Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-08-24
'SOME PERSONAL . OBSERVATIONS! !
Chaplain Brown, of the Rough Riders, Gives Some Details of Affairs
 Around Santiago.
Some Newspaper Fiction of Reports Oi. the Battle Exposed by PIaIn and UnembelIished
 Statements.

ON BOARD THE TROoP SHIP MAMA
 Bonnd for Montauk Point. l.. I.
 August Ii, lS9S.-Editor JOURNAL
 MISER:-It has occurred to me per.
 haps, now that our campaign il
 Santiago IS over, a personal account
 of certain phases of the campaign
 might be of interest to you. Those
 who remain of the Prescott contin.
 gent are now in good health; how
 ever, just buried at sea Sergeant
 Walsh, who died at sea.
 As 10 my own health, it has been a
 surprise to everybody. I am beaver
 and healthier than 1 have ever been
 before, and now at the end find
 myself one Of a possible half dozen who have come through without
 sickness. 1 think ihIs is due to the
 fact that I always did exactly as the
 doctored ordered. We were told
 never to sleep on the ground. With
 the exception of two nights, when
 the water stood about two inches
 ueep in my part of the camp, and
 for the last few days before depart
 ure, have slept on the bare ground
 every night and for the most part
 without a tent. We were told to
 eat no fruit, drink nothing but boiled
 water, never to march in the heat of
 the day and to keep dry clothes.
 have eaten all the fruit of every
 kind I could hold, haven't tasted a swallow of boiled water, made every
 march but two in the heat of the day, l, myself, riding a mule twenty miles four days in succession, aud lain with wet feet and clothes for three days and nights at time with
 in chance to change.
 Now, l wish to correct some cur rent newspaper reports which seem laughable to us who were on the ground. First you were told that at the first battle of La Quasina, (so called from the trees in that vicinity) that the Rough Riders were "am- pushed" This is absolutely false. We marched six miles to meet the enemy, expecting to find them in that vicinity. Our advance guard found them and reported their pres ence fully half an hour before a bull let was fired, and we deployed at intervals of fifteen feet until we en- gagged them.
 You have heard how Col. ROose- welt, on July lsr, mounted upon a steed, with sword in band, charged up the hill in advance of his regiment; how his horse was shot from under him, but he freed himself from the saddle and rushed on. This is true picture, except in this particular: His magnificent steed" was a little old bay Texas pony very much the worse for the wear. It was not shot, but was left at the barb wire fence at the foot of l the hill. The "brandished sword" was tied up in his blanket four miles to the rear. Col. Roosevelt was | from the rest of the men by pair of white suspenders over a blue shirt, and a blue polka dot | bandana tied to the rim of his white | slouch hat, floating and Tapping out behind, as he and four others l scrambled up the hill several yards ahead of the rest of the regiment, who were coming after them just as rapidly as the nature of the place | aud the length of their legs would permit. Let me add right here that one of the four men to reach the hill first with Col. Roosevelt was our own Sam Greenwald, of Prescott, who, for his distinguished valor on ,he field of battle, was raised from a private to second liDutenant at a single jump, an honor, SO far as I know, accredited to no other man in he army. Certainly Prescott should 10 honors to Sam when he returns. He is every inch game"
 Again, you have read how our leets silenced the guns of Moro Castle, and reduced it to a heap of -mns. This also is true. except here are no guns at Moro Castle to nlence. The only guns of the castle Ire some beautiful works of art bearing date of l725-35. and kept here simply as relics of former glory. As to the castle being Tn 'uins, it stands today, after ali the r 1ombardment, practically unharm- ,d, and with but few scratches here md there. My private opinion, after yoing through the place, is that if very gun of our navy would turn oose on it, it would take six months teady fire to reduce it to ruins, as much of it is carved out of solid ock, andt the masonry is fully ten eet thick in exposed places. The batteries were not in Moro at all ut on the other side and further up he bay.
 You have heard of Hobson's dar- ng deed, and how he sank the derrimac directly across the narrow st part of the channel thus con- 'letelY bottling up Cervera's fleet. Is 10 the deed itself, nothing could "a accounted more valiant in all history. The miracle is how he or nyone of his men could possibly lave escaped the fire of musketry to ay nothing of the gauntlet of