Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-08-18
From The Front.

The following letter from Fred Vought
was received yesterday by his sister,
Since the above was written the regi-
ment to which he belonged has been
engaged in battle with the Spaniards,
and his name appears in the dispatches
among the seriously wounded His
father has photographed for particulars
but has not, as yet, received any reply.
The whole community unite in hopingd
that his wound will not prove as seri-
Gus as the first reports would indicate.
PONCE, PORTO RICO.
Aug. 9Th, 1898.
Dear Sister,
Your letter OF July Goth received
yesterday and I Will try and write you
few lines in reply to it to-day. 1t will
be justone month to-day at p. 10. since
we left Camp Thomas Ca, and Is days
since leaving Charleston, S. G. On our
trip from Charleston here was quite in
teresting in some respects. On the
night of the Goth of July we went
abroad of Transport, No. 80 and laid
in Charleston harbor until 8 a. m. of the
Dist. The sights imposing out OF the
bay were all of his toric interets, and
some sights such as Fort Sumpter and
one other old fort that [ have forgotten
the name OF will never be forgotten.
After getting out into the ocean and
the Pilot had left us it was only
short time before all sight of
land had disappeared, and our greatest
interest in looking for other vessels
but we only sighted four on the whole
Journey except the Duchess transport
that carried the End Wis, THE Dut.
chess and No 30made the trip together
from Charleston to Oretta our first
landing and from there to Ponce) alter
getting we'll along to the east end OF the
Island of P r. we met the war-shlp Co
lumbia, which gave us our Instructions
where to make a landing On the first
and second day out the greatest sights
of any interest was watching flying fish
and (sea hogs) Porpoise flying fish are
small fish that raise out of the water
about 10 inches to two feet and sail
along from a very few feet to two or
three hundred feet.
Our quarters on the boat were very
.-.. =. - 4l.o,.o ,xyora too MANY man for
the amount of room to be used there
was 1900 men, 80 horses, 10 days travel
ing,rations and 40 days camp supplies
besides hay and ammunition, but
we got through with very little sick
ness of any kind, and the sick list would
have been much less had the stencil from
the horses mot been quite soAbad, at
times'it was almost suffocating, but that
does not make much difference now as
we all came through alive.
What have seen and heard of the
island I believe that there is no place
in the world that can compare with 1t.
From now until about the first of Oct.
is supposed to be the worst time OF the
wear. When one is out of the wind 1T is
terrible hot, but during the day and
night there seems to be a cool sea breeze
so that one in the day time can be out
in the sun and not feel the heat as much
as YOU would in the north, and at night
is gets quite cold, some nights cool
enough so that blanket is not uncom-
| Portable.
Fruits of all kinds are plenty and
| very cheap, Coconuts 3 to 5 cents each,
green ceconuts cents and the water
| is all that is used, and tits very fine too.
AS far as we can learn the island is
covered with creeks and springs, and
good drinking water. At camp we are
using both spring and creek water, it is
not as cold as the water in Wis
consin, but is nice tasting and one can
drink all he .can hold and it will not
hurt him in the least no matter how
warm one is. / can not begin to tell
Won all the kinds of fruit we can get
here, and sugar cane is very plenty. |
have been on two different plantations,
to get sugar for camp use, what we get
is dark brown but much nicer than any
thing we get in Wisconsin. -
/ do not know, but believe the days
are much shorter here than at Eagle,
at noon the sun is nearly straight over
our heads.
AS ever,
Fred Vought.
Co. L, 3rd Wis. Inf. Vol.