Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [29]

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Chapter 29. War

1898. The Spanish-American War. Col. Theodore Roosevelt recruits volunteers and forms the Cowboy Cavalry, later to be known as the Rough Riders.

Jesús Jaudon heard that volunteers were needed to fight a war and a training base was opening in San Antonio. He had been trying to decide what he should do. He consulted Rafael about joining, but got little help, mainly because he could tell Rafael didn’t want him to go.
    And then Jesús read about Roosevelt’s Cowboy Cavalry. They wanted men who could ride hard and shoot straight. Jesús had been able to ride a horse before he could walk, and a gun fit his hand as well as any shovel. Coming back a war hero would once and for all place him in the company of the Jaudons. He had missed all the adventures of early Texas, about which Rafael had told him over and over, always ending by saying, “My friend James cast a long shadow over Texas.” Jesús felt it was his time to eclipse that shadow and let the world know that there were Jaudons on the Mexican side of the family with grandes bolas. With his mind made up, two days later he said good-bye to a crying wife and mother-in-law. Rafael wished him well.

    Things moved fast in San Antonio. The country seemed to be wanting a war, and the training was hard. The volunteers had to learn to march, ride in formation, and charge while not using their reins. And the hardest part for most of them was to fire only when ordered to do so. Everything was done by command. They ate, shit, and slept together in the same tent. They were forced to become a team, and they became very good at playing war. Then came word from the War Department that the Cowboy Cavalry, which was now called the Rough Riders, were being shipped by the Southern Pacific railroad to Tampa, Florida.
    Jesús had hoped to be able to go home one last time, but he had to write a letter instead. It was a long, boring train ride, and the Florida heat was unlike the heat of Texas. Florida’s thick air made breathing difficult. But they were told to get used to it because Cuba was worse. Their encampment was close to Tampa Bay, where they were expected to load onto the ships.
    When Colonel Roosevelt and his aide casually walked past Jesús one day, Jesús came to attention and saluted.

    Roosevelt stopped, looked at Jesús, and asked, “Are you Mexican?”
    “Yes, sir, I am.”
    “You damn sure don’t speak like one.”
    “I graduated from an English-speaking school, sir. I lost my Mexican accent somewhere along the way.”
    “Do you speak Spanish?”
    “Yes, sir!”
    Roosevelt turned to his aide. “Get this man a proper uniform and have him report to me. He is my new translator. He can speak more Spanish than that son-of-a-bitch the Army Command Center sent me.”
    The aide wrote something down on a piece of paper and waved at a sergeant, who took the paper and turned to Jesús. “Follow me!”
    That was how Jesús ended up as a translator – only by chance. Jesús was with Roosevelt when orders came to load the ship. Roosevelt had planned for two ships, but the people in Washington were in a hurry to go to war. Only three-quarters of Roosevelt’s men could be accommodated by one ship, so the rest were left behind, along with most of the horses, mules, and other supplies. These would come on the next ship in a few days.

    On June 23, 1898, they landed on the island of Cuba. The Rough Riders were ordered to capture an outpost at Guasimas. With only the food they had in their backpacks, they moved into the jungle. These soldiers were horsemen, and they weren’t that good at walking. The tropical climate of the jungle cut off any breeze, and the heat hung like a wet blanket in the hot, humid air. Men who fell out into the jungle sometimes did so unseen and were left to die. As the troops neared Guasimas, murderous gunfire swept across the trail.
    The Spaniards knew which way the soldiers would have to come and were ready for them. The American forces were ordered to split and move into the jungle. The battle was hard-fought, but at last the Rough Riders took the outpost. They made camp and waited for supplies to catch up to them. It had been their first battle and they accounted for themselves with honor.
    Jesús was with Command and never fired his gun or been fired at. A runner came in with captured papers, which were immediately handed to Jesús for translation.
    Most of the papers were about the everyday kind of stuff that goes on in an army camp. But one document caught Jesús’ eye. He knocked on Roosevelt’s tent pole and entered when invited in. “Colonel Roosevelt, I found something in the captured papers that may be of interest to you.”
    “Spit it out, son. I can’t read your mind.”
    “The Spanish troops haven’t been paid for six months. One of these documents is a report complaining about desertions.”
    “Bully! A broke soldier isn’t a happy soldier. Maybe there’s less fight in them than we were expecting. Thank you, Lieutenant.”
    Jesús looked puzzled. “Sir, I’m not a lieutenant.”
    Roosevelt had moved on to the map, but his aide stepped out with Jesús. “Regulations require that the Colonel’s translator have at least the rank of second lieutenant, so you’ve been promoted. Make sure you’re wearing the bars the next time we meet. The Quartermaster will have a set of gold bars for you.”
    Jesús was shaking his head as he made his way to the Quartermaster’s tent. War was full of surprises, few things made sense. The unit he had been assigned were still in Tampa. If he hadn’t become Roosevelt’s translator, he, like the rest of his unit, would have missed the war. And now he was a Lieutenant.

