USA > Ohio > The Fourteenth Ohio national guard- the Fourth Ohio volunteer infantry > Part 12
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night the commanding officers were called to brigade headquarters, where the plan for the movement was explained to them and each was assigned the duty which he was to perform.
About 11 o'clock Thursday night, the battalion commanders were instructed to have their companies ready to move at 5 on the morning of the 13th. All the companies had now been sent to outpost duty, Company B having been again relieved. They were not disturbed that night, however, but the order was communicated to them early the next morning.
Shortly after the battalion commanders had re- ceived their instructions, Captain Sellers, of D Com- pany, called at headquarters and asked for Major Sellers, of the Third Battalion. When he found the major, the captain reported one of the saddest acci- dents that could have happened throughout the whole campaign.
One of the outposts guarded by Company D was at a lonely spot on the north side of the mountain, east of the Guayama bridge. This post was in com- mand of Lieutenant Turner, and one of the members of the Guard was Private Sam Hill. Private Hill had been relieved and had gone to his tent until his turn would again come to take post. It is supposed that he arose in his sleep and wandered from his tent. Those on guard at the time could not have noticed him leave his tent, hence his comrades were in ig- norance of his absence.
The hills and the valley below were known to be full of Spanish guerillas and picket duty on these
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posts was very dangerous. One of the guards who had relieved Private Hill and the relief of which he was a member, noticed an object moving in the dark- ness near his post and he at once commanded "halt." The challenge was unheeded, but it was repeated only to be again unheeded. The moving object had every appearance of a human being, but in the darkness it was impossible to distinguish between friend and foe. Before offering the third challenge the sentry called out, "For God's sake speak or I'll fire!" and at this somewhat irregular but conscientious challenge, it seemed to raise up as if to spring, and the sentry fired.
Investigation showed that the object had in- deed been a human being and that it was Private Hill. The sentry who had fired the fatal shot was crazed with grief when he saw the lifeless body of his comrade, but he had done his duty and was blameless. The news of the accident fell like a pall upon the entire company, but every member realized that no person was in any way at fault, and the body of the unfortunate man was laid tenderly away in the gov- ernment burial lot at Guayama.
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CHAPTER XIII.
BEGINNING OF THE END.
Imposing Scenes-Breakfast in the Rain-Expedition As- signed to Fourth Ohio-March Begun-Guide "Backs Out"-Plan of Operations-A Rocky Road-A Hot Day-Danger in Straggling-Lunch and a Short Rest- End of the March-Hostilities Suspended-Retraced Steps-Friday and the Thirteenth-Intense Suffering- Temporary Camp-Hospital Call-Permanent Camp.
On the morning of August 13th the members of the Fourth witnessed a sight they could never forget. A light rain had fallen during the night in the city, but out where the companies were located, the rain was quite heavy and continued until some time after daylight. The men were obliged to pre- pare breakfast and get ready for the day's work in this kind of weather, but there was very little grumbling except that they had not been given a warning sooner of what was to come. The regiment assembled early and before 7 o'clock it was reported to General Haines ready for duty.
It is not necessary to give the general plan of the movement in this connection, even if the details were at hand. The object was of course the conquest of the island and the immediate capture and possession of the city of Cayey, the capital of the province of the same name. General Brooke was on the scene of action and personally conducted the initial move ments. The Fourth Ohio had been recommended to
SECTION OF ROAD TRAVERSED AUG. 13
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him as a command which could be thoroughly relied upon, and from this recommendation and from what he had seen at Camp Thomas, the regiment was as- signed the most difficult part of the movement.
The regiment assembled on the road leading from Guayama to Cayey, between the city and the bridge. Before they could proceed on the march, however, and while they were in line, General Brooke and his entire staff passed up the road. Following the general and his staff came a large detachment of cavalry, the most of them regular, one troop, the First City Troop of Philadelphia. The firm, reso- lute faces of these men as they galloped along the line of the Fourth, gave the boys a feeling of confi- dence and they were more anxious than ever to measure strength with the Spanish forces.
