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 •71 
 
THE 
 
 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROUGH RIDERS 
 
THE 
 
 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ROUGH RIDERS 
 
 TOM 'HALL 
 
 Author of" When Heajts are Trumps" " Tales by Tom Hall" 
 " When Love is Lord" Etc. 
 
 'y 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 LA-hxi 
 
EJ2^ 
 latH 
 
 C^ 
 
 
 -i' ' ' :. :. 
 
 II 
 
 Copyright, 1899, 
 By FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY. 
 
 AU RighU Rturved. 
 TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 
 
 8EC3r:D oopv, 
 
TO 
 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 CAPTAINS 
 
 ALLYN K. CAPRON 
 
 AND 
 
 WILLIAM O. O'NEILL, 
 
 1ST UNITED STATES VOLUNTEER 
 CAVALRY. 
 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface ill 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Gathering of the Clans i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Baptism of Discipline 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Rough Life in Camp Wood 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Outfitting 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Drilling 45 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Waiting 56 
 
 CHAPTER VII, 
 En Route to Tampa 65 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 In Camp at Tampa 77 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 En Route to Cuba 92 
 
 i 
 
ii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER X. ,Ao« 
 
 On Cuban Soil io8 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 On the Road to Siboney lao 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Guasimas 131 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 In Camp on a Battlefield 148 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Between Battles i6i 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 On to San Juan 175 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Battle of San Juan 187 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Siege of Santiago 199 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Siege of Santiago (Continued) 213 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Fall of Santiago 226 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 On a Horror Ship 236 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is not the intention of the author to write a 
 panegyric upon the brief but brilliant career of 
 the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, better 
 known as the Rough Riders. The regiment needs 
 none. Hence the reader need not fear an inflic- 
 tion of military hysteria. He can find that in 
 copious quantities elsewhere — millions of words 
 of it. 
 
 Some of the pathetic incidents in the regiment's 
 history will be noted, but it will be the brighter 
 side of the shield that the author will endeavour to 
 present to his readers. The tragedy of the re- 
 giment's campaigning for a long time buried the 
 comedy out of sight so far as the author was con- 
 cerned. But time numbs all wounds if it does not 
 heal them ; and, to-day, precisely one year from 
 the date he was mustered in as ist Lieutenant and 
 Quartermaster of the regiment, he commences a 
 narrative that he projected simultaneously with 
 that appointment, and for which he took many 
 
 notes. 
 
 ill 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 There are, however, other reasons why the book 
 should be written. The historian must make up 
 his history from the evidence that seems strongest 
 in the mass of material he collects. No two people 
 see things exactly alike under even ordinary cir- 
 cumstances. In the excitement of battle, or of 
 hurried work of less, though great importance, 
 mental impressions become varied in a superlative 
 degree. And sometimes it becomes necessary to 
 correct errors arising in such circumstances. In 
 one volume printed on the subject the author has 
 counted mis-statements of fact that in the aggre- 
 gate show one for nearly every other page in the 
 book. The author was sincere but evidently 
 misinformed. 
 
 There is a still more important reason why the 
 history of the regiment should be written from 
 various standpoints. The greatest achievement 
 of the Rough Riders is hardly appreciated to-day. 
 Representative of four of the territorial divisions 
 of the United States, in bodies, and of nearly all 
 of the rest — to say nothing of many foreign coun- 
 tries — in individuals, it has shown our own people, 
 our government, and, what is perhaps better, 
 foreign nations, what enormous fighting strength 
 can be supplied by the people from the Mississippi 
 to the Pacific. In this vast area practically every 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 man can ride and shoot. They can be turned 
 into an army as fast as they can be armed, equipped, 
 and properly officered. Add them to the resources 
 which the North and South produced during the 
 civil war, now multiplied to a degree it is almost 
 impossible to estimate, and the huge standing 
 armies of the European powers sink into utter 
 insignificance. 
 
 But such men must be properly armed, equipped, 
 and fed. This will require legislation and a huge 
 military reform. Therefore Europe need fear no 
 interference from us in her interesting if not 
 absolutely jolly little progressive military party. 
 We shall not be ready for the game in — shall I 
 say years or generations ? 
 
 But, when we are ready, the term " Rough 
 Riders " will not be given to a single regiment but 
 to hundreds of them. The knights of chivalry 
 have passed into the misty perspective of the cor 
 ridors of time, along with the Roman legions and 
 the Vandal hordes. They have been followed 
 by Frederick's six-footers and Napoleon's dense 
 masses. T\iQ franc-tireiirs and zouaves and Prus- 
 sia's night riders have travelled the same route. 
 Even the Cossack, who was so much of a mystery 
 and marvel less than a generation ago, has had his 
 nose put out of joint. 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 Enter the Rough Rider — not one regiment of 
 him, but an army of him. And when he " antes " as 
 he himself would say, " There will be a Hot Time 
 in the Old Town That Night." 
 
 Throughout Europe the greatest interest was 
 manifested in this regiment. It was something 
 new in the way of a fighting machine, and inci- 
 dentally something that no European power could 
 duplicate. Throughout the continent as well as 
 among the British Isles the papers were filled with 
 descriptions of the Rough Riders and with photo- 
 graphs of them. Count Von Goetzen of the 
 German Army, a personal friend of his Emperor, 
 and a man of great experience in work of a similar 
 description to that we were about to undertake, 
 was particularly impressed with the regiment. 
 He told Colonel (now General) Wood in my hear- 
 ing that we were the only regiment of cavalry fit 
 for mounted work in Cuba ; at the same time crit- 
 icising the regular cavalry in camp around us at 
 Tampa for their heavy horses and their still 
 heavier equipment. He afterwards lectured in 
 Germany on the Rough Riders. All who were 
 acquainted with Cuba seemed to take a similar 
 view, many Cubans declaring that our horses were 
 the only ones that would live. I must confess 
 myself, however, to a great admiration for the 
 
PREFACE 
 
 vn 
 
 magnificent mounts of the regulars, and the 
 splendid condition they were in. There is but 
 one fault to find with them. They need their 
 oats. Many of the Rough Riders' mounts would 
 not eat oats. Such was the case with my own. 
 In fact, while in Cuba he seemed to prefer nibbling 
 at the trees to eating even of the grass that sur- 
 rounded him. Perhaps the life was not rough 
 enough for him. It was for his rider. 
 
 To recapitulate : the Rough Rider was a regi- 
 ment. He is now a type. Should we have to go 
 to war again he will be an army. Every type of 
 war machine, whether human being, metal, bow 
 and arrow, or rounded stone, has had a beginning. 
 The originals of most of the types have been lost 
 in antiquity. Will this be the case with the 
 Rough Riders of the Santiago campaign ? When 
 the Patagonian or Greenlander of some future age 
 searches the ruins of Washington for information 
 concerning the Universal War will he learn that 
 Roosevelt's Regiment of Rough Riders was the 
 germ of a great fighting power? Perhaps — but it 
 will not make much difference to the regiment 
 then. 
 
 In the following pages I shall try to write from 
 the standpoint of a chronicler and narrator, and 
 not as an officer of the regiment. I therefore 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 crave the indulgence of the reader if I happen 
 to write of too many of my own experiences, and 
 of events that came under my own observation. 
 They are what I know best. 
 
THE FUN AND FIGHTING OF 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 
 
 When war was declared against Spain I was 
 commencing to write a novel which has been 
 completed and published since the war. I 
 dropped the task and began writing letters to 
 various authorities with a view to volunteering. 
 I had been graduated at West Point and had 
 served in the army until the Lorelei allurements 
 of literature led me to resign. I supposed I 
 should have no difficulty in obtaining a commis- 
 sion. I wrote to the Secretary of War without 
 success. I then wrote to General Corbin, the 
 Adjutant General of the army — no hope. I fol- 
 lowed this up with a letter to General Miles, whom 
 I had the honour to meet while in the service at 
 Fort Apache, Arizona. Same story. I appealed 
 to the President. Like result. All of these gen- 
 tlemen answered politely but briefly — " No." I 
 
2 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 have known a number of pretty but otherwise 
 estimable young ladies to say the same thing in 
 much the same manner. 
 
 I was more than mildly astonished. I had sup- 
 posed a graduated cadet and an army officer of 
 some experience would be useful in the emergency 
 of sudden war. I felt as many of my rejected 
 manuscripts have looked — especially like one that 
 a certain magazine, published in a town on the 
 Hudson, held for a year in its office. This man- 
 uscript went forth arrayed like a bridegroom 
 going to his wedding. It came back in the con- 
 dition of the prodigal son. Of course it was not 
 the fault of the magazine or its editors. Time 
 had done the deed. When I wrote for the return 
 of this manuscript I sent three two-cent stamps 
 with the letter asking that the story be sent to 
 my address at that time. I had moved during the 
 year, and my stamped and addressed envelope in- 
 closed with the MS. would take my story to the 
 ther end of a long railway system and beyond, 
 ot the editor, but apparently some one else, re- 
 
 med the manuscript in the stamped and directed 
 en 
 
 elope. The'three stamps were accepted, though 
 
 ■' have not appeared yet in the magazine. 
 
 laving inherited some tenacity of purpose 
 
 )m distant relatives who sleep in ancient New 
 
 r 
 
 / 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 3 
 
 England graveyards, I tried again. I had some 
 classmates and West Point friends in the War 
 Department, and I wrote to them. Their answers 
 coincided with mathematical accuracy. There 
 were millions of men who wanted to volunteer, 
 but most of them wanted to be oflficers. The 
 majority wanted to be brigadier generals, but 
 would take a second lieutenancy if they could 
 do no better. 
 
 The situation reminded me of one that existed 
 in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, in the later 
 seventies. There was one militia company in the 
 county (the county was then as large as the state 
 of New York) and in this company there was but 
 one private. Every one else was an officer, com- 
 missioned, non-commissioned, or self-appointed. 
 The one private was a human wreck who lived on 
 whiskey — whiskey of the kind that you have to 
 drain through your teeth. Out there, at that 
 time, they pronounced the word " drain " as 
 though it were spelled " dreen." The officers 
 took turns drilling the solitary private. In the 
 course of time he died. 
 
 Everything is fish that comes to a writer's net, 
 if it be nothing more than the raucous voice of 
 the woman next door scolding her spouse. I 
 determined to pursue that coveted commission if 
 
4 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 I had to follow it to the end of the rainbow, if 
 only to write up my experiences. So I wrote to 
 the two senators from the state that appointed 
 me to West Point asking their help. My friends 
 in Washington had assured me that I could do 
 nothing without strong political influence. One 
 of these senators had honoured his state and his 
 country for half a lifetime. He made a personal 
 appeal to the President for me, and wrote me 
 several encouraging letters. But without avail 
 were his kindly efforts. The other senator was 
 in his first term in the senate and was the most 
 bellicose member of that body in regard to the 
 war with Spain. He never lost an opportunity 
 to belch his thunder, but my plaintive appeal was 
 lost in its reverberations. He never answered my 
 letter. 
 
 After this I wrote to the governors of three 
 states in which I had resided, offering my services 
 in any capacity. My ambition was deadened. I 
 was now ready to go as a water-carrier. A fault 
 in sex alone prevented me from volunteering as a 
 vivandi^re. From each of these governors I re- 
 ceived a neatly type-written reply declining my 
 proffered aid, I made one last appeal to the War 
 Department. On the morning of April 30th, 1 898, 
 I received a note of three lines signed by Secre- 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 5 
 
 tary Alger. The three lines stood for a polite 
 ** No." Then I started in to write up my experi- 
 ences. The work was not completed when I re- 
 ceived the same day a telegram from Colonel 
 Wood asking me if I would be willing to go with 
 the 1st Volunteer Calvalry as Regimental Quarter- 
 master. 
 
 Would I ? I would have been willing to go as 
 an army mule by that time. I answered in the 
 affirmative. The next night I started for Washing- 
 ton to clinch the appointment before some one 
 more enterprising had snatched it from me. 
 
 On that next morning, May 2d, I met Colonel 
 Wood at the War Department, was introduced to 
 Secretary Alger, who consented to my appoint- 
 ment very graciously (after twice refusing me one 
 previously), and was mustered into the service of 
 the United States about half an hour after I 
 entered the building. Colonel Wood was to start 
 for San Antonio that night. He wanted me to 
 go with him, but it was necessary for me to return 
 to New York for my clothes and a quick disposi- 
 tion of business affairs. All this I did in a state of 
 great elation. At the time I did not know it, but 
 some friends had been quietly at work in my behalf 
 without my knowledge. There are lights as well 
 as shadows in this dreary life. I think the world 
 
6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 of my enemies because they keep me struggling 
 to maintain my head above water. I would not 
 part with one of them, and hope that Dame 
 Fortune will give me more. But it is kind of 
 restful once in awhile to learn, in a quiet, practical 
 way, that you have friends. 
 
 On the trip to Washington just mentioned I 
 was in a state of nervous perturbation. I do not 
 refer to New Jersey. It was a mental state. I 
 fancied that every young looking man in the train 
 was going to Washington to get the particular 
 ofifice I was after. Before the time for starting I 
 looked them over carefully. Among them I found 
 William Astor Chanler. I had signed with the 
 regiment he had raised, as well as with one that 
 was being raised by Lafayette Post G. A. R. 
 Chanler's regiment was rejected, and I suppose 
 — if he enclosed stamps — was returned to him. I 
 viewed him with suspicion, and I have no doubt 
 he looked upon me in the same light. He told 
 me he was going down to Florida to start an ex- 
 pedition or something of that nature in his own 
 yacht and on his own account, by and with the 
 approval of the Junta. I forget what particular 
 excuse I gave for being pointed in the direction 
 of Washington. Tt is well to forget such things. 
 The next day we met in the War Department. 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 7 
 
 He had just been appointed a Captain on General 
 Wheeler's staff. I had just been appointed to 
 Colonel Wood's staff. We shook hands very cor- 
 dially and grinned. Explanations were unneces- 
 sary. 
 
 On the 3d I started for San Antonio, where the 
 regiment was to rendezvous, arriving there on the 
 7th. The Arizona contingent had arrived the day 
 before, under command of Major Brodie, and was 
 camped at the Fair Grounds, the men occupying 
 the main building, the officers the gallery, save 
 Major Brodie, who occupied a tent. Our pack 
 train was also camped on the grounds, having just 
 arrived from St. Louis, and the packers had al- 
 ready begun the instructions of the mules. It 
 was a fine train, splendidly equipped, and it was a 
 pity we could not take it with us, later, to Cuba. 
 By the time we were ready to embark at Tampa 
 it was thoroughly trained, and this is saying much. 
 It had been divided into three trains, one for each 
 squadron. Each of these trains was led by a bell 
 mare, and the rapidity with which the mules 
 learned to follow their own mare and stay with 
 their own train was wonderful. Still more won- 
 derful was it to see the ease with which they were 
 trained to take their places in line, each in front 
 of his own pack outfit, either to be loaded or to 
 
8 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 have his back cleaned at the end of a practice 
 march. Indeed there is but one fault to find with 
 the pack mule of the American army. He is of 
 a deeply religious nature and says his brayers vo- 
 ciferously at unseemly times. No one kicks at 
 his kicking. In fact a use was discovered for it by 
 one of the Rough Riders. When the gas had 
 escaped from the signal balloon sent up at San 
 Juan to view the enemy's position, one of our men 
 suggested that if we had a couple of our pack 
 mules with us they could kick the balloon into the 
 clouds. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing that Head- 
 quarters and the Arizona contingent arrived almost 
 simultaneously with the pack train. Alas, the 
 equipment and stores, which Colonels Wood and 
 Roosevelt had with great foresight started on 
 their way to the rendezvous by fast freight, some 
 time before, had not arrived. Major Brodie's 
 squadron had come provided with little or nothing 
 in the way of bedding or anything else, as was 
 quite natural. Every one supposed that every- 
 thing necessary would be on hand before the ar- 
 rival of the first soldier in the regiment. Colonel 
 Wood was of course grievously disappointed, but 
 immediately put his shoulder to the wheels that 
 were in reach, and Colonel Roosevelt in Wash- 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 9 
 
 ington put his broad shoulders to the car wheels 
 at his end of the line. Our freight cars were lost 
 here, there, and everywhere along the roads. We 
 did not understand the system of running southern 
 railroads then. We do not now. Our equip- 
 ment was to come by fast freight ! And in a 
 government emergency at that ! 
 
 In this dilemma it was well that we had two 
 such human reservoirs of kinetic energy at either 
 end of the line as Wood and Roosevelt. I will not 
 attempt to say how much wire was burned off the 
 telegraph terminals by the telegrams sent by 
 these two officers, or how many instruments were 
 damaged ; but the total destruction must have 
 been considerable. At any rate the wheels be- 
 gan to move, and in a few days the equipment 
 began arriving, in small and varied carloads at 
 first, but eventually with a rush. In the mean- 
 time Colonel Roosevelt, boiling with anxiety to 
 join and get into the practical work, was compelled 
 to remain in Washington to keep things moving. 
 If a hitch occurred anywhere (and there were 
 many of them) he could go straight to the man 
 whose single word would straighten matters out. 
 In all this he was doing about as important work 
 as any one did in the campaign. His foresight, 
 as I have said before, and Colonel Wood's, had 
 
lo FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 wrung from Dally, Dilatory & Co. — who were in 
 charge of affairs at Washington before war was 
 formally declared — as fine an equipment as a 
 cavalry regiment could desire. They were equally 
 successful in handling Hurry, Haste & Co. (un- 
 limited) after war was declared. It was harder 
 work handling the railroads, but it was accom- 
 plished. We are all beginning to realise, to be 
 dimly conscious of the very patent fact, that the 
 people are made of the railroads, by the railroads, 
 and for the railroads. When a railroad is elected 
 President of the United States and both houses 
 of Congress are filled with railroads we will under- 
 stand the situation thoroughly. 
 
 While waiting patiently (satirical for impatiently) 
 for the railroads to disgorge, something had to be 
 done to provide even the slightest comfort for the 
 men. Here Colonel Wood bent his energies 
 with the almost tireless activity with which he— 
 the only white man who ever did it — ran over 
 mountain trails in Arizona in company with 
 Apache scouts until the scouts dropped from ex- 
 haustion. Fort Sam Houston was situated at the 
 other side of San Antonio on Government Hill, and 
 was garrisoned by a part of the generous and cele- 
 brated Fifth Cavalry. They came to our rescue 
 nobly, as did the staff departments. We drew 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS ii 
 
 everything that could be spared from the quarter- 
 master's stores at the post and after that borrowed 
 condemned cooking utensils, camp equipage, and 
 so forth which were awaiting the order for destruc- 
 tion. It was not an inspiring sight to see three 
 or four troopers of Ours drinking coffee out of a 
 single cup (there were by no means enough to 
 go around) that had been condemned as unfit for 
 a regular to use. It was the same with tin plates. 
 Several men ate from one plate with their fingers, 
 for we had no knives or forks to give them, but 
 there was not a complaint. Those men were 
 thoroughbreds. But I often wondered what they 
 thought of such a state of affairs. 
 
 In the meantime the Fifth Cavalry was waiting 
 with harrowing anxiety for orders to go to the 
 front, and nervous with fear that they would be 
 one of the regiments to be left in their own coun- 
 try. This did not prevent them from aiding us, 
 however. Lieutenant Haines of that regiment, 
 Post Commissary, took charge of the important 
 duty of feeding us. Our horses were bought b}'' 
 the Quartermaster stationed there, and were pro- 
 vided with hay and grain from the post. Lieu- 
 tenant Jenkins, the Adjutant of the Fifth, pro- 
 vided everything he could spare, including to me 
 personally (he was a classmate of mine at West 
 
12 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Point) an old pair of shoulder straps — the only 
 ones I was able to obtain during the war. We 
 ordered and ordered all sorts of necessary insignia, 
 but the dealers were too busy with orders nearer 
 home to pay any attention to us. It was useless 
 to order khaki uniforms. All cloth of that de- 
 scription was already in the hands of the tailors, 
 who had not then a sufficient supply. The mills 
 were just beginning to manufacture a further and 
 sufficient quantity. As a consequence most of 
 the officers were compelled to buy the brown uni- 
 forms issued to enlisted men and have them al- 
 tered into something like a fit, or to buy the 
 material and have uniforms made. These were 
 decorated with yellow cloth ; and in many instances 
 the insignia were cut out of this cloth and sewed 
 on. Afterwards in the field, when jackets were 
 thrown away, these yellow cloth tokens of rank 
 were cut out of the yellow trimmings on the dis- 
 carded jacket and sewn on the shirt, or cut out 
 of tin from empty tomato cans. I am rather cer- 
 tain that Colonel Roosevelt himself wore more 
 or less of this untailor-made roughness and was 
 rather proud of it. Both he and Colonel Wood 
 came provided with kahki uniforms. They looked 
 very nice at first, but after a week's wear and a 
 washing they looked sadly different. 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS 13 
 
 A number of the men who joined from the North 
 and East also came provided with khaki uniforms, 
 and gave themselves away as being promised or 
 anticipating appointments as commissioned offi- 
 cers. They had to adopt the brown overalls for a 
 time, but most of them clung to the pretty khaki 
 suits until they could wear them with propriety. 
 
 Among ourselves we were known, and officially 
 also, as the ist U. S. Volunteer Cavalry. The 
 newspapers, however, had named the regiment 
 the " Rough Riders," probably on account of the 
 apt alliteration with Colonel Roosevelt's name. 
 Most of the papers were friendly and complimen- 
 tary to an unnecessary degree, but this very fact 
 made others disparage the regiment, and some to 
 actually revile it. Nor did the publicity given to 
 the regiment do us any good with the regular 
 army. The regiment was advertised too much. 
 If it had been a Wild West show the advertising 
 would have been invaluable. But to a regiment 
 of men earnestly intent, from colonel to corporal 
 and from A on the roster of privates to Z, on pre- 
 paring themselves for duty as soldiers in the quick- 
 est time on record, it was quite unwelcome. 
 There were some men in the army — as there are 
 in all ranks and classes of men — who were weak 
 enough to be jealous ; and some of them had the 
 
14 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 power and opportunity to throw obstacles in the 
 way of the regiment. But the regiment never had 
 any difficulty in riding over those obstacles — and 
 often somewhat " roughly " at that. 
 
 It is but fair to say that most of this jealousy 
 disappeared later in the campaign. After the 
 charge at San Juan a trooper of the Rough Riders 
 shouted, " Somebody give me a chew of tobacco." 
 An officer in command of a troop of regulars near 
 him pulled a plug of the desired weed from his 
 pocket and gave it to the man, saying, " Here, 
 you fellows can have anything I've got." And 
 before the campaign ended Colonel Roosevelt 
 was a more potent factor in the army of invasion 
 than most of the grizzled veterans of the civil war. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE 
 
 It was the original hope and intention of the 
 regiment to be given a roving commission in Cuba 
 — to act almost independently, I suppose, some- 
 what after the manner of Marion's men. The 
 idea was to equip, drill, march part way to the 
 coast, thence — from some convenient point — go 
 by rail to Galveston and take ship for some point 
 in Cuba, west of Havana. After this it was 
 expected that we should act more or less in con- 
 junction with the Cuban forces and make an ex- 
 tended foray through the island. 
 
 It soon developed, however, that Havana would 
 not be the objective point of the army ; and that 
 our chance lay in being ordered to join the 5th 
 army corps, which was mobilizing at Tampa, This 
 required all the more haste in equipping and drill- 
 ing, for we expected to hear every day that the 
 expedition had sailed. At first, indeed, the future 
 seemed quite hopeless. In a few weeks, however, 
 telegrams began to reach Colonel Wood asking 
 2 15 
 
i6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 how soon the regiment would be ready to start. 
 It was with pardonable pride that the Colonel 
 answered the very first of these with a telegram 
 to the effect that the regiment was ready to move 
 at a moment's notice with its full complement of 
 men thoroughly equipped and mounted, with its 
 horses all shod and a pair of extra shoes fitted for 
 every horse in the regiment. All this had been 
 done in three weeks, in fact in less than that time. 
 If there is any record in the world to beat that 
 the Rough Riders would like to have it produced. 
 As a matter of fact the Rough Riders were in as 
 good a condition to fight the battle of Guasimas on 
 May 24th, 1898, as they were on June 24th. Most 
 of the time intervening was spent in travel by land 
 and sea. 
 
 How was it done ? The only answer Is, by the 
 expenditure of an enormous amount of American 
 energy. Even to-day it seems almost like a dream 
 to the writer. Both Colonels Wood and Roose- 
 velt were saturated with energy, and the officers 
 and men added their own with grim enthusiasm. 
 
 The first ten days broke the back of the diffi- 
 culty of organizing; but it was a ten days the 
 writer never wishes to see again. I was Regi- 
 mental Quartermaster by appointment. Lieuten- 
 ant Capron of the 7th Cavalry was to be Adjutant 
 
THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE \^ 
 
 when he arrived. But he was elected Captain by 
 one of the Indian Territory troops he had mus- 
 tered in, and the office of Adjutant was later given 
 to me. In the meantime, however, I acted as Adju- 
 tant in addition to my duties as Quartermaster. 
 I also acted as Commissary, and likewise had 
 charge of the ordnance stores. For several weeks 
 I acted nominally as troop commander of " K " 
 troop which at that time did not have a commis- 
 sioned officer present. It was necessary that some 
 one in the nature of a commissioned officer should 
 be responsible for the property issued to the troop, 
 and I was the only available man. 
 
 Let me explain here that I use the term " com- 
 missioned officer" for convenience. As a matter 
 of fact we were all officers by appointment. 
 
 In addition to my other duties I acted as in- 
 structor in guard duty. On top of all I had to 
 study the new cavalry drill regulations, a pretty 
 good job in itself, for three weeks. Added to the 
 rest I had to sign passes for the men to leave camp ; 
 and answer (to the best of my ability) the ques- 
 tions of many anxious learners. As Regimental 
 Quartermaster I had to receipt for practically 
 everything delivered to the regiment— and one 
 thing or another was being delivered constantly. 
 As the original Quartermaster Sergeant deserted 
 
i8 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 within a day or two after his arrival in camp and 
 we had no Commissary Sergeant until later, I was 
 unable to make out receipts for myself when issu- 
 ing to the troops, and I was prepared to go into 
 bankruptcy when the government got around to 
 demanding my accounts, receipts, expenditures 
 and so forth. Nor did I ever get receipts, save 
 for the various things loaned from the condemned 
 stores at Fort Sam Houston. These had to be 
 returned so that they could be destroyed to the 
 satisfaction of the inspector at his next visit. 
 Eventually the matter was straightened out, as 
 both Colonels Wood and Roosevelt assured me it 
 would be, and I rest in the serene consciousness 
 that if the government's account with me does not 
 balance it is because the government owes me and 
 not I the government. I am willing to call it 
 square though. If the government is rich enough 
 to stand it I am poor enough to take a like view 
 of the situation. 
 
 It was all excellent practice, however. Before 
 we broke camp at San Antonio I can almost say 
 — not quite but almost — that I could sign a receipt 
 with one hand and a pass with the other, at the 
 same time answering the questions of a mystified 
 member of the guard and dissecting a new and 
 wonderful movement in the drill regulations. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE 19 
 
 Very often after I had dissected such a movement, 
 j some regular officer would happen along and in- 
 form me that the movement had been materially 
 I altered by recent amendments to the drill regula- 
 l tions. And in some cases after puzzling my head 
 : over something that seemed utterly incomprehen- 
 f sible, to say nothing of impossible, I would learn 
 in the same way that there was a mistake in the 
 I book, either in the diagram or in the text. 
 j The passes to leave camp were the greatest 
 I nuisance, however. They were granted at first on 
 the slightest excuse. It was the wise policy of 
 j our Colonel to break the men into discipline by 
 i degrees, and gradually tighten the bonds. As a 
 consequence passes innumerable were issued at 
 first, and their duration extended sometimes over 
 night. Day by day the number granted became 
 more reduced and the duration limited, until, be- 
 fore the regiment left San Antonio, the men had 
 become acccustomed to the restraint of military 
 life to a very satisfactory degree. It was hard 
 work though. The hardest that ever fell to me. 
 Colonel Wood had to be here, there, and every- 
 where, and his waggon was constantly on the go. 
 Before leaving in the morning he would give 
 directions that passes should be issued to so many 
 men from each troop — always providing that the 
 
20 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 permission of the troop commander had been 
 previously obtained. He would also name the 
 time at which the pass would expire. The result 
 would be something like this, even though due 
 notice had been given. 
 
 A private would stroll up to the Adjutant's tent 
 in a half embarrassed but thoroughly good-natured 
 way. He would walk in and take a seat. Then 
 a conversation would ensue much like the follow- 
 ing. 
 
 The Adjutant. Now, Smith (fictitious name of 
 course), I don't want to hurt your feelings, 
 but it is not proper for you to come into an 
 ofificer's tent like this. If this were the only 
 regiment in the army, that sort of thing might 
 be passed over. But you will have to meet a 
 great many officers who are not of your regi- 
 ment, and you must learn the proper way to 
 do these things, if only to keep yourself out 
 of trouble. 
 
 Private Smith. Well, I'm here to learn, Lieu- 
 tenant. What must I do ? 
 
 The Adjutant. When you come up to the tent 
 of an officer, halt at the entrance, salute, and 
 wait until you are spoken to. If the officer 
 has not heard you or seen you come up rap 
 
THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE 21 
 
 lightly on the tent pole. He will then ask 
 you what you want and you can explain. 
 
 (Smith, looking rather sheepish, leaves the tent, 
 comes up in the prescribed manner, salutes, 
 and stands at attention.) 
 
 The Adjutant. Well, Smith, what is it ? 
 
 Smith. I'd like to get a pass signed, Lieuten- 
 ant. 
 
 The Adjutant. All right, hand it to me. 
 
 (Smith enters the tent triumphantly, holding out 
 the pass, but makes a further mistake. This 
 time he thinks he is all right, so he sits down 
 again.) 
 
 The Adjutant. Not a bit like it, Smith. When 
 you enter an officer's tent take your hat off 
 and stand at attention. When you are 
 through make an about face and go out. 
 
 (With another sheepish smile Smith stands at 
 attention and takes his hat off. The Ad- 
 jutant glances quickly at the pass.) 
 
 The Adjutant. Why, this pass isn't signed by 
 your troop commander, Smith. 
 
 Smith. The Captain's gone to town. Lieutenant. 
 
 The Adjutant. Then your ist Lieutenant is 
 troop commander. Get him to sign it. 
 
 Smith. He's gone to town with the Captain, 
 sir. 
 
22 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 The Adjutant. Then get your 2d Lieutenant 
 to sign it. 
 
 Smith. I can't find him, sir. 
 
 The Adjutant. What troop do you belong to ? 
 
 Smith. " X " troop, sir. 
 
 The Adjutant. Well, your 2d Lieutenant was 
 here a little while ago and said he was 
 going over to the picket line of his troop, so 
 you'll probably find him there. And, by the 
 way, have him put in the time you are to be 
 away. 
 
 (Smith departs and returns in a few minutes. 
 This time he does very well about saluting 
 and so forth.) 
 
 The Adjutant. Why, Smith, this pass reads 
 from 7 r.M., until midnight. The Colonel 
 gave orders, as you ought to know, and as your 
 troop commander must know, that passes 
 would not be good after nine o'clock. 
 
 Smith. Why, Lieutenant, that would give me 
 only two hours, — hardly time enough to get 
 into town and back. 
 
 The Adjutant. I can't help that. Smith. 
 Those are the Colonel's orders. 
 
 Smith (growing restive and on the point of 
 anger). Lieutenant, this is the first time I 
 have asked for a pass in ten days. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE 23 
 
 The Adjutant. I'm sorry, Smith. But I have 
 authority to give passes good until that time 
 only. 
 
 Smith. It's important business, Lieutenant. 
 I've got some money sent by telegraph, and I 
 want to get it. And I've got to send some 
 telegrams and buy some things I need, too. 
 
 The Adjutant. There is no use talking about 
 it. I have no authority in the matter what- 
 ever. Colonel Wood gave me the orders, and 
 I have to obey them just as you do. 
 
 Smith (angrily). Well, I don't see 
 
 The Adjutant. Now that will do. 
 
 (Smith leaves, and Private Brown comes up). 
 
 The dialogue between Brown and the Adjutant 
 is very similar, though quite as provoking, except 
 that in this case the difficulty is that Brown's 
 troop commander has already issued as many 
 passes as his troop is entitled to under the Colonel's 
 orders. In both these cases the men return to 
 their troops in a highly indignant frame of mind ; 
 and, as both consider that it is entirely a personal 
 display of meanness on the part of the Adjutant, 
 the latter is loved neither wisely nor too well. In 
 fact not at all. 
 
 After such a thing has happened twenty or 
 
24 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 thirty times in one day the Adjutant has to have 
 the patience of Job not to lose his temper. The 
 Adjutant in this case was not provided by nature 
 with the patience of Job, and the men soon came 
 to understand what " yes " and " no " meant in 
 military matters. It must not be understood that 
 the men of the regiment as a rule were hard to 
 handle or particularly unreasonable. In fact there 
 is hardly a doubt that they took kindlier to dis- 
 cipline (and there was no child's play in the dis- 
 cipline of the regiment) than the average militia 
 regiments that had had the advantage of complete 
 organization for years. They simply did not 
 know, and there was very little time to teach them. 
 They were all men saturated with the indepen- 
 dence of Americans, and especially with the in- 
 dependence of Western Americans. Many of 
 them were men of wealth and position, more ac- 
 customed to disciplining others than to being dis- 
 ciplined themselves. As a consequence there were 
 some misunderstandings now and then, some more 
 or less bitter disappointments regarding promo- 
 tions and so forth. But all were terribly in ear- 
 nest, and when they once " caught on to the game " 
 there was very little more trouble. 
 
