Traveling through western Texas and the plains of New Mexico is very
mountainous and lonely. Villages of prairie dogs here and there seem to
be about all the living things that the traveler sees. These little
animals burrow deep in the ground, thousands of them close together, and
this is why it is called a prairie dog town. I was told that these
little dogs live mostly on roots and drink no water. I give this as it
was told me, and do not know how true it is. One thing which I noticed
was that we would travel two or three hundred miles and not see any
water courses.
The section that I was with was detained about three hours at El Paso,
Texas, on account of some trouble on the road ahead of us. Many of us
took advantage of this to look about the city. A considerable change of
temperature was noted, it being much cooler than at New Orleans. Before
the next morning we were passing through New Mexico. It was cold enough
to wear an overcoat, but as we only had blankets every man had one drawn
close around him, and was then shivering with cold. This cold weather
continued until the Rocky Mountains were crossed, and we began to
descend the Pacific Slope.
Crossing the deserts of Arizona was disagreeable. The white sand from a
distance looks like snow, and is so dry and light that it is lifted
about by the wind. Some places it will drift several feet deep. The
railroad company kept men employed all the time shoveling sand from the
track. Nothing but some scattering, scrubby bushes grows in the deserts.
Almost any time looking from the cars there seems to be smoke away off
in the distance. This is nothing but the dry sand being blown about by
the wind.
Where the railroad crossed the deserts they are from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred miles wide.
The first place we stopped after crossing the Rocky Mountains was in the
city of Los Angeles, California. The good people of Los Angeles had a
bountiful supply of oranges and other nice fruit, which were given to
the soldiers, who enjoyed them very much. Some towns where we stopped
the citizens would put two or three crates of oranges in every car of
our train.
The country was beautiful, orange groves and orchards of different kinds
were numerous and fine.
California is the most beautiful country I have seen in my travels from
Georgia to the Philippine Islands.
The Oakland Ferry was reached about ten o'clock on the morning of the
first day of June. Our regiment commenced to cross at once over to San
Francisco. A detail was left to take our supplies from the train and
load them on boats, all the balance of the regiment going across. My
first sergeant was unfriendly to me and included me in the detail as a
mark of disrespect to me, although it was not my time to be placed on
detail duty according to the system of rotating that duty.
Our detail worked very hard for about two hours and seeing no prospect
of dinner we crossed over into San Francisco to find something to eat.
We found our regiment just ready to enjoy a grand banquet prepared by
the Red Cross Society. It was prepared near the piers in a long stone
building; long tables were piled full of all that a crowd of hungry
soldiers could wish for, excellent music was furnished while we did full
justice to the feast before us. The Red Cross has spent a great deal of
money since the commencement of the Spanish-American war; it has
accomplished much toward softening the horrors of war by caring for the
sick and wounded, providing medicines and necessaries for their relief,
and doing many charitable acts too numerous to be enumerated here. Many
men to-day enjoying health and strength were rescued from what must have
been an untimely grave had not the work of the Red Cross come to their
relief when sick or wounded. The army physician frequently was a
heartless, and apparently indifferent man about the ills of his
patients. While at Camp Merritt I was sick for a month. The physician
pronounced the malady fever; he did not seem to care about my recovery
or that of any other man; his chief concern seemed to be that of
obtaining his salary of one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month.
Beyond this his interest seemed to cease, and if a sick soldier
recovered he was considered lucky.
There were many sick men in Camp Merritt in the months of June and
July. We were stationed there for five months.
Twenty-five men, myself included, volunteered to be transferred from
Company "A" to Company "E." This transfer was made on the sixth of June,
and was done to fill up Company "E" to its full quota for the purpose of
going to Manila on the transport Colon, which was to leave San Francisco
on the fifteenth of June.
My company, now Company "E," was being prepared by Captain Pratt, and
was drilling for the last time in the United States before going to
Manila. I unfortunately became ill and had to be left at Camp Merritt to
go over later. It was sad news to me, for I wanted to go over with this
expedition.
One battalion of the 23d Regiment was left at Camp Merritt, which
included my old company, to which I was assigned. We stayed at Camp
Merritt until about the middle of August, when orders were received to
go to Manila. By the time everything was packed and ready to strike
tents a second order was received, not to go to Manila, but to go to
Presidio, in San Francisco, and await further orders. About the 10th of
October, to our great joy, orders were read out at parade in the
evening, that we would start to Manila on the seventeenth. The men were
so glad they threw up their hats and shouted for joy. We were glad to
leave the cold, foggy and disagreeable climate of San Francisco, and
delighted that we were going to Manila, which was then the central
battle field.
The bad climate, incidentally mentioned, of San Francisco seemed to be
only local, extending along the coast for only a few miles.
I have been in San Francisco when it was cold enough to wear an
overcoat, and going across the bay to Oakland it was warm enough for a
man to be comfortable in his shirt sleeves. The distance between these
two points is only six miles. The native citizens of San Francisco, and
those who have been residents for many years and accustomed to the damp,
foggy atmosphere, are very healthy.
But this climate was very detrimental to the soldiers in Camp Merritt,
and fatal to many.
While stationed in Camp Merritt I spent a great deal of time in the San
Francisco park, which contained one thousand acres of land.
