The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-06
THE SICK AND WOUNDED.
First Arrivals Home of Brave Fight
ers in Cuban Waters.

SOldC6 came
board ffty-four wounded and sick, some of
whom had been transferred from the Amer
lean war ships in Cuban waters and others
taken from the hospitals at Key West. Her
after deck had been tented off with canvas,
and in swinging hammocks lay half a dozen
of the more seriously i'll of the patients; the
convalescing room was the basking place of
a score or more of the poor fellows who had
not given up the fight without struggle,
while the privilege of the decks had been
accorded all those who were able to move
about or anxious to watch the green hills
as the good ship moved in shoreward.
The Solace anchored off Tompkinsville,
Staten island, early this morning, where she
was boarded by a representative of the AS
ISOLATED Press. She left Key West on
Wednesday afternoon last and made the run
to New York without incident until Satur-
day night when a gale tumbled her about
a bit and made things to some extent I'M
comfortable for the patients she carried.
But the sea voyage was a tonic to the men.
They had left behind the sweltering heat of
the tropics-had exchanged suffocating and
exbausting winds for refreshing breezes.
Many were nearing home; all, at least, were
to rest in the heart of the great country
they had been fighting for. The Solace, MT
ly named, with her white sides and the Red
Cross flag flying at her masthead, brought
in many little band of heroes among the
fifty-four. They had gathered together in
little groups on the voyage up many time
ard told again the story of a brush with the
Spaniards or night on watch at the block
ade. And, to those who knew, a brush with
the Spaniards is hardly to be compared
with the dangerous work of scouting in
gale at night without lights off the Cuban
coast. Four of the heroes from the Nash
Vile and the Marblehead were among the
patients on the Solace-Robert Voltz, or
San Francisco and Henry Hendricksen,
John Davis and H. W. Kuchmeister, all OF
New York. They are the wounded of that
gallant band of volunteers who cut the
cable at Cienfuegos nearly month ago. 1t
is tale that has been told before, but that
noble effort will live in history side by side
with the Merrimac's journey down into the
narrows at Santiago harbor
CIENFUEGOS HEROES.
Commander McCalla, of the Marblehead,
had called for volunteers to man the boats.
Every hand went up, and the men begged
for call to the place of danger. Lieuten-
ant Winslow Lieutenant Anderson and En-
sign Magruder were in charge as the sea-
men swept the boats with easy stroke In
Shore In the rifle pits two thousand Span
iards had gathered. Shells from the war
ships were directed along the coast line,
and then, with every man at their guns, the
Marblehead, Nashville and Window waited,
watching for the story that all knew was
inevitable. The small boats made straight
in. A few hundred yards from shore and
the men were at work. They dragged up
he
heavy strands; then they found the second.
This was the Spaniards' signal and they
opened fire. For half an hour the gallant
sailors worked amid a rain of bullets.
Meanwhile the American war ships were
hurting shot and shell into the enemy, who,
nevertheless, kept up a fierce fire. The men
in the boats kept coolly at their work.
Never for moment did they falter Lieut..
Winslow lost three fingers of his left hand
by the explosion of shell, but he is still
at Key West, ready now for duty again.
John Reagan, on the Marblehead boat was
shot through the chest. AS he fell, Private
Marine Kuchmester, who was brought here
to-day by the Solace, stopped to assist him.
At that instant rifle ball struck Kuch-
meister in the jaw and passed out of his
mouth. The marine, hardly realizing how
badly he was injured, bandaged up his jaw
with a handkerchief and tried to stop the
flow of blood from Reagan's wound, but
poor Reagan died moment later. Gunners
Mate Davis, Of the Marbehead, was torn
with a bullet in his thigh, and, a moment
after. one-pounder from shore had sent
shot close enough to Craze his arm. hen
dricksen and Voltz, the former from the
Marblehead and the latter from the Nash
vile, are the others of that gallant expedi-
ton who will carry the marks of herosm to
their graves.
When the revenue cutter Window brought
Hendricksen and Voltz to Key West after
the engagement the hospital surgeons said
that both would die. One had three bullet
wounds; this was Voltz. A Twenty-Five
caliber bullet had passed through the skull
at the base of the brain and out Com
pared with this the other wounds were in
significant. He was unconscious for several
days at the barracks hospital at Key West,
but gradually they brought him around.
Now Voltz looks we'll. To be sure. he is
still thin and haggard and wears the ban
dages and says that his head troubles him
somewhat, but Voltz is a hero like his
three mates, and there are many heroes in
the American navy. Hendricksen was shot
through the abdomen. The bullet passed
completely out, so great is the velocity of
these tiny steel missiles under the new
methods of propulsion. Hendricksen when
seen aboard ship to-day, however, said he
would be fighting the Spaniards again be-
fore the end of the month if there was
fight left in them.
FROM THE WINSLOW.
The Winslow sent one man here to re-
mind the people North of that now famous
torpedo boat and of the terrible engage
ment at Cardenas, when Ensign Bagley was
killed-the first officer Of the American
navy to fall in this WARMTH four of his
men. He is Robert L. Grub, a landsman.
1t was on that memorable occasion that
Lieutenant Bernadou, in command of the
Winslow, under orders from Commander
Todd, of the gunboat Wilmington at
tempted to force Cardenas harbor for the
purpose of drawing the fire of the masked
batteries The fire was a hundredfold more
effective than expected, and the first shell
from shore exploded over the plucky little
boat, Lieutenant Bernadou being the only
man wounded. A piece of shell cut nasty
cash in his leg, but tying a bandage about
it, he ordered his boat still farther in Then
came the fourteen-pound shell that crashed
through the boilers and disabled the Wins
low, and few moments later Ensign Bag
ley and four of the men were stretched
dead on the deck. Grub was among those
aboard at the time. and, with others. was
rescued by the Hudson.
Lieutenant Bernadou spent some days at