at Santiago had black powder muskets, and the regular artillery black powder guns, and they really might almost as well have replaced these weapons by crossbows and mangonels.  We succeeded, thanks to Wood, in getting the same cavalry carbines that were used by the regulars.  We were determined to do this, not only because the weapons were good, but because this would in all probability mean that we were brigaded with the regular cavalry, which it was certain would be sent immediately to the front for the fighting.

There was one worthy bureau chief who was continually refusing applications of mine as irregular.  In each case I would appeal to Secretary Alger—­who helped me in every way—­and get an order from him countenancing the irregularity.  For instance, I found out that as we were nearer the July date than the January date for the issuance of clothing, and as it had long been customary to issue the winter clothing in July, so as to give ample leisure for getting it to all the various posts, it was therefore solemnly proposed to issue this same winter clothing to us who were about to start for a summer campaign in the tropics.  This would seem incredible to those who have never dealt with an inert officialdom, a red-tape bureaucracy, but such is the fact.  I rectified this and got an order for khaki clothing.  We were then told we would have to advertise thirty days for horses.  This meant that we would have missed the Santiago expedition.  So I made another successful appeal to the Secretary.  Other difficulties came up about wagons, and various articles, and in each case the same result followed.  On the last occasion, when I came up in triumph with the needed order, the worried office head, who bore me no animosity, but who did feel that fate had been very unkind, threw himself back in his chair and exclaimed with a sigh:  “Oh, dear!  I had this office running in such good shape—­and then along came the war and upset everything!” His feeling was that war was an illegitimate interruption to the work of the War Department.

There were of course department heads and bureau chiefs and assistants who, in spite of the worthlessness of the system, and of the paralyzing conditions that had prevailed, remained first-class men.  An example of these was Commissary-General Weston.  His energy, activity, administrative efficiency, and common sense were supplemented by an eager desire to help everybody do the best that could be done.  Both in Washington and again down at Santiago we owed him very much.  When I was President, it was my good fortune to repay him in part our debt, which means the debt of the people of the country, by making him a major-general.

The regiment assembled at San Antonio.  When I reached there, the men, rifles, and horses, which were the essentials, were coming in fast, and the saddles, blankets, and the like were also accumulating.  Thanks to Wood’s exertions, when we reached Tampa we were rather better equipped than most of the regular regiments.  We adhered strictly to field equipment, allowing no luxuries or anything else unnecessary, and so we were able to move off the field when ordered, with our own transportation, leaving nothing behind.