The age-herald., 1898-07-26
BITTER HATRED
 FOR THE CUBANS The American Soldiers Feeling Toward Their Allies. LAUGHED AT FOR FIGH TING" Letter From Jesse Franks, a Birmingham Boy, Who Fought With TweIth Infantry at
 Fl ney-Recuperating From
 Fever at Fort Monroe.
LAUGHED AT FOR FIGH TING"

The following letter was received in this city yesterday from Jesse Franks, one of the heroes of Fl Caney, giving an aceur- ate description of the part the Twelfth
 United States Infantry played in the fight.
 It was written from the hospital at For tress Monroe, where he is now recuperat- ing from malarial fever.
 Franks is an old Birmingham boy and
 was a popular telegraph operator before he enlisted in the army. He has numerous friends in this city.
 Fortress Monroe, Va. July 22.-My Dear -: l know that you will be surprised to hear from me and also that I am in the government hospital. I am writing this to let you know that I am still alive | and did not get any serious wounds while
 in Santiago. I belong to Co. G, Twelfth | U. S. Infantry. We were first stationed at
 Fort Niobrara, Neb.. until ordered to l Chickamauga Ga, then to Tampa, Fla. We sailed from that point with the first fleet, which transported the Fifth corps.
 As a result of the battle before Santiago my left ear was entirely deaf until about d Weeh ago, ana HOW I cdu iledI JuSt d iii- tie with it. The doctor says will be all right soon. I was struck in the belt by a Mauser bullet, exploding several of my cartridges, but only leaving a bruised place around my waist I-also had an attack of malarial fever coming over on the boat. and I was very much afraid that l was going to have yellow fever, as was in the hospital where there were two or three cases.
 We had an awfully hard fight on the list of July, lasting ten hours. I was in the brigade that took Fl Caney. The first shot we fired at GAO a m., and we kept It up till o'clock in the afternoon.
 Out of my company we had two men killed by the first volley that was fired by the enemy, and you can imagine what a pickle we were in as we were all at that time down in a ravine and could not find out from which way the balls were com ing. We soon came to the conclusion that unless we either went forward or retreated we would all be killed or wounded within the next few minutes and, as you might know, we double-timed in the direction from which we thought the fire was com ing. This led us around small crest and protected us from the storm of bullets, which we now found were coming from about twenty sharpshooters lying behind rocks on the mountain to our right.
 Now our time had come. We crawled to the top of this little hill, and. looking straight over head of us on another hill about 800 yards away. we saw the enemy in their trenches, and also in the block house, which was in the rear of them. We had never fired shot until we reached
 this spot and had lost five men from our company, two of them killed. This shows what odds we were fighting against. But maybe we didn't get back at them
 when we did open up Our guns got so
 hot that they would scorch the grass and
 leaves while lying on the ground. That Fatal "Uroquet Ground' We kept gaining ground until we got within 400 yards of their trenches. It was | at this range that we lost the majority of | our men that were killed and wounded. l The Spaniards had this place all cleared | off as smooth as a croquet ground so as | to have a clear sweep at us when we came | in view The charge was made about 4:30 D. m., and of the glorious results, you have
  were packed full of dead after the surren- der, and we only got 172 prisoners, who, as luck would have it, were turned over to my company to guard and take back to division headquarters.
 Not a Cuban was to be seen during the day, but as soon as the surrender took place they were all there and footed the town Our boys are down on the Cuban soldiers from the fact that they didn't go to the front at all.
 1 saw part of the naval battle, which only lasted a few minutes Ghat is, what l could see of it)
 I did not intend to write so long a letter, but thought you might like to hear somee thing of 1t from one of your old friends. I will have to close, as l am getting weak and nervous. Your sincere friend, JESSE FRANKS. In connection with the Cuhans' behavior, which Franks mentions in his letter, the statement of a wounded soldier of the First Ohio volunteers who passed through Bir- mingham yesterday en route to Chicago, may be of interest He refused to give his name when he found he was talking to a reporter, saying that the government forbade him, but he expressed his opinion right freely on the Cuban soldiers with