The rear of the cavalry column had hardly passed when the sonorous rumbling of artillery was heard as it rattled over the road into position beyond the bridge. Then came Colonel Bennit at the head of the Third Illinois and then the Fourth Pennsyl- vania, commanded by Colonel Case. Knowing the situation as they did, the Fourth Ohio at first regarded with considerable suspicion the result of this expedi- tion, for they knew full well that from their position in the hills the Spaniards could see exactly what was going on and that they were as a matter of course pre- paring to receive any attack that might be made. The resolute appearance of the men who had passed with the cavalry, however, and the heavy guns that spoke destruction inevitable, manned by men who were as
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anxious to fight as the members of the Fourth Ohio could have ever been, and these, backed up by the other regiments of the brigade, of which the Fourth Ohio was a part, inspired such a feeling in the minds of the boys that they expected to see the very hills before them torn to pieces and the war brought to a summary close before night fall.
As soon as this force had cleared the way, the Fourth Ohio started on the march, in an opposite di- rection, or back towards the town. They passed on through Guayama and on to the road leading to Ponce. This road was followed for a distance of nearly a mile when a turn was made to the right and the line of march was continued along a rough, rocky road that had the appearance of being a private lane. The Second Battalion marched at the head of the col- umn and the First Battalion was assigned to the rear. The march was well protected by a strong advance guard, E Company under Captain Vincent having been assigned to this duty.
The column advanced through fields and across meadows, over deep ditches and along rugged streams, pushing its way at times through thickets and planta- tions and again coming out into rocky barren places where the horses could hardly be pushed along at all. A guide had been secured to point out the way, but when it came to the test, he refused to go along. General Haines accompanied this expedition and he at once sent back to Guayama for Emanuel Lucinarius who bravely offered to show the way through the mountains.
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Briefly stated, the plan was for the Fourth Ohio to take a very circuitous route through the mountains, arriving at the rear of the town, while the remainder of the force was to have advanced over the main road. The main column would probably have attracted the attention of the entire Spanish force, so that the Fourth Ohio could have moved practically unnoticed into a strong position and the work would have been done. At the same time General Miles, with his army at Ponce, would advance from Comoa, the town which had already been captured with a small loss, so that the Spaniards would have been compelled to exhaust their every resource to cope with such a movement.
The men had been ordered to take two days' ra- tions with them, and this, added to the weight of the regular equipment began to weigh pretty heavily on the men before they had gone very far. The tac- tics that had been followed on the march from Arroyo were again adopted and shelter tents, blan- kets and ponchos were thrown by the wayside. The rains had entirely ceased and the sun beat down upon the men most unmercifully. The band had again left their instruments behind and were acting as mem- bers of the hospital corps. The sun beat down upon these men, however, with as much force as it did upon the companies, and they were almost as help- less as the other men. They accomplished much good, however, by caring as best they could under the circumstances, for the men who were compelled to drop from the ranks on account of the heat.
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Considering the terrible heat and the rate at which the march was kept up in order to reach the town at the appointed time, there were not as many stragglers as might be supposed. There was a fight in view and this kept the spirits of the men in such condition that they could have borne even worse hard- ships than they had yet suffered. Before noon, how- ever, the unrelenting heat had claimed quite a num- ber of victims and the poor fellows who could go no further were cared for as well as could be done many miles from a hospital.
Straggling was very dangerous, for the moun- tains were known to be full of guerillas and scouts from the Spanish army, and it was learned after hos- tilities had been suspended that small reconnoitering parties had actually concealed themselves and watched the regiment thread its way through the bushes and among the rocks. They were in such small force, however, that they regarded it folly to make their presence known in any way, but had the line of march been marked with men who had fallen from the ranks, they could easily have been captured and carried away to Spanish prisons.
