HOW THE ARMY WAS ORGANISED 2Q5 men. The Commander-in-Chief,GeneralMiles pointed out that such a force would be hopelessly insufficient. The number was raised to 14,000, but of these only one thousand were to beregular infantry ; the rest of theforce was to be made up of the Western volunteers,whose organisation and training was in most cases knownto be inferior to that of their comradesin the great cities of the Eastern states. Merritt protested that he could not without risking disaster attack the Spaniards at Manila with such a force, and requested that at least four thousandregular infantry should be assigned to him as a solid andreliable nucleus for his army.

After some delay the authorities gave way on this point, and four regular battalions, three of which were originally intended for Cuba, were ordered to San Francisco. The newly raised Astor battery was added to the artillery of the expedition. As transport was as scarce on the Pacific as on the Atlantic coast, the army of the Philippines was despatched from San Francisco, not in a body,but in a series of small detachments,each three or four thousand strong. The result was that effective operationsagainst Manila were not begun till the late summer, when the war wasnearlyat an end.

The necessity of thus providing for an expedition that no one had foreseen seriously embarrassed the War Department. It diminished toanotable extent the regular forceimmediately available on the Atlantic coast. It diverted to the West stores and supplies that were badly neededat Tampa. Finally,it deprived the army eventually operating in Cuba of one of the best generals in theUnited States service. Wesley Merritt,as next in rank to the Commander-in-Chief, might fairly claim the command of the first corps isarmee sent to the front in the West Indies. But it was his misfortune to be, like GeneralMiles, a man for whom Alger, the head of the War Department,had no particular goodwill. So the Philippine expeditionwas used as a ready means of putting him out of the way of GeneralAlger'sfriend,GeneralShafter.whostood next on the list, and who was eventually given the command of the army embarked for Cuba. General Miles had expressed his desire personally to command the expedition,but Alger told himthathe wouldbe wantedfor a simultaneousinvasion of Puerto Rico. Rumour spoke of Fitzhugh Lee as the destined second in command of this third expedition. But it had to waittill after the reduction of Santiago, for notwithstanding the large numbers enrolledin the new army, there were no trained troops available afterproviding for the forces under Merritt and Shafter.

COLONEL MILES, IN COMMAND OF THE FIRST INFANTRY.