200 The Rough Riders 



regulations of the War Department, each regiment 

 should have had at least twenty-five wagons. As a 

 matter of fact our regiment often had none, some- 

 times one, rarely two, and never three; yet it was 

 better off than any other in the cavalry division. 

 In consequence it was impossible to carry much of 

 anything save what the men had on their backs, and 

 half of the men were too weak to walk three miles 

 with their packs. Whenever we shifted camp the 

 exertion among the half-sick caused our sick-roll 

 to double next morning, and it took at least three 

 days, even when the shift was for but a short dis- 

 tance, before we were able to bring up the officers' 

 luggage, the hospital spare food, the ammunition, 

 etc. Meanwhile the officers slept wherever they 

 could, and those men who had not been able to 

 carry their own bedding, slept as the officers did. 

 In the weak condition of the men the labor of pitch- 

 ing camp was severe and told heavily upon them. 

 In short, the scheme of continually shifting camp 

 was impossible of fulfilment. It would merely have 

 resulted in the early destruction of the army. 



Again, it was proposed that we should go up the 

 mountains and make our camps there. The palm 

 and the bamboo grew to the summits of the moun- 

 tains, and the soil along their sides was deep and 

 soft, while the rains were very heavy, much more so 

 than immediately on the coast every mile or two in- 



