In addition to these causes of delay preparations were hampered by the very natural efforts of relatives and friends who did not desire those they loved and upon whom, in many cases, they were dependent, to volunteer for this doubtful experiment. A sort of public sentiment was thus created which found expression in letters and other matter published in the newspapers. This sentiment had so far prevailed that assertions were made "on the outside" that when the day came for muster in one entire regiment would refuse to volunteer. Of course these assertions were made by those who did not know the regiment. In order to relieve somewhat this phase of our difficulties and to more clearly set forth the restrictions imposed by the State upon volunteering, a letter was written General Riggs to the following effect: "No officer or man of either the Fifth or the First Regiment who has father or mother, wife or sister, or any other relative dependent upon him for support, will be permitted to remain in his regiment or to be mustered in into the United States service."

On April 26 a telegram was received from the Secretary of War calling for Maryland's quota as one regiment of infantry and four heavy batteries and prescribing the number of officers and men in each organization. A telegram was immediately sent stating we had no artillery in Maryland and asking for a change in this call. A letter was also immediately written to the Secretary of War protesting against this call and offering the entire First Brigade as then constituted, stating further, in effect, that if efficiency and fighting were desired Maryland could better answer these requirements by furnishing the entire Brigade, and asking that we be credited with the excess thus furnished upon a second call for troops. No notice was ever taken of this letter, but on April 27 was received the official letter from the Secretary of War repeating the call as above stated, and asking that the quota be made up "preferably from the National Guard organizations." This was in accordance with the determination made on April 16, above referred to, and the act passed in accordance therewith.

Immediately after receiving this letter from the Secretary of War the Governor issued his proclamation, and orders were issued accordingly, as will appear from copies thereof herewith. printed. The call for the four batteries of artillery was changed to a call for two battalions of infantry, and other changes were made as above stated.

The question as to how these National Guard organizations should be mustered in arose at the War Department, and upon suggestion it was agreed that they should be mustered in and the officers commissioned as of the "5th and 1st, (respectively), Maryland U. S. Volunteers, [5th and 1st, (respectively), Regt's, I., M. N. G.]," the designation "U. S. Volunteers" being subsequently changed to "U. S. Volunteer Infantry."

This parenthetical designation was designed to mark the distinction between National Guard regiments and other regiments in the Volunteer Army of the United States and thus to preserve the integrity of our State organizations.

On May 13, 1898, provisional and special commissions were issued by the Governor of Maryland, as required by the United States, to the officers of the Fifth and First Regiments. The Fifth Regiment was mustered in into the United States service by Lieutenant Ellwood W. Evans, 8th U. S. Cavalry, on May 14, 1898, with 985 officers and men, and the two battalions of the First Regiment were mustered in by him on May 17, 1898, with 651 officers and men. The Fifth soon after departed for Chickamauga, and the First for Fort Monroe.

Provision had been made by the United States that each National Guard regiment might have one Army Officer as a Field Officer. This was a wise provision. Captain Walter L. Finley, 9th U. S. Cavalry, who had been in Maryland by assignment of the War Department for several years, whose ability as an officer was well known, and whose high standing in this Department as a man of integrity, courage and honor was understood and approved by officers and men of the Maryland National Guard, was recommended for the position of Major in the First Regiment, and Lieutenant Ellwood W. Evans, the mustering officer above mentioned, who had been military instructor at St. John's College for several years and who was also most favorably and popularly known among Maryland officers and men as a competent officer and a gentleman above reproach, was selected for the Fifth Regiment. It was subsequently made known that the Fifth preferred to enter the United States service with its own officers alone. After information was received from the War Department that the First Regiment would be assigned to garrison duty, for a time at least, and that Captain Finley's regiment, the 9th Cavalry, was ordered to the front, Captain Finley held it to be his duty to join his regiment and resume the command of his own Troop. As Lieutenant Evans' regiment was not assigned for duty at the front he consented to go with the First Regiment as a more certain means of seeing active service in the end, and the officers of that regiment readily accepted him as one of their majors. His services to this regiment were invaluable.

The announced purpose to permit these regiments to select and retain, as far as practicable, such of their own officers as were not rejected by the examining surgeons was consistently followed in commissioning officers at Pimlico. No other course would have been just to those who were making the sacrifices many of them made, and any other course would have been in violation of the rights of these organizations as National Guard organizations.

The Staff appointments were, in every case, made by the

Commanding Officers of the respective regiments, and commissions were issued accordingly.

In the subsequent commissioning of officers of the Fifth Regiment, of which there were only five, to fill vacancies, commissions were issued on the recommendation of the Commanding Officer. In the subsequent reorganization of the First Regiment, after the second call for troops, the Adjutant General and Major General Commanding did suggest the names of several officers at the request and with the approval of the Commanding Officer of the regiment; a privilege accorded, as was believed, not merely by virtue of his office but as the former regimental commander. At no time and in no case, except in that of Lieutenant Evans above mentioned, was any man, not a member of the organization, commissioned, although the "pressure" to induce departure from this rule almost amounted to persecution in some instances. There was, as was to have been expected, much disappointment at the failure of some to enter the service, but no influences or motives other than consideration for the welfare of these organizations and the good of the service operated upon this Department either in this or in any other matter.

On the second call for troops and the proclamation of the Governor thereupon on June 8, 1898, orders were issued and steps were taken for the organization of the Battaltion of the Fourth Regiment which promptly responded to the call to become, for the time, a part of the First Regiment. When the loyalty of officers and men to their own organization is considered, loyalty even to their company designation, too much praise cannot be given the officers and men of the Fourth for being willing to thus leave their own regiment and assume another company designation. This Battalion was mustered in by Captain William J. Nicholson, 7th United States Cavalry, at Baltimore, on June 29, 1898, and soon thereafter left for Fort Monroe to join the First.

