remained in
the Northwest until it took the road for the Cuban war.

The Ninth Cavalry was organized in New Orleans during the winter of
1866-67. Its first Colonel was Edward Hatch and its first
Lieutenant-Colonel Wesley Merritt. From 1867 to 1890 it was in almost
constant Indian warfare, distinguishing itself by daring and
hardihood. From 1890 to the opening of the Cuban war it remained in
Utah and Nebraska, engaging in but one important campaign, that
against hostile Sioux during the winter of 1890-91, in which, says the
historian: "The regiment was the first in the field, in November, and
the last to leave, late in the following March, after spending the
winter, the latter part of which was terrible in its severity, under
canvas."

The Tenth Calvary was organized under the same law as was the Ninth,
and at the same time. Its place of rendezvous was Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, and its first Colonel, Benjamin H. Grierson. This regiment was
the backbone of the Geronimo campaign force, and it finally succeeded
in the capture of that wily warrior. The regiment remained in the
Southwest until 1893, when it moved to Montana, and remained there
until ordered to Chickamauga for the war.

These four regiments were finely officered, well drilled and well
experienced in camp and field, particularly the cavalry regiments, and
it was of them that General Merritt said: "I have always found them
brave in battle." With such training and experience they were well
fitted to take their place in that selected host of fighting men which
afterwards became the Fifth Army Corps, placed under command of
Major-General William R. Shafter, the first Lieutenant-Colonel of the
Twenty-fourth Infantry.

When the news of the blowing up of our great battleship Maine, in the
harbor of Havana, with the almost total loss of her crew, flashed over
the country, carrying sadness to hundreds of homes, and arousing
feelings of deepest indignation whether justly or unjustly, it was
easy to predict that we should soon be involved in war with Spain. The
Cuban question, already chronic, had by speeches of Senators Thurston
and Proctor been brought to such a stage of aggravation that it needed
only an incident to set the war element in motion. That incident was
furnished by the destruction of the Maine. Thenceforth there was no
power in the land sufficient to curb the rapidly swelling tide of
popular hate, which manifested itself in the un-Christian but truly