72 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



The First Illinois came out of Cuba with the best record of the army, 

 and it was purely and simply because there was more intelligence and 

 more conscientiousness in caring for the men and seeing that they took 

 care of themselves. 



Well, all this time we had been hoping against hope that we would be 



1 brought home. The natives, the Cubans and the Spanish, (there were 



i 10,000 prisoners,) all told us the same thing, that if we could get away from 



: there by the 15th of August we needn't worry about the sickness, but if 



we stayed after that time it was deadly. They did get everything away 



except my own brigade. We were the roar guard of the 5th army corps out 



of Cuba, the last that left. 



Our turn came finally and we had a very pleasant trip north, arrived 

 at Mont auk Point, went through all the toils there, finally coming home 

 with a large number of sick, but to a reception which was a wonderful thing 

 in its warmth and in its pathetic scenes. 



I shall never forget it if I live to be a hundred years old that maich from 

 the depot to the armory with my men, many of them in ambulances and 

 in carriages, the others treading along like old men of sixty, myself hardly 

 able to sit on my horse. And yet the cheers will go on in my ears until 

 I die. So the regiment returned to its home midst cheers and tears and 

 music and love beyond measure. So much for our own personal history. 



As to the character of the Spanish war. It was unquestionably a war 

 brought on from purely higher motives than any either in the worid's 

 history. It was a war from start to finish on highly humanitarian prin- 

 ciples. 

 v I will tell you how the American army treated the Spanish prisoners. 



Ten thousand were sent out to the hills. They had just the same sort of 

 a camp we had. Every day I saw the long train of army wagons going into 

 that camp loaded, with just the same things as was brought to my head- 

 I quarters. The lowest Spanish private had the same rations an American 

 | general bad. More than that when they were sent home they were given 

 the preference, sent before we were and our Government paid the cost. 

 Bid you ever know of any prisoners of war treated like that? What was 



