Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1899-03-13

~
ing Went into the Army with two
other Cornell Students at the ont
break Of Hostilities-Seryed at Santi-
aga Several very Thrilling escapes
! from Death Experience with the
Beef-Nearly died from Fever after
Starting for Home Release from
ilontauk Point saves his Life-Comes
to MorgantoWn to get His health back
Again.
| Dwight H. Wagner, of Wheeling,
is in Morgantown for an indefinite
stay for the benefit of his health. He
is relative OF many Morgantown
people and has many friends here
who are glad to see him and who will
try to make his stay here as pleas
ant as possible
Mr. Wagner was member of the
Seventy first New York one OF the
two volunteer regiments who saw
! fighting at Santiago. 1t was in the
San Juan fight and lost the largest
number of men Of any regiment in
| the fight. This was due to the arms
they carried.
These consisted of the old fash
Toned Springfields and the smoke
! from them drew the fire Of the entire
| Spanish line. The other regiments
were armed with Krag- Jorgensens
and the cartridges were loaded with
smokeless powder. These offered no
target for the Spanish sharpshooters
while the dense puffs of smoke from
the Springfields were excellent OBJ
jects at which to aim.
The regiment was almost cut to
pieces while lying in a wood exposed
to the fire OF the entire Spanish line.
They had been ordered to remain in
position which was entirely untena
BILE and because they were. volun-
teers and not regulars they obeyed
orders st a terrible loss to the regi-
ment
Some regulars overlook them and
seeing the plight they were in told
them to come on which they did and
the Spaniards were swept before
them i'll the charge.
The fighting was very severe on
the part of the field occupied by the
Seventy first and owing to the fact
that they were armed as they were
lost more than any other regiment
in all of the fighting.
AYnopn tho yi1laJ xuoa a ot,,Japf
friend Of Mr.. Wagners. Two other
Cornell students had joined the reg
iment at the outbreak of the war
and went into the field together.
Two of them came out uninjured but
the other one was killed. His name
was Brown and he was from Cleve-
land.
Neither Of the other men were
wounded but narrow escape was
experienced by Wagner. He had
handed his canteen to /. surgeon and
the latter had just retu. led it when
a bullet from concealed Spanish
sharpshooter struck him in the head
killing him instantly. The ball
whistled very close to the soldier on
its way to kill the surgeon who de-
spite the Red Cross on his arm was
the target. The Spaniards did not
respect the Red Cross at all and
busted themselves with shooting all
the surgeons possible.
When asked about the feeling OF
the men about the ultimate outcome
of the fight Wagner stated that they
never had any doubt but that they
would whip the Spaniards and had
an order been issued to fall back as
contemplated at one time the men
would not have obeyed it. They had
decided among themselves that they
had come for and intended to hold
what they had and reach for more
The fight between the two fleets
coming on the third day of the fight
ing was plainly heard and the men
knew what the outcome Of this would
were be. They did not expect such
bitter defeat Of Cervera however.
They heard the news at night and
quietly enthusiastic. The severe
fighting for three days had taken
away the desire to be very demon
strative over it however.
The embalmed beef was asked
about. The statement was made that
some of the beef was encountered.
This was not embalmed as far as
/ nould ha soon ond If ohfainad oanp