On the 26th of August the Twenty-fourth Infantry, having obtained an honorable release from its perilous duty, marched out of Siboney with band playing and colors flying to go on board the transport for Montauk; but of the 456 men who marched into Siboney, only 198 were able to march out, directed by 9 out of the 15 officers that marched in with them. Altogether there were 11 officers and 289 men who went on board the transport, but all except the number first given were unable to take their places in the ranks. They went on board the steamer Nueces, and coming from an infected camp, no doubt great care was taken that the transport should arrive at its destination in a good condition. Although there was sickness on board, there were no deaths on the passage, and the Nueces arrived in port "one of the cleanest ships that came to that place." The official report states that the Nueces arrived at Montauk Point September 2, with 385 troops on board; 28 sick, no deaths on the voyage, and not infected. Worn out by the hard service the regiment remained a short time at Montauk and then returned to its former station, Fort Douglass, Utah, leaving its camp at Montauk in such a thoroughly creditable condition as to elicit official remark.
While the Twenty-fourth Infantry had without doubt the hardest service, after the surrender, of any of the colored regiments, the others were not slumbering at ease. Lying in the trenches almost constantly for two weeks, drenched with rains, scorched by the burning sun at times, and chilled by cool nights, subsisting on food not of the best and poorly cooked, cut off from news and kept in suspense, when the surrender finally came it found our army generally very greatly reduced in vital force. During the period following, from July 16th to about the same date in August the re-action fell with all its weight upon the troops, rendering them an easy prey to the climatic influences by which they were surrounded.[20] Pernicious malarial fever, bowel troubles and yellow fever were appearing in all the regiments; and the colored troops appeared as susceptible as their white comrades. The theory had been advanced that they were less susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular view of the theory. The best that can be said from the experience of Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever. These conclusions are, however, by no means well established. The Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment "effectually showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever than white," but we must remember that the service of the Twenty-fourth was exceptional. The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis, and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his life would have been saved. Yet this regiment suffered severely from fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.