transports had made the finding of cocoanuts an event to be noted, and
the dry pulp and strongly flavored milk of this tropical fruit became
extremely grateful to the palate, even if not altogether safe for the
stomach. If ripe, however, the cocoanut could scarcely be more
ungenial to many, than the raw, canned tomatoes upon which they had in
part subsisted during the voyage. It is to be added that this report
of the finding of the cocoanuts is not the report of an old soldier,
but of a young and intelligent, first enlistment man.

Lawton's Division soon after landing, was ordered to move forward in
the direction of Santiago, on the road leading past Siboney. A staff
officer, writing of that movement, says: "General Lawton, with his
Division, in obedience to this order, pushed forward from Daiquiri
about five miles, when night overtook him and he bivouacked on the
road." An old soldier of the Twenty-fifth, writing me from the
hospital in Tampa, Florida, July 22nd, says of the same event: "After
the regiment landed we marched about four and a half miles through the
mountains; then we made camp." The old soldier says nothing of
cocoanuts, but makes his statement with as much accuracy as possible,
and with no waste of words. The novice describing the same thing says:
"A short distance ahead (from the shore) we bivouacked for the night.
We were soon lying in dreamland, so far from friends and home, indeed,
on a distant, distant shore." These two extracts show at once the
difference between the soldier produced by years of trial and training
on our plains, and the soldier who but yesterday was a civilian. With
the one the march is a short distance; with the other it is about four
and a half miles; one reports that they "made camp," the other talks
of dreamland, friend, home and distant shore; one expresses his
feelings, the other shows control of feeling and reserve in
expression.

That first night on Cuban soil, the night following June 22nd, was one
without events, but one of great concern to the commanders on shore
and on the fleet. The work of disembarking had gone on successfully,
and already about six thousand men were on shore. Nearly the whole of
Lawton's Division, with Bates' independent brigade, were bivouacked,
as we have seen, about five miles from Daiquiri, exactly where the
railroad crosses the wagon road leading to Siboney. General Wheeler's
troops--one brigade--were encamped on the open ground near the
la