The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21

nc along this road. regiments going to
the front ard men Derpetually going
backwards and forwards As rule every
one got wet up TO the waist One day /
saw a wagon lost at one of these fords
and rolling over and over down the
stream, and at the same time an artillery
caisson stuck in the torrent with the
water rushing over the top of it. The
transport L returned on to the United
States had on board several pontoons
which had never been landed. The engi-
neers began repairing one span of the
railway bridge at Aguadores on the 18th
II was not finished up to the time | left
Cuba, and may not be yet. One of their
exploits was TO build a landing place for
some of the Cubans. The Cubans looked
at the structure. but waded through the
water in preference to using it.
The failure of the hospital coros is
painfully tragic. Take for instance the
night Of the LIST Of July after the fight at
San Juan. We shall never know how
many men were murdered by neglect.
During the fight there was no bearer
corps Sometimes when men were seen
10 fall they were carried to the rear by
their comrades. but many a poor fellow
fell in that long grass and lay there all
night unseen with no one TO stanch his
wounds or bring him drink of water.
ed under tree dead with a photograph
of his wife in one hand and his children
in the other. Eighty-one are still missing
according to Gen Skaters report. Many
of these were probably allowed to bleed
TO death in the bush For three days a
great proportion of the killed remained
unburied while the buZzards Toasted on
the bodies Most of the bodies were
showed into shallow graves without
tribute of a stone. a yolley or a prayer.
Two were buried right in the roadway
between headquarters and the front. the
spots being easily recognizable by the
stencil as well as by the asseuTbage of
buzZards that had almost to be kicked
away. The last time i passed. a mule had
laid bare leg bone through the shallow
muddy earth. Surely men who had
fought so well were deserving of better
sepulcher. The disregard for ordinary
sanitary precautions is now making Itself
felt with terrible consequences. As in
stance, a dead horse lay in the bloody
ford for twenty-four hours no one
troubling to drag him out while the men
drank the water below. There was vel
low fever hospital in the middle of that
swampy meadow where Gen. Shafter had
pitched his headquarters camp.
If the weather instead of being ex-
ceptionally fire had been very wet, and
if the Spaniards had held out for anosher
month, 4 mink a tSfIlDic HcdiN
have overtaken the American army.
Every American may feel justly proud of
the way the regulars Cwhite and col
ored) and the Rough Riders fought. The
fortitude and patience with which all the
men bore the exceptional privations and
hardships of this campaign are beyond al
praise. Yet the American soldier has
lot to learn. Bravery alone does not win
modern battles. When l saw the regi-
ments at Tampa in camp and remarked
on their apparently loose drill and meth
DDS, | was told the American soldier was
trained to act with intelligence and self
reliant Observation-Disclosures merely as part
of machine.
If Americans can put their vanity aside
they may learn many useful lessons from
this little campaign. They may learn the
value of discipline They may learn that
when their men fight, and fight as bravely
as they have done. they deserve to be fed
properly: they may learn the care which
the country justly owes to the wounded on
the field of battle: they may learn to bury
their killed with decency and old-world
honors; they may learn that honest crit
les should be allowed 10 write the plain
truth whether 1t be distatsteful or not.