There was added to my division at Jacksonville, before any were mustered out, the 1st Ohio (Colonel C. B. Hunt) and the 4th U. S. Volunteer Infantry (Colonel James S. Pettit), the two constituting a third brigade, commanded by Colonel Hunt. My division then numbered about 11,000; the corps something over 32,000.

I commanded the corps, in the absence of General Lee, from the 14th to the 22d of August, 1898. Again, September 27th, I assumed command of the corps and retained it until October 6th, when I took a leave of absence home, returning via Washington for consultation with the authorities. I resumed command of the corps (then removed to Camp Onward, Savannah, Georgia), October 25th, and retained it until November 11th, 1898.

General Lee being about to depart for Havana, Cuba, I assumed, December 8th, command of all the United States forces at Savannah, consisting of regulars and volunteers.

The President, William McKinley, the Secretary of War, R. A. Alger, and others of the President's cabinet, visited Savannah, December 17th and 18th, and reviewed (17th), under my command, all the troops then there; about 16,000 of all arms, some of whom had seen service at Santiago, Cuba, and in Porto Rico.

The Springfield rifles with which the volunteers had been armed, were exchanged at Savannah for Krag-Jorgensen magazine (calibre .30) rifles.

The troops while at Savannah were generally in good health, although a few cases of cerebro or spinal meningitis occurred, owing to frequent changes of temperature.

The secret of preserving the health of soldiers is in regular drill and exercise, ventilation of clothing, bedding, and tents, and in cleanliness of person and camps. Exposure to sun and air purifies and disinfects better than lime or chemicals.

I superintended the final equipment and shipment to Cuba of about 16,000 troops; about one half were volunteers of the Seventh Corps, who went to Havana.

While at Jacksonville, the war with Spain having ended, a number of volunteer regiments were mustered out, and the Seventh Corps was reorganized into two divisions. The 1st Texas, Colonel W. H. Mabry (who died near Havana, January 4, 1899), and 2d Louisiana, Colonel Elmer E. Wood, only, were left of my original First Division, to which was added the 3d Nebraska, Colonel William Jennings Bryan (who resigned at Savannah December 10, 1898); the 4th Illinois, Colonel Eben Swift; the 9th Illinois, Colonel James R. Campbell, and the 2d South Carolina, Colonel Wilie Jones. The first three regiments constituted the First Brigade, commanded by General Loyd Wheaton, and the last three, the Second Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Henry T. Douglas, who had served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. He was an excellent officer.

I embarked for Havana on the 26th of December, 1898, with my headquarters, including my staff, provost-guard, etc., on the Panama, a ship captured from the Spanish early in the war. I arrived in Havana Harbor the evening of the 28th, and the next day reached Camp Columbia, southwest of Havana about eight miles, at Buena Vista, near Marianao, where my last military headquarters were established, in tents, as always before. The troops were prepared to take possession of Havana on its surrender by the Spaniards, January 1, 1899. Major-Generals Brooke, Lee, Ludlow, and some other officers attended to the ceremonial part in the surrender of the city, and it became my duty to march the Seventh Corps and other troops in the vicinity of Havana into it for the purpose of taking public and actual possession. I, accordingly, early New Year morning, moved my command, numbering, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, about 9000, to and along the sea-shore, crossing the Almendares River on pontoons, near its mouth, thence through Vedado to the foot of the Prado, opposite Morro Castle, located east of the neck of the harbor. The formal ceremonies being over (12 M.), the troops were moved up the Prado, passing Major-General Brooke and others on the reviewing-stand at the Inglaterra Hotel, then through principal streets to camp, having made a march of about eighteen miles, under a tropical sun, the day being excessively hot for even that climate. The soldiers endured the march well. The day was a memorable one. A city which had been under monarchical rule for four hundred years witnessed the power of freedom, represented by the host of American soldiers, under the flag of a Republic, move triumphantly through its streets, with the avowed purpose of securing freedom to all the people. The Spanish residents did not partake of the joyous feeling or participate in the wild demonstrations of the Cuban inhabitants. The latter exhibited a frantic hilarity at times; then a dazed feeling seemed to come over them, in which condition they stood and stared, as in meditation. The natural longing to be free had possessed these people, but when they were confronted with the fact of personal freedom it was too much for them to fully realize, or to estimate what the absence of absolute tyranny meant for them. They appeared in the fronts and on the roofs of the houses, and along the sides of the streets, displaying all the tokens and symbols of happiness they possessed. Flowers were thrown in great profusion, and wild shouts went up from men, women, and children; especially from children, as, in some way, they seemed to know that a severance of their country from Spain meant more for them that it did for the older people. The Cubans are of mixed races, though they are not to be despised. Some have pure Castilian blood, some are from other European countries, and some are of pure African descent, many of the latter having once been in slavery; but many of the Cubans proper are of a mixed blood, including the Spanish, African, some Indian, and a general admixture of the people who early settled in the American tropics. There do not seem to be any race distinctions where Cubans alone are concerned. The African and those of mixed blood mingle freely together; and in the insurgent army officers of all ranks were chosen from the pure or mixed-blood African as freely as from others. The Cuban colored people seem to be exceptionally intelligent and energetic, and have a high reputation as brave soldiers. The typical Cuban does not belong to the coast cities, the inhabitants of which are more distinctly Spanish, especially the dominant class. These cities did little towards the insurrections, and their inhabitants, as a mass, can claim little of the glory in making Cuba free or independent. Many of the principal officers of the Cuban army were educated men, and some were of a high order, capable of deeds, on the theatre of war, worthy of the best soldiers of any age. When our war with Spain broke out, the latter had over 200,000 regular soldiers, besides volunteers, on the island, and the insurgent bands were few in number, without good arms, with little ammunition and no quartermaster, commissary, or pay department. Cuba had no permanently located civil government, and the insurgents owned no ship on the seas, nor did they possess a single coast city, or a harbor where supplies could come to them from abroad. They having held the Spanish army at bay for years, and often confined large parts of it, almost in a state of siege, within cities and fortified lines, all circumstances considered, forces us to conclude that talent, skill, endurance, and bravery were possessed by the Cuban officers, and that the ranks were filled with devoted soldiers. The insurrections were of long duration (ten and four years), yet Spain, in 1898, had made no substantial progress in suppressing the last one, though the most barbarous methods were adopted. We exploit the partisan heroes of our Revolution, such as Francis Marion and others, yet they only acted with and against small bands, leaving our armies to meet the large organized forces of the British. What is to be said of the Cuban patriot officer who, year by year, maintained, unsupported, a war for independence against a relentless foe, equipped with the best arms the world has yet known?

