The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-14
OUR ARMY At SANTIAGO
WILLIS M'CoRNICK WRITES AN
INTERESTING LETTER.
The Troops In Bad shape-Nearly
Half the Men Are Sick With a
Peculiar Sort of Fever, But Keep
Their Courage Up.

Willis Mccormick. in writing to his
mother from near Santiago de Cuba under
date of July q. 1898. gives some very in
teresting details of camp life and the con-
1 dition of the American trool in That re
gion. The Ritter reads as follows:
I l hope you are not disappointed at this
long wait. but 1 warned YOU how slow
( communication would be from here. In
deed. 1 am taking my frs opportunity to
write you.
You know from the papers that this
part of the army is not going to Porto
Rico, and il there is to be Havana cam
/ paign it viii not take place I'LL the fall
so at present see Eathing but to re-
turn to the states. l am going 10 write
/ as accurate an account as possible of the
camp life here because l know yon would
l Ike some reliable information Remem-
1 be-, / am doing it for this reason only
~-- --o+ Sec'r'se on in any way dis
heartened. Everything is as 1 expected
s-,-~ -~--- peI-e~.4S si,t-sne0 TO stay. OF
course that ali fighting is over is bitter
disappointment. and now ! am experience
ing the really hard part OF camp lie with
no thrill OF excitement To relieve it.
IN A SORRY PLIGHT.
The army is in very bad condition.
from q peculiar sort of fever not very
high and attended with headache and sick
stomach. 1t lasts but a few days and
leaves man in bad shape. No one
knows anything of yellow fever here
where we are but the fever l have just
been telling of is quite bad enough from
it the men lose weight, get weak and life
less; they are gloomy, crushed in health
and spirit. but they bravely do their duty.
dragging one foot after the other. Imag-
inc these men with stragSly boards, sheir
faces brown and wTinkled like leather;
their checks sunken; their teeth protrud-
ms. This is the personnel of the regi-
ment. II would take Napoleon to get
another fight out of these men now, such
a short time ago so full of snap and spirit
that their fighting was as good as any
on record They pray to return home and
can one blame them? They have nothing
to do all day buI lie in a dog tent not
five feet high, with nothing covering the
eternally damp ground but a board or
few pieces of bamboo. If a man does not
lie in one of these sun-baked, confined
pieces of canvass it is because he Is as
signed some work such as carrying wood
some two or three miles. digging pits or
keeping fire for the cooks. Some work
is not hard but this Cuban sun makes
any eXertion a HeFculean task.
WILLIS IS ALL RIGHT.
Personally. l am as well as I ever was
in my life and with my immediate com
panionS find quiet enjoyment We have
a club in this troop called the Mangoe
club. Four Harvard fellows and one chap
from Yale belong; also Bill Larned and
Bob Wren. You saw the former play
the latter for the tennis championship t
Newport two years ago. We play cards
in the evenings and during the day. when
the hills where We find mango and al
mond trees, sapodillo, pine apples ana
cocoanuts. We wander over old Spanish
entertainments, forts and block houses.
The country IS so different from any l
have ever seen that even this quiet amuSe-
ment is so agreeable that 1 would not ex-
change it for SaltaiT.
A REGULAR BRICK
Then the. people surrounding me are of
such vast interest In the tent with me
Is an iEh MI a no Wa
from Australia to join the Rough Riders, |
and TO do so resigned his commission as |
captain in the British army. He is a reg |
ular brick, too. In the tent next to me |
IS a man who fought in the civil war |
with Quantrelrs guerillas. He is sv<fUily |
amusing. For every poor meal nave /
here he thinks some official in Washing
ton is having an Extra good one so wants |
his gun ready when he returns there. He !
also insists that the doctors assign the |
most convenient trouble to each man |
wanting to be treated and had q terrible |
grievance the other day when the doctor |
told hi2- he had measles
A HETEROGENEOUS COLLECTION.
The characters here would keep Bret /
Harte bus for some time to come.
Think OF the bipation-prOspecto
miners. cowboys. scouts. old army men, |
milllonalTes, college meni The rough ele-
ment predominates. Still they are the |
their last hard tack and nurse a stranger
as if he were a brother. They are de-
cided unmilitary in appearance. Right /
shoulder arms looks like a broken picket |
fence. but they impress one as fighters.
When lined up with a double row of car
tridgeS in their belt and a carbine in their |
hands, with their straggly boards, tight /
drawn, weather beaten faces and deter |
mined expression they are more impress |
siye than another body of men woulCSbe !
with all the snap and dash of military /
perfection. Many of their comrades lie !
under the sod not more than a stones |
throw from here Wren evening comes
and the regiment lines up for inspection |
and the band plays the Star Spangied |
Banner" every shaggy head falls un- |
covered and the hard wrinkled faces relax !
into expressions with a depth of feeling. |
and pathos that could not We |
be surpassed by a mother standing as
near the trenches gazing on the grave or |
her boy.
1t is the most stirring and at the same |
time subduirgly impressive sight l ever
expect to see.
From all indications l shall see you soon |
and until then remember / am well unless |
You receive . cable TO the contrary.