Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-28
SPANISH WAR
HEROES ARE FEW
Death Is Taking Toll of Men
Who Made Famous
Names
(New York Times)


California reduced the number of
distinguished veterans of the war
with Spain to a very small band
indeed. General Shafter, command
er of the expeditionary force in
Cuba, succumbed early. During the
campaign he contracted malarial
fever, calentura perniciosa, as the
| Cubans call 1t, and was never a
sound man again. General Jacob
| Ford Kent. who commanded ths
First Infantry Division, died att
Troy on December %. 1918, at the
ripe age of eighty-three. General
Lawton, commander of the Second
Infantry Division, paid for his scorn
of the Filipino as an enemy. While
| carelessly exposing himself he was
killed by a sharpshooter. General
Joseph Wheeler of the dismounted
cavalry division, after proving his
loyalty and love of country by in
trepid leadership in Cuba and the
Philippines, passed away in this city
in 1906. OF the brigade command
ers in the Santiago compaign Cen
eral Hamilton S. Hawkins, who led
the infantry to the capture of San
| Juan Hill and was shot through
| the foot before reaching the crest,
died in 1910. General Adna r. Chat
| fee, who was Lawton's lieutenant
| in the taking of Caney, lived to see
Joffre defeat the Germans i'll the
first battle of the Marine, dying in
California on November /, 1914.
General William Ludlow, one of the
most esteemed men in the army
/ II 4 80
the Second Infantry Division at
Caney-- was a victim of tubercu-
| 1osis at Convent New Jersey, in
1901. General John F. Weston, the
Chief Commissary of the expedition,
died in the Bronx two years ago.
He, like General Shafter, never
recovered entirely from Cuban ma
| laria, although he ended his career
as commander of the army in the
Philippines and lived for several
years after reaching the retirement
age. At Caney General Bates, who
has just passed over to the majority
commanded an Independent brigade.
Lieutenant General S. B. NJ.
Young, who helped Wheeler to win
the first fight at Guasimas, is now
living in Washington. Although
seventy-nine, he is still active and
useful From 1909 to 1917 he served
| as Governor of the Soldiers Home,
and at the present time he is COM
| mander in chief of the Military Or
der of the Loyal Legion. General
Nelson A. Miles, who commanded
the expedition to Porto Rico, on
his way calling at Santiago TO give
Shafter the benefit of his experience,
| is also living in Washington. By a
year he is the senior of General
Young. General Wesley Merritt, |
who commanded the land forces in
the philippines in the war with
Spain and later was member of
His able lieutenant, General Arthur
Macarthur, who put down the
Philippine rebellion, died in 1919. |
All these soldiers were veterans
of the Civil War, and most of them
were still in the prime of life when |
war was declared upon Spain. Miles |
commanded an army corps at twen- !
ty-five in the conflict between the |
states, and before Lee surrendered |
at Appomattox Joseph Wheeler, al |
though under thirty, was ranking |
General in the Confederate cavalry |
and famous soldier. Shafter, Wes-
ton, and Macarthur won the Medal |
of Honor by extraordinary gallantry
in the Civil War. Young, who rose
to be Lieutenant General in the
regular army. enlisted as a private
in 1861. Chaffee also began at the
very bottom and reached the same
rank. Both became Chief of Staff.
The late General Bates retired up
on his own application in 1906, after
forty years OF service. He was Chief
of Staff at the time. For two years
he com manded districts in Mind
anRo, Jolo. and Southern Luzon,
showing much executive ability. To
him as to all of his comrades of
rank in Cuba, the Santiago cam
paign was more OF an adventure, |
with touch of the romantic in it, |
than the ordeal of war. They all |
made comparisons with the stirring |
and perilous times of the Civil War. |
At Caney the casualties of Bates's |
brigade were three killed and ten |
wounded. but it was in support, not |
in the thick of the fighting. Twelve |
hundred covered the entire losses
of the Fifth Corps, which had a
strength OF about $1,000 men. The
American force had only four light
batteries in the field in addition to
four gatling guns and one pneu-
matte dynamite gun. The only OBJ
ject in the air remotely like an air.
plane wRs the buzzard. and there
was no lack OF that ill-favored and
gluttonous bird. Looking back. it
is hard 70 believe that an American
army could have heen so i'll equip
ped. evou in that day. But the reg
ulars themselves were glorious
never was there a finer American
armv physically. the very flower
ot tho ration. If the weapons in
the hands of the enemN were no
hetter ard the casualty list was not
heavy. the army was exposed to a !
climate that caused n long sick list |
and would have made fearful havoc |
in its ranl's had it not been with
dra-'N Within sixty days of the sur
render of Tora1.