Admiral Sampson and
file them for transmission to the secretary
of the navy. Perhaps more important than
all, she was the .first to cruise close to the
mouth of Santiago harbor after the Spanish
squadron had entered and before Commo
dore (now Rear-Admiral) Schley arrived with
his blockading fleet.
The Hercules took Gen. Miles' first dis
patches from Ponce, Puerto Rico, and filed
them at St. Thomas for transmission to the
secretary of war. She also brought the first
cable operators from St. Thomas and Santa
Cruz to Ponce and word was sent over the
restored line to THE CHICAGO RECORD in ad
vance of any government business.
When the cruiser Columbia went aground
in the harbor of Ponce, the Hercules, in
company with the cruiser Cincinnati, as
sisted the big vessel from her dangerous
position. She was also instrumental in sav
ing several barges of ammunition which had
got adrift and were being swept into the
breakers that surged against the little island
guarding the entrance to the harbor.
Not only has the Hercules performed its
functions as a newspaper dispatch boat, but
she has added her mite in many other
ways toward the success of the American
arms. She has assisted in the landing of
soldiers in Cuba and Puerto Rico. She has
carried food to the starving Cubans. She
has brought information of the movements
of the enemy to naval and army officers and
has carried dispatches and provisions to the
vessels of the fleet at times when it was
inexpedient for armed craft flying the stars
and stripes to enter neutral ports.
The Hercules has also created a precedent
in international law and established the stat
us of newspaper dispatch boats in time of
war. She first entered the harbor of Port
Antonio, Jamaica, being held there three
days for a ruling as to her privileges, the
question raised being of sufficient importance
for reference to her majesty's government at
London before a decision was reached.
With the exception of the lifeboat shot to
pieces by a shell from the Spanish cruiser Al-
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
241
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S DISPATCH BOAT HERCULES.
mirante Oquendo, the loss of a foremast
caused by fouling with a transport, and the
carrying away of a bit of rail during a slight
collision with a warship at sea, when all
lights were extinguished, the boat has suf
fered no material damage. The health of the
crew has been remarkable, the most serious
accident being a fractured limb sustained by
a deck hand. Despite the hard service re
quired on war assignment, the discipline has
been good, and, while other newspaper boats
have lost their crews and been "tied up" for
days at a time, the Hercules has kept her
engagements with remarkable regularity.
One desertion is recorded in the log and one
mutiny by a few men who objected to hard
service in the tropics. These difficulties were
quickly overcome, however, and the boat
kept available for duty at a time when dis
patch boats were being incapacitated and two
had gone ashore as hopeless wrecks.
The log of the Hercules begins with the
entry of Wednesday, May 11, and ends to
day, and tells the story of the cruise in sailor
fashion. It was kept according to the re
quirements of the United States marine law
by First Officer Robert P. B. Moon, whose
nautical entry on the day of the fight of the
American and Spanish fleets off Santiago is
as follows:
"Sunday. July 3, 1898, came in fine and
clear, with fresh wind from the southeast.
Arrived at Guantanamo at 1:30 a. m. and
left again for fleet off Santiago at 2 a. m.,
arriving there at 4:45 a. m. Spoke battleship
Oregon at 7:15 a. m. At 9 a. m. we saw the
Spanish fleet coming out of Santiago har
bor. The Gloucester, with us, was lying
close in and discovered them about the same
time. She opened fire on the cruisers amid a
shower of shells from the Spanish fleet and
land batteries. The cruisers ran away from
her to the westward and she turned her
guns on the two remaining torpedo boats.
The Spanish cruisers were overtaken by our
ships, consisting of the flagship Brooklyn,
battleships Iowa, Texas, Oregon and Indi
ana, which engaged them in battle, while
the Gloucester took on the torpedo boats.
She got a position between the two and in
thirty minutes had them destroyed, driving
one ashore and the other surrendering, this
blowing up about 10:30 a. m. The Spaniards
were steaming to the westward at full speed,
firing all the time, with our ships in full
pursuit, they firing broadsides at short range.
The retreating enemy was cut off by the
Iowa, hemmed in on all sides by our ships
and destroyed by heavy firing. Endeavor
ing to escape and keep from sinking, the
Spaniards ran their ships ashore, boilers and
magazines exploding from the fierce fire
248
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
SHIP'S COMPANY. THE CHICAGO RECORD'S DISPATCH BOAT HERCULES.
which was raging in the after quarters. At
11:30 a. m. the Vizcaya exploded. At 12 pa.
the Oquendo did the same. At 12:30 the
Cristobal Colon was out of it, and thus ended
a glorious victory for Commodore Schley.
