The Story of General Pershing Part 5

The firing on both sides was kept up until dark and ceased only at intervals during the night.

Over El Caney the battle had raged all day, but steadily as the Spaniards had held their positions the fierce charges of the gallant Seventh, Twelfth and Twenty-fifth regiments of infantry were resistless. Soon after San Juan was ours, El Caney fell.

By morning the position was strengthened so that our line was fairly well protected, reveille was sounded by Spanish small arms and artillery in chorus, but the signal had been antic.i.p.ated and all men were in their places at the firing line.

Daylight was breaking in the east when both sides began where they had left off the night before and the firing all day was incessant. A few moments after the firing opened, some cannoneers permitted a limber from one of the guns of the light battery near us to get away and it went rolling down the hillside to the rear for a quarter of a mile. Our artillery was silenced by the enemy's small arms and compelled to take up a new position; strong shrapnel went screeching over head and bursting beyond. The adjutant of my regiment was stricken by a hidden sharpshooter. The heat soon became intense and there was no shelter and cannon b.a.l.l.s plunged through the lines at the top of the hill and went rolling to the bottom of the valley; bullets spattered against the isolated trees or grazed the newly made earthworks covering with dirt the men in the trenches and fairly mowing the gra.s.s for many yards in our front. Thus the day went on and the night and the succeeding day began. Then came the welcome truth; everybody drew a long breath and thanked G.o.d; it was possible once more to walk erect; however, the echoes of the last three days were slow to die away and at the breaking of a bough or the rusting of a leaf there was a temptation to duck.

At noon on July 4th the regiments were formed into line and I had the pleasure of reading to my regiment a telegram from the President extending the thanks and congratulations of the American people to the army in front of Santiago for its gallantry and success.

The brave Linares, however, had already realized the hopelessness of his cause, but he would not surrender without permission from his home government. Therefore the city must be bombarded.

Pacificos and the non-combatants were ordered out of the city and were permitted to come within our lines. All day long on the dusty road leading from Santiago to El Cancy pa.s.sed the long white line; faint, hungry women carried a bundle of clothing and parcel of food or an infant while helpless children trailed wearily at the skirts of their wretched mothers. An old man tottered along on his cane and behind him a puny lad and an aged woman; old and young women and children and decrepit men of every cla.s.s--those refined and used to luxury together with the ragged beggar--crowding each other in this narrow column. It was a pitiful sight; from daylight to dark the miserable procession trooped past. The suffering of the innocent is not the least of the sorrows of war.

The days of truce and hostilities alternated; all roll calls were suspended except the sunset call and retreat on days of truce.

At the evening call we daily ceased our chatting, cooking or working and groups or lines of officers and men stood with uncovered heads in respectful and reverent attention as the music of the Star Spangled Banner and the sight of the flag we had planted on the hill above us, lifted us out of ourselves and carried us in thought to home and country; it was the soldiers' silent Ave Maria.

Duty in the trenches was no less arduous because of the few days of truce; all the available men would report to work at strengthening positions and building bomb-proof shelters. Vigilance never relaxed until the capitulation. The rainy season had set in in earnest and the trenches were at times knee deep with mud and water. The constant exposures to the heat and rain together with the strain of battle began to have its effect upon even the strongest of us. Our sick list gradually grew and the dreaded yellow fever appeared in our ranks; the field hospitals already overcrowded with wounded were compelled to accommodate the increasing number of fever patients; medical supplies and food for the sick were lacking and though many things were furnished by the Red Cross there was yet a shortage.

Since July 3d the firing from the Spanish trenches had become irregular, desultory and non-effective.

Our artillery gunners now knew the range of every Spanish battery and our men in the trenches--every one a trained marksman--knew the distance of every Spanish position. A Spanish captain told me afterward that it was dangerous for them even to stick up a finger for fear of having it shot off; and yet the Spanish commander still held out.

The literary style of the young lecturer reveals the direct virile qualities that since have made General Pers.h.i.+ng one of the most forceful and clear American writers on topics having to do with the military affairs of the country. His use of adjectives perhaps is somewhat freer than in his later writings, but there is the same vivid, direct power of expression and description. His modesty at the time prevented him from referring to the fact that twice he was recommended for brevet commissions in the war with Spain for "personal gallantry and untiring energy and faithfulness." Nor did he mention the words of General Baldwin, a brave soldier of the Civil War, who said of him: "Pers.h.i.+ng is the coolest man under fire I ever saw." And he makes no mention of the earnest protest of a certain foreign officer, the representative of his own government in the Santiago campaign, who begged the daring troops not to make the now famous charge up San Juan Hill because they would be rus.h.i.+ng into certain death.

The official records, however, are now available and consequently we are not dependent upon stories which occasionally seem to possess a snow-ball like quality of increasing in size as they gain in distance from their starting points.

Headquarters, Tenth U. S. Cavalry, Camp Hamilton, Cuba, July, 1898.

