Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-07-15

Our Troops ID Cubs Soaked BY Rain
and Broiled BY the Sun.

and Broilsd BY the Sun.
MISERY ON THE MARCH-THE MEN
HAD TO FORCE THEIR WAY OVER
DOGGY GROUND AND THROUGH
THICKETs FILLED WITH SPANISH
GUERILLAS-CHILL BY NIGHT
AND BLISTERED BY DAY.
New York, July 14.-Private James
Carroll, Company H, Seventy-frst reg
iment, who was wounded in the battle
near Santiago, on July /, and who ar
rived here on the steamer Kansas City,
said last night:
IF the people here only knew what
the boys had to suffer there would be
no interest in anybody else in this
country. With the awful rains that
chill through the night and the sun
that blisters all through the day, they
have not a minute of rest 1t is misery
to live there only had little Of it
after all, and, while I'll lave more as
soon as l am able to go to the front
again, it is only because it is my duty
that l will go. One of the worst ex-
periences l had was when We were on
outpost duty on June 80, the day be-
fore the bombardment. We had been
soaked through with rain and broiled
with the sun a half dozen times over,
and finally were ordered to return to
the base of supplies to get rations for
the brigade. Incidentally, we heard
that we would get the order to start
at 2 o'clock in the morning 1t was
then midnight.
I'VE were told to turn in for little
sleep, and did So Two hours was not
long, but we slept. All stories about
certain men not
BEING ABLE TO SLEEP
except under certain conditions, I be-
lieve, are yarns. All of us slept, and
we had all sorts of conditions about U.s.
Our destination was San Juan, about
eight miles from where we were. The
march was one of the most difficult we
had in the short time we were away.
1t was through ground that was Doggy
with the rains and through cactus
plants that caught us seemingly every
foot of the way. Although our orders
were to make all haste possible, we
found it all we could do to travel
three-fourths of mile in an hour.
"The natural difficulties were not the
worst, either Our marching had been
discovered by the Spanish guerrillas,
and, while we could not see them, they
made their presence felt. They skulk-
ed through the chapparal and kept up
fire that gave us not an instant of
security. Every now and again some
of our boys would get wounded. The
firing kept up all through the night,
which showed that we were pursued
by these villainous bushwhackers.
cat times we, thought we saw their
shadows as they skulked along in the
brush that made our march hell, but
which protected them. Their numbers
we could not tell, but judging from
the way the bullets came whenever we
reached an opening, they must have
been considerable When we were not
in the open the plan was to pick us off,
and unfortunately they succeeded in too
many cases.
I'VE only could do the best we could
but that was not much. Now and again
we could hear a scream follow the
crack of one of our rifles that told us
that the bullet had done it's duty, but
it was hard on u.s. The march would
have been costly even if we had moth
ing but the
DIFFICULTIES OF THE WAY
to fight When to these was added a
fire from a foe that was relentless you
may imagine our condition.
THE progress was so slow that 1t
was light when We had made four
miles The firing had got hotter by this
time, and the orders to fight had come.
We were told to throw away every
thing not needed From that time on
until 5 in the afternoon it was a case
of fight all the time. About 2 in the
afterassnerthe Seventyfirst charged
1.-The h4I ratsSan Juan. Half way up we
got a hot volley from the Spaniards
that made us stop from the very force
Of impact, but the stop was only mo-
entarily. The boys kept on and won"