charge sailed from that port on Saturday, the twenty-third of April. A
hasty trip from Washington, gathering up the waiting staff at Tampa, and
pushing on by the earliest train brought us to Key West in time to meet
the "State of Texas" as she arrived, board her and take charge of the
snug little ship that was henceforth to take its place in American
history. She was well built, but by no means new, nor handsome. Her dull
black hull could in no way compare with the snow white, green and red
striped hospital ships, those heralds of relief that afterwards graced
the waters of that bay. Still she was firm, sound, heavy-laden, and gave
promise of some good to someone at some future day, that day being only
when the great war monsters should have pealed out to the world that an
entrance was made on the coast of Cuba, and we would be invited to
follow.
By the authorities at Washington, the "State of Texas" had been
consigned to the protection of the navy, and accordingly we must report
our arrival. This was done to the senior officer, representing Admiral
Sampson, in the port, Captain Harrington, of the monitor "Puritan." This
brought at once a personal call from the captain with an invitation to
our entire staff to visit his beautiful ship the following day. The
launch of the "Puritan" was sent to take us, and not only was the ship
inspected, but the dainties of his elegant tea table as well.
When all was over the graceful launch returned us safely to our ship,
with grateful memories on the part of the younger members of our
company, who had never chanced to form an intimate acquaintance with a
piece of shipping at once so beautiful and so terrible, as that
death-dealing engine of destruction. I record this visit and courtesy on
the part of Captain Harrington as the first of an unfailing series of
kindnesses extended by the navy to the Red Cross from first to last.
There was no favor too great, no courtesy too high to be cheerfully
rendered on every occasion.
The memories of pitiful Cuba would not leave us, and, knowing that under
our decks were fourteen hundred tons of food, for the want of which its
people were dying, the impulse to reach them grew very strong, and a
letter was addressed to Admiral Sampson.
This brought immediately the launch of the "New York" to the side of our
ship, and Captain Chadwick, the gallant officer whom no one forgets,
stepped lightly on board to deliver the written message from the
admiral, or rather to take me to the "New York." Nothing could have
exceeded the courtesy of the admiral, but we were acting from entirely
opposite standpoints. I had been requested to take a ship, and by every
means in my power get food into Cuba. He, on the other hand, had been
commanded to take a fleet, and by every means in his power keep food out
of Cuba. When one compared the two ships lying side by side and thought
of a contest of effort between them, the situation was ludicrous, and
yet the admiral did not absolutely refuse to give me a flag of truce and
attempt an entrance into Havana; but he disapproved it, feared the
results for me and acting in accordance with _his_ highest wisdom and
best judgment, I felt it to be my place to wait. By the concurrence of
the admiral our letters were both given to the public, and appear
elsewhere in these pages, and we remained, as we had been, neighbors and
friends.
These days of waiting were by no means lost time. The accidents
constantly occurring in a harbor filled with transports, kept the
surgeons of the Red Cross constantly in active duty, while the twenty or
thirty Spanish ships which had been and were being captured as prizes,
lay a few miles out, unprovided either by themselves or their captors.
They had been picked up whilst out at sea, some of them having no
knowledge of the existence of a war and supposing themselves as safe as
in the balmiest days of peace. Most of them were provided with a little
open well in the bottom of the ship where live fish were kept. But for
this provision, it is by no means certain that deaths from starvation
would not have occurred. The ships were mainly little Spanish
vessels--their crews honest working men, who knew their ships and the
hills and harbors of Spain and Cuba, and little else--could speak no
word of any language but their own--our people, unused to privateering
or to the treatment of captives, forgot to provide them, and thus they
waited, living on the few fish in their holds, with neither meat, lard,
butter, nor oil for their cooking, nor vegetables, nor bread as
accompaniments. Our men learned this state of things, and naturally
attended to it. It is enough for me to say that recently the thanks of
all Spain, through its Red Cross, has come back to us for the kindnesses
rendered her captive seamen.
