red. General Shafter was dressed in the
plain blue army fatigue uniform, its strict sombreness being relieved
only by the two gleaming silver stars on his shoulder straps. General
Miles, the commanding general, was in conventional tuxedo dress, and
looked every inch the gallant soldier and gentleman that he is. From the
little telegraph instrument on the table ran a single strand of copper
wire, out in the dark night, over the pine tops of Florida and Georgia,
over the mountains of the Carolinas, and hills and vales of Virginia,
into the Executive Mansion at Washington. In the office of the White
House were the President, the Secretary of War, and Adjutant-General
Corbin. The key there was worked by Colonel Montgomery, so if there ever
was an official wire this was one.

When all was ready I told the White House to go ahead.

The first message was from the Secretary of War to General Shafter
directing him to sail at once, as he was needed at the destination which
was known at this time only to about five officers in Tampa. General
Shafter replied that he would be ready to sail the next morning at
daylight. Then, by the President's direction, a message was repeated
that had been received from Admiral Sampson, saying he had that day
bombarded the outer defenses of Santiago, and if ten thousand men were
there the city and fleet would fall within forty-eight hours. The
President further directed that General Shafter should sail as indicated
by him with not less than ten thousand men. Then followed an interchange
of messages, more or less personal in their nature, between the generals
and the Washington contingent. Finally all was over and the line was cut
off. The whole conversation lasted about fifty minutes, but the
beginning of new history was started in that time and the curtain was
going up on the grand drama of war. All the time this was going on I
could hear faintly his strains of '_Auf Wiedersehn_,' together with the
merry jest of the officers and the light laughter of the women. Brave
men, braver women--soon their laughter was turned to tears and many of
the officers who went out of the Tampa Bay hotel on that warm June night
are now sleeping their last sleep, having given up their lives that
their country's honor might live. The train carrying the headquarters to
Port Tampa left at five o'clock in the morning. There was very little
sleep that night and the next morning the big hotel was well nigh
deserted. And al