Miss Barton with her cargo of supplies reached Havana on February 9, 1898. Her supplies were unloaded and stored in a convenient warehouse. She began her work of visitation and found scenes beside which, as she wrote, some which she had witnessed in Armenia seemed humane. Six days after her arrival the _Maine_ was blown up. The appalling news reached the United States and brought with it the practical certainty of war. The one cheering message that came as an echo of the explosion was Clara Barton’s telegram, “I am with the wounded.” The comfort of these words found expression in a little poem by James Clarence Harvey, which was published immediately in the “Christian Herald” and widely copied: “I am with the wounded,” flashed along the wire From the isle of Cuba, swept with sword and fire. Angel sweet of mercy, may your cross of red Cheer the wounded living; bless the wounded dead. “I am with the starving,” let the message run From this stricken island, when this task is done; Food and money plenty wait at your command, Give in generous measure; fill each outstretched hand. “I am with the happy,” this we long to hear From the isle of Cuba, trembling now in fear: May the great disaster touch the hearts of men, And, in God’s great mercy, bring back peace again. Miss Barton thus related the story of the sinking of the _Maine_, and of the work that followed: The heavy clerical work of that fifteenth day of February held not only myself, but Mr. Elwell as well, busy at our writing-tables until late at night. The house had grown still; the noises on the streets were dying away, when suddenly the table shook from under our hands, the great glass door opening on to the veranda, facing the sea, flew open; everything in the room was in motion or out of place--the deafening roar of such a burst of thunder as perhaps one never heard before, and off to the right, out over the bay, the air was filled with a blaze of light, and this in turn filled with black specks like huge specters flying in all directions. Then it faded away. The bells rang; the whistles blew; and voices in the street were heard for a moment; then all was quiet again. I supposed it to be the bursting of some mammoth mortar or explosion of some magazine. A few hours later came the terrible news of the _Maine_. Mr. Elwell was early among the wreckage, and returned to give me news.