The Washington herald., 1913-08-31
Readiness, Says Gen. Albert L. Mills Not Only Slaves Of
Wars, but Cuts Them Short, Saving Lives and Money.
America Has Never Been Prepared

I ticipated with distinguished gallantry
and conspicuous ability in all the en-
gagements preceding the final surrender
| of Santiago"
The medal of honor voted him by Con-
gress was won on July /, at San Juan,
where he encouraged those near him by
his bravery and GOODNESS, after being
shot through the head and entirely with
out sight As a matter of fact. the
surgeons placed him on a cot under a
tree and prophesied his death within a
short while. He heard what they said.
Being a brave man he struggled all the
harder for his life.
Mills Set the Pace In Cuba.
The battle of Las Guasimas had &C.
CURED a week earlier. Mills was adju-
tant general of Young's brigade, which
was made up of the First and Tenth
| Cavalry and Leonard Woods Rough
Riders. All of the horses had been left
in Florida. and the troopers marched
and fought like infantry. Gen. Young
has said that Mills led the brigade
against a strongly Intrenched position of
the enemy and won the battle, the first
of the war, and thus set the pace for the
battles which were to follow. Las
Guasimas gave the Americans an open
road to Santiago. and at the same time
protected lntlT DdSc OF supplies.
The Rough Riders and Col. Roosevelt
were the heroic and spectacular figures
at San Juan, seven days later. Military
men say they were saved from Gestruc-
tiOn by the regulars. Webb Hayes, son
of Rutherford B. Hayes, having failed
to get his Ohio regiment into Cuba, had
accompanied Gen. Young as a volunteer
aid. Gen. Mills saw him early on the
day of the battle leaning against a bank
in the famous sunken road leading up
san Juan Hill HAYES said that his horse
had been hit. and in falling had struck
and injured him in the back. Four days
afterward a surgeon, bathing Iu a river
with Hayes, found that a Spanish bullet
had cut clean through the muscles just
above his hips, missing the spine only
ly a fraction of an inch. Hayes, 1t has
since been said. was the happiest man
in Cuba when he -9earned tnat he had
been hurt by bullet instead of a horse.
Mills, commanding a long aud thin line
of men, was wounded when climbing
Kettle Hill. He had turned slightly TO
look along his front wnen Mauser
bullet hit him lust below the left temple
passed through his head. and made its
egress at the outside angle OF his tight
eye. He fell to the .: ound, but die not
lose consciousness. Surgeons say that Es
would have been strangled to death BY
his own blood had the shock made him
insensible. He was blind. however. and
his left eye literally hung down OH his
cheek.
Had No Hope of Living.
Several troopers picked him up and
carried him to the shade of a tree. He
sat on the ground, leaning against the
trunk. The troopers told with pride
afterward that he thanked them and
then ordered them back to the firing
line. The word passed through the
army. got to the ears Of Congress. and
a medal of honor was voted as a testi-
monial of the country's admiration and
gratitude. I repeated the story as here
related to Gen. Mills. and said: Yours
was a fine example Of courage and sac
riice.''
Il have never thought So" he re-
piled 'T felt that I hadn't long to live
and that it was a waste of time TO
bother with a man who was as good as
dead"
In the course Of an hour Webb Hayes, |
having heard of the event and having /
hunted the field with his customary