housand,
affords but a faint index of the debilitation of the army.
Not twenty per cent are fit for active work.

Six weeks on the North Maine coast, for instance, or
elsewhere where the yellow-fever germ cannot possibly
propagate, would make us all as fit as fighting-cocks, as
able as we are eager to take a leading part in the great
campaign against Havana in the fall, even if we are not
allowed to try Porto Rico.

We can be moved North, if moved at once, with absolute
safety to the country, although, of course, it would have
been infinitely better if we had been moved North or to
Porto Rico two weeks ago. If there were any object in
keeping us here, we would face yellow fever with as much
indifference as we faced bullets. But there is no object.

The four immune regiments ordered here are sufficient to
garrison the city and surrounding towns, and there is
absolutely nothing for us to do here, and there has not
been since the city surrendered. It is impossible to move
into the interior. Every shifting of camp doubles the
sick-rate in our present weakened condition, and, anyhow,
the interior is rather worse than the coast, as I have
found by actual reconnaissance. Our present camps are as
healthy as any camps at this end of the island can be.

I write only because I cannot see our men, who have fought
so bravely and who have endured extreme hardship and danger
so uncomplainingly, go to destruction without striving so
far as lies in me to avert a doom as fearful as it is
unnecessary and undeserved.

Yours respectfully,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
Colonel Commanding Second Cavalry Brigade.

After Colonel Roosevelt had taken the initiative, all the American
general officers united in a "round robin" addressed to General
Shafter. It reads:

We, the undersigned officers commanding the various
brigades, divisions, etc., of the Army of Occupation in
Cuba, are of the unanimous opinion that this army should be
at once taken out of the island of Cuba and sent to some
point on the Northern sea-coast of the United States; that
can be done without danger to the people of the United
States; that yellow fever in the army at present is not
epidemic; that there are only a few sporadic cases; but that
the ar