Gretna Green and the
man who doesn't enlist at all but minds his own business is much better
off than I will be writing about what other men do and not doing it
myself, especially as I had a chance of a life time, and declined it.
I'll always feel I lost in character by not sticking to it whether I
had to go to Arizona or Governor's Island. I was unfortunate in having
Lee and Remington to advise me. We talked for two hours in Fred's
bedroom and they were both dead against it and Lee composed my telegram
to the president. Now, I feel sure I did wrong. Shafter did not care
and the other officers were delighted and said it was very honorable
and manly giving me credit for motives I didn't have. I just didn't
think it was good enough although I wanted it too and I missed
something I can never get again. I am very sad about it. I know all
the arguments for not taking it but as a matter of fact I should have
done so. I would have made a good aide, and had I got a chance I
certainly would have won out and been promoted. That there are fools
appointed with me is no answer. I wouldn't have stayed in their class
long.

DICK.

TAMPA, May 29, 1898.

DEAR CHAS.:

The cigars came; they are O. K. and a great treat after Tampa products.
Captain Lee and I went out to the volunteer camps today: Florida,
Alabama, Ohio and Michigan, General Lee's push, and it has depressed me
very much. I have been so right about so many things these last five
years, and was laughed at for making much of them. Now all I urged is
proved to be correct; nothing our men wear is right. The shoes, the
hats, the coats, all are dangerous to health and comfort; one-third of
the men cannot wear the regulation shoe because it cuts the instep, and
buy their own, and the volunteers are like the Cuban army in
appearance. The Greek army, at which I made such sport, is a fine
organization in comparison as far as outfit goes; of course, there is
no comparison in the spirit of the men. One colonel of the Florida
regiment told us that one-third of his men had never fired a gun. They
live on the ground; there are no rain trenches around the tents, or
gutters along the company streets; the latrines are dug to windward of
the camp, and all the refuse is burned to WINDWARD.

Half of the men have no uniforms nor shoes. I pointed out some of the
unnecessary discomforts the men were undergoing through ignorance, and
one colonel, a Michigan politician, sai