The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-13
HoHsoN is RELEASED.
The Heroes OF the Merrimao Are Ex-
changed "A joyful Scene When They
Arrived In the American Camp.

The Heroes OF the Merrimac Are Ex-
changed - A Joyful Scene When They
Arrived In the American Camp,
Off Juragua, via Kingston, Jamaica,
July S.-Assistant Naval Constructor
Richmond P. Hobson, of the flagship
New York, and the seven seamen who,
with him, sailed the collier Merrimac
into the channel of the harbor of San
tiago de Cuba on June and sunk her
there, were on Wednesday surrendered
by the Spanish military authorities in
exchange for 16 prisoners captured by
the American forces. Hobson and his
men were escorted through the Ameri-
can lines by Capt. Chadwick, of the
New York. Every step of their jour
ney was marked by the widest demon
strations on the part of the American
soldiers.
AS Hobson and the men of the Mer-
rimac approached the first line of en-
trenchments occupied by the Rough
Riders, low murmurs ran from one
end of the line of cowboys and eastern
athletes to the other, and by the time
the returning party reached them
every man was on his feet, refusing
to be restrained by the admonishing of
the officers, cheering wildly and rush
ing over every obstacle in their way,
| in their efforts to reach Hobson and
his party and grasp them by the hand.
| The released prisoners were soon sur
rounded and compelled to stop to re-
ceive the greetings, congratulations
and vigorous handshaking of men they
had never seen before. Sunburned
cavalrymen who had spent their lives
| in the saddle on the plains of Arizona,
| New Mexico or other western states,
threw their arms around the sailor
boys and dragged them over the en-
trenchments, all the time sending out
wells that under other circumstances
would have struck terror to hearts
| even as gallant as those of the Merri-
mac heroes.
No mountain fastness of the west
ever resounded with shouts from an
Indian war dance that equaled the
wild outbreak of American spirit that
occurred at this meeting of the sail
ors who did their duty with every
Spanish gun in the harbor trained
upon them, and the hardy men who
from the day of their arrival in Cuba
have fought their way over the bodies
of their own dead and wounded to the
very gates of the city that they will
gladly storm against when ordered tc
do so.
The Seventy-frst New York volun-
teers was the next regiment to fall
upon Hobson and his men and almost
Immediately the Ninth and Tenth cav.
airy, both colored regiments, joined
in the general enthusiasm, and cheer
after cheer arose as Hobson and his
companions forced their way through
the lines of white and colored soldiers
If the young officer whose home is
in Alabama, has any race prejudice he
certainly forgot all about it as he
passed through the lines of soldiers
on his way to Gen. Wheeler's head
quarters. He saw it was the uniform
of the United States army; hecared no
for the color of its wearers, graspine
the hands of the colored troopers o.
the Ninth and Tenth cavalry and eX
pressing his thanks for patriotic wei
come with as much heartiness as he
displayed towards men of his owl
race. He and all of his men were com
pletely overcome by the reception &C
corded them and tears rolled dow
their cheeks as the soldiers crowded
around them.