The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-07-13

indicated considerable defiance, and
gave his hearers the impression that
he desired hostilities to be renewed
at once: "Our understanding is,
gentlemen, that this truce comes tc
an end at 5 O clock"
Col. Astor looked at bis watch
bowed to the Spanish officer, with
out making reply, and then started
back slowly to the American lines,
with Hobson and his companions
following.
The meeting of the two parties
and the exchange of prisoners bad
taken place in full view of both the
American and Spanish soldiers who
were irtrerched near the meeting
place and the keenest interest was
taken in the episode.
THE RETURNED MEN.
The men whose return to their
comrades has been secured by the
! negotiations detailed above are:
Richmond P. Hobson, lieutenant
United States navy; Osborne Deig-
nan, coxswaip; George F. Phillips,
machinist; John Kelly, water tender;
George Charette, a gunnersmate;
Daniel Montague, seaman; j. G..
Murphy, coxswain; Randolph Clau-
sen, coxswain.
THE STIRRING RECEPTION.
The Hobson and the men of the
Merrimac approached the first line
OF intrenchments occupied by the
Rough Riders, low murmurs ran
from one end of The line of cowboys
and eastern athlets to the other and
by the time the returning party
reached them every man was on his
feet, refusing to be restrai ned by the
admonishing of the officers, cheering
wildly and rushing over every OBJ
stacle that chanced to be in their
way, in their efforts to reach Hobson
and his party and grasp them by the
hand. The released prisoners were
soon surrounded and compelled to
stop to receive the greetings, COZ
gratulations and vigorous, heartfelt
handsbaking of men they had never
seen before. Sun-burned cavalry
men, Who had spent their lives in
the saddle on the plains of Arizona,
Few Mexico or other western States
or territories, and who did not know
the difference between ships
maintop, bilge or keep, threw their
arms around the sailor boys and lit
orally dragged them over the in
trenchments, all the time sending
out wells that under other circum-
stances would have struck terror, to
hearts even as gallant as those OF the
Merrimac heroes. No mountain
fastness of the weste ever surrounded
| with shouts from an Indian war
dance that equalled the wild out
of American spirit that occurred at
this meeting of the sailors who did
their duty with every Spanish gun
in the harbor trained upon them, and
the hardy men, who, from the day Of
their arrival on the island of Cuba,
have fought their way over the bod
les of their own dead and wounded
to the very gates of the city that
they will gladly storm when ordered
to DO so.
THE coIoRED SOLDIERS WELCOME.
The list New York volunteers,
near the Rough Riders, was the next
regiment to fall upon Hobson and
his men, and almost Immediately the
9th and 10Th cavalry, both colored
regiments, joined in the general en-
thusiasm, and cheer after cheer
arose as Hobson and his companions
forced their way through the lines
of white and colored soldiers.
Hobson, so far as possible, grasped
each hand extended toward him and
neither he nor his men made any
protest against the most uncomfort'
able crowdipg and jostling which
they had to undergo.
If the young othcer, whose nome Is
in Alabama, has any race prejudice
he certainly forgot all about it as he
passed through the lines of soldiers
on his way to Gen. Wheeler's head
quarters. He saw it was the uniform
of the United States army and be
cared not for the color of its wearers
grasping the hands Of the ebony
hued troopers of the 9th and 1Otl
cavalry and expressing his thanks fol
the patriotic welcome with as much
heartiness as he displayed toward
meu of his own race. He and all 0
his men were over come by the recep
ton accorded them and tears rolle(
down their cheeks as the soldier
crowded around them.