My work in Cuba was confined to a military command, principally outside of the cities. My men were in carefully selected camps, which were constantly throughly policed and supplied with wholesome water, piped form the Vento (Havana) Water-works. Thanks to a thorough enforcement of a good sanitary system, the general health of my command was good throughout, only a few cases of typhoid or malarial fever appeared, and there were less than half a dozen cases of yellow fever among my soldiers. There was no epidemic of any disease in the camp. The yellow fever cases developed among men who, out of curiosity, exposed themselves in foul places about old forts and wharves, or in the unused dungeons of Morro and other castles. Yellow fever is a place disease, not generally contagious by contact with the sick.

My time was taken up in Cuba in keeping the peace and preserving order, and with the care of the camps and field-hospitals, and, as throughout my military service, with the drill and discipline of my command, often turning the corps out for review by superior officers. I made incursions to the interior of the island, and observed the devastation of that magnificently beautiful country, with its stately royal palms, etc., and noted the depopulation, under Weyler's reconcentrado plan, of the richest and once most populous rural parts of the island. I saw the Cuban soldiers in their camps or bivouacs, and made the acquaintance of many of their officers, and formed a high regard for them; but it was no part of my duty to try to solve the great, yet unsettled, Cuban problem, and I must be silent here.(20)

The muster out of the volunteers commenced again in March, 1899, and progressed rapidly. The Secretary of War visited Cuba, and with Major-Generals Brooke, Ludlow, Wilson, and other officers, reviewed what troops remained of the Seventh Corps, with others, near Marianao, March 29, 1899. On this occasion, my riding horses having been shipped away preparatory to my leaving Cuba, I rode a strange horse, which at a critical time in the review ran away, carrying me, in much danger, some distance from the reviewing officers. I recovered control of the horse, but dismounted him and mounted another, which proved equally untamed, and he likewise, a little later, attempted to run afield or cast me off. Fortunately these exceptional accidents terminated without injury; and with that review ended my public military service—forever.

The fatal illness of my beloved and devoted wife and her death (March 12, 1899) caused me (with my son) to go to my Ohio home. I returned to Cuba with Captain Horace C. Keifer, who was on my staff continuously during my service in the Spanish War.

All arrangements having been completed for the early muster out of the volunteers of the Seventh Corps not already gone, and my mission in the army being practically at an end, and my command proper disbanded, I took ship (the Yarmouth), in Havana Harbor, March 30th, and proceeded via Port Tampa, home, where I was mustered out of the military service May 12, 1899, having been in the army as a Major-General eleven months and three days. During my service in the field in the Spanish War I was not off duty on account of illness, injury, or accident.

I had an attack of typhoid fever, at my home in April, from which I soon recovered, doubtless contracted while travelling to or from Cuba.

I had now lived about five years in a tent, or without shelter, in war times, through all seasons, and being in my sixty-fourth year, gave up all inclination to continue in military life, knowing the field is for younger men. My duties in the army, though always arduous, were pleasant, hence gratifying. I had no serious trouble with any officer or soldier, though I tried to do my duty in the discipline of my command. My personal attachment to superior and inferior officers, especially members of my military staff, was and is of no ordinary kind. I congratulate myself on being able to attach to me, loyally, some of the most accomplished, hard- working, conscientious, and highly educated officers of the United States Army, as well as others of the volunteers, the service has known. A list of officers (nine of whom were sons of former Confederate officers) who served, at some time, on my division staff in the field, is given in Appendix F.

Here this narrative must end with only a parting word as to the Spanish War.

Dewey destroyed the entire Spanish fleet, with much loss of life, in Manila Bay, May 1, 1898; seven Americans were wounded, none killed. Admiral Cervera, with the pride of the Spanish battle- ships, cruisers, and torpedo-boats, reached Cuban waters from Cape Verde Islands, and, May 19th, sailed into Santiago Harbor, where he was blockaded—"bottled up"—by Admirals Sampson and Schley's fleets. Cervera's fleet, in an attempt to escape, was totally destroyed, with a loss of above six hundred killed or drowned, and about two thousand captured, himself included, in two hours, by our navy under Sampson, on Sunday morning, July 3, 1899, with a loss of one American killed and one wounded. Other minor naval affairs occurred, all disastrous to the Spanish. Cervera's entry into Santiago Harbor caused previous plans for the movement of the army to be changed.

The bulk of the regular army, under Major-General Wm. R. Shafter, was assembled at Port Tampa, from whence they were transported to and landed (June 24th) at Guantanamo Bay, near Santiago. They were then joined by a body of Cuban troops under General Garcia. Fighting commenced at once and continued irregularly at Siboney, El Caney, San Juan Hill, etc., the principal battles being fought on the 1st and 2d of July. The next day a demand was made on the Spanish commander (Toral) for the surrender of his army and Santiago. This was acceded to, after much negotiation, July 17, 1898, including the province of Santiago and 22,000 troops, in number exceeding Shafter's entire available force. The display of skill and bravery by officers and men of our small army (principally regulars) at Santiago never was excelled. Our loss in the series of battles there was, killed, 22 officers and 208 men; wounded, 81 officers and 1203 men. A Porto Rico campaign was then organized. General Miles wired the War Department, about July 18th, to send me with my division (then in camp at Miami) to make up his Porto Rico expedition. His request was not carried out, and it thus happened that no soldier of a Southern State volunteer organization fired a hostile shot during the Spanish War. Ponce was taken July 25th, followed by an invasion of the island from the south. An affair took place, August 10th, and operations here, as elsewhere, were terminated by the protocol. Manila was surrendered August 13th, the day after the protocol was signed. This was the last offensive land operation of the Spanish War. The invasion of Porto Rico cost us 3 killed and 40 wounded.

