Turn of the Century - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

Charles Johnson Post, Embarking for Cuba, Florida, 1898. From the U.S. Army Art Collection,U.S. Army Center of Military History.The next challenge facing War Department planners, was equipping and supplying a force ofthis size and moving them to Cuba. The expeditionary force was to gather first at three points—New Orleans, Tampa and Mobile, and eventually be enlarged to additional assembly point atChickamauga, San Francisco, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C. Arriving at these hastilyimprovised camps, the swelling numbers of volunteers and regulars found the conditions squalidand quickly deteriorating. There were shortages of equipment, even underwear, socks and shoes,and the food was bad. Sanitary conditions were appalling, medical facilities scarce, and trainingalmost nonexistent for the mostly green recruits. “The condition of some or rather most of thetroops here is enough to make a martyr’s flesh to creep and writhe in anguish. There is a sanitarycondition existing which would cause a microbe to rub its hands in anticipation of a feast ofMoloch.” 1254 HUACHUCA ILLUSTRATED