A peculiar fact connected with the history of the Fourth Ohio is that every movement was either made on Friday or on the 13th day of the month. This movement was made both on Friday and on the Thir- teenth, and while the regiment at least as a whole was not superstitious in any way, many of the mem- bers fully expected that something serious would happen. Dozens of places were passed, where, if the
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Spaniards had seen or had been ready to act, the regiment could have been wiped out of existence so completely that not one would have survived to tell the tale. As these places were passed the men in- voluntarily heaved a sigh of relief and figuratively "held their breath" until the next pass came into view. Every rifle was loaded, chamber and magazine, and during most of the march, every trigger had a finger ready to touch it in the name of "Fair Co- lumbia and the Stars and Stripes."
The regiment reached a beautiful, well-shaded spot along the bank of one of the mountain streams about noon, and here a short stop was made for din- ner. No fires were kindled except a few of sticks where the men prepared cups of coffee. "Prime Roast Beef," "Boston Baked Beans," and "Finest Quality Tomatoes," with a liberal supply of hard tack and river water, made up the menu of the lunch, but it was heartily enjoyed by all, as was also the short rest which was permitted after lunch.
When all was again ready, the march was re- sumed, but perhaps at a little higher rate of speed until the last mountain pass was reached. This was little short of a cliff, but it had to be surmounted just the same, as the other bad places had to be gone over. It was about 2 o'clock when the foot of this hill was reached and a brief rest had been ordered before the ascent was commenced. It would have required about an hour for the regiment to have climbed this place, but at the top all the fighting that had ever been asked for was waiting. The command, "For-
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ward!" had just been given when an officer of the signal corps, Major Dean, overtook the regiment, his horse covered with lather and foam and almost ex- hausted. When he reached the rear of the column, he called for them to make way. He pushed through as rapidly as the men could make way for him, shout- ing as he did so, "Tell the colonel to halt." When the major had reached the colonel and General Haines, he delivered a message from General Brooke, announcing that dispatches had been received from Washington with the intelligence that hostilities be- tween the United States and the kingdom of Spain had been suspended, and that there would be no more fighting, at least for the time being. The Fourth Ohio was then ordered back to Guayama, to report as soon as possible.
"This is Friday and the 13th," observed a sol- dier, who had been an observer. "I told you some- thing would happen, and now sure enough we are up against the worst snap we have struck since we left home. All this killing march for nothing. It does beat -," and here the pessimistic observation was drowned in the cheer that went up from the ranks for Uncle Sam. The march had been a severe one, and it seemed hard for the boys to turn their backs to the enemy they had yearned so much to meet, but knowing that a fight on that ground would have resulted seriously if not disastrously, the boys accepted their fate as best they could and after a short rest started back to town.
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If the advance had been a severe trial, the re- turn trip to the city was a severer one. The first march had been attended with novelty, and with interest and a promise of excitement, but now that the boys had to pick their way back over the rough road without having accomplished anything or without re- ceiving an opportunity of showing what Ohio citizen soldiers could do, the regiment as a whole was sadly discouraged, and very uncomplimentary remarks were made concerning the "backbone" of the Spanish gov- ernment and the fighting quality of her soldiers. However, a soldier's value is estimated by his willing- ness and promptness in obeying orders, and here the Fourth Ohio did its duty just as it had done on every occasion since the day it was accepted as a volunteer regiment.
The Third Battalion took the lead on the return and they set a merry pace. Half running, the col- umn retraced its steps back to town as though it had a record to beat and had there been one it certainly would have been beaten, for before the sun had sunk behind the hills the regiment had just climbed and then descended, a camp had been established and preparations were going on for the night camp along the Ponce road, at the point where the regiment had left it earlier in the day.
