Walter W. Ward

“ Then it was that we began to realize what war was. Down in the dirty, dark and ill smelling hold we could see men at work building rough wooden bunks for us and the language used concerning these bunks and their location was copious and picturesque to a high degree. No "Pilgrim" accommodations were these. No mattresses 12 inches thick to rest our weary bones upon but the soft and splintered pine boards were to form our couch. Also the travel ration with its components of canned roast beef (?) , canned corn beef, canned beans and hardtack was beginning to pall upon our palates. ”

“ It was her sons who fought and fell at El Caney, the one battle of modern times where infantry, practically unsupported by artillery, captured a well fortified town and it was her sons who were in the lead in drawing the attacking lines so tightly about the city of Santiago that its surrender had to follow. It was her sons also who, on the high seas, on a fast auxiliary cruiser, did faithful service as a portion of the navy and had the satisfaction of doing their share in remembering the Maine by sinking a Spanish transport and a gun boat. ”

“ Could those people who had been for some years in the habit of sneering at the militiamen as "tin soldiers" have seen the way in which the rejected ones took their fate they would have changed their minds as to the soldierly calibre of the men of the Second. It was easy to tell the rejected ones as they came across the parade ground from the surgeon's quarters, many of them with tears in their eyes, all with downcast faces, because their bodies had not been strong enough to let them go with the regiment. ”

“ But with this then unknown the spirit of soldierly pride and loyalty to their organizations led officers and men to constant striving to be at the top or as near the top as possible, of the militia of the state in all things soldierly. In drill, in discipline, in knowledge of guard duty, in marksmanship and in all the other details that go to make up a good soldier there was assiduous practice and to the furtherance of that end many of the ceremonial features of military life, to which great importance had previously been attached, were discarded as far as possible. ”

“ It is not pleasant or conducive to coolness of thought or action to be suddenly pulled out of bed after a day of great exertion and hustle around in black darkness to the accompaniment of rifle bullets and bombshells and especially when it is uncertain whether the enemy is in one's front, flank or rear and go stumbling up a steep hill so that it is small wonder if at the outset a few were "rattled." But in a very short time the lines were formed on the top of the hill and the Second waited. ”

“ Just about 10 o'clock there was a disturbance of the peace by the Spaniards, who apparently wished to spoil the good time we were having. Three or four big guns boomed out and then came the, by this time familiar sound of the Mausers. It needed no bell boy to awake us. In a jiffy we were up and scrambling for rifles and cartridge belts. Then came quickly spoken orders to "fall in" from the company commanders and the voices of the hurrying non-coms as they rounded up the men. All was black darkness and men stumbled over the grass and roots or slipped on the steep hillside. ”

“ MEANWHILE, and while the infantry were getting in readiness, Springfield had already sent some of her sons on duty. The naval arm of the service was in a far more advanced state of preparation than was the army and it was the general opinion that of necessity the war would be one in which the navy would take the most prominent part, leaving but little for the land forces to do except garrison duty. Springfield had taken great pride in her company of the Massachusetts naval brigade since its organization and expected great things of it in the event of its being called upon for duty. ”

“ Sickness there was to be sure, but nothing more than was to be expected in a regiment of 900 men subjected to the exposures and hardships incidental to a campaign in a foreign land, and these exposures supplemented by a ration, which even when plentiful, which was not often, was entirely unfitted for soldiers campaigning in a warm climate. Again it must be remembered that our work in Cuba was performed in the rainy season and that sleeping in mud, marching and bivouacking in the rain and fording deep streams are not conducive to rugged health when persisted in day after day. ”

“ All these things helped the fever. Depression was its best ally, and then came nostalgia, the homesickness which men who have never experienced sneer at, but which is the bane of armies, and which in the Cuban campaign helped kill more men than the bullets of the Spaniards. For nurses for the sick there were only their comrades, willing enough God knows, but unaccustomed to the work, and with their own nerves and tempers wrought up to a high pitch. ”

“ But so long as the active campaign lasted, the excitement and novelty of it all kept the men up. After the surrender, when there was little or nothing for them to do, they were in condition to fall an easy prey to the "calentura" or malarial fever, and to the diseases of the stomach incident to camp life with a poorly adapted ration. Fat bacon and canned beans, containing fully as much grease as beans, are not the kind of food the sensible man going to [120] spend a time in the tropics would select for his menu, but that is what we got and it was eat it or nothing. ”

“ On April 2 came the first intimation that Springfield was to be called upon for men. Although war had not been declared and strenuous efforts were being made to head it off by the peace-at-any-price men, the navy department had set about getting into commission all the vessels that it could. At the League Island navy yard, Philadelphia, there lay a number of the old time monitors, some of them having been moored there since shortly after the close of the civil war, and it was decided to put them into condition for harbor defense purposes. ”

“ In October, 1899, a number of the officers and men of the Springfield companies who had served in the Cuban war began the organization of a camp of the Legion of Spanish War Veterans, an order patterned after the model of the Grand Army of the Republic and which it is to be hoped will be to the veterans of the war with Spain what the Grand Army is to the men who fought in the Civil war. The camp was named after Henry S. Lee of Springfield, whose splendid and self-sacrificing work for the benefit of the soldiers and sailors in the Spanish war will never be forgotten by them or the people. ”

