essary to send them North."[20] Almost exactly at the same
time when this report was made, General Shafter was telegraphing the War
Department that seventy-five per cent. of his command had been disabled
by fever, and eight general officers of the Fifth Army-Corps were
signing a round-robin in which they declared that if the army were not
immediately moved North it "must perish."

Late in August it was decided that the marines should return to the
United States, notwithstanding their satisfactory state of health, and
on the 26th of that month they reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with
only two men sick. They had been gone a little more than eleven weeks,
ten of which they had spent in Cuba, and in that time had not lost a
single man from disease, and had never had a higher sick-rate than two
and one half per cent.

In view of this record, as compared with that of any regiment in General
Shafter's command, we are forced to inquire: What is the reason for the
difference? Why should a battalion of marines be able to live ten weeks
in Cuba, without the loss of a single man from disease, and with a
sick-rate of only two and one half per cent., while so hardy and tough a
body of men as the Rough Riders, under substantially the same climatic
conditions, had become so reduced in four weeks that seventy-five per
cent. of them were unfit for duty, and fifty per cent. of them fell out
of the ranks from exhaustion in a march of five miles?

The only answer I can find to these questions is that the marines had
suitable equipment and intelligent care, while the soldiers of General
Shafter's command had neither. When the marines landed in Guantanamo
Bay, every tent and building that the Spaniards had occupied was
immediately destroyed by fire, to remove any possible danger of
infection with yellow fever. When General Shafter landed at Siboney, he
not only disregarded the recommendation of his chief surgeon to burn the
buildings there, but allowed them to be occupied as offices and
hospitals, without even so much as attempting to clean or disinfect
them. Yellow fever made its appearance in less than two weeks. The
marines at Guantanamo were supplied promptly with light canvas uniforms
suitable for a tropical climate, while the soldiers of General Shafter's
army sweltered through the campaign in the heavy clothing that they had
worn in Idaho or Montana, and then, just before they started North, were
furnished with thin suits to keep