To Cuba 57 



each taken. Our sorrow at leaving the horses was 

 entirely outweighed by our joy at going; but it was 

 very hard indeed to select the four troops that were 

 to stay, and the men who had to be left behind from 

 each of the troops that went. Colonel Wood took 

 Major Broclie and myself to command the two 

 squadrons, being allowed only two squadron com- 

 manders. The men who were left behind felt the 

 most bitter heartburn. To the great bulk of them 

 I think it will be a lifelong sorrow. I saw more than 

 one, both among the officers and privates, burst into 

 tears when he found he could not go. No outsider 

 can appreciate the bitterness of the disappointment. 

 Of course, really, those that stayed were entitled to 

 precisely as much honor as those that went. Each 

 man was doing his duty, and much the hardest and 

 most disagreeable duty was to stay. Credit should 

 go with the performance of duty, and not with what 

 is very often the accident of glory. All this and 

 much more we explained, but our explanations could 

 not alter the fact that some had to be chosen and 

 some had to be left. One of the Captains chosen 

 was Captain Maximilian Luna, who commanded 

 Troop F, from New Mexico. The Captain's people 

 had been on the banks of the Rio Grande before my 

 forefathers came to the mouth of the Hudson or 

 Wood's landed at Plymouth; and he made the plea 

 that it was his right to go as a representative of his 



