During the past fifteen years, Dr. Walker has received calls from the following churches: First Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn.; the First Baptist Church, St. Louis; and the Second Baptist Church, Indianapolis. No one of these calls was accepted by the distinguished pastor. He preferred to remain with the people of Augusta.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPLAIN U. S. V.
Dr. Walker joined his regiment, the Ninth Immunes, at San Luis, Cuba, the middle of November, 1898, and remained in the service for nearly two months. He did not find the service with the army very congenial, and resigned his commission to return to civil life. He remained with the army long enough, however, to get some notion of what army life means. He also learned much of Cuba, its climate and its peoples, and was able on his return to give a very interesting account of his trip. The following report is taken from the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, Jan. 5, 1899:
“Notwithstanding the rainy weather and the overcast night, it is probable that never before in its history was Tabernacle Baptist Church so overcrowded with people as on last night. It had been announced the day before that the pastor, Rev. C. T. Walker, D. D., recently with the Ninth Immune Infantry in Cuba, was to lecture on last night of his experience in that island.
“This notice was sufficient to pack the edifice up to the point of almost complete suffocation. Standing room was at a premium. Several hundred were turned away, and more than a hundred lingered in the yard on the stairways until the lecture closed. Possibly more than 1,200 persons heard the speaker.
“Dr. Walker, as is his custom, caught the audience from the beginning. He referred to the pleasure it gave him to be greeted by such a large gathering; he said it reminded him of the throng which welcomed him on his return from the Holy Land seven years ago. He said that there was great interest being manifested all over this country in Cuba and its people, especially because the Spanish yoke of oppression had been lifted from Cuba’s neck, and the American flag now floated over that land, and the Cubans, so long oppressed, so long cruelly treated, were now free. He said he was glad it was so, because wherever the Stars and Stripes waved there the Gospel flag could not long be kept furled.
“He gave a brief account of his appointment last June by President McKinley, and, also, a short narrative of his journey to Santiago. His description of his entrance into the harbor of Santiago, passing Morro Castle, the sunken Mercedes, and the sunken Merrimac, was truly eloquent and brought down the house.
“‘Santiago,’ he said, ‘is one of the oldest cities in North America—older even than St. Augustine, Fla., having been founded in 1542. The streets are very narrow; the sidewalks are so narrow that two people cannot walk abreast; the city is extremely dirty; the water is unfit to drink, unless it is boiled; there are about 50,000 people in the city—15,000 of them white Cubans, and 35,000 of them black Cubans. Some of the people are intelligent, and some few engaged in business; but the vast majority of them are woefully ignorant and shiftless. Most of them at present are completely on the charity of the United States government. There are about 7,000 white soldiers in and around Santiago under General Leonard Wood, and about 3,000 colored soldiers out at San Luis, about 35 miles away—the Eighth Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas and the Ninth Immune Infantry. The first two of these regiments have all colored officers from colonel down; my own regiment had all white officers excepting the lieutenants.’
“He was particularly interested in San Juan Hill where, as he said, the battle was fought which decided the fate of Spain. He was particularly interested in it, because in that battle, the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantries, and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries, all colored soldiers, led the charge, cut the barbed wire fence, captured the block-house, saved the Rough Riders, and added glory to the American nation and Negro race. He said he had stood on Bunker Hill, he had walked over the famous field of Waterloo, had crossed the valley of Ajalon where Joshua whipped five kings of the Amorites, and the Valley of Rephaim, where David conquered the Philistines, but he never was so inspired as he was when he stood on San Juan Hill, because there his own race was gallantly represented. At this the house thundered with applause.
“He said Cuba was a most beautiful country—more beautiful than even Germany or Switzerland. The soil is rich and fertile. Potatoes grow there as long as walking canes, and vegetation flourishes throughout the entire year. The weather he found to be extremely warm. December was like our June or July. No overcoats needed there. He thought the country was very unhealthy. The fever there is worse than Spanish bullets, and no one is ‘immune’ from it, not even the natives. The people are in a very low state of civilization, considered as a whole. In the rural districts, they do not live in houses, but ‘shacks.’ He had seen living in one little room, a husband and wife and five children, and a sow and six pigs. It is common for the people to live in the same room with horses, cows and hogs.