The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-23

ranged that they directly covered bat teries in our front and for some time were the cause of our not firing at them. The spanish guerillas were very active, especially in our rear, where they seemed by preference, to attack the wounded men who were being car ried on filters, the doctors and medical attendants, with Red Cross flags on their arms, and the burial parties. l organized a detail of sharpshooters and sent them out after the guerillas of whom they killed thirteen. Two of the men thus killed were shot several hours after the truce had been in operation, because in spite of this fact they kept firing upon our men as they went to draw water. They were stationed in the trees, as the guerillas were general ly, and owing to the density of the to- 1 liage and to the use of smokeles pow der rifles, it was an exceedingly difficult matter to locate them. For the next seven days, until the 10th, we lay i'll our line while the truce continued. We had continually to work at additional bomb proofs and at the trenches and as we had no proper supply of food and utterly inadequate medical facilities the men suffered a good deal. The otfl- cers clipped together, purchased beans, | tomatoes and sugar for the men so that they might have some relief from bacon and hard tack. With a great deal of l difficulty we got them coffee. As for the sick and wounded they suffered so in the hospitals when sent to the rear for lack of food and attention that we | found it best to keep them at the front and give them such care as our doc- | tors could As mentioned in may pre- | Vious letter thirteen of our wounded men continued to fight through the bat | tie in spite of their wounds and Of | those sent to the rear many, both or the sick and wounded, came up to re- l jain us as soon as their condition allow ed them to walk: most of the worst cases were ultimately sent to the states, On the 10th the truce was at an end | and the bombardment reopened. As | far as our lines were concerned it was on the Spanish part feeble. We suffer- ed no losses and speedily got the ire from their trenches in our front com- pietely under us. On the 11th we moved | tbree-quarters of mile to the right, the truce again being on, nothing hap pening here except we continued to watch and do our best to get the men, and especially the sick, properly fed and having no transportation and be- i ing unable to get hardly any through 1 the regular channels we used anything we could find, captured Spanish caval- ny horses, abandoned mules which had i been shot but which our men tok and cured, diminutive skinny ponies pur- chased from the Cubaps. By these means and by the expectations of the officers, we were able from time to time to get supplies of beans, sugar tomatoes and even oatmeal, while from the Red | Cross people we got our invaluable i load of rice, corn meal etc, and all of this was of the utmost consequence, not only for the sick but for those nominal 1 ly well, as the lack of proper food was telling terribly on the men. It was 1 utterly impossible to get them clothes and shoes those they had were in many cases literally dropping to pieces. On the 17th the city surrendered On the h1Sth we shifted camp to here, the best 1 camp We nave lldl, pul tilC liieti va AA''i- ! CT under the monday sun told very heavily on our men, weakened by under l feeding and overwork, and the next 1 morning 123. cases were reported to the doctor, and 1 now have but half of the 600 men with which I landed four weeks ago, fit for duty, and these are not fit to do anything like the work they could do then As we had but one wagon the change necessitated leaving much of our stuff behind, with a night of dis l comfort, with scanty shelter and scanty food for the most of the officers and many of the men. Only the possession of the improved pack train alluded to above saved us from being worse. Yes terday I sent in a detail of six officers and men to see if they could not pur- chase or make arrangements for sup
 ply of proper food and proper clothing for the men, even if we had to pay for it out of our own pockets Our suffer i ing has been due primarily to lack of transportation and of proper food or sufficient clothing and of medical sup plies. We should now have wagon sheets for tentage.
 Very respectfully,
 Theodore Roosevelt. |