Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm IN DARKEST CUBA TWO MONTHS' SERVICE UNDER GOMEZ ALONG THE TROCHA FROM THE CARIBBEAN TO THE BAHAMA CHANNEL BY N. G. GONZALES COLUMBIA, s. c. TIft STATE COMPANY 1922 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm N. G. GONZALES DI Itl7 J by Gooolc0 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm MnAID _~UIlAIY Unll-AllllCAl ..,DlOIIIII' fUID I ~a.,""L3 COPYRIGHT 1922 THE STATE COMPANY Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm IN MEMORY OF NARCISO GENER GONZALES 1858-1903 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm CONTENTS Page FOREWORD-My Brother N. G. Gonzales 7 Oft to the Front 39 To the Front •....................................... 40 Mobilized in Florida ............•..................... 41 Never Mind Uniforms.... ........•........... .... .•... 45 Character Studies ..•..•..............•............... 49 Weary of Waiting 53 Goes to Join Gomez ......•••..•....................... 60 Fighting in Cuba .................•................... 66 Gonzales Joins Gomez .....••.......................... 89 Pen Pictures of Gomez.......................... ... ... 102 Life in Camp in Central Cuba ....•................... 108 Real Condition of Cuban Country..................... 115 "My Kingdom for a Horse I" 121 Remounted-After a Fashion .........•.......... 129 Hardships of the March ...•....•..................... 136 Eighteen Miles-No Breakfast........................ 142 At Rest-but Still Hungry ....•....................... 148 Glad to Eat Palm Pith ......................•........ 152 All Hands Go Foraging .......•..................... 158 Trying a General for His Life 163 NeWl:l Fresh from Habana ..•......................... 167 Gossip of Gomez's Camp 172 Johnson's Escapade ................................•• 176 Johnson Is Disciplined ....•................•......•.. 182 Rumor of Imminent Battle 186 Third Meal in Three Days 190 VVhere the Rations Went ....•........................ 195 Snapping-Turtle Camp 201 Taking the Early Watch ...•.....•..•................ 205 VVhere Mangoes Abound 210 In a Guajiro's Home ....••.....•....•................ 216 On the :March to Moron .............................• 220 Over :l\Iuck and Rock .....•..•..............•.••..... 226 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm OONTENTS Page Near the Lion's Jaws ..•.................••.....••.•.• 232 Oh, for Hopping-John l 238 Dollars at Discount .•.•....•..•..•••••..•..•••...••..• 242 An Indiscreet Leader ................•...•••..••.•••• 248 H~r Breeds T~per •.•.....•.........••......•••.. 253 Cubans Were Tricked................................ 259 Within the Lion's Jaws •.....•..•..•••••.•...•..••••• 263 Trista Plans Feint ......•..•..•..•....•.••.•......... 269 Night Attack on ~oron .....•....................•.... 274 Details of En~ent ..•..•.......•..•.......•....•. 286 An Alarm by Night •........••••••.....•...•......•.•. 290 Marching to the Beach 296 At Last a Full Meall ...............•.•.....••..•...... 303 New Relief Expedition ....•••••.•.••..•..........•.... 308 Given Leave to Depart ...•.••......•.•.•.•.•..•.....• 313 An Honorable Discharge •.••••.••..•••.........•....•• 318 Aboard and Home-bound ••..•..•.......••.•••.•••.... 326 Gomez: the Last Glimpse ••..........•......• ~ ...•.... 332 Cruising Among the Keys 337 Exploring Santa Maria Key ..••..•..••.•..•......••.. 343 Quelling the U~y Jack ............••.•..•..•••.... 349 ...~a.m.mpla" Comes Aboard by Night .. ...•........••... 354 A Nature-Study Interlude .....•..••.........•..•..•... 360 Dr. Abbott: an Original 364 Secrets of Filibustering 369 Along the Florida Keys .•..••...•••................••• 377 "Home is the Wanderer" ...•.••.•.•••.•.•.....•....••. 382 Nunez Expedition Lands ..•..•.......••.............. 392 "Having Done HiB Duty, He's Home" ......•.•.....•... 398 "Captured Details in Darkest Cuba" ....•.....•..•.•..• 400 ~r. Gonzales' Testimony.............................. 