Men were indignant at having been placed in such a helpless position, and would have thrown the captain of the ship, whom they accused of being a Spanish sympathizer and otherwise disloyal, overboard without ceremony, but for the strong arm of military discipline.  We were picked up by the U.S.  Cruiser Bancroft, late in the afternoon, she having been sent in quest of the Jonah of the fleet.  Upon approach of the ship there were prolonged cheers from all of Uncle Sam’s defenders.  The only explanation that I have ever heard for this unpardonable blunder on the part of the ship’s crew was that they mistook a signal of a leading vessel.

June 20.  Land was sighted.

June 21.  Dispatch boats active; transports circling; Morro Castle pointed out; three days’ rations issued to each man; no extra impedimenta to be taken ashore; crew preparing for landing.

June 22.  As we neared Daiquiri, the designated place for disembarking, flames could be seen reaching almost to the heavens, the town having been fired by the fleeing Spaniards upon the approach of war vessels of Sampson’s fleet, who were assembling to bombard the shore and cover our landing.  After a fierce fire from these ships, the landing was effected with loss of two men of our regiment, who were doubtless crushed to death between the lighters.  They were buried near the place of recovery the next morning.

The few half-clothed and hungry-looking natives on shore seemed pleased to see us.  Daiquiri, a shipping point of the Spanish-American Iron Company, was mostly deserted.  The board houses seemed to have been spared, while the sun-burned huts thatched with palm were still smoking, also the roundhouse in which there were two railroad locomotives, warped and twisted from the heat.  The Spanish evidently fired everything they could before evacuating.

June 23.  At 6.00 p.m.  Troops A, B, E and I, left with four Troops of the First U.S.  Cavalry and Rough Riders (First U.S.  Volunteer Cavalry) as advance guard of the Army of Invasion on the main road to Santiago de Cuba; about 800 men all told, three Hotchkiss guns, manned by ten cavalrymen, accompanied also by the Brigadier Commander, General S.M.B.  Young and staff.

NOTE.—­These troops marched about 13 miles through a drenching rain from 7 to 10 p.m.; bivouacked one hour later.  Oh the 24th, after breakfast, took the trail about 5.15 a.m.  The vapor from wet clothing rose with the sun, so that you could scarcely recognize a man ten feet away.  About three and one-half miles above Siboney the command was halted; the first U.S.  Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) sent to the left; proceeding farther about one mile, the main column was split, First U.S.  Cavalry going to the right, the Tenth Cavalry remaining in the center.  General Wheeler joined at this point, accompanied by his orderly, Private Queene, Troop A, Tenth Cavalry.  Disposition of the troops was explained by General Young, who had located his headquarters