came that they would leave from Port Tampa, nine miles away, the
following morning, and that if the troops were not aboard the
transport at that time they could not sail. No arrangements were made
by the port authorities for the embarkation. No information could be
obtained regarding transportation by rail to the port. There was no
information regarding the transport that the troops were to use. In an
official report made to the Secretary of War Colonel Roosevelt had the
following remarks to make about the conditions that confronted them in
Tampa:

". . . No information was given in advance {86} what transports we
should take, or how we should proceed to get aboard, nor did any one
exercise any supervision over the embarkation. Each regimental
commander, so far as I know, was left to find out as best he could,
after he was down at the dock, what transport had not been taken, and
then to get his regiment aboard it, if he was able, before some other
regiment got it. Our regiment was told to go to a certain switch and
take a train for Port Tampa at twelve o'clock, midnight. The train
never came. After three hours of waiting, we were sent to another
switch, and finally at six o'clock in the morning got possession of
some coal cars and came down in them. When we reached the quay where
the embarkation was proceeding, everything was in utter confusion. The
quay was piled with stores and swarming with thousands of men of
different regiments, besides onlookers, etc. The Commanding General,
when we at last found him, told Colonel Wood and myself that he did
not know what ship we were to embark on, and that we must find Colonel
Humphrey, the Quarter-master General. Colonel Humphrey was not in his
office, and nobody knew where he was. The {87} commanders of the
different regiments were busy trying to find him, while their troops
waited in the trains, so as to discover the ships to which they were
allotted--some of these ships being at the dock and some in
mid-stream. After a couple of hours' search, Colonel Wood found
Colonel Humphrey and was allotted a ship. Immediately afterward I
found that it had already been allotted to two other regiments. It was
then coming to the dock. Colonel Wood boarded it in midstream to keep
possession, while I double-quicked the men down from the cars and got
there just ahead of the other two regiments. One of these regiments, I
was afterward informed, spent the next thirty-six hours in cars in
cons