Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-08-04
The Fight in the Brush.

( Butler had one man in the fight in
I the brush near Santiago, and his &C
/ count O. it, given in letter to his sister
! Is interesting
I The man Is Chas. Henry, n son of
I James Henry who enlisted in the regu-
. lar army some months ago, and was as-
-fgusd 10 tle Rough Riders regiment
I The Erst part of his letter reads rs fol
/ lows.
TAMPA. FLA. July -. 1898.
have been wanting to write to Won
tor three weeks. but / was cfrsid on &C
count of The yellow fever. was AFRAID
il might be On the paper, 50 / waited
until / goo back A the United States.
Wen 7 iayc been TO Cuba. but ! never
want 10 20 any place again ana geI the
sane reception - we got there. Is
soon as we landed we Just lad time to
make a cup Of coffee @u1 cot some hard
tack and baked beans, then we weIe
hurried on We did not know where
we Were going We went back over
the bills on wcat tney call here Il road,
but was only a narrow trail We
knew there were some Spaniards in Tie
country some place. but did not know
where. We We're going up a hill just
about like that one in front OF Imam ;
at Mcbride, only the brush was so thick
we could not see three feet on either
side IF rs, we were marching IN col
ulnns or tw0s and all Were still, as we
were not allowed TO speak, when, all at
uacc the world had come TO an end. on
al sides Of rs guns commenced to crack.
The man ALONGSIDE of me dropped and
- -,--,,., s. llip-r ,Il ,nurl q h.l
ran right into an ambush Our Colonel
Woods. yelled To tde rear, but some
of the men yelled, To h with the
rear. 10 the front and We did 90. We
Just had Go shoot and without seeing
ANYBODY. the brush was 80 thick, but
our men were dropping all around But
we went ahead and got through the
brush and then we could see them a lit
tie ! was thirsty and asked fellow a
little ahead of me Tor a drink and Just
rs he handed me his canteen bullet
came along aud went right through it,
but we never stopped He said, Damn
it. hurry up and drink or the water will
all be run cut So | held my thumb
over one hole and drank what was left
Then on we went ] wanted him to
give me the Cant-vn to keep, but he
would not We got the niggers on the
run. when there was another army of
them came in on rs and If the Tenth
Cavalry and some Of Twenty fourth IN
fantrv had not come up We would have
been ali cut to pieces. But they came
up and GOT Us out. Then we commenc-
ed looking for the dead and wounded |
and such a sight [ never want to see
again. We worked all night III the
rain. at last ] could not stand il and |
dropped down. There were dead men |
all around me. At daylight We were
up and on the road again. There was
a detail left to help bury the dead and |
care for the wounded We run on them |
again about , clock then it commen-
ed again | don't know much about |
this, for in the first charge | was shot
IN the iiesny part of the wrist, Just |
slightly wounded. did not mind il
but went on. | had hardly gone ten |
yards when / got it again, through the F.,
leg This time dropped and was there |
for five'hours. ] cTawlad to a little |
stream and got some water and after Il
while was taken back | was not hurt |
badly. but it was very painful. | was
kent there with the rest; then they be |
gan sending them to this country. Ine !
worst wounded We're sent north, sozle |
to New York and Atlanta, and those !
with slight wosnds were brought here. |
did not get into Santiago at all, but |
saw enough. ! am walking around and
expect TO return to duty about the last !
Of next week. / am going back again, |
1 want to oe in at the fail of Havana.