wn forefathers had made a century and a quarter
earlier.

The friction between the United States and Spain steadily increased. The
latter nation, perhaps not without a certain justification, was claiming
that her colonists were fitting out expeditions and obtaining munitions
and supplies for their soldiers in the cities of the United States, a
supposedly neutral nation. She was not unnaturally irritated, too, by
the steadily increasing numbers of Americans that were serving in the
hard pressed and poorly equipped troops of Cuba. The culmination,
however, came when the United States battleship, _Maine_, was blown up
in the harbor of Havana, February 15, 1898. The long delayed declaration
of war by the United States, April 21, 1898, was the speedy outcome.

CHAPTER VI

IN THE SPANISH WAR

LIEUTENANT PERSHING instantly grasped his long awaited opportunity. He
resigned his position at West Point, and at once was sent to his
regiment, the 10th Cavalry, then at Chicamauga, and afterwards near
Tampa, Florida, but in June of that same year he went to Cuba and shared
in the campaign against Santiago. Many have thought that the nickname
"Black Jack" was affectionately given him because he was such a daring
and dashing leader of the exceptionally brave black men of whom the 10th
U. S. Cavalry at that time was composed.

In this campaign no official records can have quite the same human touch
as the words of the modest young officer himself. In a lecture or
address in the Hyde Park M. E. Church, Chicago, November 27, 1898, the
church whose founding was largely due to the interest and labors of his
father,--Lieutenant Pershing described the experiences and deeds of his
troop. The interest at the time was keen in the campaign he described.
To-day, however, the interest is still keener in the young lieutenant
who gave his vivid description of the battles in which he shared.

Address by Lieutenant Pershing at the Hyde Park M. E. Church, Chicago,
at a patriotic Thanksgiving service, November 27, 1898:

The admonition of George Washington, "In peace
prepare for war," had gone unheeded for one-third
of a century. Congress had turned a deaf ear to
the importunities of our military commanders. The
staff departments of the army were only large
enough to meet the ordinary necessities in times
of peace of an army of 25,000 men. They had not
transpo