VI 



THE RETURN HOME 



TWO or three days after the surrender the cav- 

 alry division was marched back to the foothills 

 west of El Caney, and there went into camp, to- 

 gether with the artillery. It was a most beautiful 

 spot beside a stream of clear water, but it was not 

 healthy. In fact no ground in the neighborhood 

 was healthy. For the tropics the climate was not 

 bad, and I have no question but that a man who was 

 able to take good care of himself could live there all 

 the year round with comparative impunity; but the 

 case was entirely different with an army which was 

 obliged to suffer great exposure, and to live under 

 conditions which almost ensured being attacked by 

 the severe malarial fever of the country. My own 

 men were already suffering badly from fever, and 

 they got worse rather than better in the new camp. 

 The same was true of the other regiments in the 

 cavalry division. A curious feature was that the 

 colored troops seemed to suffer as heavily as the 

 white. From week to week there were slight rela- 

 tive changes, but on the average all the six cavalry 

 regiments, the Rough Riders, the white regulars, 

 (194) 