 So far as receipting for stores, rations, equip- 
 ment, ordnance, horses, mules, ammunition, and 
 
THE BAPTISM OF DISCIPLINE 25 
 
 what not, I was utterly helpless. I had but one 
 member of the non-commissioned staff to depend 
 on and he was worked in his own department until 
 both Colonel Wood and myself feared he would 
 breakdown. This was Sergeant-Major Carr. He 
 was appointed a ist Lieutenant before we left San 
 Antonio, and no man deserved promotion better. 
 But he could give me no help in the other depart- 
 ments. In a day or two I was so lost in signing 
 receipts that I gave up trying to look after them 
 particularly. Indeed I finally reached a point 
 when I would have signed a receipt for the New 
 York World building or Cervera's fleet without a 
 question. Through these first eight or ten days I 
 averaged about four hours* sleep during each 
 twenty-four. Colonel Wood got little more, if as 
 much. When no one else was bothering him he 
 could always depend on my doing so. It was 
 usually not until the camp was soundly asleep that 
 I got a chance to make my reports to him and get 
 his directions for the following day. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 
 
 It was a fortunate thing for all concerned that 
 the contingents from the various territories did 
 not arrive on the same day, or even in the same 
 week. We were able to take care of them as they 
 arrived, therefore, with some slight degree of suc- 
 cess. But, even as it was, the enlisted men of the 
 regiment got a taste of very rough work from the 
 moment they arrived at San Antonio. Men slept 
 two or three to a single blanket on the bare floor 
 of the main building. It was not until the de- 
 layed stores arrived that each had a blanket for 
 himself. In this extremity many of the men had 
 to use the blankets and mantas belonging to the 
 pack mule outfits, and two troops for several 
 nights slept in the hay at the pavilion. Borrow- 
 ing from the pack outfits was a nuisance of the 
 first water, as the articles had to be returned each 
 morning in order that they might be used on the 
 mules, and obtained again each night. They 
 
 were loaned very grumblingly, too. The train 
 
 26 
 
ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 27 
 
 master of a pack train is something of a despot. 
 He is a civilian (being hired, not enlisted, by the 
 government), but is not necessarily very civil. As 
 Quartermaster I was responsible for the whole out- 
 fit, and I had to insist on my authority to ob- 
 tain the loan of even this makeshift bedding. One 
 of the subordinate train masters was particularly 
 disagreeable. He would not obey the chief 
 packer, and had to get a lesson from me specially 
 provided for himself. After that he was surly. 
 That is not a good thing to be with military su- 
 periors. It merely called their attention to him 
 more particularly. A few nights later the sen- 
 tinels discovered that some of the packers under 
 this man were trading government oats issued to 
 his train for liquor and other luxuries — and after 
 the storm had cleared he was no longer surly. 
 
 Too much praise can hardly be given the men 
 of the regiment for the patience with which they 
 accepted all this even unusual roughness. The 
 camp was the most orderly one, considering its 
 size, I have ever seen. More or less drunkenness 
 can be expected in any large body of men ; but it 
 looked for a time as though every man in the 
 regiment had signed the pledge. Later there 
 were a few cases of the ebullition and destructive 
 distillation of spirits, but they were very rare. 
 
28 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 And to the greater credit of the men it can be 
 truthfully said that there were plenty of opportu- 
 nities for them to get liquor if so they wished. It 
 was not permitted to be sold in the camp or on 
 the grounds, but bars were erected outside Colonel 
 Wood's jurisdiction. The proprietors did not be- 
 come wealthy. There were a few rumours from 
 the city of Rough Riders who jumped their 
 horses over street cars, but there v/ere palpable 
 reasons for doubting the truth of the stories. But 
 one man in the regiment was arrested by the 
 police of San Antonio. His offence was trivial, 
 and he was turned over to the regiment when it 
 left for Tampa. On the arrival of Colonel Roose- 
 velt he was appointed to the duty of Field Offi- 
 cer's Court. The few cases of intoxication and 
 minor delinquencies (probably less than ten) were 
 turned over to him. He usually punished the 
 delinquent by word of mouth, and the business 
 end of the Colonel's tongue was feared more than 
 a stay in the guard house. 
 
 While on this subject it is only fair to the regi- 
 ment to defend it against two attacks made upon 
 its character which were wholly unjust. 
 
 The first was occasioned by the malevolence of 
 a San Antonio paper. Except during certain 
 hours in the afternoon civilians were not per- 
 
ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 29 
 
 mitted within the limits of camp, unless provided 
 with a written pass or accompanied by one of the 
 commissioned ofificers of the regiment. These 
 passes were issued to the representatives of the 
 papers, including the newsboys who sold 
 them. The youngster who sold the copies of the 
 paper in question was of the description of boy 
 who prefers the irregular way of doing things. 
 To his romantic nature it was much more delight- 
 ful to climb the fence or creep through a hole and 
 scoot across a sentinel's post while the latter was 
 not looking. He was caught the first time he 
 tried it, and was warned that if he repeated the 
 offence his pass would be taken away from him. 
 He promptly tried it again, was again caught, and 
 his pass confiscated. From that date on no more 
 copies of his paper were sold in Camp Wood. 
 The paper proceeded to get even in the usual 
 way. Having little opportunity it made one. A 
 San Antonio band gave a concert at a picnic 
 ground not far from the camp, and the regiment 
 was invited to attend. A fairly large number of 
 the men did so, and fortunately some of the ofifi- 
 cers attended. One of the selections on the pro- 
 gramme was of a military nature. That is to say, 
 the members of the band fired revolvers loaded 
 with blank cartridges at certain of the harmonious 
 
30' FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 strains. This suited the crowd from town right 
 down to the turf. They joined in the chorus with 
 revolvers containing cartridges that were anything 
 but blank. Men yelled, women screamed, and a 
 frightened waiter dropped several glasses of beer. 
 The paper aforesaid accused the men of the regi- 
 ment of firing these revolvers. As a matter of 
 fact every revolver and carbine in the regiment 
 was under guard in the various companies, and 
 not a round of ammunition had at that time been 
 issued. The officers in attendance, including one 
 of the field officers, were able to explain that not 
 a man belonging to the regiment joined in the 
 fusillade. But the matter was dished up in clever 
 style and printed in newspapers all over the 
 country. The vitality of a lie is amazing. The 
 other papers in San Antonio, however, treated us 
 with more fairness, and the courtesy of the offi- 
 cials of the city was unvarying. 
 
 The second misunderstanding was less serious, 
 but was more mortifying than the first. It was 
 while we were en route to Tampa. The regiment 
 was preceded over the rails by an entirely different 
 organisation calling itself " Rough Riders." From 
 the stories told on their journey they must have 
 had quite a lively trip. Unfortunately the tar- 
 nished glory of it was laid to the ist U. S. Vol- 
 
ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 31 
 
 unteer Cavalry. And again the news was spread 
 broadcast. As a matter of fact the errors made 
 by the newspapers w^ere saddening. We often 
 read in Northern papers of prominence of our ar- 
 rival in Tampa long before we received orders to 
 go there. The Rough Riders were not all of them 
 angels or Sunday-school teachers. They were 
 representative men from their sections of the 
 country, however, very earnestly intent on the 
 business before them. 
 
 The make-up of the regiment was one of its 
 most interesting features. Was there ever before 
 such a personnel in the ranks of a military organ- 
 isation ? We could have made up a certain child's 
 game to fit all the buttons a French dressmaker 
 
 o 
 
 could sew on a gown. 
 
 Rich man, poor man, Indian chief, 
 Doctor, lawyer, not one thief. 
 Merchant, sheriff, artist, clerk, 
 Clubman, quite unused to work, 
 Miner, ocean gondolier, 
 Broker, banker, engineer, 
 Cowboy, copper, actor, mayor, 
 College athletes, men of prayer, 
 Champion amateur sports, to boot — 
 And all of them could ride and shoot. 
 
 The list could be prolonged considerably. The 
 matter interested me greatly. I had found every 
 profession represented but one. As I sat down at 
 
32 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the dry-goods box dinner table one day, I men- 
 tioned the fact, and wondered audibly if there was 
 an actor in the regiment. I was promptly in- 
 formed of three. We had one newspaper corre- 
 spondent in the ranks. He corresponded for a 
 newspaper just once. He was then " interviewed " 
 by Colonel Wood and concluded to write no more 
 during his stay in the regiment. 
 
 This bizarre make-up of the regiment gave me 
 some queer experiences. It is not often that the 
 Adjutant of a regiment of soldiers has a million- 
 aire for an orderly one day, a cotillon leader the 
 next, an arctic explorer the next, an African travel- 
 ler the next and, so on through the roster. It was 
 well for the writer that the brown uniforms came 
 soon, and they all looked alike before he could dif- 
 ferentiate between the cowboy and the ex-colonel 
 on some governor's staff ; otherwise the job would 
 have been as embarrassing as it was unceasing. At 
 the present moment I do not like to even wonder 
 how many men of wealth, position, and power have 
 done my ofificial errands. I can only say that the 
 work was all done willingly and well. No one can 
 measure the self-abnegation of such men. 
 
 The regiment was a community. It was 
 " rough." Oh yes ! But if you wanted anything 
 done from the mending of a shoe to the building 
 
ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 33 
 
 of a railroad you had but to raise your voice and 
 ask for a man to do it. An expert would appear. 
 We even had a naval officer in the person of one 
 of our surgeons and a West Point cadet. Short- 
 hand writers, telegraph operators, electricians, and 
 type-writists were in abundance. Two of our 
 captains were editors and I had to accept many 
 manuscripts from them. For a short time we even 
 had one opium fiend. We soon got rid of him. 
 
 The number of men who wanted to join the 
 regiment was simply amazing. The grand total 
 numbered about ten thousand. One man, cele- 
 brated for his daring and ability as a frontiersman, 
 formed an entire company of picked men, Texans 
 I think, and came to camp to volunteer for him- 
 self and his band of willing fighters. He was a 
 man of such repute that the thought never oc- 
 curred to him that the regiment was full to over- 
 flowing and that there was no place for him. 
 When the situation was explained to him he was 
 silent with wonder. 
 
 To cap the climax we had two Spaniards in the 
 regiment. One of these was Captain Luna, a 
 thorough American, but of direct Spanish descent. 
 The other was not discovered until he appeared 
 on guard, and the discovery was a particularly 
 ticklish piece of business. It was during the last 
 3 
 
34 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 few days of camp. Night had settled on the 
 dirty, sandy plain on which the little shelter tents 
 of the men (why they are called " shelter " tents 
 no one knows — it is a solecism in nomenclature, 
 they are the only tents that do not shelter) were 
 pitched. Musical, melancholy taps had been 
 borne on the breath of the bugle. Among the 
 thousand men and horses there was hardly a 
 sound save that of the sentry tramping up and 
 down in front of the line of headquarters tents 
 and an occasional sharp crack from the picket 
 lines as one horse kicked another in the ribs to 
 make him behave. Owing to the silence my ear 
 caught the sound of a disturbance at one of the 
 more remote sentry posts. I waited to see what 
 the row would develop into. Presently I heard 
 the clanking of a sabre, and the officer of the day 
 approached. 
 
 " Say," said he, " what am I going to do ? I've 
 got a Spaniard out there on number 9." 
 
 " A Spaniard so soon ! " I wondered audibly. 
 
 " Yes," answered the officer of the day. " He's 
 the sentinel on number 9." 
 
 " Well, what's the matter with him ? " I asked. 
 
 " Why," said the officer of the day, " he can't 
 speak English. He can understand a little of it 
 but he can't speak a word and won't try. Now 
 
 -'•V 
 
ROUGH LIFE IN CAMP WOOD 35 
 
 the night orders are in effect and we can't get to 
 him either to inspect him or relieve him." 
 
 Then I understood. It was a very pretty situa- 
 tion. He had managed to get through during the 
 day tours of his reHef some way or other, but 
 challenging and advancing at night required some 
 use of the English language. It looked for a 
 moment as though that sentinel would have to be 
 left on post until broad daylight. But we finally 
 managed to rout out of his slumbers a man who 
 could speak Spanish, and sent him along as an in- 
 terpreter. The Spaniard was not put on guard 
 again until he could master enough English for 
 the occasion. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 OUTFITTING 
 
 As I have said before, the clothing and equip- 
 ment for the regiment came in assorted lots. To 
 save time it was decided to issue the articles as 
 soon as they were delivered to us. It was a 
 rather bewildering proceeding. The men would 
 be issued a spoon and a pair of gloves one day, 
 a coat and a mess pan the next, a tin cup and 
 a cartridge belt the next, and so on. Sometimes 
 there would be three or four issues in a day. As 
 the first troop to arrive was the first to be issued 
 to, and so on in turn, there was some great foot 
 racing between the various troops. It was no fun 
 for them to stand in line in the hot sun waiting 
 a turn. 
 
 But the issuing was soon reduced to a science. 
 This was accomplished by the generous help of 
 Captain Cooper of the regiment of which I had 
 once been a second lieutenant, the loth Cavalry. 
 He observed the difficulties with which I was sur- 
 rounded, and generously devoted almost all of his 
 
 36 
 
OUTFITTING 37 
 
 time to helping me. He had mustered in the 
 New Mexico troops and had come along with 
 them. These, by the way, were the only troops of 
 the regiment who brought an ounce of food with 
 them. They turned over seven boxes of hard- 
 tack to me. They had been several days on the 
 trip and they had got tired of hardtack. Captain 
 Cooper spent his evenings explaining to me the 
 uses of several thousand official blanks which had 
 been forwarded to me in my various official capa- 
 cities. I uttered many more blanks when I re- 
 ceived them. But he did far more. He assisted 
 in the distribution of the equipment in a manner 
 that made our eyes stick out with wonder. He 
 was an expert. I would call a name from a troop 
 roll. The man would step forward promptly and 
 run a sort of gauntlet with Captain Cooper on one 
 side, Lieutenant Griffen, the witnessing officer, 
 and myself on the other in prolongation of a line 
 of open boxes each presided over by an enlisted 
 man who would hand out the article as the victim 
 passed. As the man advanced he would call out 
 the size hat he wore, or the size of his shoes or 
 gloves. Captain Cooper would take a quick crit- 
 ical glance at him, size him up, and call out the 
 size and breadth of coat or trousers, and amend 
 the size of hat or shoes if necessary in his judg- 
 
38 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ment. At the end of the gauntlet Major Dunn 
 Avould announce that the man had been fully, if 
 not foully dealt with, and he would be checked off 
 accordingly. The Major was a Master of Hounds 
 in some fox-hunting club, and was the only man 
 who enjoyed the job. He could sit in the shade 
 and usually had a bucket of iced lemonade by his 
 side. He would now and then offer Griffen and 
 myself some. I don't know what Griffen did, but 
 the major looked so cool and comfortable gen- 
 erally, and so exceedingly spruce, that I usually 
 declined the potion from sheer spite. Now and 
 then club friends and acquaintances of the Major 
 would run the gauntlet, and he seldom lost the 
 opportunity for a joke at their expense, knowing 
 that they did not dare to reply, did not even dare 
 to grin. 
 
 Some of the situations were comical. The men 
 would sometimes get the sizes of their hats, shoes, 
 and gloves mixed up. Sometimes there would be 
 a mistake in the judgment of some of us in regard 
 to the size of coat or length of trousers needed by 
 the man. Then a woebegone line of men would 
 appear, after the issue, with coats that would not 
 button or coats that would go twice around the 
 owner, with shoes that they could not get on or 
 shoes that they could jump out of. 
 
OUTFITTING 39 
 
 Immense Hamilton Fish walked grimly down the 
 line at an issue of shoes calmly calling out a number 
 several sizes larger than we could supply. He 
 was about the only one of the Eastern men, college 
 men, club men, and so forth who did not have to 
 don rough army shoes that day. 
 
 The men had to draw the articles ordered for 
 them whether they were in need of them, or not. 
 The very first issue was of rubber ponchos and 
 cheap cotton undershirts. Neither drawers, stock- 
 ings nor outer shirts of blue flannel had yet arrived, 
 and there were only enough cotton undershirts 
 on hand at the time to go once around. Imagine 
 a man like Woodbury Kane walking solemnly 
 down a long row of officers and men and drawing 
 his one cotton undershirt with as much dignity as 
 though it were a diamond pin. He tried to escape 
 drawing a poncho as he already had one. But 
 fate was against him. He had to come back and 
 take his poncho, as he was charged with one on 
 the clothing roll and there was no time to waste 
 on corrections. Neither did we wish to leave any- 
 thing unissued. 
 
 Having finally roused the railroad authorities to 
 action and being assured of the prompt delivery 
 of our equipment, Colonel Roosevelt left Wash- 
 ington about ten days after the arrival of our first 
 
40 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 troops and joined us at San Antonio. He 
 was to have the tent next to Colonel Wood's, on 
 the right of the line, and I had been occupying it 
 in order to hold it for him. Upon his arrival I 
 expected to sleep in my office tent, back of the 
 line, and had made arrangements to do so. The 
 Lieutenant-Colonel would have nothing of the 
 kind, however. Colonel Wood so informed me 
 when I was making preparations to move. I ex- 
 plained to the latter that having served in the 
 army I was quite accustomed to being ranked out 
 of quarters and very much preferred to let the 
 Colonel have the privacy of the tent to which he 
 was entitled. Colonel Wood, being a regular 
 officer, appreciated my view of the situation but 
 assured me that Colonel Roosevelt had declared 
 that if the mere fact of his arrival made me move 
 from a tent I was occupying he would put up in 
 town. As no argument could move him, the ar- 
 rangement he insisted on prevailed, and I found 
 myself tenting with the most remarkable man I 
 had ever met — and as I have lived in the four 
 quarters of America, to say nothing of the 
 centre and intermediate points, I have met many 
 men. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt is a man of more than medium 
 height and a man of strength rather than grace in 
 
OUTFITTING 41 
 
 movement. He is nervous, energetic, virile. He 
 may wear out some day, but he will never rust out. 
 I never saw a man with such a capacity for work. 
 He seemed to be positively unhappy when he 
 wasn't doing something. During his canvass for 
 the Governorship of New York he was reported by 
 the newspapers on the last day as taking a rest in 
 the quiet of his home. I don't believe it. I 
 don't think he could rest if he wanted to. He 
 might possibly slow down a trifle and by com- 
 parison seem to be resting, but it would not be 
 rest. I am quite sure he never slept more than 
 three hours a night, and his sleep was so light that 
 the rustle of a paper would wake him. If there 
 was nothing else to do he could be found poring 
 over a book on some military subject. He usually 
 walked up and down while he read as though his 
 body had to keep pace with his mind. He would 
 read a page or part of one, then clasp the book in 
 his hands behind his back and think about it. He 
 was serenely self-unconscious. He would practice 
 giving commands within fifty feet of half the regi- 
 ment as earnestly as he would have done so had he 
 been alone in a desert. Ordinarily people like to do 
 their rehearsing in private. Colonel Roosevelt is 
 an exception to most rules. He did everything 
 with an almost ferocious earnestness, whether it 
 
42 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 was learning the new manual of the carbine or the 
 officer's manual of the sabre, or helping in instruc- 
 tion at drill. He was polite almost to the extent 
 of making one uneasy — most of the time. Then 
 again there were occasions when he was not polite. 
 I suppose he usually had a reason when he was 
 not. He frequently said that even if he did not 
 know how to do a thing he would do it, get it 
 done some way or other. He was by no means 
 infallible in judgment. But he was as unchange- 
 able as time, usually. He stood by the men he 
 personally liked with an unswerving loyalty that 
 was almost Grantlike. But he was not as tolerant as 
 Grant with men whom he did not like. Though 
 he said little of his future aspirations it was 
 evident to all who met him that he was tremend- 
 ously ambitious. So was Caesar they say. Accord- 
 ing to his lights he was usually just in decisions 
 affecting others, though he has not yet touched the 
 standard of greatness in many ways. That may 
 come in time. In many and in unusual ways he has 
 had a hard row to hoe in his official life. Gentle- 
 ness comes with the serenity of victory and the 
 passing of years. The victory has come to Roose- 
 velt, and the years will also, for he is hardly more 
 than forty years of age. There are people who 
 underestimate the man because he seems to have 
 
OUTFITTING 43 
 
 had a tremendous start in life through social posi- 
 tion and the possession of independent means. 
 These are the people who read on the door of 
 success only the word " pull." They are blind to 
 the legend on the other side, " push." With his 
 qualities of mind and untiring energy, both spurred 
 by ambition, it is quite probable that Roosevelt 
 would be further advanced to-day if he had been 
 born poor and friendless. 
 
 In speaking, whether forensically or conversa- 
 tionally, under excitement, Colonel Roosevelt 
 speaks much after the manner of a cannon. Each 
 word leaves his mouth as though expelled by 
 a charge of powder, and is followed by a short 
 silence as though a reloading process was in 
 operation. 
 
 There was a pronounced difference between our 
 two colonels. Roosevelt was much the same at 
 all times. Wood was at ordinary times gentle, 
 soft-spoken, and almost jovial. In moments of 
 excitement he was stern, severe, and harsh. Col- 
 onel Wood has a gift of diplomacy that may some 
 day be utilized by the nation. Roosevelt's 
 methods are more direct. Wood asks advice but 
 seldom information. Roosevelt asks information 
 but never advice. It is not often that the latter 
 asks even information, and he does not like to 
 
44 
 
 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 have it volunteered. Except in routine work I 
 was almost useless to the latter as an adjutant. 
 He seemed to want to do everything himself. I 
 knew enough not to suggest, however. 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 DRILLING 
 
 The mosquitoes in Camp Wood were something 
 terrible and wonderful. The New Jersey mos- 
 quito is an amateur compared with his Texan 
 cousin. I bought a mosquito netting, determin- 
 ing to enjoy what sleep I could get. Conversing 
 with Colonel Wood on the subject I found that 
 he had one also, but was not using it as he thought 
 it would not look well in the eyes of the men. I 
 did not use mine, therefore, but bought a bottle 
 of rank smelling mosquito medicine, which I 
 rubbed on my face, hands, and arms. The odour 
 drove the mosquitoes away. It almost drove Col- 
 onel Roosevelt away, also. He had the moral cour- 
 age to use a mosquito netting and did not pat- 
 ronize the mosquito medicine used by the rest 
 of us. 
 
 About this time the regiment received a present 
 
 of two Colt rapid-fire guns. As I have the story, 
 
 they were presented by the sisters of Woodbury 
 
 Kane and one or two of the privates of " K " 
 
 45 
 
46 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 troop. The detail for them was, therefore, made 
 up from " K " troop. When Colonel Wood ex- 
 amined them he discovered that there was but a 
 limited supply of ammunition with them. We 
 could not use our ammunition in them, but the 
 Mauser bullet, which is a trifle smaller than our 
 own, fitted them exactly. 
 
 " All right," said Colonel Wood, " we'll capture 
 the ammunition for them from the Spaniards." 
 And this was actually done. At San Juan a large 
 supply of Spanish ammunition was captured by 
 the regiment and used in the guns against the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 As the " K " troop clubmen now had something 
 " more than the rest of the regiment " a joke had 
 to be played on them to make things even. As 
 already stated men had to be possessed of a pass 
 in order to leave camp. This they exhibited to 
 the sentinel at the sally port as they went out, 
 again on their return, and if they had overstayed 
 their time they were promptly marched to the 
 guard house. A smart sentinel took advantage of 
 the unsuspicious nature of some of the " K " troop 
 men, and insisted on taking up their passes as they 
 went out. When they returned another sentinel 
 was on post, they had no passes and were promptly 
 locked up. They were all men of social prominence 
 
DRILLING 47 
 
 in the East and every move they made was care- 
 fully noted by the papers. They were in great 
 fear, therefore, that the fact that they had been 
 locked up in the guard house would be published 
 broadcast, and they had several conniption fits 
 before matters were explained and they were 
 liberated. 
 
 The horses for the regiment were purchased be- 
 fore the arrival of the horse equipments. They 
 were all Western horses, most of them broncos 
 although a few were of mixed blood — half thor- 
 oughbreds. (As a matter of fact the bronco is of 
 mixed blood himself.) Troopers were sent from 
 our camp to Fort Sam Houston several times a 
 day to ride or drive the accepted horses to our 
 picket lines. As most of these horses were prac- 
 tically unbroken, the men were constantly perform- 
 ing feats of horsemanship that were truly remark- 
 able. A trooper would tie ten or twelve of the 
 horses head to head with the cheap, weak, rope 
 halters with which they were provided when pur- 
 chased. He would then jump on the bare back of 
 another, drive his own untamed steed with noth- 
 ing but a similar halter, and lead, at the same time, 
 the aforesaid eight or ten. There were some wild 
 times along the road. In some cases the horses 
 would be driven in herds through San Antonio. 
 
48 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Then there were even wilder times. On one occa- 
 sion forty horses were lost in a bunch. It was 
 late at night and during one of the fiercest thunder 
 storms I ever witnessed. I have seen it rain per- 
 pendicularly and at a number of angles with the 
 plane of the horizon. This was the only time I 
 ever saw it rain horizontally. I am not quite sure 
 but that it rained upward at a small angle rather 
 than downward. At any rate the camp was turned 
 into a lake in about half an hour and I, personally, 
 got a bath that w^as more thorough than cleanly. 
 I had to go out into the storm to check off the 
 few horses that arrived and to look after a waggon 
 load of rations that was stuck in the mud a couple 
 of hundred yards out of camp. The waggon had 
 to be left in the road. It was very wet bread that 
 the men had for breakfast next morning. All the 
 horses were found the next day save two. A 
 board of survey cleared me of responsibility for 
 these two and some others that were lost. Some 
 of them were found after the regiment had reached 
 Tampa, and we were ahead of the game just that 
 much. 
 
 As soon as a sufficient number of horses had 
 arrived the distribution to troops began. The 
 colours chosen by the different troops were as 
 follows : 
 

 
 DRILLING 
 
 49 
 
 "A" 
 
 Troop 
 
 Captain O'Neill 
 
 Bays. 
 
 u B" 
 
 << 
 
 Captain McClintock 
 
 Sorrels. 
 
 u C" 
 
 <( 
 
 Captain Alexander 
 
 Browns. 
 
 'D" 
 
 (( 
 
 Captain Huston 
 
 Grays. 
 
 " E" 
 
 « 
 
 Captain Muller 
 
 Sorrels. 
 
 « p »> 
 
 « 
 
 Captain Luna 
 
 Bays. 
 
 "G" 
 
 <( 
 
 Captain Llewellyn 
 
 Browns, 
 
 "H" 
 
 (( 
 
 Captain Curry- 
 
 Grays. 
 
 " I" 
 
 <( 
 
 Captain McGinnis 
 
 Browns. 
 
 "K" 
 
 <i 
 
 Captain Jenkins 
 
 Bays. 
 
 "L" 
 
 << 
 
 Captain Capron 
 
 Roans. 
 
 "M" 
 
 « 
 
 Captain Bruce 
 
 Sorrels. 
 
 There was not a troop in the regiment which 
 did not have what in the Western vernacular is 
 called the " rustling " spirit. The verb " to rustle " 
 means not only to work hard, but to " get what 
 you want " in some way or other. There was 
 considerable rivalry among the troops in choosing 
 horses. If one troop had a horse that looked 
 likely to another, and of a sufificiently proper colour, 
 the chances were that it would be found missing 
 from its picket line and another found in its stead 
 at the next morning stables. If not nabbed by 
 some other troop the next night, another morning 
 stables would find it back in its original place, 
 along with several others by way of retribution. 
 
50 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Likewise it was wonderful how some horses of 
 poor build would be found picketed out to a tree 
 by themselves, with no troop to do them honour. 
 A discovery of this kind would be accompanied 
 by a coincident discovery by some captain that he 
 had been charged with more horses than he really 
 had. All this was done while there was a regi- 
 mental stable guard. The dif^culties were over- 
 come by letting each troop have the usual stable 
 guard. 
 
 After this in each troop the men drew by lots 
 for horses. Well it was for those who had the 
 pick of the lot ; but it was quite different with 
 those who were unlucky enough to stand low or 
 lowest in the list. These usually got equine 
 devils, though none of the mounts were prepared 
 by disposition or training to join the heavenly 
 choir. Frantic efforts were made to get rid of the 
 worst, and some were condemned together with a 
 few pack mules that were totally unfit for paradise. 
 
 While the squadrons were forming for squadron 
 drill one day, the headquarters and staff officers 
 had foregathered near the picket lines. One 
 trooper had been left behind by his troop, and 
 was vainly trying to mount his bronco, some short 
 distance away. He w^ould put his foot in the 
 stirrup and prepare to mount. But the moment 
 
DRILLING 51 
 
 the horse felt the slightest weight he would 
 lie gracefully down. Time after time the man 
 tried to mount, at the same time looking appeal- 
 ingly at Colonels Wood and Roosevelt. He was 
 making a desperate play to have that horse con- 
 demned, and he thought he had a golden oppor- 
 tunity. Although we were all biting our lips to 
 suppress our laughter none of us appeared to be 
 observing the manoeuvres of the trooper and his 
 horse. At length he approached Colonel Wood 
 and saluted, saying : 
 
 "Colonel, it's utterly impossible to ride this 
 horse. He lies down every time I try to get on him." 
 
 Of course the Colonel had made up his mind to 
 have the animal condemned, but he answered the 
 man jokingly : 
 
 " Why, that horse looks all right. Get right on 
 him." 
 
 Quite confident that a repetition of the lying- 
 down trick would convince the Colonel, the man 
 made another effort to mount. The horse stood 
 as rigid as a rock — and the disgusted rider gal- 
 loped off to his troop. The horse, however, was 
 condemned later. 
 
 While the horses bought for the regiment were 
 small as a rule, they were of the hardy, rough stock 
 that stands exposure and hard work year in and 
 
52 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 year out in the far West. They could and would 
 eat almost anything. It was dismal work trying 
 to fatten them, however. They will not acquire 
 flesh. Their food seems to turn at once into 
 energy. By a peculiar arrangement the regiment 
 did possess some very fine horses, however, of a 
 bluer blood. Many of the Eastern men brought 
 or bought their own horses, valued up in the 
 hundreds, and sold them to the government at the 
 rates that were being paid by the purchasing 
 board for Western horses, with the agreement, of 
 course, that these horses should be assigned to 
 them. By such an arrangement a private (a man 
 of considerable notoriety) came to ride the finest 
 horse in the regiment. 
 
 The ability of the men to ride saved many 
 months of time, and the ease with which they 
 learned the mounted drill was wonderful. Regi- 
 mental drill began about tv/o weeks after the ar- 
 rival of the first squadron, and was held, mounted, 
 practically every day thereafter. It usually lasted 
 from three to four hours, and almost always in- 
 cluded a practice march. There were squadron 
 and troop drills also, battle formations in bodies 
 from a squad up to a regiment, and also dis- 
 mounted drills and practice with the manual of 
 arms. These drills, added to the unceasing duties 
 
DRILLING 53 
 
 of ordinary routine work, kept the men busy from 
 reveille till taps. 
 
 The first casualties occurred in Camp Wood. 
 Marshall Bird, one of the best riders in the regi- 
 ment, was thrown by a runaway horse he had 
 been riding bareback with a halter. The horse 
 made a dash through the sally-port at a tree, 
 made an abrupt halt, and Bird went on head first 
 into the tree. He suffered a broken skull and 
 concussion of the brain. Though his life was 
 despaired of, he eventually pulled through, but 
 had to be mustered out. On May 26th Irad 
 Cochran died of spinal meningitis and the first 
 funeral service in the regiment was conducted in 
 the main building at the fair grounds, by Chaplain 
 Brown. On Sundays divine service was held in 
 the same building, and on one occasion the 
 " Fighting Bishop " of Texas held services there, 
 proclaiming earnestly that the war was a holy 
 war, and bidding the men do their duty for that 
 reason and not from a spirit of revenge on account 
 of the destruction of the Maine. 
 
 Toward the latter end of camp the work of the 
 regiment had become fairly methodical — wonder- 
 fully so considering the time the men had been 
 together. Lieutenant Schwaizer relieved me as 
 Regimental Quartermaster, and I was appointed 
 
54 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Adjutant and relieved of all other duties. At this 
 time I also had the good fortune to get a sergeant 
 major from the regulars. This was ist Sergeant- 
 Ernest Stecker and he was a great help. A 
 regular commissary sergeant was temporarily 
 assigned to the regiment and the troops were 
 rationed with much more regularity and taught 
 how to make their rations last to the best advan- 
 tage. Our troop cooks, like all other American 
 cooks, were inclined to be wasteful. The work in 
 the Adjutant's office had developed, however, and 
 I v.-as in but little better shape, so far as personal 
 labour was concerned, than I had been before. In 
 fact there were some disadvantages. When I 
 held my triple and quadruple offices the Quarter- 
 master could get anything he wanted from the 
 Adjutant and the Adjutant anything he wanted 
 from the Quartermaster without the fear of an 
 argument, disagreement, refusal — even without the 
 speaking of a word. Now all this was changed. 
 I soon learned that the office of adjutant was not 
 a particularly desirable one, and I often envied the 
 men in ranks. Hereafter when I hear of a man 
 being appointed adjutant of a regiment I shall 
 sympathize with him. He is the buffer between 
 headquarters and the rest of the regiment, and God 
 have mercy on him. It matters not how amiable 
 
DRILLING 55 
 
 his superiors and inferiors in office may be, the 
 adjutant is " in for it " all around the block. To 
 be sure there was a slight increase of pay over the 
 ordinary pay of a 1st Lieutenant, but none of us 
 volunteered for the pay, and, if I personally had, 
 it would have proved a very poor business arrange- 
 ment, as the campaign and the fever that followed 
 cost me about twice as much as I drew from the 
 government, and the fever nearly turned my toes 
 to the daisies. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 WAITING 
 
 The behaviour of all the men was wonderfully 
 good during the trying times of organisation. 
 Some things went wrong, of course, but that was 
 to be expected. 
 
 A troop commander would complain that his 
 men had had no bread for two days. An investi- 
 gation would discover the fact that his sergeant 
 had failed to send in his bread tickets. On one 
 occasion a man brought a small bunch of them to 
 me that he had picked up on the parade ground. 
 As there had been an unusual amount of trouble 
 in the bread matter, I went to the post baker at 
 Fort Sam Houston and discovered that he owed 
 bread to nearly eveiy troop in the regiment. It 
 was all there, they simply had not drawn it. After 
 the situation was explained to the men, the vari- 
 ous sergeants in charge of those matters made no 
 more mistakes. 
 
 Then the contractor who supplied the beef be- 
 gan trying to turn an occasional penny by furnish- 
 
 56 
 
WAITING 57 
 
 ing meat that was not according to contract 
 regulations. He had to be pulled up short. 
 
