Enlisted men didn't have access to the comforts of Tampa Bay Hotel and for most outdoor life was hard. One hapless New York recruit managed to encounter most of the possible hazards in his first day in camp when he was "bitten by mosquitoes, stung by a tarantula, had a touch of malaria, ran his bayonet into his hand, sat down on a giant ant nest, trod on an alligator, found a snake in his boot, and said he felt like a dirty deuce in a new deck."Card games were the main way of passing the time. Most men played poker and the Westerners were fond of Mexican Monte. But a new game had been learned from the black teamsters and the 9th and 10th USCT Cavalry--craps. None of the white Northerners had ever heard of this game before arriving in Florida, but after watching the players "bending in close groups over a poncho or blanket in the shade of a wagon and hoarsely cajoling the dice" they took it up so eagerly that, said Charles Post of the 71st New York Volunteers, "before we embarked from Tampa, even the soda water counters and ice cream stands just beyond camp had a layout chalked on a poncho, with a soldier running the crap bank."Locations like Last Chance Street in Port Tampa were their luxury resorts, with black women cooking fried chicken over little clay stoves and tent saloons with a canvas awning in front sheltering a bar made of a few planks laid between barrels. These were tended by men who served only whiskey with a beer chaser, whiskey to get there quicker, beer to cool a parched throat in the Florida sun. Crowds of soldiers gawked at waiting prostitutes standing behind the bartenders. Behind the bar was a wooden structure labeled "The Restaurant" where the ladies plied their trade as men stood outside waiting for the door to open and the girls to stick their hand out and gesture for them to come inside.
Post and his buddies were fascinated by the trip through Dixie, although they were a little surprised when the troop train went around Richmond instead of passing through the city--nobody knew if these Northerners would encounter an unfriendly reception in the former Confederate capital and it was considered best not to risk it. But as the 71st New York stopped in small Southern towns, they found the locals cheerful and welcoming--33 years after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, most Southerners seemed to have no resentment over the war and everyone joined in the rush of patriotic fervor against Spain. Most of the Northern boys had never been far from home and were charmed at the differences in culture and the graciousness of the locals.Less charming was the appearance of Jim Crow, which was just in its formative stages in the 1890s as segregration started to ramp up hard in the South. Black troopers of the 9th Cavalry were deployed as members of the provost guard, rounding up drunks and those without passes in town. The people of Lakeland, Florida, where the 71st had its initial training spot, were appalled. The local sheriff asked Post about New York City. "Well, did ya ever have niggra cops roundin' up you white folks an' throwin' you in the jug like here?" He went on "Well, it's sort of disturbin' to the folks around here to see niggras arrestin' you white folk."Post told him the black MPs were there to enforce discipline and their skin color was not important in their duty. The sheriff didn't accept that argument "It taint natural. Yes, it shore don't seem right for a niggra on a horse to be herdin' white folks, even if they's in the Army." He added that if he or any white soldier wanted to punch "one of those black bastards on a horse" and needed help, "I'm tellin' you jest you holler for it an' you'll be gettin' aplenty quicker'n scat. Us folks is with you boys every time."
The target of the American invasion of Cuba changed several times, but now it seemed certain that Admiral Topete's fleet was anchored in Santiago de Cuba in the southeast of the island and was still a threat. If it managed to get out and evade the American blockade it could wreak havoc on an invasion fleet, or worse, threaten the East Coast of the US. A brave attempt by volunteers, led by Lt. Richmond Hobson, to sink an old collier across a narrow part of the port's twisting channel had failed; Admiral William Sampson bombarded the defenses of the city on the morning of June 6, causing considerable damage but he wired Washington the same day to report "If 10,000 men were here, city and fleet would be ours within forty-eight hours. Every consideration demands immediate army movement. If delayed, city will be defended more strongly by guns taken from the fleet."President McKinley was impatient. He did not want to go to war, and now that he was, he wanted it done and over with ASAP. This eagerness explains the chaos in getting ready for war--the aim was to get an army in the field as quickly as possible and threaten Spain's colonies so as to compel Madrid to sue for peace. If Cervera's fleet could be destroyed, captured, or corked up in Santiago, Spain could not wage offensive warfare, the danger to the East Coast would be gone, and Cuba and Puerto Rico would fall easily.