The New York did not take part in the fight
until after the Spaniards had surrendered.
She only fired two shells during the time, and
they were at the torpedo boats which the
Gloucester had conquered. We lay close in
and saw the whole fight, being the only
newspaper boat on the firing line. We were
threatened by shells from the battery west of
Santiago and had several narrow escapes. At
12:45 p. m. we were signaled by the ammuni
tion boat Resolute, saying we should follow
her, as there was a Spanish ship after the
transports. We did so and came up with the
[ndiana, which proceeded to investigate, and
found that it was an Austrian battleship.
We could not make out her name. We
started for Guantanamo to file our dis
patches of the battle, arriving at 4:50 p. m.
Could not file, so left for Port Antonio, ar
riving at 5:30 a. m."
The log of the Hercules is not intended as
a story, but is kept merely for the purpose
of informing boarding officers of its where
abouts, so that they may judge whether or
not it is entitled to entry and clearance
privileges. The quotations given are for the
purpose of showing a sailorman's matter-of-
fact idea of the fight which startled the
world. In the log are suggestions for many
stories, some heroic, some pathetic, some
humorous, among the latter being the first
visit to Mole St. Nicholas, Haiti, when the
comic-opera standing armyof the queer black
republic turned out to welcome THE REC
ORD'S correspondent as he went ashore to file
dispatches and returned the courtesy extend
ed by the governor-general through the pres
entation, after an elaborate speech, which was
not understood, of twenty-five pounds of
salt pork, two pounds of beans and some
canned fruits.
But the side lights only serve to bring into
bolder relief the terrible picture of war, with
the destruction of a great fleet in the center
of the canvas, the Caribbean sea receiving
the dead bodies of hundreds of men slaugh
tered, while ashore a thousand graves tell the
story of the cost of liberty.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
249
LIFE ON THE YALE.
BY JAMES TAFT HATFIELD.
The Yale has had a place right at the front i
during the descent upon Puerto Rico, particu
larly because she has had on board the major-
general of the army. She also carried the 6th
Massachusetts regiment and some Illinois
troops.
It was like being set free from prison to
leave the harbor of Guantanamo, where we
had lain for four hot, monotonous, trying
days, not being allowed to visit the shore, and
only partly relieved by the view of the beauti
ful bay itself, with its unsurpassed assembly
of fighting ships — including the squadron fit
ting out for the cruise to Spain — the Cuban
camp, flying the single star of the revolution
ists, at the water's edge and the fort of the
marines on a hilltop near by. What the wear
ing effect of waiting day after day in this
way must be upon men who have had only
this as their share of "glorious war" I could
well imagine, though I must say it contained
possibilities which we had only begun to ex
ploit. To endure this cheerfully month after
month, with no view of military operations
going on; to see rows of buildings on shore
being set fire to because infected with yellow
fever, and to feel that one is exposed to its
ravages; to experience one's nerve and spirits
being gradually "pulled down" under the
blazing sun of midday and the unrefreshing
airs of night — this shows to my mind that
real heroism which is worth more, under the
conditions of modern warfare, than dashing
charges or single heroic exploits.
The best mitigation to this daily depression
was the gloriously refreshing swim in the
sea which was allowed us each night. A vol
unteer crew had charge of the ship's boat,
which circled about to prevent any accident
or desertion. Nobody seemed to fear sharks.
The sapphire waters were as clear as crystal
and unusually briny in this bay, I suppose on
account of the greater evaporation under the
tropical sun. It was entirely practicable to
lie flat and be floated up and down, the most
lulling of all movements. I suppose that 300
sailors and soldiers were in the water on the
same side of the ship at a time, and they
made a curious swarm in it, while swimming
about or struggling for a landing in the
rather high waves at the foot of the gangway;
still more striking was the sight of the ship
as seen from the water as it listed over
toward us, fairly bristling with the brown-
clad troops who were crowding upon that side
to watch the sport.
There were few other things to break the
monotony. One evening the chief petty of
ficers were allowed to take the whaleboat
after swimming was over and pull about
among the men-of-war in the harbor. We
went from one to another and visited, espe
cially with the Oregon and the Newark,
where there were old shipmates of some of
our number, who exchanged experiences
since they had separated. Another evening
a group of Illinois boys got permission to
come over to the Yale from the Oregon and
came on board for awhile to visit. I had the
pleasure of being looked up by one of them
and of getting acquainted with Ward Collins,
whose interesting letters I had already read
with interest, and who impressed me very
pleasantly as a modest young fellow who un
derstands the dignity and meaning of the
service in which he is and respects both it
and himself.