 These matters ar? mentioned to show what an 
 enormous amount of minutiae the few experi- 
 enced ofificers in the regiment had to attend to. 
 
 The regimental commander was not exempt 
 himself. He even had to settle a quarrel and a 
 fight between two men who were obliged to eat 
 out of the same plate with the instruments that 
 Nature provided before she did knives and forks. 
 These men had been fast friends. The stew re- 
 sulted from the eating of a stew, I believe, and 
 the larger man got the best parts on his side of 
 the plate. After the fight and a little cooling 
 down in the guard house. Colonel Wood gave 
 them a lecture, got them both to crying, and sent 
 them back to their troop fast friends again. 
 
 It was a difficult thing for the captains of the 
 various troops to provide troop cooks. Practi- 
 cally all of the men could cook, and cook well, 
 over a camp fire when they had to do so, but 
 none of them wished to take the job. The pre- 
 vailing ignorance was astonishing to me, for I had 
 once been a cowboy myself, and knew what a 
 necessity it was for every frontiersman to know 
 how to cook. 
 
 The matter was soon explained, however. The 
 
58 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 men wished to get all the drill they could, and if 
 they were detailed as cooks they would of neces- 
 sity miss more or less of the drilling. They were 
 imaginative enough to fear, also, that later they 
 would miss some of the fighting. On San Juan 
 Hill, when every man had to cook for himself 
 for a time, the sudden acquirement of a knowl- 
 edge of cookery was equally amazing. 
 
 As a matter of course the Easterners had to be 
 initiated into the Ancient and Honourable Order 
 of Cowboys. The main part of the initiation was 
 undertaken by the various first sergeants who de- 
 tailed them mercilessly on fatigue duty and put 
 them at waiting on table (the dusty earth was 
 usually the table) and washing dishes. The East- 
 erners, club men and college men were thorough- 
 breds, however, and never winced. As a result 
 they won so much respect that the initiation was 
 soon dropped. 
 
 The club men and college boys had plenty of 
 money, however, and they patronised a camp 
 Delmonico freely. This man was the keeper of 
 the grounds, and lived with his family in a house 
 at the entrance or sally-port. He converted his 
 residence into an eating-house, and coined money 
 as he never did before in all probability. He was 
 a singular character, but knew how to make hay 
 
WAITING 59 
 
 while the sun shone. He was on pins and needles 
 during the camp for fear that the stern hand of 
 authority would forbid the men from patronising 
 his extem^porised establishment. Consequently 
 he was most polite to headquarters, and I have to 
 thank him for the loan of two lanterns, a small 
 lamp, and supplies of oil and wicks for the same. 
 
 In fear that his secret satisfaction over his busi- 
 ness venture would be discovered, however, lie 
 never met anyone from headquarters without a 
 complaint concerning the borrowing of his various 
 utensils by the men, and the annoyance of their 
 congregating about his house. He v;as willing, 
 though, he would aver, to do anything he could 
 to help the boys along ; but it was a great nuis- 
 ance, etc., etc. He overdid his part, and came 
 near killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. 
 
 It was a local band that made " A Hot Time " 
 the regimental air. It was conducted by a fat, 
 jolly little German who must have had that song 
 on the brain, for the band never visited camp 
 without playing it several times. It v/as a joke 
 at first, but eventually matured into the regi- 
 mental air. It may be said right here to the 
 credit of the regiment, that several pieces of brag- 
 gadocio doggerel that have been accredited to the 
 Rough Riders were unknown. They were prob- 
 
6o FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ably the creation of some journalist who never 
 saw Cuba except on a map. As a matter of fact 
 the men were particularly subdued, and only 
 those who were familiar with the breed were 
 aware of the latent devil in them when once 
 properly started. 
 
 There was no boasting in the regiment of what 
 it intended to do, but rather a very strong deter- 
 mination to do. Nor did the men call them- 
 selves " Rough Riders." The different contin- 
 gents came to camp wearing simple crimson 
 badges, upon which was printed : 
 
 1ST U. S. Volunteer Cavalry, 
 Arizona Contingent ; 
 or in place of " Arizona " whatever other territory 
 they came from. The officers wore hatbands 
 instead of badges, and I managed to beg a price- 
 less souvenir of the war — the hatband of Captain 
 ** Bucky " O'Neill, v/ho was killed at San Juan. 
 This I sent to a little lady in the North. Two 
 days before he was killed I got a letter from her 
 which I read to him, and in which she said that 
 she had put it around a bust of Napoleon, and 
 that it was the proudest decoration Napoleon 
 ever wore. 
 
 There was a satisfied twinkle in O'Neill's eyes 
 when I read this to him ; but two days later when 
 
WAITING 6i 
 
 I passed by his body at San Juan and stooped to 
 raise the hat from his poor head, I couldn't read 
 any satisfaction in the glazed eyes that looked 
 back at me. He was of the type whose soldierly 
 fault is their useless bravery — a knight of chivalry 
 in the dirty brown jeans of a Rough Rider. 
 
 There are always just so many men like him 
 among American volunteers. They serve to teach 
 a little common sense to the rest, they inspire 
 poets, make the heart of a nation throb more 
 keenly for a moment or two, and do the world 
 some good by adding to its fine feeling and sym- 
 pathy for their widows and children. But they 
 are useless as soldiers when they are dead ; and, 
 unfortunately, they take with them their thinking 
 brains and influence upon their men. 
 
 Their widows draw a pension of $20 a month, 
 I believe (v/hen they are widows of captains). It 
 seems an absurdly small sum. How many little 
 mouths will it feed besides a widow's ? And how 
 many little bodies will it keep warm ? How many 
 little minds will it educate ? 
 
 One can get a military title by presenting the 
 government with a battery of artillery. Why 
 should not the same title be given to a man who 
 would devote the same amount of money to help- 
 ing care for the widows and orphaned children of 
 
62 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 dead soldiers ? One thing is certain, however. 
 Since this last war there will be very much less 
 growling among the people about the pension list 
 of the civil v/ar. Another generation has seen the 
 horror of national conflict. 
 
 The first uproar in camp of any moment, oc- 
 curred when the orders came to start for Tampa. 
 The regiment had been in existence less than a 
 month, but already every one was filled with 
 typical American impatience to be off for the front, 
 Europeans used to laugh at our soldiers of the 
 civil war for calling themselves veterans after but 
 four years of experience. They do not under- 
 stand the American idea. Not a soul in the regi- 
 ment cared a whit that we had had no time for 
 target practice and that the guns were of a de- 
 scription the men had never seen before. The 
 men were expert shots, and the guns were guns, 
 and, as we thought then, the best made. That 
 was enough. 
 
 But one troop was not sufTficiently supplied with 
 arms. This was " M " troop. None of the troops 
 w'ere supplied with machetes as had been origin- 
 ally intended. Later the detail assigned to the 
 Colt rapid-fire guns was armed with them, and 
 from an inspection of them it was evident that we 
 lost nothing by not carrying them. The speci- 
 
WAITING 6s 
 
 mens supplied were duller than the service sabre, 
 shorter, and more unwieldy. It was supposed that 
 they would be useful in cutting through Cuban 
 jungles, cutting firewood, and so forth. That 
 would have necessitated sharpening them, which 
 is a very doubtful procedure under the laws of 
 war. 
 
 The machetes used by the Cubans were sharp- 
 ened for domestic use before the war and were of 
 value to them in ever^' way but in fighting. De- 
 spite all the reports in the sensational journals of 
 our country the Cubans never made a real machete 
 charge during the three years of their war. Ac- 
 cording to Sylvester Scovil, who braved the jungles 
 of Cuba and their deadly fevers for years in the 
 service of the Netc; York World, they once got 
 within 70 yards of the Spanish lines in a machete 
 charge and then broke and fled. That they were 
 used in other ways there is but too much reason 
 to believe. 
 
 There was but one hitch in the organisation of 
 the regiment. By law the Articles of War must 
 be read to enlisted men within a specified time 
 after their enlistment. In the pell-mell haste this 
 v/as forgotten. Captain Llewellyn called the at- 
 tention of headquarters to the fact, and the 
 articles were promptly read by the several squad- 
 
64 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ron commanders to their squadrons, probably to 
 the intense disgust of the perspiring men who had 
 to stand at attention and listen. Undoubtedly 
 they would one and all have been willing to take 
 a single word for the deed. They all possessed 
 the average American's dislike for red tape. 
 
 On account of this oversight it is probable that 
 no man in the regiment could properly be court- 
 martialled afterwards. It is to the everlasting 
 credit of the men in ranks that no one ever thought 
 of availing himself of the opportunity. It is pos- 
 sible that if any men had deserted they could not 
 have been punished legally. In fact the very few 
 men who did desert left the regiment at San 
 Antonio, at Tampa, or while en route from the 
 former station to the latter. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 EN ROUTE TO TAMPA 
 
 The orders to proceed to Tampa were received 
 on the 28th of May, 1898, but a trifle over three 
 weeks after the arrival of the first contingent. 
 Preparations were immmediately commenced to 
 break camp and take train early on the next morn- 
 ing. A contract was made with a series of con- 
 necting railroads that agreed to get us to Tampa 
 in three days, furnishing good accommodations 
 for men, officers, horses and baggage and plenty 
 of opportunity to water the horses en route. The 
 roads kept their contract in hardly any particular. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 29th, camp was 
 
 broken, and during the day the squadrons in turn 
 
 were marched to the stockyards over a road ankle 
 
 deep in dust and hot with the summer sun of 
 
 Texas. Each squadron policed its camp before 
 
 moving, burning all refuse and leaving the fair 
 
 grounds in as good a condition as they were when 
 
 turned over to us. Upon the arrival of the first 
 
 squadron it was discovered that the first of the five 
 5 6s 
 
66 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 sections of cars which was to move the regiment 
 had not yet been made up, and the cars for the 
 other sections had not yet been switched to the 
 yards. 
 
 A long, tiresome wait resulted, and it was after- 
 noon before the first section pulled out. The 
 sleeping car for the of^cers of the first section was 
 on a side track, however, and those who v/ere to 
 go on this section had an opportunity to clean up 
 before the start, a welcome opportunity, for it had 
 been a continual fight to keep clean in Camp 
 Wood. It was a buffet car, too, and we sat dovv'n 
 to a moderately civilized lunch for the first time 
 since we had left the San Antonio hotel. The 
 buffet car was provisioned for three days, and as 
 no preparations were made to renew the supply 
 we had to " hustle for our grub " later in the trip. 
 
 Colonel Wood and headquarters went with the 
 first section, with the exception of Colonel Roose- 
 velt, vv'ho came on with the last and spurred it on 
 with his accustomed energy. The first section 
 left the others far behind at first ; but they all 
 caught up, and at Tampa piled in one on top of 
 the other, so that the entire regiment arrived the 
 same afternoon and night at its destination. 
 
 Each section was composed of a number of 
 stock-cars for the horses, and of baggage-cars and 
 
EN ROUTE TO TAMPA 6j 
 
 day-coaches for the men, who were crowded into 
 them unmercifully but who made no complaint. 
 They were so worried for fear they would not get 
 to Cuba that they were willing to put up with any 
 amount of discomfort. Most of the sections had a 
 sleeping car attached for the officers. Some had 
 not, however, and the officers slept on their camp 
 bedding in the baggage cars. 
 
 The men were supplied with the ordinary travel 
 ration and the adjutant of each squadron was 
 given '' coffee money " with which to buy hot 
 coffee at various points. It was the first experience 
 of most of the men with the travel ration, and 
 they got their eye teeth cut on that particular kind 
 of food. Most of the money they had with them 
 went for other and better food, and the hardtack 
 was given away in great quantities en route as 
 souvenirs. It was the regiment's first experience, 
 too, with the water question, for the tanks in the 
 cars did not hold enough, and the parched-throated 
 men would go hours in the intense heat without 
 water. They were kept in their cars, too, under 
 strict orders to the sentries at the doors, except 
 when they were needed to help water horses. 
 Their patience under such conditions was won- 
 derful. 
 
 Throughout Texas the trip was an ovation. 
 
68 FUN- AND FIGHTING 
 
 Through every town we passed most of the popu- 
 lation turned out to see us. It was a continuous 
 performance with every number much the same. 
 The young girls of the various towns dressed in 
 white were ranged along the depot platforms and 
 pelted men and officers alike with flowers, while 
 the citizens seldom forgot that the men might be 
 hungry. 
 
 An entire cake would be traded for a couple of 
 hardtack with satisfaction to both parties. Flirta- 
 tions resulted, of course, and I would not like to 
 guess at the number of buttons missing from the 
 uniforms when the regiment arrived at Tampa or 
 even at New Orleans. At one place where we 
 stopped to water horses one officer was discovered 
 playing the gallant to no less than thirteen young 
 ladies. It was an unlucky number, for he was a 
 married man, and the other officers promptly in- 
 formed the girls to that effect, to the disgust of the 
 officer and the prompt retirement of the girls. 
 
 At another place, and one of some considerable 
 importance, the belle of the town walked down 
 the line of cars between her father and mother, 
 who were the most influential people in the town. 
 A group of officers were playing cards in the sleep- 
 ing car, but being informed that the belle of the 
 town was en evidence, stopped to take a look at 
 
EN ROUTE TO TAMPA 69 
 
 her as she passsed, holding their cards meanwhile 
 very close to their shirt fronts, for they were not 
 playing " old maid." The young lady upon per- 
 ceiving the cards assumed a look of great disgust and 
 exclaimed, " Well, I don't see how any good can 
 come from men who would do that." The officers 
 were nonplussed. But the words were spoken 
 mainly for parental delight. As soon as the trio 
 had passed the window^ she turned slyly, smiled, 
 and threw a kiss to the officers, and they serenely 
 continued their game. 
 
 The storming of the cars with flowers was so 
 general that the men and cars alike were soon 
 flower bedecked. The flowers were worn in each 
 buttonhole, pinned to the coat, stuck in the hatband 
 and carried in the hand. It was a royal send-off 
 that Texas gave the Rough Riders. It will never 
 be forgotten. She could have done no more for 
 her own sons. 
 
 At New Orleans many of the men saw the 
 Mississippi for the first time. Here a long stop 
 was made to water horses at the stockyards, and 
 every one who had money got more or less of a 
 chance for a square meal. 
 
 Before the first section pulled out of New 
 Orleans the second section pulled in. They had 
 had a rougher trip than the first section but had 
 
yo FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 made better time. As the first section passed 
 through the outskirts of the city, it was greeted 
 by cheers from the people who lined the track and 
 by waving handkerchiefs from every window. 
 
 One old grey-headed woman stood by the track 
 and shouted, " God bless you, boys," as each car 
 passed her. From New Orleans on, we were still 
 the subject of some curiosity but the ovation 
 ceased as if by command. Whether this was due 
 to memories of the " late unpleasantness " be- 
 tween North and South or to the actions of the 
 regiment that preceded us on the rails this de- 
 ponent saith not. Indeed he knoweth not. 
 
 The run through the Eastern Gulf States was 
 devoid of much incident but was particularly hard 
 on men and animals. There were few stations 
 where the horses could be watered ; and, where 
 there were means to do so, they v/ere crude and 
 inadequate. On some occasions it took six hours 
 and more to feed and water. The country was 
 equally disappointing to our commissariat, for the 
 buffet had about given out and the officers were 
 getting hungry. We bought what we could, but 
 as a rule that was not much. There had been 
 plenty of time to re-stock the buffet car at New 
 Orleans, but the sleeping-car people had not both- 
 ered to do so. 
 
EN ROUTE TO TAMPA 71 
 
 We were now in the hands of the railroads, and 
 began to really appreciate their importance and 
 our own utter insignificance. To add to the vexa- 
 tions of the really suffering men the train ran 
 slower and slower, and there were more frequent 
 delays. And at nearly every stop the second sec- 
 tion would pull in behind us and tell us that the 
 third section had been sighted by them but a 
 trifle in the rear. 
 
 At one stop we had an amusing experience with 
 our morphine fiend. His supply of the drug had 
 run out, and he was in more or less agony. He 
 was a doctor in civil life, though but a trooper with 
 us, and he took the opportunity of a long stop to 
 hire a boy to take a prescription to town — the 
 prescription being of course for morphine. The 
 boy got the morphine, but returning to the train 
 with it forgot which car contained his patron. 
 He inquired for the doctor and was sent to Dr. 
 La Motte, the ranking surgeon of the regiment. 
 The doctor was of course amazed on receiving the 
 package of morphine, but shrewdly suspected what 
 was the matter. A watch was immediately set 
 over the man. He, too, guessed what had hap- 
 pened, called to the boy, gave him another pre- 
 scription and sent him on a repetition of the 
 errand. This time the boy was collared on his 
 
;2 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 return and the morphine taken away from him. 
 The man was eventually dismissed. 
 
 The prevailing quiet with which the regiment 
 was received on its trip east from New Orleans 
 was broken at Tallahassee, Florida. Here the 
 regiment stopped for the better part of a day, it 
 being necessary to take the horses from the cars 
 in order to water them. The citizens of the town 
 entertained many of the officers, and the men 
 were well received, too. In fact every one got a 
 good square meal here, a " real cooked meal," the 
 cooking being done over camp fires. Fresh meat 
 and vegetables were easily obtained and much 
 latent ability in the culinary art Avas discovered. 
 
 Between Tallahassee and Tampa there was but 
 one incident worthy of mention. During one of 
 the numerous and seemingly unnecessary stops a 
 farmer drove alongside the train with a load of 
 watermelons that he was peddling. The men 
 bought them eagerly. A sudden start necessitated 
 a quick return of the men to the cars, and as many 
 as five melons, perhaps, were unpaid for. At the 
 time the farmer did not seem to mind this fact. 
 Indeed he seemed exceedingly pleased at the 
 thriving business he had done. No doubt his 
 friends showed him later how he could acquire a 
 fortune by one bold stroke, for he magnified the 
 
EN ROUTE TO TAMPA n 
 
 occurrence and sent a bill to Washington for 
 something in the neighbourhood of $150, which 
 would not only have paid for all the melons he had 
 but for his vv-aggon and horse, harness and clothes, 
 and perhaps raised the mortgage on his farm. 
 
 It is not of record that he got any satisfaction, 
 though the bill was forwarded by the War De- 
 partment to the commanding officer of the regi- 
 ment, who explained the matter. As a matter 
 of fact the writer is not at all certain that there was 
 a single melon taken that was not paid for. It 
 is extremely frigid weather when the innocent 
 citizen of these United States loses an oppor- 
 tunity to make a claim against Uncle Sam, if he 
 has the ghost of a basis for the claim. And it 
 was almost tropical in Florida at this time. 
 
 All throughout the weary journey through the 
 South the men and officers diverted themselves 
 with singing, about the only amusement they 
 could get except smoking. With the men in the 
 cars ahead " John Brown's Body " was the fa- 
 vourite, and the way that song was sung was some- 
 thing to remember. It drowned the roar of the 
 engine and the rattle of the cars, and must have 
 awakened memories even in the silent woods and 
 swamps. 
 
 The favourite songs among the officers were 
 
74 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 " On the Road To Mandalay" and " The Little 
 Black Sheep," so we carried Kipling with us. 
 These songs were introduced by Lieutenant Hal 
 Sayre of Harvard, who had left college within two 
 months of certain graduation to become a Rough 
 Rider. Young, slight, and apparently delicate, 
 Sayre had the pluck of a football captain. He 
 was one of the first of the ofificers to purchase a 
 mount and he got a particularly vicious one. 
 The first time he tried to ride the animal at San 
 Antonio it flung him very prettily. The men yelled 
 with delight. They were not at that time partic- 
 ularly pleased at the idea of being officered by 
 any one from the East with the exception of 
 Colonels Wood and Roosevelt. But Sayre calmly 
 mounted the animal again and conquered it, for 
 which he was roundly cheered. He had charge 
 of the transfer of horses from Fort Sam Houston 
 to the camp and was in the saddle most of the 
 time. He usually started before breakfast and 
 seldom got back until after supper. Where or 
 when he ate was a mystery. I know v/here he 
 slept. He would curl up in his saddle blanket 
 on a pile of hay and sleep without removing 
 clothes, shoes or leggings. He was an influential 
 man in his class and induced a great many Har- 
 vard men to enter the regiment. 
 
EN ROUTE TO TAMPA 75 
 
 The officers had intended to suig the " Suwanee 
 River " when they crossed that stream, which is as 
 inseparably conected with the song as the Danube 
 is with the famous waltz. But they found that it 
 Vv-Quld be crossed in the small hours of the morn- 
 ing and most of them went to sleep. Not so 
 with Lieutenant Weakley of " F " Troop. He 
 had strong ideas on the subject of " fitting occa- 
 sions" and he rem.ained awake. Ju.st before the 
 stream was crossed he awakened the sleepers, and 
 the yawning and perhaps swearing oflficers sang 
 the song. 
 
 It has been stated that the horses were neg- 
 lected on this trip. It was one of the first criti- 
 cisms made on the regiment when it reached 
 Tampa. Such was not the case. The welfare of 
 the horses was insisted on, and they were disem,- 
 barked at Tampa looking almost as well as they 
 did at San Antonio. When bought they were 
 fresh from the range and most of them lean and 
 gaunt. There had been no time to fatten them, 
 and as a matter of fact it is almost impossible to 
 fatten that kind of horse under any circumstances. 
 I have seen it tried by putting them for months 
 at a time in a cavalry stable and feeding and 
 treating them precisely as the regular cavalry 
 mounts were treated, and they were practically 
 
;6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 as lean when they were removed as when they 
 entered. 
 
 The only thing a Western horse stores up is 
 kinetic energy. Where he keeps it is a mystery, 
 but that it is there any one can swear who has 
 tried to ride one after a month's rest. He not only 
 can swear but he will eloquently, artistically, 
 emphatically. There were a great many young 
 men (and some old ones) around Tampa who 
 didn't know what they were talking about. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IN CAMP AT TAMPA 
 
 The first section of the multiple train bearing 
 the Rough Riders reached Tampa on the after- 
 noon of June 2d and had its first experience 
 with the amazing incompetency with which 
 matters military were run in that now historic 
 little town almost immediately. We slowed down 
 in a tangle of cars a couple of miles from the 
 depot. Colonel Wood had telegraphed the time 
 of our arrival to headquarters, but there was no 
 one to meet us, not even a messenger to tell us 
 where to go or where we would find facilities for 
 unloading our horses. 
 
 After waiting until his patience was exhausted 
 
 the Colonel walked into town. While he was 
 
 gone a number of cavalry ofificers, representatives 
 
 from the headquarters of the Cavalry Division, 
 
 including, I think, Generals Wheeler and Sumner, 
 
 rode down to us. They concluded that it was too 
 
 late to put us in the camp selected for us that 
 
 77 
 
78 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 night, so we were pushed back to a corral in the 
 suburbs of the town and began disembarking. 
 
 A camping ground was selected on the left of 
 the corral, and the baggage was hustled from the 
 baggage cars in short order. With equal despatch 
 the horses of the first section were led from the 
 cars and picketed to ground ropes stretched 
 between stumps of trees. We had fortunately- 
 carried with us an extra supply of hay and grain, 
 and there was just about enough to go around ; 
 so the horses were watered and given a good 
 square meal at once. Section after section now 
 piled in and the work of unloading was going on 
 nearly all night. Few of the men got any rest 
 at all. 
 
 In the morning there was a skirmish for drink- 
 ing water which was eventually obtained at some 
 of the isolated houses in the neighbourhood. 
 Many of the officers got a breakfast, such as it 
 was, at a Casino about half a mile distant. 
 
 It was comparatively late in the morning when 
 camp was broken. The horses of the various 
 troops were necessarily mixed up more or less, 
 and Colonel Roosevelt had lost track of his two 
 chargers entirely. They were sorted out event- 
 ually and the pack train loaded with what it 
 could carry of the regiment's impedimenta — which 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 79 
 
 was not much. The rest was left on the cars in 
 charge of a guard. Nearly all the rations brought 
 with us were thus left, it being supposed we 
 would have no difficulty in getting teams from 
 headquarters to transport them to camp, the exact 
 location of which we did not then know. 
 
 Lieutenant Weakley (he of the Suwanee River 
 " fitting occasion ") v^-as one of the officers left in 
 charge of the guard over the stores. It was not 
 until the next day that teams were procured, and 
 just as they arrived the engineer of the train re- 
 ceived orders to take it irom that point and 
 abandon it. Weakley drew his revolver and per- 
 suaded the engineer in a manner more forcible 
 than polite to remain where he was until the cars 
 were entirely unloaded. He was a very efficient 
 officer but had the ill luck to be left behind at 
 Tampa when the two favoured squadrons went to 
 Cuba. 
 
 Camp being broken the regiment formed, 
 marched into Tampa and through it to Tampa 
 Bay, past the Tampa Bay Hotel where head 
 quarters of the entire command Vv-as situated, and 
 on to the headquarters of the Cavalry Division. 
 On the march the regiment was wildly cheered by 
 apparently an entire regiment of foot soldiers who 
 were standing on top of several trains of freight 
 
8o FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 cars about a quarter of a mile away. It was some 
 New York Regiment, and with all New York 
 Regiments the Rough Riders were popular on 
 Roosevelt's account. 
 
 At Division headquarters Captain Steele of the 
 Division Staff guided us to the camping ground, 
 which was a level stretch of sandy ground dotted 
 with the carcasses of defunct cows and horses. 
 The regiment was halted in column of fours, 
 column of troops was formed from the halt and 
 the troop picket lines stretched immediately in 
 front of the troops as they stood after dismount- 
 ing. The little shelter tents of each troop were 
 pitched midway between the picket line of the 
 troop and that next in rear. Field officers' 
 quarters and headquarters were established on the 
 left flank. The camp soon looked all right from 
 a distance, save that headquarters of the regiment 
 and of the different squadrons were represented 
 only by saddles and bridles. 
 
 There was now another hustle for water to 
 drink and a far greater hustle for something to 
 eat. Colonel Wood and the Quartermaster took 
 the most active part in the hustle for the latter, 
 but it was not until late in the afternoon that they 
 managed to get waggons and send rations back to 
 the men. In the meantime various officers sent 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 8i 
 
 into town and bought enough for the men to 
 lunch on. Headquarters had nothing to eat and 
 had to beg of the men. That night I slept in my 
 saddle blanket with my saddle for a pillow. I 
 did not need the strains of reveille to wake me. 
 The next day, however, our tenting, which con- 
 sisted of waggon sheets, arrived with our baggage, 
 and with it the one condemned tent that we used 
 for an Adjutant's Office. After that we were as 
 comfortable as possible under the circumstances. 
 
 It was a sorry camping place. The dry sandy 
 soil was almost devoid of grass. It was filled with 
 minute pieces of charcoal, the remnants of forest 
 fires, that blackened everything that came in con- 
 tact with them. It was oppressively hot in the 
 daytime, but at night the mosquitoes were not 
 quite so bad as at San Antonio. Our horses had 
 to be watered at the troughs of other cavalry 
 regiments some distance away, and drinking and 
 cooking water, in fact all water, had to be brought 
 from quite a distance. Water-pipes were laid in a 
 few days, troughs constructed, and the camp was 
 beginning to get into very fair shape when the 
 major part of the regiment was ordered to Cuba. 
 In this camp, too, the company kitchens were put 
 on a satisfactory basis, the food was better cooked 
 and the cooks had learned how to make it go 
 
82 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 further. We learned soon after our arrival that 
 we had been brigaded with the ist and loth Cav- 
 alry and with them formed the 2d Brigade of the 
 Cavalry Division of the 5th corps, General Young 
 commanding our brigade and General Wheeler the 
 Division. The other two regiments and brigade 
 headquarters were at Lakeside, and we did not 
 actually join our brigade until we arrived at Dai- 
 quiri, Cuba. 
 
 The camps of all other regiments at Tampa were 
 open to visitors, and one could cross a sentry post 
 anywhere. It was absolutely necessary that no 
 time be wasted in the instruction of the men of 
 our regiment in guard duty, however, and the 
 strictest guard discipline was maintained by Col- 
 onel Wood's express orders. Visitors were per- 
 mitted to enter and leave camp only at the guard 
 tent, and then they had to have written permission. 
 At night the sentries were furnished with ball 
 cartridges and ordered to fire in case their orders 
 to halt and their challenges were not properly and 
 promptly obeyed and answered. The men were 
 nothing loath to shoot and strollers gave us a 
 wide berth. 
 
 Newspaper correspondents, artists and photog- 
 raphers were supplied with written passes. Fred- 
 erick Remington, when handed his, remarked that 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 83 
 
 it was the first time he ever had to get a pass to 
 enter a camp of American soldiers. He also de- 
 clared that the regiment looked just like any other 
 regiment of cavalry, which was something of a 
 compliment, but expressed his disappointment at 
 not finding any types. He would have found 
 plenty of types if he had looked more carefully. 
 In fact he eventually did. 
 
 Women were forbidden the camp, the only ex- 
 ceptions that I know of being the wife of one of 
 our majors, the wife of our Lieutenant-Colonel 
 and a friend of hers who was the wife of one of 
 our troopers. A female nevvspaper correspondent 
 stormed our works ; indeed she not only stormed 
 but raved, but she did not get in. 
 
 Drills were immediately resumed, but for the 
 first few days the men did much worse both at 
 drills and at guard mounting than they had at San 
 Antonio. The difficulty v/as that they were in the 
 presence of the regulars and had a wholesale attack 
 of stage fright. This soon wore off. At almost 
 every drill we were watched by the military at- 
 taches of the foreign governments v/ho seemed es- 
 pecially interested in this queer body of American 
 Cossacks. They wanted everything explained to 
 them and took numerous photographs. 
 
 The pack train was a mystery to the smartest of 
 
84 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 them and the throwing of the " Diamond hitch" 
 quite bewildering — which it is to every one who is 
 not an expert packer. They were, however, all 
 greatly impressed by the rough and ready appear- 
 ance of both camp and men and were generous in 
 their compliments. They agreed that the regiment 
 looked much more like business than the regulars, 
 and they were not backward about saying so. 
 
 To the men of our regiment the regulars seemed 
 a favoured people. They had more to eat than we 
 had and more variety. They lived in tents many 
 of which had board floors, and their camps were 
 marvels of neatness and propriety Their horses 
 were big, strong and fat ; they had bands to amuse 
 them, they did not drill as much as we did and 
 their men could go to town almost whenever they 
 wanted to and " had the price." There was no 
 grumbling however, merely a slight surprise. 
 
 Officers' school and school for the non-commis- 
 sioned officers had been started at San Antonio. 
 Captain Capron taught the former and the com- 
 pany commanders, the latter. Capron taught of 
 guard duty, outpost duty, advance and rear guard 
 duty and something of minor tacties. The cap- 
 tains taught guard duty and drill regulations to 
 their subordinates. 
 
 The photograph fiends were omnipresent, and 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 85 
 
 the regiment was photographed almost as many 
 times as, afterwards, it was shot at. The men were 
 photographed, standing, sitting and lying down, 
 awake and sleeping, eating, chewing, smoking, talk- 
 ing, walking, riding, washing, shaving, and I know 
 not what not. 
 
 Up to this time headquarters had messed with 
 the 1st Squadron (Major Brodie's). The regimen- 
 tal mess was now established. Colonel Wood, for 
 some reason which I have never been able to ex- 
 plain, was exceedingly opposed to the stocking of 
 this mess with a sufficient amount of provisions 
 to last more than a few days at a time. Colonel 
 Roosevelt saw the possibility of a small famine 
 ahead in Cuba, and took an opposite view and the 
 responsibility of buying a sufficient supply of food 
 and the hiring of a negro cook. 
 
 We were sadly disturbed about this time by 
 many rumours. The regiment had arrived at the 
 " rumour belt," which it did not leave until it was 
 disbanded. Some said that we were not to go 
 with the expedition at all. Others declared that 
 but one squadron was to go. Others heard that 
 two squadrons were to go. Many of the regulars 
 took an especial delight in assuring our men that 
 they were to be left behind. The wish was no 
 doubt father to the thought. 
 
86 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 The regiment had been advertised and written-up 
 by its friends and enemies not wisely but too well. 
 All hail to the regulars and their marvellous record 
 — but they were professionals, and it was strange 
 that they were (some of them) jealous of mere 
 amateurs. 
 
 How much this had to do with our not being 
 paid promptly, I do not know. But it is a fact 
 that most, perhaps all, of the other regiments 
 were paid off, and that when it came the turn of the 
 Rough R.iders, there was no more monc}- in the 
 hands of the paymasters. Not a cent had been 
 paid to the regiment so far. The money brought 
 by the majority of the men had been spent long 
 since. There were many purchases to be made be- 
 fore the regiment could embark with any degree 
 of comfort, especially in the way of extra food on 
 the transport. The regiment had had one experi- 
 ence with the travel ration and did not fancy an- 
 other if by any means it could be avoided. There 
 was also a natural desire on the part of every one 
 to " send money home." 
 
 In this predicament our two Colonels held a 
 conference with the paymasters, and it was learned 
 that sufficient funds to pay the regiment for the 
 month of May could be obtained by telegraph if 
 the regiment would pay the expense of telegraph- 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 87 
 
 ing the money. The regiment was quite wiUing 
 and the money was collected in a few minutes 
 from the officers. This was June 8th and the regi- 
 ment was paid off that night in the natatorium on 
 the grounds of the Tampa Bay Hotel. The muster 
 rolls had been made out in a great hurry and in 
 many instances by officers who had no experience 
 in making them out, and there was many a man 
 who did not " get all that was coming to him." 
 
 While the regiment was being paid off orders 
 were received by Colonel Wood to take two 
 squadrons of the regiment that night for embarka- 
 tion at Port Tampa. We were to be at the rail- 
 road at ten o'clock that night for transportation to 
 the port, and it was already dusk. The result 
 was one of the regiment's characteristic hustles. 
 The troops designated to go were " A," " B," 
 "D," "E," ''F," "G," "K," and " L," which 
 meant three troops each of the ist and 2d squad- 
 rons and two of the 3d. We were to go dis- 
 mounted, as were all the other cavalry regiments 
 in the division. They also took but two squad- 
 rons each. As we were by far the largest regi 
 ment of cavalry at the time, the strength of our 
 two squadrons was about equal to that of an entire 
 regular regiment. Colonel Roosevelt was detailed 
 to accompany the regiment in command of the 
 
88 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 1st squadron, Major Brodie's squadron becom- 
 ing the second, by virtue of Colonel Roosevelt's 
 rank. 
 