The next day, they were ordered to march to join General Shafter’s Fifth U.S. Army Corp, who were fighting on the outskirts of the town of Santiago, the high ground around which was held by the Spanish Army. But before they could reach the Fifth, a runner from the General met them with orders to detour to the San Juan heights and to wait there for orders to attack San Juan Hill.

    While the main force waited at the bottom of San Juan Hill, Roosevelt sent the 10th, an all-colored unit called Buffalo Soldiers, to attack Kittle Hill, the smaller of the two hills and less defended. The two hills overlooked the path the Fifth Army Corp would have to use in their advance, and to attack Santiago before taking the two hills would have been suicide.
    The Buffalo Soldiers made short work of Kittle Hill and rejoined Roosevelt, who had received orders by that time to charge up San Juan Hill and take the heights at all cost.
    Jesús found the Colonel standing alone looking up the hill. “Sir, I’ve heard that Lieutenant Rynning has the honor of leading the charge. May I join him, sir? There is nothing more I can do here.”
    Roosevelt laughed. “Bully for you, son. You give them hell and I’ll meet you on the top. Take one of the horses. Rynning has our only mounted troops, and they’ll be moving fast and hard.”
    Jesús found Rynning’s camp and knocked on the command tent’s pole. Inside, he reported to Rynning, who said, “So, you’re Teddy’s translator.”
    ‘Yes, sir.”
    “Don’t call me sir – we’re of the same rank. My name is Tom. What is your first name, Lieutenant Jaudon?”
    “It’s Jesús, Tom.”
    “Well, Jesús, can you tell me how to say ‘Surrender or die!’ in Spanish.”
    Jesús laughed. “It’s ‘¡Rendirse o morir!’. You really think it will do any good to say it once the shooting starts?”
    “Maybe not, but we have to shout something, and it might as well be something they can understand. I want you by my side. Will you carry our banner? If I fall, move on without me, get to the top, and bring all of my brave men with you. Can you promise me that?”
    “I can, Tom.”
    “Get some rest, Jesús. The Rough Riders are the head of the spear, but we are its point. Tomorrow we make history.”
    Few men slept that night. They all waited for the sun’s light to announce the dawning of what for many would be their last day on earth. Ricardo found Tom drinking coffee, so he tied his horse next to Tom’s and walked over. “Good morning Jesús! Care for some coffee?”
    “I don’t think it would stay down, and I doubt you’d let me stop to let it come up once we get going.”
    Tom laughed, emptied his cup, and put it down on the table. “Grab the banner and mount up! It’s going to be a glorious day.”
    The horse soldiers were spread out in a line two rows deep. Tom and Jesús rode to the front. Jesús remarked, “It looks like a long way to the top.”
    “Ha! We’ll be there in no time.”
    Tom turned and rode up and down the line shouting encouragement and ‘¡Rendirse o morir!, Surrender or die!’, to the men. Then he pulled up beside Jesús and shouted, “At a walk! Troop advance!”
    They were barely on the incline when the guns opened up. Tom screamed, “Charge! Kill every bastard you see!”

    Bullets zinged at them from every direction. Lieutenant Parker had his gun crews on their right and left flanks. He had moved his Gatling guns forward and they were spraying the two rows trenches where the Spanish soldiers were trying to shoot over the earthen embankment. The Gatlings made it impossible for the Spanish soldiers to stick their heads up, so they were firing blind. It was the first time the Gatling was used to cover the advancement of troops.
    Tom had picked a path and he was pulling everybody along with him. Their job was to split the Spaniards by going up the middle. Behind them, Roosevelt’s army fanned out on both sides of the charging horses.
    Jesús had the pole of the banner stuck in his stirrup and held it with his right hand. With his left hand, he held a gun. Tom had a pistol in each hand. The Gatlings were the only thing saving them. They jumped the first trenches, firing at the men in them. After that, the charge slowed as the hill became steeper.

    Parker had directed his fire toward the second trench as they neared the first one, and troopers on foot jumped into the first trench behind the horses to do battle. As the charge reached the second and last trench, Parker ceased fire in order not to hit his own men. With no covering fire, a number of horses and soldiers fell at that last trench.
    Tom and Jesús cleared the trench. Jesús’ horse almost didn’t make the jump but was able to plant a hoof on one of the men in the trench to kick off and make it to the other side. Now the top of the hill was in sight!
    Enemy soldiers were dug in on the ridge also. Tom and Jesús killed three or four of them, but the rest dropped their rifles and ran down the other side of the hill toward the town. Jesús continued to wave the banner back and forth as Tom shouted for the men to keep charging.
    Something hit Jesús in the chest, and he stopped his horse, drove the pole into the ground, and, coming out of his saddle, slid down the pole to the ground. The last thing he saw and heard was Tom removing the pole from his hands and running forward waving the banner and screaming.
    Then Jesús’ eyes closed.

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Rogers