108 The Rough Riders 



eral days. Captain Lee, the British attache, spent 

 some time with us; we had begun to regard him 

 as almost a member of the regiment. Count von 

 Gotzen, the German attache, another good fellow, 

 also visited us. General Young was struck down 

 with the fever, and Wood took charge of the bri- 

 gade. This left me in command of the regiment, 

 of which I was very glad, for such experience as we 

 had had is a quick teacher. By this time the men 

 and I knew one another, and I felt able to make 

 them do themselves justice in march or battle. They 

 understood that I paid no heed to where they came 

 from; no heed to their creed, politics, or social 

 standing; that I would care for them to the utmost 

 of my power, but that I demanded the highest per- 

 formance of duty; while in return I had seen them 

 tested, and knew I could depend absolutely on their 

 courage, hardihood, obedience, and individual initia- 

 tive. 



There was nothing like enough transportation 

 with the army, whether in the way of wagons or 

 mule-trains; exactly as there had been no sufficient 

 number of landing-boats with the transports. The 

 officers 5 baggage had come up, but none of us had 

 much, and the shelter-tents proved only a partial 

 protection against the terrific downpours of rain. 

 These occurred almost every afternoon, and turned 

 the camp into a tarn, and the trails into torrents 



