On May 6 the Chairman of the Central Cuban Relief Committee replied as follows:
Washington, D. C,, May 6, 1898.
Clara Barton, Key West, Fla.:
Submitted your message to President and Cabinet, and it was read with moistened eyes. Considered serious and pathetic. Admiral Sampson's views regarded as wisest at present. Hope to land you soon. President, Long, and Moore send highest regards.
[Signed] BARTON.
Under these circumstances, of course, there was nothing for the Red Cross steamer to do but wait patiently in Key West until the army of invasion should leave Tampa for the Cuban coast.
Meanwhile, however, Miss Barton had discovered a field of beneficent activity for the Red Cross in Key West, where there were nearly 200 Spaniards, mostly fishermen, prisoners on vessels captured while running the blockade, and without means of subsistence. Most of these unfortunate men lived on fish after they were captured and none of them had a chance to obtain other food, as under the law they were not permitted to leave their vessels. The naval officers had no authority to supply the captives with food from the ships in the harbor, so their lot was far from being enviable.
When Miss Clara Barton received word of their plight she sent Dr. Egan, the chief medical officer of the expedition, with several attendants, around among the fleet of prizes to distribute food. On one of the larger smacks Dr. Egan found that the crew had had nothing but fish to eat for several days. The well in the boat, in which there were hundreds of live fish, contained also a large number of dead ones, which were putrefied and were rapidly polluting the living ones. The physician immediately ordered the dead fish removed and fresh water pumped into the well. He then furnished bread, potatoes and salt meat to the crew, so that, the continuity of Friday diet might be changed.
The Red Cross relief boats made a complete and accurate list of the Spanish prizes in the harbor—twenty-two in all—with the numerical strength of every crew, the amount of provisions, if any, on every vessel, and the quantity and kind of food that each would require. This was at once provided, and thus almost the first work done by the Red Cross in our war with Spain was the feeding of representatives of a nation that had forced us into war mainly because of its policy of starvation of the people of Cuba.
On the morning of June 20, the Red Cross steamer State of Texas left Key West for Santiago, stocked with food and medicines, and having on board Miss Barton, Mr. Kennan, and a complete working force of doctors and nurses. They were warmly welcomed on their arrival on Cuban shores, and the State of Texas was the first American ship to enter the harbor of Santiago after the surrender.