Admiral Sampson
would not allow it. He said he was afraid the supplies would fall into
the hands of the Spanish army. But the Red Cross Society would not
give up its errand of mercy, and when the United States army invaded
Cuba, the State of Texas followed the transports and so got to Cuba
after all, and anchored at a little place called Siboney, where the
nurses immediately began to care for the wounded on the hospital ship
Solace.

There had been so much mismanagement about the landing of the troops
and the supplies, that General Shafter's army was without medicines or
shelter for his wounded men. When he learned that the Red Cross ship
had arrived, he sent word to Miss Barton to seize any empty army
wagons and send him a load of hospital supplies and medical stores.
She did this, although there were no boats obtainable to convey the
supplies to the shore. There were only two old scows which had been
thrown away as useless, but the Red Cross men patched them up as best
they could, and then loaded them with the material asked for. They
worked all night, and just as the sun rose in the morning, they
managed to get them to the shore. It was the hardest kind of work
unloading the scows in the surf, but they did it, and loaded some
wagons with the precious supplies. Then the women nurses, who had been
drenched to the skin in the surf, mounted on top of the load and
started on a terrible ride over a roadless country. They reached the
army, and the whole world knows the splendid work they did there. It
was no fault of the surgeon-general of the United States that they
were able to accomplish it, though, for he was opposed to female
nurses and his action sadly hampered the work.

But now I must tell you about the next hard work that our soldiers had
to do. On the last day of June, General Shafter gave orders that the
whole Army was to move on toward Santiago the next day. General
Shafter was sick, and stayed at headquarters in his tent, two miles
away. Before Santiago could be reached, El Caney and San Juan had to
be taken. So, on the first of July, early in the morning, six thousand
of our troops, under brave officers, marched to attack El Caney.
General Shafter thought this place could be taken in about an hour.

[Illustration: Church at El Caney, Wrecked by American Shells.]

The town of El Caney, four miles northeast of Santiago, lies in a
broad valley. Beyond it, on the Santiago side, is a high, level piece
of count