Young's Fight at Las Guasimas 109 



and quagmires. We were not given quite the proper 

 amount of food, and what we did get, like most of 

 the clothing issued us, was fitter for the Klondyke 

 than for Cuba. We got enough salt pork and hard- 

 tack for the men, but not the full ration of coffee 

 and sugar, and nothing else. I organized a couple 

 of expeditions back to the seacoast, taking the 

 strongest and best walkers, and also some of the 

 officers' horses and a stray mule or two, and brought 

 back beans and canned tomatoes. These I got 

 partly by great exertions on my part, and partly by 

 the aid of Colonel Weston of the Commissary De- 

 partment, a particularly energetic man .whose ser- 

 vices were of great value. A silly regulation for- 

 bade my purchasing canned vegetables, etc., except 

 for the officers; and I had no little difficulty in 

 getting round this regulation, and purchasing (with 

 my own money, of course) what I needed for the 

 men. 



One of the men I took with me on one of these 

 trips was Sherman Bell, the former Deputy Mar- 

 shal of Cripple Creek, and Wells-Fargo Express 

 rider. In coming home with his load, through a 

 blinding storm, he slipped and opened the old rup- 

 ture. The agony was very great, and one of his 

 comrades took his load. He himself, sometimes 

 walking, and sometimes crawling, got back to 

 camp, where Dr. Church fixed him up with a spike 