Finally, the last evening we spent at Guan
tanamo there came sailing into the harbor
five fine modern-looking steamers, all flying
the Spanish flag, and having been taken with
the capture of Santiago. There was some
subdued cheering, as though even in the mo
ment of victory there was still a feeling of
consideration for the conquered, but when the
band upon the transport Rita— itself a Span
ish vessel which had been taken by the Yale
on an earlier cruise — began to play "The
Star-Spangled Banner" there was one of
those rare moments in actual warfare In
which the poetic and picturesque outweigh
the uncompromising hard fact.
When on the afternoon of July 21 the
Puerto Rican expedition set out it made a
stately and impressive procession and its
orderly formation was kept up during the
entire voyage. At the head moved the mighty
floating fortress, the Massachusetts, with
Capt. Higginson as senior officer of the ex
pedition. It is the only vessel in the fleet
bearing a conspicuous work of art, and its
noble bronze "Victory" on the forward tur
ret, between the great guns, seemed, like
an avenging angel, to be leading the way
for the oncoming host. At the side of the
Massachusetts, a little in the rear, came the
Gloucester, once Pierpont Morgan's yacht,
the Corsair, and the trim, thoroughbred,
speedy little clipper acted as scout for the
expedition, running ahead or to the rear as
needed, or turning aside from the procession
to overhaul distant ships. Four hundred
yards behind the Massachusetts and 800
yards from each other moved, side by side,
the Yale, and the Columbia, heading the left
and right columns, respectively. Behind us
came in single line the transports Neuces,
Lampasas and Comanche; behind the Co
lumbia were the Specialist, Unionist, Rita
and City of Macon, keeping 400 yards apart.
250
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
Finally, at the very end of the procession,
directly behind the Massachusetts but more
than a mile from it, the cruiser Dixie formed
the rear guard. We passed slowly along the
northern coast of Haiti, running at night
without lights so as to make our coming
entirely unexpected, and on the early morn
ing of July 25, a serene, beautiful day, we
made directly for the port of Guanica, in the
southwest corner of the island.
Not knowing just what might be ahead,
JACKIES OF THE YALE.
we went in fighting shape, the crews stand
ing at their stations by their guns, which
were trained, loaded and ready to fire. The
saucy Gloucester ran ahead of us into the
little harbor, flying an enormous American
flag at her topmast, without stopping to in
quire about batteries or torpedoes. As soon
as she had gotten in she blazed away at
the neighboring woods with shell after shell
in quick succession, driving away what cav
alry there was lurking about and making a
clear landing for the troops, for the inhab
itants of the place had long since taken to
the mountains.
The troops were landed rapidly and the
same night were attacked by the Spaniards,
whose coming was betrayed by the bright
light of the moon. One Illinois boy, whose
place on deck had been just outside my
office door, was killed and several were
wounded, but the enemy were driven back
with heavy loss. The next day we put off
the sick soldiers who had crowded our hos
pital, there being fifty-seven of them, nearly
all sick with typhoid or typhus fever, of
which also had died the soldier whom we
buried at sea with all the solemnity that at
tends a military funeral. It was a great
comfort to see the sick transported to the
Lampasas, which, with its twenty-four
trained nurses in the neatest of costumes,
and with its general appearance of spick-
and-span cleanness, must have been a haven
of rest to the men who had undergone the
passage with us.
If ever the discipline of a voluntary mili
tary organization seemed to break down, it
was in the problem of keeping our ship de
cently clean while on the way to these fever-
stricken coasts. I do not know what efforts
were made, but I do know that the failura
was complete and also that I am coming to
have more and more respect for the high pro
fessional spirit and morale of the regular
service as compared with all popular and
amateur attempts to do a thing by intuition
and under the inspiration of the occasion.
Incidentally, I know of nothing more de-
pressingly amateur than the vulgar criti
cism which is now being heaped upon that
distinguished gentleman, Admiral Sampson,
to whom, by all the facts of navy organiza
tion, is due the credit for the splendid suc
cess of the American campaign at sea. Suf
fice it to say that the troops — who had, it
must be frankly conceded, hardships enough
to contend with — gave up every ordinary ef
fort to maintain a certain degree of decency
and that the ship became daily more and
more a sty. The troops had hardly room in
which to sleep; they were poorly fed and the
only fresh water to be had must be drunk at
the spot out of a chained tin cup, and came
literally hot from the condensers. It is not so
hard to endure inevitable privations, but the
general feeling of the army men was that
the generous purposes of a liberally disposed
government were being frustrated by stu
pidity and mismanagement somewhere and
this sort of thing is always exasperating.
