During the Spanish-American War — which lasted a short 3 months, 3 weeks, and 1 day — between 2,061 and 2,500 American servicemen and nurses died of disease, far eclipsing the less than 400 who died from wounds sustained in battle. Of that total, over 1,500 of the men who died from illnesses became sick while still in the U.S., where they were training in camps located in southern states. (It was thought that training in the south would acclimate the soldiers to the weather in Cuba before they joined the battle there.) Private William Lembke was one of the soldiers who dodged a bullet in Cuba but was killed by a germ in the U.S.
Lembke, 18, joined Company C of the Second Regiment of the Illinois volunteer infantry. He was known to be “popular among his comrades.” In May 1898, he was approved and “passed muster” to become a private in the U.S. Army. His company was sent to Jacksonville, Florida to train in anticipation of joining the fight in Cuba after the sinking of the Maine.
Their camp was fittingly christened, “Camp Cuba Libre” by General Fitzhugh Lee. When the servicemen arrived at their campground in Florida, there was no infrastructure, no tents, and they had to hack their way through thick underbrush to clear the area. For shelter, the soldiers had to make do with whatever they could get their hands on. Eventually, they received wool (and a few rubber) blankets and tents, but the area was a veritable swamp “reeking with vapor.”
At the beginning, there was little sickness in the camp, but soon men started to fall ill. Initially, some blamed the local food vendors for selling “inferior or unripe watermelons and other fruits, doubtful ice-cream, and ill-made pies and cakes” which soldiers washed down with “copious libations of indifferent lemonade to the great derangement of their internal economy.” But it wouldn’t be long before it was clear that more serious diseases were affecting the troops.
While frustrated that they were not being shipped out, the soldiers ran drills and practiced formations in order to be ready when the orders came sending them to Havana. As summer wore on and they continued to wait, heavy rains started to soak everything. Tents sprang leaks. Clothing and shoes never completely dried out. During these deluges, cooking was impossible. The camp became a filthy, soggy mess and yellow-fever, malaria, and typhoid started spreading among the regiment.
Some suspected the men were falling ill because they were not yet in battle and low morale made them susceptible to sickness: “It is during the weary months of waiting in camp…that disease does its work.” At the end of August, the number of men falling ill increased alarmingly. Strangely, the men from Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Dakotas suffered less than the men from Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, and Mississippi. At the time, this was attributed to the “superior physique of the Northerners.” Newspaper reports terrified families and friends at home. “The frequent deaths cast a gloomy feeling over the whole command, and the arrival at a company of a mounted orderly from the hospital came to be well known as the announcement of another comrade gone.” The camp was eventually moved to a drier spot for sanitary reasons, but it was too late for William. He died Sept. 3. One can just picture an orderly on horseback riding to Company C to convey the news that William had succumbed to typhoid fever.
William’s body was sent home to his family in Oak Park. The marker on his grave is strikingly unique — it is a broken tree trunk, indicating a life cut short, with roots wrapped around a round stone, perhaps representing family ties and lasting memory. Next to the trunk is carved a soldier’s hat resting atop a poem:
Weep not my parents dear
am not dead but sleeping here
The good must go
God calls the brave
I am sleeping in a
Soldiers grave
References: The Roll of Honor, Containing the Names of Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines of All the Wars of Our Country Who Are Buried in the Cemeteries of Cook County; History of the second regiment, Illinois volunteer infantry, from organization to muster-out; PBS: American Experience; New York State Urban Forestry Council; Findagrave.com; Military Women’s Memorial