The days waxed and waned; the summer sun poured its burning rays down on
the glistening waters of the bay; the reveille and tattoo warned us that
we were in camp, with the little difference between land and
sea--waiting for some onward movement.
TAMPA.
Tampa became the gathering point of the army. Its camps filled like
magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America; the great
ships gathered in the waters; the monitors, grim and terrible, seemed
striving to hide their heads among the surging waves; the transports,
with decks dark with human life, passed in and out, and the great
monarchs of the sea held ever their commanding sway. It seemed a strange
thing, this gathering for war. Thirty years of peace had made it strange
to all save the veterans, with their gray beards, and the silver-haired
matrons of the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it
be possible that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and
women weep? Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience
their fathers had gained, to live the war lives they had lived, and die
the deaths they had died? Here was abundant food for reflection, while
one waited through the days and watched the passing events.
At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
after, it. The quest on which it had gone and the route it had taken
bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish fleets? and what would be the
result when found and met? and where were we to break that Cuban wall
and let us in? Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the
willing hands that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We
knew the great hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of
both army and navy. Surely they could have no need of us, and the
knowledge that our cargo was not adapted to army hospital use brought no
regret to us.
[Illustration: CITIZENS OF JARUCO PRESENTING A MEMORIAL FOR THE VICTIMS
OF THE "MAINE."]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by _The Christian Herald_.
LITTLE CONVALESCENTS IN HOSPITAL.]
These days of quiet waiting were like the lull that precedes the storm.
The time seemed long regarded only from that standpoint, but when it is
remembered that these few days were all that had been allowed for a
great nation with thirty years of peace to rouse up and plunge itself
into a war, the time seems comparatively short. We had taken possession
of our ship at Key West on the twenty-ninth of April; it was now the
twentieth of June, and the great national records of two countries at
least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
as clearly, truthfully and kindly as possible the record of the
little that fell to us to perform in this great drama. Our arrangements
for putting out to sea were quickly made. Such supplies and such persons
as were not to go with us must be landed and left. Among the latter, to
our deep and lasting regret, was our charming friend, Mrs. J. Addison
Porter, who had kindly passed the last weeks with us, leaving us as she
did, however, with the comforting promise to return if she should find
it possible.
All preliminaries arranged, at ten o'clock, the twentieth of June we
weighed anchor at Key West and steamed for the open sea, having first
taken the official advice of Commodore Remie, commanding the navy at
that point, to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
The twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water of Santiago. Our
transports and battleships were gathered there, and the advice of
Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the marines had
made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been some
fighting at Guantanamo. The "Solace" was there. Its harbor was fine, and
the run of forty miles was made by noon of that day. Whoever has enjoyed
the quiet, sheltered harbor of Guantanamo will not require to be
reminded of it--protected on three sides by beautifully wooded hills. At
six o'clock our anchors sunk in the deep still waters, and we had time
to look about us and see for the first time the beginning of the war.
The marines were camped diagonally along the brow of a beautiful hill.
On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about us the great monsters with
their protruding guns which told of forthcoming trouble. Captain
McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent compliments and a
launch pointing out our place of anchorage.
The courtesies of the navy, so early commenced at Key West, were
promptly continued. At eight o'clock we received a visit from Commander
Dunlap of the "Solace" which, after a long and cordial interview, closed
by his proposing to send his launch at ten o'clock the following day to
take our entire company for a visit to the "Solace" and its fifty
wounded men. If that beautiful ship or its management had left room on
the records of our country's mead of gratitude for more words of
appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those familiar
with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country and the
methods by which our navy alone of all the Red Cross nations had gained
even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of that
first naval relief ship on our American waters was to me. It brought
back so vividly the memory of the day when President Arthur called me to
him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which he had just
signed in 1881, and that Congress, having generously included the navy
in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until the
probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_ of
the world as well as the armies. I was thankful for the _modus vivendi_,
which I knew was as welcome to Spain as to ourselves, that had made it
possible to pick up these poor wounded sailors and given them kindly
care among their own, that there were not to be left uncared for, or
thrown into land hospitals where everything would be strange to them. My
twenty or thirty assistants glided about the polished decks of the
magnificent ship, with a kindly greeting for every poor, wounded fellow,
and delighted with everything they saw. For me, I had few words,
prayerful gratitude, and many memories of the long years of patient
waiting that had brought the American Red Cross even up to the point it
had attained.