Through the intervention of Cambon, the French Ambassador at Washington, negotiations were opened which resulted in a protocol which bound Spain to relinquish all sovereignty over Cuba, to cede Porto Rico and other West India island possessions to the United States, and it provided for a Commission to agree upon a treaty of peace, to meet in Paris, not later than October 1, 1898; also provided for Commissions to regulate the evacuation of Cuba and Porto Rico.

The treaty was signed in Paris December 10, 1898; was submitted by the President to the Senate January 11, 1899, and ratified by it, and its ratification approved by him, February 6, 1899. The Queen of Spain ratified the treaty March 19, 1899, and its ratifications were exchanged and proclaimed at Washington April 11, 1899. It provided for the cession, also, to the United States of the Philippine Islands and the payment of $20,000,000 therefor.

The total casualties in battle, during the war, in our navy, were 17 killed and 67 wounded (no naval officer injured); and, in our army, 23 officers and 257 men killed, and 113 officers and 1464 men wounded; grand total, 297 killed and 1644 wounded, of all arms of the service.

The deaths from disease and causes other than battle, in camps and at sea, were, 80 officers and 2485 enlisted men. Many died at their homes of disease; some of wounds.

An insurrection broke out in the Philippines in February, 1899, which is not yet suppressed.

The war was not bloody, and the end attained in the cause of humanity and liberty is a justification of it; but whether the acquisition of extensive tropical and distant island possessions was wise, or will tend to perpetuate our Republic and spread constitutional liberty, remains to be shown by the infallible test of time. Our sovereignty over Cuba, thus far, appears to be a friendly usurpation, without right, professedly in the interest of humanity, civilization, and good government. Our acquisition of Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands, all in the tropics, is a new national departure which may prove wise or not, according as we deal justly and mercifully with the people who inhabit them. It may be in the Divine plan that these countries should pass under a more beneficent, enduring, newer, and higher civilization, to be guided and dominated by a people speaking the English tongue.

( 1) The certificate of his naturalization reads:

"Maryland ss.

"These are to certify all persons whom it may concern: That George Keifer of Frederick County, within the Province aforesaid, born out of the Allegiance of his most Sacred Majesty King George the Third, etc., did, on the 3d day of September Anno Domini 1765, Personally appear before the Justices of his Lordship's Provincial Court, and then and there, in Term Time, between the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon of the same day, produced and delivered a certificate in writing of his having received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in a Protestant or Reformed Congregation in the said Province of Maryland, within three months next before the exhibiting of such certificate, signed by the person administering such Sacrament, and attested by two credible witnesses, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament made in the thirteenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, entitled, An Act for naturalizing such foreign Protestants, and others therein mentioned, as are settled or shall settle in any of his Majesty's Colonies in America; and then and there made appear, that he had been an inhabitant in some of his Majesty's Plantations seven years, and had not been absent out of some of the said Colonies for a longer space than two months at any one time during the said seven years; and also then and there took the oaths of Allegiance, Abhorrency, and Abjuration, repeated the Test, and subscribed the same, and oath of Abjuration. In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand, and affixed the seal of the said court, this 3d day of September in the year of our Lord God, one thousand seven hundred and Sixty-five.

"Test. Reverdy Ghiselm, Clk."

( 2) Dr. Jenner's primary investigation of the principles of vaccination began in 1775, but was not satisfactorily completed in England until five years later. Lady Montagu had, however, introduced from Turkey into England, as early as 1717, inoculation for smallpox, but from the beginning it met the fiercest opposition of physicians, the clergy, and the superstitious public, which was never entirely overcome in England or America.

( 3) John Uri Lloyd, Ph.M., Ph.D. (Cin.), the distinguished author and scientist and collector of medical, etc., books, in an article printed in the Am. Jour. of Pharmacy, January, 1898, on "Dr. Peter Smith and His Dispensatory," says his book was the "first Materia Medica 'Dispensatory' published in the West."

( 4) Owing to its remarkable character we quote from his book:

"In South Carolina I was once in company with old Dr. Dilahoo, who was noted for great skill and experience, having traveled into many parts of the world. In the course of our conversation I asked him what he conceived the plague to be, which had been so much talked of in the world. He readily told me that it was his opinion that the plague is occasioned by an invisible insect. This insect floating in the air, is taken with the breath into the lungs, and there it either poisons or propagates its kind, so as to produce that dreadful disease. This, he was confirmed, was likely to be the truth from the experiments frequently made at Gibraltar. For there, said he, they of the garrison, when they fear the plague, have a way to elevate a piece of fresh meat pretty high in the air; they put it up at night, and if it comes down sound and sweet in the morning, they conclude there is no danger of the plague. But if the plague is in the air, the meat will be tainted and spoiled, and sometimes almost rotten. He was further confirmed in his opinion of the insect, because in and about tobacco warehouses the plague has never been known. I will remark: Now it is well known that tobacco will prevent moth from eating our woolen clothes, if we pack but little of it with them, that is the moth cannot breed or exist, where there is a sufficient scent of the tobacco. This scent may be death to the invisible insects even after they are drawn in with the breath and fastened upon the lungs. This may account for tobacco being burned (as I have heard it), in many old countries, on a chaffing dish in a room, that the people of the house may take in the smoke plentifully with their breath, to preserve their health and prevent pestilential disorders.

