The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-15
OUR ROUGH RIDERS.
EPISODES OF THEIR FIRST ACTION
BEFORE SANTIAGO.

Writing under the date Of June 20
from Siboney, Cuba. the New York
Posts correspondent describes the first
fight of the rough riders at La Quasina
as follows:
II is now comprehended that yester-
days skirmish between ambushed Span
iards and rough riders was mere mess
up, due to want of the most ordinary
prudence. A few ragged Gu
bans were ahead, and following, single
file. were drummer, corporal, SER
geant, and so on-no fanking force-all
advancing along the trail through the !
close growing bush, garrulous as lot
of laborers going homeward after days
work. Above the tramping noises and
the confusion Of voices you could hear |
Jim Smith, who used to keep the store |
at Red Horse, l. T.. arguing with much |
blasphemy about the capabilities OF
Sheriff Sukes in SOLDERING up. though
nearly insensible with drink, to meet an |
emergency, or you caught the high rasp- |
ing accent of Led Unison asserting,
"Now, - - it, his name was
Green, / tell ye." There was another
sound, too, and correspondents who had
heard it during the anxious nights at
Camp McCalla felt exciting apprehen-
sions. 1t was the soft COO 100000 OF the
wood dove in the chaparral.
In vain did they warn the officers that
the cooling of the wood dove was for
some one the knell Of death. These
troops were fresh from the transports,
having no acquaintance with the Cuban
bush or Spanish warfare. Ii is difficult
at first to realize in war that human be-
ings with guns are lying in wait for
you, and that they will shoot to Kill.
On struggled the horseless troopers, ex-
ecrating the sun which made them drop
out and sit by the wayside or throw off
their blankets and half tents as deadly
burdensome or suffer pangs of thirst
with no relief in their canteens or fall
back to the hospital line or tumble,
overcome, in the path Forward the line
came across the body Of Cuban. The
shot that killed him was not heard above
the clamor of marching and talking.
Immediately there was firing from
left, right and front. But you know the
story-Mauser rifles and machine guns
from ambush played among our men
with horrifying havoc. Asis the Amer
lean impulse, oaths and imprecations
rose from the wounded and their CON-
rades till Colonel Wood commanded,
Don't swear; fight" 1t was RELIEF
to swear, but it also was relief to
fight and with chins set grimly the ex-
asperated troops, at one time fat on the
ground, later in extended order, shot
blindly in the directions from which
bullets came. Overhead these bullets
cracked and snapped among the twigs
till it was thought they were explod-
ing. OF course the men were bit de-
moralized by the sudden attack and the
stampede of the mules. The thing to
do. the infectious thought of the mo-
ment, was to run.
Come to your Senses menu yelled
one of the officers, and before long
Troops l. and G. were advancing, drlv
ing ahead the hidden enemy. Here was
Spanish soldier in his blue dungaree
stretched on his back amid American
dead, arms thrown out, jaw fallen ant
eyes staring at the sun and not blinking
any more. To see men bleed, to SCI
them thrash in agony and foam at TIT
mouth, is unsettling to the nerves. Yo'
. are not surprised when friend, fac
flaming with heat and excitement
0 rushes up to tell you something, stop
Z still and can find only voice enough t.
Y say a weak, choking, inconsequen
/ Hello" What he wants to say is tina
Ham Fish is shot, as you learn after
ward, and that his head is so badl
shattered that only by watch in tn
Q dead boys pocket can you be assure
= that it indeed is Fish.
Several give their attentions to on
j. man, wounded in the spine, upon who's
j. brain the hurt is pitiful. In sane me
ment lis it a sane moment?) he asks 10
a cigarette, and on the stretcher. para
lived below the waist, he smokes
, seeming comfort. 1t is very kind
= them. he says, to help him so muct
but aren't they missing the fghtf d
swoons again; again he revives an
1t asks for a cigarette. Then in a pleasaI
70 baritone he sings "It Is Moonllght Q
Is the Wabash" going through ever
e stanza, wondering perhaps that nobod
joins. Boys" he asks "will you hay
a hanson ON the beach for me! I've 9
N TO meet Mr.. - right away" Ye
a thew tell him, there will be hanso
I'd ON the beach for him. 1t suggests Ne
,e York to decentralization square, upp
Broadway, with its rumble and lii
sidewalks filled with fine women goir
% to the matinee or to shop, where "
to have but to raise your finger to send
IS, hurt man easily to hospital. 1t is mig
go before they get this one to the iiti
ez shed where the dead and wounded
tn together, candles making the pla
weird by their little, bright, undiifus
ly specks of light
on Who were the dead? 1t was days :
- fore it could be known. Looking for
nj bodies the men found corpses witho
%. faces. "Not vultures," explained 7
Ia