CIVIL GOVERNMENT DAY.
October 14, 1898.
Great crowds still lingered at the Exposition, although the weather
had turned cold and disagreeable, and the Auditorium was well filled to hear
the interesting exercises which had been planned in celebration of this day.
General William R. Shafter and staff had arrived too late to participate in
the celebration of Army and Navy Day and had therefore been invited to speak
on this occasion. His presence lent interest to the event and thousands of
visitors filled the Auditorium to overflowing to see this famous warrior.
When he appeared on the stage in uniform he was greeted with a rousing cheer.
The program of exercises was as follows:
Music . . Omaha Concert Band
Invocation . . Rev. Newton M. Mann
Address . . . . General Wm. R. Shafter
Address . . . . Honorable George D. Meiklejohn
Music . . Omaha Concert Band
Address . . . Wu Ting Fong,
Chinese Minister
Address . . . Hon. Gonzalo de Quesada,
Cuban Minister
Address . . . Senator John M. Thurston
Music . . Star Spangled Banner,
Omaha Concert Band.
General Shafter spoke as follows:
I regret that I am not able to express in fitting words my
appreciation of the reception that I have received at your hands. For what
little I may have done I have been rewarded far beyond my wildest dreams. I
little thought that I should reach the highest rank when I marched away
thirty-six years ago as a volunteer of infantry. The highest reward a
soldier can receive is the gratitude and appreciation of his countrymen, and
this I believe I now possess. Perhaps the most appropriate things I can say
is to give you a short history of the campaign in cuba that has ended with so
much honor to our arms. I was ordered to report at Washington and informed
that I should lead the first expedition from the United States. I was
ordered to Tampa with a view to making a reconnaissance in Cuba in force, but
this plan was subsequently abandoned and we remained there ready for whatever
service might be demanded. Then we were ordered to go and assist the fleet
to capture the harbor and city of Santiago, and we embarked with an army of
17,000 men. We had absolutely no maps of Cuba, but I had with me a couple of
men who were born at Santiago, and guided by information I received from them
I determined to land at the two points where I did. The result has
convinced me that my judgment was correct. No army has ever gone from
temperate zone to the tropics without disaster, and for this reason I knew
that the campaign must be pushed as rapidly as lay in human power and
endurance. Although I had the best army that ever marched under an American
flag, the climate was something awful. You who have never experienced its
horrors can never realize them. I believed that we were strong enough to
move on Santiago, and in three days I had landed the entire army. On June
25th we defeated the Spaniards in a sharp engagement. They had been
accustomed to fighting men who were poorly fed and inadequately armed and
they were astounded at the fighting qualities of our soldiers. It has been
said that troops in trenches armed with breech-loading rifles could not be
successfully assailed, but we proved the fallacy of that idea.
We then decided on the capture of El Caney and a division was detached
to make the charge. I thought that we could take it in two hours, but it
required from ten o'clock in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. The
Spaniards expected to be killed if they were captured, so most of them fought
until they were killed, and no prisoners were taken. We never advanced
beyond the position that we won in that fight. The enemy came out the next
morning to make an attack, but it was fruitless and only lasted an hour.
Then the campaign was practically over. It was simply necessary to convince
the Spanish commander that his case was hopeless. He eventually surrendered,
and with our small army we had captured 23,376 prisoners, 12,000 of whom were
beyond our reach. Why the Spaniards surrendered when they could have
abandoned their position and kept up the war I do not yet understand, but I
believe it was because they had been informed that the Spanish government had
decided to give up the fight and surrender their soldiers in the eastern part
of the island.
The problem of that campaign was supplies. The fighting was the least
part of it and the soonest over. There were times when the men were short.
You who were in the civil war remember that there were many times during that
conflict when we were short of rations, but then we could always forage. But
in Cuba there was nothing to confiscate, and the army depended entirely on
the supplies that were forwarded with the greatest difficulty over roads that
were at times impassable. While most of the fighting in Cuba was done by the
regular army, the volunteers did all they were required to do, and they did
it like soldiers."
After the exercises the usual luncheon was served in the Cafe and the
afternoon and evening was spent in witnessing the sham battle, fireworks and
other special attractions.
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