The evening times., 1898-08-03
ABOUT sANTAGO's HILLS
Pictures in the Trenches After
the City's Fall.
HUMANITY OF OUR SOLDIERS
Hymns of Praise FlutteP Fron
Camps at Night-RegulaF Troops
Feel the Need of Popular Favor.
Dirt and Hunger Characteristic of
Spaniards and Cubans.

New York, Aug. a-when Gen. Miles
went to Cuba the Rev. Peter MacQueen.
a Congregational clergyman, Of Somer-
Vile, Mass. went with him to study cer-
tain phases of war. He saw the last
fighting at Santiago and helped care for
the wounded. He returned from Cuba on
the Concho. and relates some Of the i'm
pressions gained at the front.
when we left Santiago" said the Rev.
Mr.. MacQueen the American army was
resting among the beautiful hills beyond
the city.
'''Oh. this is like Andalusia In April'
cried Columbus. when he saw those hills
ON an October day. The simile was strik-
ing. Even now. after the hideous sense
lessness of war, the country from Bal
quiri to Santiago Is a land of bird-song
and water brooks-ground and sky fit for
Murillo. What the singing leaves out the
not lush with sugar cane they fash with
butterflies.
1T should be so: land of romance and
contrasts-a land misty with stars at
night and regal as its palms by day: for
from this land-locked bay Patti went
forth to thrill a race with melody. and
Cortez sailed to strew with dead the con-
tinent from Vera Cruz to Mexico.
Into this land of sunny days and star
ry nights came our 0,0C0 soldiers to dash
themselves against the fury of Spain. La
Guasma. the thorn was a fit name for
the first hard struggle. A thorny set
were these same Spaniards: 1000 there
might be- or 10. .G0o-we did not know. All
the paths were filled with men. and In
the palm, the queen tree Of Cuba. the
sharpshooter lurked. Lanes that before
were wet with dew now dripped with
blood. and the streams SO sweet and pure
before were black with mud and poisoned
with the dead. The whole seductive land
became a remorseless jail-strOng as death
and cruel as the grave.
This is where Capt. Llewelyn was.
said Corp. Ritchie, of the Rough Riders.
to me a few days after the battle Of
Guasima, as he showed me the trampled
grass.
I'VE walked into the underbrush a little
way. Presently we found stacks of Mau-
ser cartridges
Pace of the distance to our front
lines the corporal directed.
Il did 50. Il was Is yards. told
Col. Roosevelt this. He said he found
some dead Spaniards there, but did not
suspect they came so near. then plain
ly asked the colonel IL he was ambuscad-
ed.
No; most emphatically, no. he answer
ed. You can state that with all empha-
sis. The battle was most scientific on
both sides. The Spaniards could have Sc
lected no other place so well fitted for
resistance; but we knew they were there
and were thoroughly prepared
IT went to Cuba to study the humane
-sl 80
more aloes in Siberia and more icebergs
in Santiago than there are of humane
and moral sides in war. You read Of the
incredible valor of our men. they broke
like living avalanches on the blockhouse
and the trench. Go with me to the fever
hospitals of Siboney. or walk the road
past Ell Pozo. and mark the burrows where
dead men lie: or pass Bloody Bend July
1, 1898, and put your head among the
grass. where blue-eyed, beardless boys
babble about their mo.hers. and where
the blood that runs out from our soldiers
breasts stains a locket and a tress of
woman's hair.
Two regiments that did some good
fighting, and showed instances of rare
personal bravery were the Second Massa-
chuse.ts and the Seventy-first New York
Gen. Lawton told me that the Second
Massachusetts fought gallantly at Ell
Caney.
But he continued. L had to retire
them early in the day Their aniquated
Springfield rifles and the black powder
were no match for the MauSer-a weapon
which loads five cartridges at a time
uses smokless powder. kills at 1000 yards
and is one of the most destructive instru-
ments known to modern warfare.
Tell the people of Massachusetts, and
New York-and tell them that Gen Law
no 20 fy,to hn% 10
equipped as the Seventy-lrst New York
and Second Massachusetts, were is nothing
but murder and assassination. II 1 had
ordered the Second Massachusetts, to
charge at Ell Caney they would have
been massacred. and scarcely one man
in the regiment would have been spared
THE generals brow contracted. and he
was most calm and emphatic.
''Of the Seventy-first New York l heard
that they did splendid work in the
trenches the night of July 2. when the
enemy made the sortie.
Gen. Wheeler Is writing a book. In
this book he will say:
81 In regard to the difference between
regulars and volunteers. we must be fair,
just and honest in this matter. Many of
the volunteers left positions with large
salaries and comfortable and luxurious
homes to serve their country. They were
self-sacrificing, they were brave. they
were chivalrous. But truth compels me
to say that for effectiveness in battle
they could not be expected to equal
trained soldiers. The regular army off,
GERS and men had been trained to esti-
mate distances by the eye and to ad-
just their sights with great precision:
consequently. when they went into ac-
tion, every man was an expert marksman,
and they used their rifles with most mar
velouS accuracy.
" 1t Is touching to see the regulars get
somo of the American newspapers, read
of how redoubt after redoubt was taken
by the volunteers and scarcely any men,
ton made of the regular army. How
and disgusted they were!
One captain turned to me and said: DE
pend upon 1t. the truth will be told when
history is written
illness has decimated the army much
more than Mausers, and our men shud-
der to think what would have happened
mad the Spaniards held out ten days
more. No words can describe the hunger
and misery after the battles, when some
OF the men had no tents. no food, no
blankets. Many men went forty-eight
hours on ten hardtack and a little water.
and up to and after the surrender the men
suffered everything from hunger and
want of medical supplies.
''If you asked for Quinine from the
regimental doctor he would dole 1t out to
you as a miser does gold. Yet you never
asked soldier for half of his hardtack
and got refused. His canteen was yours
in the heat of tropic days: and you could
share his blanket anywhere at any time
of night.
II said there is no humane side to war
per Sc. but there Is a grand moral and
humane side to the American soldier
There is a great deal Of true religion,
too. In camp. One could tell the Catho-
lie boys by the little lockets they carry