 Despite the haste necessitated by the inop- 
 portune but welcome order, the regiment was 
 ready to march in but little over an hour. Then 
 followed a tiresome, nerve-straining wait. No 
 transportation had been furnished for our impedi- 
 menta. In this difficulty the 2d Cavalry, which 
 had camped beside us, came to our rescue with 
 their regimental waggons, which they generously 
 loaned to us. They did not belong to our divi- 
 sion, and but one squadron of theirs was to ac- 
 company the expedition. This was the only 
 mounted squadron that went, and was already on 
 board a transport. 
 
 The breaking up of the regiment in this way 
 was a very painful affair. The officers and men 
 who were to be left behind were inconsolable. 
 Two majors were left — Hersey and Dunn — and 
 the former was particularly grieved, as he brought 
 the largest contingent to the regiment, — four solid 
 troops from New Mexico. Lieutenant Sayre and 
 Dr. Massie were speechless with disappointment, 
 as was Lieutenant Weakley, who had distinguished 
 himself by "holding up" our baggage train. In 
 a few minutes the disappointed officers and men 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 89 
 
 concluded to postpone their expressions of grief 
 and help the lucky ones off, which they did with 
 an energy that would have reflected credit on a 
 regiment that had been in existence for genera- 
 tions. They helped us break camp, supplied us 
 with an extra meal, and attended to hundreds of 
 personal missions, the latter being mostly in the 
 nature of sending the first " soldier money " home 
 — at least the greater part of it. 
 
 Two orders were given that caused some con- 
 sternation. One was that neither axes, pickaxes 
 or spades were to be taken. The captains received 
 this order in silent astonishment. It was a mis- 
 take, no doubt, as Colonel Wood afterwards ex- 
 pressed the greatest surprise that the troops were 
 not provided with these absolutely necessary 
 implements. The regiment afterwards provided 
 itself with them in a manner characteristic of the 
 far West. They had not learned to " rustle " and 
 " hustle " for nothing. 
 
 By the other order the sergeant-major was left 
 behind and with him the regimental reports, blanks, 
 and papers. As he is the most important non- 
 commissioned officer in a regiment and, for that 
 matter, one of the most important officers, the 
 writer was terribly handicapped through the entire 
 campaign. But he knew enough to say nothing, 
 
go FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 and had lived long enough to learn the necessity 
 of making the best of things. He knew from 
 schooling that the regimental morning report 
 would be wanted every morning as soon as Vv^e 
 joined our brigade, that muster rolls were an ab- 
 solute necessity and many other papers too. But 
 he went aboard ship without pens, ink, or paper, 
 and trusted to luck. The troops took nothing 
 but their field morning reports. Many of these 
 were afterwards lost. 
 
 But seventy men were taken from each troop, so 
 that as a matter of actual fact more than one 
 squadron was left in Tampa, as were the horses 
 and extra baggage. Just before leaving a detail 
 was made by orders direct from General Shafter 
 to take charge of a dynamite gun that was at- 
 tached to the regiment. This swelled the list of 
 men to go, and gave us three pieces of artillery 
 instead of two. The dynamite gun was heavy 
 and cumbersome, and the two Colt guns were 
 for defensive use, being mounted on heavy tri- 
 pods and not accompanied by any easy means of 
 transportation. All three were practically useless 
 during the campaign, though if v/e had been put 
 on the defensive they might have proved of great 
 value. Private Hallett Alsop Barrowe was by the 
 same order made an " acting " sergeant and put 
 
IN CAMP AT TAMPA 91 
 
 in command of the dynamite gun, Sergeant Reber 
 being second in command. 
 
 If the behaviour of the men at San Antonio was 
 wonderfully good (and it was), their behaviour 
 at Tampa was beyond praise. They were kept 
 rigidly in camp and continually at Vv^ork. An 
 incident of camp will illustrate the attitude of the 
 men. 
 
 Three orderlies were constantly on duty, 
 mounted, at regimental headquarters. One hot 
 afternoon one of these orderlies came to me with 
 a most aggrieved expression on his face, and made 
 a complaint. His complaint was that one of the 
 other two orderlies had taken post but a few feet 
 away from headquarters, instead of the designated 
 place for the orderlies when awaiting duty, and by 
 this means had been able to get all the errands to 
 do to the manifest injustice of the other orderly 
 and himself. 
 
 When men are so anxious to work as all that, 
 they must be something out of the common. I put 
 my wits to work to increase the number of errands 
 that afternoon, and saw that there was fair play. 
 I cannot recollect the number of times I sent to 
 the Quartermaster for a canteen full of iced water, 
 but I continued until he threw up his hands in 
 despair and would let me have no more. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 EN ROUTE TO CUBA 
 
 About ten o'clock that night we started for the 
 cars, crossing two railroad tracks on the way. The 
 remaining regiments of cavalry were already there 
 and had taken possession of all the trains and 
 cars at the point. Colonel Wood was informed 
 that another train would be backed down for us. 
 The order was given therefore to unload the 
 waggons. They were hauled up alongside the 
 tracks and unloaded by the tired and nervous men. 
 The unloading was not quite completed when we 
 heard that we were to embark on one of the tracks 
 we had crossed. The unloading was stopped and 
 the waggons held for future developments, while 
 officers were despatched to find our train. At a 
 distance we could see several trains backing down. 
 
 In the meantime the men lay down in ranks 
 with their blanket rolls, haversacks and cartridge 
 belts in place and got a chance for a little sleep. 
 It was the most picturesque sight of the regi- 
 ment's life thus far, and the sleeping squadrons in 
 92 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 93 
 
 their carefully aligned ranks looked more like 
 grim-visaged war than anything I had ever seen. 
 The officers as a rule kept awake, smoked and 
 chatted. The thinking parts of a war machine 
 usually get less sleep than the working parts. 
 
 In the meantime headquarters began to get 
 nervous, and it looked very much as though we 
 were to be the victims of an " accident " by which 
 we would be left behind. At that time the regi- 
 ment's company on the campaign was not eagerly 
 sought — a fact that we had only too much reason 
 to appreciate. The meanest remark I heard made 
 during the campaign was made right here. An 
 officer of one of the cavalry regiments of the 1st 
 brigade stopped as he was about to get into a car, 
 turned to a group of our men (privates) who were 
 on the detail that had been unloading waggons and 
 who were waiting further orders, and remarked 
 with a sneer : 
 
 " Oh you needn't worry. Your regiment is not 
 going. You're not wanted." 
 
 It is to be hoped that the men had philosophy 
 enough to understand that men who are sneered 
 at or blackguarded must necessarily amount to 
 enough to make it worth while for another to vent 
 his spite on them. 
 
 Eventually Colonel Wood was informed that a 
 
94 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 train would be backed down for us on the track 
 last mentioned, though all now on it were for in- 
 fantry regiments in that vicinity. Consequently 
 rations and ammunition had to be reloaded on the 
 waggons and the regiment had to retrace its steps. 
 It was almost morning when we reached our sec- 
 ond stopping place, and we were one and all tired 
 out, hungry, sleepy and disgusted. Colonel Wood, 
 Captain McCormick (an officer of the 7th Cavalry 
 who had been attached to the regiment) and my- 
 self sat on a pile of telegraph poles just back of 
 one of the recently deserted infantry camps and 
 waited for morning and our train. 
 
 About daybreak the 5th Cavalry, which we had 
 not seen since they left San Antonio before we did 
 (to our great mortification at the time), marched 
 into this camp. They were feeling worse than we 
 did as they had no expectation of going with the 
 army of invasion at all, and eventually did not. 
 The men of this regiment passed us and repassed 
 us time and again without so much as the sem- 
 blance of a salute, until I finally asked Captain Mc- 
 Cormick, jokingly, if they had ceased to salute in 
 the regular army. The Captain had been getting 
 mad about it, himself, and he promptly called a 
 number of them to account, made them walk back, 
 pass again and salute. 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 95 
 
 As a matter of fact discipline in the regular 
 army is not by any means as strict as it used to 
 be. The difficulty of recruiting good men and 
 the ease with which they can buy their discharge 
 is mainly responsible for this. If the men of a 
 troop happen to take a dislike to an officer twenty 
 or thirty of them can, and sometimes do, promptly 
 buy their discharge in a body, crippling the troop 
 and giving the officer an official black eye which 
 may not be at all deserved. 
 
 As the morning cleared we found that we were 
 but a short distance from the camp wc left the 
 night before and in plain sight of it. At reveille 
 our astonished comrades in camp discovered us 
 and thoughtfully prepared coffee for us. While 
 the regiment was snatching a hasty breakfast a 
 train of empty coal cars was backed down and we 
 were informed that this was to take us to Port 
 Tampa. The regiment was neither proud nor 
 haughty, and it climbed into that train, bag and 
 baggage, with more enthusiasm than decorum. 
 
 The men were acting on the theory that it was 
 better to have our hard luck first. In spite of all 
 obstacles and delays the regiment began to feel 
 that it really was going to take part in the cam- 
 paign. Long before the regiment had decided 
 that there would be but one campaign of any im- 
 
96 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 portance in the war and that a short one. Such 
 eventually proved to be the fact. 
 
 The trip was a short one, and the men, now in 
 royal good humour, cheered everything in sight. 
 Pulling into the station yards, which were a mass 
 of cars, baggage and waiting troops, we passed a 
 train bearing the 71st New York Volunteers in 
 the same direction. They lustily cheered Colonel 
 Roosevelt, who was obliged to go to the door of 
 the baggage car in which the officers rode and 
 bovv'. 
 
 On reaching the port our two Colonels went to 
 headquarters to find out to what ship we had been 
 assigned — and discovered that we had not been 
 assigned to any. Then Colonel Roosevelt let 
 loose a little energy, exhibiting a large supply of 
 reserve force of the same simultaneously, and we 
 were assigned to the Yucatan at the expense of 
 the hereinbefore mentioned 71st, which was shifted 
 to another vessel. The Colonels learned, too, that 
 the 2d infantry was to take the same ship, and to 
 make assurance doubly sure Colonel Wood put out 
 in a boat to the Yucatan and boarded it. With him 
 was Major LaMotte our ranking surgeon (an offi- 
 cer of the Navy on leave of absence), who made 
 an immediate inspection of the ship and turned 
 in a report couched in so many naval terms that 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 9; 
 
 it was almost unintelligible to those of us who 
 were land lubbers. 
 
 He also made an assignment of staterooms to 
 the ofificers of the two regiments which I had to 
 make over again to satisfy the ofificers of the 2d 
 infantry. Dr. LaMotte, with pardonable loyalty, 
 had given us the better of the arrangement. As 
 Colonel Wood ranked the commanding officer of 
 our compagnons de voyage he assumed command of 
 all the troops on board. The assignment to seats 
 at table was also an embarrassing affair, as there 
 were not seats enough to go around. 
 
 Bunks had been provided for the men in the 
 hold of the ship, and they were about the crudest 
 affairs imaginable. The heat in the hold was 
 stifling, and by Colonel Wood's thoughtful order 
 as many men were quartered on deck as the decks 
 would hold. This left little or no room for the 
 ofificers to move about, but, of course, there was no 
 complaint. 
 
 We were now known as " Wood's Weary 
 Walkers " rather than " Roosevelt's Rough Rid- 
 ers," as the story of our all-night marching and 
 countermarching had become common property. 
 Guard was mounted regularly on board ship, drills, 
 mainly in the manual of arms, were instituted 
 twice daily for our regiment, and officers' school 
 
98 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 opened again. The regiment was going to a fight 
 and learning how to fight at the same time. 
 
 The very first guard discovered two interesting 
 stowaways. These were two boys. They had 
 beaten their way from some remote part of the 
 countiy, one from the East and the other from 
 the West. They had provided themselves with 
 guns, and were intent on shooting Spaniards in 
 large numbers. One of them, with a business 
 instinct that will some day make him a millionaire, 
 had peddled small articles of use to soldiers 
 through the various camps until he had amassed 
 a sum sufficient to buy a death-dealing gun. The 
 other, I believe, came to Tampa provided with 
 money. Both v/ere now " dead broke " and ex- 
 pected to earn their passage working for the men. 
 They were two pitiful looking objects as they 
 stood with a six-foot guard over them, and there 
 was not an officer who did not wish they could go 
 along. But there were four parents to be consid- 
 ered in the matter, and the weeping boys had to 
 leave the ship. Other boys tried the same thing 
 on other ships, and some got to Cuba. Young 
 America was quite enthusiastic over the v/ar. 
 
 Like our " man with the melons " the servants 
 on the ship discovered an opportunity to make a 
 fortune easily out of this trip, and they sold every- 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 99 
 
 thing but their souls to the men at outrageously 
 high prices. Their souls would have been sold too, 
 but they were sadly out of repair, and no one 
 wanted them. Whisky brought them about $5 
 a bottle, I have been told, and brought the men 
 that bought it trouble. Sandwiches and other 
 eatables brought fabulous prices, but it was ice 
 and iced water that brought the greatest returns — 
 all profit, of course, as the ice was furnished for 
 the officers. This latter item came to the ears of 
 the commanding officer, but no action was taken 
 in the matter, as the men reall)'- needed the ice, 
 and to a certain extent money was no object. 
 
 The regiment now became " Woeful Waiters," 
 for it was days before the order was given to steam 
 away from Tampa. Some naval officer thought 
 he had discovered a part of Cervera's squadron, 
 and the American Armada was afraid to venture 
 forth. Any one of those great transport ships 
 with its thousand men and stores of food and am- 
 munition could have been captured by a mere 
 gunboat and possibly by " the crew of the cap- 
 tain's gig." The delay gave the men opportunity 
 to purchase some extra supplies of food, especially 
 catsups, condiments and sauces with which the 
 taste of the simple components of the travel ration 
 could be varied. 
 
lOO FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 On board ship, too, they got a better opportu- 
 nity to keep clean. It cannot be said, however, 
 that they were more comfortable. The ship was 
 overcrowded even after one battalion of the 2d 
 Infantry was ordered to another boat. Some pre- 
 served meat was brought aboard about this time. 
 It was sickening in odour and by order of Colonel 
 Wood was pitched into the harbour. It is to be 
 hoped that the fish in the neighbourhood did not 
 partake of it. Dumped overboard in sufficient 
 quantities and at proper points it would reform 
 the entire breed of man-eating sharks and add 
 abundantly to the peace and comfort of a much 
 perturbed world. 
 
 There was practically no amusement for the 
 men save swimming around the boat, and this 
 swimming, combined with an unusual load of fire- 
 water, caused the only general court-martial in the 
 regiment's history. Under the influence of liquor 
 one of the " Rough Riders " disobeyed a swim- 
 ming regulation and was impudent to the ofificer 
 of the day, one of the lieutenants of the 2d 
 Infantry. The latter drew his revolver, which 
 angered the man still more, and he had to be 
 handled with force by the guard that accompanied 
 the ofificer. 
 
 The next day of course he was penitent. Charges 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA loi 
 
 were preferred against him, however, and he 
 was tried by a general court of which the writer 
 was made judge advocate. The task of a judge 
 advocate is by no means a light one, but the 
 writer gladly accepted it (he had to, anyway) for 
 the opportunity it gave him to get something to 
 write on. He put in a very elaborate requisition 
 for stationery, to all of which he was entitled. It 
 has not been filled up to the present time. He 
 was compelled to borrow paper and writing mat- 
 erials from the 2d, with whom, after the jar of the 
 first contact, we had become very good friends. 
 
 About the only other amusement was listen- 
 ing to the band of the 2d, which gave two pro- 
 grammes each day, and singing. There was one 
 interminable song with a chorus of " — de monk, 
 de monk, de monk, de monk — " ad lib. which 
 always appealed strongly to the risibilities of Cap- 
 tain Capron. It was about the only thing that 
 aroused Capron's risibilities, for to him, natural 
 born soldier that he was, the war was a very seri- 
 ous thing. Indeed his nature was a perfect will- 
 ingness to fight anybody or anything at the drop 
 of the hat with cause or without. In fact he was 
 then intent on fighting for a people he did not 
 hesitate to criticise. 
 
 His attitude in this matter may have been caused 
 
102 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 by a singular incident which occurred at this time. 
 The dynamite gun was first shipped on board a 
 transport carrying artillery. This ship was com- 
 manded by Capron's father, an artillery officer. 
 With the gun were a son of the inventor and a 
 Cuban, who did not at the time disclose his rank, 
 but who shone forth after landing as a major in 
 the Cuban army. This Cuban did not get on well 
 with Captain Capron of the artillery, and in con- 
 sequence the dynamite gun and its store of explo- 
 sive were transferred to our ship. The Cuban had 
 no sooner come aboard (now assigned to our regi- 
 ment as an interpreter) than he began criticising 
 the commanding officer of the ship he had just 
 left in unmeasured terms, blissfully unconscious of 
 the fact that the son of the man he was reviling 
 was on board the Yucatan. He was brought to 
 with a round turn by Capron, and scared out of 
 his wits. He kept out of Capron's way after that, 
 and had nothing more to say of the father. He 
 had jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. 
 He tried to get even by covert sneers at the men 
 of the Rough Riders, but he was waited on by a 
 committee of one from the officers of the regiment 
 and the inadvisability of his conduct was explained 
 to him, with the assurance that if he continued it 
 he mifiht feel hurt at the action that would be 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 103 
 
 taken by the officers. Then he concluded to " be 
 good." 
 
 Every paper in the land had now announced 
 that the objective of the expedition was Santiago. 
 It did not seem possible that the War Depart- 
 ment would permit such an important fact to be 
 advertised, not only to the nation but to the world, 
 and for that reason all concurred in the belief 
 that our destination was anywhere but Santiago. 
 Numerous were the conjectures and great the 
 studying of the official maps. By an inadvertence 
 on the part of the navy, however, we soon learned 
 that Santiago was the actual objective. We had 
 borrowed some canvas ventilators for the benefit 
 of the men in the hold from the navy, and in mak- 
 ing out the receipt to be signed by us they had 
 included the words " en route to Santiago." 
 
 Eventually the start was made. Even then we 
 did not know that we were actually off, until 
 Captain Quay of one of the staff departments 
 steamed alongside and told us that such was the 
 case. Slowly the Yucatan steamed out through 
 the narrow tortuous channel. One of the trans- 
 ports ahead had run aground, and we came within 
 six feet of running our nose into her. As the 
 nose carried all the dynamite for the dynamite 
 gun, there was a lively prospect of a disaster com- 
 
104 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 pared to which the blowing up of the Maine would 
 have been trivial. Quick work by captain and 
 crew stopped the Yucatan within a few feet of the 
 stranded ship. 
 
 Then we backed, forged ahead again in a channel 
 made still narrower by the position of the other 
 boat, passed so close to the latter that we could 
 almost have handed a newspaper from one boat 
 to the other, and took our place in the column of 
 transports. Other transports had preceded, and 
 others followed, and the armada was soon steam- 
 ing south in the Gulf of Mexico. The Seguranca, 
 carrying General Shafter and his staff, stood to 
 one side, and the flotilla passed in review. It was 
 a great sight. From horizon to horizon the 
 column stretched, three ships abreast. The naval 
 escort was hull down in front, and the rear guard 
 hull down behind. In that order we remained 
 until near the end of the journey. Off Key West 
 we were joined by a still more powerful escort, in- 
 cluding a battle ship. 
 
 Life on board now became a monotony varied 
 only by drills, schools, and a search every evening 
 for the celebrated tropical constellation known as 
 the Southern Cross. Its beauties were dilated 
 upon by the few on board who had ever seen it. 
 When discovered it was a keen disappointment, 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 105 
 
 and about as inspiring as the ** his mark " put by 
 an ignorant farmer to a contract for a gold brick. 
 
 Seasickness passed away the time for many, and 
 guard duty became a matter of horror for men 
 with squeamish stomachs. One ofificer had his 
 head out of a port hole in the dining salon, when 
 a man above was suddenly called upon to com- 
 mune with the mighty deep. The ofificer had 
 been looking at a shark. He regretted his incli- 
 nation to " rubber-neck " on that shark. Among 
 the officers the seasickness was a welcome joke, 
 and the meals missed by the unfortunates were 
 carefully tabulated. 
 
 Ignorance of nautical terms was a theme of 
 constant jest, and the land-lubber who got hold of 
 a new one always paraded it as ostentatiously as 
 possible, using it correctly about one time in ten. 
 The doctors no longer ran a hospital but a " sick 
 bay," and the men of the regiment, like all others 
 of the cavalry division, began to call themselves 
 " horse marines." The line by which the captain 
 of the Yucatan blew the whistle, and which 
 stretched from the bridge to the smoke-stack, was 
 the cause of much hilarity. The deck back of the 
 bridge was the only open-air lounging place re- 
 served for officers. The line seemed taut and 
 strong, and for some inexplicable psychical reason 
 
io6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 there was a strong temptation to hang on to 
 it with one's hands. Every time this was done, 
 of course, the whistle blew and the sheepish un- 
 fortunate got a general laugh. The self-played 
 trick was no respecter of rank, and the joke was 
 on all, high and low. 
 
 About this time it was discovered, to the great 
 satisfaction of headquarters, that in some mysteri- 
 ous manner most of the troops had become fairly 
 well supplied with axes, spades, pickaxes, and so 
 forth. It is to be hoped that they descended as 
 " the gentle dew from heaven," and that the 2d 
 Infantry did not discover any shortage in its 
 stores. 
 
 A competent acting sergeant-major was becom- 
 ing an absolute necessity, and I began to look 
 around for one at drill. I found the man. By 
 his qualifications he was competent to be a com- 
 missioned officer, and I found had been an officer 
 on a governor's staff. After the battle of Guasi- 
 mas I got Colonel Wood's permission to appoint 
 him to the duty, and instituted a hunt for him. I 
 found him among the dead. This was Marcus D. 
 Russell of " G " troop. 
 
 As we neared the eastern extremity of Cuba the 
 City of Washington, which was towing a lighter, 
 dropped steadily behind, and the Yucatan was 
 
EN ROUTE TO CUBA 107 
 
 ordered to stand by and assist, if necessary. The 
 captain of the City of Washington, when informed 
 of our courteous mission, responded very gruffly 
 to the effect that he didn't want any of our help, 
 but the Yucatan continued to stand by as per 
 orders. This delayed us a number of hours, and we 
 passed Guantanamo in the morning, whereas the 
 main body of the flotilla had passed unobserved 
 during the night. A gunboat put out from the 
 harbour, and was surprised to learn from us that 
 the rest of the ships had passed. It also gave us 
 news of the successful marine attack at that point, 
 and we could see the flag of the marines flying at 
 the entrance to the harbour. In a few hours we 
 had rejoined the flotilla. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ON CUBAN SOIL 
 
 If the Catskills were a trifle higher and ex- 
 tended east and west, from horizon to horizon, 
 they would appear to the inhabitants of Catskill 
 much as the mountain backbone of Cuba appeared 
 to the American army of invasion from the trans- 
 ports, as they lay ten or twelve miles ofT the 
 Cuban coast. The two ranges are of similar 
 structure and much the same general appearance. 
 All the rest of the day we steamed slowly back 
 and forth, and at night ran out to sea (south into 
 the Caribbean), returning at daybreak. 
 
 Another day we waited, and at night repeated 
 the manoeuvres of the night before. On this second 
 day a waterspout of very complete formation ran 
 through part of the fleet, accompanied by two 
 half-formed ones. The sea all the time was ap- 
 parently smooth, but the captain of the Yucatan 
 told us that there was a heavy " storm swell " due 
 to storms further south. On this last day Captain 
 
 Rivers of our brigade staff came aboard and gave 
 io8 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL 109 
 
 us the orders for formation on landing. They 
 were as follows : 
 
 1st. The 2d Division (General Lawton's) will 
 be landed first. The ships of that division will be 
 placed in front of Daiquiri, and as close to shore 
 as possible, so as to make as little rowing as 
 may be. 
 
 2d. General Bates' Brigade disembarks second, 
 and will form immediately in rear of Lawton's 
 line. 
 
 3d. General Wheeler's Division will disembark 
 third, and his ships will form on the left of those 
 carrying the 2d Division (Lawton's). His line 
 will also form on the left of Lawton's. 
 
 4th. The 1st Division (Kent's) will disembark 
 fourth, and the ships will be placed well to the 
 left so as to unload at Demajayobe or Juragua, as 
 may be directed later, or at Daiquiri. 
 
 The ships carrying the mounted Squadron, Light 
 Artillery and mules will form in rear of those car- 
 rying Lawton's and Bates' commands, and await 
 orders. 
 
 EXTRA. 
 
 Each company on disembarking will carry 3 
 axes, 3 picks and 3 spades. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing that Lawton 
 
no FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 was to form the right, Kent the left, and Wheeler 
 the centre, a formation that was not completed 
 until the day after the battles of San Juan and 
 El Caney. 
 
 The landing was made on June 22d. It was 
 supposed that the movement was to commence 
 at daybreak, and the men were roused before the 
 first peep of dawn to — wait. This was charac- 
 teristic of the entire campaign. It was usual to 
 get up before the men were half rested and — wait. 
 It was not until afternoon that we were actually 
 landed, and but for a piece of luck we should not 
 have been landed until the next day. 
 
 To make up for the strain of waiting the navy 
 furnished us with a picturesque sight by bombard- 
 ing the town of Daiquiri and the adjacent hills and 
 shore. It was already in flames, the Spaniards 
 having set fire to it and decamped. The bom- 
 bardment was beautiful. Big guns, little guns, and 
 machine guns were turned loose on the town, in a 
 way that would have driven out an army. The 
 marksmanship of the navy was fine and the way 
 they put shells into a block house on a hill to the 
 right of the town was wonderful. In the mean- 
 time small boats were being rapidly filled with the 
 infantry of the ist Division. 
 
 They were towed in long strings to a small burn- 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL iii 
 
 ing pier, and unloaded. This was the ticklish 
 moment, and we waited on board the transports 
 in a fever of excitement. If the Spaniards were 
 going to contest the landing, now would be the 
 time they would appear. Eyes were strained at 
 the pigmies climbing on shore, and every glass 
 was brought into requisition. Suddenly some one 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Why, they're forming by companies." 
 
 And sure enough they were. If there had been 
 the least sign of an enemy they v/ould have been 
 in battle formation, and we knew then that there 
 was to be no opposition to the landing. The fierce 
 bombardment had only injured the Cuban allies 
 who, to the number of several hundred, had been 
 taken to the east of the town the night before 
 to attack the garrison from the rear. The navy 
 killed one of them and wounded another. 
 
 The landing now proceeded very briskly, but 
 with little regard to the orders just quoted. The 
 navy, with which Roosevelt was very popular, 
 proceeded to land us long before our time and 
 with us the remainder of the 2d brigade of the 
 cavalry division. The ist brigade (General Sum- 
 ner's) which should have landed before us did not 
 get off until the next day. 
 
 Headquarters and a few of the officers and men 
 
112 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 of " L troop with their captain were taken on 
 board the Vixen, where we spent a very pleasant 
 half day as the guests of the ofificers of the boat. 
 They lived in a style unknown to land soldiers in 
 campaign, and could actually keep clean. They 
 gave us considerable information but a good deal 
 of it was inaccurate. They said there were twenty 
 thousand Spanish soldiers in Santiago with more 
 coming. We had heard before sailing that five 
 thousand of our regulars could take Santiago 
 against any numbers, however, and were not par- 
 ticularly impressed. It is an extremely fortunate 
 thing that the attempt was not made with five 
 thousand troops or even double that number. 
 Another victory like San Juan would have sent the 
 army back to its ships. 
 
 The Vixen provided the Yucatan with a Cuban 
 pilot who steered that vessel well into the harbour 
 and so near the pier that it was a matter of but a 
 short time to get the men disembarked. The 
 landing at the pier was extremely difificult. A 
 beach descended from the shore for perhaps fifty 
 feet. Then there was an immediate drop to deep 
 water. The boats used in landing would pitch 
 dangerously near this beach, for the ropes from 
 bow and stern had to be of a good length, owing 
 to the heavy swell the captain of the Yucatan had 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL 113 
 
 spoken of. Up the boat would go until a man's 
 head would clear the dock, then down it would go 
 till the man's head was six feet below the level he 
 aspired to. Guns and haversacks, officers' pistols 
 and sabres were thrown on the dock, a favourable 
 opportunity was waited, and as the boat rose man 
 or officer would jump, others would catch him 
 from the dock above and pull him up. 
 
 On landing Captain O'Neill saw an immediate 
 opportunity to do something, and remained for the 
 rest of the afternoon helping men from the boats. 
 A number of boats were swamped, and those that 
 touched the beach were badly damaged and for 
 the time, at least, rendered useless. Two troopers 
 of the 10th Cavalry were drowned, never coming 
 to the surface because of the weight of the cart- 
 ridges they carried. Here was another oppor- 
 tunity for O'Neill, and he jumped in to the rescue. 
 He and another dove time and again without 
 avail. They recovered a number of carbines, 
 however, and the regiment was ahead in that par- 
 ticular implement for slaying one's fellow-man in 
 the cause of civilization. 
 
 In the meantime Dr. LaMotte, Sergeant Wright 
 the colour-bearer, and Piatt, chief trumpeter, 
 had raised the flag of the regiment at the block 
 house on the hill at the right. When the flag 
 
114 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 went up every ship in the offing blew its whistle 
 loud and long in salute and the men on shore and 
 on the transports cheered. This flag, by the way, 
 was the flag belonging to the Arizona squadron. 
 The regimental colours and standard were not re- 
 ceived by the regiment until after the campaign. 
 
 Our first sight of our Cuban allies was not reas- 
 suring. They had lately been provided with 
 magazine guns and ammunition, but they were the 
 dirtiest, most slovenly looking lot of men I had 
 ever seen. Apache Indians were dudes compared 
 to them. They seemed to be equally lazy and 
 hungry. One of them, sitting within a foot of a 
 hydrant from which I had just filled my canteen, 
 asked me for a drink from the canteen. He was 
 too lazy to reach up, take the tin cup on top of the 
 hydrant, and turn the faucet. The officers were 
 at first arrogant. A number of them came with 
 the expedition ; and these, who had never before 
 been in the war, wore splendid uniforms and were 
 the most overbearing of the lot. It almost 
 seemed as though they considered the American 
 army their personal property. They soon took a 
 tumble from their high estate, however. 
 
 The Spaniards had destroyed two locomotives 
 at Daiquiri, and a number of buildings by fire. 
 The latter were still smouldering. If they had 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL 115 
 
 taken as much pains to destroy the small wooden 
 pier they could have delayed the army a great 
 deal. It was but partially burned when the first 
 troops landed. The fire was quickly extinguished 
 and some slight, very slight, repairs made. They 
 had intrenched several positions in the town and 
 back of the town proper had an intrenched maga- 
 zine, which was quite empty. Immediately in 
 front of the magazine was a large frame building 
 which was used as a bakehouse. A shell from 
 one of the war ships had struck at the base of this 
 house, ricocheted and passed through the oven, 
 besides doing considerable other damage. Oppo- 
 site this building the Rough Riders went into 
 camp, and with their usual luck in this direction, 
 into about as poor a camp as could be found. It 
 was hardly large enough for a troop and all eight 
 troops were crowded into it. Immediately in 
 front the loth Cavalry had camped, taking consid- 
 erably more room. 
 
 The inhabitants of the town had returned to 
 their poor homes by this time, and with them the 
 woman who presided over the bakehouse. It 
 turned out that her husband was in the Spanish 
 army. Soldiers of all sorts of conditions were 
 crowding into the house to take a look at the 
 damage and satisfy their curiosity. Colonel 
 
ii6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Wood, therefore, had a guard placed over the 
 building. The men of all the regiments immedi- 
 arely began to show their sympathy for the 
 Cubans in a practical manner by making the 
 women presents of hard tack. I saw one woman 
 with three children tagging after her and at least 
 a hundred hard tack stowed away in the bosom 
 of her dress — in plain sight — still begging for more 
 and getting it too. 
 
 General Lawton's division had pushed on ahead 
 on the road to Siboney, and his advance guard was 
 at the heels of the fleeing Spaniards, though but 
 few shots were exchanged and no one was hurt on 
 either side. 
 
 In the rude camp we had picked out there was 
 little to do but wait for our stores from the boat. 
 We had come ashore with merely what we could 
 conveniently carry, for it was no easy trick to even 
 get into the boats from the companionway of the 
 Yucatan in a sea that rose and fell in such a 
 bewildering way to the landsmen. We had time, 
 therefore, to take a look at Daiquiri and the 
 country surrounding. Back in the foothills of the 
 mountains was the iron mine which was the chief 
 industrial feature of this and the surrounding 
 towns. 
 
 Incidentally, wherever there is a house in Cuba 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL 117 
 
 there is apparently a town with a grandiose name. 
 Just where Daiquiri ceased and Demajayobe began 
 is still a mystery, and the same may be said of the 
 latter town and Juragua. All three in America 
 would be called by some such name as Smithville 
 and made a twenty-fifth class post-ofifice, if such 
 there be. Singularly enough, the iron mines were 
 owned principally, if not entirely, by Americans 
 and were Avorked largely by convicts who were 
 now guerrillas in the Spanish army. 
 
 An immense iron pier shot out from the eastern 
 end of Daiquiri, although east, west, and centre 
 were almost coincident. This pier was too high 
 to be of use in unloading the transports, and was 
 crowded with ore cars which it was confidently 
 asserted were filled with explosives. On all sides 
 at varying distances were the peculiar little Spanish 
 blockhouses with which the whole island was 
 dotted. They were wooden structures, as a rule, 
 about the size of an ordinary room. The sides 
 were loopholed and a small cupola rose from the 
 top. But they were deceitful little affairs. The 
 unwily assailant could shoot them full of holes 
 without injuring a defender, as they were but the 
 covering of a deep pit from which the small garri- 
 sons of ten or fifteen men could fire unobserved 
 and in perfect safety. 
 
ii8 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 The buildings were useful only to keep out the 
 rain and sun, and for observation. They were 
 within rifle shot of each other, and could help 
 each other in case of attack. This blockhouse 
 chain was probably the best system of mountain 
 warfare ever devused, but it necessitated oceans 
 of men, and did not keep peace in Cuba. These 
 blockhouses stretched all along the mountain 
 backbone of the island, and could be easily seen 
 with a glass, even the men walking around them. 
 Indeed, when once located the buildings could be 
 seen with the naked eye. No attempt was ever 
 made to capture the blockhouses on the moun- 
 tains, and every movement of our army must have 
 been reported correctly to the authorities in San- 
 tiago as soon as it was made. Back in the direc- 
 tion of the iron mines some of our men discovered 
 a yellow fever pest-house — and permitted it to 
 waste its fragrance on the desert air. 
 
