From Yauco to Las Marias Part 5

Coffee and sugar are regarded by the Puerto Ricans as their most valuable crops. The first takes six years to come into full bearing, and during this time will cost an expense of about 162 pesos an acre, with a return in the last year of 86 pesos an acre,--a net deficit for the full period of 76 pesos. Afterward the expense should be about 66 pesos an acre, and the return 90 pesos. Sugar requires a heavy investment at the start. A plantation of 250 acres, together with the necessary buildings and machinery, will call for about 52,500 pesos. The total cost of a crop, from beginning to end, should be 152 pesos an acre, and the return about 170.

A pineapple plantation, for the investor of limited means, ought to prove profitable and encouraging. The first year of cultivation will produce a crop, at a final cost of 40 pesos an acre, including the land-rent. The return is put down at 200 pesos, leaving a gorgeous net profit of 160 pesos. It would seem perhaps that under such circ.u.mstances it is odd that there is not a more general raising of this fruit by the local planters; but the reason for an apparent neglect of a golden opportunity lies in the difficulties heretofore encountered in finding swift and adequate transportation from field to market. With this handicap removed there is little doubt that pineapple-growing will become a tempting industry.

The vanilla bean, however, is king-pin of the list in the claim of profit to be derived from its culture. It is said that the yearly cost of raising the crop will be 94 pesos an acre, chiefly for manure and irrigation. And the annual return for every acre is figured at 652 pesos,--a net profit that is fairly dazzling.

While all these details--which I have digressed so many times to give--do not properly form a part of the story of our campaign, yet it is by no means unusual for one who has put his hand into a grab-bag to look carefully and well at the prize withdrawn. And that is what I have been doing.

The material result of General Schwan's campaign may be briefly summarized thus: He marched his command ninety-two miles in eight days; fought two successful engagements; expelled the Spanish forces from the entire western part of Puerto Rico; captured and occupied nine towns; and took 362 prisoners, including Colonel Villeneuve, a lieutenant-colonel, and four other regular officers. In addition he seized 450 stands of arms, 145,000 rounds of ammunition, and ten thousand dollars in silver coin. His loss was 1 killed and 16 wounded against a total of 20 killed and 50 wounded on the side of the enemy.

On August 27 the general issued a farewell order to his brigade, from which I briefly quote:--

"On relinquishing his command to return to the United States, the brigadier-general commanding desires to congratulate, and to return his heartfelt thanks to, the officers and soldiers of the regular brigade for their achievements and excellent conduct during the last eighteen days....

Our troops have continued to hold their advanced positions and outposts until now, when, peace being a.s.sured, all but a small fraction have been brought to comparatively comfortable barracks near this city. The hardships endured on the march and at these outposts have been great.... But these hardships have been cheerfully borne by officers and men. Not a murmur has been heard, despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the strength of most organizations is on sick-report, their ailments being directly caused by the exposure incident to this campaign.

"Less than three weeks have been occupied by the campaign, yet a bond of sympathy between officers and soldiers has been established that years of peace could not have engendered."

On the following morning, accompanied by Lieutenant G.T. Summerlin, his aide-de-camp, General Schwan left Mayaguez for Ponce, where he boarded the transport "Chester," and returned to the United States.

The campaign of the Independent Regular Brigade was thus brought to an official end.

A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL SCHWAN.

Theodore Schwan was born in Germany, July 9, 1841. He received his earlier education in the preparatory schools of his native land, but came to the United States when he was about sixteen years old. He enlisted as a private in the Tenth Infantry on June 12, 1857; and served successfully as corporal, sergeant, first sergeant, and quartermaster-sergeant until October 31, 1863, when he received his commission. He was made a first lieutenant, Tenth Infantry, April 9, 1864; regimental quartermaster in December, 1864; a captain, March 14, 1866; a major, Eleventh Infantry, and a.s.sistant adjutant-general, July 6, 1886; a lieutenant-colonel and a.s.sistant adjutant-general, February 19, 1897; a colonel and a.s.sistant adjutant-general, May 18, 1898. Two weeks before his last promotion in the regular army he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and in accordance with the Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1899, he will retain that rank until July 1, 1901. He was brevetted several times during the War of the Rebellion, and his whole military career, covering a period of forty-two years, is absolutely devoid of blemish.

APPENDIX

I

The following officers received distinguished mention in General Schwan's reports, for service rendered under fire during the campaign in western Puerto Rico:--

Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, Eleventh Infantry.

[A] Major Gilbreath, Eleventh Infantry.

Captain P.M.B. Travis, Eleventh Infantry.

Captain R.W. Hoyt, Eleventh Infantry.

Captain A.L. Myer, Eleventh Infantry.

Captain Penrose, Eleventh Infantry.

Captain Macomb, Fifth Cavalry.

Acting a.s.sistant Surgeon Savage.

Lieutenant Odon Gurvoits, Eleventh Infantry.

Lieutenant T.F. Maginnis, Eleventh Infantry.

Lieutenant Alexander, Eleventh Infantry.

Lieutenant Wells, Eleventh Infantry.

Lieutenant W.S. Valentine, Fifth Cavalry.

Lieutenant Rogers F. Gardner, Third Artillery.

[Footnote A: Died of apoplexy on August 22, 1898, while in camp near Las Marias.]

