id courage and fortitude of the men that made their
suffering so hard to see. As the row of prostrate bodies on the ground
grew longer and longer Saturday afternoon and evening, the emotional
strain of the situation became almost unbearable, and I would have
exchanged all the knowledge and ability I possessed for the knowledge
and skill even of a hospital steward, so that I might do something more
than carry around food and water to those suffering, uncomplaining
American soldiers.

Late Saturday afternoon there was a heavy tropical shower, which
drenched not only the wounded who were awaiting examination in front of
the operating-tents, but also the men who had been operated upon and
carried away into the long grass. I doubt, however, whether it made
their condition any worse--at least for a time. Most of them had been
exposed for hours to a tropical sun, and the rain must have given them,
at first, a feeling of coolness and relief.

As the sun set and darkness settled down upon the camp after the short
tropical twilight, candles were again lighted around the
operating-tables, and the surgeons worked on without intermission and
without rest. The rattle of rifles and machine-guns and the booming of
artillery along the line of battle died away into an occasional sputter
after dark; the full moon rose into a cloudless sky, and the stillness
of the jungle south of the camp was broken only by an occasional shot
from a sentry or from a Spanish sharp-shooter hidden in a tree. Around
the operating-tables there was a sound of half-audible conversation as
the surgeons gave directions to their assistants or discussed the
injuries of the men upon whom they were at work, and now and then a
peremptory call for "Litter-squad here!" showed that another man was
about to be brought to the operating-table, or carried from it into the
field and laid on the ground.

At midnight Saturday the number of wounded men that had been brought
into the hospital camp was about eight hundred. All that could walk,
after their wounds had been dressed, and all that could bear
transportation to the sea-coast in an army wagon, were sent to Siboney
to be put on board the hospital steamers and transports. There remained
in the camp several hundred who were so severely injured that they could
not possibly be moved, and these were carried to the eastern end of the
field and laid on the ground in the high, wet grass. I cannot imagine
anything more cruelly ba