On the return there was a large number of strag- glers, for the heat of the sun and the severe physical strain of the march had so nearly worn out a great number of the men that they were wholly unable to keep up. They were compelled, for lack of strength,
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to drop out and rest, returning to the regiment as best they could. The hospital corps at first attempted to assist these men, but the number increased so rap- idly that no possible means could be devised to help them and they were obliged to get along as best they could. Lack of water and of nourishing or refreshing food had rendered them almost helpless, and words fail to describe the suffering of that afternoon. Men threw away what clothing they could spare in order to lighten their load and to make better progress. Some threw their weary bodies into the streams in the hope that in that way they could quench their parching thirst. Men lay at the roadside begging for water, while their comrades were forced to pass by them, wholly unable to give them more than a quaff of the tepid water from the little rivulets which had almost boiled under the terrible heat of the trop- ical sun. Some of these men did not rejoin the regi- ment until the next day, preferring remaining out in the open country to dragging their exhausted bodies over the rocks before they had enjoyed a night's rest.
As soon as the temporary camp was established, the men were permitted to report at the hospital, and quite a number improved this opportunity to prepare for the fight against disease. Quite a few were ad- mitted to the hospital as patients, and it is very grati- fying to note that no permanent evil resulted from the terrible march.
Supper was prepared and the men, after taking liberal quantities of hot coffee into their stomachs, wrapped themselves in the few blankets which re-
CATHEDRAL AND PLAZA, GUAYAMA.
........
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mained, and creeping into the little shelter tents buried themselves in sleep until morning. The camp was not in existence long, for early the next day the regiment removed to a hill side at the north side of the city, the new camp bordering on one of the Guayama streets at the south and another, the main street or the road to Cayey on the west. The new camp was made with the wall tents which had been brought from Chickamauga park, a decided improve- ment over the low thin "pup-tents."
If a careful survey of the whole island of Porto Rico had been made, a worse location for a military camp could hardly have been selected. There was one advantage and that was the convenience to a water supply, the city water station being located within the limits of the camp. This proved inade- quate, however, and water for cooking and some for drinking purposes had to be carried from the city. The camp was on a hillside at the base of the moun- tain range already described. At the foot of the hill was Rio Guayama, and this made it convenient for washing clothes and for bathing, but the Third Il- linois later occupied a field further up the stream and the water was thoroughly polluted bythe "Suckers" before it reached the limits of the Fourth Ohio camp. The surface of the ground was such that it was abso- lutely impossible to take a step in any direction with- out going either up or down hill. As popular as dress parades were with the regiment, a parade ground could not be found capable of permitting a review in more than a column of platoons and even these were often
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obliged to break to pieces in passing the reviewing officer. Permission could not be secured, however, to remove the camp to a more favorable location and the regiment made this place its home until October 6th, when the start was made across the island for San Juan and the states.
1
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CHAPTER XIV.
IN CAMP AT GUAYAMA.
Miserable Location-Causes of Dissatisfaction-Health of the Men-Desire to Return Home-Sickness-Condition at Hospital-Changes in Commanders-Market-Finan- cial Condition of Men-The Paymaster-Better Times- Visit of Mr. Klotts-Orders to Move-Brigade Dis- banded.
The camp at Guayama was in existence from August 14 to October 6, when, under orders to re- turn to the United States, the regiment marched across the mountains to Cayey, thence to Caguas and from there to Rio Piedras and proceeded to San Juan. The camp has already been described as to its posi- tion and surface. The members of the regiment had but one consolation when the camp was established: The assurance that hostilities having ceased, or at least suspended, the war would soon be declared off and the regiment returned to its home in Ohio. Had it been generally known at the time this camp was formed that the regiment would remain there two long months, the howl that would have gone up from the company streets would have been heard in Wash- ington.
One of the first duties after the camp was formed, was the digging of sinks and other preparations look- ing to the health and comfort of the men during the occupation of the camp, whatever length of time that might be. It should be remembered in this connection
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that the only commissary stores received at Guayama were those which had constituted the diet of the reg- iment since the day the regimental camp at Camp Thomas had been abandoned. The regiment was not traveling, much as it wanted to, but "travel rations" continued to come in from the United States. The first few days the boys managed to get along fairly well by buying and bartering of the natives such ar- ticles of food as the island produced and a few arti- cles that had been imported. They were unable to do this very long, however, from the fact that no pay- master had yet appeared at the camp and the funds of most of the men had become practically exhausted.
