Middletown transcript., 1898-07-09
DUMMIES EXPERIENCE.

Mr.. J. Preston Dunning. well known
to the readers of the TRANSCRIPT aDt
war correspondent for the Associated
Press, sends the following to his wife
in Dover of the late battle:
"Well, I've had some experiences thi:
last week and Pm glad you did moi
know where was last Friday, for
was in he fight of the Rough Riders
within six or eight miles of Santiago
in which about TWEEN y of our men
were killed and many wounded; it Ger.
tainly was hot for an hour but 1 got out
with whole skin. l landed from the
Dandy the day before at Daiquiri, east
Of Santiago, and marched twelve in the
broiling sun, with several regiments to
a place called Juragua, where our base
of supplies has been established. !
slept on the ground Of the camp OF
Rosevelts Rough Riders that night, or,
at least tried to sleep, but / was so
dead tired that 1 couldn't, and 1 did
not get more than two hours sleep.
We had to get ZIP at four the next
morning and started out again. We
walked about five miles; the sun was
blistering and most of the way it was
the hardest kind of a climb up steep
mountain trail. l had cup Of coffee
and piece of hard tack at four in the
morning, then nothing more till Eve in
the afternoon, and there was not five
minutes in all that time that was not
on the move climbing rocks or pushing
my way through the bushes. 1 was
without water and nearly famished
from thirst most of the time, for after
the fight started gave away the water
in my canteen to wounded soldiers.
When got back to the coast late in
the afternoon, found the wanda"
in the bay. Her boat came ashore and
| simply fell into it and was roWed out
to the yacht. Mr.. Diehl, (the Assist
ant General Manager of the Associated
Press and others lifted me over the
side and then almost collapsed; they
gave me some whiskey, stripped my
clothes off and gave me cold bath.
After little rest l was all right again
and allie to write. We ran over to
GuatauamO and filed bulletin of about
five hundred words giving the main de-
tails of the fight and the list of killed
and wounded. Then we went to Port
Antonia and l wrote two columns on
the way over and cent it from here; the
cable tolls on it amounted to an enorm-
Gus sum. won't attempt to tell you
any details Of the fight as l don't be-
lieve you would like to read them;
however, Istayed with the performance
frcm beginning TO end and it seemed
to me that about a thousand Spanish
bullets whistled around my ears. One
ball cut the strand of wire fence Just
over my head, but l aimed TO keep in
protected position as much as possible
and was not in such great danger,
There. we're only four correspondents
besides myself, present. The "Journaln
man, Edward Marshall, was nearly
killed and the "Wo orld" man took care
of him; another correspondent ran
away early in the fight, and the fourth
one was Richard Harding Davis. Ny
account was the only complete one sent
and Mr.. Diehl was delighted with it
/ have been transferred to the "Wanda''
and will probably be on her alone. The
Wanda" is $4,000 boat, the finest
dispatch boat here; she is beauty and
very fast. don't think shall do any
more work with The army but will look
after the Navy end which is more to
my taste.