A Recent Campaign in Puerto Rico/Appendix

by Karl Stephen Herrmann

APPENDIX

I

The following officers received distinguished mention in General Schwan's reports, for service rendered under fire during the campaign in western Puerto Rico: —

Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, Eleventh Infantry.

* Major Gilbreath, Eleventh Infantry.
Captain P. M. B. Travis, Eleventh Infantry.
Captain R. W. Hoyt, Eleventh Infantry.
Captain A. L. Myer, Eleventh Infantry.
Captain Penrose, Eleventh Infantry.
Captain Macomb, Fifth Cavalry.
Acting Assistant Surgeon Savage.
Lieutenant Odon Gurvoits, Eleventh Infantry.
Lieutenant T. F. Maginnis, Eleventh Infantry.
Lieutenant Alexander, Eleventh Infantry.
Lieutenant Wells, Eleventh Infantry.
Lieutenant W. S. Valentine, Fifth Cavalry.
Lieutenant Rogers F. Gardner, Third Artillery.

In addition to those named above, special and valuable efficiency was displayed by Major E. A. Root, engineer; Major H. H. Benham, ordnance;

* Died of apoplexy on August 22, 1898, while in camp near Las Marias.

Major Egan, brigade-surgeon; Captain Buchanan, Collector-of-the-Port at Mayaguez; Captain Davison, brigade-quartermaster; Captain Hutcheson, assistant adjutant-general; and Captain Elkins,* Lieutenant Byron, and Lieutenant Summerlin, aides-de-camp.

II

In connection with the present writer's expressed opinion regarding the relative practical value of regulars and volunteers in modern warfare, the following excerpt from the Chicago Record of November 3, 1898, is worth reading.

Captain Avid Wester, the Swedish officer who accompanied the American army in Cuba, in order to study the war, has just returned to Sweden. During his stay in Gothenburg he was interviewed, and he seems now to have a more sympathetic view of the Americans — the volunteers excepted — than former reports indicated. Captain Wester greatly praised the treatment he had received from all the American officers, and the bravery of the Americans in the regular army. "Of the 18,000 men under the command of General Shafter," he says, "only 4,000 were volunteers or militiamen; the rest consisted of regulars, which had had an average service of six years on the borders of the Indian territory. They were very good and

* Wounded at battle of Hormigueros.

well-disciplined soldiers, who went into battle with complete disregard of death. The militia regiments, however, could not be got within range of the Spanish bullets, and all the stories about the heroism of volunteers are untrue. The only volunteers who distinguished themselves were the 'rough riders,' who, in spite of their name, fought on foot, but these men were not a militia regiment. The troop consisted of cowboys and adventurers, who cared neither for life nor death, but rushed blindly into battle. Brave fellows withal." After praising the bravery of the Spaniards and the accuracy of their fire, Captain Wester expresses the belief that with modern rifles in use it is of the greatest importance to have well-trained soldiers, who in the heat of battle retain their coolness and listen to their officers' directions and commands, — in a word, soldiers who retain good firing discipline. This, he says, cannot be expected of men with short time of training, on whom the din of battle often has so paralyzing an effect that the soldier can neither hear nor see.

III

The question concerning the quality of the beef served as a ration to our troops during the recent war — in Cuba and Puerto Rico, and aboard the transports — has already been pretty thoroughly answered, one way or the other. Yet, though the topic is worn nearly threadbare and admittedly has nothing in particular to do with General Schwan's campaign, I venture to make, in this place, a personal contribution to the discussion in the form of an extract from a letter, written by me from Mayaguez on September 15, 1898.

Our rations [on the transport "Comanche"] consisted of hard tack, coffee, canned baked-beans, canned tomatoes, and canned "roast beef." Before we arrived at Key West the baked-beans had all been eaten and the water in the tanks had gone rotten — we carried no condenser — so that we were reduced to the rather monotonous diet of tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes and canned roast beef for dinner, and tomatoes again for supper; with a full allowance of coffee and hard tack at all three meals.

