Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-09-17
A1isfellaneuus &eading.
DOWN IN SANTIAGO.
An Interesting Letter From the Captured
Cuban City.

An Interesting Letter From the Captured
Cuban City.
Correspondence OF the Yorkville Enquirer.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, August 24.-
We had good trip across and have
now been here eight days. 1 have
seen so many strange and wonderful
things that 1 hardly know where to
begin to tell about them. However, l
will try to write little about every
thing.
1t was a little after sunrise on
Wednesday, the 18th, that we passed
Moro Castle. About three or four
hundred yards up the channel, we
passed a sunkeD Spanish gunboat that
had been riddled with shot and shell,
and short distance beyond it lies the
Merrimac, longways, with the channel
on the ight hand side. Her smoke
stack and masts are sticking out of the
water about four feet.
How any man in his right mind
could have conceived the idea of TAX
ing this vessel into such place, passes
my comprehension. After you pass
Moro Castle, the channel makes a
turn, and there are guns on both sides,
in front and behind. The range from
Moro Castle is point blank, and that
the Merrimac was not literally torn to
pieces is little short of a miracle.
This is as we'll as I can describe the
situation. To thoroughly understand
what am trying to get at, it is neces-
sary for one to actually see the sur
roundings.
After we passed the Merrimac we
ran aground but got off in about an
hour and proceeded on up to the city
of Santiago. We passed on the way
numerous Spanish batteries. All these
have been dismounted. The Stars and
Stripes are floating over them and
United States soldiers have charge.
We disembarked Wednesday night,
put up our small tents, and slept. Of
course, when I got up next morning,
1 saw many things that were strange
and many that were familiar; but /
was not struck with any one thing so
much as I was with the large number
of buzzards. They are in droves-
just thousands of them. I have never
seen the like before
During Thursday l was detailed to
duty in the health department, and
have since been quartered in the ia
nous bullring in Santiago. My COM
pany left the same day for Guantana-
mo, Is miles up the coast, to do gar
rison duty. Since then have been
kept quite busy looking after health
statistics and disinterring and ship
ping back home the remains of the
United States soldiers who have been
buried here.
You have heard many horrible
stories about starvation in this city,
and you have probably believed that
these stories were exaggerated. l
thought so. l was mistaken. No
man can picture the horrors that have
existed here. The situation is still
terrible. My duties take me into the
houses and backyards of the people,
and every day, at sundown, I have to
20 to the gates of each of the three
cemeteries and get from the guards
stationed there the number of corpses
inferred or. burned during the day.
During the time I have been on duty,
the average has been 142 per day, and
it is no wonder. The filth and nasti-
ness which prevail everywhere is hor-
rible.
The hauling of corpses through the
streets of the city in carts is an hourly
occurrence. 1 have seen II corpses
piled on a single OK cart. There were
no cofins or even boxes. Some of
them were but scantily clothed, and
they lay one on top of another. Near
ly every dead cart carries from 7 to 9
at q time. Some are buried but
most of them are burned.
The poorer class of people have been
having a hard time of it. They are
having it yet. On all sides are men,
women and children who are literally
starving to death. Their stomachs
are sweIled out of all proportions, and
the balance of their bodies are pitiable
punches of skin and bones. They
stand about all day begging for scraps
of food. Why this is so do not know.
It ought not to be so. There are cat
tie and goats here in plenty-big
droves of them-and also thousands
of chickens. 1t seems to me that there
is plenty of food for everybody if it
were only distributed properly. But
we are doing a good work. The i'm
provement of conditions are easily
noticeable. The principal need is the
cleaning up of the city. Properly
cleaned there is no reason why this
city should not become as healthy as
any other anywhere, especially in the
same climate.
In the discharge of my duties l
have been over most of the ground
where the fighting around Santiago
took place. The wonder to me is not
that so many were killed but so few.
The Spanish positions were all on the
tops of steep hills. They were well
protected with trenches. The hills
are bare. Our men had to charge over
L,sl,oJ, of x,ar5o avnocad oil tho