 A victim of malaria all my life I promptly came 
 down with it the first night in Cuba, and from that 
 night was never a well man until I was cured of 
 the Cuban fever in the hospitals of my own 
 country and had pulled through numberless re- 
 lapses of decreasing severity. I knew the symp- 
 toms only too well, and asked the doctors for some 
 quinine. For some cause they seemed to be loath 
 
ON CUBAN SOIL 119 
 
 to give me any, and on pressing for their reasons 
 discovered that there were but two three-grain 
 quinine pills in the regiment. 
 
 It is only fair to say that the medical stores 
 were not all off the boat. I left the priceless pills, 
 however, and got some from my old regiment, the 
 lOth Cavalry. That night I had nothing but my 
 yellow slicker for bedding and covering, and my 
 teeth played the long roll all night long. By this 
 experience I made the surprising discovery that 
 the heat of the Cuban days was only equalled by 
 the astonishing cold of the nights. In the early 
 morning this was explained. All over the lower 
 portions of the country apparent fogs, in reality 
 clouds, lay in heavy masses. The rain-soaked 
 earth gave them off. Gradually as the sun rose 
 they disappeared from view, although ill-smelling 
 vapours still continued to rise. Eventually, under 
 the constant rains the earth became rotten and the 
 smell of it almost unendurable. 
 
 A running stream two hundred yards west of 
 the camp gave the men an opportunity for a bath 
 which they had not enjoyed since the flotilla 
 started. That night the sentinels on post were 
 particularly alert, for the regiment was now in the 
 land of its friends the enemy. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 
 
 On the morning of the 23d of June the regi- 
 ment divided its attention between getting sup- 
 plies off the Yucatan and making its camp as com- 
 fortable as possible. No tents were at hand, but 
 rude shelters were made from palm leaves. These 
 had the effect of Venetian blinds in a way. They 
 kept out the sun, but permitted whatever breeze 
 might be stirring to enter. General Young, the 
 commander of the ist brigade to which the regi- 
 ment belonged, had made his headquarters in a 
 small field on the other side of the road. He de- 
 clared that the brigade had landed out of its turn, 
 but added that he was glad it had. 
 
 Regiments were now being marched to the 
 front as fast as they were landed. Small bands 
 of Cubans, ragged but apparently light-hearted, 
 passed by the camp, also, with the faintest sugges- 
 tion of military discipline. Among these were a 
 few, a very few, Cuban cavalry troopers mounted 
 
 on hungry-looking ponies. The Cuban soldiery 
 
 120 
 
ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 121 
 
 has been subjected to a tremendous fire of criti- 
 cism, but cool judgment will eventually decide 
 that too much was expected of them. They did 
 not come up to American expectations ; but, after 
 all, they kept three hundred thousand Spaniards 
 guessing for three years — no slight achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 The tired-out, half-starved, ill-clad Cubans prob- 
 ably accepted the arrival of Uncle Sam's troops 
 as the beginning of a much-longed-for rest. 
 Human nature is human nature nearly every- 
 where. They did not understand the American 
 way of fighting. Neither did the Spaniards. In 
 fact it was not particularly comprehensible to any 
 one. Certainly the campaign will not be used in 
 military schools as an object lesson in strategy. 
 On the contrary, it bore a generic resemblance to 
 wholesale murder. 
 
 " Well," said a regular army ofificer to me after 
 the battle of Guasimas, " we see that the books 
 don't give us any idea of what this sort of thing 
 is like." 
 
 " This is wicked," said a surgeon to me after the 
 battle of San Juan. " I won't go on the field un- 
 der fire again." But he did. Temporarily the 
 wholesale butchery was too much for his nerves. 
 
 " This is not war, it is slaughter," exclaimed a 
 
122 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Spanish staff officer in the town of Caney just be- 
 fore he was killed. 
 
 A little strategy would have saved half the 
 casualties in the war, and a little foresight would 
 have saved more than half the lives lost by disease 
 after the brief campaign. 
 
 The regimental mess had been a matter of great 
 bother. Three men, two of them officers and one 
 a correspondent of a Chicago paper, had been in 
 charge of it and had severally found excuses to 
 be relieved. The only headquarters orderly who 
 helped the Ethiope prime minister of meals was my 
 own, Holderman of " L " troop. Holderman de- 
 lighted in work around headquarters, and was most 
 willing to remain there on duty. He was orderly 
 to me with the understanding that when there was 
 an engagement he should be with his troop — and 
 this he always was. He was considerable of a char- 
 acter in his way. According to his story he was 
 a descendant of men who had fought in all the 
 wars of the Republic (there is but one the Re- 
 public), and his mother and grandmother were both 
 Indians. In the Indian territory he was a pros- 
 perous farmer. His mixed blood showed in him. 
 He worked like a Saxon and fought like an In- 
 dian. He was supremely indifferent to rank, and 
 spoke his views with charming frankness. 
 
ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 123 
 
 Knowing the difficulty we were in Captain 
 McCormick of the /thCavalry, attached to " Ours," 
 volunteered to take charge of the mess, and, as 
 there was no keen rivalry for the thankless job, he 
 was duly confirmed in office. His first stroke was 
 a bold and successful one. Somewhere and in 
 some mysterious manner he got hold of a mule. 
 He never revealed the secret of his exploit. But 
 that mule was worth his weight in gold. He car- 
 ried the provisions for the regimental mess. No 
 pack outfit accompanied him, but one was rigged 
 up and he was led by the chocolate prime minis- 
 ter. As the quartermaster's department had 
 orders to seize all mules, wherever found, we had 
 trouble often in clinging to our treasure, but man- 
 aged to do so. 
 
 There is nothing a cowboy looks at more wist- 
 fully than horses, and a little provident hustling 
 came near to mounting some of our " Weary 
 Walkers." That is to say, about forty horses 
 were captured by our industrious men before they 
 had been in camp two hours. The entire camp 
 rejoiced. They were not thoroughbreds — but 
 horses are horses, and the fact can be proved by 
 several systems of logic. They were promptly 
 coralled and put under a heavy guard, while the 
 regiment rejoiced and the land seemed, at first 
 
124 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 blush, to flow with milk and honey. Alas, the 
 horses proved to belong to the Cuban cavalry 
 aforementioned, and we were obliged to give them 
 up after diplomatic relations with headquarters 
 and with the Cuban contingent (as English corre- 
 spondents would say) had been strained almost to 
 the breaking point. 
 
 In another matter too the regiment was disap- 
 pointed. Our Cuban interpreter had promised us 
 that the Cubans had been raising large supplies of 
 sweet potatoes and other vegetables against our 
 coming. They never appeared. Later I begged 
 twice for Irish potatoes at the commissary, and in 
 lieu of not getting enough to go around was pre- 
 sented on each occasion with twelve pounds of 
 the priceless spuds in a half-rotten condition. I 
 shamefully accepted the bribe. I had to or take 
 none. But as to sweet potatoes we envied Marion 
 and his men. Had the British ofificer of history 
 visited our camp, and had we possessed sweet 
 potatoes, he would have been fed on canned roast 
 beef and the sweet potatoes put under a double 
 guard though it broke the Anglo-American alliance 
 which we hear so much about — in the papers. 
 
 But two horses were landed from the boats for 
 our headquarters. One of these belonged to Col- 
 onel Wood and the other to Colonel Roosevelt. 
 
ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 125 
 
 The method of landing these horses was one sug- 
 gestive of Spartan simpHcity and an utter dis- 
 regard of consequences. They were pitched over- 
 board from the ships bodily, and allowed to sink 
 or swim, live or die, survive or perish, according 
 to the effort they severally put forth to get 
 ashore. 
 
 The men on landing found that they were more 
 seasick on land than they had been in the boats. 
 For two days the land seemingly rose and fell in 
 billows, though there were no ardent spirits in 
 camp. The horses suffered in the same way. It 
 was strange to see them rock from side to side in 
 their misery — as strange as it was to see the men 
 raise their feet high in air when walking to meet 
 the next land billow. The rolling gait of the 
 sailor was explained. 
 
 Camp had no sooner been made comfortable 
 and rations issued when an order came unexpect- 
 edly to march to the front. It was already after- 
 noon, and we were to make Siboney over a wind- 
 ing mountain road by night. In twenty minutes 
 we were on the road with Brigade headquarters 
 and Colonel Wood all mounted at the front. The 
 restof us walked, save Colonel Roosevelt, who with 
 the hospital corps marched at the rear to prevent 
 straggling and look after any who might become 
 
126 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 lame, halt or blind. The machine gun detach- 
 ment remained awaiting mules to convey their 
 guns and ammunition. The road wound up the 
 foot-hills and through a tropical forest, across tiny 
 creeks which we had been gravely assured by the 
 Cubans were rivers, past a few deserted sugar 
 estates, where nothing but a profusion of magnifi- 
 cent flowers suggested the recent occupancy of 
 man and his more flower-loving mate, woman, and 
 through cocoanut groves, which, near as they were 
 to the Spanish lines, had been supplying the 
 Cubans with the necessaries of life for three years. 
 The improvidence of the natives of the tropics 
 could be seen in these. They would secure the 
 cocoanuts (which were green at this time of the 
 year) and slash them open with their machetes, 
 destroying them ruthlessly for the mere sip of 
 sweetened water which they contained. 
 
 The sides of the road were literally alive with 
 small squads of stragglers from the infantry regi- 
 ments that had preceded us. Loaded down with 
 more weight than they could carry, unused to such 
 terrific heat, and probably in poor physical health 
 from too much life in barracks, they had fallen by 
 the wayside — many of them not two miles out of 
 Daiquiri. We, too, had some stragglers, but by 
 no means as many. All of them, of course, re- 
 
ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 127 
 
 joined at Siboney that night. The throwing away 
 of useless impedimenta had not then begun. 
 
 We were now scooting around the polar diam- 
 eter of the earth at a greater circular velocity than 
 we ever had before. The sun sank from sight 
 with amazing quickness, and with the same start- 
 ling rapidity we passed into and out of the cre- 
 puscular zone. What do the love-lorn of the 
 tropics do for twilight walks ? In Cuba they do 
 not have that happy hour " when from the boughs 
 the nightingale's soft note is heard," nor yet " the 
 hour when lovers' vows seem sweet in every 
 whispered word." Really, the tropics should be 
 more temperate. 
 
 It was dusk when the head of the regiment en- 
 tered Siboney, and dark before the camp fires were 
 burning. We entered by crossing a low platform 
 bridge almost under the railroad bridge, both of 
 which spanned a mighty torrent thirty feet wide, 
 and in some places three feet deep. The men had 
 their supper at once, as they carried their rations 
 with them, but it was long ere the Ethiop and 
 mule attached to headquarters made their appear- 
 ance. They had straggled. 
 
 We were now with the advance guard of Law- 
 ton's division. It consisted of a regiment of in- 
 fantry. One battalion occupied the heights back 
 
128 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 of Siboney, another was camped down the railroad 
 track which skirted the coast down to the cele- 
 brated Morro in which Hobson was supposed to 
 be incarcerated, and a third occupied the town. 
 Generals Wheeler and Young made their head- 
 quarters in the best looking house in town, but 
 the men of the regiment were not permitted to 
 sleep in the many vacant buildings for fear of con- 
 tagious diseases and vermin. It was in this town 
 that the first shots Vv'ere exchanged in the war. 
 The Spaniards were scurrying out of one end as the 
 American advance guard entered at the other. 
 No one was hurt on either side, and the Spaniards 
 immediately disappeared from view. 
 
 At supper that night we had guests for the first 
 time. Among others was Marshall the JoiLvnal 
 correspondent who went with us next day almost 
 to his death. By pure accident we got to talking 
 shop — i. e., writing — and I discovered that he was 
 for years the editor of a department of the New 
 York World to which I had been a regular con- 
 tributor. He was then contemplating a duty in 
 his profession abroad, and feared he would not be 
 with us long. He was not. The next day a piece 
 of Spanish steel changed the whole current of his 
 life, and the fortitude with which he bore up under 
 such a disheartening adversity was as admirable 
 
ON THE ROAD TO SIBONEY 129 
 
 as his supreme nerve in writing despatches to his 
 paper under the hottest fire of the battle. 
 
 Generals Wheeler and Young had planned dur- 
 ing the evening to push ahead in the morning. 
 At the time the only information I had of the 
 project was that we were to become the advance 
 guard on the following day. From a classmate, 
 Lieutenant Herman Hall, Adjutant of the advance 
 guard of Lawton's division, I learned that the 
 Spaniards were in force on " the second ridge " 
 back from the coast in a position from which the 
 Cubans had never been able to drive them during 
 the three years of the war, and a position they 
 had never been able to pass even in small num- 
 bers. Orders were given to each of the company 
 commanders that they were to be ready to move 
 at 5.30 the next morning. 
 
 All night long troops were arriving at Siboney, 
 fires were being lighted and supper cooked — sup- 
 per or breakfast, according to the time of day. A 
 number of us attempted to sleep on the porch of 
 one of the frame buildings on the water front. 
 There was a fire immediately in front of us, and 
 all night the naval vessels threw their searchlights 
 full on us. Sleep, therefore, was out of the ques- 
 tion — real sleep. Perhaps we caught a cat nap or 
 two between the various disturbances of arrival. 
 9 
 
I30 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 We could have slept on the ground in a place less 
 exposed to the noise and the lights from the ves- 
 sels, but rain was falling, there was little bedding, 
 and it was thought wiser to stay where we were. 
 At this place we had another example of the 
 amazing selfishness that can animate different 
 bodies of men acting in the same manner for the 
 same cause. The wells in the town had been 
 placed under guard of the regiment preceding us 
 into it, and our men were compelled to go back 
 to the river for almost all the water they used. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 GUASIMAS 
 
 The real intention of Generals Wheeler and 
 Young proved to be a battle with the Spaniards 
 in their strong position at the juncture of the two 
 roads from Siboney to Santiago. Orders were 
 issued that day for them to return to Daiquiri, in 
 order that the cavalry division should be thrown 
 back to the rear, the ist Brigade having just dis- 
 embarked. General Wheeler was the ranking 
 general on shore, however, General Shafter being 
 still on board the Seguranca, and the orders were 
 forwarded too late. Lo, the stone which the 
 builders seemed inclined to reject had become the 
 head of the column ! 
 
 Accounts agree on almost everything that hap- 
 pened in the campaign up to the morning of the 
 24th of June, 1898, the day of the battle of Guasi- 
 mas — battle, skirmish, surprise, ambush, glorious 
 victory, waste of energy, whichever the reader 
 chooses to call it from his point of view. From 
 
 this time on to the truce, ten days later, no two 
 
 131 
 
132 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 persons seem to agree. Heroism, Ability, Incom- 
 petence, Ambition, Jealousy and their train of 
 attendants suddenly strode from the wings to the 
 stage, and struggled for the centre and the rays of 
 the limelight. And no sooner did the curtain fall 
 on the scene than the characters grabbed pen and 
 ink and began writing of it. 
 
 The result is a mass of historical data fairly ap- 
 palling in its contradictory evidence. The effect 
 of all this upon the present scribe is such that he 
 can look upon all history with a dubious smile 
 and exclaim at each volume, " I wonder why you 
 wrote this," and " Why you wrote that." Men 
 who saw little or nothing of the events of the 
 next ten days have written most surprising things, 
 and men who were near enough to see have writ- 
 ten absolutely amazing things about them. The 
 campaign was a short one, but the history that 
 records it will be a long one. France fell down 
 and worshipped Napoleon for grabbing a flag and 
 rushing across a bridge at the head of his troops 
 in the very face of a battery of artillery. To-day 
 France knows and we know that Napoleon was 
 smart enough to know that the artillery was abso- 
 lutely out of ammunition before he undertook 
 what seemed like a piece of foolhardincss. Time 
 is a gossip who tells a number of interesting 
 
GUASIMAS 133 
 
 things, and perhaps Time will be able to figure out 
 the real from the unreal and ideal in this campaign. 
 
 Though the regiment was to move at 5:30 in 
 the morning of the 24th of June, it did not get 
 started until about 6 A. M. Nor was its progress 
 at first very rapid. It started straight back from 
 the coast up the steep, long hill which led to the 
 tableland, dotted here and there with small peaks, 
 which continues in a more or less even sweep, 
 now gently sloping, now as gently rising to the 
 harbour of Santiago. On the north this mesa is 
 bounded by the mountains which run parallel 
 with the coast. North of the mountains there is 
 a higher and more extensive tableland. On the 
 west the tableland first mentioned is broken up 
 into the hills and hog backs we had crossed in our 
 march from Daiquiri to Siboney. 
 
 The hill was hard to climb, and the regiment 
 was halted to rest several times. Before the top 
 was gained we had passed the usual Spanish block- 
 house and the battalion thrown out by Lawton's 
 advance guard. After that the Rough Riders 
 were the advance of the army. At the top of the 
 hill the various trails merged into an unused road 
 between two estates. A barbed-wire fence ran 
 on either side, composed of about twice as many 
 strands as those in America, and in addition there 
 
134 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 was a dense tropical foliage along the line of the 
 fence. This foliage was in the nature of an im- 
 mense hedge. Further to the right and left the 
 country was more open, though the grass and 
 brush were still high and annoying to the traveller. 
 
 It was a beautiful day, and as it was yet early 
 morning the heat was not stifling. The regi- 
 ment swung on over the road as thoughtlessly as 
 though it was going to a picnic. Ahead rode the 
 mounted officers, including two aides from brigade 
 headquarters, a newspaper correspondent and Cap- 
 tain McCormick, who had corralled another mule 
 in as mysterious a manner as he had obtained our 
 headquarters pack mule. Our Cuban interpreter, 
 also mounted on a mule and clad in a gorgeous uni- 
 form (he was now a Cuban major), carried a well- 
 filled meal sack on the pommel of his saddle and 
 also rode with headquarters. Marshall alternately 
 walked with me and took turns with Captain Mc- 
 Cormick, riding the latter's mule. 
 
 The regiment halted several times for a short rest. 
 During one of these the other correspondent was 
 slow in mounting his mule, and the regiment came 
 tramping at his heels. Again and again he tried 
 to mount but failed. I could not repress a smile, 
 and that smile cost me his enmity throughout the 
 campaign. The little satisfaction he got from his 
 
GUASIMAS 135 
 
 subsequent attempts to injure me while he was eat- 
 ing of the bread I helped to pay for he is welcome to. 
 
 We had advanced about a mile and a half when 
 the regiment was halted, and " L " troop com- 
 manded by Captain Capron was sent in advance as 
 an advance guard. No one in the regiment under- 
 stood advance guard duty better than he, but for 
 some reason he used a ''point " of only four men, 
 no flankers and no support. The main body of his 
 advance guard came on too closely upon the heels 
 of the point. Capron himself, utterly fearless, 
 marched about midway (at least during the latter 
 part of the advance) between his point and his 
 troop. He probably wanted to have both under 
 his immediate eye. Fortune favoured him and the 
 sharp eyes of Isabel, one of his four men in the 
 " point," discovered the Spanish position. 
 
 Throughout the march wood doves seemed to be 
 continually calling, one on each side of the road, and 
 they apparently receded as the regiment advanced. 
 There is every reason to suppose that they were 
 signals of Spanish pickets. On the next day I 
 found a number of small fresh camping places where 
 the remnants of fresh cigarette boxes, unused car- 
 tridges and the ashes from recent camp fires showed 
 that the Spanish pickets had been there and prob- 
 ably departed in a hurry. 
 
136 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 In the meantime the other two regiments of the 
 brigade had been marching up the main road which 
 skirts the end of the hill we climbed, and which 
 reaches the mesa by a slighter but longer grade. 
 Why a division of the command was made in de- 
 fiance of all the rules of war the present writer will 
 not attempt to explain. Marching with a superior 
 army to effect the capture of a much smaller one 
 this is sometimes permissible. The brigade, how- 
 ever, was marching against a superior force. As 
 the same division of command was made at the 
 battles of the ist of July, the hopeful may assume 
 that a new and startling description of strategy has 
 been developed by Americans. At any rate it 
 worked, and criticism is half silenced. 
 
 The Spanish position at Guasimas was something 
 in the nature of V or L with the angle between the 
 perpendicular and horizontal of the latter some- 
 what reduced, and with the end of each broken off 
 and pointed up the road on which the Rough 
 Riders were advancing. 
 
GUASIMAS 137 
 
 The direction of the line C D is south, with a 
 slight bearing to the east. The Rough Riders 
 were therefore advancing north, with a bearing 
 to the west. At D was the strong Spanish out- 
 post which Capron attacked, and it is there that 
 the cactus and trees were shot to pieces by the tre- 
 mendous fusillade. A few hundred yards from D, 
 in the direction of Siboney, the road made a slight 
 bend so the main body of the regiment could not 
 see its advance guard. It was on this bend that 
 the regiment halted when word was sent back by 
 Capron that the Spanish position had been dis- 
 covered. 
 
 The other half of the brigade was advancing 
 on a road on the further side of A B, which was a 
 long hill that terminated abruptly at B and from 
 there sloped gradually to A. At C our road from 
 Siboney made an abrupt turn after a sharp descent 
 from D and a slight rise at C. From C to A the 
 Spanish position was nearly level and much lower 
 than A B. At A the two roads joined and became 
 the main road to Santiago, still bearing in the 
 general direction B A to El Poso, where one branch 
 turned perpendicularly to the north and passed 
 between Kettle hill and the main hills to San- 
 tiago and the other branched to the southwest 
 towards the Morro. Still another little-used road, 
 
138 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 a branch of the road on which the regulars were 
 advancing, ran up through the open country in the 
 angle CAB. 
 
 For some reason or other (probably because the 
 road on which the regulars advanced was such a 
 dangerous one and so banked with dense tropical 
 forest on either side) the Spaniards, it is said, ex- 
 pected the advance to be made along this latter 
 road. It will be seen that they were well prepared 
 to annihilate a body coming up that road or trail, 
 at the same time guarding both the other roads. 
 When they discovered the troops were approach- 
 ing by both roads they came (as we now know) to 
 the reasonable conclusion that the whole American 
 army was upon them, and retreated. This retreat 
 began slowly and methodically, after the first half 
 hour of fighting, though it was not apparent until 
 the end of the fight and not hurried until the two 
 wings had joined at A and filed off on the road to 
 Santiago, carrying their wounded and probably 
 most of their dead. 
 
 There has been some discussion as to whether 
 the Rough Riders were ambushed at Guasimas. 
 Technically and actually such was not the case. 
 They were not surprised, as they saw the Spaniards 
 before the firing began. Moreover the regiment 
 fired first, though some books on the subject dc- 
 
GUASIMAS 139 
 
 clare that the Spaniards fired first. As a matter 
 of fact Captain Capron ordered two shots fired to 
 draw the enemy's fire. They were followed in- 
 stantly by a perfect tornado of bullets from the 
 Spanish which would have wiped the Rough Riders 
 off the face of the earth had they not been pro- 
 tected by the bend in the road and a dense under- 
 growth of young forest. As it was, the bullets 
 spatted among the trees and just over the heads of 
 the regiment as it stood in a packed column of fours. 
 Just before the firing began, and while we were 
 waiting, a couple of Cubans carried back a Cuban 
 scout who had been wounded some time before. 
 He was shot through the neck, tried to talk to 
 Colonel Wood, but eventually fell back in a faint 
 and was carried to the rear, our Cuban interpreter 
 accompanying him. This was the last ever seen 
 by the regiment of the interpreter, though he was 
 occasionally heard of. 
 
 On the right of the regiment, where it had halted, 
 was a small cleared space bounded on the east by 
 several small hills. Into this the troops were im- 
 mediately thrown and ordered to advance to the 
 support of Capron, and in extension of his line 
 on the right. " K " troop formed the extreme 
 right and later in the battle joined the left of the 
 other half of the brigade which had deployed to 
 
I40 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the left and front, and part of which at that time 
 had crossed over to the gently rising valley in 
 which the Spaniards had originally expected the 
 advance. As the Spaniards were in retreat by 
 that time, they did not become exposed to the two 
 flanking fires that had been arranged for them. 
 
 The remaining five troops of the regiment were 
 deployed to the left of the road, and sent forward 
 in extension of Capron's line on the left. Before 
 this that gallant officer had been mortally wounded. 
 His troops marched a trifle forward in column of 
 files, changed direction to the right, and pressed 
 forward through the jungle, driving the Spaniards 
 out of their cactus defences. They afterwards 
 crossed back to the left of the road. 
 
 Here Lieutenant Thomas who succeeded Capron 
 in command of the troop was wounded and 
 carried back, passing by Colonel Wood and my- 
 self. The left and centre of the regiment were 
 now on the left of the road and gradually de- 
 scending a long slope wooded here and there but 
 largely open. The firing here was terrific, and all 
 along the line the great majority of casualties 
 occurred in the first part of the fight. 
 
 The Spaniards seemed to be little inclined to- 
 ward taking the initiative, firing only when we 
 did and ceasing to fire when we ceased. They 
 
GUASIMAS 141 
 
 thought we were advancing when we were firing 
 and either remaining stationary or retreating when 
 not. They were not undeceived until the final 
 advance, which was made in the open with-, 
 out firing a shot. This audacious movement 
 thoroughly convinced the Spaniards (who had 
 been till now quietly retreating) that the whole 
 American army was within striking distance, 
 and they made for home and mother with 
 more haste. They were not pursued, the brigade 
 camping on the ground the enemy had occupied. 
 In the beginning of the deployment on the left 
 I had suggested putting our Colt guns on a small 
 hill to the left, and Colonel Wood ordered it done. 
 Unfortunately one of the packers decamped tak- 
 ing with him an important part of the mechanism 
 of each gun, and they were not brought into 
 action at all. An hour after giving the order I 
 went to the ofificer commanding the gun squad 
 to tell him to bring the pieces further to the front 
 where we could now see the Spaniards slowly 
 moving by the right flank in line of skirmishers 
 and learned this disappointing fact. The mule 
 was afterwards found and the pieces secured. 
 Our prime minister of meals had also skinned out 
 and for good. He took with him the mule, mess 
 and some bedding. We eventually got the mule. 
 
142 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Shortly after Lieutenant Thomas was wounded 
 Captain McClintock was shot through the leg. 
 The firing was so severe that it was impossible to 
 take him back to the temporary hospital for some 
 time. At about this time a well directed fire 
 from the Spanish on our extreme left would have 
 resulted very seriously. We were all anxious 
 about the left which was stuck out in the air for a 
 long time without support, though towards the 
 latter half of the battle Captain Muller with " E " 
 troop was thrown back of it in reserve. This 
 troop fired but four shots in the engagement, 
 though it had a man wounded. Captain Muller 
 did not believe in firing unless he could see some- 
 thing to fire at. 
 
 There were two troops in column therefore on 
 the left, and at the time mentioned six ofificers 
 were standing up in a moderately small bunch 
 near them. These were Colonel Wood, Colonel 
 Roosevelt who had left his squadron on the right 
 and come to the extreme left where he remained 
 for the rest of the fight, Major Brodie who com- 
 manded the left squadron, Captain Rivers of the 
 brigade staff. Lieutenant Franz, adjutant of Major 
 Brodie's squadron and myself. Franz looked 
 at me and we grinned at each other. We 
 were both in the same boat, both adjutants, and 
 
GUASIMAS 143 
 
 with little or nothing to do but Aook on and try 
 to appear unconcerned. The group broke up at 
 the next advance. 
 
 Later Major Brodie was wounded, and, as the 
 wound proved to be an extremely painful one, 
 when Colonel Wood learned of it he sent me back 
 to the hospital for a first aid package. After I 
 had started and had crossed a small open space 
 there was a crash of fire from our right (we were 
 under a flanking fire during the greater part of the 
 battle). I turned to look and saw, as I supposed, 
 the falling body of Colonel Wood. This led me 
 to report the fact that he was wounded. I has- 
 tened to get Dr. Church onto the field not only 
 for Major Brodie but for Colonel Wood. When 
 Church got to the place, however, he did not find 
 Colonel Wood. It was Marshall the Journal cor- 
 respondent who had fallen. He wore a shirt like 
 Colonel Wood's, hence the mistake. I had been 
 expecting to see Colonel Wood fall and had made 
 up my mind to keep it quiet if he did. I tried, 
 however, without success to communicate the fact 
 to General Young. 
 
 The Spaniards would have suffered much more 
 severely if, when we saw them to the best advan- 
 tage, we had not feared they were Cubans and 
 failed to fire on them. Again, the lane through 
 
144 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the trees through which we could see them mov- 
 ing to their own right was narrow, and but a very- 
 few men could fire into it at once. That the 
 Spaniards had a flanking force on our right is proved 
 by the fact that the next day a number of our offi- 
 cers found large quantities of exploded Spanish 
 cartridge shells behind a small ridge on the right ; 
 by the peculiarity of many of the wounds ; and by 
 the direction of the furrows made in the earth by 
 many of the bullets when they fell. With the line 
 of the latter parallel to our own front it is safe to 
 assume that the force that fired it was on our right 
 flank. That they had a machine gun is also cer- 
 tain. The next day I found a box recently 
 opened on the battlefield near Capron's position 
 which had contained machine gun ammunition, 
 together with another box which had contained 
 rifle ammunition. The nature of the contents of 
 each was branded on their sides. It is equally 
 certain that they had posted guerrillas in the trees 
 under which the regiment had deployed who fired 
 on us from the rear. In fact one officer came back 
 from his troop to protest that some other troop 
 of " Ours " was firing oh his from the rear. It 
 was explained to him that there was no troop 
 which could fire on him from the rear as all were 
 at that time on the line. There was not so much 
 
GUASIMAS 145 
 
 trouble from guerrillas in this battle as there was 
 in the fight at San Juan, however. 
 
 When the first shots were fired I looked at my 
 watch and noted the time. We began shooting 
 at precisely 7:20 A. M. It was twenty minutes be- 
 fore the other half of the brigade got in, and for 
 twenty minutes the Rough Riders stood the fire 
 of the whole Spanish force alone, their troops on 
 the ridge in the distance being able to fire at us 
 over the heads of the Spaniards with whom we 
 were directly engaged. Their total force is vari- 
 ously estimated at from 2,500 to 4,000. The Rough 
 Riders had about 550 men actually engaged in the 
 battle, besides commissioned officers. The regi- 
 ment camped on the battle ground along the line 
 AC. 
 
 As the enemy left the field Colonel Wood as 
 ranking regimental commander took command of 
 the entire brigade and stationed the regiments in 
 position to hold the ground won. There was little 
 real need of this. The Spaniards retired promptly 
 to Santiago where they had all along planned to 
 make their real defence. In fact the brigade could 
 have pushed on that night to San Juan, The 
 Spanish commander at Guasimas had been in- 
 structed to run no risk and lose as few men as pos- 
 sible. He obeyed his orders. There were few if 
 10 
 
146 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 any dead bodies of Spaniards found on the battle- 
 field. They reported but nine killed, and the 
 usual proportion to that wounded. There were 
 but three or four bodies of Spaniards buried by 
 our regiment, and one of these was a Spaniard 
 who had been killed by Cubans the day before. 
 
 There was plenty of joking among the Rough 
 Riders during the engagement. That seems to be 
 the psychical poise of the Westerner. There was 
 no groaning among the wounded. Often there 
 was an exclamation of surprise, and the man 
 would hunt around curiously to see where he had 
 been hit. Then he would grinningly inform his 
 comrades. Their attitude was very similar to that 
 of the Irish hod carrier who fell four stories from 
 the window of a house in process of construction 
 and on striking the pavement looked up and re- 
 marked, " I broke me poipe." They all desired to 
 be put together in little squads with their guns 
 and ammunition for protection. After every ex- 
 change of fire the regiment moved fonvard, how- 
 ever, thus surprising the Spaniards by gaining 
 ground and effectually covering the wounded. 
 Orders were given that the men on the line should 
 not help the wounded back to the hospital, and 
 these orders were strictly obeyed. It seemed a 
 heartless measure but it was necessary. The 
 
GUASIMAS 147 
 
 wounded did not complain. Indeed they were 
 promptly cared for by Surgeons LaMotte and 
 Church and their assistants. 
 
 When Colonel Wood first observed the flank 
 movement of the Spaniards, he shouted, " They're 
 on the run." A man in one of the troops nearby 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Things seem to be coming our way." 
 
 " Yes — bullets," answered another. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 
 
 After the battle and the establishment of 
 camp the men began to hunt around for articles 
 shed during the fight. Details were sent out to 
 hunt for the dead and to beat through the brush for 
 any wounded who might have fallen unnoticed. 
 By nightfall the little shelter tents had been 
 erected, a waggon cover marquee swung for Col- 
 onels Wood and Roosevelt and a number of news- 
 paper correspondents who were guests at head- 
 quarters, and the camp began to look quite " ship 
 shape," as one of the jocular " horse-marines ' 
 said. Marine terms w^ere in constant use now 
 Many of the men referred no longer to the " front ' 
 and " rear " but used the equivalents " forward ' 
 and " aft." Some even went so far as to use 
 " starboard " and " port " in preference to the 
 ordinary expressions. 
 
 One sailor's term stayed with the regiment per- 
 sistently. This was the sailors' call " gangway " 
 
 which they use when they want people to get out 
 148 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 149 
 
 of their way. Indeed one officer nearly precipi- 
 tated the battle before the shots were fired by 
 Capron's " point." He rode up from the rear in 
 a great hurry through the crowded ranks in the 
 narrow road shouting " gangway " at the top of 
 his voice. The regiment was at the halt and ab- 
 solute silence was commanded. Every one tried 
 to make him keep still by dumb play but without 
 avail until he reached Colonel Wood himself. 
 The latter whispered the situation, and the officer 
 looked very sheepish. 
 