About the time the boys began to think seriously of rising up and demanding as one man that more and better rations be issued, they began to under- stand that it was not the fault of the regimental or company officers that they were not better fed, but that it was the fault of those in the states who had the matter of feeding the army in hand. All com- missary stores were purchased by contract and if the contractors could furnish the stores that would fill their coffers more rapidly than to furnish the kind of food which the men in the field wanted and which they needed, the former was invariably sent to Cuba and to Porto Rico. It made little difference how much the men who had to eat these things, objected, the issues continued the same.
The first diversion from the fare described was rice and potatoes. The issue was very small, but with its aid, the spirits of the boys were wonderfully
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strengthened. Company officers did much also to lessen the suffering of their men by saving the issues of canned beef, tomatoes, hard tack and beans and trading it to native merchants for yams, eggs, milk and other provisions better suited to the climate and to the condition of the men.
The health of the regiment first began to break down while this camp was occupied. At Chicka- mauga park, both the other regiments of the brigade had suffered comparatively heavy losses by death for soldiers not in an active campaign. Their hospitals were full and their men were during much of the time unfit for duty on account of sickness, but during all this time the Fourth Ohio had suffered very little sickness and but one death had occurred in the regi- ment. This was the only death that occurred before the regiment left the United States. It was but a few days after Porto Rico was reached, however, that sickness began to appear and there was a death before the camp at Guayama had been established. This was Daniel H. Dodge, of H company, who was buried at the cemetery at Arroyo by Captain Donavin and sev- eral other members of the regiment.
There were several causes which combined to break down the health of the men. Without going into technicality or detail, these were, the absence of proper food, the change in climate, homesickness and the indulgence in the use of the native fruits and pastry. The latter may not have caused any deaths, but the eating of mangoes and some of the candies and other products of the native kitchen, in spite of
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the warning of the surgeons and the orders of the colonel and company commanders, rendered many soldiers unfit for duty. Once sick, many of them would give up their thoughts to home and those they had left behind, and before the patient or his com- rades were aware, these were at the hospital in a criti- cal condition. There was very little of this class of disease when compared with that found in the other commands on the island. Either the discipline of the Fourth Ohio was better, the men wiser, or they were less fortunately situated as to finances.
The change in climate and the lack of proper food claimed several victims, but neither the men nor the officers over them were at fault in this matter. The seat of this trouble has already been located. It is a fact also that the mere fact that the men were members of the army and that they were in an active campaign and suffering all the inconveniences inci- dent to that kind of duty, had very little if anything to do with the suffering superinduced by the change in climate. Persons going to tropical from temper- ate climates on pleasure tours suffer the same diffi- culty. But these causes combined had an evil effect and can not be overlooked.
These were times that were trying to the medi- cal department. Major Semans and Dr. Wright worked night and day to relieve the suffering of the men and with the aid of the stewards and the other members of the regiment who had been detailed to duty at the hospital, many lives were saved and much suffering was relieved or entirely avoided. The work
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of the hospital men in this camp as well as during all the time in which the regiment was in the service was certainly well done and too much praise can not be accorded them. At any hour during the day or night that men went to the hospital, some one was awake and ready and willing to take care of the pa- tient. The work of the hospital corps is treated else- where, but it is only proper to mention in this con- nection the untiring effort and the noble work of Doc- tors McMurray, Wilson, Carson, Nurses Lane, Reed and others who, on account of their knowledge of medicine and the care of the sick were assigned to duty with the regimental surgeons. These men worked without commissions and without extra pay except the satisfaction of knowing that they were do- ing much good for their comrades in distress. Major Semans worked himself sick and had Dr. Wright been obliged to have remained on duty at the regi- mental hospital, he would have undoubtedly broken completely down.
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