mand of the expedition was given to General Shafter, a brave Michigan soldier of the war of the rebellion and an officer of the regular army.

On the night of June 7 orders came from Washington that the army should leave the next morning, and then was displayed a scene of vast confusion. The railroad tracks were blocked for miles with cars filled with supplies tightly shut by red-tape, at which men unused to responsibility and to the need of quick action gazed helplessly. The cars not only kept the supplies from the army, but they stopped movement on the line, and hours were consumed where minutes should have sufficed in transporting troops from Tampa to the Port. Once arrived, more confusion and a widening of the area of chaos. No proper arrangement of transportsno allotment at all in some cases, and in others the same ship given to two or three regiments. Thereupon much scrambling, disorder, and complication, surmounted at last in some rough-and-ready fashion, and the troops were finally embarked. Then came orders to delay departure. There was a false report brought of a Spanish cruiser and torpedo-boats seen by the Eagle and Nashville. Admiral Sampson put no faith in the report, guessed accurately that the Eagle had been misled in the darkness by certain ships of our own; but unfortunately he was at the other end of the line, and in the United States the false but definite report of hostile ships was accepted, and the army waited, sweltering on board the crowded transports, many of them lying near the wharves in the canal or channel, which was festering with town sewage. A very heavy price this to pay for a mistaken vision of the night, and for hasty acceptance

of its truth. But the long hot days, laden with suffering and discomfort to the troops, finally wore by, and at last the transports, on June 14, made their way down the bay, pushed on the next day, were joined near Key West by some dozen ships of war as convoy, and then on the 16th were fairly on their way to Santiago. Far pleasanter this than broiling in Tampa Harbor, and the spirits of the troops improved. Yet the movement, so infinitely better than the hot, still waiting, was deliberate enough. Some of the transports were very old and very slow, and as they set the speed, the fleet crept along about eight knots an hour over a sapphire sea, with beautiful star-lit nights, and glimpses by day of the picturesque shores and distant mountains of Cuba. On Sunday, June 19, they were off Cape Maisi, and at daybreak the next morning they came in sight of the waiting war-ships and of Santiago Harbor. Then came consultations between General Shafter and Admiral Sampson and the Cuban generals Garcia and Castillo. The plan of capturing the Morro and the other entrance batteries, as the admiral desired, so that the mine-field could be cleared, the fleet go in, destroy the Spanish cruisers, and compel the surrender of Santiago, was abandoned. General Shafter decided to move directly upon the city, and orders were given to make the landing at Daiquiri. The army had neither lighters nor launches. They had been omitted, forgotten, or lost, like an umbrella, no one knew exactly where; so the work of disembarking the troops fell upon the navy. Under cover of a heavy fire from the ships, the landing began, and was effected without any resistance from the enemy. On an open coast, without any harbor or

shelter, with nothing but an iron pier so high as to be useless, smoothly, rapidly, efficiently, through a heavy surf, on the beach and at an unfloored wooden wharf, the boats and launches of the navy landed 15,000 officers and soldiers, with a loss of only two men. It was a very excellent piece of work, thoroughly and punctually performed, exciting admiration among foreign onlookers, who had just beheld with amazement the very different performances connected with the embarkation at Tampa.

The next morning General Wheeler, commanding the division of dismounted cavalry, under direct orders from General Shafter, rode forward, followed by two squadrons of the First volunteer cavalry, and one each of the First and Tenth regular cavalry. When General Wheeler reached Juraguacito, or Siboney, he found that the Spaniards had abandoned the block-house at that point, retreated some three miles toward Sevilla, and had there taken up a strong position, their rear having been engaged by some 200 Cubans with little effect. By eight o'clock that night the cavalry division reached Siboney, and General Wheeler, after consultation with General Castillo, determined to advance and dislodge the enemy lying between the Americans and Santiago. The next morning before daylight the movement began. The troops marched along two roads, which were really nothing more than mountain trails. The First and Tenth regular cavalry, under the immediate command of General Wheeler, and General Young who had with him some Hotchkiss guns, marched by the main or easterly road to Sevilla. Along the westerly road went the First volunteer cavalry,