Adjutant General, Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, Fifth Army Corps.

Sir:--I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Tenth Cavalry in the battle of July 12th and 13th, 1898, before Santiago de Cuba.

On the morning of July 1st the regiment, consisting of troops, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, field and staff, occupying a position on the left of the second cavalry, directed the line extending nearly north and south on a ridge some three or four miles from Santiago.

At about 6:30 A. M. a battery of artillery ma.s.sed a short distance from our right opened upon the works of Santiago, the regiment being exposed to much of the return fire of the American batteries.

After the artillery fire had ceased the regiment moved right past the sugar mills and proceeded in rear of the town on the road toward Santiago. The movement was delayed as we approached the San Juan river and the regiment came within range of fire about half a mile from the crossing. Upon reaching the river I found that the Seventy-first N. Y.

Volunteers were at the crossing and that the regiment preceding mine had moved to the right.

The Tenth Cavalry was here subject to and confronting radically an infantry fire from the three block houses and intrenchments in front and the works farther to the left and nearer Santiago.

The fire was probably drawn by a balloon which preceded the regiment to a point near the ford where it was held. I was directed to take a position to the right behind the river, however, for protection moving to this position and while there the regiment suffered considerable loss.

After an interval of 20 to 30 minutes I was directed to form line of battle in a particularly open field facing toward the blockhouse and strong intrenchments to the north occupied by the enemy.

Much difficulty was found on account of the dense undergrowth crossed in several directions by wire fences. As a part of the cavalry division under General Sumner, the regiment was formed on two lines. The first squadron under Major S. T.

Norvall consisting of troops A, E, B and I leading. The second line under Major T. J. Wint consisting of troops C, F and G. Troop D having crossed further down the river attached itself to a command of infantry and moved with that command on the two blockhouses. The regiment advanced in this formation under a heavy fire from the enemy's position proceeding but a short distance when the two lines were reunited into one. The advance was rapidly continued in an irregular line toward the blockhouses and intrenchments to the right front.

During this advance the lines pa.s.sed some troops of the first cavalry which I think had been previously formed on our right. Several losses occurred before reaching the top of them; first lieutenant W. H. Smith being killed as he arrived at its crest. The enemy having retreated toward the northwest toward the second and third blockhouses, new lines were formed and rapid advance was made upon the new positions.

The regiment a.s.sisted in capturing these works from the enemy and with the exception of Troops C and I who had joined the first volunteer cavalry, then took up a position north of the second blockhouse, remaining there during the night. With some changes in the positions of troops they held this line of the second and third under a heavy and continuous fire from the enemy's intrenchments in front and the regiment now occupying a part of the advance intrenched positions. Some troops lost their relative positions in line during the first day of the battle but attached themselves to others and continued to move forward. During the entire engagement the regiment acted with exceptional coolness and bravery. It held its position at the ford and moved forward unflinchingly after deploying through the advance under the heavy fire from the enemy's works.

The officers and men in general throughout exhibited great bravery obeying orders with unflinching alacrity while attacking with small arms an enemy strongly posted in intrenchment and blockhouse supported with artillery. Words cannot express my gratification at such conduct and I would request such service receive some special recognition. It is difficult to distinguish between officers and men all of whom are so deserving but of the officers whose conduct on the field came under my direct personal observation I would especially mention Major S. T. Norvall, Major T. J. Wint, squadron commander, first lieutenant J. J. Pers.h.i.+ng, quartermaster, and first lieutenant M. H. Bowman, adjutant, for their untiring energy, faithfulness and gallantry during this engagement and would recommend the officers mentioned for brevet commissions, ...

Very respectfully, (s) T. A. BALDWIN, Lieutenant Colonel, Tenth Cavalry, Commanding.

[A TRUE COPY]

Second lieutenant, Tenth Cavalry, acting regimental adjutant.

"A foreign officer standing near our position when we started to make that charge was heard to say, 'Men, for Heaven's sake don't go up that hill. It is impossible for human beings to take that position and you cannot stand the fire.'

Notwithstanding this with a terrific yell we rushed up to the enemy's works and you know the result. Men who were near said that when this officer saw us make the charge he turned his back and wept."

Camp A. G. Forse, Huntsville, Ala., December 1, 1898.

The Adjutant General, U. S. Army, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., Through military channels,

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by Troop D, Tenth Cavalry, in the engagement before Santiago de Cuba so far as it is known to me. As we approached the foot of the hill our artillerymen fired over our heads at the enemy on top of it. This caused a slowing up on the general advance. When I was about half way up the hill I was disabled by three bullet wounds received simultaneously. I had already received one, but did not know it. What took place after my disablement is known to me only through the statement of my men and others subsidized by the depositions enclosed herewith.

My platoon went to the top of the hill with the infantry and was soon afterward conducted by Lieutenant J. J. Pers.h.i.+ng, R. O. M., Tenth Cavalry, to the line of the Tenth Cavalry some distance to the right.

