The only light we had was from the burning ships, and the scene was one of great confusion.  Officers shouted orders, Spaniards running up and down the beach and the magazines exploding one by one as the fire reached them.  And to crown all a party of Cubans came down from the hills and announced their intention of “making angels” of all the helpless Spaniards.  Whereupon the American naval officers said if they tried anything like that “there would be some strange Cuban faces in hades.”  The Cubans thought better of it and stood and watched us.

I have got the dagger and sheath of the Spanish officer Francisco Silvia.  He was pretty near gone, and when he had almost reached the boat he let go of the line.  I swam out, held to the line, and just as he swept by me, caught him by the belt and got him up to the boat.  He got me around the neck in the struggle, and once I was so full of salt water I thought I should never see Chicago again.  He wanted to give me anything he had.  He had only his belt and cap, so I chose his dagger.

Mutiny among the prisoners.

I suppose you have by this time got the report of the mutiny on the Harvard and the killing of eight and wounding of twenty-five of the Spaniards.  Jones from Auburn Park, Hanson and I were on guard with some marines and soldiers.  We heard the signal, a long-drawn hiss, and in an instant the “push” was up and at us.  They had about ten feet to come, however, and not one of them ever reached us.  There was a hot time for a few minutes.  It was shoot as fast as you could throw up your gun.  We did not stop to pick our men, but fired at the crowd; and when a Winchester or a Springfield bullet hits a man at ten or twelve feet he is going to stop and go the other way.

There has been a burial at sea for the last five days.  When the bugle sounds “taps” over the place where the bodies are thrown into the sea it seems to make your blood come to your face with a rush.  There is something solemn in it, and a man who dies and is buried with his country’s flag around him and the bugle and guns to do him honor is lucky.

Town of Santiago described by one of our boys.

Santiago, August 6.

A peculiarity of the climate here is that it is the hottest in the morning.  The sun rises hot; in fact, the heat is most severe from sunrise to 10 am, when the sea breezes set in and make the situation more endurable.  If it remained as hot all day as it is at 9 A. M. our condition would be unbearable indeed.  The ocean helps us out, however, and by noon we have a very refreshing and cooling air stirring.

The sickness in the company is on the decrease.  On some days only about half the men were fit for duty, but they are all doing nicely now.  The same proportion obtained throughout the whole regiment.  Not all of the disabled were sick, but some were recovering, while others were sick and thus we had from 25 to 40 per cent. of the men under the weather, and it took those who were well to care for the sick.