



Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
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CAMPAIGNING IN
CUBA

BY
GEORGE KENNAN
AUTHOR OF "SIBERIA AND THE EXILE SYSTEM"

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1899




CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                                             PAGE

I. STARTING FOR THE FIELD                                              1

II. UNDER THE RED CROSS                                               10

III. ON THE EDGE OF WAR                                               23

IV. WAR CORRESPONDENTS AND DESPATCH-BOATS                             35

V. OFF FOR SANTIAGO                                                   44

VI. THE CUBAN COAST                                                   53

VII. THE FIGHT AT GUANTANAMO                                          65

VIII. THE LANDING AND ADVANCE OF THE ARMY                             76

IX. A WALK TO THE FRONT                                               88

X. SIBONEY ON THE EVE OF BATTLE                                      104

XI. THE BATTLES OF CANEY AND SAN JUAN                                116

XII. THE FIELD-HOSPITAL                                              130

XIII. SIBONEY DURING THE ARMISTICE                                   150

XIV. ENTERING SANTIAGO HARBOR                                        164

XV. THE CAPTURED CITY                                                171

XVI. THE FEEDING OF THE HUNGRY                                       182

XVII. MORRO CASTLE                                                   192

XVIII. FEVER IN THE ARMY                                             213

XIX. THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN                                           222

XX. THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN (_Continued_)                              237

XXI. THE SANTIAGO CAMPAIGN (_Concluded_)                             256




CAMPAIGNING IN CUBA




CHAPTER I

STARTING FOR THE FIELD


War broke out between the United States and Spain on April 21, 1898. A
week or ten days later I was asked by the editors of the "Outlook" of
New York to go to Cuba with Miss Clara Barton, on the Red Cross steamer
_State of Texas_, and report the war and the work of the Red Cross for
that periodical. After a hasty conference with the editorial and
business staffs of the paper I was to represent, I accepted the
proposition, and on May 5 left Washington for Key West, where the _State
of Texas_ was awaiting orders from the Navy Department. The army of
invasion, under command of General Shafter, was then assembling at
Tampa, and it was expected that a hostile movement to some point on the
Cuban coast would be made before the end of the month.

I reached Tampa on the evening of Friday, May 6. The Pullman cars of the
Florida express, at that time, ran through the city of Tampa and across
the river into the spacious grounds of the beautiful Tampa Bay Hotel,
which, after closing for the regular winter season, had been compelled
to reopen its doors--partly to accommodate the large number of officers
and war correspondents who had assembled there with their wives and
friends, and partly to serve as headquarters for the army of Cuban
invasion.

It was a warm, clear Southern night when we arrived, and the scene
presented by the hotel and its environment, as we stepped out of the
train, was one of unexpected brilliancy and beauty. A nearly full moon
was just rising over the trees on the eastern side of the hotel park,
touching with silver the drifts of white blossoms on dark masses of
oleander-trees in the foreground, and flooding with soft yellow light
the domes, Moorish arches, and long facade of the whole immense
building. Two regimental bands were playing waltzes and patriotic airs
under a long row of incandescent lights on the broad veranda;
fine-looking, sunbrowned men, in all the varied uniforms of army and
navy, were gathered in groups here and there, smoking, talking, or
listening to the music; the rotunda was crowded with officers, war
correspondents, and gaily attired ladies, and the impression made upon a
newcomer, as he alighted from the train, was that of a brilliant
military ball at a fashionable seaside summer resort. Of the serious and
tragic side of war there was hardly a suggestion.

On the morning after our arrival I took a carriage and drove around the
city and out to the camp, which was situated about a mile and a half
from the hotel on the other side of the river. In the city itself I was
unpleasantly disappointed. The showy architecture, beautiful grounds,
semi-tropical foliage, and brilliant flowers of the Tampa Bay Hotel
raise expectations which the town across the river does not fulfil. It
is a huddled collection of generally insignificant buildings standing in
an arid desert of sand, and to me it suggested the city of
Semipalatinsk--a wretched, verdure-less town in southern Siberia,
colloquially known to Russian army officers as "the Devil's Sand-box."
Thriving and prosperous Tampa may be, but attractive or pleasing it
certainly is not.

As soon as I got away, however, from the hotel and into the streets of
the town, I saw at almost every step suggestions of the serious and
practical side, if not the tragic side, of war. Long trains of four-mule
wagons loaded with provisions, camp equipage, and lumber moved slowly
through the soft, deep sand of the unpaved