"Agreeable to this view, we may conclude that all tainted air may bring disease and death to us. And the plague has never been (properly speaking) in America as we know of. Yet other effluvia taken in with the breath may have occasioned other fearful diseases, such as the yellow fever and other bilious and contagious complaints." —P. 14.

( 5) His grandson, James Johns, in the 30's, wandered, as a trapper, to the Pacific coast, thence north to the mouth of the Willamette River on the Columbia (Oregon), and there lived a bachelor and alone until his death, about 1890. He was neither a fighting man nor a hunter. He travelled, often alone, wholly unarmed, among wild, savage Indians, his peaceable disposition and defenceless condition being respected. He, it is said, would not sell his lands at the mouth of the river, and thus forced the city of Portland to be located twelve miles from the Columbia.

( 6) My father was not a large man, his weight being only about one hundred and sixty pounds and height five feet, ten inches, but my mother, while only of medium height for a woman, was of large frame and weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds.

( 7) Solitary reading law, with time for thought and reflection, has its advantages, more than compensating for the opportunity to consult reports, etc., usually enjoyed by a law student in an office.

The present Chief-Justice (Hon. David Martin) of Kansas, though nominally a law student of mine, yet read and mastered the elementary and principal law-books while tending, as a miller, a dry-water country grist-mill, remote from my office.

( 8) On the recommendations of Generals Grant and Meade I was appointed (1866) by President Johnson a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 26th Infantry, U. S. A., one of the new regular regiments provided for after the close of the war. I declined the appointment because I was of too restless a disposition and not educated for a soldier in time of peace.

( 9) The Thirteenth Amendment was proclaimed ratified Dec. 18, 1865; the Fourteenth, July 28, 1868, and the Fifteenth, March 30, 1870.

(10) In the Florida Indian War of 1812 some depredations were committed on Fisher's corn fields. For this he made a claim originally for $8000. Congress has since paid on it $66,803, and there was still a claim in the Forty-Third Congress for $66,848, on which a committee of the House reported in favor of paying $16,848, leaving $50,000 of the claim to bother future Congresses. —Rep. (No. 134) on Law of Claims, H. of R., Forty-Third Cong., p. 18.

(11) Later the Forty-Seventh Congress passed an act authorizing the distribution of about two-thirds of the whole fund to persons whose claims were rejected by the Geneva Arbitrators in making up the award.

(12) For an authoritative decision on the right of the National Government to use physical force to compel obedience to its laws, etc., see Ex parte Seibold, 100 U. S. Rep., 371.

(13) Proceedings Society of the Army of the Cumberland, 1887, pp. 115-40.

(14) Mr. Blaine was nominated for President in 1884, but was defeated by Mr. Cleveland. Notwithstanding his duplicity towards me, I supported him. He was disloyal to Mr. Reed, of his own State, though he then also professed to support him.

(15) An unwary, but doubtless well-meaning person (M. P. Follet) of Quincy, Mass., in 1896 published a small volume on the Speaker of the House, in which she gathered up these stories. She says Keifer appointed on the elections Committee "eleven Republicans and two Democrats"; that he appointed one nephew "Clerk to the Speaker," another "Clerk to the Speaker's table." These and other like falsehoods appear to have been inspired by a member who, notwithstanding his free-trade proclivities and other objectionable qualities and incapacities, sought to be appointed Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The Committee on Elections was composed of nine Republicans, five Democrats, and one re-Adjuster from Virginia. The Clerk to the Speaker's table was, throughout the Congress, a poor young man who had been a page on the floor of the House and a resident of the State of New York, and no relative of mine. A nephew of mine, a resident of Washington, was, for a short time, my clerk, a purely personal position, as was also that of private secretary.

The statement of Miss Follet that Keifer's "partisan rulings soon won him the contempt of Republicans as well as of Democrats," is shown to be basely untrue by the significant fact that no parliamentary or other decision of mine was ever overruled by the House, although my party can hardly be said to have been in the majority of the House over all other parties.

What "partisan ruling" of mine was not heartily approved by my party, or did not command at least the respect of the Democrats? Miss Follet was imposed on.

(16) An incident occurred near the close of the last session of the Forty-seventh Congress which should be mentioned. The reporters of newspapers, through the courtesy of the House, had been assigned a separate gallery for their convenience. This gallery, as well as others for the convenience of visitors, was under the general control of the Speaker, subject to the order of the House. There were but few occupants in the reporters' gallery the last night of the session, and there were many ladies who could not be accommodated with seats in other galleries.

I declined, however, though repeatedly requested, to order the reporters' gallery opened even to ladies, and I also refused to entertain a motion by a member of the House to order it thrown open to them; but appeals became so urgent that I, as Speaker, submitted to the House the request of James W. McKenzie, a member from Kentucky, for unanimous consent to open the gallery.

Here is an extract from the Record, showing the action taken:

"Mr. McKenzie.—I ask unanimous consent that the reporters' gallery be thrown open to the occupation of the wives and friends of Congressmen, who are unable to obtain seats in other galleries.

"The Speaker.—The gentleman from Kentucky asks consent that the rules be so suspended as to permit the reporters' gallery to be occupied by the wives and friends of members of Congress.

"There was no objection, and it was ordered accordingly."—Con. Record, vol. xiv., Part IV., p. 3747.

I was, under the circumstances, the only member who could not have prevented the gallery being opened.

Notwithstanding the fact that no reporter was seriously inconvenienced by the presence of ladies, the incident was viciously seized on by certain reporters (and, through them, the metropolitan press) to assail me as the enemy of the press. The truth was suppressed at the time, and I was personally charged with wilfully opening up the press gallery as an insult to the dignity of newspaper men, and, with this, other false statements were published, which could not be answered through the same medium, by me or my friends, which made an unfavorable impression, scarcely yet removed from the public mind.

(17) It is comparatively easy for a Speaker to preside with a large political and friendly majority to support him, as was the case when Colfax, Blaine, and other Speakers were in the Chair.

(18) See Con. Record, vol. xiii., Part V., p. 4313.

