children trailed wearily at the skirts of their
wretched mothers. An old man tottered along on his
cane and behind him a puny lad and an aged woman;
old and young women and children and decrepit men
of every class--those refined and used to luxury
together with the ragged beggar--crowding each
other in this narrow column. It was a pitiful
sight; from daylight to dark the miserable
procession trooped past. The suffering of the
innocent is not the least of the sorrows of war.

The days of truce and hostilities alternated; all
roll calls were suspended except the sunset call
and retreat on days of truce.

At the evening call we daily ceased our chatting,
cooking or working and groups or lines of officers
and men stood with uncovered heads in respectful
and reverent attention as the music of the Star
Spangled Banner and the sight of the flag we had
planted on the hill above us, lifted us out of
ourselves and carried us in thought to home and
country; it was the soldiers' silent Ave Maria.

Duty in the trenches was no less arduous because
of the few days of truce; all the available men
would report to work at strengthening positions
and building bomb-proof shelters. Vigilance never
relaxed until the capitulation. The rainy season
had set in in earnest and the trenches were at
times knee deep with mud and water. The constant
exposures to the heat and rain together with the
strain of battle began to have its effect upon
even the strongest of us. Our sick list gradually
grew and the dreaded yellow fever appeared in our
ranks; the field hospitals already overcrowded
with wounded were compelled to accommodate the
increasing number of fever patients; medical
supplies and food for the sick were lacking and
though many things were furnished by the Red Cross
there was yet a shortage.

Since July 3d the firing from the Spanish trenches
had become irregular, desultory and non-effective.
Our artillery gunners now knew the range of every
Spanish battery and our men in the trenches--every
one a trained marksma