Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-07-23
BRAVE IRISH MARINE.
Interesting Letter RecOunting Deeds
Of yalOr and Experiences Of Our
Men Mt Guantanamo.

Men Mt Guantanamo.
James Egan, who was for some
years resident of this city, immi-
grated at the age of sixteen years from
Galway, Ireland, coming direct to-
Louisville. Mr.. Egan has always been
ambitious to serve Uncle Sam. Two
years ago he left this city, going to-
Boston, where he entered the Marine
Corps. He was among the first to
land and engage the Spaniards, and
the following letter to his brother,
Michael Egan, of aoa7 Tyler avenue,
will be of interest to his many friends.
Mr.. Egan is in Company d, First Bat
talon, United States Marine Corps.
1t was written at Guantanamo, Cuba.
and is noteworthy in that it contains.
correct account of their movements.
The fact that body of our men num-
bering but 200 killed 200 and wounded
100 others is remarkable, and fully
justifes his prediction that the war
will be over in a few months. The
letter is as follows:
"Dear Brother: am writing you
this under very favorable circum-
stances, considering the time we had
during the week We embarked here
last Friday evening and had to fight
every day until yesterday. On Sat-
urday last we had our first fight and
two men OF my company were killed.
On Sunday we fought about all day.
We had 200 men and we killed about
200 of the enemy, wounded nearly
100 and took eighteen prisoners.
"We fought night and day inces--
sanity without sleep for four days.
The enemy came through the woods
at night and attacked our camp, which
is pretty well fortified now. At the
time we landed here we did not have
thing to protect us. 1t is surprising
that the Spaniards did not attack us.
in large numbers at first. They never
fight square nor in the daylight or
open. The day they did they got
bad beating, and we had only two
companies of marines.
This country is full of mountains
and woods, and at night we easily get
lost. So far we only lost two privates,
one Sergeant, one Sergeant Major and
a doctor, and eight or ten wounded.
We all had narrow escapes, and | can
tell you it is pretty dangerous business
lodging bullets. You may be walk
ing along at night on patrol and
man inside tree can shoot one with
out trouble. We ali hope to get back
all right, but we have to obey orders
and risk anything.
"The weather is very warm here,
and we have been lucky in not having
rain at all, as it rains very heavy here.
We expect the town of Guantanamo
to surrender in a few days, for they
are starving and our ships have the
harbor blockaded. Many of the Span
ish have come into camp and given
themselves up. They reported the
people starving, so we expect the war
to be over in a few months. The
army has not arrived here yet and GOO
of us have to do the fighting.
at is pretty hard to get paper and
stamps here, and when you send me
letter again send me just one sheet Of
paper, one stamp and an envelope on
the inside. / must conclude by wish
ing you all well as | am at present,
as l have not received scratch yet,
but don't know what minute some
thing may happen. Tell all the folks
/ send them my best respects. Your
affectionate brother,
JAMES EcAN."