408 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm FOREWORD My Brother N. G. Gonzales Character is woven-warp and woof-from the threads spun during the years of early childhood, and the first filaments of patriotism, light as a spider's "gossameres," were cast in the web of my brother's character very early in life. Narciso Gener Gonzales, second son of Ambrosio Jose Gonzales, was born the 5th of August, 1858, at Edingsville, Edisto Island, South Carolina. He was given the names of two distinguished Cuban patriots, devoted friends of our father and participants in the First Revolution for Cuban Independence-General Narciso Lopez and Benigno Gener. His mother was Harriet Rutledge Elliott, youngest daughter of Wil­ liam Elliott, of Beaufort, South Carolina. In late October, 1860, we were in New York City on our way home from our last summer at the North. The presidential campaign was in full blast and at night the Lincoln marching clubs-the "Wide-awakes," paraded up and down Broadway with torches, trans­ parencies and blaring bands. My brother, a two year­ old, 14 months my junior, was held up to the window of the old St. Nicholas hotel and watched with shin­ ing eyes the flaring torches and thrilled to the martial music. We were not to look upon "Yankees" again until the Spring of 1865, but ere the death of the Con­ federacy, Sherman's flaring torches were to lay in ashes half a score of ancestral homes on half a score of ancestral plantations. 7 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm FOREWORD Then we came South. A few months later we were tense with the imminence of war, for, young as we were, public matters were freely discussed before us and we were encouraged to ask questions and keep up with current events. Our maternal grandfather, William Elliott, a strong Union man, opposed secession, but, once his State seceded, he supported the Confederacy ardently with voice and pen and fortune. When the boom of cannon bombarding Sumter reached the plantation at dawn on that memorable April morning, my father, an exile from his beloved Cuba-the first of her sons to shed blood in her fight for freedom-too impatient to wait for the train, rode on horseback thirty miles to Charleston to offer his sword to the State of his adoption. Thenceforward his young sons lived in close touch with war, for the railway ran at the foot of the great liveoak avenue, and over its rails trains passed daily transporting troops to and from Charleston, Savan­ nah and intermediate points, and as the long trains of box-cars clanked slowly by, gray-clad Confederates packed within, and gray-clad Confederates sprawled upon their slanting roofs, the soldiers cheered at the sight of the lordly oaks and the tall white columns of the colonial house at the far end of the vaulted gray­ green aisle, and the little boys waved their caps and raised their shrill and feeble voices in response. Three miles away from the plantation was the pine­ land village where the family spent all the summers of the war, with one or two exceptions, when they risked wartime railway and stagecoach transportation and adventured to Flat Rock in the North Carolina mountains. This village was, throughout the war, an 8 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm FOREWORD important military post, and with the soldiers the little boys were in almost constant touch, for the ser­ vants took them often to the headquarters or the hos­ pitals with flowers, or fruit, or delicacies for the officers or sick soldiers. We boys were friends with the soldiers of all branches of the service. We liked the cavalry for their dashing ways and their beautiful horses; the infantry because certain kindly old fellows sometimes let us "pop" huge caps on the nipples of their long muzzle­ loading musket&-the soldier holding the piece, while one of us tugged strenuously with both hands at the stubborn and unresponsive trigger; but most of all we loved the artillery, for the parental colonel was chief of artillery for the department, and on his oc­ casional brief furloughs at home, almost breathed in terms of big guns. So we hovered about the artillery park in the pineland, were set astride the bronze or brass or black-iron field pieces and, with the assurance of youth, discussed with the smiling artillerymen the relative efficiency of the long, slim Napoleons and the short, thick-lipped howitzers. While on our visits to Charleston we learned something about Parrotts and the heavy columbiads in their emplacements on the Battery. Whatever backwardness or self-consciousness the small boys may have displayed while being "shown of" before civilian grown-ups, there was none where Confederates were concerned, for they were on most cordial terms with officers and men, and asked or answered questions with the utmost freedom. At different times, General Beverley Robertson (a Virginian), General "Shanks" Evans, and General Johnson Hagood, commanded the troops encamped 9 Stolen from the Archive of Dr. Antonio R. de la Cova http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-books.htm FOREWORD around the village, and whenever a General called upon the