After the object lesson which the men had
received in the last few days of the danger from contagion
to which they would be exposed, it was now unnecessary for
Dr. La Garde to again warn the brave blacks of the terrible
contagion. When the request for volunteers to replace those
who had already fallen in the performance of their dangerous
and perfectly optional duty was made again, the regiment
stepped forward as one man. When sent down from the trenches
the regiment consisted of eight companies, averaging about
forty men each. Of the officers and men who remained on duty
the forty days spent in Siboney, only twenty-four escaped
without serious illness, and of this handful not a few
succumbed to fevers on the voyage home and after their
arrival at Montauk.
As a result, thirty-six died and about forty were discharged
from the regiment owing to disabilities resulting from
sickness which began in the yellow-fever hospital.--Bonsal's
Fight for Santiago.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] "After the surrender, dear Chaplain, the real trouble and
difficulties began. Such a period, from July 14, 1898 to August 14,
1898, was never before known to human beings, I hope. The starving
time was nothing to the fever time, where scores died per day.
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