thanks for their efficient performance of all the duties required of them, and the good judgment and bravery displayed on all occasions when demanded.

win Shafter

A UNIQUE WAR DOCUMENT.

Major-General.

General Shafter, on August 22d, cabled to Washington a document entirely unique in the annals of warfare. It is in the form of a congratulatory farewell address issued to the soldiers of the American Army by Pedro Lopez de Castillo, a private Spanish soldier, on behalf of 11,000 Spanish soldiers. No similar document perhaps was ever before issued to a victorious army by a vanquished enemy.

The President was much impressed by the address, and after reading it carefully authorized its publication.

TEXT OF THE ADDRESS.

Following is the text of the address as cabled by General Shafter:

"SANTIAGO, August 22d.-H. C. Corbin, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington: The following letter has just been received from the soldiers now embarking for Spain:

""To MAJOR-GENERAL SHAFTER, Commanding the American Army in Cuba, Sir: The Spanish soldiers who capitulated in this place on the 16th of July last, recognizing your high and just position, pray that through you, all the courageous and noble soldiers under your command may receive our good wishes and farewell, which we send them on embarking for our beloved Spain. For this favor, which we have no doubt you will grant, you will gain the everlasting gratitude and consideration of 11,000 Spanish soldiers who are your most humble servants. PEDRO LOPEZ DE CASTILLO, 66 "❝Private of Infantry.'

"Also the following letter addressed to the soldiers of the American

army:

""Soldiers of the American Army: We would not be fulfilling

our duty as well-born men, in whose breasts there live gratitude and courtesy, should we embark for our beloved Spain without sending to you our most cordial and good wishes and farewell. We fought you with ardor, with all our strength, endeavoring to gain the victory, but without the slightest rancor or hate toward the American nation. We have been vanquished by you (so our Generals and chiefs judged in signing the capitulation), but our surrender and the bloody battles preceding it have left in our hearts no place for resentment against the men who fought us nobly and valiantly. You fought and acted in compliance with the same call of duty as we, for we all but represent the power of our respective states.

"You fought us as men, face to face, and with great courage, as before stated, a quality which we had not met with during the three years we have carried on this war against a people without religion, without morals, without conscience, and of doubtful origin, who could not confront the enemy, but, hidden, shot their noble victims from ambush and then immediately fled. This was the kind of warfare we had to sustain in this unfortunate land. You have complied exactly with all the laws and usages of war as recognized by the armies of the most civilized nations of the world; have given honorable burial to the dead of the vanquished; have cured their wounded with great humanity; have respected and cared for your prisoners and their comfort, and, lastly, to us, whose condition was terrible, you have given freely of food, of your stock of medicines, and you have honored us with distinction and courtesy, for after the fighting the two armies mingled with the utmost harmony.

"With this high sentiment of appreciation from us all, there remains but to express our farewell, and with the greatest sincerity we wish you all happiness and health in this land, which will no longer belong to our dear Spain, but will be yours, who have conquered it by force and watered it with your blood, as your conscience called for, under the demand of civilization and humanity, but the descendants of the Congo and of Guinea, mingled with the blood of unscrupulous Spaniards and of traitors and of adventurers, these people are not able to exercise or enjoy their liberty, for they will find it a burden to comply with the laws which govern civilized communities.

"From 11,000 Spanish soldiers.

"PEDRO LOPEZ DE CASTILLO,

""Soldier of Infantry, Santiago de Cuba, August 21, 1898,'"

CHAPTER X.

STATISTICS APPLIED TO THE STRAIN OF BATTLE.

LOSE statistical calculation of the amount of metal used in the civil war between our States led to the belief that though the casualties on both sides were appalling, yet it had taken about a ton of lead to kill each man. The same sort of figuring of the missiles used and their results in the battles among the hills of Santiago would undoubtedly show that the amount of ammunition expended for each man killed was far in excess of the old estimate. A careful calculator has put it in a new light, figuring that the strain required in firing 100 rounds of Krag-Jorgensen cartridges is equal to a day's work with pick and shovel. This is undoubtedly farfetched, but must be considered in an estimate of the terrific labors of the United States soldiers fighting at Santiago, Porto Rico and in the Philippines.

