CHAPTER LIV.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

Telling How Our Soldiers Lived-What They Saw-How They Fought— Hardships Endured-Bravery Shown in the Face of the Deadly Mauser Bullets as Well as Fever-Stricken Camps, Etc., Etc.

Charles E. Hands, writing from Santiago to the London Mail, says of the wounded after the battle of July 1 and 2:

There was one man on the road whose left foot was heavily bandaged and drawn up from the ground. He had provided himself with a sort of rough crutch made of the forked limb of a tree, which he had padded with a bundle of clothes. With the assistance of this and a short stick he was paddling briskly along when I overtook him.

"Where did they get you, neighbor?" I asked him.

"Oh, durn their skins," he said in the cheerfulest way, turning to me with a smile, "they got me twice-a splinter of a shell in the foot and a bullet through the calf of the same leg when I was being carried back from the firing line."

"A sharpshooter?"

"The son of a mongrel was up in a tree."

"And you're walking back to Siboney. Wasn't there room for you to ride?" I expected an angry outburst of indignation in reply to this question. But I was mistaken. In a plain, matter-of-fact way he said:

"Guess not. They wanted all the riding room for worse cases 'n mine. Thank God, my two wounds are both in the same leg, so I can walk quite good and spry. They told me I'd be better off down at the landing yonder, so I got these crutches and made a break."

"And how are you getting along?" I asked.

"Good and well," he said, as cheerfully as might be, "just good and easy." And with his one sound leg and his two sticks he went cheerfully paddling along.

It was just the same with other walking wounded men. They were all beautifully cheerful. And not merely cheerful. They were all absolutely unconscious that they were undergoing any unnecessary hardships or suf ferings. They knew now that war was no picnic, and they were not com

PEOPLE OF SANTIAGO AT RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS

By the time the American forces captured the city, food was so scarce and expensive that it was virtually out of reach of the poor people. Consequently charity found ample work to do when that happy day came.

plaining at the absence of picnic fare. Some of them had lain out all the night, with the dew falling on them where the bullets had dropped them, before their turn came with the overworked field surgeons.

Captain Paddock Tells of the Fighting Before Santiago.

On the Battlefield, One Mile East of Santiago, Sunday, July 3. My Dear "Jim": I have passed safely through the most horrible three days imaginable. We marched nearly all night Thursday (June 30), to a point about one and a half miles east from here, and then waited for morning. About 5 o'clock we started again, and at 6 A. M. our extreme right opened the fight. The center (our front) and the left moved into position, and at 8 o'clock the Spanish artillery opened on us from the position we now hold. We deployed as skirmishers and advanced through woods and brush, a perfect thicket; our artillery was hard at work behind us, but we with our small arms could not do much, as the Spanish were perfectly intrenched for a mile or more along our front.

We kept pushing along, although their fire, both shrapnel and small arms, was murdering us; but on we came, through the tropical underbrush, and wading a stream up to our chests, firing when we could see the enemy.

We reached the first line along a hillcrest and drove them out; then the next line, and they then started back to the city. The fighting was fast and fearful and never slackened until dark. The second day (Saturday) was a continuous fight again till dark; but our loss was small, as we simply held our position, having driven them all in; at night, however, they made a furious attack and attempted to retake the place. We were not surprised, and drove them back, with small loss on our side.

To-day was like the second day up to 12:30 o'clock, when a truce was made. Up to now (5 o'clock P. M.) there has been no firing since then, but I don't yet know what the result of the conference was. We offered the truce after the naval battle. I only give a brief outline, as the papers have told everything. I am unhurt and perfectly well.

Told from the Trenches-Council Bluffs Boy Describes the Fighting Before Santiago.

The following letter was written in the trenches before Santiago the morning after the attack:

Heights Before Santiago, July 8.

Dear Father: I have not been hurt and am fully convinced that Providential protection alone took me through it. Contrary to all principles of

tactics, but unavoidably, the Twenty-fourth infantry was marched for three miles in a flanking fire from artillery, and when we were within about one and a half miles from the first Spanish position we were hemmed in a narrow road and subjected to a hail of fire from two blockhouses and intrenchments on the hills on our right.

We waded about 400 yards down a stream up to our shoulders under protection of its banks and charged across a field of bull grass as high as our heads for about 600 yards, and then up the hill about 200 feet and drove the Spaniards out of their fort. The one we took is called San Juan. We lost terribly. Lieutenants Gurney and Augustine are dead. Colonel Liscum, Captains Ducat, Brett and Burton and Lieutenants Lyon and Laws are wounded. We lost about 100 men, but the fight is virtually won.

During the engagement I threw away my sword. I saw the colonel fall and I gave him my canteen and he soon revived. We occupied the hill by the blockhouse. We are within about 400 yards of the city and they have put up a flag of truce. They want until 10 A. M. July 9 to hear from Havana. We have them sewed up tight. I have a piece of an eight-inch shell which tried to get me, but struck the parapet of my trench. Will try to send it home.

No one except those thoroughly acquainted with this country will ever know how dreadfully desperate the fight and charge were. It is a mistake that the Spaniards won't fight. The Spaniards have their barracks and other buildings covered with the Red Cross and abuse all the established principles of warfare. They put their men in trees hidden with leaves and bark and they pick off officers, surgeons and men of the hospital corps.

Finally it became necessary to systematically hunt these down, and this has been done with considerable success. The night of the 4th Sampson began countermining, and the dynamite made such a racket that the Spanish officers ran out under a flag of truce about 11:30 P. M. and wanted to know what we meant by firing under a flag of truce. It did not take us long to tell them that our flag of truce did not include the navy. Now, about 9 A. M., I hear the guns of the navy and Morro castle exchanging compliments. Of all the precautions advised before we started for Cuba I could follow but few. I wear my woolen bandages, but in wading the stream I was unable to put on dry clothes again. In fact, for seventy-two hours we were under fire without sleep and thirty-six hours without water or food of any kind.

Bacon and hard bread are fine. I sleep on the side of San Juan hill in a ditch, so I won't roll out. I have a raincoat, blanket and shelter half.

This is the most beautiful country I have ever seen, and if we should have peace I know of no place I would rather live in. I have seen enoug) of the horrors of the war, but am proud of the gallant boys of the Twenty fourth. The fighting is practically over, so have no fear. Your son,

WILL.