(19) Con., etc., Rules, etc., H. of R.; Second Sess. Forty- seventh, Con., 358.

(20) My views of the situation in Cuba were expressed in a letter to General Corbin, dated January 28, 1899. Appendix E.

APPENDIX B

It is due from me, and it gives me pleasure to mention some of the deserving officers of the 110th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wm. N. Foster served for a time with credit. Major Otho H. Binkley, later Lieutenant-Colonel and brevetted Colonel by the President for distinguished services, Captain Wm. S. McElwain, who became a Major and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness, Captain Aaron Spangler, later a Major and brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel for gallantry, Captains Wm. D. Alexander, Nathan S. Smith (an eminent Presbyterian divine), Wm. R. Moore, (died of disease while acting as Assistant Inspector-General on my staff), Joseph C. Ullery, Joseph G. Snodgrass, Luther Brown (wounded at Monocacy, brevetted Major for gallantry, and for a time Provost- Marshal of a division), these all were accomplished soldiers and fought on many fields with distinction. Lieutenants Joseph B. Van Eaton, Wesley Devenney and Wm. H. Harry, each of whom served as Adjutant, were all promoted from non-commissioned officers to Lieutenant, then to Captain, each wounded, Devenney mortally at the battle of Opequon.

Lieutenants Albert M. Starke (regimental Quartermaster), E. A. Shepherd, Wm. D. Shellenberger (twice wounded), Wm. L. Cron, John T. Shearer, Charles M. Gross, Henry H. Stevens (killed in assault on Petersburg, April 2, 1865), Wm. A. Hathaway (for a time Assistant Adjutant-General on my staff, and killed at Monocacy), Alexander Trimble (died of a wound received at battle of Opequon), George P. Boyer, Elam Harter, John M. Smith (killed in Wilderness), Joseph McKnight (mortally wounded in Wilderness), and Thomas J. Weakley, each became a Captain and were all gallant and more than usually efficient officers, most of whom were either killed or wounded in battle. Lieutenants Joshua S. Deeter and Edward S. Simes, promoted from privates, both wounded in the battle of Opequon, the former mortally, were likewise gallant officers. Lieutenant Paris Horney, who heroically fought at Winchester in June, 1863, until surrounded and captured, died in prison at Columbia, S. C. Lieutenant Robert W. Wiley served as my aide-de-camp and especially distinguished himself. Lieutenant Henry Y. Rush served gallantly until broken by disease, when he resigned and resumed his calling (minister of the Gospel), in which he is now eminent; also as a writer. Lieutenant James A. Fox was promoted from Sergeant-Major, served on staff duty, and was killed leading a company in the battle of Orange Grove.

Wm. L. Shaw was promoted to Captain from Lieutenant and brevetted Major by the President for distinguished services. He served on division-staff and on cavalry-corps staff duty for a time in Rosecrans' army, and for a considerable time was my Assistant Inspector or Assistant Adjutant-General. He was an energetic and capable officer. Those of the regiment who bore the musket in the ranks equally deserve mention for what they did and for the sacrifices they made for their country; but the story of the 110th Ohio is elsewhere told.( 1)

( 1) John W. Warrington and John B. Elam, now eminent lawyers, the former in Cincinnati, the latter in Indianapolis, served as private soldiers in this regiment. Elam was severely wounded at Cold Harbor June 3, 1864, and Warrington in the successful assault of the Sixth Corps at Petersburg April 2, 1865.

APPENDIX C FAREWELL ORDER

"Headq'rs 2d Brig., 3d Div., 6th Corps, Army of Potomac, "Camp near Washington, D.C., June 15th, A.D. 1865. "General Orders No. 28.

"Officers and Soldiers: This command will soon be broken up in its organization. It is sincerely hoped that each man may soon be permitted to return to his home, family, and friends, to enjoy their blessings and that of a peaceful, free, and happy people.

"The great length of time I have had to honor to command you has led to no ordinary attachment. The many hardships, trials, and dangers we have shared together, and the distinguished services you have performed in camp, on the march, and upon the field of battle, have long since endeared you to me. I shall ever be proud to have been your commander, and will cherish a lasting recollection of both officers and men. Your efficient services and gallant conduct in behalf of human rights and human freedom will not be overlooked and forgotten by a grateful country.

"I cannot repress the deepest feelings of sadness upon parting with you.

"I mourn with you, and share in your sorrow, for the many brave comrades who have fallen in battle and have been stricken down with disease. Let us revere their memories and emulate their noble character and goodness. A proud and great nation will not neglect their afflicted families. The many disabled officers and soldiers will also be cared for by a grateful people and an affluent country.

"You have a proud name as soldiers; and I trust that, at your homes, you will so conduct yourselves that you will be honored and respected as good citizens.

"I shall part with you entertaining the sincerest feelings of affection and kindness for all, hoping that it may be my good fortune to meet and greet you in future as honored citizens and friends.

"J. Warren Keifer."

Summary of Casualties in Regiments of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Third and Sixth Army Corps, 1863-65

Killed Wounded Total Officers Officers Officers Aggregate En. Men. En. Men. En. Men. 110th Ohio Infantry . . . . . . 10 102 18 443 28 545 573 122d Ohio Infantry . . . . . . 7 92 17 432 24 524 548 126th Ohio Infantry . . . . . . 9 111 10 379 19 490 509 6th Maryland Infantry . . . . . 7 103 21 213 28 316 344 138th Pennsylvania Infantry . . 5 120 16 223 21 343 364 67th Pennsylvania Infantry . . 2 90 3 130 5 220 224 9th N. Y. Heavy Artillery . . . 14 204 16 590 30 794 824 - - - Total . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 812 101 2410 155 3232 3387

APPENDIX D

"Springfield, Ohio, October 22, 1888. "General Horatio G. Wright, Washington, D. C.

"My Dear Friend,—After expressing to you that high regard I have always had for you, and also expressing the hope that your health is good, also that of your family, I have the honor to call your attention to the following matter, of some interest to you no doubt.