There is always a "bright side of Libby
prison," however, and amid the dirt and ob
scenity with which we were surrounded it
was a pleasure to come to know some of the
best types which the old commonwealth pro
duces, many of them serving iu the ranks as
privates. The various personal histories
lying back of the men in that regiment of
fer a picture of social institutions which
could he reproduced in no foreign country.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
251
Our office was shared with Mr. Butler Ames,
the adjutant of the regiment, whose cour
tesy was always gratifying. There were
men of high talent, culture and wealth. I
enjoyed as much as anything, perhaps, the
excellent part music which could be heard
at night from different quarters of the deck,
with, at times, some which was not so
strictly classic. I am free to confess that I
think 1 can cheerfully go to my grave with
out hearing "Where Is My Wandering Boy
To-Night" again, and "The Banks of the
Wabash" must always hereafter impress me
as trite.
I need hardly add more than to say that
we had a slow and very sultry voyage to New
York and that we are now lying off Staten
island, expecting to be sent to Santiago v/uii
troops, perhaps to-night. I have had a lil-
tle shore leave, though the keeping of the
books upon the subject has not allowed me
much free time. There is every reason to be
lieve that the war is about over and that
home-coming is not to be very long delayed.
FEVER DAYS IN SANTIAGO.
BY MALCOLM McDOWELL.
"Unless the 5th army corps is sent out of
this place before long several thousand men
never will leave it." These words were
spoken by a "major-doctor," whose duty
takes him to all parts of the lines. An of
ficer who is one of Gen. Shafter's military
family overheard the remark. He said: "You
never spoke truer words in your life. If Gen.
Shafter had bis way he would begin shipping
the army north at once. But the people in
Washington seem to think we are immunes,
so far as yellow fever, jungle fever, thermal
fever, breakbone fever, malaria, dysentery,
cholera, dengue fever and homesickness are
concerned. An immune regiment is on its
way to Santiago from New Orleans, other
regiments are coming, and as soon as we ship
the Spanish prisoners the 5th army corps,
with the exception of one or two regular
regiments, will leave for some point in the
United States."
This little bit of conversation is given be
cause the health, or rather the sickness, of
the army is the center of military interest
just now. The "boys are crowding the hos
pitals," the doctors are working overtime
and the commanding officers are anxious.
The fever which is running through the corps
at present does not kill, but it leaves the
men weak, dispirited and open to attack from
diseases which will kill. The sickly season
is rapidly approaching. It will be here in two
weeks, and it will find most of this army of
victors just recovering from the dengue,
breakbone and jungle fevers, which are epi
demic.
While there seems to be some yellow fever,
I have been unable to find it to any alarming
extent. There is no doubt that most of the
men who it is claimed had yellow fever
either bad dengue or aggravated malaria.
Yellow-fever experts here do not agree at all
on the yellow-fever proposition. Some of
them declare yellow fever is increasing and
becoming more virulent; others as em
phatically declare there have been but few
cases of yellow fever, and those were of such
a light, delicate lemon hue that it was a
pleasure to have it. And there you are.
While experts and doctors argue, discuss and
quarrel over "yellow fever or no yellow
fever," the men who took Santiago treat the
scare with silent contempt. They are not
worrying over the prospect of a yellow-fever
epidemic, for the fever which has almost half
the army in its grasp is of the moment. It is
here on the spot, and is gathering in its
victims by the wholesale. The fever runs
from four to seven days, and when it lets go
of a man he is weak, thin-faced and unfit for
duty. I am writing this in a freight shed on
the docks and all around me are men down
with the fever. Yesterday three of them were
removed from the lot, put in a boat and car
ried over to the west side of the bay, where
a yellow-fever camp has been established,
and so skeptical are the soldiers that several
bets of plug tobacco that these "suspects"
will be back ready for duty in less than five
days were offered and no takers.
