ence and they are unanimously and enthusiastically in
favor of being sent to relieve the First Illinois at
Santiago."

To this hearty dispatch came the following reply:

"The Secretary of War appreciates very much the offer of the
Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for duty in Santiago,
and has directed that the regiment be sent there by steamer
Yale, leaving New York next Tuesday. The main trouble with
our troops now in Cuba is that they are suffering from
exhaustion and exposure incident to one of the most trying
campaigns to which soldiers have ever been subjected."

"H.C. Corbin,
"_Adjutant-General_."

This action on the part of the regiment is said to have so pleased the
President that on hearing it he declared it was the proudest moment of
his life.

On the 9th of August the regiment left Springfield, and in passing
through Illinois and Ohio was greeted with the most generous
enthusiasm, the people supplying the men with free lunches at every
station. This was the period when the sympathy of the whole country
was turned toward the colored soldier in consequence of the reports of
valor and heroism that had been circulated concerning the black
regulars. On the afternoon of the 11th the Yale cast off her lines,
and with the first American Negro regiment that the world has ever
seen, steamed out of New York harbor amid the ringing of bells and
shrieks of steam whistles, and four days later, August 15, landed in
Cuba. The regiment remained in Cuba until March 10, performing
garrison duty so well that General Breckenridge said it was "as fine a
volunteer regiment as was ever mustered into the service," and that it
was "a shame to muster out of service such an excellent regiment."

The Twenty-third Kansas, made up in that State and officered as was
the Eighth Illinois, by men of the same race, with the enlisted men,
arrived in Cuba August 30, and in company with the Eighth Illinois
Regiment, was stationed in the country about San Luis, with
headquarters at that place, Colonel Marshall, of the Illinois
Regiment, serving as commander of the post, and also as Governor of
the Province of San Luis. A detachment of the Illinois Regiment,
under command of Major Jackson, was sent to Palma Soriana, and did
excellent work there in the preservation of order between the Cubans
and Spaniards, who were living together in that place in outward peace
but in secret resentful