[Illustration: LOCATION OF SHORE BATTERIES, SANTIAGO.]
Before the day closed news came to us of a more serious character than
we had before learned. The daring Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by;
Hamilton Fish and Capron had been killed, and the wounded needed help.
Wherever they might be, it must be possible to reach them, and it was
decided that no time be lost. Our men commenced work in the hold of the
ship to get at medical supplies and dressings, and the captain took his
orders. I find in my diary at the close of that day the following
paragraph:
"It is the Rough Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough; but
it will be _ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten
together."
Nine o'clock of the same night, June 26, found us in Siboney and
anchored in its waters, which can scarcely be called a harbor. It seems
to be rather an indenture in the coast. Shall I be pardoned if I again
revert to the diary which, by some means, I found time to hastily
pencil:
SIBONEY, CUBA, _June 27, 1898_.
We were wakened at daybreak to see the soldiers filing up over the
hill in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos,
winding up, in and out among the hills, higher and higher, like a
great anaconda. As we watched them through a glass, they were a
moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
and we can only think as we look at them, on how many or on which is
set the mark of death, He knows no more than we, poor fellow, and
unthinkingly, perhaps, with his swinging, careless gait, toils up
and up and waits for--he knows not what.
The hospitals, both American and Cuban, are located on the shore just to
the right of us, and have been visited by our men during the night. Some
of their surgeons called on us; all seemed interested in the Red Cross,
but none thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldier's
hospital; indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time there myself. They
appeared to understand that perfectly, or were so polite as not to
criticise it, but there seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be
crossed. The Cubans, who had just come into camp, were less conventional
and expressed a great desire for any assistance we could give them.
"Sister Bettina" and her four trained "Sisters," Drs. Egan and Hubbell
went ashore to the hospitals. This had been proposed the evening before
at General Garcia's headquarters; but they were begged to wait just one
day until their hospital could be in a little better order. These
"Sisters" were not the persons to grant that day of preparation. On the
contrary, we were told that as soon as they were fairly in the wards
they commenced putting things into order and cleanliness, and worked
through the day without interruption, coming home only after dark, tired
it must be, but fresh and happy, full of the conviction of a work well
done. Long before that day's work was ended our own American hospitals
alongside commenced to be jealous of the Cubans, and believed that they
had spoken first. Be that as it might, we were equally forgetful, and
from that time no distinction between the hospitals was known.
Dr. Lesser, Mr. Kennan and Mr. Elwell tramped, for there was no other
mode of conveyance, to our advance line within three miles of Santiago.
They found the artillery up and things nearly ready for attack, which it
was thought would be on the following Wednesday.
[Illustration: JULY FIFTH IN RIFLE PITS.]
The sea grew wild and rough; the water was too deep for firm anchorage,
and we rocked at such a fearful rate that in pity for the pale faces
about me, I begged the captain to draw as near the shore as possible and
let, at least, a portion of them onto the land. Let them have, if only a
few minutes, the solid ground under their feet. He drew up to within two
or three hundred feet of the cliff which runs around like a firm sea
wall, and succeeded in anchoring; took a boat and tried to land some of
our people, but there were no wharves; the poor little seven by nine
bench, designated as a wharf, running out into the sea, against which
the boats swung and crashed as they tried to land supplies, was all
there was, except the narrow beach with a heavy surf. Our people
declined the landing, and headsick, heartsick and seasick returned to
the ship.
