October 14, 1898

CIVIL GOVERNMENT DAY

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.

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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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."