Part 14 (2/2)

Lieutenant G.P. Ahearn, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, who went on this expedition as a volunteer, rendered important service on the night after the attack on the blockhouse at Tayabacoa. As the attacking party met with repulse and escaped to the s.h.i.+p in the darkness, several of their wounded were left on sh.o.r.e. Several boats sent out to recover them had returned without the men, their crews fearing to go on sh.o.r.e after them. Lieutenant Ahearn volunteered to attempt the rescue of the men, and taking a water-logged boat, approached the sh.o.r.e noiselessly and succeeded in his undertaking. The crew accompanying Lieutenant Ahearn was made up of men from Troop M, Tenth Cavalry, and behaved so well that the four were given Medals of Honor for their marked gallantry. The action of Lieutenant Ahearn in this case was in keeping with his whole military career. He has ever manifested a fondness for exceptional service, and has never failed when opportunity occurred to display a n.o.ble gallantry on the side of humanity. Nothing appeals to him so commandingly as an individual needing rescue, and in such a cause he immediately rises to the hero's plane. The n.o.ble colored soldiers who won medals on that occasion were all privates and became heroes for humanity's sake. Their names deserve a place in this history outside the mere official table. They were Dennis Bell, George H. Wanton, Fitz Lee and William H. Tompkins, and were the only colored soldiers who, at the time of this writing, have won Medals of Honor in the Spanish War. Others, however, may yet be given, as doubtless others are deserved. The heroic service performed by whole regiments, as in the case of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, should ent.i.tle every man in it to a medal of some form as a souvenir for his posterity.

Losses of the Ninth Cavalry in the battles of San Juan:

OFFICERS--Killed, Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Hamilton.

MEN--Killed, Trumpeter Lewis Fort, Private James Johnson.

OFFICERS--Wounded, Adjutant Winthrop S. Wood, Captain Charles W. Taylor.

MEN--Wounded. First Sergeant Charles W. Jefferson, Sergeant Adam Moore, Sergeant Henry F. Wall, Sergeant Thomas B. Craig, Corporal James W. Ervine, Corporal Horace T. Henry, Corporal John Mason, Burwell Bullock, Elijah Crippen, Edward Davis, Hoyle Ervin, James Gandy, Edward D. Nelson, Noah Prince, Thomas Sinclair, James R. Spear, Jr., Jacob Tull, William H. Turner, George Warren, Alfred Wilson.

Losses of the Tenth Cavalry during the battle of San Juan:

OFFICERS--Killed, First Lieutenant W.E. s.h.i.+pp, First Lieutenant W.H. Smith.

MEN--Killed, John H. Smoot, Corporal W.F. Johnson, John H.

Dodson, George Stroal, William H. Slaughter.

OFFICERS--Wounded, Major T.J. Wint Captain John Bigelow, Jr., Adjutant and First Lieutenant M.H. Barnum, First Lieutenant R.L.

Livermore, First Lieutenant E.D. Anderson, Second Lieutenant F.R.

McCoy, Second Lieutenant H.C. Whitehead, Second Lieutenant T.A.

Roberts, Second Lieutenant H.O. Willard.

MEN--Wounded, First Sergeant A. Houston, First Sergeant Robert Milbrown, Q.M. Sergeant William Payne, Sergeant Smith Johnson, Sergeant Ed. Lane, Sergeant Walker Johnson, Sergeant George Dyers, Sergeant Willis Hatcher, Sergeant John L. Taylor, Sergeant Amos Elliston, Sergeant Frank Rankin, Sergeant E.S. Was.h.i.+ngton, Sergeant U.G. Gunter, Corporal J.G. Mitch.e.l.l, Corporal Allen Jones, Corporal Marcellus Wright, Privates Lewis L. Anderson, John Arnold, Charles Arthur, John Brown, Frank D. Bennett, Wade Bledsoe, Hillary Brown, Thornton Burkley, John Brooks, W.H. Brown, Wm. A. Cooper, John Chinn, J.H. Campbell, Henry Fearn, Benjamin Franklin, Gilmore Givens, B.F.

Gaskins, William Gregory, Luther D. Gould, Wiley, Hipsher, Thomas Hardy, Charles Hopkins, Richard James, Wesley Jones, Robert E. Lee, Sprague Lewis, Henry McCormack, Samuel T. Minor, Lewis Marshall, William Matthews, Houston Riddill, Charles Robinson, Frank Ridgeley, Fred. Shackley, Harry D. Sturgis, Peter Saunderson, John T. Taylor, William Tyler, Isom Taylor, John Watson, Benjamin West, Joseph Williams, Allen E. White, Nathan Wyatt.

Note.--”While we talked, and the soldiers filled their canteens and drank deep and long, like camels who, after days of travel through the land of 'thirst and emptiness,'

have reached the green oasis and the desert spring, a black corporal of the 24th Infantry walked wearily up to the 'water hole.' He was muddy and bedraggled. He carried no cup or canteen, and stretched himself out over the stepping-stones in the stream, sipping up the water and the mud together out of the shallow pool. A white cavalryman ran toward him shouting, 'Hold on, bunkie; here's my cup!' The negro looked dazed a moment, and not a few of the spectators showed amazement, for such a thing had rarely if ever happened in the army before. 'Thank you,' said the black corporal. 'Well, we are all fighting under the same flag now.' And so he drank out of the white man's cup. I was glad to see that I was not the only man who had come to recognize the justice of certain Const.i.tutional amendments, in the light of the gallant behaviour of the colored troops throughout the battle, and, indeed, the campaign. The fortune of war had, of course, something to do with it in presenting to the colored troops the opportunities for distinguished service, of which they invariably availed themselves to the fullest extent; but the confidence of the general officers in their superb gallantry, which the event proved to be not misplaced, added still more, and it is a fact that the services of no four white regiments can be compared with those rendered by the four colored regiments--the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th Infantry. They were to the front at La Guasima, at Caney, and at San Juan, and what was the severest test of all, that came later, in the yellow-fever hospitals.”--Bonsal.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] Official Report of General Sumner.

CHAPTER VIII.

SAN JUAN (Continued).

Kent's Division: The Twenty-fourth Infantry; Forming Under Fire--A Gallant Charge.

Turning now to the centre and left of the American line we follow the advance of that division of infantry commanded by General Kent, and which met the brunt of Spanish resistance at San Juan. This division, known as the First Division, Fifth Army Corps, consisted of three brigades, composed as follows:

First Brigade, Brigadier-General Hawkins commanding, made up of the Sixth Infantry, the Sixteenth Infantry, and the Seventy-first New York Volunteers.

The Second Brigade, Colonel Pearson commanding, made up of the Second Infantry, the Tenth Infantry and the Twenty-first Infantry.

<script>