Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-09-22
HOT TALK FROM A CHAPLAIN.
G. G. Bateman, an Army Parson,
Tells Something About the Cuban
Campaign and Scores the Cubans.

| Infantry when it was ordered to Cuba
and came to Pittsburg to otficiate at the
funeral last week of Capt. 7. w. Morri-
! son, of that regiment who was killed on
July | in the first assault before Santiago.
delivered an address at the Fourth
Avenue Baptist church last night He
told something of the conditions sur
rounding the beginning and ending of
the war, and related some of his personal
experiences and observations while in
Cuba. The force and eloquence of his
address were interlined with pathos and
humor. He said, in part:
you all know how much the people
clamored for war, how congressman
appealed Tor it, how the yellow journals
demanded it, and the preachers preached
for it, and how tenaciousIy President
Mckinley resisted it ALL You know how
slow he was to believe that II Spaniard
blew up the Maine He knew the
Spaniards are not idiots, and the de-
struction Of the Maine was certainly the
work Of an idiotic person, 1t was just
like a Cuban, and Miss Clara Barton
believes it was Cuban who did it, and
SO do |. The President knew how
poorly we were prepared for war; that
our army was small and our navy was
small, and that we had no forage, nor
food, nor clothes, nor ammunition for the
soldiers. He knew that war meant
sending an unproyidet army to tropical
climate in midsummer. Yet Congress
and the people wanted war. Gen. Miles
and Secretary Alger and all the naval
officers and everybody who should have
been consulted, advised against it, But
still we were sent to Cuba to liberate the
oppressed, in transports having 50 distinct
smells and none of them cologne"
Chaplain Bateman gave hurried
description of the voyage to the southern
coast Of Cuba, and the landing of the
troops near Sibony, and continuing, said
eve soon learned to know the Cubans,
and before long a feeling crept around
among the Fifth Army Corps that almost
made them ashamed Of their mission
down there. The country from Sibony
to Santiago showed signs OF great pros
perity in past years 300 years ago there
was a good road there, but it had long
since been obliterated by jungle 1t was
under cacti a long this route that the
Spanish guerrillas, which is only another
name for Cubans, concealed themselves
and picked off our officers and men. Peo-
pie now say, "Why was not the artillery
taken up San Juan hill and the bushes
shelled ?'' I'll tell you why. 1t was
because what was done in Santiago had
to be done quickly; the yellow fever was
upon us and there was no time to lose.
1t was hard thing to get artillery up
there, We couldn't get the Cubans to
work. They wouldn't lift hand. |
stood on the shore and offered them
money and pleaded with them to help us
get our wounded men aboard the boats,
but they would do nothing. 1t was the
most trying moment of my life and |
finally took club and drove them away.
| spoke to them in the most torcible
English at my command, but | did not
swear. One day the colonel said to me,
Chaplain, why don't you swear, too 2
| replied that [ did not think | could do
justice to the occasion.
The Cubans said it was not their wal
and we should not ask them to work.
While We were building the road up San
Juan hill they were eating our hardtack;
while we were fighting for their liberty
they were stealing our blankets and any
thing else we happened to have We
would feed the Cubans one day and they
would 60 next and trade places with the
Spanish sharpshooters in the jungle, and,
the latter would come out to be fed
by us. We couldn't tell them apart. |
know of my own knowledge that we fed
Cubans who we afterward captured as
Spanish guerrillas. talked for some
time with Garcia He is a willy polit-
clan. He marched his army up the hill
until the fighting began, and then he
marched it down again.
The public is now clamoring to have
the responsibility fixed for the mistakes
OF the war, but 1t Will never 90 where it
belongs. The crime of the war was com.
mittcI by Congress, the yellow journals
and the preachers. Every man connected
with the war did his full duty. 1t comes
with poor grace for members of Congress
to say, Why did you not wait at Sibony
until the artillery arrived p If we
had waited we would have all been dead
now, and it is an ignomnous death for
soldier to die Of yellow fever To send
infantry against entrenched artillery was
never heard Of before and it astonished
the whole world, but we took their guns
Just the same, and there is no more
glorious page in American history than
the charge at the blockhouse OF FL Caney
and San Juan hill. And all this time
the Cubans were beating tan bark for the
rear The criticisms Of the Santiago
campaign have been unfair because the