“ Squads were sent over the field to bring in any dead or wounded that might have been overlooked and to gather up any property left there. The companies which had lost men prepared to march to the hospital to bury the dead and those fortunate ones whose haversacks had been untouched began to light their cooking fires. Hardly an hour had elapsed since Caney was taken when up came an aide with orders for Col. Clark and when he read them the assembly sounded and we heard with disgust the orders that the regiment was to move at once to San Juan to reinforce the first division. ”

“ At Montauk Point K company suffered a loss in the death of Musician Frank P. Jones, who succumbed to fever in the camp hospital August 27th. All through the campaign in Cuba Musician Jones not only kept himself well and his spirits up but his cheery speech did much to help his comrades. It was not until he reached Montauk that he gave in to the disease which laid so many of the Second low.
Even after the regiment had returned home and the sick men were being given the best of medical attention and care in their homes or in the hospitals the death angel did not cease. ”

“ Her sons fell on the battlefield and died in the camps and hospitals after enduring as soldiers, the hardships and toils of one of the shortest yet most important and bloodiest campaigns in history and of the honors of that war, Springfield claims a goodly share for herself. ”

“ On the day after the surrender Col. Clark issued orders for daily company drills and inspections with a view of giving the men something to do, he recognizing, as an old soldier, that idleness is the worst possible thing in camp. He and his superiors realized, however, that the army had passed through a most trying, though short campaign, and that the men deserved a rest, but at the same time there were already warnings that the less active the men were, the easier they fell prey to the climatic diseases of the country. ”

“ The regular patrol tour of the Prairie was from Provincetown north to some 40 miles above Boston, then south to Nantucket to Provincetown, meeting the San Francisco off the cape and obtaining mail.
These were not idle days by any means. What with battalion drills, inspection, target practice, painting ship and the regular routine of ship's work the long hours of duty passed quickly and the men were pretty well tired out as a rule when the time came to get into their hammocks. But the men of H company learned fast and soon accustomed themselves to life on one of Uncle Sam's war ships. ”

“ Clark and Major Bowen, the regimental surgeon, established a hospital in an old and dilapidated wooden building a couple of hundred yards in front of our advanced line of trenches and which had been used as a railway station. It was in poor shape, the roof being partly gone and the flooring bad, but it was better than leaving the sick men in their stuffy little shelter tents or out in the open air. The division hospitals were already overcrowded with wounded and sick men and the regimental commanders were notified that they would have to care for their own sick as best they could. ”

“ On we pressed, climbing a long hill, crowned with plantation buildings and from which we could look down upon a scene of beauty, the green-clad hills and mountains, their tops still wreathed in the morning mist and with no sign that aught but peace and happiness lay in the valleys between them. ”

“ Sleep comes quickly to a soldier in bivouac and soon after our halt every one of us, with the exception of the guards, was asleep. No attempt was made to put up the shelter tents, but we contented ourselves with unrolling them, spreading them upon the grass and wrapping ourselves up in our blankets. A few of us lunched upon hardtack and raw bacon washed down with muddy water from the canteens but the majority of the boys were too tired to think even of eating. ”

“ No effort of any kind was made to transfer as absolute unities the companies of militia into companies of United States Volunteers. It can truthfully be said that no man was asked to go to South Framingham by the officers. On the contrary Col. Clark and the company officers were all careful to impress upon the men of [13] the militia that their volunteering into the service of the United States was purely a voluntary and personal matter with them. There were dozens of instances in which the officers realized that the sacrifice was such as some of their men should not make. ”

“ The heavy fire which the powder smoke had drawn upon the two companies was also being felt by the 22d and its choleric commander, Major Van Horn, came rushing over with, "For God's sake, Second Massachusetts, stop firing! You're making us a regular target for the enemy." This was not all he said, either, but it was stronger language than politeness required. The firing did stop, that is, the volley firing did, but the company commanders gave their men orders to fire at will. ”

“ How the Knickerbocker ever escaped being run down or colliding with some other of the vessels of the fleet is one of the mysteries of the deep. Not less than half a dozen narrow escapes are on record in the memory of the men who were on her and on one or two occasions the escapes were so narrow that a few feet either way would have done the job for the Knickerbocker and her crew and passengers. On one occasion another boat came so near to running us down that half the men were ready to jump into the sea but the other boat finally sheered off by the closest margin. ”

“ Before long Private John J. Malone of B got a fatal wound just below the heart and then men began to fall thick and fast. As soon as the two companies had taken their positions they were ordered to fire, but the enemy's return for the first few volleys was payment with compound interest. The smoke from the Springfield rifles showed the position of our men and lifting slowly, made just the target which the enemy needed. At this time the line was about 900 yards from the advanced Spanish trenches and it must have been just like rifle practice for the enemy. ”

“ At every station our train passed through there were cheering crowds and enthusiasm seemed to be in evidence everywhere. We reached Newport about 9.30 and were transferred to the palatial steamer "Pilgrim" of the Fall River line.
"This isn't so bad for army travelling," was the common remark as soon as the boys found what accommodations had been made for them. There were nearly enough staterooms to provide every man with a bunk and those who failed to get a room found nice, thick mattresses spread for them on the saloon floors. ”

“ All the line officers and 75 per cent. of our men in the militia had come with us while there were more than enough "rookies" to fill out the quota. The recruits were, some of them, in uniform and a number had formerly been in the militia service, so that they took kindly enough to the opening [23] of camp life. But as the militia companies had only been composed of 58 enlisted men there were not uniforms enough at the time to equip the extra men and some of the "rookies" looked odd and felt it in their civilian attire. ”