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Massachusetts Spanish American War Records |
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DESCRIPTION:
8th Massachusetts Infantry Roll of Honor. In every war the percentage of deaths from disease is greater than of deaths on the battlefield, and the Spanish war was no exception. Of the hundreds of Massachusetts young men who volunteered and answered the call of President McKinley for troops, 292 were called upon to sacrifice their lives for their country. Of this number, but nine were killed or died of wounds on the battlefield, the remaining 283 dying of disease or meeting death in an accidental manner. The Eighth Massachusetts Infantry lost 31 men. The Eighth Massachusetts Infantry contributed the lives of one officer and 30 enlisted men, to which might be added the name of Private Charles A. Currier of Company B, who died soon after being transferred to the Hospital Corps, U. S. A. The great majority of these men died in the hospitals in the south, far from home and friends. They gave up their lives willingly to their country's cause, and who is there to say that theirs was not as much a hero's death as that of the men who fell while bravely charging through the Cuban jungles or up the steep slope of San Juan Hill.
This is the story of the service of the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry during the Spanish American War.
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