Shafter's men were not only under the excitement of battle, when one saw his chum fall back torn with a Mauser and could not but feel that his turn was close at hand, but in digging the trenches they were nauseated by the odor of the decaying vegetation of the tropical soil, and were alternately soaked in cloud-bursts, followed by intense heat and cold, until the strain was far beyond what one who was not there can imagine or will readily believe.

The problem of keeping the troops supplied with ammunition, when it was being used as the small boy does in the early part of the Fourth of July, was a tremendous one and necessitated the expenditure of every effort to get it to the front in preference to rations or anything else. The soldiers could eat later. For the time being they must fight, and ammunition was the essential rather than food. This fact in itself led to frightful hardships, which, added to the horrors of the "rainy season," made the work greater than ordinary soldiers could stand, but the American troops were not ordinary. They amazed the veteran observers of Europe, whe have since gone home properly informed and

well-disposed to our nation. One of the wonderful things to them, which they have not ceased talking about, is that the percentage of loss, including those who died in the camps and on the field, the loss of Americans officers and men out of a total of 274,717 was but 2,910, or the small percentage of 1.59-1,000.

A German officer, who had watched the fighting with the greatest interest, while loud in his praise of the troops, was especially impressed with the wonderful nerve of the army packers and the splendid staying qualities of the army mule. The men brought the ammunition cases right up to the trenches and were in even greater danger than the soldiers. Throughout the fighting they were as cool as expressmen delivering parcels at fashionable residences, and though a number of them were struck, yet the rest were in no way disturbed. There was no glory in it for them. They were simply doing their duty.

The soldier of the Kaiser went home impressed with the soldiers and packers and with very serious ideas as to the value of the army mule. He had seen and estimated his eccentricities, but he had also seen and appreciated the mule's capacity as a pack animal and in the wagon train, his ability to do heavy work with little or nothing to eat or drink. The likelihood is that the Southern mule will see service on the Continent. Whether he will appreciate his trip abroad or be ordinarily docile in foreign lands remains to be seen, for there is a belief in this country that it takes a Southern negro, or an easy-going Southwesterner, to get the best work out of a mule.

CHAPTER XI.

GRADUATED FOR THE GRAVE AND GLORY.

HE SPLENDID TRAINING of West Point was abundantly proven on the battlefields of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. The martial spirit born in the nation's great military school made splendid soldiers of the officers, whose personal courage was backed and made irresistible by their learning in the arts of warfare. In few wars has the percentage in loss of officers been so great, for in many of the engagements it was necessary that they should be outside the trenches to properly direct the fire of the men, note results and the enemy's movements and by their own exposure and courage inspire the soldiers to the utmost bravery. Then, too, the Spanish sharpshooters made a point of directing their fire against the officers. In the charges the bearers of Government commissions, the graduates of West Point, led the way and many of them fell to add their names to the glorious list of their Alma Mater, that tells of her sons who died that their country might live.

Lieutenant Edward N. Benchley was one of the class hurriedly graduated in the spring of the declaration of hostilities, that the lack of regular officers might be filled. About the time he would have graduated he was in a soldier's grave. It is gratifying to know that the memory of this gallant soldier is to be honored in his native city of Worcester, Massachusetts, by a bust which is to occupy a conspicuous place in one of the public buildings of Worcester. The bust is an excellent likeness and reflects great credit upon its sculptor, Timothy J. McAuliffe, of Worcester.

Lieutenant Benchley was graduated from West Point last spring and immediately joined Company E, Sixth Infantry. He won the confidence of his superior officers, and when struck by the fatal bullet was engaged upon an important mission, which carried him where the fire was most relentless. His conduct was heroic; if he had lived he would have been brevetted for gallantry in action,