All this time we were slumbering over a smoldering volcano, and on
February 16, 1898, the eruption broke loose; the good ship _Maine_ was
destroyed in Havana harbor, and the feelings of the people, already
drawn to the breaking point by the inhuman cruelties of Spain towards
her colonies near our own shores, burst with a vehemence that portended,
in unmistakable language, the rending asunder of the once proud kingdom
of Spain. The army wanted a war; the navy wanted it, the whole
population wanted it and here it was within our grasp. It was the
dawning of a new day for the United States; a new empire was being born
in the Western hemisphere. The feverish preparations attendant upon the
new conditions are of too recent date to need any sketching here.
When it was finally determined that the time had arrived for the
assembling of the small but efficient regular army, I was stationed with
my regiment at Fort Wayne, Michigan. Like all other troops, we were at
the post ready for the start. The pistol cracked on the 15th of April,
and on the 19th we started. Mobile, Alabama, was our objective where we
arrived on the 22nd of the month.
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