SMOKE FROM OUR CAMP FIRE. 



95 



face of heavy odds. We felt we must do 

 this for we were the first troops to go under 

 fire and we must give the Spaniards a good 

 impression of us. In short we felt it our 

 duty to that day set the pace for the army." 



When Colonel Bell sat down the audience 

 rose up en masse and cheered him to the 

 echo. 



If we were to depend on the newspaper re- 

 ports for our information, we should get the 

 impression that the only troops who fought 

 in the battle of Las Guasimas were the 

 Rough Riders. That regiment had 500 men 

 engaged, 8 of whom were killed. Colonel 

 Bell had less than 225 men under fire, of 

 whom 8 were killed. Any man with even a 

 slight knowledge of arithmetic can easily 

 figure out which of the 2 commands had the 

 hotter place. It is simply disgraceful that 

 the newspapers should so persistently have 

 lauded the volunteers, while so studiously 

 ignoring and belittling the services of the 

 Tegular troops. Here were General Young, 

 Colonel Bell, and several other officers who 

 defended the Stars and Stripes in the civil 

 war; who have since grown gray in the ser- 

 vice of their country; who have been 

 wounded and brevetted time and again, in 

 the Indian wars, and who really bore the 

 brunt of this deadly fire; yet there are thou- 

 sands of intelligent American people who do 

 not know the first Regular Cavalry was in 

 the fight at Las Guasimas. 



Fortunately, however, the daily news- 

 papers are not the only recorders of history. 

 People who have taken the pains to exam- 

 ine the official reports of General Wheeler 

 and General Young, will have observed that 

 some regular troops were in this fight. They 

 will also have observed that there were some 

 regular troops in the Battle of San Juan Hill, 

 and that certain volunteers, who have been 

 covered all over with cheap glory by the 

 daily papers had so insignificant a part in 

 that affair that 2 of the generals who com- 



manded there have not thought it worth 

 while to mention them in their official re- 

 ports. 



I would not be misunderstood as belit- 

 tling the services of the valiant men who 

 volunteered to wrest Cuba from the misrule 

 of Spain; but I do earnestly protest against 

 the fulsome advertising that has been given 

 them by the daily papers, for political pur- 

 poses, to the neglect of men who did better 

 service there and who have spent all the best 

 years of their lives in the service of the. coun- 

 try. 



Colonel Bell and Captain Knox were fi- 

 nally rescued from the hail of Mauser bullets 

 at Las Guasimas and carried on stretchers 4 

 miles over rocks, ditches and through 

 jungles, to the steamer dock at the coast. 

 They lay there in the hot sun, on stretchers, 

 for 4 hours before they were taken in small 

 boats out to the hospital ship which lay in 

 the harbor. They lay 3 weeks on that vessel, 

 during which time she steamed up to 

 Hampton Roads. She lay there a whole day 

 while the Great Circumlocution Office at 

 Washington was determining what should 

 be done with the men on board. Finally 

 she was ordered to New York and these men 

 were put in the hospital at Fort Wadsworth. 

 All this time the surgeons were insisting 

 that Captain Knox could not possibly live 

 more than a few hours; but finally he out- 

 generaled them all, and got well. He is 

 now on duty in the Inspector General's De- 

 partment, Washington, having been pro- 

 moted to the rank of Major in that corps. 



The bones of Colonel Bell's leg were re- 

 set as best they could be, and he is limping 

 about with a cane, but will probably never 

 again be able for active duty in the field. 



Colonel Bell did not tell us all this, nor 

 half of it, in his modest speech at the Camp 

 Fire Club. I have gotten the most of it from 

 official records and from men who fought 

 with him, and suffered with him. 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY W. R. TII.TOX. 



OIL TANK ON FIRE-STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. 