 The " sick bay " however had again become the 
 " hospital." This was a distinct advance. The 
 hospital consisted of a tree, some grass covered 
 ground and a tent in which the medicines were 
 stored. It might just as fittingly have been called 
 the " croquet ground." Later the remaining tents 
 and appurtenances were brought on, and the 
 hospital became quite an institution. In fact the 
 surgeons declared that it was better supplied than 
 any other regimental hospital in the campaign. 
 
 Brigade headquarters immediately demanded 
 our casualty returns, and my own time was de- 
 voted to making them out. When I handed them 
 to Colonel Wood for his signature I had verified 
 them by comparison with the returns of the hos- 
 pital. We agreed with but one exception. They 
 
150 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 carried one more man killed than my reports did. 
 It was discovered that this man was wounded but 
 alive and likely to recover — which he eventually 
 did. — This gave them one more man wounded 
 than my list showed. This I explained to the 
 Colonel. He was greatly surprised at the report, 
 as from oral information he had received from 
 various quarters he supposed our loss greatly in 
 excess of what the reports showed. Consequently 
 he called all the first sergeants to headquarters 
 and went over the list again. Every sergeant 
 convinced him that the report he had submitted 
 to me was correct. There still remained the 
 mystery of the one man wounded unaccounted 
 for, however. After a great deal of fencing the 
 error was discovered, ist Sergeant Greenley of 
 " A " troop at length blushingly admitted that he 
 was the other man wounded. He had only been 
 shot through the ear, he explained and did not 
 think it of enough moment to put down on the 
 returns. 
 
 This man Greenley was about as fine an example 
 of the " all wool and a yard wide " American sol- 
 dier as could have been found in the whole 5th 
 Corps. He was an old soldier and most thoroughly 
 in earnest in everything. His reports were always 
 correct, his details the first ready and his troop 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 151 
 
 in absolute discipline. He was the delight of 
 Captain O'Neill as the troop was his pride. On 
 one occasion Greenley's company clerk had made 
 a slight mistake in a clothing roll which had to be 
 sent back for correction. The clerk got a lecture 
 from Greenley which he will never forget. 
 
 " You have ruined my reputation," wailed 
 Greenley, in tones that could be heard all over 
 camp, greatly to the delight and amusement of 
 O'Neill, the "Charles O'Malley" of the regiment. 
 Incidentally the " Mickey Free " of the regiment 
 was represented in a quite original and up-to-date 
 way by McGinty of " K " troop, who was the de- 
 light of Lieutenant (later Captain) Woodbury 
 Kane, 
 
 The men found that the haversacks which they 
 had shed during the battle had been rifled of most 
 of their contents, and there was an immediate 
 shortage of rations. Infantry and cavalry were 
 now hurrying through camp to the front. How 
 they came to be without rations is something in- 
 explicable. A pack train came with them, bring- 
 ing rations for the Rough Riders, but before it 
 could be unloaded it was ordered on for the use 
 of some other regiment. The men were very 
 hungry and naturally amazed at such a pro- 
 cedure. 
 
152 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ' In this dilemma Colonel Roosevelt took a de- 
 tail of men back to Siboney, secured some of the 
 main components of the ration (I think by pur- 
 chase with his own money) and brought them 
 on. Headquarters, being without food, ate with 
 whatever officers would invite it, until the re- 
 arrival the next day of its mule and mess, minus 
 the prime minister, who had become valet extra- 
 ordinary and chef plenipotentiary to a troop of 
 the 9th Cavalry. He took with him my solitary 
 piece of bedding, a yellow slicker and a hunting 
 knife which was the apple of my eye. I wondered 
 how a sleep on the damp ground with the stars 
 for a quilt would go with my malaria, when a 
 small train hove in sight with my bedding. It 
 had been landed at Siboney and brought forward. 
 Chaplain Brown had been left behind at Daiquiri 
 to help land the regimental stores. When the 
 Yucatan changed her position to Siboney the 
 chaplain emulated Captain McCormick, obtained 
 a mule, packed what he could of the headquarters 
 supplies on the mule and pushed on alone to the 
 front, arriving just after supper. He was a Godly 
 man but a goodly hustler, and walked the whole 
 distance apparently without fatigue. He was dis- 
 appointed at having missed the battle, but pleased 
 to be in time at the funeral. He officiated at 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 153 
 
 every burial in the regiment. It would have 
 broken his heart to have missed one. He left at 
 Daiquiri a good part of the regimental effects in 
 charge of a solitary man. 
 
 This man deserves mention. He had in some 
 way reached Cuba intent on joining the Rough 
 Riders. He passed the physical examination all 
 right but could not be mustered in, as the regi- 
 ment was then hurrying its preparations for the 
 march to Siboney. He was left alone at Daiquiri 
 in charge of all this regimental property, and 
 stayed at his post a faithful civilian guard, until I 
 took him and the property to the front on July 
 7th. He was then promptly mustered in. 
 
 The dead had now been gathered in and laid in 
 a row under a tree with a sentinel to guard them 
 and keep away the vultures and hideous speckled 
 red land crabs, which, with tarantulas, make up 
 for the absence of snakes in Cuba. The body of 
 Captain Capron was sent back to Siboney with 
 the wounded, as his father was on one of the 
 transports with his battery of artilleiy. Thither, 
 too, went Chaplain Brown to conduct the services. 
 The father could not be communicated with, as 
 the transports were too far out at sea, and the 
 body had to be buried near the coast. Among 
 the ghastly looking row of dead was the body of 
 
154 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Hamilton Fish, who had been killed in the very 
 centre of " L" troop by the side of ist Sergeant 
 Frank P. Hayes (afterwards 2d lieutenant), who 
 commanded the centre platoon of that troop. 
 When Fish was shot he uttered a sigh, his head 
 bowed slightly forward, as though in answer to 
 the question Hayes asked him : " Are you hit ? " 
 and expired without saying a word. There was 
 also the body of Russel, whom I had hoped to 
 make acting sergeant-major. 
 
 Late on the night of the 24th another pack 
 train brought rations to the regiment, and the men 
 had a pleasant surprise on the next day in the 
 shape of an unexpected breakfast. From that 
 time on to the capitulation the regiment lived 
 literally from hand to mouth. 
 
 All the afternoon a relief of men worked at a 
 grave for the dead, and gathered palm leaves with 
 which to line the grave, floor it and cover the 
 bodies. A new Spanish uniform was found by one 
 of the men, and as it had been difficult to tell just 
 who were the Spaniards, I had the suit disinfected 
 and sent around for inspection. It was of light 
 white cloth striped with small blue lines. For the 
 rest, they wore high-crowned, broad-brimmed 
 straw hats and white shoes. The officers were 
 designated by insignia even simpler than our own, 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 155 
 
 when they wore any at all, and each man wore on 
 his collar the number of his regiment and the 
 Spanish territorial division to which it belonged. 
 For instance, " P 29 " meant the " 29th Peninsula 
 Regiment." 
 
 A number of small bands of Cubans passed to 
 the front on the road by which we were camped. 
 In one of these was an extremely mirthful gentle- 
 man, as black as the ace of spades. I saw him a 
 number of times afterwards, and his tongue was 
 ever hung in the middle and wagging at both 
 ends. He took a roseate view of every situation, 
 and offered an incentive to our men to move for- 
 ward and capture Santiago forthwith. 
 
 " Plenty beautiful senoras in Santiago — most 
 beautiful senoras," he cried repeatedly, as he 
 passed on. He was a gallant of the old school, 
 amorous and enthusiastic. His conception of the 
 soldier could be put in the two lines : 
 
 " The first to scale the castle tower, 
 As venturous in a lady's bower." 
 
 Here's hoping that he found the " most beauti- 
 ful senoras." To the Rough Riders they were 
 back in America. In fact Isabel of Capron's 
 point, who, with five wounds in his body, helped 
 a wounded chum back to Siboney, was already 
 
156 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 making his way back to the Indian Territory to 
 kill a rival who had been trying to flirt with his 
 sweetheart. 
 
 An officer of the other wing of the brigade came 
 over to headquarters and told us of their part of 
 the fight. They went headlong up the road with- 
 out an advance guard until an excited but wise 
 Cuban galloped to the head of the column and 
 warned them that unless they threw out an advance 
 guard and took proper precautions they would be 
 massacred. There was altogether too much con- 
 fidence in the American army — too much " ego in 
 its cosmos," as Kipling would say. 
 
 Chaplain Brown brought with him a little mail 
 for the regiment. A post-office had already been 
 established at Daiquiri. But little had been sorted, 
 but he brought all that was picked out for us up to 
 the time of his departure. I received one letter. 
 It was from a newspaper man in New York who 
 had just started a weekly paper. He wanted me 
 to get subscribers to the paper among the rich men 
 of the regiment. In the midst of death we are in 
 American enterprise. O'Neill was the personifica- 
 tion of it. He was the most indefatigable schemer 
 that ever was. He already had a number of min- 
 ing companies projected to develop the wealth of 
 Cuba, to say nothing of sugar companies and huge 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 157 
 
 cattle ranches which were sure to prove money win- 
 ners because of the never ending supply of grass 
 and water. In addition he was a walking encyclo- 
 paedia — about as well informed a man as you would 
 meet in a lifetime. On the trip to Cuba he had 
 projected an association which was to be called the 
 " Military Order of the Morro." Colonel Wood 
 was interested and suggested a name which was 
 substituted, to-wit : " The Military Order of the 
 Foreign Wars of the Republic." Eventually the 
 association became the " Rough Riders' Associa- 
 tion." 
 
 On the afternoon of Guasimas Captain O'Neill 
 was already at work getting up a regimental raffle 
 for the dead Captain Capron's horse. He expected 
 to be able to send Captain Capron's widow several 
 hundred dollars for the horse and then give her the 
 horse. Before he had time from his many duties 
 to complete all the arrangements other officers had 
 to take it in charge and a similar one for his own 
 widow. 
 
 The guns of the men were new to them, and they 
 seem to have been constructed with an especial 
 view to accidental discharge. At any rate they 
 were often discharged accidentally not only in our 
 camp but in many others. Then the comrades of 
 the man who was careless would yell ; 
 
158 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 " Take it away from him — take it away from 
 him." 
 
 This became quite the fashion and could be heard 
 throughout the campaign. 
 
 Late in the afternoon some sentinels at our front 
 dragged in a poor bewildered little wretch of swar- 
 thy hue. He wore an almost complete Spanish 
 uniform, and they had spotted him for a spy. The 
 regiment turned out en masse near headquarters 
 to have a look at him. The poor fellow was fright- 
 ened out of his wits, sank on his knees and raised 
 his hands in an attitude of prayer, supplicating 
 mercy. The men laughed — not at him but at the 
 idea that they would hurt him. Then they turned 
 away and went back to their tents in order to soothe 
 his fears. 
 
 Captain Luna, who could speak Spanish like 
 a native, was called and talked with the man. He 
 claimed to be a Cuban. He was taken to the 
 guard-house and furnished with a better meal than 
 the men had had. He ate voraciously, sitting on 
 the ground with a grim-looking six-foot sentry 
 posted behind him. The meal assuaged his fears. 
 Cubans were sent for and identified him as one of 
 their own, and he was released. He had probably 
 obtained his wardrobe from some dead Spaniard. 
 
 Late in the evening an orderly from brigade 
 
IN CAMP ON A BATTLEFIELD 159 
 
 headquarters visited me and asked for my tri- 
 monthly return for the past two periods of ten days 
 in June. I looked at him in blank astonishment. 
 A tri-monthly return was a new one on me and I 
 told him so. He wanted to grin but did not dare 
 to. Then he politely explained that it was a digest 
 of the regimental morning report for the preceding 
 ten days and that another would be due the 30th. 
 I explained feebly that by diligence and persever- 
 ance I had been able to accumulate a bottle of par- 
 ticularly watery ink and a steel pen that had seen 
 better days, also a few sheets of mouldy uniform 
 paper. But, I added that I had no regimental 
 morning report, no blank tri-monthly returns and, 
 in fact, no blanks of any kind. He gazed at me 
 with a look of blank astonishment and seemed to 
 want to utter blanks, but the right to utter such I 
 had been reserving for my own use on just such 
 an occasion. 
 
 Eventually he confided to me the cheerful fact 
 that he had one spare blank at headquarters which 
 he would give to me in order that I might turn in 
 the return for the ten days ending June 20th so 
 that they could furnish Division Headquarters 
 with their own return. This saved me from mak- 
 ing out five others, for three were required for each 
 ten days. One went to brigade headquarters, one 
 
i6o FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 to the Adjutant General of the Army and one was 
 to be kept by myself. I never got those that 
 were to be kept by myself and I am inclined to 
 believe the Adjutant General never got his. I 
 spent the rest of the day trjdng to study out what 
 the single blank furnished me meant and trying 
 to fill it with the information required. This had 
 to be culled from the troop morning reports, and 
 as some of these were lost it was a most unsatis- 
 factory job as well as an aggravating one. I 
 wasted so much time over it that I had none left 
 to secure subscriptions to the new paper. I have 
 always been sorry for that. Perhaps the subscrip- 
 tions would have saved the life of the paper. In 
 a few weeks it expired. In the midst of life it was 
 in death. 
 
 But the thought of another tri-monthly return 
 to make out on the 30th tortured my waking mo- 
 ments and filled my sleep with horrid dreams 
 nightly. On the 30th, however, the regiment 
 marched to El Paso. In the excitement of the 
 following days even brigade and division head- 
 quarters forgot the tri-monthly returns and asked 
 for no more. I did not remind them. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BETWEEN BATTLES 
 
 On the morning of the 25th of June the seven 
 Rough Riders who, besides Captain Capron, had 
 been killed the day before were buried by the 
 side of the road on which the Spaniards had re- 
 treated. The position of each body was carefully 
 noted and three copies of the memorandum made. 
 One was carried by Colonel Wood, another by 
 Chaplain Brown and the third by myself. The 
 grave was afterwards marked by the Cubans with 
 a cross made of stones, and a monument, I under- 
 stand, has sincebeen erected. The regiment and the 
 guests at headquarters attended. No volleys were 
 fired for fear of giving an alarm to some of the 
 other regiments camped near us, but melancholy 
 taps were sounded over the grave and the Chaplain 
 held the usual service, hymns being sung by the 
 whole regiment. 
 
 The day was spent in cleaning guns, talking 
 over the battle, struggling for rations and obtain- 
 ing a fresh supply of ammunition. Troops were 
 II 161 
 
i62 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 again being pushed by us to the front, and more 
 were put into camp near us. In the afternoon 
 my horse arrived as unexpectedly as my bedding 
 and clothes did the night before. He was in sorry 
 shape and very seasick. I was not able to ride 
 him for several days, but when we moved I could 
 carry my few effects on him. 
 
 All the effects found on the battlefield and un- 
 claimed were brought to headquarters and grad- 
 ually found owners. Those who could not identify 
 property and were short were then provided out 
 of the remainder (which undoubtedly belonged to 
 the dead and wounded), and soon the regiment 
 was as well provided as it had been before the 
 struggle. There was even a considerable surplus, 
 especially in the matter of arms, for all those be- 
 longing to the dead and wounded were left at the 
 front as a matter of course. About twenty per 
 cent, of the regiment had been killed and wounded 
 in the battle. 
 
 On the previous evening Colonel Roosevelt de- 
 clared that we should be known henceforth as the 
 " Rough Riders " among ourselves as well as 
 among the people ; and Colonel Wood had named 
 "L" troop "Capron's Troop" and issued orders 
 that such was thereafter to be its official designa- 
 tion. It was now commanded by Lieutenant 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 163 
 
 Day, its 2d Lieutenant. Sickness began to make 
 its appearance among the men ; and on this day I 
 received notice that Leroy E. Tomlinson, a private 
 of " B " troop, had died on the Olivette on the 
 23d and had been buried at Daiquiri. 
 
 Among the other troops that passed us to the 
 front were the three regiments of regular cavalry 
 constituting the first brigade. They were individ- 
 ually and collectively disgusted at not getting 
 into the first battle of the war. The second bri- 
 gade became uneasy now, supposing that the first 
 would be given the next chance, and their being 
 moved to the front seemed to indicate such an 
 arrangement. The second was soon ordered to 
 move on, however, and camp was quickly broken 
 and the brigade moved forward some three or four 
 miles to a new camping place. 
 
 Short though this march was in distance it was 
 distressingly long in time. Regiments were in 
 front of us and behind us, the road was blocked, 
 and as is always the case under such conditions 
 the marching was mainly waiting in the road. 
 We would march a couple of hundred yards and 
 then wait about half an hour. The sun's rays 
 were directly overhead, and the atmosphere was 
 boiling hot. The foliage on either side of the road 
 was tall and thick, but it afforded no shade, and 
 
i64 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 would have screened us from any breeze that 
 might have been stirring. A number of the men 
 were prostrated by the heat, and Dr. Church, 
 strong and healthy as he was, nearly gave out him- 
 self. To add to the misery, general officers and 
 their staffs, aides, couriers and pack trains trotted 
 through the ranks, breaking up formations and 
 raising a stifling dust. 
 
 When our camping-ground was eventually 
 reached it was disappointing. It lay between the 
 road and a small creek at the base of the foot-hills 
 of the mountains, to which we were now nearer 
 than ever before. In plain view on the summit 
 of the range three Spanish blockhouses could be 
 distinctly seen. The new camping-ground was 
 bristling with brushwood, and it was quite a job 
 to get to the point selected for headquarters. 
 This was by a particularly spreading mango tree 
 which had evidently been used by the enemy for 
 the same purpose but a few days before. We 
 could have reached the point without trouble by 
 passing through a small portion of the camp of 
 the mounted squadron which adjoined ours, but 
 they would not permit it. 
 
 The heat and the wretched conditions of the 
 campaign had begun to tell on every one's nerves, 
 and ill-temper was to be expected almost every- 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 165 
 
 where. Already officers and men were beginning 
 to come down with the fever. It attacked Gen- 
 eral Young the next day ; he became delirious and 
 was eventually obliged to leave the island. Gen- 
 eral Wheeler, too, was on the sick list off and on. 
 This action of the mounted squadron was not to 
 its advantage, however. Our camp included the 
 best watering-place for horses within a consider- 
 able distance, and it had been the custom of the 
 mounted squadron to lead their horses to water 
 through the very ground on which our headquar- 
 ters was situated. This was immediately stopped 
 by placing sentinels around the camp with in- 
 structions to keep the mounted squadron well 
 away from headquarters, and they were obliged 
 to make an annoying detour. They had been 
 grazing their horses throughout our camp. This 
 was also stopped. The rain now became a feature 
 of every day's life and misery. Deep drains were 
 a necessity, as the flat ground was actually water- 
 soaked and implements for disturbing the natural 
 repose of the crust of the soil were in great 
 demand. By persistent and skilful hustling the 
 Rough Riders had now acquired an abundant 
 supply of these implements. The mounted squad- 
 ron was without them, at least in sufficient num- 
 ber, and after standing a drenching or two raised 
 
i66 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the white flag and came over singly and in groups 
 to borrow of us. It is needless to say that they 
 were not refused though they were held to a strict 
 accountability for the return of the implements. 
 The Rough Riders could hustle for themselves, 
 but had no anxiety to be hustled against. 
 
 In all the commands constant guards had to be 
 kept on the river to prevent men, and even ofificers, 
 from bathing in it and washing clothes and dishes 
 in it. This was not only for the protection of 
 each regiment, but for the protection of regiments 
 further down the river. 
 
 A number of scouting parties were now sent out 
 by the regiment under command of some of the 
 ambitious and energetic youngsters, like Lieuten- 
 ants Greenway, Franz, Goodrich and Keyes. 
 These brought back supplies of mangoes ripe, 
 luscious, and awkward to eat. To eat a mango 
 with comfort, one requires a capacious bib, four 
 napkins, two finger bowls, a bath towel, bath tub, 
 plenty of water and a month's supply of soap. 
 He also requires the services of a physician and 
 possibly those of a trained nurse and an under- 
 taker. Physicians should flock to Cuba and take 
 with them their favourite undertakers, though the 
 latter would have to compete with the native vul- 
 tures. 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 167 
 
 In fact Cuba is a curious country. If it could 
 be roofed over and walled with wire screens it 
 would be a paradise. The drainage from such a 
 roof would supply the whole world with fresh 
 water and refill the great lakes after Niagara, and 
 the Chicago Drainage Canal had drained them 
 dry. While such a roof might throw Cuba in the 
 shade, family washings could be hung out on it 
 and dried in the space of ten minutes. The roof 
 would also supply good bicycle paths, which are 
 greatly needed in the Pearl of the Antilles. Take 
 it all in all, this scheme is worthy the attention of 
 Congress. 
 
 Before going to Cuba we had been solemnly 
 warned that every soldier should take a hammock 
 with him on the campaign. Perhaps he should. 
 He should also have taken a summer hotel. As 
 none of these things was supplied none but a few 
 of the officers had hammocks. This was the only 
 camp where we seriously tried to use them. They 
 were swung in the tentage from posts sunk in the 
 soil. No matter how deeply the posts were sunk 
 or how securely braced and held with guy ropes 
 they constantly " gave " in the mushy, rain-soaked 
 soil. We would retire at night, swinging perilously 
 five feet from the ground, and awake in the morn- 
 ing reclining on the soil. 
 
i68 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 The men adapted themselves at once to tropical 
 conditions and began using sugarcane and bamboo 
 for every conceivable purpose. Mugs, cups, pipes, 
 pitchers, pails, floors, roofs, walls, beds, chairs — 
 all were made from them. Limes were gathered 
 and made into a very refreshing limonade, and 
 some even attempted to eat green pineapples. 
 But it must not be thought that the directions of 
 the medical department as to the eating of fruit 
 were generally disregarded. In fact, as many of 
 the regulations concerning health were followed as 
 possible. If all had been strictly enforced there 
 would have been time to do nothing else, and the 
 army would still have been at Daiquiri. 
 
 Dr. Church, probably because he was a medical 
 officer and therefore better able to care for him- 
 self than any one else, was assigned a spot for his 
 shelter tent which happened to be just below the 
 level of the remainder of the camp. When the 
 first storm came all the other tents had been sur- 
 rounded by drainage ditches. He had been busy 
 looking after his fellow man ; and, as is quite usual 
 in this world of wickedness, his fellow man, had 
 not been looking after him. As the deluge de- 
 scended, Church crawled into his little tent, smil- 
 ingly declining the shelter of my own, where a 
 number were congregated. He thought he would 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 169 
 
 smoke a cigarette and read a letter during the 
 storm. It was not so ordained. First his tent 
 began to leak, which is the natural prerogative of 
 a " shelter " tent. Then the soil under him be- 
 came saturated. Then a family of tarantulas 
 which had been holding a birthday reception under 
 his bedding crawled out and looked askance at 
 him. Then he looked askance at them. 
 
 At this interesting juncture the ditches around 
 the various other tents filled simultaneously and 
 overflowed into their outlet ditches. These latter 
 were pointed naturally toward lowest ground, and 
 a tidal wave moved toward the doctor. Some- 
 body laughed. Then all laughed. The doctor 
 did not. He removed his clothes, exhibiting a 
 muscular figure that had carried the pig-skin 
 through rush line barriers many times for Prince- 
 ton ; and, grabbing a spade from the supply pile, 
 began the construction of an elaborate canal. 
 His idea, born of necessity, was to build a drainage 
 ditch that would drain the whole camp. This he 
 did single handed, getting a refreshing bath at the 
 same time. His engineering was excellent, his 
 contractor honest, labour A i, and by dint of an 
 afternoon's work he succeeded in protecting four- 
 teen square feet of ground for his own use. 
 
 A few yards from Church's tent the Chaplain 
 
I70 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 had erected his. Some foreign officers were now 
 guests at headquarters as well as one or two news- 
 paper men. They had gone forward with an 
 armed reconnaissance from Lawton's division, 
 which was again in front. They had left their 
 lariats lying on the ground. The Chaplain needed 
 rope to swing his hammock. Now the Chaplain 
 was an honest man, but he had lived most of his 
 life in the far west. Even after leaving Rome 
 one often continues to " do as the Romans do." 
 The Chaplain spied those two precious lariats and 
 soon had his hammock swinging. Later the 
 foreign officers returned. They had to stand and 
 hold their horses until some one explained matters 
 to the Chaplain. Then he good-naturedly apolo- 
 gized and returned the lariats. 
 
 One of these visiting officers was an Englishman. 
 Conversation at dinner one day fell on matters 
 governmental, and numerous stories were told of 
 various government officials. They were all stories 
 of interest, and many of them humorous. The 
 English officer was deeply impressed and was tak- 
 ing them very seriously. In a lull in the conver- 
 sation he suddenly burst out : 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, from what you have been 
 saying I must say I cannot see any reason why 
 we should change our form of government." 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 171 
 
 This was followed by a deathly silence, which 
 continued during the rest of the meal. 
 
 One of the most amusing incidents of the cam- 
 paign and at the same time one of the most idio- 
 tic, occurred in this camp. A member of the 
 guard called me to one of the remote sentinel's 
 posts. On my arrival there I found an immense 
 pile of boxes of ammunition flanked by a similar 
 pile of rations. Two officers, one of the brigade 
 and one of the corps staff were awaiting me. 
 
 " We want a special guard put over this stuff," 
 said the member of the corps staff, *' three privates 
 and a sergeant." 
 
 I gave the necessary directions at once. Then 
 he told me the orders to be given to the sergeant 
 of this guard. No one was to be permitted to 
 take anything from either of these two piles of 
 ammunition and rations excepting by order from 
 himself or from the other staff of^cer present. 
 Then he conferred with his colleague and amended 
 this. In case the army was attacked or a battle 
 brought on the ammunition was to be supplied 
 to such regiments as needed it. I told him that 
 I would convey the orders to Colonel Wood and 
 that the guard would be established at once. 
 
 " No, you won't do anything of the kind," 
 growled the staff officer " I want you to under 
 
1/2 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 stand distinctly that Colonel Wood is to have 
 nothing to do with this." 
 
 I expostulated, reminding him that Colonel 
 Wood was in command of the regiment and 
 would necessarily be in command of this guard 
 detail. 
 
 That made no difference to him except to in- 
 crease his vehemence and uncover his wrath. He 
 insisted that no one but the sergeant in charge 
 should have anything to say about the disposal 
 of the stores he was guarding, and then only un- 
 der the instructions given. 
 
 I smiled and asked him sweetly if the sergeant 
 was to be the judge of the amount of ammunition 
 that might be needed by a regiment on the line. 
 This necessitated another conference, and the in- 
 structions were again amended. This time the 
 sergeant was to let any regiment take as much 
 ammunition as it wanted in case of a fight. The 
 amendment was certainly comprehensive. That 
 staff officer was probably fearing that Colonel 
 Wood might take the whole supply of ammuni- 
 tion over to Santiago and capture the town single 
 handed. There was no fight at this place, and 
 the ammunition was eventually taken further for- 
 ward, but it may please the staff officer to know 
 that his special guard was always under the 
 
BETWEEN BATTLES 173 
 
 direct command of Colonel Wood and bound to 
 obey the latter's orders concerning all things. 
 
 There was plenty of work to do in this camp, 
 A regimental morning report was required every 
 morning, and in trying to work it out correctly I 
 found many mistakes in the troop morning reports 
 with which I was more familiar. We took the 
 opportunity of the rest to get these things 
 straight. In this I was greatly helped by a Wall 
 Street broker who willingly accepted the humble 
 position of headquarters clerk provided he could 
 be with his troop in battle. His name was Van 
 Schaick and he was worth his weight in gold, and 
 with gold at a good premium. 
 
 There was a constant battle with the elements, 
 too, and at night all hands were tired enough to 
 long for sleep — all save one. This was one of 
 our guests, the one whom I had offended by 
 laughing at his awkwardness in mounting a mule. 
 From taps till his tongue got tired he talked. 
 Hour after hour my sleepless tent mate and I ex- 
 changed oaths on the subject, whispered oaths for 
 he was a guest. Finally one morning I resorted 
 to gentle sarcasm. I told him that I had been 
 enjoying his evening animadversions very much 
 indeed. He bit, but not in the way I expected. 
 He missed the sarcasm, took the statement seri- 
 
174 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ously and expressed himself as greatly pleased. 
 He had once or twice feared that he was keeping 
 us awake — but etc., etc. 
 
 On the opposite side of the road the light artil- 
 lery went into camp. With it was Captain Capron, 
 the father of our dead Capron. The latter s 
 effects were gathered together and two members 
 of the regiment went to Captain Capron's tent to 
 give them to him, express their sympathy, and 
 tell him of the disposition that was being made of 
 Capron's horse. The Captain would not receive 
 the things. He w^as terribly affected by the death 
 of his son, who I believe was the third he had 
 lost, and was very bitter. 
 
 Morning and afternoon the regimental bands in 
 the various camps gave concerts. The patriotic 
 tunes were wildly cheered, regiment after regi- 
 ment taking up the cheering. When one night a 
 band played " A Hot Time" the Rough Riders 
 got up en masse and yelled themselves hoarse. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 ON TO SAN JUAN 
 
 On the afternoon of the 30th of June the regi- 
 ment received orders to break camp again and 
 march to the front. Colonel Wood, by virtue of 
 his rank had now been put in command of our 
 brigade on account of General Young's absence, 
 sick. Colonel Roosevelt, therefore, commanded 
 the regiment from this day till it was disbanded 
 September 15th, 1898. 
 
 This was another hot dusty march, but not so 
 
 tiresome a journey as the last, though longer. 
 
 Troops were in front of us as usual, but for the 
 
 first part of the march there were not so many, 
 
 and the road was more open, Toward the end, 
 
 however, the troops in front began to bank up. 
 
 In some way or other we got separated from the 
 
 rest of the brigade and began to have troubles of 
 
 our own again. Eventually one of our division 
 
 staff appeared and told us that there was another 
 
 road a trifle to the south of the main one, and that 
 
 by cutting across and taking this we could make 
 
 175 
 
1/6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 up our lost time. This was immediately done 
 and we stole quite a march on the infantry, 
 almost catching up with the other regiments of 
 our brigade. 
 
 By taking this road we passed Corps Head- 
 quarters and Division Hospital, the latter the 
 scene the next day and for several days afterwards 
 of sights too harrowing to be described except in 
 the cold, scientific language of the surgeon. Some 
 distance beyond we again joined the regular line. 
 Two regiments of infantry were halted in column 
 of fours directly in front of us filling uj) the road. 
 Colonel Roosevelt was not to be stopped by this 
 and, calling to the infantry to give way, pushed on. 
 A part of the regiment got through all right, but 
 the rear end of the regiment was split up and con- 
 siderably delayed, getting into El Poso some time 
 after the arrival of the other. 
 
 All the way up the road we had been in plain 
 sight of the balloon of the signal corps from which 
 observations had been taken of the enemy. All 
 the observations of value were taken this day, and 
 if they had not attempted to use the balloon on 
 the next many lives would have been saved. 
 
 We reached El Poso at dusk. The ist and loth 
 Cavalry were already in camp on the higher ground 
 behind Grimes' battery of Artillery. We camped 
 
ON TO SAN JUAN 177 
 
 immediately in the vicinity of the single adobe 
 house and barn which is all that is necessary to 
 form a Cuban town with a high sounding title. 
 Incidentally every third town in Cuba is named 
 San Jos6, San Luis or San Juan. 
 
 The camp was a miserable one, crowded with 
 soldiers, teams, horses, mules, teamsters, a battery 
 of Hotchkiss mountain cannon and what not. 
 Fires were soon burning brightly, supper cooking 
 and every one was getting in every one else's way. 
 However, we all knew that the Spaniards were 
 now but a mile and a half away. It was a bright 
 moonlit night, or matters would have been still 
 more uncomfortable than they were. 
 
 Immediately after arriving in camp I started to 
 mount the guard. The first call had hardly died 
 away from the lips of the bugle when a general offi- 
 cer and a member of his staff rushed down to expos- 
 tulate with me and try to convince me that I was 
 a perfect fool. The ground of their contention 
 was that I had had bugle calls sounded when the 
 enemy were but a mile and a half away, thus ex- 
 posing the location of our forces to the enemy. 
 1 did not stop to remonstrate or explain that 
 bugle calls were not supposed to be abolished even 
 in battle. But I glanced thoughtfully at the half 
 dozen roaring camp fires not twenty yards away. 
 
178 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 " Of course," growled the officer, " they can see 
 the fires. I know that." 
 
 I did not congratulate him. Then he lit into 
 me for thinking of mounting a guard in the pres- 
 ence of the enemy. I did not explain that a 
 guard was more necessary then that at any other 
 time. 
 
 " Keep your old guard on," he continued. I 
 had sense enough not to call his attention to the 
 fact that the Articles of War expressly forbid 
 keeping a man on guard duty more than twenty- 
 four hours. There is no use in arguing with a man 
 whose nerves are a jangle and who has lost his 
 temper. I promptly gave orders to dismiss the 
 guard. At this the officer's wits returned, and he 
 said : 
 
 *' Well, as long as you have got them in ranks 
 go ahead and mount them." 
 
 So I had to revoke my last orders. Then he 
 ordered me to reduce the size of the guard, which 
 I did. After the guard had passed out of my 
 hands I believe it was reduced again. I suppose 
 in the presence of the enemy guards are useless. 
 
 Captain O'Neill and " A " troop were sent up 
 the road toward the Morro as an outpost by order 
 of Colonel Roosevelt, supper v/as eventually cooked 
 and beds made down, though again there was a 
 
ON TO SAN JUAN 179 
 
 dearth of bedding, much of the impedimenta hav- 
 ing been left behind under a small guard. Supper 
 was late. Reveille was ordered (without the bugle) 
 for 4 A. M., and there was little sleep that night in 
 consequence. In addition to the other disturbing 
 causes regiments were passing by, and our other 
 brigade came along to camp by us. Personally I 
 was too sick to eat well or sleep. Cadet (acting 
 and later actual lieutenant) Haskell was in an even 
 worse state. He could not even eat any break- 
 fast. 
 
