hostility. Major Jackson managed affairs so
well that both parties came to admire him, and when he was called away
expressed their regret. Captain Roots, who commanded the post after
the departure of Major Jackson, was equally fortunate, especially with
the Cubans, and when it was thought his command was to be removed, the
citizens generally united in a petition to the General commanding,
asking that both the Captain and his command might remain in the city.
The fact is also noted by the chroniclers of the regiment that several
marriages took place in Palma Soriana between soldiers of the Eighth
Illinois and Cuban maidens.

The Eighth Regiment was finally settled in San Luis, occupying the old
Spanish barracks and arsenal, and under Colonel Marshall's supervision
the city was put in fine sanitary condition, streets and yards being
carefully policed; meanwhile under the reign of order and peace which
the Colonel's just methods established, confidence prevailed, business
revived and the stagnation which had so long hung like a fog over the
little city, departed, and in its stead came an era of bustling
activity.

All was peaceful and prosperous, both with the citizens and the
garrison, until the Ninth United States Volunteers came in the
vicinity. Then a difficulty sprang up in which both regiments became
involved, although it was in no sense serious, but it afforded a
pretext for the removal of the Eighth Illinois from the city. The
event turned out all the better for the Eighth, as it enabled them to
establish Camp Marshall, about three miles from the city, in a healthy
neighborhood, where they remained until ordered home to be mustered
out. The regiment came back to Chicago in fine condition and was
tendered an enthusiastic welcome by that great city. Thus two entire
regiments represented the country abroad in this, its first, foreign
war with a European power.

It should also be recorded that although the Ninth United States
Volunteers was composed of persons who were classed as immune, and had
come chiefly from Louisiana, and notwithstanding that the officers of
the regiment above lieutenants were white men, and the colonel an
officer of the Regular Army of long experience, and was specially
praised by so good a sanitarian as General Wood for having been,
constant and untiring in his efforts to look after the welfare of his
men, and that the surgeons of the regiment were white men, that deaths
among the colored