New-York tribune., 1898-11-23

fresh beef which MAS exceedingly bad. don't
think that more than one-tenth Of II was eaten.
There was no salt in it. and think that one or
the mistakes is that no salt Is issued WIN ""'''
rst.ons 1t nauseated the men Now 'n''
had had fresh vegetables and cans for cooking
they could have made a stew Which Noui" ~"
have been good but would have been pretty
good. but as II was that beef vas worse thah
useless There were no cooking arIa"e'"V"''
-, tho vucatan but we made arrangements pE
which the men could cook their coffee at u'e
galley There We're no arrangements ior ice i'i
tho mon That was hard for them in me Nop'c
heat; think there should have been some al
raneomerts by which we could have gwen ''''i'
fresh vegetables now and then. some ar'a"se-
nents FOR cooking and some arrangements io'
Zee As 10 quarters On the ship the o'f'oers ac-
,ommodations were good. The mems accom-
,,,odations do not think were good we hau
medical supplies enough then. and two surgeons
on board
THE LANDING At BMQUIRL
The Colonel told Of the journey to Cuba and OF
the landing at Baquri. 1t took seven days 10
make The tourney. and they lay off the Cuban
coast Eve days The delay off the coast ne SAID
was due 10 lack Of facilities for disemharkhs.
There should have been far more boats than
.hAro were " he continued. "Thcre was EIeat
,ack of assistance for disembarkng We we're
eb,a 70 get off easier because my old naval aid
,,as ,berA with q converted yacht. He loaned
90, q Cubsn rilnt so that we could get close to
sboro We used tho small boats had on
hoard and q few boats of the Navy. The men
had their equipments and three days rations
The officers had practically nothing. MY pos
sessions were limited to a light macintosh but
the next day got toothbrush. The ornce's
baggage came the next day.
colonel Roosevelt went on then to describe IN
greet detail the movement of the RouGh iHueiS
and the rest Of the cavalry division toward
Santiago He told the story Of all the battles IN
which be was engaged and Of the movements of
all the troops particpa ting so far as ne op-
served them. as he has told il many times before
ard as it has been told by others This part or
his testimony was extremely interesting to
listen to- but was Of importance only so far as a
number OF general observations which he inter
rolated were concerned. The marches. he sa'd'
were hard because the clothing of the men was
not suited to the climate.
FIRST FIGHT WITH THE sPANIARDs
Speak,ng Of his first engagement with the
spaniards he said:
L could not sea where the Spaniards were.
knew. however that the best rule to follow
when IN doubt was to go ahead. We were under
n pretty brisk fire. but We pushed on Rlcharu
Harding Davis vas the line with me. lie
saw some Spanish hats In the distance. and
knew that where thore were Spanish hats there
must he Spanish heads We opened fire on
them across the ravne and drove them out
Then vo saw more and drove them out. Then
We saw some troops coming. We made out that
they were our own Regulars. sent sergeant
our WC
they fired a volley At us. but am not sure OF
that"
The Colonel continued with his graphic story
of the fgh, and the driving out Of the Span
jards and when asked II he had ratons when
10 camped on the ground that the Spaniards had
occupied hc said
Yes their forage was our feast We captured
a mule loaded with beans. and my men lived
high that night The next morning or evening
We received more ratons
CARE OF THE WOUNDED
Odd YOU have a field hospital after that
fight to take care of your wounded? Al had
an improvised field hospital but the next morn
ing the wounded taken back to SibOney
Ny men equipped with 'frst-aid-to-t he-in-
Jured bags ! want 10 say a word about our
assistant surgeon. Dr. James r. Church. He Is
an old Princeton football man. He not only took
Of the sick and wounded. but he would run
30 the firing-line and carry the wounded back on
his shoulder We had approximately forty killed
ard wounded in thal fight. We didn't have any
transportation at all That was the trouble
You know ii was said that We ought 20 have
boiled water. We had nothing to boil 1t in.
Odd YOU try 10 get transportation? A
Yes tried hard hut we could get nothing. The
water supply in that camp from tho stream
alongside OF t-a good stream when we could
keep the men from bathing in it.
The Colonel getting nervous and pulled
out mis- watch. called n messenger and asked
him up TO Senator Platts room and tell
the Senator tNa; he would Join him soon he
could.
HUSTLED FOR BEANS AND TOMATOES
Speaking of TIE hve days camp after the
fight which he had ,as; referred to he said:
We had the regular ra,ons Of salt pork.
bareback coffee and sugar We had in that
camp enough of these four items but We had
nothing else and the neat and exposure began
10 tel, on the men. / wanted 10 get them some
beans and tomatoes. There was no transporta-
tion. took fourteen Of our men and the
officers horses and marched them 20 Siboney.
! wanted to purchase the beans Of the quarter
master. but he would not sell any beans
less would say that they only for the
use of the officers. Now. don't think that was
right. l think there should be some provision
made for to buy beans for the men if we
wanted under such circumstances. However l
bought as large quantity Of beans as my
elastic conscience would allow me 10 say could
De used by the officers. and / think that the
officers didn't get many Of them. Then l bought
some fro0, auo'1'r source. and those beans and
tomatoes were great thing for the men
don't think they would have wanted those things
badly IL 1t had not been a tropical climate. or
from the fact that their clothing was not suit
able
The hats were excellent The shoes were
good The flannel shirts were ss good as any