In addition to those named above, special and valuable efficiency was displayed by Major E.A. Root, engineer; Major H.H. Benham, ordnance; Major Egan, brigade-surgeon; Captain Buchanan, Collector-of-the-Port at Mayaguez; Captain Davison, brigade-quartermaster; Captain Hutcheson, a.s.sistant adjutant-general; and Captain Elkins,[A] Lieutenant Byron, and Lieutenant Summerlin, aides-de-camp.

[Footnote A: Wounded at battle of Hormigueros.]

II

In connection with the present writer's expressed opinion regarding the relative practical value of regulars and volunteers in modern warfare, the following excerpt from the Chicago _Record_ of November 3, 1898, is worth reading.

Captain Avid Wester, the Swedish officer who accompanied the American army in Cuba, in order to study the war, has just returned to Sweden. During his stay in Gothenburg he was interviewed, and he seems now to have a more sympathetic view of the Americans--the volunteers excepted--than former reports indicated. Captain Wester greatly praised the treatment he had received from all the American officers, and the bravery of the Americans in the regular army. "Of the 18,000 men under the command of General Shafter," he says, "only 4,000 were volunteers or militiamen; the rest consisted of regulars, which had had an average service of six years on the borders of the Indian territory. They were very good and well-disciplined soldiers, who went into battle with complete disregard of death. The militia regiments, however, could not be got within range of the Spanish bullets, and all the stories about the heroism of volunteers are untrue.

The only volunteers who distinguished themselves were the 'rough riders,'

who, in spite of their name, fought on foot, but these men were not a militia regiment. The troop consisted of cowboys and adventurers, who cared neither for life nor death, but rushed blindly into battle. Brave fellows withal." After praising the bravery of the Spaniards and the accuracy of their fire, Captain Wester expresses the belief that with modern rifles in use it is of the greatest importance to have well-trained soldiers, who in the heat of battle retain their coolness and listen to their officers'

directions and commands,--in a word, soldiers who retain good firing discipline. This, he says, cannot be expected of men with short time of training, on whom the din of battle often has so paralyzing an effect that the soldier can neither hear nor see.

III

The question concerning the quality of the beef served as a ration to our troops during the recent war--in Cuba and Puerto Rico, and aboard the transports--has already been pretty thoroughly answered, one way or the other. Yet, though the topic is worn nearly threadbare and admittedly has nothing in particular to do with General Schwan's campaign, I venture to make, in this place, a personal contribution to the discussion in the form of an extract from a letter, written by me from Mayaguez on September 15, 1898.

Our rations [on the transport "Comanche"] consisted of hard tack, coffee, canned baked-beans, canned tomatoes, and canned "roast beef." Before we arrived at Key West the baked-beans had all been eaten and the water in the tanks had gone rotten--we carried no condenser--so that we were reduced to the rather monotonous diet of tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes and canned roast beef for dinner, and tomatoes again for supper; with a full allowance of coffee and hard tack at all three meals.

Anybody will be able to understand that we were pretty hungry at the end of the second day. We were thirsty too--I paid as much as fifty cents for a gla.s.s of ice-water from the cabin--but I will skip the ma.s.s of details. We had seen the piles of neat cans, labelled "roast beef," stacked up on the dock at Port Tampa, and we were impatient for the first mess-call that made us acquainted with the contents of those cans. I regret that I cannot adequately describe to you the appearance of the stuff. I will simply say that it looked filthy, was covered with a sort of slime, and emitted a nauseous odor. It was very hard to even gaze at it and remain unmoved, but we did more than that--we tried to eat it. I managed to swallow three mouthfuls and immediately became wretchedly sick. The example seemed to be popular.

On the succeeding day we were each given an unopened can of the meat, which was supposed to last us for twenty-four hours. Most of the men threw their portions overboard at once; a few packed away the "corpse"--as we already called it--for purposes of trade with the unsophisticated Cubans; and I kept my can as a souvenir. I did not, however, keep it long; for, chancing to drop it upon the deck, the contents exploded with a distinct report, startling me not a little and covering my person with the debris. At the time I thought this experience was going to be altogether unique, but I discovered afterward that the same thing happened in a great many other instances.

Having abandoned the beef, we were forced to subsist on hard tack and tomatoes for the rest of the voyage, and hailed with joy our anchorage at Daiquiri. But we were too previous. During our ten days' stay in Cuba we found the "corpse" still waiting for us in the mess, and we carried the ghastly burden along when we finally steamed away for Puerto Rico.

We landed at Guanica on the 25th of July, which meant that we had been half-starved for twenty-two days. We had forgotten the "Maine" and would have greeted Weyler himself with a glad sweet smile, had he come bearing in his hands food fit for a human being. Once more disembarked, we lost sight of the canned roast beef for good--save at extremely rare intervals while on the march. We found no difficulty in eating the beef obtained from Puerto Rican steers, although it was tough and bloodless; and we received salt pork often enough to furnish variety.

After the cessation of hostilities we began to get American beef instead of the native article, and, while it was by no means so impossible a food as its canned cousin, it certainly could not be called delicious. It smelled badly before it was cooked, was rigid and stringy when served, and had a rank taste, like--well like nothing else on earth. Our sick-list doubled at this time.

IV

A list of the killed and wounded on the American side, at the battle near Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, on the 10th of August, 1898.

_Killed_.

Fred Fenneberg, private in Company "D," Eleventh Infantry.

_Wounded_.

Lieutenant J.C. Byron, Eighth United States Cavalry, R.D.C.

John Bruning, corporal in Light Battery "D," Fifth Artillery.