"General R. S. Ewell, of date of December 20, 1865, in the form of a report addressed to General R. E. Lee, to be found in Vol. XIII., Southern Historical Papers, page 247, in speaking of the battle of Sailor's Creek, after having concluded his general report of this battle says:

'I was informed at General Wright's headquarters, whither I was carried after my capture, that 30,000 men were engaged with us when we surrendered, viz., two infantry corps and Custer's and Merritt's divisions of cavalry, the whole under command of General Sheridan.'

"On page 257, same book, in a note appended to a report of the same battle, by General G. W. C. Lee, he says:

'I was told, after my capture, that the enemy had two corps of infantry and three divisions of cavalry opposed to us at Sailor's Creek.'

"Now, as I know you commanded the infantry engaged on the Union side in that battle from first to last, and that no infantry troops save of your corps there fought under you, that only a portion of the Third Division (in which I was then serving) was present, and General Frank Wheaton's division of the Sixth Corps was the only other infantry division there, though I am not quite sure that his entire division was up and engaged in the battle at the time of the assault, overthrow, and destruction of General Ewell's forces, and my recollection is quite clear that General G. W. Getty's Division of your corps did not arrive on the field in time for the battle, I am certain Generals Ewell and G. W. C. Lee have fallen into a grave error. We certainly captured more men in the Sailor's Creek battle than Ewell and G. W. C. Lee say were engaged on the Confederate side.

"Since the war, there seems to be a disposition to disparage the Northern soldiers by representing a small number of Confederate troops engaged with a very large number of Union troops. The above is to my mind simply an illustration of what I find running through the reports, letters, and speeches of Southern officers.

"As I am writing something from time to time in a fugitive way, and may some time write with a view to a more connected history of the war, in so far as it came under my personal observation, I should be very much obliged to you if you will write me a letter on this subject as full as you feel that you have time, and allow me to make such use of it as I may think best. I wish I had a copy of your report of this battle, etc. Where can I get it?

"Believe me yours, with the highest esteem, "J. Warren Keifer."

"Washington, November 3, 1888. "1203 N Street, N. W. "Dear General Keifer:

"I have never seen or before heard of the report of General R. S. Ewell to which you refer, in which you say he states that he was informed at my headquarters, to which he was carried after his capture at Sailor's Creek, 'that 30,0000 men were engaged with us when we surrendered—viz., two infantry corps, and Custer's and Merritt's divisions of cavalry—the whole under the command of General Sheridan.'

"General Ewell was entirely mistaken in regard to the strength of the infantry opposed to him. Instead of two infantry corps, there were only two divisions—the First and Third of the Sixth Corps, the Second Division not having come up till the battle was nearly over, and taking no part in the fight. He may have been correct as regards to two divisions of cavalry, though I had not supposed it to be so strong. Its part in the battle was important, as, by getting in the rear of the Confederate force, the latter, after being broken by the infantry attack, and its retreat cut off, was compelled to surrender. I never knew accurately the number captured, but General Sheridan and myself estimated it at about 10,000.

"Of course, the statement of General G. W. C. Lee, to which you refer, is also erroneous as regards the strength opposed to the Confederate force.

"You are quite correct in your statement that you know I commanded the infantry engaged on the Union side in that battle, from first to last. General Sheridan was with me as our troops were coming up, but he left before the battle commenced, to join the cavalry, as I supposed, and I was not aware that he claimed to be in command of the combined infantry and cavalry force till some time subsequent to the battle, when he called upon me for a report. This I declined to make, on the ground that I was under the orders of General Meade only, the commander of the Army of the Potomac. General Grant, to whom the matter was referred by General Sheridan, having decided that I should make a report to the latter, I sent him a copy of my report of the battle, which I had already made to General Meade. I regret that I have no copy of the report, or I should send it to you with pleasure. I presume that it will soon be published in the official records of the Rebellion. All the records of the Sixth Corps were turned in to the Adjutant-General of the Army, as required by the Army Regulations, on the discontinuance of our organization, and are, I presume, accessible to any who desire to examine them.

"With the most sincere good wishes for your health and prosperity, "I am, very truly yours, "H. G. Wright, "General J. Warren Keifer, Springfield, Ohio."

APPENDIX E

"Headquarters First Division, Seventh Army Corps, "Camp Columbia, Havana, Cuba, January 28, 1899.

"General Henry C. Corbin, "Adjutant-General U.S.A., "Washington, D.C.

"Sir.—I dislike to take your time, but I hope you will pardon me for writing you this purely unofficial letter, relative to the situation in Cuba as it appears to me after a month's investigation while serving here. Necessarily, to keep in bounds, I must generalize and not always give reasons for opinions. This is not written in any spirit of criticism, or of dissatisfaction with my own position here; in fact, I am satisfied with my command, and am very well treated by everybody about and around me. Major-Generals Brooke and Lee are both very kind to me. But to the subject. I shall not attempt to exhaust it.

"Cuba is now prostrate and her people quiet. This applies to all classes,—Cubans, Spaniards, citizens, and soldiers,—including those who upheld the insurrection and those who did not, and whether living in cities or in country districts. I say this after having been in touch with officers and soldiers of the Cuban army, and others.

"The reconcentrados are about all dead, and the few living are too weak to soon recover, even if fed. The attempts to feed them are, necessarily, largely failures, and must continue to be until some provision can be made to organize and remove the helpless, broken families from congested places, where it is impossible to house them comfortably, and place them in homes in the country districts. These people are still dying under our eyes. The food we give them they are not strong enough to eat, save the rice. Some of my officers were recently shown at San Jose de las Lajas, this province, one coffin (kept for convenience on a hand-cart) that had recently done duty in the burial of about five thousand Cubans. But instances need not be given when it is known that above seven hundred thousand Cuban non-combatants have been killed or have died of starvation in the past two or three years, many of them not buried, but their bones picked by the buzzards. The island is a charnel-house of dead. Every graveyard has piles of exposed human bones, and the earth has been strewn with them outside of cities and towns. There were many killed who were not actual insurgents, but Cubans, women and children included. The deaths left broken families; many orphans, who do not know who their parents were. Many owners of land and their entire families and friends have been killed or died, and there is no one to claim the land. This in some of the richest districts is quite the rule.

