thought to stop those black boys by their relentless fire, but those
boys knew no stop. They halted for a second, and having with them a
Hotchkiss gun soon knocked down the Spanish improvised fort, cut the
barb-wire, making an opening for the Rough Riders, started the charge,
and, with the Rough Riders, routed the Spaniards, causing them to
retreat in disorder, leaving their dead and some wounded behind. The
Spaniards made a stubborn resistance. So hot was their fire directed
at the men at the Hotchkiss gun that a head could not be raise, and
men crawled on their stomachs like snakes loading and firing. It is
an admitted fact that the Rough Riders could not have dislodged the
Spanish by themselves without great loss, if at all.

The names of Captain A.M. Capron, Jr., and Sergeant Hamilton Fish,
Jr., of the Rough Riders, who were killed in this battle, have been
immortalized, while that of Corporal Brown, 10th Cavalry, who manned
the Hotchkiss gun in this fight, without which the American loss in
killed and wounded would no doubt have been counted by hundreds, and
who was killed by the side of his gun, is unknown by the public.

At the time the battle of the Rough Riders was fought the 25th
Infantry was within hearing distance of the battle and received orders
to reinforce them, which they could have done in less than two hours,
but our Brigade Commander in marching to the scene of battle took the
wrong trail, seemingly on purpose, and when we arrived at the place of
battle twilight was fading into darkness.

The march in the direction of Santiago continued, until the evening of
June 30th found us bivouacked in the road less than two miles from El
Caney. At the first glimpse of day on the first day of July word was
passed along the line for the companies to "fall in." No bugle call