History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest Part 16

General Maximo Gomez............................................ 54

First Pay-day in Cuba for the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry........... 58

First President of the Cuban Republic........................... 64

Cubans Fighting from Tree Tops.................................. 70

Investment of Santiago by U.S. Army............................. 78

General Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War...................... 82

Cuban Women Cavalry............................................. 84

Officers of the Ninth Ohio...................................... 92

Major John R. Lynch............................................. 96

Major R.R. Wright.............................................. 100

Major J.B. Johnson............................................. 106

Third North Carolina Volunteers and Officers................... 108

President Charles F. Meserve................................... 110

Mr. Judson W. Lyons............................................ 113

The Games Family............................................... 115

Coleman Cotton Factory......................................... 116

John R. Brown, Uncle Sam's Money Sealer........................ 118

Gen. Pio Pilar................................................. 120

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Negro Poet............................... 122

A Philipino Lady............................................... 124

Emilio Aguinaldo, Military Dictator of the Filipinos........... 128

Felipe Agoncillo............................................... 130

Convent at Cavite, Aguinaldo's Headquarters.................... 132

Church at San Sebastiano, Manila............................... 136

Uncle Sam and His New Acquisitions............................. 142

APPENDIX.

THE TWENTY-FOURTH UNITED STATES INFANTRY.

BY SERGEANT E.D. GIBSON.

The Twenty-fourth United States Infantry was organized by act of Congress July 28, 1866. Reorganized by consolidation of the 38th and 41st regiments of infantry, by act of Congress, approved March 3, 1869. Organization of regiment completed in September, 1869, with headquarters at Fort McKavett, Texas.

Since taking station at Fort McKavett, headquarters of the regiment have been at the following places:

1870-71, Fort McKavett, Tex.; 1872, Forts McKavett and Brown, Texas; 1873-74, Forts Brown and Duncan, Tex.; 1875-76, Fort Brown, Tex.; 1877-78, Fort Clark, Tex.; 1879, Fort Duncan, Tex.; 1880, Forts Duncan and Davis, Tex.; 1881-87, Fort Supply, Ind. Terr.; 1888, Forts Supply and Sill, Ind. Terr., and Bayard, N.M.; 1889 to 1896, Forts Bayard, N.M., and Douglas, Utah; 1897, Fort Douglas, Utah; 1898, Fort Douglas, Utah, till April 20, when ordered into the field, incident to the breaking out of the Spanish-American war. At Chickamauga Park, Ga., April 24 to 30; Tampa, Fla., May 2 to June 7; on board transport _S.S.

City of Washington_, en route with expedition (Fifth Army Corps) to Cuba, from June 9 to 25; at Siboney and Las Guasimas, Cuba, from June 25 to 30; occupied the immediate block-house hill at Fort San Juan, Cuba, July 1 to 10, from which position the regiment changed to a place on the San Juan ridge about one-fourth of a mile to the left of the block-house, where it remained until July 15, when it took station at yellow fever camp, Siboney, Cuba, remaining until August 26, 1898; returned to the United States August 26, arriving at Montauk Pt., L.I., September 2, 1898, where it remained until September 26, when ordered to its original station, Fort Douglas, Utah, rejoining October 1, 1898.

FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.

Colonel.--Henry B. Freeman, under orders to join.

Lieutenant-Colonel.--Emerson H. Lisc.u.m, Brig.-Gen. Vols. On sick leave from wounds received in action at Fort San Juan, Cuba, July 1, 1898.

Majors.--J. Milton Thompson, commanding regiment and post of Fort Douglas, Utah. Alfred C. Markley, with regiment, commanding post of Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.

Chaplain.--Allen Allenworth, Post Treasurer and in charge of schools.

Adjutant.--Joseph D. Leitch, recruiting officer at post.

Quartermaster.--Albert Laws.

On July 1, 1898, our regiment was not a part of the firing line, and was not ordered on that line until the fire got so hot that the white troops positively refused to go forward. When our commander, Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Lisc.u.m, was ordered to go in he gave the command "forward, march," and we moved forward singing "Hold the Fort, for we are coming," and on the eastern bank of the San Juan river we walked over the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry. After wading the river we marched through the ranks of the Thirteenth (regular) Infantry and formed about fifty yards in their front. We were then about six hundred yards from and in plain view of the block-house and Spanish trenches. As soon as the Spaniards saw this they concentrated all of their fire on us, and, while changing from column to line of battle (which took about eight minutes).

Ill.u.s.tration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas. we lost one hundred and two men, and that place on the river to-day is called "b.l.o.o.d.y bend." We had only one advantage of the enemy-that was our superior marksmanship. I was right of the battalion that led the charge and I directed my line against the center of the trench, which was on a precipice about two hundred feet high.

Ill.u.s.tration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas.

I was born December 4, 1852, in Wythe county, Virginia, and joined the army in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 22,1869, and have been in the army continuously since. I served my first ten years in the Tenth Cavalry, where I experienced many hard fights with the Indians. I was a.s.signed to the Twenty-fourth Infantry by request in 1880.

E.D. GIBSON,

_Sergeant Co. G, 24th U.S. Infantry_,

PRESIDIO, CALIFORNIA.