Story of The
Fighting Tenth
Continuation of Major Frank Keck’s
History of the Tenth, as Published
in the New York Sun.
The Tenth, as the need for fighting
grew less, took on more of the func
tions of mounted police and yet, such
was the pride of tradition, war serv
ice was the ideal that was always up
permost in the minds of every mem
ber. Many of the original recruits re
mained as long as the Government
would let them, for they hated to re
tire. So it was that the Tenth in
peace had in reserve its deadly effi
ciency, and it went into the Spanish
war with veteran officers and many
a grizzled sergeant who was himself
a tower of strength.
It seems only yesterday that there
rang through the country the call for
us to take up arms against the power
of Spain. I was a captain in the
Seventy-first New York and, when
war was declared, was made junior
major. Standing a few days ago in
the armory of the Seventy-first, talk
ing with the officers and watching the
signs of preparation for departure to
the border, there came to me vividly
the scenes of haste and anxiety and
work which preceded the fighting on
Cuban soil. If in spite of two years’
talk about preparedness, the militia
is not now equipped for service in the
field, what was it in 1898, when the
National Guard set forth with anti
quated arms to meet a foe on foreign
soil ?
Not so with the Tenth, which is ever
ready for fight or frolic. When or
ders came for it to move it was most
ly at Fort Keogh in Montana. It went
to Chickamauga and then to the
camps in Florida.
When the time came for it to join
our forces which were to invade Cuba
it left all animals behind. The lack
of transportation and the fact, then
reported, that the country about San
tiago was too rough for horses, sent
the Tenth to battle as dismounted cav
alry. There were horses with troop
M, which made a daring landing in
Cuba under Second Lieut. C. P. John
son and joined the army of General
Gomez, the revolutionary leader, but
the Tenth as a whole ceased to be
centaurs. To the well disciplined and
adaptable troopers this was no draw
back, for every unit of the command
has initiative which overrides routine
and custom.
The movement of the American
forces in Cuba was beset by many
difficulties. It is not my purpose, at
this late day, to write in any spirit
of carping criticism, yet I feel that,
owng to the spectacular leadership
of one volunteer organization, the
Tenth has never had full recognition
from the public for its work in Cuba,
although no meed of official praise
has ever been withheld, as the records
of the war department show.
The achievements of the Tenth were
the admiration of foreign military ob
servers who accompanied our expedi
tion, and they were impartial witness
es. They did not hesitate to assert
their belief that the dismounted Col
ored troopers were the very backbone
of the American atttack.
Certain it is that the Tenth got
the rough riders out of a bad hole at
Las Guasimas. Their timely arrival
avoided a greater disaster to the
Rough Riders in the first land engage
ment near Santiago.
The charge of the Tenth up the
steep and tangled slope of San Juan
Hill will always have a place in the
j military annals of the world. That
I
exploit was a big moment of Amer
ican history. One of the strong feat
ures of the conduct of the Tenth at
Jan Juan was its fine sense of disci
pline, of self-control, and its exhibi
tion of repression under the most try
ing conditions.
It kept raw troops from firing on
their comrades in the distance, for
the Tenth was used to wars of ambus
cade. What an example of obedience
was that when, for an hour and a
quarter, one of its troops stood within
sight of the Spaniards at a spot where
the enemy had the exact range and
never fired a shot so that they might
not risk the lives of other American
soldiers.
Note the sight, too, of a gray haired
sergeant of the Tenth leading troops,
for the mortality among commissioned
officers was high, and, as cool as a
cucumber, posting his men, calling
each by name.
(To be continued next issue.)
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