50 The Rough Riders 



not have water and hay, and the trains will or will 

 not make connections, in exact correspondence to the 

 energy and success of his own efforts to keep things 

 moving straight. 



It was on Sunday, May 29th, that we marched 

 out of our hot, windy, dusty camp to take the cars 

 for Tampa. Colonel Wood went first, with the 

 three sections under his special care. I followed 

 with the other four. The railway had promised us 

 a forty-eight hours' trip, but our experience in load- 

 ing was enough to show that the promise would not 

 be made good. There were no proper facilities for 

 getting the horses on or off the cars, or for feeding 

 or watering them,; and there was endless confusion 

 and delay among the railway officials. I marched 

 my four sections over in the afternoon, the first three 

 having taken the entire day to get off. We occupied 

 the night. As far as the regiment itself was con- 

 cerned, we worked an excellent system, Wood in- 

 structing me exactly how to proceed so as to avoid 

 confusion. Being a veteran campaigner, he had all 

 along insisted that for such work as we had before 

 us we must travel with the minimum possible lug- 

 gage. The men had merely what they could carry 

 on their own backs, and the officers very little more. 

 My own roll of clothes and bedding could be put 

 on my spare horse. The mule-train was to be used 

 simply for food, forage, and spare ammunition. As 



