The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1898-09-30
A Mason County Veteran.

Sy eehu OoHtidSO ut OuDd, his SKIN
yellowed by the tropical sun and the
malarlal vapors of Cuba, John A. Sc
benius, jr., has returned to Sea tile.
where he enlisted as a private in the
regular army of the United States
three years ago last July. Sebenius is
the son of John A. Sebenius sr.,
rancher who lives in Mason county,
fifteen miles from Shelton. He form
eriy worked as typesetter in a Seattle
printing Office. From the everglades
and blood-stained battlefields of Cuba.
Sebenius comes to Seat tie to rid his
system of the germs of malaria and
fever contracted IN the recent war
with Spain.
Sebenius brands as UNANIMOUSLY un-
true the stories told by yellow journals
and fusion orators that the United
States troops in the Santiago cam
paign were starved. He declares that
the food supplied the men was good
as to quality and sufficient as to guam
tity. On both these points he is en-
phatic. To a Post-Intelligencer re-
porter yesterday he said that the
troops suffered most from the effects
Of the climate, which they naturally
were unprepared for, coming from a
temperate to tropical zone. Their
camp life, he said, was such as any
army in any campaign would by fore e
of circumstances be called on to en-
dure. Their privations were no hard
er than those OF any army of men in
the field engaged in active operations
against an epemy.
This Santiago veteran, however,
speaks in the most laudatory language
of the conduct of the troops, both reg
ular and volunteer. He was in the
heat of the fight against the Spanish
at Ell Caney. He knows what it is to
fight all day and then to march all
night through the everglades of trop-
ical country to the succor OF another
division of the army Of which he was
a member, and this without having a
chance to cook bite to eat. Twice
on his way home he wasstricken with
fever, the last time at Chicago, where
he was laid up for month. Yet with
all the hardships he has undergone,
Sebenius has only words of praise for
the field operations in Cuba, and he
unhesitatingly declares that the pri-
vations endured by himself and his
fellows in Cuba were such as are only
incident to warfare, and that those
whose duty it was to minister unto
the troops fulfilled their tasks with
the same loyalty, devotion and effici-
ency that characterized the conduct
of the soldiers themselves.
Sebenius' account of the battle of
Ell Caney, the following engagement
with the Spanish on San Juan hill,
overlooking Santiago de Cnba, and
the final surrender of the Spanish gar
rison OF the city is interesting from
beginning to end. 1t is enriched by a
number of personal narratives, illus
trating the fearlessness of the men,
the extremities of camp life and the
fecundity OF the Cubans for devising
plans for diminishing the visible sup
ply of provender.
Sebenius enlisted in Seattle, July
%, 1895, for three years service. He
was assigned to Company G. Fourth
infantry and was stationed for time
at Fort Sherman, Idaho. October IL,
1895, his company was transferred to
Fort Sheridan, whence the command
started for Tampa arrived at Baquiri,
Cuba, June % and landed the same
day.
The thirty days following the landing
of his company on Cuban soil will
probably be set down in Sebenius'
chronology as the most interesting
month in his life. All within that
short period the battles of Ell Caney
and Santiago we're fought and won,
the flower of the Spanish navy was de-
stroyed by Schley, and the founda-
ton for peace between Spain and the
United States laid by the evacuation
of Santiago de Cuba.
"When we landed at Baquirl, said
Sebenius yesterday, the Spanish had
been driven to cover by tie guns from
the warships in the bay, aud the shore
was deserted by them. The next day
we went to Siboney, where, after the
evacuation of the Spanish troops, the
American soldiers held high carnival.
that night, the Second Massachusetts,
volunteers foudd two locomotives
which belonged to Spanish-Ameri-
can company, operating IN Cuba. The
Spanish had taken part of the machin-
cry into the bush, but it was discover
ed by the boys in blue and they soon
had steam up and just for sport ran
the two encinps mn and down the