We had been long without news from the United States; but the next day
brought the following dispatch from the New York Cuban Relief
Committee:
Cobb sails Wednesday with Red Cross supply boat. All articles
requested by her will be shipped. The launch will be towed from
Jacksonville. Do you want additional nurses? Five hundred tons
provisions and clothing, also three ambulances complete, shipped to
Key West warehouse this week from New York. Send "State of Texas" to
New York as soon as can be spared. Cobb with Red Cross boat expects
to reach Guantanamo July 5 to 10. Massachusetts relief ship cannot
sail before middle of July. Will dispatch schooner with ice within a
fortnight. Make your requisitions specific in kind and quantity.
This was only one of the scores of dispatches reaching us within the few
following weeks, and I repeat it here, not as having any special
significance, excepting to show the uncertainty and utter instability of
all human calculations. Analyzing this kind-hearted and well-meant
dispatch in the light of the future, we find that neither the Red Cross
supply boat, the steam launch, the Massachusetts relief ship, nor the
additional nurses ever reached us. The ice schooner proved to be the
"Mary E. Morse," of which mention is made elsewhere. The five hundred
tons of provisions shipped to the Key West warehouse were distributed
there. I name this, not in any spirit of complaint--far from it,
indeed--but simply to show still further and make more apparent, if
possible, the difficulties attendant upon all work at a field of war.
Those who have seen only this one war will find these uncertainties and
shortcomings very strange, and unaccountable; to me, who had seen other
wars, they seemed natural, probably largely inevitable, and quite the
thing to be expected, the fatal results of which misfortunes I had spent
half my lifetime in instituting measures to prevent or lessen.
We were honored next day by a call from an officer of the "Olivette,"
with his assistant. It is not singular, in the light of the great,
elegant, newly-fitted ship at his command, that it was difficult for him
to realize the use or the necessity of an unpretending little black boat
like the "State of Texas," or of what service it could be expected to be
to an army. We labored to impress upon him the fact that this ship did
not come for the war, but was loaded and dispatched weeks before there
was any war, and simply waited an opportunity to deliver its cargo to
the hungry and naked reconcentrados for whom they were designed. This
explanation we hoped would make it apparent to the gentleman, how it
was, that our supplies of clothing would not be likely to contain the
articles of which he said his ship was in want; it probably never having
entered into the minds of our sympathetic generous lady donors of
America to provide _pajamas_ for Cuban women. Anything we _had_ was
freely at his service. If we made any attempt at _conversion_ (which I
do not now recall), it was simply on the line of a better understanding
of Red Cross methods and principles as connected with his profession,
and _not_ a change of heart.
With the constant reminders of the sufferings of the people on shore and
our inability to reach them, it was a welcome errand brought by a
dispatch boat that afternoon from Captain McCalla, that if we could get
five thousand rations to him before the next Thursday morning, he could
find a way to deliver them to the refugee families of insurgents and
others lying out in the hills and woods beyond his camp at Guantanamo,
where they had fled for safety. We steamed at once to Guantanamo and
landed the rations next morning, returning to Siboney the same
afternoon. The next day our working force was busy all day getting off
material to refugees coming in from the mountains. General Garcia
detailed a detachment to repair pontoons for the purpose of landing the
supplies. Captain McCalla cabled for twenty thousand rations for
refugees, to be delivered at Guantanamo by Sunday.
Our Red Cross sisters and surgeons were all busy at the Cuban Hospital,
when the following letter from Major Le Garde was received:
TO MISS CLARA BARTON, _President American National Red Cross_:
I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the
patients in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point. The
orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
the shore shall be transferred to the "Iroquois" and "Olivette," but
the facilities for carrying out this order are apparently
inadequate. In order that the Divisional Hospital may remain
unhampered for the care of the wounded in the engagement about to
take place, it is necessary for me to request this favor of you, and
I trust that you may find it possible to comply with said request.