The 1st Illinois is in good shape; that is
the health of the command is better than
that of other regiments. It is in camp on
the crest of a hill which is above the mist
line of the valleys, and near the camp is a
spring of good water. The Chicago boys
came in time to escape the trench-digging
period and are in better physical condition
to withstand the fever attack than are those
regiments that dug trenches under a tropical
sun. But the 1st Illinois will not escape
the fever; that happy exception is too much
to be expected. There is nothing in this
statement, however, to alarm the mothers,
wives, sweethearts and sisters of the Chi
cago soldiers, for the regiment is actually
in better physical condition than any other
regiment in the corps. It is above the yel
low-fever line, and in a few days will be
quarantined. That is, none will be per-
253
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORI-ES
'WATERING" A UNITED STATES MAN-OF-WAR.
mitted to come to Santiago, and no one from
Santiago will be permitted to pass the line.
Many of the Chicago boys have frankly
confessed they are homesick. It is the
monotony of camp life which is bearing
them down. There is little variety in the
food; none whatever in duties. To-day is
the same as yesterday, and to-morrow will
copy to-day. There is the same burning
sun from 10 to 4 o'clock; the same Novem
ber chill in the early morning hours; the
same suffocating humidity in the afternoon;
the same thunderstorms before evening; the
same round of duties — always the same. The
very sameness is enough to make any man
sigh for 'home and mother," and the Chicago
boys are manly enough to wish from their
hearts they could feel Lake Michigan's cool
afternoon wind bringing life to th^rn; could
mount bicycles and take a moonlight spin
over the boulevards or go out to Lincoln
park, sprawl on the grass of the hill near
the Grant monument, and drink in great, in
vigorating, lung-filling breaths of cool air.
Here is one example which shows the effect
the fever has on commands: Guarding the
docks and freighthouses are companies A
and E of the 9th infantry, with an aggregate
strength of 110 men. Yet only twenty-nine
are able to perform guard duty and half the
twenty-nine "well men" are so weak they
are permitted to sit down at their posts.
Over 30 per cent of the cavalry division is
on the sick list, and it is estimated that over
55 per cent of the entire 5th army corps is
sick, getting sick or just getting well. Men
are walking posts as sentinels with temper
atures as high as 103%, 104, and in one case,
to my personal knowledge, 105.
Talk about the pluck, dash and courage
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
253
which sent our men into the Spanish in-
trenchments; it is nothing to the grit, bull
dog tenacity and American "sand" which
have characterized our boys since the fight
ing ended. Tt takes grit and will power and
nerve to mount guard, and walk your post
with a burning fever which sends your tem
perature up to 105, while every bone in your
body feel3 as though it were breaking and
your head seems to be a lump of burning
coal.
Last night two men came off post and
fainted as soon as they reached the freight-
house. Both men had the fever last week
and were reported "recovered," but they are
down with1 the fever again and are in for
a hard time of it.
The fever does not salute and make way
for shoulder straps. It takes officers of the
line and of the staff, as well as privates and
"non-coms." One regiment has its colonel
two majors, four captains and seven lieuten
ants on the sick returns this morning, and
215 privates and non-commissioned officers.
WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN COfiniSSION.
BY DANIEL VINCENT CASEY.
The navy as well as the army has its Chris
tian commission. A big, square, lightsome
room, set over a grocery shop cheek by jowl
with Commodore Remey's naval stores, fa
cing the foulest barroom in America — that is
the commission's headquarters in Key West.
Sailors, soldiers, marines, drift up and down
its stairs from early morning, lounge the
long afternoons away over the books, the
magazines, the newspapers and writing pads
that hide its long tables, go out reluctantly
into the darkness when the electric lights
wink good-night at 11 o'clock. It is their
one place of refuge in Key West — all the
town seems always on tiptoe to plunder and
degrade them.
It is little more than a month since the
army Christian commission discovered the
navy, but already every jacky in Admiral
Sampson's fleet knows of it, has felt its in
terest in his welfare. No dispatch boat plow
ing down to Santiago with mail for the
fleet but takes a ton or more of newspapers
and magazines to the cr of our battle
ships. There are tracts, too, if one can call
Dwight L. Moody's books tracts, testaments
by the score and an unfailing supply of
hymnbooks, which have our national an
thems sandwiched in between the sacred
songs. The Rev. R. E. Steele, the commis
sion's representative at Key West, has a tes
tament and an "army and navy" hymnbook
for every man in the fleet. He takes many
ways of distributing them. Sometimes they
are tucked away in a workbag full of needle?
and thread, buttons and knickknacks. More
often — for the "housewives" come far more
slowly than the demands for them — they go
out to Sampson's men undisguised, simply
wrapped and stamped with the commission's
name and the legend "For the crew." The
commission is trying to get into touch espe
cially with the sailors aboard the smaller
warships and auxiliary cruisers, which are
without chaplains.