Anybody will be able to understand that we were pretty hungry at the end of the second day. We were thirsty too — I paid as much as fifty cents for a glass of ice-water from the cabin — but I will skip the mass of details. We had seen the piles of neat cans, labelled "roast beef," stacked up on the dock at Port Tampa, and we were impatient for the first mess-call that made us acquainted with the contents of those cans. I regret that I cannot adequately describe to you the appearance of the stuff. I will simply say that it looked filthy, was covered with a sort of slime, and emitted a nauseous odor. It was very hard to even gaze at it and remain unmoved, but we did more than that — we tried to eat it. - I managed to swallow three mouthfuls and immediately became wretchedly sick. The example seemed to be popular.

On the succeeding day we were each given an unopened can of the meat, which was supposed to last us for twenty-four hours. Most of the men threw their portions overboard at once; a few packed away the "corpse' — as we already called it — for purposes of trade with the unsophisticated Cubans; and I kept my can as a souvenir. I did not, however, keep it long; for, chancing to drop it upon the deck, the contents exploded with a distinct report, startling me not a little and covering my person with the debris. At the time I thought this experience was going to be altogether unique, but I discovered afterward that the same thing happened in a great many other instances.

Having abandoned the beef, we were forced to subsist on hard tack and tomatoes for the rest of the voyage, and hailed with joy our anchorage at Daiquiri. But we were too previous. During our ten days' stay in Cuba we found the "corpse" still waiting for us in the mess, and we carried the ghastly burden along when we finally steamed away for Puerto Rico.

We landed at Guanica on the 25th of July, which meant that we had been half-starved for twenty-two days. We had forgotten the "Maine" and would have greeted Weyler himself with a glad sweet smile, had he come bearing in his hands food fit for a human being. Once more disembarked, we lost sight of the canned roast beef for good — save at extremely rare intervals while on the march. We found no difficulty in eating the beef obtained from Puerto Rican steers, although it was tough and bloodless; and we received salt pork often enough to furnish variety.

After the cessation of hostilities we began to get American beef instead of the native article, and, while it was by no means so impossible a food as its canned cousin, it certainly could not be called delicious. It smelled badly before it was cooked, was rigid and stringy when served, and had a rank taste, like — well like nothing else on earth. Our sick-list doubled at this time.

IV

A list of the killed and wounded on the American side, at the battle near Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, on the 10th of August, 1898.

Killed.

Fred Fenneberg, private in Company " D," Eleventh Infantry.

Wounded.

Lieutenant J. C. Byron, Eighth United States Cavalry, R. D. C.

John Bruning, corporal in Light Battery " D," Fifth Artillery.

George Curtis, private in Light Battery " D," Fifth Artillery. Samuel G. Frye, private in Light Battery "D," Fifth Artillery.

Willard H. Wheeler, sergeant in Company "A," Eleventh Infantry.

Joseph P. Ryan, corporal in Company "A," Eleventh Infantry.

Arthur Sparks, private in Company "C," Eleventh Infantry.

John L. Johnson, corporal in Company "D," Eleventh Infantry.

J. A. Sanders, private in Company "D," Eleventh Infantry.

Harry E. Arrick, private in Company "E," Eleventh Infantry.

Henry Gerrick, private in Company "E," Eleventh Infantry.

Paul F. Mitzkie, private in Company "E," Eleventh Infantry.

William Rossiter, private in Company "G," Eleventh Infantry.

Lemuel P. Cobb, private in Company "I," Eleventh Infantry.

D. J. Graves, private in Company "M," Eleventh Infantry.

Amos Wilkie, corporal in Company "M," Eleventh Infantry.

Injured.

Frank Muller, private in Company "E," Eleventh Infantry.

Augustus H. Ryan, private in Company "F," Eleventh Infantry.

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