Loading of supplies continued during the first week of June but was slow due to the vast number of freight cars in the yards, some stored all the way in Charleston, South Carolina to save space. The telegrams from Washington became more and more irritated and angry, asking why with thousands of men available the cars couldn't be unloaded faster. But there was another reason for the delay--the two rival railroad companies that owned the only routes into Tampa were battling over who would control this incredibly lucrative government business. The Plant System, founded by the same man who built the Moorish Hotel, owned the one track running into Port Tampa and this group wouldn't let their rival's trains pass through until General Shafter threatened to put the whole thing under military control.The fact that anything had gotten unloaded at all was due to the dedicated men who worked all night long sorting ammo, rations, and equipment, and putting them in packets that could be issued to the troops. As this went on it was realized that the ships had less space than originally supposed. Already the cavalry units were told that their horses would have to stay home, but the Rough Riders then learned that only eight of their 12 troops could come along. This was even harder than the loss of the horses. Wood and Roosevelt, as they announced who would have to stay behind, had to watch men breaking down in tears and plead their case as to why they needed to go. One of the captains chosen to go was Maximilian Luna of Troop F from the New Mexico Territory.As Roosevelt recalled, Luna's forebearers had lived in North America since before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, or since Roosevelt's ancestors arrived in New Amsterdam from the Netherlands. He said he had to go because he was the only man of pure Spanish blood with an army commission and he wanted to prove the loyalty of his people to the United States.
While loading the Rough Riders' gear on ship, Roosevelt noticed Albert Smith and Jim Blackton standing by a large tripod and camera. Having filmed the 71st New York going to Tampa, they decided to accompany the regiment through the campaign. "What are you men up to?" TR asked. "We are the Vitagraph Company, Colonel Roosevelt, and we are going to Cuba to take moving pictures of the war." The always publicity-hungry TR quickly escorted them aboard.Dabney Royster of Tennessee had snuck aboard the Yucatan with a .22 Winchester and three boxes of ammo. The officers found him out and sympathized with the 15 year old's desire to get into the fighting, but had no choice but to put the crying teenager and his Winchester ashore. Elsewhere on the transport were other underage boys who were better at concealing themselves.Finally it seemed time to get on with the show. Ominously, and reminding everyone of the ugly reality of war, a large shipment of coffins were brought onto the dock and stacked there for all to contemplate. Rumors were flying that Admiral Cervera had gotten out of Santiago de Cuba and that Spanish ships were seen off Tampa. Six days of miserable discomfort followed, the overloaded transports anchored just a short way out in the channel, the men shoehorned inside, little food available, and no way to cook what rations they did have. "Horrible stuff called 'canned fresh beef'," Roosevelt recalled. "At the best it was stringy and tasteless, at the worst it was nauseating. Not one fourth of it was ever eaten at all, even when the men became very hungry."
Shortly after that, Last Chance Street went up in smoke. Charles Post recalled that the beer and whiskey tents lit up like a torch, followed by the wooden shack labeled "The Restaurant." Nobody knew how it started, maybe angry soldiers. Maybe an overturned lamp in some fight. The tents were quickly consumed in the flames but The Restaurant burned all night long. The fact that nobody on the transports knew what started the fire was evidence of the tightness of military security. Two black regiments, hearing rumors that a young black boy had been abused by some white soldiers, ransacked the buildings on Last Chance Street, firing their guns, setting fire to the tent saloons, and raping the prostitutes. The Provost Guard and Tampa police, unable to restore order, called in the white 2nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and by daybreak the riot was quelled with 27 blacks and several whites hospitalized.
>>16801680Nogs being nogs as always.
>>16801680Niggers are beastly animals
>>16801672>33 years after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, most Southerners seemed to have no resentment over the war and everyone joined in the rush of patriotic fervor against Spaincome on, that was the equivalent of it being 1998 and expecting a 20 year old kid to be butthurt about the JFK assassination. just history they read about in a book for the young people.
>Many of the Americans became disillusioned at their Cuban allies. Some of it was racially motivated as many of the insurgents were black, but also these ragtag guerillas did not look like the heroic revolutionaries Americans imagined, something akin to Delacroix's "Liberty Leading The People." Cultural differences became more and more noticeable and irritating as the weeks went by. When a cow was to be butchered for meat, the Americans wanted to mercifully kill the animal with a quick shot to the head but the Cubans insisted on stabbing it to death. Especially outrageous was Cuban abuse of Spanish prisoners.[3]
>>16801915why did they want to stab the cow to death?
>>16801771Pretty sure the civil war was a lot more impactful to the everyday joe than some twink getting brained
>There had been a good deal of concern in Washington over the reception troop trains might meet in the South but the Rough Riders received a tumultuous welcome. At station after station in the small towns, locals cheered them and brought flowers, fruits, jugs and pails of milk, the young girls came down in bevies, dressed in their best, to wave flags in farewell to the troopers and to beg cartridges and buttons as mementos. The Stars and Stripes was on display everywhere and as Theodore Roosevelt recalled, old men, some with missing limbs or eye patches, said they'd never imagined back in the bad old days that a time would come when the American flag would be cheered in Dixie and that their sons and grandsons would march off to battle under it. There was a lot of newspaper publicity about the Rough Riders and certain New York blue bloods like Woodbury Kane and Hamilton Fish had become celebrities in great demand. Still, none were as sought after as "Teddy", who detested his nickname but had learned to accept it.[3]
