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