Meanwhile great difficulty had been countered in getting commissary supplies to the front. The army had no good base. Stores and ammunition had to be landed on the beach through " heavy surf, then carried over the single road to the front. The rainy season had begun and the road soon became impassable for waggons. Pack mules were the only recourse. The terrible heat and the daily soaking from the rains enervated the unacclimated Americans and sickness threatened. Insufficiently fed, without shelter of tents, and oppressed by the heat, the soldiers slept in trenches the bottoms of which were constantly covered with water. An assault on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.