On the day of arrival seventy men were called for to nurse yellow fever patients and do other work about the hospital. More than this number immediately volunteered to enter upon a service which they could well believe meant death to some of them. The camp was so crowded and filthy that the wo rk of cleaning it was begun at once by the men of the Twenty-fourth, and day by day they labored as their strength would permit, in policing the camp, cooking the food for themselves and for the hospital, unloading supplies, taking down and removing tents, and numberless other details of necessary labor. Despite all the care that could be taken under such conditions as were found at Siboney, the yellow fever soon overran the entire camp, and of the 16 officers of the regiment, 1 had died, 2 more were expected to die; 3 were dangerously ill, and 5 more or less so. Out of the whole sixteen there were but three really fit for duty, and often out of the whole regiment it would be impossible to get 12 men who could go on fatigue duty. Out of the 456 men who marched to Siboney only 24 escaped sickness, and on one day 241 were down. Those who would recover remained weak and unfit for labor. Silently, without murmuring, did these noble heroes, officers and men, stand at their post ministering to the necessities of their fellowman until the welcome news came that the regiment would be sent north and the hospital closed as soon as possible. On August 8 Major La Garde, more entitled to the honor of being classed among the heroes of Santiago than some whose opportunities of brilliant display were vastly superior, succumbed to the disease. The fact should be borne in mind that all of these men, officers, soldiers and surgeons, went upon this pest-house duty after the severe labors of assault of July 1-2, and the two weeks of terrible strain and exposure in the trenches before Santiago, and with the sick and wounded consequent upon these battles and labors—none were strong.
On July 16th, the day after the Twenty-fourth left the trenches, the surrender was made and on the next morning the final ceremonies of turning over Santiago to the Ameri can forces took place, and the soldiers were allowed to come out of their ditches and enter into more comfortable camps. The hardships of the period after the surrender were not much less than those experienced while in the lines.
On the 26th of August the Twenty-fourth Infantry, having obtained an honorable release from its perilous duty, marched out of Siboney with band playing and colors flying to go on board the transport for Montauk; but of the 456 men who marched into Siboney, only 198 were able to march out, directed by 9 out of the 15 officers that marched in with them. Altogether there were 11 officers and 289 men who went on board the transport, but all except the number first given were unable to take their places in the ranks. They went on board the steamer Nueces, and coming from an infected camp, no doubt great care was taken that the transport should arrive at its destination in a good condition. Although there was sickness on board, there were no deaths on the passage, and the Nueces arrived in port "one of the cleanest ships that came to that place." The official report states that the Nueces arrived at Montauk Point September 2, with 385 troops on board; 28 sick, no deaths on the voyage, and not infected. Worn out by the hard service the regiment remained a short time at Montauk and then returned to its former station, Fort Douglass, Utah, leaving its camp at Montauk in such a thoroughly creditable condition as to elicit official remark.
While the Twenty-fourth Infantry had without doubt the hardest service, after the surrender, of any of the colored regiments, the others were not slumbering at ease. Lying in the trenches almost constantly for two weeks, drenched with rains, scorched by the burning sun at times, and chilled by cool nights, subsisting on food not of the best and poorly cooked, cut off from news and kept in suspense, when the surrender finally came it found our army generally very greatly reduced in vital force. During the period following, from July 16th to about the same date in August the re-action fell with all its weight upon the troops, rendering them an easy prey to the climatic influences by which they were surrounded.[20] Pernicious malarial fever, bowel troubles and yellow fever were appearing in all the regiments; and the colored troops appeared as susceptible as their white comrades. The theory had been advanced that they were less susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular view of the theory. The best that can be said from the experience of Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever. These conclusions are, however, by no means well established. The Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment "effectually showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever than white," but we must remember that the service of the Twenty-fourth was exceptional. The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis, and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.
Arriving at Montauk[21] early the author had the op portunity to see the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba, and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of it as coming home on stretchers. Pale, emaciated, weak and halting, they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage. But, as General Wheeler said in his report, "the great bulk of the troops that were at Santiago were by no means well." Never before had the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into an army of invalids. And yet while all the regiments arriving showed the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars, excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the advantage. The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in "good condition" was an early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing from the transports. Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.
The chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, while en route to join his regiment at Montauk, thinking seriously over the condition of the men returning from such a hard experience, concluded that nothing would be more grateful to them than a reasonable supply of ripe fruit, fresh from the orchards and fields. He therefore sent a dispatch to the Daily Evening News, published in Bridgeton, N.J., asking the citizens of that community to contribute a carload of melons and fruits for the men of the Twenty-fifth, or for the whole camp, if they so wished. Subsequently mentioning the fact to the commanding officer of the regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett, he heartily commended the idea, believing that the fruit would be very beneficial. The good people of Bridgeton took hold of the matter heartily, and in a short time forwarded to the regiment more than four hundred of Jersey's finest watermelons, fresh from the vines. These were distributed judiciously and the health of the men began to improve forthwith. Soon five hundred more arrived, sent by a patriotic citizen of Philadelphia. These were also distributed. Ladies of Brooklyn forwarded peaches and vegetables, and supplies of all sorts now were coming in abundance. Our men improved so rapidly as to be the occasion of remark by correspondents of the press. They were spoken of as being apparently in good condition. While engaged in the work of supplying their physical wants the chaplain was taken to task by a correspondent of Leslie's for being too much concerned in getting a carload of watermelons for his regiment, to go over to a graveyard and pray over the dead. The next day the chaplain made haste to go over to that particular graveyard to relieve the country from the crying shame that the correspondent had pointed out, only to find two men already there armed with prayer-books and one of them especially so fearful that he would not get a chance to read a prayer over a dead soldier, that the chaplain found it necessary to assure him that the opportunity to pray should not be taken from him ; and thus another popular horror was found to be without reality.
The colored ladies of Brooklyn organized a Soldiers' Aid Society, and besides contributing in a general way, as already mentioned, also made and presented to the soldiers about four hundred home-made pies, which were most highly appreciated. They also prepared a tasty souvenir commemorative of the heroic work performed by the troops in Cuba, and expressive of high appreciation of the gallantry of the colored regiments. A beautiful stand of colors was also procured for the Twenty-fourth Infantry, which were subsequently presented to the regiment with appropriate ceremonies.
At the camp were three colored chaplains and one colored surgeon, serving with the Regular Army, and their presence was of great value in the way of accustoming the people at large to beholding colored men as commissioned officers. To none were more attention shown than to these colored men, and there was apparently no desire to infringe upon their rights. Occasionally a very petty social movement might be made by an insignificant, with a view of humiliating a Negro chaplain, but such efforts usually died without harm to those aimed at and apparently without special comfort to those who engineered them.
The following paragraphs, written while in camp at the time indicated in them, may serve a good purpose by their insertion here, showing as they do the reflections of the writer as well as in outlining the more important facts associated with that remarkable encampment: