The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one
man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis,
and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his
life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from
fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.
Arriving at Montauk[21] early the author had the opportunity to see
the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba,
and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of
it as coming home on stretchers. Pale, emaciated, weak and halting,
they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage.
But, as General Wheeler said in his report, "the great bulk of the
troops that were at Santiago were by no means well." Never before had
the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into
an army of invalids. And yet while all the regiments arriving showed
the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars,
excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the
advantage. The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in "good condition" was an
early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing
from the transports. Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at
Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure
that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as
the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.
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