A great variety of wild animals and many different kinds of birds were
there, and I found in it a great deal of interest and amusement. Crowds
of people were there every night. Many people were there for the purpose
of committing some crime. People were frequently being sandbagged and
robbed, or sometimes boldly held up, and money and valuables secured.
I knew a great many soldiers who were robbed, sometimes they received
bruised heads just by loafing in the park at night.
No reflection is intended to be cast upon the police whose duty was in
the park; there were a great many of them, but they did not know all
that was being done in the park, and it was necessary for a man to keep
a sharp lookout for himself if he wished to escape uninjured.
The date of our departure the Red Cross gave a fine dinner for all who
were going to leave the camp. This was the custom with that society when
any soldiers left there for the Philippines.
All those who left while I was there partook of a splendid dinner just
before leaving.
This society, in addition to the dinner given to us, had several hundred
dollars worth of provisions put on board our transport, and all marked,
"For enlisted men only on deck."
At three o'clock in the afternoon of the seventeenth day of October,
1898, we sailed on board the transport "Senator." The provisions put on
board for us were well cared for--by the officers, who took charge of
them and guarded them so well that if an enlisted man got any of them,
he had to steal them from under a guard. Actually had to steal what
belonged to him by gift, and if caught stealing them he was court
martialed, and fined enough to buy his rations for a month, but the fine
money was not appropriated in that way.
We had a rough voyage, not on account of the weather, but because the
transport was so packed and crowded that a man did well to walk from one
end of the ship to the other. We were crowded like a cargo of animals
bound for a slaughter pen.
A private may think all or anything he pleases, but he does not have an
opportunity to say very much about anything. He must obey the commands
of his officers.
Our officers on the transport had everything to suit themselves, and the
private had to do the best he could and try to be satisfied, or at least
appear that way.
It would take two-thirds of the deck for half a dozen officers to have
room. They thought themselves so superior to the privates they did not
want to be near them. Our ship had fifteen hundred men on board.
We reached the port of Honolulu, after several days' sailing on rough
seas, October twenty-fifth; five days were taken to coal for our long
voyage to Manila. Honolulu is a fine city, about 2,190 miles from San
Francisco. Located as it is, away out in the Pacific Ocean, makes it the
more attractive to a Georgia soldier who was on his first sea voyage.
There are some fine views in and around Honolulu. As our transport
steamed into the harbor of the city I thought it a grand sight. From
what I could learn I had but one objection to it as a desirable place to
live--leprosy is too prevalent. A small island is used for the lepers'
home, where all who are afflicted with this most loathsome of diseases
are carried, yet the fact that those poor victims are in that country is
a disagreeable one and makes one shudder to look at the island. No one
is allowed to go there, except on business, and they have to get passes
from the authorities to do so. I had no desire to visit the place.
Honolulu is a very good city, with some of the modern city improvements,
such as water works, electric lights, street railroads and ice
factories. These are the results of emigration, people of other
countries going in with money and experience. The natives are called
Kanakis. Agriculture consists in the cultivation of rice, bananas,
cocoanuts and coffee. It was there where I first saw bananas, cocoanuts
and coffee growing. A lieutenant, with about twenty-five men, including
myself, went out about six miles along the beach. We went to the Diamond
Head, six miles eastward from Honolulu. This is an old crater of an
extinct volcano. Returning to the beach we went in bathing and enjoyed
it very much.
Our party had to get passes and present them to guards on going out and
returning. Our transport having coaled and made all the necessary
preparations for the voyage to Manila, we went on board and sailed about
four o'clock in the afternoon of October the thirtieth. But few of the
soldiers had been sea-sick before arriving at Honolulu, but after
leaving there many of them were ill for several days.
I think that the native drink called swipes was the cause of much of it.
This had been very freely imbibed by the soldiers. It is a peculiar
beverage, producing a drunkenness that lasted several days. Some of the
men getting over a drunk on this stuff, by taking a drink of water would
again be drunk. I escaped sea-sickness and, but for the fact that we
were living on the transport like pigs in a crowded pen, I would have
gone over comfortably and would have enjoyed the voyage.
Our rations were very poor, scarcely fit for hogs to eat. They consisted
of a stewed stuff of beef scraps, called by the men "slum;" prunes, hard
tack and colored hot water for coffee. Once a week we had a change from
this of salmon or cod fish. I believe those who shared this food stuff
with me on this voyage will bear me out in the statement that it was
tough fare.
The soldiers were not alone on board--there were other passengers who
seemed to dispute our possession and waged war on us both day and night.
These belligerents were known as "gray backs," some of them being nearly
one-fourth of an inch long and very troublesome. Clothing and everything
else seemed to be full of them.
I have seen soldiers pick them off of their bodies and clothing and kill
them before the men went to bed, hoping to get rid of them and get to
sleep.
I have seen several times almost the whole body of soldiers on board
sick and vomiting. There was something peculiar about this sickness.
Nevertheless, it was true; the men were fed on rotten prunes and fruit,
which, after nearly all the supply was consumed, was found by our
surgeon to be full of worms. This had been the cause of so much
sickness. By refusing to eat this rotten stuff myself I was not ill.
About half way between Honolulu and Manila an active volcano was passed
about four o'clock in the morning. Everybody went out on deck to see
this great sight. Although it was raining at the time the men stood out
in it to see this remarkable spectacle. It had the appearance of a round
hill sticking out of the water, the whole top burning and falling in.