"Outside of a little circle about Havana, the plantations in general have been destroyed, including houses and other buildings, fruit trees, banana plants, cane fields, farm implements, stock, etc., and the wells filled up, first being polluted by throwing dead bodies of Cubans and animals in them.

"The soil is marvellously rich. It shows no signs of exhaustion by cultivation, and I think it never will. Tobacco, sugar-cane, pineapples, oranges, bananas, plantain, etc., to say nothing of corn, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, onions, beans, grasses, etc., will grow, if given the slightest chance. Two, three, and as high as four crops can easily be grown in one year. You will say, Why do not the people grow them? They have no bread to eat while they labor, nor have they any oxen or mules,—horses are out of the question and not suitable to till land here,—or seed, or implements, or anything. They die in the midst of the most extraordinary riches.

"Owners of much of the land in the interior districts, who have survived, are as helpless as the poorest laborers.

"The exceptions are confined to remote little valleys, and mountain places where the insurgents held constant control, and there too they are poor, having in the past, and still, to maintain the Cuban soldiers, regular and irregular.

"Only provisions for food for a short time and means to get animals, farm implements, etc., will end the present conditions and put the people of the island on the road to prosperity. Spasmodic issues of army rations give only temporary relief and tend to encourage idleness.

"Another race of people might come, but they could not soon get titles to lands, if ever.

"There is no civil government here, not even in form. Gomez and his insurgent followers are still in their mountain fastnesses, and whatever of organizations they have are irregular, and military. They are biding their time for something, not yet fully developed.

"Our government here is military, disguise it as we may. If it were anything else, it would soon fail. All attempts at a hermaphroditical government here must also fail, as it has everywhere. It must be all American or all Cuban. The Spaniards here, though they predominate in the principal cities, do not yet count as a factor, although they are for annexation; this to save their estates and for personal safety. Any attempts to build up a Cuban government by the use of a few Cubans and Spaniards in Havana and other cities, no matter what their character for intelligence and peaceableness may be, must end in disaster, and a little later, in a wild repetition of war and bloodshed. Those who organized and maintained, through the dreadful years of the past, the insurrection against Spanish power and suffered so much in their estates and families, are going to have a say in the future control of this island, and if it is to be annexed to the United States, they will have to be consulted or a bloody guerilla war will ensue. They are now exhausted, and tired and sick of war, but they are used to it, and familiar with death, and already they are preparing and calculating on a war much easier for them to wage against the United States than against Spain, as the United States is not expected to be so barbarous in the treatment of their remaining women and children; and such people can reasonably calculate on help from sympathizers, adventurers, etc., of other countries, especially South American, and people of kindred races and instincts. The cry of freedom and liberty is always seductive and brings friends.

"The Cuban people now being recognized here, with rare exceptions, had nothing to do with maintaining the insurrection, but remained within the cities and lines of the Spanish army, pretending to be loyal to Spain, if they were not so in fact. They were too cowardly to fight, and too avaricious to render material aid to those in the field. All such are under the ban of suspicion in the eyes of the real Cuban insurgents, no matter what their pretensions may be. Any government organized with such persons at the head will, sooner or later, be overthrown in blood, if not otherwise. The Cubans, like other people, desire offices, and the war-patriots of Cuba are no exceptions, and will fight for power, and when the test comes the mass of Cubans in and out of the cities will be with the real insurgent leaders. Already the latter are resolving not to take office until they are recognized and given a full share of power.

"Ignoring such people now is easy; later they will defy our country and be its eternal enemies, with the civilized world in sympathy with them. The Spaniards, other foreigners, and home-staying Cuban politicians are the people who now get a hearing, but wait and listen for what is to come! Our people will appear to the real Cubans as their despoilers and oppressors, instead of liberators.

"I am in favor of annexation, and the sooner the better, but the Cuban patriots must first form a government, provisional or otherwise, and consent to annexation. This at first would have been easy, even now possible, to be brought about, but we are fast drifting away from annexation or a peaceful solution of the great and scandalous Cuban problem confronting us.

"The Cuban people are not to be despised; they are a mixed race it is true, but they have talked of and fought for freedom too many years not to know something of the sweet fruits of individual liberty. They are polite and affable, but yet suspicious, as all people are who have been oppressed. It is said they may be resentful of the real or imaginary wrongs they have suffered from the Spaniards. Grant this. Who would not, with their homes as open graveyards strewn with the dead of their families, etc.? It is not best or safe to believe all the tales told of Gomez and his followers by the Spaniards or city Cubans.

"However, I do not believe that a reorganization, with the insurgents fairly recognized, would be as bad as these interested people claim, or would be half so bloody as any organized civil government will prove to be with them left out. Woe to the Spaniard in the island if war again breaks out here! Gomez is at the head of the Cuban military forces, but there are others, generally good men, who are recognized heads of the Cuban insurgent civil power. These are the people who will have to be dealt with, or they will deal with whatever power may be set up.

"The Cuban is not so ignorant as is often claimed. Generally all classes can read and write. Now they have no redress for wrongs against person or property. (They have no civil courts; only a little remaining semblance of Spanish authority in a few places.)

"With a simple form of civil government they could soon have this, and they could be schooled in the primary principles of civil government, such as self-reliance, knowledge of their just rights, duty to others, and others' duty to them. Cubans have more need of justices of the peace than of justices of a Supreme Court. The people want and need quick redress against trespassers, and in the collection of debts, etc.

