Evening star., 1898-09-03
MEN DyINGs LIKE FLIES
Conditions in Cuba Described by Corporal
John r Conn.
The Part Taken in the Campaign by
the TwentyAFourtka Regiment
0fS Regulars.

The following joint letter has just been
received by Mrs. ]. w. Cromwell of this
city and her mother, Mrs. Charles w. Conn
OF Mechanicsburg, Pa. from their brother
and son, Corp John R. Conn of Company
II, 24th United States Regular Infantry, on
duty in Cuba Mr.. Conn has been in the
service since 1884 Another son, c. w.
Conn, jr., who died last winter, was a men,
Der of the famous 10th United States Cav
airy, and the father is a veteran of the
civil war.
The letter is as follows:
Il have been through more than 1 can
tell you My regiment has been in every
thing that has occurred since coming ashore
the 25th of June. Nothing of Importance
happened until the 1st of July, when the
real battle of San Juan (before Santiago)
TOOK place, and that, 1 assure you, was ter
rlble The fighting started at $50 am. We
were about three miles to the rear. When
We started on our slow but fateful march
TO the front we were designated as the sup
port of the left wing, almost the last to go
lrto action; but we advanced we passed
1our or hve battalions that actually baked
and would not advance.
we We're in a dense forest of under
brush. that seemed to be alive with flying
Mauser bullets and three and six-inch
shells Thsn we approached an open space,
In full view of the Spanish works, where it
SNSAiiNt q NSA taH uedll LOT any one 10 ven
ture. But our gallant colonel led the regi-
ment down In the bed of the San Juan
river, with water up to our waists and this
gaining hre on our right flank. so that to
return the hre, which quite number did
III VOCATION OF orders, you had to stop and
turn almost around to shoot But we ad-
Vanced down the stream about 600 yards, in
column of files, sheltered to some extent by
the river bank on our right, and then the
order was, BY the right flank. march; 24th
infantry advance $50 yards and lie down.
Under an Awful Fire.
wv hen we came out of that river bed we
were for the first time in plain view of
them; but it was an awful fire. We first
had to tear down a barbed wire fence
f1onting an open space of 600 yards. Our
colonel, J. c. Lipscomb, was shot down al
most at the first volley, and four more off,
GERS shortly afterwaId. Our first sergeant
was wounded almost at the start, Sc that
the men went without any organza ton
command. charged the hill, supported by
the 9th and 18th Infantry, and took It
The Spaniards stood until we were with
IN 2oo yards of them, and then broke and
ran. Our troops fairly moved them oown,
taxing about fifty prisoners-mostly wound
ed. Then the army just lay in position and
intrenched, exposed to all kinds of weather
without shelter or rations for three days,
at which time there was a truce that last
ed seven days. On the 10th we were at it
aSni.i, p"t We uia Hol IedNe tHe tlSHGlsS
So the weather did us more harm than the
Spaniards And, in the finale, when the
capitulation of Santiago assured, we
We're withdrawn here to Siboney, which is
fever camp and smen are dying like
fies.
Fever's sDeadIy Work.
1--WE have lost more men here by fever
than we did in battle. Eight hundred men
here are down sick with the fever and
they are dying avery day. 1t is simply hor-
rible. 1 was down sick with the fever. but
am up again. When we will get away is
uncertain.
Our regiment has lost in killed fifty, and
about three timeSEa many by sickness be-
hxyt n md