y, for service in Cuba.
Recruits to be left in camp with horses and property.

June 7. We were off for Port Tampa, where the regiment embarked on the
steamship Leona that afternoon.

June 8. She steamed from the dock. When the expedition seemed to be
forming, news was received that the dreaded Spanish fleet was being
sighted, evidently lying in wait for army transports. So we steamed
back to the pier. Many of the men appeared disappointed at the move,
probably not realizing that there was too much water in the Atlantic
Ocean for the 5th Army Corps to drink.

To my mind, the Divine Providence surely directed the move, as the
delay enabled the force to be swelled several thousand, every one of
whom was needed before Santiago.

June 14. We steamed out of Tampa Bay, amid cheers and music from the
thirty odd transports, heavily escorted by naval vessels. Among them
were the much talked-of dynamiter, Vesuvius, and the beautiful little
cruiser, Helena. Off Dry Tortugas that formidable warship, Indiana,
joined the fleet.

Splendid weather; nothing unusual transpiring, though our transport,
which also contained the First U.S. Cavalry, had a seemingly close
call from being sent to the bottom of the sea, or else being taken in
as a prisoner, which the enemy could have done with impunity.

Whilst going down the Saint Nicholas Chanel, in Cuban waters, the
vessel was deliberately stopped about midnight, June 16, and left to
roll in the trough of the sea until the morning of the 17th, in
consequence of which we were put 20 hours behind the fleet and without
escort, almost in sight of the Cuban shores.

Men were indignant at having been placed in such a helpless position,
and would have thrown the captain of the ship, whom they accused of
being a Spanish sympathizer and otherwise disloyal, overboard without
ceremony, but for the strong arm of military discipline. We were
picked up by the U.S. Cruiser Bancroft, late in the afternoon, she
having been sent in quest of the Jonah of the fleet. Upon approach of
the ship there were prolonged cheers from all of Uncle Sam's
defenders. The only explanation that I have ever heard for this
unpardonable blunder on the part of the ship's crew was that they
mistook a signal of a leading vessel.

June 20. Land was sighted.

June 21. Dispatch boats active; transports circling; Morro Castle
pointed out; three days' rations issued to each man; no extra
impedimenta to be taken ashore; crew pre