"A simple code of laws, primitive in character, but comprehensive and easily understood, yet adequate to bring speedy relief, is what is now most needed. Such laws could be passed by a provisional legislative body. Light taxes for a few years should be assessed. Good land laws with a reasonable law of limitations should be made. Land titles then soon would be settled. The established government should take up and lease, pending the adjustment of titles, all tillable and unoccupied land. Much of this land, even the best of it (which would be cheap at two hundred dollars per acre), would escheat for the want of living owners or descendants. The escheated lands would make a large revenue for the State. Much of the land in cultivation is capable of netting each year, with only fair cultivation in tobacco, etc., one thousand dollars per acre. These lands have had, and soon should have again, a value of from two to five hundred and often one thousand dollars per acre.

"Cuba (under Spanish semi-barbaric rule for four hundred years) could be transformed from a graveyard of open graves, the feeding- ground and paradise of vultures, to the richest and most ideally beautiful and most enchanting spot on the face of the earth, with a prosperous population on a high plane of civilization. Even the tropical diseases in Havana and other coast cities would disappear before modern methods of sanitation. In general, outside of a few cities, the island is healthful, notwithstanding the contaminating effect of the pestilential cities. Yellow fever, smallpox, and a few infectious diseases exist here continually, but they soon would disappear.

"The property owners, in spite of high taxes, have lived in this island in 'barbaric luxury,' partaking somewhat of splendor. This will be the case again, and much intensified, when touched by a civilization that regards the rights of man.

"The ease and comfort possible in such a place as this are too great to be appreciated by such plain hard-working persons as you and I. But——

"Yours most respectfully, "J. Warren Keifer, "Major-General Volunteers."

APPENDIX F

List of officers who served (at some time) on the division staff of Major-General Keifer in the Spanish War.

Personal Staff

Captain Horace C. Keifer (Ohio), 3d U. S. Vol. Engineers, Aide.

First Lieutenant Albert C. Thompson, Jr. (Ohio), U. S. Vol. Signal Corps, Aide.

First Lieutenant Edward T. Miller (Ohio), U. S. Vol. Signal Corps, Aide.

Second Lieutenant Dwight E. Aultman (U.S.A.), 2d U. S. Artillery, Aide.

Second Lieutenant Lewis W. Brander (Va.), 3d U. S. Vol. Infantry, Aide.

Division Staff

Major Benjamin Alvord (U.S.A.), Chief Ordnance Officer. (U.S.V.)

Major George L. Hobart (N. J.), Assistant Adjutant-General. (U.S.V.)

Major William S. Scott (U.S.A.), Assistant Adjutant-General. (U.S.V.)

Major John Gary Evans (S. C.), Inspector-General. (U.S.V.)

Major James M. Moody (N. C.), Chief Commissary of Subsistence. (U.S.V.)

Major James M. Arrasmith (U.S.A.), Chief Commissary of Subsistence. (U.S.V.)

Captain J. E. B. Stuart (Va.), Commissary of Subsistence. (U.S.V.)

Major Noble H. Creager (Md.), Chief Quartermaster. (U.S.V.)

Major William J. White (Ohio), Chief Quartermaster. (U.S.V.)

Captain Fred W. Cole (Fla.), Quartermaster. (U.S.V.)

Major John L. Chamberlain (U.S.A.), Chief Ordnance Officer. (U.S.V.)

Major Godfrey H. Macdonald (U.S.A.), Chief Ordnance Officer. (U.S.V.)

Major Hugh H. Gordon (Ga.), Chief Engineer Officer. (U.S.V.)

Major D. M. Appel (U.S.A.), Chief Surgeon.

Major Francis C. Ford (Texas), Surgeon. (U.S.V.)

Major Eduard Boeckmann (Minn.), Chief Surgeon. (U.S.V.)

Major Jefferson R. Kean (U.S.A.), Chief Surgeon. (U.S.V.)

Dr. Sidney Myers (Ky.), Contract Surgeon.

First Lieutenant O. C. Drew (Texas), 1st Texas Vol. Inf., Provost- Marshal.

First Lieutenant E. P. Clayton (Ill.), 4th Ill. Vol. Inf., Provost- Marshal.

APPENDIX G Farewell Address

"Headquarters First Division, Seventh Army Corps, "Camp Columbia, Havana, Cuba, March 29, 1899.

"This Division will soon cease to exist by the muster out of the volunteer regiments composing it. I assumed command of it at Miami, Florida, July 6, 1898, and have commanded it (when not exercising a higher command including it) from that time at Miami, Florida, to August 6th; at Camp Cuba Libre, Jacksonville, Florida, to October 20th; at Camp Onward, Savannah, Georgia, to December 27th; at Camp Columbia, near Havana, Cuba, to the present.

"Through changes in regiments and other organizations, about twenty thousand officers and soldiers have served in the Division.

"Although not engaged in battle, the dangers from disease in tropical camps have been great, and many have died or have become broken in health. The Division has performed important service in maintaining the high standard of the volunteer soldier in time of war, and in doing guard duty in Cuba, preparatory to establishing a new civilization and a free government for a long-oppressed people. The varied trials and hardships of a soldier's life have been bravely and manfully met by the officers and soldiers of the Division. I have been proud to command it; and have only the warmest friendship for all who composed it. I will always take a deep interest in them. I am especially thankful to the officers who have from time to time served on my staff, for their loyalty to me, and their efficiency and zeal in performance of duty.

"I have now served in the Volunteer Army of the United States of America, in the Civil War and the war with Spain, five years, and on May 12, 1899, I will sheath my sword (in all probability) forever, conscious that I have tried to do my duty to my country.

"The troops of this Division will therefore be the last I shall ever command in peace or war. In sadness I bid all who compose the Division a farewell, wishing each officer and enlisted man success in the civil pursuits to which he is soon to return.

"J. Warren Keifer, "Major-General of Volunteers.

"Official: "Horace C. Keifer, Captain 3d U. S. Vol. Engrs., A.D.C."

INDEX [omitted]

THE END