 " Well," he said, philosophically, " they ought 
 not to be able to hit me in the bowels." That 
 was just where he was wounded. On the day 
 previous O'Neill with characteristic confidence 
 had declared that the Spanish bullet which was to 
 kill him " had not yet been moulded." It was 
 then being carried around by a Spaniard, who 
 would have thrown it away if he had known what 
 kind of a man it was going to kill. 
 
 After the unnecessarily early breakfast we 
 waited — as usual. Nothing was to be done until 
 we heard Lawton's guns, and Lawton did not be- 
 gin until about 7:30. It was understood that he 
 was to take El Caney in two hours and then join 
 the main army on the right in the attack on San 
 Juan Heights and Kettle Hill. 
 
i8o FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 About eight o'clock Grimes' battery, which was 
 situated on high ground to the left of El Poso, 
 opened on the defences and blockhouses of San 
 Juan which were in plain sight. It fired over the 
 heads of the various regiments passing to the front 
 on the road, did little or no damage, puffed out 
 great clouds of smoke and gave the enemy a tar- 
 get as big as the side of a ship. Did they need 
 a target ? It is doubtful. They could see the 
 adobe house at El Poso and the whole regiment 
 of Rough Riders crowded around it. Grimes con- 
 tinued firing, and off to our right and front Law- 
 ton's guns (Capron's battery) were still booming 
 away. It was a calm clear morning, and the heat 
 was already intense. The river (a small creek) 
 where water was obtained was some considerable 
 distance away, and later most of the men went 
 into battle with empty or nearly empty canteens. 
 
 After Grimes had fired a score of shots or more 
 there was a dull roar and sailing in our direction, 
 clearly in evidence against the pale blue back- 
 ground of sky, came a round shell with a little 
 thread of white smoke trailing from its fuse. Some 
 of the men started to seek cover, slowly without 
 panic and with commendable good sense. 
 
 " Here, what's the matter with you ? " yelled a 
 staff ofificer who had been watching the bombard- 
 
ON TO SAN JUAN i8i 
 
 ment through his field glasses. " That's only a 
 shell." 
 
 It was only a shell, but the men had more sense 
 than he had. They had been talking together 
 and were naturally wondering why they were put 
 in such an exposed position. 
 
 " You can bet your life," said one of the men, 
 " those Spaniards know the exact distance to this 
 hill and they'll fire right into us." 
 
 A number of ofificers expressed the same opinion, 
 but no effort was made to move the men. 
 
 The shell burst in the air, doing no damage. 
 Grimes' battery responded spitefully. They be- 
 lieved they had uncovered the enemy's battery. 
 It was now a duel between modern breech-loading 
 rifled fieldpieces and old-fashioned muzzle-load- 
 ing smooth-bores. But the Spanish were using 
 smokeless powder in their smooth-bores and had 
 a better target. 
 
 When the shell burst some of the men laughed. 
 Calm was restored, and the ofificer who had pre- 
 dicted that a mere shell would do no damage looked 
 proud. There was another dull roar, a second 
 shell came along. The men laughed again. It 
 exploded right among them, coming like a rail- 
 road train, so fast the senses could not measure its 
 speed with any accuracy at all. 
 
182 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 The comities of the occasion ceased at once. 
 The regiment retired down the slope of the hill 
 upon which the house and stable constituting El 
 Poso were situate. The second shell had killed and 
 wounded a number of men Colonel Roosevelt 
 was hit on the back of the hand by one of the 
 spent bullets which it contained. I took the 
 liberty of applying an old soldier's axiom of which 
 I had read. I predicted that he would not be hit 
 again during the engagement — and he was not. 
 
 Personally I made a bee-line for my horse, which 
 was tied to a bush nearby. After untying him I 
 started for the edge of the hill. Before going 
 twenty feet I saw in my path a man with one of 
 the most sickening wounds I saw during the cam- 
 paign. His leg had been hit by a piece of this 
 second shell and lay open, bleeding profusely. 
 
 " Please get me out of here," said the man 
 quietly. 
 
 "All right," I answered, half wonderingly, fori 
 did not know just how I was going to do it. I 
 happened to look up. Surgeon LaMotte and two 
 of his assistants were coming towards me. Luck 
 was with m.e. I turned the man over to them and 
 made for the edge of the hill over which the regi- 
 ment seemed to have disappeared. 
 
 The surface of the slope of this hill was some- 
 
ON TO SAN JUAN 183 
 
 what similar to the surface of part of a truncated 
 cone. Part of the regiment went down what 
 might be called one " side " and part the other. 
 They separated from each other, rather naturally 
 as the fire of the enemy was directed at the right 
 centre of the slope. Again, as luck would have 
 it, a queer incident occurred. General Wood and 
 Colonel Roosevelt went down one side, while 
 General Wood's staff, with possibly one or two 
 exceptions, and Colonel Roosevelt's staff (myself) 
 went down the other. 
 
 For a time the shell fire of the enemy was accu- 
 rate and destructive. They seemed to know the 
 ground to an inch. But they evidently ran out of 
 ammunition, or appeared to do so, for suddenly 
 the fire ceased. Grimes' battery fired a few more 
 shots, and it was announced that they had silenced 
 the fire of the enemy. That this Avas not the case 
 is proved by the fact that the same battery of the 
 enemy opened up again for some time during the 
 charge. They were probably husbanding their 
 ammunition. 
 
 In the meantime General Lawton was pounding 
 away at El Caney. His battery seemed to be 
 doing about as well as our own. He had a divi- 
 sion and a brigade against a bare five hundred 
 Spaniards. His two hours were up, and he had 
 
i84 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 not yet made an impression on the enemy. Why 
 this movement on Caney was made is a mystery of 
 our strategy. Why the Spaniards defended it so 
 desperately is another mystery. If Lawton had 
 fought with the main body of the army of July 
 1st the Spaniards would have been flanked and 
 beaten with half the loss to the American force 
 which they had to suffer. Moreover when the 
 heights of San Juan were taken El Caney would 
 have been untenable and the Spaniards would 
 have had to hurry from it into their lines at San- 
 tiago to escape capture — and even this they might 
 not have been able to do. As it was, they main- 
 tained their fight until late in the afternoon. Of 
 the five hundred who defended the town fully one- 
 fourth escaped, and they killed and wounded 
 about five hundred Americans. It was a useless 
 victory, won at an awful cost. 
 
 It might be urged that the Spanish force at El 
 Caney threatened our line of communications ; but 
 our line of communications was always open to 
 attack. An alert, aggressive enemy would have 
 broken it at will and brought the 5th Corps 
 to an about-face and a hasty retrograde move- 
 ment. 
 
 Why this was never done the other side may 
 explain, if it can. 
 
ON TO SAN JUAN 185 
 
 Two very pretty stories are told about this fight 
 at Caney. After one of the Spanish trenches had 
 been cleaned out a white flag was raised. Two 
 Spanish officers appeared immediately and started 
 for Lawton's line. They were smoking cigarettes, 
 laughing and chatting as amiably as though they 
 were out for a morning stroll. They had done 
 all they could. There was no possibility of 
 retreat, and they surrendered with good judgment 
 and utter sangfroid. When the charge began on 
 the stone blockhouse the Spanish commander 
 knew that his part of the jig was up. It was 
 reported that he came to the door of the block- 
 house and w^aved a white flag. It was too late. 
 There is no stopping a charge save by bullets 
 from the front. When the of^cer realised the 
 situation he went back into the house only to 
 return with a Spanish flag which he wrapped about 
 him as he took his place in the doorway awaiting 
 his death. 
 
 One of the Infantry regiments was terribly cut 
 up by the Spaniards during the Caney episode. 
 They were as good a regiment as is made, but 
 they got all they bargained for and more. I dined 
 at their headquarters a few days later, after the 
 truce had been declared, and one of the officers 
 declared that he would not object if the truce 
 
i86 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 lasted for the rest of his Hfe — a sentiment that ap- 
 peared to have many supporters. They had 
 plenty of admiration for Spanish marksmanship 
 and for the Mauser rifle — and they had reason to 
 have it. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 
 
 About nine o'clock the Rough Riders were as- 
 sembled and began another advance toward San- 
 tiago. The shell fire had hurt them, but had not 
 disconcerted them to the extent that is usual with 
 new troops. It had been a matter of a few 
 minutes' wonder and that is all. 
 
 The road on which the regiment advanced was 
 lined with infantiy who were halted to give the 
 cavalry division right of way. An occasional 
 bullet singing through the trees gave notice that 
 the guerrillas were ready for work. Off in front 
 the Spanish regulars were calmly waiting. The 
 morning was intolerably hot. No attempt was 
 made to carry the Colt guns with the regiment. 
 They and all the impedimenta, even the haver- 
 sacks, were left behind. It was a day on which 
 no man could carry an ounce more than neces- 
 sary. Six of our officers (including myself) were 
 overcome by the heat during the day, and a pro- 
 portionate number of men. 
 
 General Sumner with a part of his staff was 
 
 187 
 
i88 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 standing by the side of the road about fifty yards 
 south of the ford, which later in the day became 
 the site of the field hospital. It was there that 
 surgeons were killed by sharp-shooters, wounded 
 re-wounded, and ambulances fired on in spite 
 of their red cross. This was the ford of the 
 Aguadores river, a muddy little stream quite un- 
 worthy of the fame now attached to it. The regi- 
 ment halted while Colonel Roosevelt awaited 
 instructions from General Sumner. The latter 
 and some other officers were holding, a consultation 
 with Colonel Miley of General Shafter's staff. 
 At this moment Captain Howze, adjutant-general 
 on General Sumner's staff, rode up and reported 
 to General Sumner that the ist brigade of the 
 Cavalry Division was in position. 
 
 " They are waiting to go at 'em," said Howze 
 grimly. Then there was another consultation. 
 Finally Colonel Miley apparently gave in. 
 
 " Well," said he, "you gentlemen are older men 
 than I am." General Sumner immediately gave 
 directions to Colonel Roosevelt to cross the 
 Aguadores about fifty yards up the river from 
 the first-mentioned ford, and make his way to the 
 extreme right and endeavour to connect with 
 General Lawton, who by this time should have 
 been moving west on the road from Caney to 
 
THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 1S9 
 
 join flanks. The movement was to be made in 
 line of skirmishers " moving by the right flank." 
 
 The movement was made with difficulty, ov>'ing 
 to the underbrush. As usual " L" troop was in 
 advance and became the advance guard, and with 
 it went Colonel Roosevelt, Captain McCormick and 
 myself. About three troops had crossed when an 
 orderly from General Sumner brought commands 
 to Colonel Roosevelt to send orders to each troop 
 commander to throw out flankers to the front, 
 and to be sure not to fire at the ist and loth 
 Cavalry, who were already deployed, and whom 
 we were gradually uncovering. I took the order 
 to each troop commander, and at the ford told 
 each one of the rear troops as they crossed. On 
 the bank where I stood were General Sumner and 
 Captain Howze. The movement continued. As 
 the men crossed the river nearly every one tried 
 to fill his canteen. This General Sumner ordered 
 me to stop, and I had to do so, often rather 
 severely. I fancy not one man knew or thought 
 I was acting under orders, and I can imagine that 
 I was thoroughly and artistically cursed by the 
 thirsty men. War would seem much kinder if an 
 oflficer could stop and explain the reason for 
 many of his seeming cruelties. 
 
 Suddenly the men halted. The General ordered 
 
I90 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 me to send them on. I took a look and found 
 that they were halted far in advance and could 
 not go further and keep their proper distances. 
 Then he ordered me to send an officer to our 
 Colonel with instructions to go ahead. Lieu- 
 enant Haskell was the only officer in sight and he 
 transmitted the order. The bullets were already 
 " phewing'' about us, and Haskell was hit in the 
 stomach just after delivering his message. After 
 notifying the commanding officer of the last 
 troop I went again to the front. The head of 
 the column had come across a picket of six men 
 who claimed to be Cubans. After a consultation 
 in which Captain Luna again acted as interpreter, 
 Colonel Roosevelt decided that they were Cubans 
 — there were some Cuban intrenchments to our 
 right and rear — and let them go. They proceeded 
 directly to the front and three of them disap- 
 peared. The other three could be seen in trees 
 about a thousand yards in our front. They must 
 have been much nearer the Spanish trenches than 
 they were to us, and probably more visible to the 
 Spaniards. Whether they were Cubans or guer- 
 rillas is still a question. 
 
 The fire was becoming hotter and hotter every 
 moment, especially on the right where all the 
 horses were. The underbrush concealed the of- 
 
THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 191 
 
 ficers and men, but not always the horses. The 
 latter, too, made more disturbance passing through 
 the brush. Suddenly the regiment was halted 
 and moved forward a few yards to take advantage 
 of the cover afforded by the road, which was sunk 
 about three feet below the general level. I got 
 permission from Colonel Roosevelt to place a 
 picket of six men in a clump of trees on our ex- 
 treme right, to watch the front and flank. When 
 I reported to him he was bending over Haskell and 
 promising him a commission in the regular army 
 ■ — which I think he got later. Lieutenant Wilcox 
 was lying by Haskell, completely prostrated by the 
 heat, which was simply unbearable, but which had 
 to be borne. The heavy guns of the Spanish war- 
 ships in the harbour were now firing directly over 
 our heads at the balloon behind us. These were 
 heavy shells. There was no " whizzing " about 
 them. They did not even " scream " or " shriek " 
 as writers so often say. They simply " smashed " 
 through the air. They were accompanied by the 
 " phewing" of countless Mauser bullets, nearly all 
 fired at the same object. About a thousand yards 
 in our rear, perhaps more, infantry were advancing, 
 and they received the worst part of the fire at the 
 balloon. It must have been maddening to them — 
 to be fired at and not to be able to return the fire. 
 
192 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 That balloon was another of the curiosities of the 
 campaign. Why it was sent up on this second day 
 no one has yet explained. Its work had been 
 done the day before. A good part of the gas had 
 escaped, and it could only rise a short distance. 
 The signal corps would have been better employed 
 putting up a field telephone wire. This was done 
 a day or two later. 
 
 I went back to the picket. In front of our line 
 at this time was a moderately open field covered 
 with thick, tall yellow grass. Our regiment should 
 have advanced, when the time came, directly over 
 this field. It would have been fairly well hidden, 
 and would have turned the flank of the Spanish 
 left. If Lawton had been in place and in the bat- 
 tle, it can be seen, therefore, how easily a simple 
 advance of his division would have driven the 
 Spaniards back into Santiago, and it would have 
 spread their fire over more than one-half greater 
 distance. Just the opposite move was made, how- 
 ever. Instead of spreading out the line it was 
 massed up. To every one's amazement the regi- 
 ment was ordered back to the left. That accounts 
 for its passing over the lines of the regulars in the 
 charge on what was called " Kettle Hill." 
 
 Not only did the regiment bank up behind 
 others, but its right was also banked up. Three 
 
THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 193 
 
 companies advanced, one behind the other. It is 
 no wonder that the casualties were great here. On 
 this bunch of men the Spaniards poured in a con- 
 tinuous fire, accompanied by an artillery fire that 
 was limited in destructiveness only by their short- 
 age in ammunition for their guns. 
 
 The regiment advanced on the detached hill on 
 the left of the Spanish position, just mentioned. 
 The right of the regiment rested on and advanced 
 along a barbed-wire fence, one of two that enclosed 
 a road leading directly to the house situated at the 
 top of the hill. The Spaniards occupied the house, 
 the intrenchments around it and even some sugar 
 kettles at the side of it. The ground was dotted 
 with trees and shrubbery, which afforded conceal- 
 ment in the halts, but little protection. The 
 ground sloped from this detached hill to the main 
 heights, and between them was a small pond. 
 The infantry and part of the cavalry stormed the 
 heights on the left, which were also crowned by a 
 house and intrenchments. On account of the 
 peculiarity of the Spanish position and the inabil- 
 ity to tell just where their fire came from, there 
 was some confusion. One regiment of our bri- 
 gade advancing came upon part of another. They 
 found that they were advancing at right angles 
 to each other. 
 13 
 
194 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 " They told me the Spaniards were over there," 
 said Colonel Viele, of the 1st Cavalry, pointing to 
 one of the hills, 
 
 " They told us," answered Captain Beck, of the 
 lOth Cavalry, " that they were over there," point- 
 ing to the other hill. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt was in a fine Berserker rage. 
 He rode his horse in the first part of the advance, 
 and without a sword and with a blue polka dot 
 handkerchief fastened behind his worn campaign 
 hat, was a more earnest than picturesque figure. 
 
 " Well, come on," he shouted, when the line had 
 been formed for the advance. 
 
 Not a man moved. 
 
 " What, are you cowards? " he fairly shrieked. 
 
 A tall man in the skirmish line some forty feet 
 away brought his gun to a " port arms." 
 
 " We're waiting for the command," said the 
 man, who grinned as did the men around him. 
 The Colonel had forgotten to give the command 
 "Forward, March!" He did so, and the men 
 went forward. Such an exhibition of training 
 among practically raw recruits is on record nowhere 
 else. When the line reached the other regiments 
 of the brigade, which were halted, the Colonel 
 asked a similar question of the regulars, which 
 brought a retort from Major Hayes of the brigade 
 
THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 195 
 
 staff, to the effect that they were halted according 
 to orders. The orders did not disturb Roosevelt- 
 however, and he went on with most of the regi- 
 ment and parts of others. The lines were becom- 
 ing badly mixed. 
 
 There were advances and halts, but apparently 
 throughout the line there was no attempt to use 
 the actual battle tactics laid down in the books. 
 There was no advance, support or reserves ; no 
 advancing by squads or sections. 
 
 On the right along the road the fire was terrific 
 and the casualties great. The road itself was 
 constantly swept by a stream of bullets. The 
 enemy had evidently expected an advance up the 
 road, as in the battle of Guasimas. Eventually 
 " L " troop cut the wires and with a ringing cheer 
 made a dash and run by the right flank across the 
 road and thereafter advanced on the right of it. 
 They were again badly cut up. Captain O'Neill 
 had been killed some time before, and his body 
 was resting in the shrubbery that lined the road. 
 The enemy's artillery had opened up again some 
 time before, and made a special mark of the troops 
 resting on the side of this road. Dead and 
 wounded were scattered along it. One wounded 
 man was lying parallel to the road with his head 
 protected by a tree. A shell burst between him 
 
196 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 and myself, and a piece of the shell struck him. 
 He turned and looked toward the Spanish posi- 
 tion as though in protest. It did not seem fair to 
 hit a man twice. 
 
 We had already passed by numerous guerrillas 
 who were sharpshooting in the trees. Their fire, 
 coming from the flank and rear, made it difficult 
 at times to tell just where the bullets were coming 
 from, even after the adv^ance was well on. During 
 one of the halts I was with a group that was 
 lying down near the road on the right, and had 
 disposed myself in the grass as I thought to the 
 best advantage. A captain and about fifteen 
 men were lying on the right of me. One of the 
 latter turned to me and said : 
 
 " You'd better move around, Lieutenant — you're 
 lying broadside on." He was not forgetting his 
 nautical phrases even in battle. 
 
 On the left of our brigade was the main road 
 to Santiago which ran in a direction nearly parallel 
 with the road on our immediate right. Where this 
 crossed the second stream (the San Juan river) 
 was another particularly warm place. I saw a 
 large tree there the next day that bore evidence 
 of the storm of bullets that had hit it. Almost 
 all the shots had hit the trunk at a height of less 
 than ten feet from the ground. The enemy were 
 
THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 197 
 
 firing low on this ist of June. Two sharpshooters 
 were killed out of this tree by our forces. 
 
 The San Juan is a creek of water that bears 
 every semblance to particularly dirty dish-water. 
 It was water to drink, however, and the men 
 stopped to satisfy their thirst, even in the charge, 
 and in many cases to fill canteens. A few hundred 
 yards beyond the river was the base of Kettle 
 Hill. When our forces reached the base the 
 Spanish began running from their trenches on the 
 hill, falling back on the second ridge. 
 
 One little Spanish bugler boy, wholly demoral- 
 ised, ran straight into our lines and was captured. 
 Shortly afterwards a flag was raised on the saddle 
 back between the two hills and cheered by the 
 whole army. 
 
 All the regiments on the right by this time 
 were more or less disorganised and mixed up. 
 They were straightened out to some extent and 
 the advance made on the further line of hills, 
 which is practically a continuation of the main 
 ridge (San Juan Heights) which makes a curve 
 toward Santiago. The captured house was turned 
 into a dressing station for the wounded. Only 
 those who were near at hand, however, could be 
 cared for there, and those who were wounded in 
 the advance were left behind on the field, uncared 
 
198 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 for from necessity. The trees on the ground 
 which had been won were still full of guerrillas, 
 and they made it almost impossible for the sur- 
 geons and their assistants to advance to their aid. 
 Some of the wounded crawled back to the Agua- 
 dores, where, even when sheltered by the thick 
 growth of trees on its banks, they were still ex- 
 posed to the fire of sharpshooters. Indeed there 
 were sharpshooters (guerrillas) in these selfsame 
 trees ; and they now fired at will, as the army 
 was well beyond and the wounded and surgeons 
 at their mercy. . 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 
 
 The men were pretty well scattered and ex- 
 hausted by this time, and Colonel Roosevelt had 
 to make several abortive attempts before taking 
 the second hill. The Spaniards were on the run, 
 however, and the battle of San Juan was finished 
 at about the same time that Caney was taken. 
 The Rough Riders eventually held a sort of 
 natural bastion overlooking Santiago, and within 
 three hundred yards of the nearest trenches be- 
 longing to the defences of the city proper. They 
 had advanced even further than this, however. 
 The last hill and the city were separated by a 
 valley of palms and dense undergrowth about two 
 hundred and fifty yards in width. Lieutenant 
 Greenway, with a handful of Rough Riders, 
 charged up the Santiago road into this forest and 
 eventually had to be ordered back. He firmly 
 believed then, and perhaps does now, that he 
 could have gone right into Santiago. 
 
 The bastion-like hill held on the night of the 
 
 199 
 
200 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 1st by the Rough Riders and two troops of the 
 1st Cavalry was the key of the American position, 
 and Colonel Roosevelt received orders to hold it 
 at all hazards. He promptly set about erecting 
 trenches on the slope of the hill toward the city, 
 and by morning was in good position to hold it. 
 The crest of the ridge was somewhat lower on 
 our right. This was intrenched by the other two 
 regiments of the brigade, and the line extended 
 next day by the regiments of Lawton's division 
 as they came up. In this way the Rough Riders 
 who entered the battle as the right of the brigade 
 now became at its end the left. On their left the 
 other brigade of cavalry continued the intrench- 
 ments, which were then taken up by the infantry 
 of Kent's division. The whole corps eventually 
 formed a horseshoe around the city. Day by 
 day the intrenchments were improved on both 
 American and Spanish sides, even during the 
 truce. New cannon were constantly mounted by 
 the Spaniards, and new traverses erected by the 
 Americans for protection against them. These 
 intrenchments were laid out without the aid of 
 the engineers, who were occupied in building 
 wharfs at Siboney and in improving the roads 
 and bridging streams. 
 At this time but a small portion of Santiago 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 201 
 
 could be seen, the segment of a roughly drawn 
 circle. The houses of importance gave an appear- 
 ance of characteristic Spanish picturesqueness, 
 being red in colour with white trimmings. Almost 
 every other house flew the Red Cross flag, and a 
 long main building, in which Hobson was said to 
 be confined, was covered with them. Between 
 buildings flying the Red Cross flag the enemy 
 mounted heavy guns and mortars. It was their 
 intention, in case of a bombardment, to allege 
 that the Americans had not respected the Red 
 Cross flag ; for it would have been necessary to 
 fire on these buildings — and were it not necessary 
 they were almost sure to be frequently struck by 
 accident. 
 
 Over the intrenchments the conical straw hats 
 of the Spaniards could be seen, and during the 
 truce both sides stood on their intrenchments, or 
 sat smoking, watching and commenting on each 
 other. The pickets on both sides were within 
 shouting distance of each other in the jungle be- 
 tween the lines, and there were frequent exchanges 
 of fire between them. 
 
 Throughout the 2d of July there was constant 
 firing and fighting, more particularly where Law- 
 ton was moving on to the line. The 71st New 
 York had suffered from the cruelty of being com- 
 
202 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 pclled to fight with non-smokeless Springfields 
 against smokeless Mausers the previous day, but 
 that had been on the left of the line and out of 
 sight. The position of the 2d Massachusetts was 
 in full view, however, and we could see them and 
 the handicap they laboured under. They would 
 fire a volley, and then apparently every Span- 
 ish gun in sight would pepper at the cloud of 
 smoke hanging over them. A better target could 
 not be imagined. I joined the surgeon I had 
 met the day before in exclaiming that it was 
 wicked. 
 
 The palms in front overlooked a good part of 
 our lines and they were occupied by guerrillas who 
 kept up an incessant sharpshooting. To meet 
 them Colonel Roosevelt organised a band of 
 thirty picked shots who thereafter made it their 
 business to clean out these trees. But until the 
 truce on the 3d, shots were continually coming 
 into the bastion of the Rough Riders, and men 
 were being wounded and killed. 
 
 Nor was the work of the guerrillas confined to 
 the front. They were still in trees all over the 
 battlefield in rear making matters very uncom- 
 fortable for men passing back and forth. Even 
 as far back as the emergency hospital at the ford 
 of the Aguadores they were still at work. I was 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 203 
 
 sent back with a couple of men to bring up the 
 Colt guns on the morning of the 2d and made this 
 ford just as a surgeon was killed. A company of 
 Infantry deployed as skirmishers was even then 
 shooting the impudent sharpshooters out of trees 
 not two hundred yards from the ford. At the 
 same time Captain Grimes* battery of artillery 
 came back from a point on the left from which 
 they had been driven by the small-arm fire of the 
 enemy. The captain was not in a particularly 
 pleasant mood, and the mood was not softened by 
 the difficulty he had in making the muddy ford 
 with his heavy guns. At the same point I met 
 Chaplain Brown, who, having obtained all the 
 help possible for the wounded, was now burying 
 the dead. He was just about to bury the body 
 of Captain O'Neill of " Ours " and say the last 
 services of the church over it. Indeed the burying 
 of bodies went on for days, it being often difficult 
 to locate them. The wounded would crawl for 
 protection into some out-of-the way spot and 
 sometimes die there. One of our men was found 
 dead sitting at the base of a tree with the picture 
 of his wife and children in his hand. Skeletons 
 of both friends and enemies were afterwards found 
 on the field — men who had been eaten by the 
 vultures. All that was sickening and horrible 
 
204 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 in war was crowded into this one short cam- 
 paign. 
 
 I was expected to " hustle " for some means of 
 transporting the Colt guns, and was fortunate in 
 meeting Colonel McClernand of General Shafter's 
 staff near the house at El Poso. I explained my 
 difficulty to him, and he gave me the use of four 
 horses belonging to the signal corps which hap- 
 pened to be near. We improvised packs and tied 
 the guns and their ammunition to them with small 
 pieces of rope. 
 
 In looking for rope I went through the adobe 
 building at El Poso and found two correspondents 
 using the bedding of the dead O'Neill and Lieu- 
 tenant Franz. One of them was the correspond- 
 ent who had entertained us with his nocturnal 
 descriptions of a foreign war. He made the prop- 
 osition to me that he should take care of Captain 
 O'Neill's bedding, sabre and effects, and when 
 through with them turn them over either to corps 
 headquarters or to the Division Hospital. I 
 gladly assented, as we wanted to send these things 
 back to the captain's family. A week later this 
 correspondent made his appearance at our regi- 
 mental headquarters for the first time since the 
 advance to El Poso and calmly informed me that 
 he had left the bedding in the building and that 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 205 
 
 if I wanted it T would do well to look out for it 
 imtnediately. His egregious coolness was beyond 
 anything save the eloquence of silence. I made 
 the necessary arrangements to have the property 
 hunted up without a word. It suited his conve- 
 nience to again become a guest at our headquarters 
 mess. That was all.. And it did not suit his con- 
 venience to return Captain O'Neill's effects. That 
 also was all. 
 
 Further duties took me back to the Division 
 Hospital, where I saw what was left for me to see 
 of the horrors of war. In the first tent on the 
 right were about twenty wounded officers, grim 
 and silent. Many of them were Rough Riders. 
 They had not had anything to eat since going into 
 battle. One of them I thought was Captain Shipp, 
 of the brigade staff, an old regimental friend of 
 the regular army. Such was not the case, how- 
 ever. Shipp had been instantly killed the day 
 before at almost the same instant as his friend, 
 classmate, and regimental comrade. Smith of 
 the loth Cavalry. Their deaths were as brave 
 and pathetic as that of Colonel Hamilton of 
 the 9th Cavalry. Like the two loth cavalry- 
 men, Colonel Hamilton was exposing himself 
 recklessly. His officers begged him to lie 
 down. 
 
206 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 " Lie down yourselves," he answered. He was 
 killed a moment afterward, and fell into the arms 
 of Lieutenant Hartwell and (then) Sergeant Hayes 
 of the Rough Riders. 
 
 Some of the wounded were hit in an almost un- 
 accountable way. One officer was shot through 
 the tongue. " How it could have happened ? " is 
 a question that has puzzled every one. The 
 tongue was swelled enormously and he could not 
 speak, but he seemed to be in remarkably good 
 spirits, and was laughing at his own wounds and 
 his ineffectual attempts to make himself under- 
 stood. A classmate of mine, Lieutenant Wassell, 
 was shot through the nose, mouth, and abdomen 
 by the same bullet. He, too, could barely talk, 
 but to the extent that he could he devoted him- 
 self to our Cuban allies. He was in a frame of 
 mind. On the operating table in the next tent 
 was a man with his entrails laid open. He was 
 covered with blood, and a half-dozen surgeons 
 were sewing him together. 
 
 The road from the front to the hospital was 
 filled with wounded, crawling, walking, or being 
 carried to the hospital. The woods even as far 
 back as this point (corps headquarters were also 
 here) were filled with sharpshooters. One man 
 warned me not to go any further on my return 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 207 
 
 journey, as our own artillery was about to shell the 
 woods and drive them out. He declared that a 
 sentinel was posted a hundred yards further on to 
 stop travel. I went on to find out for myself. 
 There was no sentinel, and the woods were not 
 shelled. The man's mind had probably been 
 affected. 
 
 From the Aguadores to the front the entire 
 field was still under fire from the sharpshooters. 
 They were now, however, mainly at a distance 
 and seldom shot at a moving object. A man at 
 a halt, however, would hear a bullet whistle by 
 him instantly, if indeed he was not struck. As 
 we crossed Bloody Bend a lieutenant of the 3d 
 Cavalry was hit, and the Red Cross ambulances 
 were being constantly fired into. 
 
 The Colt guns were promptly put into position 
 in the trenches. Lieutenant Parker's Gatling guns 
 were on the hill, but could not be run into posi- 
 tion as the crest of the hill was constantly under 
 fire. At this time the relief that went into the 
 trenches for day duty had to go in before dawn 
 and remain in all day, being relieved after dark. 
 No approaches had been made as yet to the trench 
 in front of us. When a zigzag approach was 
 finally made, a great deal of the element of danger 
 was removed, but the men were obliged to crawl 
 
208 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 over each other going in and out. Some parts of 
 the trenches, too, were so narrow that it was diffi- 
 cult for a particularly large man to pass through 
 them without going sidewise. 
 
 When food came for the men on the 2d of July 
 it was carried by a concerted rush to the men in 
 the trenches by volunteers. In the same manner 
 the)^ rushed back together. They were fired at 
 viciously, but no one was hurt. Neither was any 
 one hurt in the regiment during the changes of 
 the reliefs for duty in the trenches, though they 
 too were fired at, it being bright moonlight. In 
 fact, I saw only one man wounded at such a time. 
 This was a trooper of the 9th Cavalrj^ who ran 
 negligently back from the trench without even 
 bending over. He made a perfect mark and was 
 rewarded for his carelessness (a number of officers 
 were calling to him to bend low) by a shot through 
 the wrist. 
 
 Rations were now brought to the troops dail)', 
 but at irregular intervals and in reduced quanti- 
 ties. The ration had been rediiced by order of 
 General Shafter to hard bread, bacon, sugar, and 
 coffee. These four components of the ration 
 were all the men had until the truce was well 
 along. Then they were served with a few beans 
 occasionally, and very occasionally, with canned 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 209 
 
 tomatoes. Salt was not included in the ration, 
 but the bacon supplied that. Pepper, however, 
 was loudly called for on all sides. The human 
 animal needs a fiery condiment in the tropics. 
 The love of the Mexicans for Chili sauce was ex- 
 plained. What rations were served were cooked 
 individually by the men. They would have suf- 
 fered more during the first two days, but that 
 fortunately some provisions were captured from 
 the Spanish. 
 
 At first we thought we were lucky to have a 
 good supply of drinking water from a well on the 
 captured position. But when the body of a dead 
 Spaniard was hauled from it two or three days 
 after the battle, recourse was had to the dirty water 
 of the San Juan River. This was but little better. 
 Perhaps it was not as good as the extract of dead 
 Spaniard in the well. There were many dead ani- 
 mals in the river. Far worse, the daily storms 
 washed the refuse from the troops into it. Lit- 
 tle or no attempt was made to boil the water. 
 There was nothing to boil it in. Time was valu- 
 able, and the men were constantly suffering from 
 thirst. 
 
 Tobacco was missed almost as much as any 
 
 other comfort of civilisation. Nearly every man 
 
 in the regiment smoked, and most of them chewed. 
 14 
 
2IO FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 Finally tobacco was sent from the depot at Sibo- 
 ney to all the troops at the front. The share 
 allotted to the Rough Riders awaited them. But 
 the tobacco had to be bought. It was a commis- 
 sary store, not a ration. And there was no money 
 among the men. In this emergency Lieutenant 
 Woodbury Kane put up the money, some eighty- 
 five dollars, and they finally got their tobacco ; 
 but the smoking tobacco was unaccompanied by 
 cigarette papers or pipes. But few of the men 
 had pipes, and how the majority managed to ex- 
 tract comfort from the -one comfort provided for 
 them I know not. Personally I happened to have 
 two pipes in my saddle-bags, and they went the 
 rounds among some of the officers and probably 
 a good many of the men daily. 
 
