The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-07-01
WAITING FOR THE ARMY


From the Evening Post-Special Cor
respondence from Guantanamo Bay, June
23.)
| 1t is easier here than in New York to
| sympathze with those who demand quick
| action of the army. Bullets are
flying, and the tents are being struck and
hurried to the lee of the ridge, and as one
worn guard-line is relieved by another not
yet rested. men drop, utterly played out,
| face upward on the bare hill, and imme-
diately, as If stricken, fall deeply asleep.
Some ask for cigarettes; some eagerly tell
of mutilations practiced upon American
dead by the ambushed guerillas-the Cuban
| 'niggers' who side with Spain. Publish
that" they say, land let the world know
| the sort of men we are fighting" 1t is too
horrible for print. Sympathies are ex-
cited, however, before the word of the
colonel and of the surgeon testifies that
there were no mutilations.
There is funeral presently. Four bodies
are sewn In canvas and placed in a trench
on the hillside and over the open grave
the first for our men in Cuban soil-the
chaplain reads the brief commitment and
a full company fires two volleys in final
leave-taking.
Then that afternoon the place all around
is clamorous with volleys not religious but
discharged with blasphemous signs Of an
ger.
Where is the army?" the officers would
ask.
"Twenty-seven thousand regulars will
be here tonight or tomorrow" is the an
swer, and it is repeated to the wan-eyed.
hungry men for their announcement.
They are incredulous, and will not cheer.
But tonight arrives, and still no trans
ports on the horizon, no reinforcements
from insurgents, although they are, too.
hourly expected. Darkness settles down
upon the hills and ambushed hollows.
From three sides and seven come shots
from the invisible, indistinguishable enc
my, and the Colt quick-fires, which have
no stop mechanism, but pour in their hose
stream of nickeled bullets until their
chambers are emptied, play upon every
spot lighted by Mauser flash. Little
help is afforded by the searchlight Of the
Marblehead. Twice we have to wigwag
to her that she is revealing the American
position, and however lovely the Stars and
Stripes on Camp McCalla appear, every
body knows that the pleasure is not equal
to its possible cost.
Suddenly, near the central earthworks,
man tumbles forward. my God!" is
all he says, and when his features are
made out by the powder flashes he is recog
nized as Goode, the sergeant major, blood
flowing from a mortal hurt in the abdomen.
Some men get wounded. The enemy is
further away, and the Mauser bullets do
not tear so much as the night before
Skies turn pale. On the faces of the men,
crouched in rim around the hill crest,
rifles covering every approach, there is
smoky, grimy, done-up look.
Another guard is changed. The young
officers chorus "Oh, Promise Me-" and in
quire: Ibid you say we had an army?
Show it,"
In comes Neville with his scouts-one
missing, three wounded. OF the missing
one it is said that he was only slightly hurt.
but that, still believing SPANS guerillas
had visited strange cruelties upon men dis
abled, he had jumped over the cliff into
the sea, crying 1.-The hellions shan't get
mel" They did not get him, but his own
people did at last, and there was an open
grave and prayers and two blank volleys
and flags In the bay sunk to half mast 1t
did not seem that the camp could be held
unless relief came soon.
'If we only had the Third or the Fifth
or the Twenty-fifth," said the officers on
the ships of war, 1--WE could clean out
those woods in no time. This is plain In
dian fighting. and marines are not trained
to such duty"
Captain Fremont went in his torpedo
boat Porter to the Admiral at Santiago
forty miles away. with request for i'm
mediate reinforcements, as news had ar
rived that 1000 Spanish troops were at
Guantanamo station preparing to assist
the guerillas in rushing the marines from
their foothold. The admiral does not see
the necessity.
Luckily, that afternoon some insurgents
signal from point of land to be taken off,
They are ragged and very dirty, and
armed with remarkable variousness. Of
ficers and men regard them obviously, but
in new linen clothes and with some solid
food in their stomaches they wear a more
taking appearance. Some perfunctory
cheers greet them when they land. Their
colonel suggests that they be ordered to
outpost duty, relieving the worn and nerv-
Gus marines.
This is done, and that night not shot is
fired by either side. From the moment
the Cubans arrived to assist in the way
they best knew the fortunes of Camp Nc
Gala changed. 1t began to seem as II this
was just what had been wanted-forces
that were familiar with bushwhacking.
Less is heard about the slowness and stu
pidity Of the army, and when the news
comes that the army started but turned
back because somebody said that the Viz
caya was still at large the men only
laughed.