Your obedient servant,
LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
_Major and Surgeon, U.S.A., Commanding Hospital_.
To this the following reply was immediately returned:
STEAMSHIP "STATE OF TEXAS,"
SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
_Major and Surgeon, U.S.A., Commanding Hospital_:
MAJOR:--Permit me, I pray you, to express the great pleasure given
me by your cordial letter inviting the assistance of the persons
here under my direction in the care of the sick and wounded of the
engagement about to take place.
Although not here as a hospital ship by any means, nor legitimately
fitted for the work, still we have some hospital supplies, a few
intelligent workers, skill, intrepidity, experience, the willingness
to serve, the readiness to obey, and I believe, the true spirit of
the Red Cross, that seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist.
I send them to you in the hope that they may be of service. With
grateful appreciation, I am, doctor,
Most cordially yours,
CLARA BARTON,
_President American National Red Cross_.
In the afternoon of this day some members from our ship went ashore and
visited the Cuban Hospital and General Garcia's headquarters, which that
general, on leaving Siboney had graciously ordered to be placed "at Miss
Barton's disposal as headquarters for herself and her staff." It was
found, however, that the building would be required by the military, and
the matter was given no further consideration.
On the first of July Dr. and Mrs. Lesser with their assistants went
early ashore to work in the hospitals, both United States and Cuban. The
transport "Harvard" arriving with troops, demanded our anchorage, and on
coming out of the harbor to give place to her, we saw that a bombardment
of Aguadores, five miles to the west, was taking place. A battleship,
perhaps the "Oregon," the flagship "New York" and a little cruiser were
standing in near the shore, the latter keeping up a rapid fire, which
was responded to by the batteries on both sides of a ravine which the
railroad crossed. We ran down as close as safety permitted and watched
the engagement from the bridge of our own ship. The two large ships then
drew in and shelled the ravine, apparently silencing the batteries. When
we returned to Siboney we learned that our troops had been fighting all
day, and that large numbers of wounded were walking or being brought in
for treatment. The Red Cross had been requested to take entire charge of
a fever hospital of United States troops, which it did. Dr. and Mrs.
Lesser and two of the Sisters were assisting in the operating tent. All
of us worked nearly through the night--the nurses and physicians as
above stated; the others taking out supplies for wounded--one hundred
cots, bedding, hospital utensils, medicine, food, etc. The reports were
that we had taken and held all the commanding positions around Santiago,
but that it had cost us four hundred men.
The diary of July 2 says: The day opened cool and fresh, and although
having worked steadily until three o'clock the night previous, when
they had been brought back to the ship for a little rest, the Sisters
were ready for work at half-past six. Sisters Anna and Isabell had been
on duty all night, and must now be relieved. Dr. Egan and Mr. Kennan
made ready for the front, the former to have a field hospital.
With a portion of my assistants I go ashore to visit the hospitals in
the early part of the day, to learn if anything further can be done for
them. We find the wounded coming in rapidly, long rows of hospital tents
being filled with them, and many waiting their turn on the operating
tables. We learned that the officers had suffered very severely, having
been picked off by Spanish sharpshooters. A note came by messenger from
Mr. Kennan at the front, saying that by order from General Shafter's
headquarters "Miss Barton was directed to seize any empty wagons coming
in and send by them hospital supplies, medical stores, which were badly
needed at the front." This direction would of course be filled as far as
possible; the supplies would be gotten out and sent, and it was decided
that myself and as many of our assistants as could be spared go with
them the next day. These were anxious, trying days throughout the whole
country. All America was astir, once more in the dreaded throes of war.
Another dispatch from our committee at New York reveals this state of
feeling:
NEW YORK, _July 2, 1898_.
BARTON, _Santiago de Cuba_:
Government transport "Port Victor" sailing New York, Wednesday via
Tampa takes all our supplies to Santiago. Look out for arrival.
Twenty-five nurses go there Tuesday; more follow; order them forward
if needed. Report your actions. People anxious.