On this second call for troops officers from each of the Fifth and First Regiments were sent back to Maryland with orders to report to these Headquarters for blanks and instructions and to proceed with the work of recruiting so that the strength of each company should be increased to one hundred and six enlisted men. The completion of this recruitment made each of said regiments, after the addition to the First Regiment of the battalion of the Fourth above mentioned, a three-battalion, twelve-company regiment, with an aggregate in each of thirteen hundred and thirty-three officers and men; thus making, as stated in the roster herewith, a total of twenty-six hundred and sixty-six infantry, besides the four hundred and fifty-six from the First Naval Battalion for the naval service-a grand total of thirty-one hundred and twenty-two. There was also a number of enlistments from Maryland in a so-called "immune" regiment, with which the State authorities had nothing to do.

By virtue of the special commission to the Adjutant General from the Governor authority was given me by the War Department to visit, from time to time as might be deemed expedient, the First Regiment upon matters relating to its discipline, further organization, etc. In pursuance of this authority three visits were paid the regiment at Fort Monroe and two at Camp Meade, the last visit to Camp Meade being in November, 1898, shortly before its departure for its winter quarters in Augusta, Georgia. The second visit to Fort Monroe was to complete the organization of the regiment. This was practically accomplished on July 7, 1898, although one officer was not mustered in until July 15.

After the departure of our troops for the war it was urged in certain quarters, from good motives for the most part, that another regiment should be organized for the protection of the State, as the Legislature had appropriated an abundance of money for the purpose. The position taken at these Headquarters in reference to this matter was that Troop "A," after the increase in its authorized strength to one hundred enlisted men, the remnant of the Fourth Regiment, the First Separate Company and the "Veteran Corps' would be sufficient for ordinary purposes, especially as our proximity to Washington, where there was then a number of troops, would afford us opportunity to secure aid in case of serious riot or internal disturbance. In fact, Troop "A" was practically "on waiting orders." It was further held that the expenditure of about thirty thousand dollars, which would have been required to fully equip the proposed regiment, would not be justified under all the circumstances and with a due regard to the welfare of the State. Some of the States did

organize new regiments.

Early in August, upon the receipt of a letter from the Commanding Officer of the Fifth Regiment, then at Tampa, urging that the regiment be sent to Puerto Rico as its last opportunity to see active service, I proceeded to Washington. The result of several visits and numerous telegrams was that, while the regiment was about to be assigned to General Schwann's Brigade of Regulars, it was finally brigaded with the 2nd Georgia and the Ist Florida, under General Hudson, for service in Puerto Rico. At the same time the 1st Regiment was added to General Wade's Provisional Division for service in Puerto Rico, thus assigning all of Maryland's troops for active service as a recognition, as was stated at the War Department, of Maryland's efficient efforts to furnish well-equipped troops for the war. General Miles' telegram that no more troops were needed in Puerto Rico prevented these contemplated movements.

On Thursday, August 11, 1898, the Governor called my attention by telephone to an account in one of the daily papers in Baltimore of serious illness and dissatisfaction in the 5th Regiment at Tampa. He further called attention

to letters received by him from persons in Baltimore. Not one word of complaint from any officer or man had reached these Headquarters, except the very natural request of the Commanding Officer, above referred to, that the regiment should be assigned to duty in Puerto Rico. It was known that the regiment was one of only eight of the large number at Chickamauga which was deemed fit in material and equipment for immediate service. The State had even furnished our troops with ammunition. It was known the regiment was under orders for Santiago in the very beginning and that embarking had, at one time, been commenced at Port Tampa. It was supposed that matters were not altogether comfortable at Tampa, but no official notification of actual conditions there had been received.

However, after further talk with the Governor it was determined that a visit should be paid to Tampa. Having obtained from the Adjutant-General of the army, by virtue of the special commission from the Governor filed at the War Department as aforesaid, a strong letter to the Commanding Officer of the Fourth Army Corps, which, among other things, stated the purpose of the trip to be "to inquire into the health and general condition of the 5th Maryland U. S. Volunteer Infantry, based upon rumors which the bearer believed to be largely sensational," departure was made from Baltimore on Saturday afternoon, August 13, 1898. Tampa was reached on Sunday night.

That neither officers nor men of the regiment, used for weeks to their own appearance and surroundings, worn with waiting, wasted, in many cases, by fever and disease developing and multiplying day by day, could understand how the situation affected one who had been one of them, and who had seen them depart from Pimlico three months before in health and vigor, is not a matter of surprise. Had I been vested with the authority I should, then and there, have ordered the regiment home.

Orders had been issued to remove the regiment, with other troops at Tampa, to Huntsville, Alabama; but a rumor prevailed that it might be ordered to Fernandina, still within the "fever belt." I therefore left Tampa for Jacksonville on Tuesday night, August 16, having heard much of censorship at Tampa, and on the morning following wired the Adjutant General of the Army from the latter place as follows: "To my surprise nothing sensational in those rumors. The patient and uncomplaining endurance of officers and men amounts to heroism. I earnestly hope the exodus from Tampa to Huntsville will be speedily accomplished."

On my arrival at Huntsville, by way of Chickamauga where valuable information as to army conditions generally was obtained, General Coppinger, Commanding the Fourth Army Corps, and his officers extended every facility for the work in hand, gave full information, offered the choice of camping ground for the Fifth, and agreed fully, with the entire