Captain Macklin: His MemoirsDavis, Richard Harding
General
Captain Macklin: His Memoirs
Davis, Richard Harding
Adventure stories; Central America -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction; United States Military Academy -- Fiction; War stories
Laguerre asked me if I could hold the barracks, and I told him that I
thought I could. He then ordered me to remain there.
“Would you like a cup of coffee, General?” I asked. The General’s
expression changed swiftly. It became that of a very human and a very
hungry man.
“Have you got any?” he demanded anxiously.
“If you can lend me some men,” I said, “I can send you back eight
gallons.” At this the men behind the barricades gave a great cheer of
delight, and the General smiled and patted me on the shoulder.
“That is right,” he said. “The best kind of courage often comes from a
full stomach. Run along now,” he added, as though he were talking to a
child, “run along, and don’t fire until we do, and send us that coffee
before we get to work again.”
I called in all of my men from the side streets, and led them across
to the barracks. I placed some of them on the roof and some of them on
tables set against the inside of the wall in the yard.
As I did so, I saw Porter run across the plaza with about fifty of
his men, and almost immediately after they had disappeared we heard
cheering, and he returned with Captain Heinze. They both ran toward
General Laguerre, and Porter then came across to me, and told me that
the government troops were in full flight, and escaping down the side
streets into the jungle. They were panic-stricken and were scattering in
every direction, each man looking after his own safety. For the next two
hours I chased terrified little soldiers all over the side of the
town which had been assigned me, either losing them at the edge of the
jungle, or dragging them out of shops and private houses. No one was
hurt. It was only necessary to fire a shot after them to see them throw
up their hands. By nine o’clock I had cleaned up my side of the town,
and returned to the plaza. It was now so choked with men and mules that
I was five minutes in forcing my way across. Garcia’s troops had marched
in, and were raising a great hullabaloo, cheering and shouting, and
embracing the townspeople, whom they had known during their former
occupation, and many of whom were the same people who had been firing
at us. I found Laguerre in counsel with Garcia, who was in high spirits,
and feeling exceedingly pleased with himself. He entirely ignored
our part in taking the town, and talked as though he had captured it
single-handed. The fact that the government troops had held him back
until we threatened them in the rear he did not consider as important. I
resented his swagger and the way he patronized Laguerre, but the General
did not seem to notice it, or was too well satisfied with the day’s work
to care. While I was at head-quarters our scouts came in to report that
the enemy was escaping along the trail to Comyagua, and that two of
their guns had stalled in the mud, not one mile out from Santa Barbara.
This was great news, and to my delight I was among those who hurried out
to the place where the guns were supposed to be. We found them abandoned
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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