Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1898-10-21
AT SANTIAGO.
Experience Of boy lieutenant under IRE for
the first time
BY CLEVELAND MoFFETT.
y -. - =
xatassaata,aas5'ca,isss,s

stretched on cots. One was tall
and wore gray pajamas, the other was
of medium height and slender and
wore pajamas checked with white and
blue. The tall man had been shot
through the head with AIauser bull
let; he had pains and fever, but would
recover. The other had been shot
through the knee and his leg was stiff
in plaster cast; it would stay so.
They were both lieutenants, regulars,
and had been in the game before San
tiago on the list of July.
This was at Bellevue hospital, in the
soldiers pavilion. Out in the sunshine
some convalescerts with crutches
were chatting and smoking. Some
were joking. Down the long ward in
side were dozens of soldiers unable
to leave their cots. And some of them
were joking, too. There were nurses
and doctors moving about, and few
sympathetic ladies.
want to tell now the story of the
young lieutenant, the one with his leg
I'M the plaster cast, as he told it to me.
Ilasked him questions and he answered
chem in short, business-like sentences
much better than adjectives. Now
Tsnd Ken he put in a picturesque touch
which might not have suited in Sun
day-school address, but did not seem
out of place in battlefield narrative.
He began with the breaking of camp
that famous day of July 1, at about
$o,,r 81 IN bo <xr,o villas
back of Ell Pozo. His regiment, the
Sixth infantry, had been up the whole
night before, making roads. They
went forward over the rough trail
in columns of four, marching slowly.
The shells from both sides sang over
them, and now and then a man went
down from bursting shrapnel. This
young lieutenant, with so men of COM
pany C, was going into action for the
first time.
asked him If he was afraid.
II don't know as I was afraid" he
said, "but didn't enjoy it. 1t wasn't
exactly like being up here in New
York. ! didn't want to be hit. But a
man knows he's got to go ahead and
do his work; that's what he's been
taught, and he does it. 1t wasn't spe-
cially pleasant, though, passing lot
of bleeding, yelling Cubans being car
ried to the rear. They looked like dew
lis with their brown faces twisted up.
They'd been loating about watching
the artillery fire and staring at the
balloon, and some of them got hit.
Say, we hated that balloon, for it
didn't do thing but draw the Span
ish fire on to us.
when we were about quarter of a
mile from San Juan the order came to
turn off the road to the left and be-
gin the charge on the block-house.
That took us through thickets and
over fields. We left all our stuff here
blankets and impedimenta-under
charge, of sentry, and went ahead
with rifles and cartridge belts and can
teens. The Lord knows what became
of that sentry. but we never saw our
stuff again. am betting those Cubans
got some OF it.
anyhow. we knew the time had
come to show what sort of men we
were, and most of us thought few
things as we went across stream
there. then on through more thickets
and out again into the road to Santi-
ago. There were 600 yards of level
fields ahead of us, and then the main
block-house on top of slope $50 feet
high. The bullets were coming faster
now, and we were in the open. It's
funny how you dodge when you get
the whiz Of a bullet by your head. The
lodging doesn't do any good, but you
dodge all the same-at least the new
fellows do; they can't help it,
"There was a wire fence just above
the gully of the road and Cuban cut
it down with his machete. He was the
first Cuban l saw with any sand. Then
we went up into the field, captain and
two lieutenants and 50 men. 1 had 25
of them to look after, and it was a
hot business, for the bullets were COM
ing down in volleys now. Inside two
minutes they'd caught ten of us be-
sides the captain and me. Not bad
was it, for 50 meni And we couldn',
see spaniard.
SWELL, there was high grass in the
field, and the boys stretched out quick
on theis bellies, but they couldn't tel
what to fire ct or what range to take