The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-01

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his place, and every man did his duty.
The Twentieth was in the stone fort
to the left, together with the Twenty
fifth (colored) infantry and the Third
and Fourth. They never left the road.
In the formation of troops along the
line, the First was on the extreme left
with the Fourth next; then the TWen-
tleth and the Twenty fifth, which join
eu them in the assault, the Third,
IWelfth, Seventeenth and Seventh were
next III the line. After taking the hill,
Creelman, who was wounded in the
left shoulder. had been left in the stone
fort; Gen. Bates knowing that 1 was
friend of Creelman's told me to go
and rescue him or he would be killed.
Taking four or five priVates from the
Third we crawled through a hole into
the stone fort; there we found three or
four hammOcks of brown canvas, the
kind commonly used in Cuba. One Of
these was filled with clean clothing,
which had evidently just been brought
In. Uniforms and other articles were
piled together We cut down the ham
mock and rolled Creelman in 1t and
took him out through the hole which
had been blown out by a shell, and
brought him down to the hill to the
surgeon, DR.. Ives, on an improVised
Stretcher.
THIRDS GALLANT OFFICERS.
This and many other acts of bravery
on the part Of the privates might be
cited. The men of the Third did very
effective work; I never saw braver or
more gallant men. Col. Page and Lieut..
Col. Harbach are brave soldiers and
gallant officers. l repeat, 1 never saw
a better lot Of men. In the ravine,
which runs between the hill and Ell
Caney Qt is about 500 yards wide),
these men lay under fire for four hours.
Fire was opened on the town at once
after the hill was taken, and the Span
iards were driven from house to house;
during all this time our men remained
very cool and conducted themselves
like veterans. There is a plaza, about
as large as a city square, in the center
of the town, and as the Spaniards ran
across this opening they were winged
every time.
to make a raid and charge the stone
fort, Ludlow's brigade came up from
the left, so that if we moved, we must
cross fire with our own men, and for
this reason the raid was abandoned, as
we could not fire on Ludlows men, for
by this time our men had formed a
semi circle.
AS to a comparison between the vol
unteerS and regulars, 1t takes time to
make a soldier; for the training re-
ceived and the time given them, the
American volunteers made a record
equal to the regulars In comparing the
soldiers of this war with those of the
Civil war, it must be remembered that
in the Civil war the soldiers on both
sides were volunteers. But 1t took
time to bring them to the proficiency
they reached. In our ninety days war,
we had no time; our volunteers did not
have time to become veterans. One
campaign Is better than six months of
drilling. In a campaign the men learn
to take care Of themselves, and in this
our army was not remiss.
PRAISE FOR VOLUNTEERS.
I'm our division we had two volun-
teer regiments. The First volunteers
OF Illinois, and the First Of the District
Of Columbia, and better soldiers than
these could not be found: they were
we'll officered and we'll drilled. The
First regiment, Of the District of Co.
lumbia, had an experienced officer,
Capt. Harris, who fought in the Indian
campaign, and so brought experience
to the present campaign. Their health
was always good, in fact, our command,
with the exception of the Ninth Massa-
chusetts, had very good health all
through the campaign. This was due
to the good care taken of the men by
Gen. Bates. But the Spaniards suffer-
ed from fever as much as our men did.
When we got into Santiago, we found
the hospitals full Of sick soldiers.
mo, I have nothing to say in regard
to Gen. Miles and Gen. Skaters dis
agreement But will say this, think
that the two men above all others to
whom credit is due for the conduct OF
the campaign of Santiago are Gen.
Lawton and Gen. Bates; they proved
themselves the best. I don't mean to
criticise anybody, but while the others
were SOOU, luSS6 men Dy all OQQS prov
ed themselves the ablest officers. Why,
the proposition to withdraw the troops
from the hill would have been acted
upon but for Bates and Lawton, who
insisted upon remaining in the position
first taken, and when retreat to await
reinforcements was suggested they in
sisted on maintaining their position,
and, If necessary, assaulting the city.
Lawton's troops were on the extreme
left, and Bates on the extreme right,
which are very important positions.
comparing our army with the arm
les of the world. I must say 1 have
visited the armies Of Europe, I have
seen the armies of Belgium and Rus
sia, and the Swedish army and have
seen them in their maneuvers. I have
studied their tactics and I must say,
after all, that there is no comparison
between the armies of America and
Europe. The American army is the
best on earth. Down there in Santiago
every officer exposed himself to danger,
and among the wounded will be found
a larger percentage of officers than Of
| privates; they were always in the
danger line. Armies do not go into az