Very respectfully, JOHN BIGELOW, JR., Tenth Cavalry, Commanding, Troop D.

In the report of Major Wint, November 28th, 1898, to the adjutant-general is the following: "Lieutenant Pers.h.i.+ng, R.O.M., was with the Second Squadron when pa.s.sed on Sugar House Hill and during its advance on San Juan Hill he conducted himself in a most gallant and efficient manner."

The war with Spain was soon terminated but the executive ability of Lieutenant Pers.h.i.+ng was still in demand. The period of reconstruction was difficult then, as it always is, presenting problems different from those of active fighting, but no less puzzling and perplexing. In this trying time we find him serving as an executive under the direction of the War Department and manifesting in his quiet, persistent way the same qualities of efficiency which had marked his career up to this time. On August 18, 1898, he was serving as Major Chief Ordnance Officer with the United States Volunteers, remaining on duty at the Headquarters of the Army until December 20, 1898, and then on duty in the office of the a.s.sistant Secretary of War, under whom he organized the Bureau of Insular Affairs, and was at the head of that Bureau until the following August. On May 12, 1899, he was honorably discharged from Volunteer service and on June 6, 1899, he was Major and a.s.sistant Adjutant General, United States Volunteers.

Office and work of detail did not, however, appeal strongly to him.

Having known the life and work in the field, and also possessed of a temperament that demanded more active work and out-of-door life that an office provided, at his own request he was sent to the Philippine Islands and was a.s.signed to duty as Adjutant General of the District of Mindanao and Jolo (afterwards a Department under the same name).

He became captain in the First Cavalry, February, 1901, and on August 20th of the same year he was transferred to the Fifteenth Cavalry. His work in the Philippine Islands continued and there his soldierly qualities found a larger field for development and activity than they had known before.

CHAPTER VII

IN THE PHILIPPINES

THE supreme testing of Pers.h.i.+ng up to this time in his career came in the Philippines. There he was dealing with a strange people who for three centuries had learned their lessons and formed their opinions of the white men from their contact and dealings with the Spaniards, of whom they had seen chiefly the adventurers or those who for the "good of their country" had fled from their homes. To such men the exploitation of the "natives" was a legitimate game and the little brown men had thoroughly learned to play their part in it.

The provinces in which Pers.h.i.+ng was to find his field of activity were as difficult as any in the islands. For years the natives had been accustomed to import arms from Borneo and elsewhere. Certain of the tribes were famous also for their skill as forgers of swords, krises and barongs. Every datto had numbers of lantaka or bra.s.s cannon and was well skilled in the use of them. Pers.h.i.+ng's problem was not only to subdue these men,--farmers, artificers and all alike fighters after their own manner, but he must also at the same time convince them of the good will and helpful intentions of the new Government, which for a time and for their own good was now to control them. Naturally suspicious, treacherous in many ways, the Islands presented difficulties that well might have staggered the young officer.

General Pers.h.i.+ng's first term of service in the Philippines was from 1899 to 1903. In the interval between his first and second terms of service as soldier and governor in the Islands, he was back in the United States to serve on the General Staff and also was serving as military attache in the army of General Kuroki in the war between Russia and j.a.pan.

In his first years in the Philippines his work was of a character that made him known to the Army and to the authorities at Was.h.i.+ngton, but it did not make him widely known to his countrymen.

Briefly stated, his record during his two terms of service in the Philippines is as follows: he was in the field November, 1900, to March, 1901, against General Capistrano, the commander of the insurrectionary forces; he was in command of an expedition against the hostile Moros of Maciu, starting from Camp Vicars, Mindanao, September 18, 1902. In the actions at Guam, September 18, and at Bayabao, September 20, 1902, he had a responsible part. On September 29, 1902, he captured Fort Moru, driving the Moros from that Peninsula on that date. He attacked the Moros at Maciu, September 30, 1902, capturing their two forts and then returned to Camp Vicars October 3, 1902. He was again in action at Bacolod, April 6-8, 1903, and again at Calabui April 9, 1903, and Iaraca River, May 4, 1903. He commanded the first military force that ever encircled Lake Lanao.

In May, 1902, General Chaffee was desirous of securing a young leader to deal with the troublesome and specific problem in the province of Zamboanga, where the fierce and turbulent little Moros dwelt. Many of these people were Mohammedans and had been taught that the swiftest and surest way to secure happiness in the next world was by the slaughter of Christians in this present world. During 300 years they had fought the Spanish invaders, whose every attempt to subdue them had failed.

Pers.h.i.+ng in command of five troops of the Fifteenth Cavalry, together with a battery of artillery, a company of engineers and a battalion of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, was stationed at Camp Vicars in the Lake Lanao District of Mindanao. He had taken the place made vacant by the promotion of Colonel Baldwin.

Although the Americans had obtained a foothold on the southern side of Lake Lanao, very few of them had actually become friendly. In fact the Spaniards, in all the years of their occupation, had never subdued the main tribes to subordination.