Twelve Months with the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry in the Service of the United States

by Harry Endicott Webber

From the center of this road, a well constructed way led to the field officers terrace, and to the corral on the headquarters terrace. Each company street was also macadamized. The rough pointed stones which had been broken off were laid as a foundation and gravel and sand were brought in as a covering. These roads were crowned in the center, and were a most creditable production, and the source of much favorable comment and praise. Major Graves was often congratulated upon the work of his new department.

The gray walls of San Severino early attracted the attention of the soldiers. It was an old Spanish fort erected to defend the approach to Matanzas, and had just been evacuated by Spanish troops.

The Cuban visitors to camp who could make themselves understood, spread harrowing tales of death recently inflicted upon insurgents within its gloomy masonry. The old fort had been standing for centuries, and looked to the imagination like a suitable home for any kind of horror or torture. The tales told were to the effect that insurgents were often lined up in squads against the walls and shot to death, or decapitated and their bodies thrown into the bay. A special wall in the counterscarp was pointed out as the execution place.

The American soldiers, ever on the outlook for souvenirs, succeeded in probing many battered bullets from the coral masonry of this wall, which were sent home as evidence of these tales. The fort was soon occupied and used as a military prison.

Lieutenant James H. Craig of Company L was detailed as its first commander, and under him the casements were made habitable for its guards, and for the prisoners awaiting general court martial or serving sentences. An old piece of Spanish ordnance was mounted on the parapet and did duty for a sunrise and sunset gun.

This picturesque pile was always in the foreground of any outlook from the camp of the Eighth, and under its shade the men loafed, or took they daily dip in the waters of the bay. All shipping passed the fort or lay at anchor under its guns. In the morning or at night the water in front of it was alive with birds and pelicans, diving for food, with great fish bags hanging from their lower jaws, and in the lazy afternoons, these same birds were seen perched on pieces of flotsam taking siestas.

A few miles across the bay the walls of a settlement said to be occupied by Cuban insurgents, broke with a broad band of glittering white between the bright blue of the water, and the green expanse of grass and palms, which on rolling hills, rose to meet the blue sky on a distant horizon. The steady trade wind, beginning about eight in the morning, and dying away just before sunset, rendered life in the shade of the fort pleasant and comfortable, however high the thermometer mounted in the sun.

As soon as the camp was put in condition, military work outside of guard and provost duty was usually performed in the early morning or late afternoon. During the middle of the day officers and men had leisure to enjoy the pleasure of just living and being in the tropics.

Much of the hard work in unloading transports and getting the camp sites ready for occupation was done by Cubans in the employ of the government. Some two hundred of these worked about the camps in squads, under the charge of non-commissioned officers from the engineer battalion. A large number were employed in cleaning up the city, and putting it in a sanitary condition. Much work was undertaken by the government to furnish employment to the poor.

Lieutenant Colonel William Stopford was appointed general police officer for all the camps, and had quite a force of civilian employees under him. In his sanitary work he was charged with the duty of destroying the many reconcentrado huts that had been constructed on the outskirts of the town. The sides of these huts were made of dried palm bark, and the roofs were thatched with palm leaves. They had been built by the poor country people compelled to come within the lines of concentration by the Spanish soldiery. Their owners were usually glad to take the fifteen dollars offered by the government and move out. The purchase and moving out process was completed in a few minutes, and the evacuated homes set on fire.