It was Mr. Steele who brought jacky's
wants to the attention of the army Chris
tian commission and induced it to widen
the scope of its work and add "navy" to its
official title. He was director of the Sailors'
Bethel in New Orleans when Sampson donned
warpaint. He had spent the better part of
his life looking after sailors ashore, and
when Key Wect bobbed up as the naval base
of the north Atlantic squadron he deter
mined to come down here and do missionary
JOHN D. LONG.
Secretary of the navy.
work among the men-o'-war's men. He did
not realize how badly they needed a friend
in Key West, but he turned his New Orleans
charge over to an understudy and started,
backed by the promise of limited aid from
his Bethel association. The Christian com
mission heard of his intention, adopted his
plans for its own and gave him free hand in
the spending of money.
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
ARRIVAL AT KEY WEST OF THE 25TH U. S. INFANTRY— THE COLORED REGIMENT.
When Mr. Steele reached Key West a
sober sailor ashore was something of an ex
ception. There are twenty low dives within
rifle shot of the government dock, where the
ships' launches land the men who have shore
leave. These places are foul beyond de
scription — dirtier, blacker than the vilest
"cellar joint" below Van Buren street, Chi
cago. The stench of stale beer smites across
the street — the walls, the swinging screens,
the bar rails, are deep-layered with the filth
of greasy hands. In any other city than
Key West the worst of them would be closed
as menaces to public health. Here they were
permitted to keep ever-open doors if they
chose. A month ago, when riots were of
nightly occurrence, Commodore Remey in
stituted a night patrol and closed their doors
at midnight. One May morning I counted
forty-seven drunken sailors stretched on the
sidewalks, tumbled over in gutters, doubled
over lumber piles on the docks, sleeping
away the fumes of the vile whisky they had
drunk the night before. Half of them had
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
255
MAP OF GUANTANAMO BAY.
their pockets turned out — the wages of a
year, perhaps, gone in a night. I might have
found a hundred more, I believe, had I
looked for them.
The situation was not quite so bad when
Mr. Steele appeared. Sampson and Schley
were before Santiago, and the patrol of the
marines locked up all the intoxicated sailors
whom they found in the streets. But every
day 200 or more sailors were given shore
liberty, and because no house was open to
them they sought the saloons. Mr. Steele
set about to provide a place for them. He
leased a vacant clubroom in Front street,
just next the naval warehouses and oppo
site the vilest of the Key West barrooms.
He hung out flaring signs on linen sheets:
"Naval Headquarters, Christian Commission
— Soldiers and Sailors Welcome," "Free Read
ing and Writing Room," and half a dozen
more. Posters on the government dock car
ried the same message. Only one announced
a semi-weekly song service. Mr. Steele
sought to catch his sailor and win his con
fidence before talking to him of his soul
and his sins.
The first week his success was mild, and
the blue jackets clung to their old path
that lay on the opposite side of the street.
Then singly and in pairs they climbed the
256
THE CHICAGO RECORD'S WAR STORIES
stairs to Mr. Steele's pine-ceiled room, and
now the tide sets strongly toward his door.
Three-fourths of our warships are unpro
vided with chaplains, and every time a ves
sel comes to Key West Mr. Steele gets out
his little folding organ, an armload of hymn
books and a bundle of papers and boards her
to conduct divine service. It is all very sim
ple. The officer of the deck shakes hands
with him and asks for the latest bulletin,
while a messenger carries his request for
permission to the captain. Then the little
box of an organ is moved forward to the fore
castle, unfolded, while the barefooted men
draw round it and Mr. Steele gives out the
song. He begins always with one of the na
tional hymns, passes round the songbooks,
and before his clear tenor has swung half
through the first stanza there is an uncer
tain accompaniment from the throats of the
sailors. With the second verse the group
grows, the slowest catch the melody and
there is a full chorus when the organ pumps
into the second prelude. "America" may
have been the first song, "Columbia" and
"The Star-Spangled Banner" are sure of a
place, while "Rock of Ages" and "Pull for
the Shore, Sailor," give a religious color to
the chorus. There may be a brief talk after
the singing, if Mr. Steele thinks talking
will do good, or he may end the service with
his last song. It all depends on the temper
of the men, and this tall man with the stu
dent's eyes and firm chin knows the ways of
your sailor man so well that he never makes
a mistake. His second visit to a ship is al
ways in answer to an invitation.
LOAN PERIOD
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