 This feature of the difficulty concerning com- 
 missary stores provided for the troops seems to 
 have been generally overlooked. There was a 
 large quantity of such stores on the transports, 
 and eventually some of them were landed ; but 
 they could be sold only. The government owed 
 every man at least one month's pay, but by the 
 regulations it would not trust the men for the com- 
 forts, if not necessities, it had provided. 
 
 The actual hunger was all the harder to bear as 
 on the beach at Siboney we had plenty of provi- 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 211 
 
 sions belonging to the regiment. As our shelter 
 in the shape of tentage was either at Siboney, 
 Daiquiri, or along the road near the camping 
 ground after Guasimas, the men were drenched 
 daily by the terrific storms, and got dry again the 
 next day only in time to be drenched again. The 
 ground became water-soaked, now, and gave forth 
 a very offensive odour. Night and morning the 
 mist rose from it in actual clouds. 
 
 Here the regiment acquired the fevers that laid 
 it low little more than two weeks afterwards. 
 Added to the discomfort was the uncertainty as to 
 the outcome of the campaign. Already the rumour 
 of a withdrawal from our position was known to 
 the men, and the fact that it was advocated by 
 officers of high rank was also known. 
 
 There was uncertainty, too, concerning the out- 
 come of the anticipated naval battle. Every one 
 knew that the capture of Santiago by assault 
 would be attended with frightful loss, and all knew 
 as well that it could not be held, even if cap- 
 tured, as long as the Spanish fleet remained in 
 the harbour. Colonel Roosevelt at this time 
 showed one of the most admirable traits of his 
 character. 
 
 " ," said he, in a great rage, after coming 
 
 back from a short visit to another officer, " is a 
 
212 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 pessimist. He thinks we are beaten, and ought 
 to retreat. Now I am an optimist. I don't care 
 what the rest of the army does ; I have received 
 orders to hold this hill at all hazards, and the 
 Rough Riders are going to stay here if they wipe 
 us off the earth." 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO {Continued) 
 
 Toward evening a rumour spread throughout 
 the line that the enemy was to make a night at- 
 tack. Since it has been contended that such an 
 attack was made, and with equal emphasis that it 
 was not. Certainly there was a furious exchange 
 of rifle fire for about twenty minutes, and the 
 Spaniards let loose their artillery at us, but with 
 little effect. We could see the flashes from the 
 fire of our own men and the enemy, and it was the 
 most picturesque sight of the campaign. 
 
 The attack, if such it was, however, was not 
 made against the strong position held by the 
 Rough Riders, and the regiment again demon- 
 strated the wonderful state of its discipline by 
 promptly ceasing to fire at command. Then it 
 became a body of spectators while the other regi- 
 ments blazed away. The " bombs bursting in 
 air " and the cannon cracker effect of the rifles gave 
 quite a Fourth of July air to the scene, and only 
 
 the enemy's bullets which " phewed " over the 
 
 213 
 
214 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 crest behind which we lay warned us of the serious- 
 ness of the occasion. Finally the order was sent 
 along the lines to cease firing. It was not prompt- 
 ly obeyed. Naturally it was assumed that the 
 volunteers were still firing. Out of the depths 
 and the darkness below and behind us came a 
 stentorian voice shouting; 
 
 " Cease firing in the ist Volunteer Cavalry." 
 
 No attention was paid to it. The rattle of fire 
 to our right still went on. The order was re- 
 peated again and again. The owner of the voice 
 was losing his temper. Finally a stentorian voice 
 replied. It was Colonel Roosevelt's. He too had 
 lost his temper. 
 
 " You ass," shouted the Colonel, " we are not 
 firing." 
 
 Perhaps the reply was a trifle stronger than that. 
 It is recorded of even Washington that he used 
 bad language at Monmouth. At any rate the 
 voice ceased. A moment later a captain of the 
 regiment on our right walked over the crest and 
 ordered his men to cease firing. 
 
 " I am ashamed of you," he shouted to his men. 
 "Why, you're no better than Spaniards. Get out 
 of there, every one of you." 
 
 His men laughingly ceased firing and ran back 
 from the trench into which they had piled when 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 215 
 
 the firing began. After that we spent a quiet but 
 a nervous night, interrupted by a few exchanges 
 of fire between the pickets, during which one or 
 two of our men w^ere wounded. The strain was 
 beginning to tell on the nerves of all, however. 
 Men who laughed at the storm of fire on the 
 morning of the ist of July now dodged at the 
 whistle of a single bullet — only to laugh at them- 
 selves sheepishly afterward. 
 
 On the 3d a truce was proclaimed, and the wire- 
 less telegraphy of an army soon informed us that 
 Captain Dorst had gone into Santiago to demand 
 the surrender of the town, and to give warning 
 that the women and children would be given 
 twenty-four hours to seek places of safety before 
 the bombardment began. No one was sorry to 
 hear of the truce. The man was a mere fool who 
 wished to see a repetition of the ist of July, and 
 all knew that if the bombardment failed there 
 would be nothing left but an assault on the town 
 and a hand-to-hand fight at the intrenchments 
 surrounding it and at every barricade erected 
 within it. Nor could any one say that he believed 
 that the assault would be successful. There were 
 seven lines of barbed-wire fence stretched before 
 the intrenchments in our front, so it was said. We 
 already knew that a single fence was bad enough. 
 
2i6 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 In the afternoon heavy firing was heard at the 
 mouth of the harbour. At that distance no doubt 
 we heard the reports of only the heavier guns. 
 Certainly there did not seem to be enough firing 
 to warrant a belief that a serious naval battle was 
 on, and no one suspected that such was the case 
 until the " wireless telegraph " brought news of 
 the fact. From that time until the definite infor- 
 mation came that the Spanish navy was routed 
 the whole army was in a state of tense suspense. 
 The defeat of the navy meant to every one of us 
 a Spanish prison. With our fleet defeated and 
 our transports driven away, we would have had 
 to surrender or starve. 
 
 The first news that came was that the enemy 
 had been beaten, but that several of our ships had 
 been sunk and the Colon and some other of the 
 Spanish vessels had escaped. About an hour 
 afterwards, however, thunders of cheering began 
 to roll along the line from the left ; and advancing 
 rapidly as the " wireless telegraph " brought the 
 welcome news that our ships had escaped unhurt 
 and that the Spanish vessels had all been sunk 
 with the exception of the Colon, which was sure 
 to be captured — and then the clouds in the zenith 
 were scattered by the thunders of our own 
 cheers. 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 217 
 
 The afternoon of the 3d I spent in making out 
 our casualty list for the three days up to the truce. 
 This was sent to Division Headquarters direct by 
 order of Colonel Baldwin of the loth Cavalry, 
 who had become commanding officer of the 
 brigade temporarily, during the absence of Colonel 
 Wood. The next day Colonel Wood's Adjutant- 
 General asked for the report. I explained that 
 it had already been sent in. No matter — I must 
 submit another. I did. On the next day it was 
 again demanded direct by Division Headquarters. 
 I sent it in but made a protest in person. I was 
 required to furnish but one copy, and neither 
 paper, ink, nor time had we to waste on unnecessary 
 work. Indeed the only ink I had was a little re- 
 maining in a fountain pen given me by Captain 
 O'Neill a few days before he was killed. Though 
 a truce was on there was no time to waste. No 
 one knew how long it would last. The Spaniards 
 were mounting heavy guns in plain sight, and 
 every moment was needed in the building of 
 trenches and traverses. In fact the men worked 
 all night that night building bomb proofs for 
 shelter during the expected cannonade. 
 
 The night of the 3d of July was a pictur- 
 esque one. The palms in our front looked unusu- 
 ally beautiful in the moonlight. The figures of 
 
2i8 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the working men outlined against the sky looked 
 almost spectral. Over in the mountains the 
 Cubans were burning abandoned blockhouses. 
 These made conflagrations so exactly similar that 
 they were at first mistaken for signals made by 
 the Spaniards to communicate with friends at sea, 
 and we wondered if another fleet was at hand. 
 
 From the Spanish lines a rocket rose in the air 
 immediately in front of our works, and, bursting, 
 sent a spray of gently falling balls of fire into the 
 palms between the lines. It was a signal recalling 
 the guerrilla denizens of the trees into their lines. 
 These lines had been weakened by the withdrawal 
 of the marines who had gone with the fleet. But 
 reinforcements had come in from the interior, and 
 the enemy was even stronger than before. The 
 Cubans had been charged with the task of keep- 
 ing out these reinforcements. There were three 
 roads by which they might come. The Cubans 
 guarded two, so the Spaniards came in by the 
 third. In this case the Cubans did not do things 
 by halves, but by two-thirds. 
 
 The tired men were worked to exhaustion. A 
 weary private staggered back from the trenches 
 and dropped on his solitary blanket at one of the 
 reliefs of the working party. The sergeant of his 
 troop was just then making an additional detail. 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 219 
 
 He called to the man, who, by the way, was one of 
 the so-called " dudes " from New York. 
 
 " Why, I have just been relieved, and was prom- 
 ised an hour's sleep," protested the tired fellow. 
 
 " Doesn't make any difTerence," replied the ser- 
 geant, and the man had to get up. 
 
 During this period of truce two Gatling guns 
 were promptly mounted in the trenches, the range 
 of every battery and intrenchment of the enemy 
 accurately determined, and lines of fire arranged 
 so that both machine guns and rifles could be 
 fired with the least exposure of person. The 
 Spaniards were equally busy, and the second 
 morning after the declaration of the truce we saw 
 a battery erected containing one immense gun 
 that flanked the whole line of intrenchments held 
 by the cavalry division. Traverses were promptly 
 made to protect the line from this gun, and one 
 was made by Captain Jenkins twenty feet thick. 
 The whole line was worried about this gun, which 
 looked so frowningly at us, and eventually the 
 men were informed of the plan made to take care 
 of it. A regiment of regular infantry was to sur- 
 prise and capture the gun before it could do any 
 serious damage. The regiment had already been 
 moved within striking distance of the gun. 
 
 The 4th of July on San Juan Heights was 
 
320 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 probably the quietest any of us ever saw. Amer- 
 icans with "nerves" would have found the in- 
 trenchments before Santiago a delightful place in 
 which to spend the day. It was as silent as an 
 empty church, and the American small boy was 
 far, far away. There were neither fire-crackers 
 nor fire-works. We had no picnics, no lemonade, 
 no ice-cream. A few shots were fired far in our 
 rear at guerrillas. An order was read from Gen- 
 eral Miles declaring that he would soon be with 
 us with reinforcements, and assuring us that, no 
 matter what the outcome, the campaign had been 
 a glorious one for American arms. But that last 
 sentence sounded rather dubious. On account of 
 this enthusiastic telegram, which left us wonder- 
 ing how soon we would be herded in the Morro, 
 the regimental bands were ordered to play na- 
 tional airs. The order was obeyed by the bugle 
 corps of one regiment only. That played, dis- 
 piritedly, a march. We were never herded together 
 in the Morro, however. The Morro never comes. 
 In obedience to a generally expressed wish the 
 light artillery had now been placed on a hill far in 
 our rear in preparation for the forthcoming bom- 
 bardment. No one wanted it around. It also 
 used non-smokeless powder and was simply a 
 " mark." 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 221 
 
 Our dynamite gun was equally abhorred. It 
 had to be placed by itself in a secluded corner of 
 the line and its ammunition buried. It had fired 
 four shots in the battle of San Juan. One hit the 
 limb of a tree under which it was placed and 
 nearly annihilated both gun and gunners. The 
 next shell got lodged in the receiving chamber, 
 and it was out of the fight for some days. A 
 small battery of mortars had been put in position 
 on the right of our brigade. It was largely minus 
 in implements, and its gunners had to guess at 
 the charge of powder they would have to use. 
 The battery of Hotchkiss guns was short of lan- 
 yards, and the only artillery that could be looked 
 upon favourably were our own Colt guns and the 
 Catlings. The siege guns were still on board 
 ship — and these were the only guns that would 
 have been of material service. A siege without 
 siege guns was the logical climax of a battle with- 
 out tactics and a campaign Vv'ithout strategy. 
 
 In the meantime it had been discovered by 
 Colonel Roosevelt that the road to Santiago was 
 defended but partially, and he obtained permis- 
 sion to erect a small redoubt upon it and supply 
 it with Rough Riders. In this way it happened 
 that most of the deserters who came from the 
 enemy came to our regiment. They were a piti- 
 
222 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ful looking lot and brought with them tales of 
 misery. They were not only getting half rations 
 but insufficient supplies of water. The troops 
 had not been paid in ages, and the volunteers 
 from the city had declined to fight any longer. 
 
 The women and children, and the lame, halt, 
 blind and sick of the men of Santiago now began 
 to move out of the city in a long stream of misery. 
 They proceeded on the Caney road, where some 
 effort was made to feed and protect them. The 
 miserable condition of the women suggested the 
 plight of poor Frangoise in Zola's fine sneer at 
 war, " The Attack on the Mill." What delight 
 could they get from the cry of " Victory " in 
 either army ? What right was there in this or- 
 ganised murder. And what queer ideas of life 
 must have been put into the little heads of the half- 
 starved children who toddled along at their sides? 
 
 Food was as hen's teeth. The army was already 
 beginning to suffer from the fever. Men were 
 being carried back from the trenches with a tem- 
 perature of 105 and 106 degrees. The surgeons 
 themselves were coming down with it. Colonel 
 Roosevelt saw what was about to happen, and 
 sent me back to Siboney and Daiquiri for extra 
 food supplies. Just before starting I noticed one 
 of those queer little happenings that punctuate 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 223 
 
 the general misery of war. Woodbury Kane, club 
 man and gentleman of leisure, was sitting on a 
 small rock. He looked as well groomed as pos- 
 sible in his dirty uniform, and his fine, aristocratic 
 features were lighted with joy. In his left hand 
 he held a tiny tin case oi paid de fois gras, which 
 he was eating with the blade of a penknife in place 
 of a fork. A can oipati dc fois gras on a battle- 
 field where hardtack was at a decided premium ! 
 He explained that one of his men had found it on 
 the road. Naturally it went to the representative 
 club man. 
 
 I journeyed towards the rear with a strong 
 letter from Colonel Roosevelt, asking for transpor- 
 tation and setting forth the necessity of it for the 
 health of his command. At division headquarters 
 I made a stirring appeal and got one waggon. At 
 corps headquarters I appeared before the com- 
 manding officer and his staff and made another 
 eloquent appeal. General Shafter was reclining 
 on a camp bed while a surgeon was soothing his 
 gouty foot. He was discussing plans with his 
 staff and dictating orders. He seemed to want to 
 discuss me with the first syllable omitted. 
 
 " You are not going to take any tents to the 
 front are you ? " he asked in a half roar. 
 
 " No, sir," I answered with exact truthfulness. 
 
224 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 There was not a tent in the command. I got an 
 order on the quartermaster at Daiquiri for two 
 teams and went on my way rejoicing. 
 
 An hour and a half later I reached the camp we 
 had vacated before marching to El Paso. Three 
 of our men were there as a guard. I had the camp 
 equipage loaded on the waggon and started it and 
 the three men back to the front at once. Then 
 with my escort of two men I proceeded to Si- 
 boney. About half way my men suddenly jumped 
 to either side of the road and brought their guns 
 to a ready. Fifty yards in front two other men 
 were doing the same thing. A glance showed 
 that all were friends, and we went on. The other 
 party proved to be a sergeant and his guard, escort- 
 ing the prisoners who were to be traded for Lieu- 
 tenant Hobson. They were just then in a pre- 
 dicament. 
 
 One of the prisoners, an old grey-haired man, 
 was sick. Moreover he was raving crazy. Tasked 
 them if he was hungry. No, was the reply. He 
 had declined food for tvv-o days. The other pris- 
 oners had carried him thus far ; but it had been 
 exhausting work, and the sergeant had orders to 
 be at corps headquarters at nightfall. Just then 
 one of his men discovered an old wheelbarrow. 
 I asked the Spanish lieutenant who was to be ex- 
 
THE SIEGE OF SANTIAGO 225 
 
 changed for Hobson if he had any objections to 
 the man's being carried in this primitive convey- 
 ance. He saluted me and said he had not. They 
 went on, the lieutenant again saluting very po- 
 litely. At Siboney we stopped with some of the 
 wounded of our regiment for the night. 
 15 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 
 
 I WAS instructed to bring forward all the mail 
 for the regiment I could obtain, and had an inter- 
 view that evening with the postmaster, who had 
 moved his office from Daiquiri to Siboney. He 
 explained that he had a waggon-load of mail at 
 Daiquiri for which he could not obtain transpor- 
 tation to Siboney. He agreed if I would bring 
 this mail to Siboney that he would put his clerks 
 at work specially on our mail then at Siboney, as 
 well as that in the waggon-load at Daiquiri, so that 
 our regiment could get quite all that was coming 
 to it. I agreed, of course. 
 
 At Siboney there were two regiments of volun- 
 teers on guard, — Michigan regiments. The camp 
 of our men was quite near the shore, and at high 
 tide the waves nearly washed into it. To the east 
 were the quartermaster's and commissary's store- 
 houses and tents, and to the west the general hos- 
 pital tents. In the offing lay the transports and 
 hospital ships. The engineers were constructing 
 226 
 
THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 227 
 
 a pier. In the meantime troops and provisions 
 were being landed through the surf. Naked men 
 waded out to the boats and carried the stores 
 ashore. It was a picture for an artist. In fact 
 there were three pictures at Siboney worthy of any 
 brush. One was the scene the night before the 
 battle of Guasimas, with the bivouac of the yet 
 untried troops illuminated by the camp fires and 
 searchlights of the ships. The second, the one 
 just mentioned ; and the third, the burning of Si- 
 boney, as seen from the ships. The dirty, disease- 
 breeding little town has achieved a place in history 
 more important than it deserved. 
 
 That night the beach crabs crawled over us. 
 They are sand-coloured and disgusting, but not so 
 horrible as the blood-red speckled land crabs that 
 joined the vultures in disfiguring the dead. Cuba 
 has had its St. Patrick, and is free from snakes, 
 but it needs several other saints to make the island 
 a pleasant abiding place. 
 
 The next morning I went to Daiquiri over the 
 road along which we had advanced to Siboney, 
 On the previous trip it had been deserted save by 
 troops. Now it was more or less filled with jour- 
 neying Cubans. Men, women, and children, all 
 saluted after the manner of our soldiers. They 
 had learned the American greeting, " Good morn- 
 
228 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 ing," also, and this they used whether it was morn- 
 ing, noon, or night. They had also returned to 
 their deserted huts in the cocoanut groves. 
 
 At Daiquiri there was no guard save one or two 
 small naval vessels, and a Spanish Marion could 
 have made himself immortal by trotting in and 
 destroying the stores and transportation collected 
 there. Indeed there had been quite an amount of 
 apprehension at the place, and the day before the 
 naval guard had spent the afternoon shelling the 
 hills on account of the supposed presence of lurk- 
 ing Spaniards. There were plenty of mules at 
 Daiquiri, and plenty of waggons, but the latter were 
 as yet *' knocked down," as a freight clerk would 
 say. I presented my order to the officer in charge. 
 It did not please him, and he looked it over for a 
 long time. I waited in patient amusement. I 
 knew he could not get around it. I knew also 
 that he did not want to obey it. I knew also that 
 he was trying to think up an excuse for not obey- 
 ing it, which I knew he could not find. He did 
 the next best thing, however. He made me wait 
 until the next day. 
 
 In the meantime I tried to "jolly" Captain 
 Ramsey of the Commissary Department out of 
 some potatoes or onions. He was an old West 
 Point friend and willing to do anything he could 
 
THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 229 
 
 to aid me, but the extent of his ability was twelve 
 pounds of half-rotten potatoes. Afterwards I 
 went down to the pier with him where a boat was 
 waiting to take him out to one of the ships he 
 was unloading. Just as his men pushed off a very 
 young and excited man, in a painfully new uniform, 
 rushed down the pier. 
 
 " Hold on a minute," shouted the newcomer. 
 *' Say, I want to go out to one of the naval vessels." 
 
 " Do you ? " asked Ramsey, with a tantalising 
 grin, while his men continued to pull away. And 
 then Ramsey sat down in the stern and looked 
 vacantly out to sea. 
 
 The young man was one of the many staff oflfi- 
 cers appointed through influence. 
 
 " I belong to General Shafter's staff," he stam- 
 mered to me. " I am sent down here to find out 
 what the firing meant yesterday. What shall I 
 do?" 
 
 A civilian was standing on the dock a few feet 
 away. He beckoned to me, and when I went to 
 him told me a boat was coming to take him off in 
 a few minutes and he would ferry the adolescent 
 captain. I informed the young man, and he ex- 
 pressed his thanks and saluted me as feelingly as 
 though he did not rank me by a whole grade. 
 There is nothing like helping superiors along in 
 
230 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 their difficulties. I speak from a large and varied 
 experience. 
 
 Then I hunted up the sole representative of the 
 post-office. He was sick with the yellow fever and 
 was being cared for by a big jovial, helpful man 
 who proved to be the mayor of St. Augustine, 
 Florida. The latter procured the keys to the post- 
 office shed and agreed to stand by when I was 
 ready to load up the next day. After supper I 
 called at Ramsey's tent again and found the head 
 of the Quartermaster's Department there again. 
 He had been brooding over that order of mine. 
 
 " How many loads have you got in your camp 
 here ? " he asked. 
 
 " One," I answered, carelessly. 
 
 " Well what do you want of two waggons then ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 I had a perfect right to tell him it was none of 
 his business, but my sympathies with the poor 
 postmaster at Siboney (who by the way died there 
 of yellow fever about a week later), who was hin- 
 dered in supplying the troops with their mail by 
 the churlishness of this man, tempted me to let 
 him go on. 
 
 " I have another load at Siboney," I replied. 
 
 He thought he had me then. 
 
 " Do you mean to say you are going to take a 
 
THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 231 
 
 waggon empty from here to Siboney ? " he asked 
 angrily. 
 
 " Oh, no," I answered. " I am going to take 
 the mail from here to Siboney in the other wag- 
 gon." 
 
 " Let me see that order again," he demanded, 
 turning red in the face. 
 
 I gave it to him. He read it several times. 
 Then he handed it back with the remark : 
 
 " Well, I can't help it," and walked away. I 
 knew he could not help it. But he got even to 
 the greatest extent possible by giving me but four- 
 mule teams instead of six-mule teams and making 
 the drivers carry a good third of the weight capac- 
 ity of the waggons in grain for the mules. In 
 addition I got the weakest mules in the corral, one 
 team being hardly larger than pack mules. 
 
 The civilian reader will probably wonder at such 
 childishness as this man displayed. The ex- 
 perienced government official will recognise in it 
 an old acquaintance — official and sometimes per- 
 sonal jealousy. Just what started the quarrel be- 
 tween the postmaster and the quartermaster I of 
 course do not know. But our regiment got its 
 mail, even though it was from a month to six 
 weeks old. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt had given me money to buy 
 
232 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 commissaries for the men. I invested it in lime j uice 
 and such delicacies as I could obtain. Major (later 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Brodie) also contributed sev- 
 eral boxes of lime juice. I added what money I 
 had and got trusted for a few hundred pounds of 
 beans, which I was not to pay for provided the 
 regiment made up the amount by not drawing full 
 rations to that extent. Inasmuch as we had been 
 on short rations for some time the beans might 
 have been considered made up already. At Si- 
 boney I loaded up the extra Avaggon with rations 
 which had been left behind by the regiment and 
 proceeded to the front. 
 
 On the way we passed a continuous stream of 
 refugees who were now coming out of Santiago 
 by the road on which we had advanced. They 
 were a sorry looking lot. Some rode in carriages 
 and some in waggons returning from carrying 
 rations and ammunition to the troops on the line. 
 All carried such possessions as they could. Wo- 
 men of apparent refinement wearing silk dresses 
 and diamonds struggled along with worn-out 
 shoes, carrying children. Some led consumptive 
 looking mules. Others drove goats and pigs. 
 Chickens, dogs and parrots passed by with the 
 human stream of unfortunates. The people were 
 human wisps in the path of the conqueror, but 
 
THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 233 
 
 their weary looking faces did not show that they 
 were rejoiced even to escape with their Hves. 
 
 The truce was still on when we arrived at the 
 front, and it was now apparent to all that the city 
 would surrender after a sufficient amount of delay 
 and negotiation, which must accompany everything 
 a Spaniard does, from mending a pair of shoes to 
 overturning a dynasty. All along the line our 
 troops had now become " cave dwellers," or, to 
 speak more correctly, " bomb-proof dwellers." 
 Day by day the American forces were creeping 
 nearer to the town. The line of intrenchments 
 occupied by Spaniards one day would be within 
 the American lines the next, and we were being 
 constantly warned from headquarters not to fire 
 to the right of, or to the left of, certain objects, 
 in order that we might not fire upon our comrades. 
 It was, however, tacitly understood that there 
 would be at least a make-believe bombardment 
 and resistance before the capitulation. Such 
 proved to be the case. Late in the afternoon of 
 the loth of July and on the morning of the nth 
 the Spanish batteries opened fire and continued it 
 for a few hours. They were replied to principally 
 by the artillery of the American army, and it was 
 an unexciting affair on both sides, though the 
 Spanish guns were practically silenced on both 
 
234 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 days. On the 15th the Spanish General Toral 
 announced his willingness to capitulate, and on 
 the 17th the 9th regular infantry and headquarters 
 of the 5th Corps entered the city and took posses- 
 sion of it. 
 
 The Rough Riders were now removed to a 
 healthier camp in the foot-hills, but the germs of 
 the fever were already at work, and it was soon a 
 regiment of sick men. Colonel Roosevelt was 
 prompt to advise, if not demand, that not only the 
 regiment but the entire army should be removed 
 to the United States. On the 7th of August or- 
 ders for the return were received. They boarded 
 the transport Miami at Santiago, and on the 15th 
 landed at Montauk, L. I., where they were rejoined 
 by the four troops that had been left behind at 
 Tampa. Even the latter had fallen victims to the 
 heat and camp fevers, and the new camp of the 
 regiment was practically an extensive hospital. 
 
 The regiment was mustered out of the service 
 on the 13th of September, 1898, one week and 
 four months from the arrival of the first contingent 
 at San Antonio. The men were given transpor- 
 tation to their homes, but did not get the two 
 months' pay given to all other volunteer regiments. 
 Before disbanding a regimental organisation was 
 formed, of which Colonel Brodie was elected Presi- 
 
THE FALL OF SANTIAGO 235 
 
 dent. Thus ended the career of the most unique 
 and possibly the shortest lived regiment ever 
 raised by a nation. It was the first to respond to 
 the President's appeal for volunteers and the first 
 to relieve the government of the expense of main- 
 taining it. True to the traditions of American 
 volunteers the members of the regiment returned 
 quietly to the pursuits of peace after a short frolic 
 in New York and other Eastern cities. 
 
 A few of the officers and some of the men have 
 since joined other regiments for service in the 
 Philippines. A number have died since the war 
 from the effects of the fever acquired in Cuba ; 
 while nearly all have been sick to a greater or less 
 extent. Of the two conspicuous members of the 
 regiment one has become Governor of New York 
 and the other Governor-General of Santiago. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 ON A HORROR SHIP 
 
 The sick and wounded of the various regiments 
 were sent back to the United States some time 
 before the return of the expedition. A number of 
 Rough Riders returned on one of two transports 
 which were later called by the press of the coun- 
 try " Horror Ships." I was one of the Rough 
 Riders to return on the Seneca, having been 
 taken sick a few days before the surrender. A 
 letter from Colonel Roosevelt got me transporta- 
 tion on the best of these transports, as it was con- 
 sidered, and an introduction to the captain of the 
 boat. 
 
 A few oflficers, sick and wounded, were already 
 
 on board when I joined. We lay off Siboney for 
 
 a few days while others, and far too many, ofificers 
 
 and men were taken on board and started for the 
 
 North. We expected to sail for Key West or 
 
 Tampa, but were ordered to Newport News just 
 
 before sailing. 
 
 My first effort on board was to get clean, and 
 236 
 
ON A HORROR SHIP 237 
 
 nothing ever before seemed so welcome to me 
 as the Seneca's bath-room. I had lost about 
 seventy pounds in weight and was a comparative 
 skeleton. I did not then attribute my condition 
 to the incipiency of the fever but supposed it to 
 be due to heat prostration. 
 
 From the ship we saw the picturesque burning 
 of Siboney, where nearly every building was de- 
 stroyed. Yellow fever had now appeared in its 
 worst form, and there were many cases in the 
 hospital on shore, with more arriving constantly. 
 
 From the ship we heard the short bombardment 
 of Santiago, and knew that the city was doomed. 
 
 The ship carried not only sick and wounded but 
 a number of newspaper correspondents and nearly 
 all the representatives of foreign governments, 
 naval and military. I shared my stateroom with 
 the Japanese naval attache. He was a good- 
 natured little fellow, with the most wonderful 
 ability to sleep I have ever seen in any man. 
 Occasionally he worked on his maps and report to 
 his government ; but the vast majority of the 
 time, morning, noon, and night, he was sleeping. 
 
 Two young contract doctors had charge of the 
 ship and its human freight, and for some reason 
 they were very poorly equipped with medicines. 
 No dainties for the wounded men had been pro- 
 
238 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 vided until Miss Jennings (I think I have the name 
 correctly) of the Red Cross Society came aboard. 
 She discovered the state of affairs just before we 
 started and got a supply of beef-tea and a few 
 other things of the kind from the hospital ship. 
 She was the only woman aboard save Mrs. Scovil, 
 the wife of the Nezv York World correspondent. 
 
 Miss Jennings was one of the American women 
 who, like Miss Clara Barton, Miss Wheeler, Miss 
 Chanler and Miss Gardiner, did so much to alle- 
 viate the awful misery of war. If they are all as 
 worthy of the crown of an angel (and no doubt 
 they are) as Miss Jennings, the nation should be 
 prouder of them than it is of its soldiers. The 
 very sight of these clean intelligent American 
 women was a precious breath of the atmosphere of 
 home in itself. Poor Miss Jennings slaved all 
 day and much of the night over the sick and 
 wounded, and slept at night wrapped in a shawl 
 on the seats in the dining salon, surrounded by 
 sleeping men. Nominally, I believe, she shared 
 the cabin of Mrs. Scovil, but the latter was sick 
 throughout the journey, also. 
 
 The two doctors were inexperienced, and mat- 
 ters would have been much worse than they were 
 had it not been for Captain Dowdy of the regular 
 army. He was one of the sick, and, completely 
 
ON A HORROR SHIP 239 
 
 used up, was going back to be retired. He was 
 weak and as thin as a rail, but had still sufficient 
 energy left to help look after the welfare of the 
 enlisted men on board and contend with the ship's 
 officers for such comforts as he could obtain for 
 them. Almost without exception these ship's 
 officers were as disagreeable as they had it in their 
 power to be. 
 
 The food on board was fairly good for the first 
 two days, but after that it was horrible and, what 
 was worse, horribly cooked. The drinking water 
 got low, and as it came from the faucet was heated 
 almost to the boiling point and as red as iron rust. 
 I discovered that the steward had a supply of dis- 
 tilled water for the use of the ship's officers, and 
 by the proper use of the coin of the realm I was 
 permitted to drink of it. How many others had 
 the same opportunity I do not know. Many, who 
 could afford the prices asked, drank practically 
 nothing but Apollinaris as long as the supply 
 lasted. 
 
 The lower decks, where the sick and wounded 
 men lay, became foul beyond description, and the 
 insufficient toilet rooms were awash with dirty 
 water. A number of cases of yellow fever were 
 reported by the doctors, and one of these slept on 
 deck. The time of those who could sit up was 
 
240 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 passed between dodging yellow fever cases and 
 playing poker. 
 
 At Newport News we all received a bitter dis- 
 appointment. We were not allowed to land, not 
 even taken into quarantine. On the contrary we 
 had to lie out in the harbour until orders were 
 received from Washington to proceed to New 
 York, We did have the opportunity to take on 
 supplies, however. They were thrown to us from 
 a small boat, as actual contact with the vessel was 
 prohibited. Major English of General Wheeler's 
 staff, one of the sick, was probably the most keenly 
 disappointed man on board. His wife had gone 
 to Key West to meet him. Learning of the new 
 destination of the boat she had come on to New- 
 port News and had now to go on to New York. 
 She came out in a small boat which lay about 
 twenty yards off the ship while she and her hus- 
 band exchanged greetings, not very privately as 
 may be imagined. 
 
 On we went to New York, where at least and at 
 last we were welcome and welcomed. We were 
 promptly boarded by Dr. Doty of the Health De- 
 partment and John W. Keller of the Commission 
 of Charities and Correction, and after that there 
 was nothing too good for us. The wounded and 
 very sick were at once transferred to New York 
 
ON A HORROR SHIP 241 
 
 hospitals, and the rest of us were taken to Hoff- 
 man's Island and put in quarantine. 
 
 For two days I had been feeling worse and that 
 night came down with the fever. The next day I 
 was transferred to the hospital at Ft. Hamilton, 
 and went later to a private hospital. For twenty- 
 eight days I was sick and during part of them lay 
 between life and death. For nearly a year after- 
 wards I suffered with relapses, and such I hear is 
 the experience of almost all others. 
 
 Before we left the Seneca we presented Miss 
 Jennings with a testimonial acknowledging our 
 appreciation of her services. She afterwards pre- 
 ferred charges against the oflficers of the ship, and 
 an investigation was made which failed to locate 
 the blame either for her overcrowded condition or 
 her insufficient supplies of food, water and medi- 
 cines. 
 
 In the foregoing pages the writer has attempted 
 to give a circumstantial story of the Rough Riders 
 rather than a history of the campaign or a military 
 essay upon it. He has tried, however, to be accu- 
 rate ; and if he has made any mistakes they are 
 not vital ones. Writing from the standpoint of a 
 
 Rough Rider he has naturally hit a head or two in 
 6 
 
242 FUN AND FIGHTING 
 
 the ranks of the regular army, but that wonderful 
 little regular army of the United States has no 
 greater admirer than he is. " May its tribe in- 
 crease " and remain increased, with quick promo- 
 tion for every one. And to paraphrase the words 
 of Grant, " let us keep the army and politics, in 
 the future, forever separate." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 
 

 
 
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