There was no time to be lost, and the advance of the American army of
invasion in the direction of Santiago, the objective point, was rapid.
Each day, as one regiment would halt for a rest or reach a suitable
camping ground, another would pass. In this manner several regiments
had succeeded in passing the 25th Infantry by the morning of June
24th. At that time the 1st Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) was
leading the march.

THE FIRST BATTLE.

[Illustration: Charge on El Caney--Twenty-Fifth Infantry.]

On the morning of June 24th the Rough Riders struck camp early, and
was marching along the trail at a rapid gait, at "route step," in any
order suitable to the size of the road. Having marched several miles
through a well-wooded country, they came to an opening near where the
road forked. They turned into the left fork; at that moment, without
the least warning, the Cubans leading the march having passed on
unmolested, a volley from the Spanish behind a stone fort on top of
the hill on both sides of the road was fired into their ranks. They
were at first disconcerted, but rallied at once and began firing in
the direction from whence came the volleys. They could not advance,
and dared not retreat, having been caught in a sunken place in the
road, with a barbed-wire fence on one side and a precipitous hill on
the other. They held their ground, but could do no more. The Spanish
poured volley after volley into their ranks. At the moment when
it looked as if the whole regiment would be swept down by the
steel-jacketed bullets from the Mausers, four troops of the 10th
U.S. Cavalry (colored) came up on "double time." Little thought the
Spaniards that these "smoked yankees" were so formidable. Perhaps they