Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-10-06

elements of choice American bone an
blood and sinew and brain which wen
to tho creation Of tho crack corps of 1876.
have entered into the mako up Of thos'
matchless regiments of regulars VIII,
stormed and carried tho heights of u
Caney and San Juan in the face of fol
the equal in courage, in equipment, IL
position, of any troops that ever stooc
for battle.
Sbafter had the pick of the regular
army with him at Santiago. This wa
stated to me again and again at Camp
Wikof, and | think no Discrimination
was intended against the regiments that
were not there. Tho fact seems to BE-
that those regiments which were select
cd happened to be, without u single cx.
ception, up to the very highest standard
of efficiency. The soldiers had passed
through Just the experiences III the west
which would fit them for hard cam
paign. They were well differed, well
disciplined, rugged, gritty" men. In
the Army Of the Potomac in 1904 the
very best Of tho army corps had regi-
ments and sometimes whole brigades Of
raw and untricd material and scores and
scores Of green officers. One needed but
to sec tho regulars in Camp Willof to
recognize at once the fact that the vet
Grams there had not evolutcd in single
months campaign from the standard of
the militia volunteer.
In tho twenty and odd regiments
whose camps I fingered round not q sin.
gle ono but what was commanded by n
veteran of the civil war. IN many cases
these commanders were majors The
field officers above them, absent on ac-
count of wounds or promotion were war
veterans, and in several instances the
commanders held the rank of captain
aud were war veterans. 1t seems that
there are now something like G5 cap.
| tains in the regular army who served in
the civil war. The Importance of all
this will appear during the battle mar
rative, where the leaders will be named
in connection with their war record.
I General Sbafter says that after Samp-
son located Cervera S fleet in tn harbor
of Santiago and had looked tho ground
over he cabled to Washington that an
army of 10, 900 men could take the city
! at one blow. Shaftcr was already get.
ting together an expedition for tie in
vasion Of Cuba somewhere. He was di.
rectcd to embark 10, men and pro-
coed at once to Santiago. Owing to Some
difficulty in the way Of forwarding GER
tain supplies or other elements in the
expedition 10 the point of embarkatior
/ at Tampa there were empty transports
( in the barber after tho 10, 600 had gone
on board. Shafter ordered these empty
transports to be filled with troops and
az n result he took something like l6,
| coo or II, 900 men to Santiago. he said,
and General Wheeler, who was present
ut the conversation, agreed with him,
that had the expedition gone with 10,
600 men it would have ended i'll Il hor-
rible disaster. In confirmation of the
statement about embarkatiCn is the
story Of the Ninth infantry, Of San Juan
fame. On the night that it embarked al
| Tampa an orderly dashed up to the
headquarters with message TO the Of.
feet TINT if the Ninth regiment was not
on beard the transport within q limited
tino given it Would be left behind at
Tampa and not so 60 Cuba. The point
was that tho material which had been
ordered forward to Tampa might arrive