The Washington herald., 1913-10-05
United States at Time Of War with Spain Unprepared
for Serious Struggle and the Conflict Showed Up Many
Weak Spots in the Nations Defenses.

| there was any trouble on their part in
understanding what they were required
to do They were very intelligent and
very eager TO do their duty, and / hardly
! ever had any difficulty the second time
with them. If. however, there was the
slightest willful Sinking of duty or in
subordination, 1 punished instantly and
mercilessiy, and the whole regiment cor
daily backed me up. To have punished
men for faults and shortcomings which
| they had no opportunity to know were
such would have been as unwise as TO
have permitted any of the occasional
bad characters to exercise the slightest
! license. 1t was a regiment which was
sensitive about its dignity and was very
keenly alive 10 justice and courtesy. but
which cordially approved absence of mol
lycoddling, insistence upon the PERFORM
ance of duty, and summary punishment
| Of wrongdoing.
What 10 DO with CaptINes.
In the final fighting at san Juan, when
we captured one OF the trenches. Jack
Greenway had seized a Spaniard, and
shortly afterward 1 found Jack leading
his captive round with a string. l told
him to turn ham over to a man who had
two or three other captives, so that they
should all be taken TO the rear. 1t was
the only time 1 ever saw Jack look ag-
for myself" he asked. plaintively. 1
think he had an idea that as a trophy
OF his bow and spear the Spaniard would
make fine body-servant.
One reason that We never had the
slightest trouble in the regiment was
because, when we got down to hard pan,
officers and men shared exactly alike.
II is all right to have differences in food
and the like in times Of peace and plenty,
WFa# hi NNNNW IN
really hard times officers and men must
share alike il the best work is to be
done. As long as / had nothing but two
hardtacks, which was the allowance to
each man on the morning after the San
Juan fight, no one could complain; but II
/ had had any private little Injuries the
men would very naturally have realized
keenly their own shortages
Beans md Regulations.
Soon after the Guasimas fight we were
put on short commons and as / knew
that a good deal Of food had been landed
and was on the beach at Siboney, l
marched thirty or forty of the men down
10 see il / could not get some and bring
il up. / finally found cOmmissary Of
ficer and he asked me what / wanted,
and l answered, anything he had. So
he told me to look about for myself. l
about LOO pounds. on the beach: and
told the officer that wanted l,lO0 pounds
of beans. He produced a book of regula-
tiOns. and showed me the appropriate
section and subdivision which announced
that beans were issued only for the Of
ficers' mess This did me no good, and
told him so. He said he was sorry,
and answered that he was not as sorry
as l was. l then studied on IT," as
d. pal nd
with a request for LOO pounds of beans
for the officers mess. He said. Why,
colonel, your officers can't eat l.l00
pounds of beans" TO which responded,
You don't know what appetites my Of
ficers have" He then said he would send
the requisition TO Washington. told
him 1 was willing. so long as he gave
me the beans. He was a good fellow.
so we finally effected working comprO-
mise-he got the requisition and got the
beans, although he warned me that the
price would probably be deducted from
my salary.
The ChaPlnin'S Mules.
Under some regulation or other only the
regular supply trains were allowed TO
act, and We were supposed not to have
any horses or mules in the regiment it.
self. This was very pretty in theory;
were not numerous enough. My men
had a natural genius for acquiring horse
flesh in odd ways. and continually found
that they had stalled out in the brush
various captured Spanish cavalry horses
and Cuban ponies and abandoned COM
missary mules. Putting these together.
I would organize a small pack train and
work it industriOusly for a day or two,
until they learned about 1t at headquar
tiers and confiscated it. Then I would
have to wait for a week or so until my
men had accumulated some more ponies,
horses and mules, the regiment mean
while living in plenty on what We had
got before the train was confisCated.
All of our men were good at accumu-
latinS horses, but within our own ranks
think We were inclined to award the
palm to our chaplain. There was not
better man in the regiment than the
chaplain, and there could not have been
better chaplain for our men. He took
care of the sick and the wounded, he
never spared himself. and he did every
duty. In addition. he had a natural
aptitude for acquiring mules, which
made some admirer, when the regiment
was disbanded. propose that We should
have a special medal struck for him,