338 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF U.S. ARTILLERY ENCAMPMENT.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF EASTERN CUBA.

number to the island before the end of therainy season wouldbe to incur certain lossof life on a largescale,and to riskpossible disaster. General Alger, the Secretary for War, wasunfortunately a politician whoin the old days of the Civil War hadhadreasonto look onMilesinanythingbuta friendlylight. Algerhadreallynolargeexperience or knowledge of military matters,and for all that wasvery self-opinionated. He heldthat invasion at anearly- date was possible, and following the popularcry for speedy action he ordered at the veryoutset theconcentration oftroops atTampa, despite the protestsofGeneralMiles.

Nor were these the only differences between the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary for War. Alger planned the large trainingcamps for the volunteers at Chickamauga and elsewhere. Miles proposed that insteadtheyshould be kept for two months' training in small regimental camps in their ownnative states. The otherpolicy he held to be adangerous mistake. To quotehis own wordsin his official report on the war,we find him saying:— " Congregating tens of thousands of men, many of whom werenot uniformed,and scarcely any properly equipped, in great camps, away from their states,rendered it difficult for them to be properly supplied with food, cooking utensils, camp equipage, blankets, tentage, medicalsupplies, etc., and was to a great extent the cause, in my judgment, of the debilitating effect upon the health and strength of the meB, FOR weeks, in hot, dusty Tampa, the vanguard of the army destined for the invasion of Cuba had been waiting in its far extended camps, many of the men getting their first taste of tropical life as they drilled on the sun-baked sand, or rested in their tents among the palmetto trees. There was a crowd of correspondents and staff officers at the big hotel. It was now out of the season, for Tampa is like our European Riviera, a winter resort for those who can afford to take refuge from the northern frost in the sunny south. The war had brought a new kind of visitor to Tampa, and given it an unexpected summer season. Down the bay the fleet of transports wasslowly growing, and a smallarmy of ships' carpenters were fitting them for the troops. By therailway sidings andnear thelong pier stores of all kinds werebeing piled up in miniature mountain ranges.

Rumour was busy with tales of speedy departure. From the very first, men talked of the expedition as certain to sail next week,but time went by, and the only expeditions that sailed werethose that conveyed small parties fromthe camp of Cuban refugees. There were good reasonsfor theprolongeddelay. Inthefirstplace neither the army nor the necessary transports wereready. In the second,General Miles, the Commander-in-Chief of the UnitedStates army, was from the first opposed to an earlyinvasion of Cuba. He held that to s-j-nd troops in any